131 Rune Stone Meditation (1/2)
Late at night, a lamp lit up in Bai Xi’s room. After washing off the stinky oil and stains, the refreshed girl changed into her pajamas. Her long white hair fell down to her shoulders, like silver reflecting light.
She sat cross-legged on the bed holding a bunch of stuff. Her eyes seemed to sparkle under the light. ”Thirty-thousand, twenty-thousand, sixty-thousand, one-hundred and ten-thousand! This one’s cheaper, only twelve thousand, but better than nothing. Wow, this is good, the purity of the gem is really high. I’ll price it at two-hundred thousand!” She smiled with satisfaction, and counted her war trophies over and over. She was so happy that she could melt into fluff.
The most exciting thing after committing a robbery was sharing the booty! Just counting everything was enough to make her want to scream in excitement. Bai Xi rolled on the bed with a pillow in her arms. ”Oh my God! So much money! I feel like dying. How can I calm down, Cousin?”
”Die after we split everything.” Ye Qingxuan reached over to knock her back to reality. ”We agreed that you can take half of everything. Have you decided what to take?”
”This is yours, this is mine, yours, mine, yours, mine….” In the shadow of the lamp, Bai Xi quickly divided the stuff into two parts, then pulled the bigger pile into her arms. ”The gold, silver, and gems belong to me. Everything valuable is mine! You take those useless rune stones!”
Ye Qingxuan was speechless. This girl chose money without hesitation and gave away all the invaluable rune stones. ”You don’t want the rune stones and materials?”
Bai Xi glanced at him. ”Cousin, I’m a genius, okay? It would only take me one day to master all the instantaneous notes. Do you think I need those? Plus, I’m a girl. I can’t be fighting all day, right? It’s not easy for me to earn a lot of money, but now I’ll be a rich girl and live a rich life.”
Ye Qingxuan was speechless at his lack of talent. But also, what did Bai Xi mean by ”girl?” Since when did Bai Xi see herself as a girl?
He sighed, having no say in the matter. He was about to argue, but when he looked at Bai Xi’s innocent smile, he could not say anything. He ran his fingers through her hair. ”You’re the boss. I’ll take it all then.”
He gathered the small mountain of rune stones, and counted again. He could not believe it. In all, there were more than two hundred runes. They were all the basic notes that Ye Qingxuan needed. The Indians had probably swept through all of the surrounding black markets to collect these. But soon, something occurred to him. He looked blank and amazed immediately.
Bai Xi looked at him. ”What’s the matter? The sky’s falling down?”
”Well…” Ye looked up at her and asked quietly. ”Do you know how to use rune stones?”
-
As the dawn began to light up the room, the youth, with crossed hands before his chest, seemed to fallen asleep. He sat as if he were meditating like an ascetic Indian monk. His body faced upwards, and he created a seal with his intertwined fingers. In his entwined fingers was a crystal prism. A faint note shimmered within the prism.
The light from the aether tripled with his breaths, and transformed into waves. The youth chanted the syllables in a low voice again and again, resonating with the stone in his hands. In his mind, a vague note appeared, and gradually became more visible. Finally, it became solid.
The note suddenly changed on its own. It transformed into a dancing flame and began to burn. The burning rune flashed, radiating with a mysterious light as if it had become a star. With the will of the youth, the meditative notes in his mind rose slowly into the illusionary sky and shone together with the stars.
More than thirty stars glittered in the night sky. The notes that had turned into stars flowed like a river, some dim and some ever-changing. As the rune Fire intensified, the position of the stars suddenly changed, rising gradually to leave space for the new notes.
The starry sky changed slowly. The stars wandered aimlessly before finally stabilizing. There was a gravitational pull among them, formed from an uncertain force. The stars were moving under the momentum of that force.
Crack! With a snap, the rune stones in Ye Qingxuan’s palms shattered and turned to dust. The youth slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath, lifting his fingertips. Flames had burned on his fingertips with just a short chant.
He smiled. All eleven stones of the rune Fire had been used up and internalized. He had reached the instantaneous level of yet another rune. It would be activated with just a thought!
With so many rune stones, his mastery of notes as a beginner had reached the level of most third level musicians. After all, not everyone had the opportunity to spend so much on precious runes to cultivate these notes.
Bending over, he swept the ashes to one side. Beside him, the runes' ashes had formed a small hill! He had consumed sixty runes overnight. This would take most students one or two years.
”Seventeen more notes.” Ye Qingxuan gazed at the stack of stones before him. After mastering the remaining seventeen notes, he would have forty-eight in his mind. The forty-eight basic notes recorded in Equal Temperament would be fully mastered by him. At that time, the starry sky in his mind would revolve as if it were real. At that time, he would reach the Rhythm level.
Next was the rune Extraction. He clenched a rune stone again and closed his eyes. But quickly, he was forced out of the serenity, and his vision spun.