After a long moment of stunned silence, Spirit Vulture couldn’t help but ask, “Can…Can you really do it?”
Lin Xun calmly responded, “I haven’t made one before so I don’t know.”
Spirit Vulture rolled his eyes. It showed how dumbfounded he was given that he was always calm and composed.
“But I can give it a try. You might have forgotten that I was the one who designed the new Violet Hero Battleship of the empire.” Lin Xun smiled slightly. He had to give Spirit Vulture some confidence and not make him think that he was just exaggerating.
Spirit Vulture seriously reminded him, “But Violet Hero battleships and rune armaments are not the same.”
Lin Xun brought out his Flowing Light Blade and handed it to Spirit Vulture.
As Spirit Vulture stretched out his hand and took the blade, his eyes lit up. “An aeth treasure?”
Spirit Vulture had once again proved how sharp his eyes were.
Lin Xun nodded. “I made this when I was in Haze City last year. Sir, you should now believe that I have the potential to make a rune armament, right?”
Spirit Vulture nodded. “This is indeed enough to prove your talent and potential in the art of runes, but…I’m not trying to dampen your spirits but rune armaments and aeth treasures are different.”Before Lin Xun could respond, Spirit Vulture drew a deep breath and said, “Never mind. Let’s not mention this matter again. It will be a waste of time.”
Lin Xun thought for a moment and said, “You’ll understand in the future. It might just be empty talk now, but you will understand when I actually create a rune armament.”
Spirit Vulture silently stared at Lin Xun and then he smiled. “Okay, then I’ll wait and see.”
After the chat with Lin Xun, he was somehow full of anticipation. He couldn’t wait to see if the youngster could give him an unexpected surprise!
……
From that day on, Lin Xun adjusted his daily training plan. He carved out some time to focus on reviewing and honing his rune skills.
The art of runes was the path that Lin Xun was most familiar with!
During his time following Mister Lu, he had developed an incomparably strong foundation in the art of runes as well as unimaginable rune skills.
When he had arrived at Feiyun Village, he had helped the villagers eradicate the grain worms in the fields using his knowledge in the art of runes and, as a result, he had integrated well into Feiyun Village.
When he had been in Blood Kill Camp, he had helped Old Mo design a brand-new Violet Hero battleship and created the Flying Star Crossbow, a killing weapon that had caught the attention of Xiaoman, Xiaoke, Xu Sanqi and Old Mo.
Old Mo had repeatedly marveled at Lin Xun’s attainments and potential in the art of runes. He had even remarked that he might be even better than Feng Qingyou, a talented maiden in Qinglu Academy.
It was also because of Lin Xun’s remarkable talent in the art of runes that Xu Sanqi refused to let Xin Rutie take Lin Xun away.
Unfortunately, Old Mo had to bear some of the burden for Lin Xun.
After that, when Lin Xun arrived in Haze City, he had successfully passed the verification assessment of the Rune Master Association and had become friends with Chu Feng.
Even Liu Qingyan, a leading art cultivator in the empire, had asked Lin Xun to repair her precious Ancient Law Ocarina, and Lin Xun had successfully done so in the end.
At the time, Flowing Light Blade, an aeth treasure that Lin Xun created, had astonished both Xue Jin and Granny Feng. They both believed that Lin Xun was a rare talent in the art of runes!
When Lin Xun left Haze City and came to the Forbidden City, he had been troubled by many matters and didn’t have the energy or time to practice his rune skills.
And now, to solve the problem of Third Old Zhu’s breakthrough and also to help Spirit Vulture cure the Demon Tribulation Poison in his body, the only way that Lin Xun could think of was to rely on his skills in the art of runes!
Hope would appear in front of him as long as he could create a rune armament.
……
Rune brush, rune ink and vessel.
Every day, Lin Xun sat still and motionless like a meditating old monk.
Sitting in front of his desk, he constantly inscribed rune patterns on beast skins, rocks, leaves, paper, and cloth using his powerful spirit sense.
Everything on Mind Cleansing Peak and the clamor in the outside world seemed to be isolated from Lin Xun.
He only had rune patterns in his eyes. Only the numerous mysterious and complicated rune patterns were in his mind.
Ten days later.
Lin Xun was no longer sitting in his room. He was strolling around Mind Cleansing Peak with empty hands. He paused before a waterfall, lay down in a meadow of flowers, stood tall on the edge of a rocky cliff and navigated through the rugged mountains.
Using his fingers as a rune brush, his perception as control, and his aeth power as the source of energy, he carved mysterious runes on the boulders, rocks and grass.
