Chapter 6128, Escape (12)
by SilavinAuthor: Silavin
“The corner of your lips are too tense. Gentler, gentler, too much. Tighten a bit more. You can use your own Divine Sense to check your own condition. You can even seal up your meridians using your bodily control. Yet, how is it that you can’t smile properly!?” Wu Lun said with exasperation.
This happened before Yang Ji even got to meet Hong Huo Liang, Hong Lan Tian’s Uncle.
Wu Lun had confidently said, “Relax. Just listen and do what I tell you to.”
As a result, for some reason, the whole event turned into acting class for the boy. Every minute muscle was being scrutinised like they owed Wu Lun money. Yang Ji could not truly understand how a smile with a difference of one degree could possibly make much of a difference. Yet, the barrage of amendments were truly not to be taken lightly.
In fact, while their conversation was ongoing, Yang Ji was concentrating more on managing his own facial expression than anything else. He truly wondered, [Is being able to act really that important? I thought the Upper Realm would be a place where I seek greater enlightenment into the True Dao. Why do I feel like I’m being taught how to scam others instead?]
This was a truly valid question. After all, so far, he had not been taught anything related to the True Daos. He had not even started re-cultivating. In fact, the first thing Wu Lun had taught him as a ‘Technique’ was to mimic another person’s voice. Then now, he was controlling his facial expression to trick his opponent?
“Hey, stop that muscle there from twitching. It’ll give a false impression if it goes off. Also, stand up straighter. You gotta show more confidence than that.” Wu Lun continued to remark.
Yang Ji could feel his facial muscles tensing up from the strain of trying to both constantly move and fix them in place. It did not help that his nervousness would make his heart race, which he too had to contain. It certainly did not help that Wu Lun kept pushing him to provoke Hong Huo Liang, seemingly doing it both for fun and an objective. Yet, all seemed to be going relatively well despite this. Wu Lun’s remarks were truly spot on, and they seemed to occur even before Yang Ji’s muscles were about to twitch.
Since even microexpressions have been contained, who could truly see through Yang Ji’s nervousness?
This fooled Hong Jun and Xing Ting. Yang Ji found it hard to believe Hong Huo Liang had not seen through his desperate acting. However, if the results were this good, then there really was not much to complain about.
The meal ended exactly how Wu Lun had described it would end: ‘nothing will happen’.
And indeed, Hong Huo Liang truly did not do anything to them. After the meal, he merely stated he had other matters to attend to and that the group should return.
Problem was, he did not actually provide them with any room for shelter. He just told them to return and had his servants walk them out. Once they were outside the room, the servants left them there by themselves.
Yang Ji could not help but ask, “Hey, did you provoke him on purpose or something?”
“I mean, why not. If he can’t do anything to you right now, might as well poke him enough till we get something, right?” Wu Lun said as though this situation had nothing to do with him.
“…” Yang Ji, feeling mixed, did not know how to respond to that.
Still, what was left for the trio was to settle on the deck once more. They truly had nowhere else to go. They could not get off the ship, and no rooms were allowed for their stay. Even if there were empty rooms, they would be claimed to be used for storage or for something else. The excuses were never ending so Xing Ting eventually gave up asking.
After there were enough refusals, Wu Lun then instructed Yang Ji, “You said you wanted to learn about Runes, right? Go ahead and directly ask Hong Jun to teach you. With all eyes here, he would not dare reject.”
Yang Ji’s eyes went wide. “Wait. So, this is the reason you wanted to provoke him?”
“Not so dull. Though, that’s not the only reason. Stop trying to probe. Spend your time learning about Runes.” Wu Lun smirked.
Naturally, Yang Ji, excited now, though suppressed thanks to Wu Lun’s reminder, immediately turned to ask Hong Jun with Hong Lan Tian’s voice that was not too loud but was undeniably loud enough for others to hear, “I want to learn about Runes. Can you teach me?”
Hong Jun’s eyes narrowed. He could not help but wonder why this child was asking that of him now. He had grown wary of Yang Ji’s conduct over the time he had spent with him. He truly wondered what kind of game this child was playing at now.
