Chapter 144 – Sonic Runes (1/2)
Chapter 144 – Sonic Runes
“Ye Wei!”
Zuo Qiu Ming smiled brightly as he strode over to the new Runemaster. The sound of his crisp, joyful laughter echoed throughout the room.
“Mister Zuo.” Ye Wei happily bowed. Influenced by Zuo Qiu Ming’s laugh, he also smiled widely, safely assuming his application had been approved.
“Congratulations kid, your papers went through and the Qing state office already approved it!” Zuo Qiu Ming felt his words did not fully express his excitement, he applauded Ye Wei with a heavy slap on the shoulder, “Hahaha! Finally! Our branch has given birth to a New Rune!”
After getting approval from the Qing state office, it was quite certain Ye Wei would be listed after the standard procedures.
“Thank you so much Mister Zuo for your help!” Ye Wei politely gestured and bowed, relieved that his family was now more or less protected from Lu Feng’s possible schemes.
Under the pressure of the union, even if Lu Feng had the Lu family behind him, he could not risk his whole family being punished.
“Little man you are too nice; I am an official here at the union, and I am only doing my duty. The fact that a new talent, such as yourself, came out of this branch is something I should be proud of. If you don’t mind, just call me brother Zuo. Mister Zuo this, Mister Zuo that just sounds weird!” Zuo Qiu Ming casually smiled and looked at Ye Wei.
“Sure! If that is okay with you, brother Zuo!” Ye Wei smiled.
“Hahaha! You’re being too modest again. If it’s comfortable with you, just call me that!” Zuo Qiu Ming was not purposefully befriending Ye Wei to be obsequious. Once the news of Ye Wei becoming a Seven New Runes spreads, the whole state will know about it, ensuing requests of dubious friendships and uncertain alliances.
Ye Wei stayed in the elegant room; he wanted to chat with Zuo Qiu Ming more and not just about business. He found out more personal information including Ye Wei’s master as Zuo expressed a heartfelt admiration of Master Yi’s from stories of the master’s youth.
Although Ye Wei saw his master, day in and day out for three years of training, the master’s past seldom became a subject they spoke about.
‘So master is not a native of Green Moon City…’ Ye Wei began to discover how little he knew.
Thirty years ago, Master Yi passed his union entry exam in the capital, and during the same year he became a ten-star Runemaster, shocking the whole capital. That was one of the reason why Zuo Qiu Ming and other experienced Runemasters knew about Master Yi’s past.
“He was a ten-star Runemaster thirty years ago!? Then why is he still on the same level…?” Ye Wei asked himself, confused but hesitant to ask out loud.
Zuo Qiu Ming looked at the badge in Ye Wei’s hand and smiled, “this badge you are holding can save you life. Apart from trading goods and tokens, if you are in the field attacked by demons, wild beasts, you can inject your will-force into it and activate a distress signal function. Once it’s been activated, it will notify all Runemasters within two hundred kilometers, so they could come to your rescue. Of course it goes both ways.”
‘I must take care of it and keep it safe!’ thought Ye Wei. Even though the badge requires a Runemaster’s will-force for activation, it would still be troublesome if it fell into someone else’s hands.
“Additionally, news and messages from the region’s branch and the main headquarter will update everyday. You can find this information also on your device. That’s the primary way union branches communicate with each other. For example, the news of your passing at sixteen-years of age has already spread. It’s reasonable to conclude Master Yi has learned of your position as a three-star Runemaster now. Furthermore, when you officially become a part of the Seven New Runes, all union members will recognize your name!” Zuo Qiu Ming smiled and said, “from now on, if you meet a Runemaster, you can just tell them your name. They will know who you are and probably help you with whatever problems you may have. They may even assume you are an object of protection. Now with the questions on the jade walls it’s every man for himself!”
“Can the runic badge receive messages from the Runemaster Union?” Ye Wei was dumbfounded, but he regained his reason ‘if the badge can relay voice messages and holograms from the headquarter far way, receiving messages from the union should not be a difficult thing.’
“Apart from textual messages, five-star Grand-Runemasters and above can send and receive visual images. Yet, only a few people in the Zhou dynasty are capable of doing so. Normally, this is only done with drastic occurrences. Occasionally we can also receive images from demon emperors!”
“Can do what?” Ye Wei asked appalled.
“Well, you see, the Combat Master designed the badge long ago. It is packed with very powerful runes and runs on the surrounding primal energy. Some demon emperors accidently learned how the routing worked. Thus from time to time, they will harass us. However, you don’t have to worry about that. They are strong but usually do not do anything more than just taunt. Of course, we will know instantly if anything bad happens.” Zuo Qiu Ming patiently explained.
“Thank you for explaining all the details! Brother Zuo!” Ye Wei smiled and made a polite hand gesture.
“Haha! You are being modest again!” Zuo Qiu Ming laughed, appreciated Ye Wei’s humility and became even more fond of the young Runemaster.
After everything that had occurred, Ye Wei stayed in a guest room in the Ning City Runemaster branch, studied the runic badge and researched into rules and guidelines of the union.
Within in the next two days, he saw the most expensive things available to buy and the cheapest; thankfully, the cheapest items only costed single digit tokens, actually manageable to obtain.
“Security?” One of the columns on the catalog caught Ye Wei’s attention.
The Runemaster Union recruited powerful cultivators from different dynasties everyday, and union members could hire them as followers with contribution tokens.