Later on, he began to carve runes in the flowing clouds, waterfalls and mist.
Runes were like ghost characters. In other people’s eyes, Lin Xun seemed to be possessed by a demon as his behavior was very strange. He darted around Mind Cleansing Peak every single day and drew obscure runes that no one understood.
Although everyone found it strange, no one stopped him, because this was Spirit Vulture’s order. Only he knew what Lin Xun was doing.
……
Another month passed in the blink of an eye.
Autumn turned to winter. Everything on Mind Cleansing Peak had withered and faded. The leaves were all dried up, and only some exotic flowers and plants continued to sway in the icy wind.
Lin Xun never left his residence. It was as though he had vanished from the world. The heated discussions about him also had long ceased in the outside world.
After all, there were many new and sensational incidents and events happening every day in the Forbidden City as it was the capital of the empire.
During those days, the most sensational incident that happened was that the Water Tribe of the Magi Brute Race sent a large group of envoys to visit the Forbidden City.
There was deep-seated enmity between the empire and the Magi Brute Race, and war constantly broke out between the two. The sudden visit from envoys of the Water Tribe understandably attracted everyone’s attention and caused an uproar in the Forbidden City.
Many people analyzed the purpose of the Water Tribe’s envoys’ visit. They found it most strange that, after they arrived in the Forbidden City, they settled in an ancient building specially provided by the imperial family in the west of the city and never left. Moreover, they did not reveal the purpose of their visit to the Forbidden City.
Their unusual move puzzled many people in the Forbidden City.
However, regardless of their purpose, the feud between the empire and the Magi Brute Race led to many hot-blooded young people causing trouble outside the Brute Residence every single day. They even threatened to kill the bastards of the dark races to avenge the heroes of the empire who died on the battlefield.
The Brute Residence was the place where the envoys of the Water Tribe resided. The name clearly showed the empire’s attitude towards the envoys.
However, despite the disturbances outside their residence, the Water Tribe envoys never showed their faces and seemed to intend to stay in the Forbidden City for a long period.
The imperial family also showed an unusually strange response. They didn’t care about the envoys and treated them like they didn’t exist.
However, no one knew the reason for their strange behaviors. As time passed, the Water Tribe envoys did not do anything out of the ordinary, and many major forces and clans in the Forbidden City lost interest in them
Additionally, the West Creek, Cloud Weight and Flying Peak Lin Clans were facing endless troubles.
In recent days, competitors were frequently oppressing their businesses, and they even maliciously lowered their prices, severely impacting their earnings.
One day, Lin Tianlong, the clan leader of the West Creek Lin Clan, listened to the latest reports from his subordinates as usual.
“Clan Leader, an incident happened in our Blood Essence Iron Mine. Just like a few days ago, the buyer rejected all the Blood Essence Iron and claimed that the quality of our Blood Essence Iron was too poor. They demanded us to sell them at a much lower price, but if we did that, we would suffer a huge loss!”
“Also, the business in our aeth grain stores in the west of the city and our three medicine stores in the south of the city are doing very badly.”
“This month alone, we have lost 390,000 gold coins! If this continues, within one year, our properties and businesses will...most likely fail.”
The subordinate’s face looked gloomy and troubled because of the poor business.
Lin Tianlong’s face was livid, and his face frosted over. He was so angry that he almost crushed his own teeth. Someone has gone too far! They are secretly targeting us!
He had long sensed that something was wrong, but it was only now that he was certain that it was a deliberate, malicious attack!
“Clan Leader, the businesses owned by Cloud Weight and Flying Peak have also been impacted.”
The subordinate reminded him, “Only the businesses owned by the North Light Lin Clan are unaffected. This doesn’t feel right. Do you think the North Light Lin Clan and the kid are behind all this?”
“Even if they didn’t do it, it has to be connected to them!” Lin Tianlong roared, and he had almost lost control of his anger. But at the same time he couldn’t help but panic because he knew that ordinary forces couldn’t attack them with such sinister means.
It’s impossible for Lin Xun to do this even if he has the North light Lin Clan’s support!
At that moment, a middle-aged man in gray anxiously rushed into the room.
Before he had come near, he had already started to report, “Clan Leader, it has been confirmed that the culprits secretly targeting us these days are from the Shi Family of Stone Cauldron Alms, the Ning Family of the Steel-Blood Army, the Never-Falling Geezer Family, the Gong Clan, and the Ye Family of the East Sea King!
The list of powerful names made Lin Tianlong’s head buzz as if lightning had struck him. He sat there stiffly and turned ashen-faced.