Still, Hong Jun looked around and saw others on the deck looking at him, and he truly could not find any reason to refuse. Since the actual Young Mistress never had any interest in Runes, he convinced himself that he could just teach the very basics. Besides, they realistically had nothing else to spend their time on.
Hong Jun broke a smile, which seemed a little forced, and nodded his head. He once more convinced himself that even if he taught Yang Ji, it would be pointless since the child could not cultivate. So, this forged blade could never turn back on the Hong Clan. Also, these were the most basic of basics, nothing truly unshareable.
“Young Mistress, if you want to learn about Runes, I’m more than glad to teach you.” Hong Jun said and his finger moved through the air drawing the most basic of Runes.
Though Yang Ji had seen Hong Jun draw Runes before, he had never seen them being displayed so clearly. He could tell instinctively that each one held a different power, which did not quite match up with what he knew.
[Strange… How does a simple drawing produce such different powers? In the Dao of Arrays, its strength comes from the Array Core. In other words, the Array Core basically functions as the power source. Naturally, that means that the Array is going to be roughly of the same Element as the Array Core. And, Array Cores are materials found between Heaven and Earth, most refined till they are usable as Array Cores. But, here, he is just using his Qi, just drawing some symbol, and a different power appears. How does this even happen?] Yang Ji could not help but marvel at this mysterious phenomenon.
He did not even hesitate to bite his finger, drawing up blood in an attempt to mimic what was drawn in the air. He in fact moved so fast that Hong Jun did not even manage to stop him from biting his finger.
Such an action was truly unbecoming of their Young Mistress. The others around them could not help but whisper amongst themselves.
Hong Jun could not help but sigh in his heart, as he tried to cover up the matter with, “Young Mistress, please take this.”
Hong Jun quickly took out bundles of what seemed to be paper, along with a brush and a bottle. He quickly eyed Xing Ting and she moved to quickly wrap Yang Ji’s finger in bandages.
“Young Mistress, even though I might use my blood on occasion, as a beginner, you should never do that. The use of blood does not mean the Rune would be stronger, so don’t shed blood needlessly…”
“Yes, Young Mistress. I should have warned you of this beforehand…” Xing Ting added, to further cover up.
Yang Ji eyed the two and found their reaction a little strange. He could not help but ask Wu Lun, “Why are they suddenly treating me like this? It’s just a little blood.”
“Ha ha ha. Though you are born pampered, I guess you have shed your fair share of blood, huh? Well, think of it as something unique to the Upper Realm. Blood is precious in their view, so one should never waste it.” Wu Lun chuckled.
“Huh? Blood is precious? What are you talking about? If we need to temper ourselves, we sometimes bleed. I was bleeding in the Pool of Revitalisation, right? You didn’t say anything then. Why is it bad for me to bleed? Besides, Hong Jun would bleed when injured, and no one has any problems with it.” Yang Ji simply could not fathom what kind of nonsense he was hearing. Furthermore, this kind of wound would heal within seconds for him.
“Blood shed in battle is fine, honourable even. But, you are just practising writing. Would any Young Mistress actually use their blood like that? It’s uncouth to say the least. Something only ‘barbarians’ would do. Also, blood has a different meaning here in the Upper Realm than the Lower Realm.” Wu Lun said and he merely indicated to Xing Ting.
“Fine, fine. I get it. No using blood unnecessarily, okay. But, you could have just warned me beforehand, you know?”
“Hey hey hey, I did you a favour there, you know? Think that Hong Jun would so willingly take out those talisman sheets? They might not be his best ones, but these are still not something anyone can easily use. What’s more, he took them out in a panic to try and cover up for you.” Wu Lun rolled his eyes.
“Huh? It’s just a bundle of paper. What’s so amazing about them?” Yang Ji said.
