Chapter 227 - Four Bolts

Knowing that the Qing family was strong enough to be respected by even the royals, Ye Wei did not dare saying no to them and decided to give them an open answer.

The elders all took the hint, they looked at each other in confusion, wondering why Ye Wei was so cautious, why he rejected the great offer in such manner.

Although the offer would appeal to most cultivators at the palace, the elders could not take the fact that Ye Wei, being the Glacial Emperor’s inheritor, did not lack resources into calculation.

“I am grateful for the offer, but I really am too weak to have anyone dependant on me. I would like to offer my help as an apology, you are trying to refine this stance right?” Ye Wei said as he switched his attention onto the runes levitating in air.

“Refining the Light Slash Fingers stance?”

“What is he talking about?”

“Ye Wei, are you good with runes?” Elder Qing Ming held up his hand, signaled the others to be quiet and asked.

“Yes sir, I am a three-star Runemaster.” Ye Wei nodded humbly.

“If I told you we’ve had a few ten-star Runemasters refining this stance and that they’ve never managed to do it, would you still have offered your help?” The Elder squeezed his eyebrows together, ‘I was told you are one of the state’s seven new runes, but having confidence does not always make you a better Runemaster.”

Ye Wei quietly nodded again.

“You can see what’s wrong with the stance?” Feeling slightly deflated not being able to find even one minor flaw in the Qing’s Earth stance, Qing Yao could not help herself speaking up after keeping the frustration all in herself for three days. “You did managed to stir up a storm in the palace. But refining an Earth stance will take a little more than just mastering a few good stances and knowing how to use them in fights.”

“Yao, don’t be rude,” Unlike the young girl, Elder Qing Ming was intrigued by the bold, young initiate stood before him intervened, “Ye Wei you can give it a try!”

‘And if you are able to refine the stance, I might just make you a better offer.’ The elder thought to himself, smiled and led Ye Wei closer to the runes. ‘If he becomes a god’s prime Warrior, he can most likely be the spiritual leader of this family. But if he becomes a Grand-Runemaster as well and decides to stay with us, the Qing family will be able to integrate into the royals…’

“So you are new to the Runemaster Union right?” Elder Qing Ming started chatting casually while he was guiding Ye Wei through the rune sequence. “You have joined us at an exciting time! I have heard that a talented young Runemaster had just emerged from the blue and rediscovered the first Vermilion rune.”

‘I haven’t even told Master Yi about it. All I did was finding one rune out of a book…’ Ye Wei was startled, wondered how much time had the elder put into researching himself.

“I am not sure what you are referring to.” He answered lightly, pretended he knew nothing.

“That is one of the best stories! How can you not have heard about it!?” Xue Er spontaneously decided to join in, she moved her arms around as she told the tale. “So the legend says Supreme Chi Xu was injured demons during one of his expeditions, he found shelter deep inside demon territory and noted down seven powerful runes. Those seven runes were hidden within the ancient book of life’s content.”

“So this mysterious young Runemaster managed to find the first one out of the sixty thousand runes recorded between the encrypted pages. His method was crazy! The rune enthusiasts all across the lands are saying that even a Grand-Runemaster would need more than a few decades to repeat the research and find the other six runes!” Xue Er continued. “How can you not have heard about it? You are a Runemaster and you really should keep up to date with the current affairs! I’m not a runemaster and even I know about it!”

“These seven runes are very very powerful, they can be incorporated into majority of offensive stances we use these days by Runemasters who have time on their hands. The Runemaster who identified the first rune is a hero among men! Especially when times are uncertain. There were more and more reports of demon attacks and sighting the past few months than the entire last year.” Genuine excitement and admiration glowed in Xue Er’s eyes as she spoke.

Opposite to Xue Er, Ye Wei was shocked. To him, finding the rune was just about getting some contribution point to spend. He was suddenly less interested in finding the other six Vermilion runes as attention was the last thing he wanted.

“Qing Yao talks about it all the time! She even said that she hopes to meet that mysterious Runemaster!” Xue Er looked to the side at Qing Yao and added. “And that if she was to think about getting married her husband will have to be someone of that caliber.”

Qing Yao’s face went red immediately, she slapped Xue Er on the should and shouted. “Don't talk nonsense!”

‘I just found one rune, it wasn’t exceptionally difficult or impressive…’ Ye Wei thought to himself, completely ignored the girls’ bickering. He had no idea that the task he didn’t find difficult was considered a challenge for even the experienced Grand-Runemasters.

Qing Yao looked away to avoid awkwardness, with admiration she wondered how her hero looked like and what kind of personality this mysterious Runemaster had.

“Excuse my cluelessness, but I grew up in a small town. I have not passed the Runemaster entrance exam until recently, and I am still trying to make reading the newletters a habit.” Ye Wei decided to cover it all up to avoid any extra attention.

After a short break, Elder Qing Ming broke the rune sequence down to small parts and explained each part to Ye Wei in detail. The young initiate then began investigating.

While Ye Wei was focused on his task, the elders went aside and chattered as they waited.

“What do you guys think? Will he be able to spot it?”

“He is a three-star Runemaster, so no.”

“Exactly, it will be a stretch even if it was just a Myst stance.”

“Just wait and see, some talents are not meant to be catagorized by this ancient rank system.” Elder Qing Ming shook his head, he noticed Ye Wei’s pure and honest gaze when they met. To the elder, the fact that Ye Wei did not hold back his thought was a sign that the youngster saw something he failed to notice.

Respecting their leader’s opinion, the others stopped commenting, relaxed themselves and watched Ye Wei’s each move.

“This is a bit sloppy, whoever invented this stance should really be more careful while putting the runes together. This rune is completely unnecessary to the sequence, it’s almost like drawing legs onto a sketch of a snake.” Ye Wei pointed at a rune towards the end of the sequence and shook his head.

Apart from the Elder Qing Ming who smiled and felt positively intrigued, the Qings’ faces turned white when they heard Ye Wei’s words, surprised to hear such degrading comment on the patriarch’s own creation.

‘Did I just say something I shouldn’t have?’ Ye Wei soon noticed the reactions, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Qing Yao, Qing Yao, would you like to try making the stance without the rune Ye Wei pointed out?” Xue Er was not too childish not to ignore the tension, she pulled Qing Yao’s arm and suggested. “We’re not doing much right now either way.”

Qing Yao did not take Ye Wei’s comment as an offense, instead she tried to look the stance in Ye Wei’s point of view as Elder Qing Ming hinted, but she just did not see how the rune was redundant.

“Sure. we’ll see what happens.”

“Disperse!” She pointed at the particular rune and grunted, eliminating it from the sequence.

“Bang!”

The whole length shook as the rune vanished, the sequence started rejoining itself and the Qi flow was not disrupted.

“Huh?” Qing Yao frowned in surprise as the sequence did not break down and disappear as she expected.

“This is strange, the stance seems to be fine without that rune. Strange… Very strange!”

The elders were all gasping, dumbfounded.

“I was there when the patriarch made this stance, he tested each of these runes multiple times, How can this happen?”

Elder Qing Ming kept quiet and still, observed the Qi flow as the sequence reconnected completely.

“Qing Yao, try activating the stance!” Xue Er exclaimed with a big smile on her face.

“Yea, right away!” Qing Yao looked at Ye Wei with slight uncertainty, then pointed her finger to the sequence’s starting point.

“Boom!”

Her golden Qi flowed through the entire sequence, every single rune shone bright and started rattling, a cracking sound filled the courtyard as the blurry light cleared up and became bolts of condensed energy.

“One, two, three, four!?” Qing Yao was shocked by the bolts that appeared in the air, her bell like voice trembled in disbelief. “There is an extra bolt! How could this be?”

‘Haha, that’s not the impressive part, all of these bolts were condensed a bit differently, the stance is fifty percent stronger.” Elder Qing Ming smiled, satisfied by the result. “He amplified the Qi flow by removing that rune. This is now a peak-high Earth stance!”