“Fool. Treasure before a swine. You think ordinary paper can hold the power of an Immortal King? Obviously these are sheets that he can actually place his Runes on. There is no use keeping anything worse on him, after all. He would not have taken that out if you did not at least bleed.” Wu Lun shot back and instructed Yang Ji. “I don’t want to waste more of my breath explaining. Just use a trace of your Divine Sense once you get a feel of them.”
Yang Ji picked up one piece and did as he was told. Immediately, he felt the potent force within this one sheet of paper. Yang Ji inspected it repeatedly, and even tried to tear it but it could not budge. Not even a single crumple.
Even though it had the appearance of paper, it might as well be a sheet of metal. Yang Ji believes that even at his peak, he might not be able to tear it. More intriguing, his Divine Sense could not penetrate into it. It was as though this sheet of paper was containing a world in itself. Truly strange.
Yang Ji could now somewhat understand how precious these talisman sheets were. Indeed, they were things he had truly never encountered before.
Still, if one could be called a wastrel, Yang Ji could be considered one of them. He never truly considered the costs of the Artifacts he had, and would buy things as he liked. It was just that he had just low demands in the Lower Realm that his pampered outbringing did not truly show through.
However, here, with these bundles of talisman sheets provided for free, he naturally felt no concern in using them. He quickly took a piece and drew on them with the ink provided.
Unfortunately for Hong Jun, he could only cry in his heart as he watched all his materials getting wasted.
One had to know that his talisman sheets were not cheap. It does not cost as much as a ship, but it was no small sum for each sheet nonetheless. Furthermore, each one was extremely sensitive to what was drawn upon them. In short, each talisman sheet could only be drawn on once! Once Yang Ji placed down the brush, that was it. Hong Jun would never be able to use that sheet again.
This was not even mentioning that Yang Ji was using ink that could be drawn on such talisman sheets. Naturally, the ink must be of matching value.
Furthermore, Yang Ji was just drawing! He was not actually really creating Runes. After all, he had no Qi to use
Even so, sheet by sheet was being wasted. Yang Ji could not crumple them, so he just stacked those he drew on to one side. Worse, the boy did not write multiple Runes on one sheet. He wrote just one on each sheet, mimicking even the size that Hong Jun had drawn them in.
He would intensively study the Rune that Hong Jun had left up in the air and continue just writing.
It was not just him. Even onlookers at the side felt their heartache at the side. They could work for a month just to afford one of these sheets. Yet, the Young Mistress was wasting them with such ease… hateful, truly hateful.
Xing Ting could not help herself any longer. She quickly said, “Young Mistress, you can write multiple Runes on one sheet as practice.”
Yang Ji turned to look at Xing Ting and paused for a moment. He then shook his head, “But, if I do that, I might miss the intricacies. Look, my stroke here is a bit thicker than the one there. Then this one over here, it is a bit longer on this stroke. Is it because I use too much strength? Hmm…”
Hong Jun quickly jumped in and added, “Young Mistress, let me give you smaller examples then. We don’t have too many of these talisman sheets to waste.”
Hong Jun did not leave anything up to chance. He quickly erased all those old Runes and drew up new ones. This time, they were far, far smaller. Each Rune was about the size of a finger nail compared to the palm-sized from before.
Unfortunately, for Hong Jun, Yang Ji seemed unimpressed. He even complained, “But, when it’s so small, it seems like their strength has lessened as well. I want to practice the one that’s stronger. And, iIf we don’t have enough talisman sheets, I can just draw on the deck, right?”
Hearing those words, those workers around them looked at each other. They already pictured what would happen once Hong Huo Liang came out and saw their whale ship decorated in ‘art’. Many of them have already started sweating.
Hong Jun naturally noticed their panic. As an opportunist himself, he too jumped onto the bandwagon. He gave a confident nod and explained more about Runes, “Young Mistress, one must know that for Runes, you can draw them anywhere. Like what I did in the air. Since you are a beginner, you need not worry about the material being used for now. So, you will be able to draw on the ship as practice.”
In fact, Hong Jun has even sneakily moved to take back the unused pile and hide it back into his Space Ring.
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