The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

“Sir…You are?” Li Lang cautiously asked the muscular man by the door.

He had a suspicion that this was the proctor for his Brushweaver test, but that would also mean he was an esteemed one star Brushweaver. Li Lang’s mind just couldn’t make the connection between the brawny man before him with someone who elegantly held a brush.

“I am Bai Yunfeng, the one star Brushweaver in charge of your test,” the man gallantly declared.

“...I see. I am ready, sir. Please give me your instructions.”

“Hmph, the test has already begun. My first test was testing your patience, and you already got impatient after thirty minutes.”

“That…Has to do with Brushweaving?”

“Of course! Brushweaving requires concentration and steady hands. Both of these things require great patience to hone.”

“I see…”

“With that said, thirty minutes is acceptable for one as young as you. We will now proceed to the practical part of your test.”

“...”

Now I’m not sure if this was actually part of the test or just some excuse he came up with for being late.

The man’s straightforwardness had already gotten Li Lang exhausted, but he proceeded as directed.

They slowly walked over to the table with all of Li Lang’s tools set up.

“This part will be simple. You must make a proper talisman in order to become an official apprentice Brushweaver. Any kind of talisman will do.”

I’m starting to lean toward the direction where the patience test didn’t matter at all…

Bai Yunfeng then placed down several blank talisman papers and took a seat on the adjacent desk.

“You have one hour,” Bai Yunfeng declared before closing his eyes.

Li Lang wasted no time and got straight to it. He took out an ink stick and began infusing his Qi into it before grinding it down into its liquid form.

He had been practicing the same light element talisman so far, so he easily drew the required runes from memory. As he focused, he felt like the time around him accelerated until he heard a noise coming from the large Brushweaver beside him.

The big man had fallen asleep and was snoring. The scene stunned Li Lang for a brief moment before he shook his head and continued working on his talisman.

Like that, while Bai Yunfeng slept, Li Lang soon completed two talismans over the hour.

“Senior Bai, an hour has passed. Please wake up,” Li Lang said as he tapped on the man’s shoulder.

The man responded by lazily stretching out his back as he let out an unrestrained yawn.

“It’s been that long already? Let me see.”

He strode over to inspect Li Lang’s work, giving the two completed talismans a thorough inspection. It didn’t last long when he suddenly activated the two talismans.

Two bright lights began to illuminate the room.

“It works, not bad. Follow me to complete the paperwork.”

Li Lang blinked blankly at the response. The test had felt easy compared to the time he had at the Alchemist Guild.

As if he read Li Lang’s mind, Bai Yunfeng explained as he held the door open.

“That’s it, kid. There are no more tests. Becoming an apprentice Brushweaver isn’t too difficult as long as you can afford the resources to craft the tools and know a proper technique for the inscription itself. Anyone can do it. It’s the test to become a one star Brushweaver that is hard. Inscribing multiple complicated runes is when things start to get messy.”

I guess I owe Yi Lin a lot for providing all that for me. Or maybe it is this easy to become an apprentice craftsman when you’re studying under a mentor…

As he thought about the convenience of having a proper mentor, Li Lang couldn’t help but reconsider finding one for Alchemy as well. He was already an apprentice, but he didn’t know any Qi techniques for the profession. He relied on trial and error from Ruby’s artifact space to brute force a solution.

While it had worked so far, Li Lang had a hunch that the more high-level pills wouldn’t be as easy. As the mysterious power of Qi got more involved, he wanted to attain proper methods to study new approaches to how pill refining worked.

The large man known as Bai Yunfeng soon led him back to a counter in the lobby. He spoke a few words to the clerk there before they swiftly went into the back to retrieve something.

A few minutes later, the man returned.

“Here you are, Master Bai.”

“Right here, Li Lang. You must sign this Qi contract to become our official member. Please look it over, but there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Li Lang carefully read over the terms.

“This is the type of contract that will alert both parties to any breaches, correct?”

“That’s right. It’s not powerful to do anything else, rest assured. Not even the guild is rich enough to waste those Heaven Smiting contracts.”

It was at this moment that a hand landed on Li Lang’s shoulder and he turned to discover it was Yi Lin, his mentor in Brushweaving.

“You’re done?”

“Yeah, just have to sign and finish up the procedures.”

Yi Lin then glanced over the contract himself before nodding.

Seeing this, Li Lang went ahead and signed it after he found no problems with it and returned it to the clerk.

In return, he received a metal ring with a pentagon-shaped bezel with the word ‘Water’ inscribed on it. Li Lang didn’t hesitate to wear it immediately, putting it on his middle finger. He now had two similar-looking rings, one on the index finger and the other on the middle finger.

The main difference besides the different words inscribed onto it was the color of the background. The alchemy ring with the word ‘fire’ on it had a red background, while the Brushweaver ring had a blue background.

“Good job,” Yi Lin said with a smile.

“You better keep up the work, kid.” Bai Yunfeng followed up immediately after. “I’d like to see you humble my nephew in Brushweaving, too.”

“Your nephew?”

“Bai Yuchen, the guy you beat up. He’s told me all about you and your friends. Ha ha ha.”

Li Lang didn’t need to ask to know what the boy in question had told his uncle. There were definitely no pleasant words, that was for sure.

“You’re his uncle…?”

“Yep, but don’t worry about it. I have nothing against you. In fact, I’m happy you put Yuchen in his place. Kids his age easily let it get to their heads, and it’d do him good to get a wake-up call sooner rather than later. Anyway, I won’t take up any more of your time. See you around.”

The mentor and student wordlessly watched the brawny man leave before Yi Lin turned his attention back to his student.

“That wraps up all the business we have at the guild today. Shall we head back?”

Li Lang nodded, and they quickly got on their way.

While they were traversing the busy main streets of Emberglow City, Yi Lin occasionally scratched his head awkwardly while staring at Li Lang. The strange behavior didn’t escape Li Lang’s notice.

“Is something the matter?”

“...I just want to tell you that I’ll have to be away for a week or two starting next week.”

“Oh, no problem. I can study by myself during that time. I should be able to buy any materials I’ll need too now that I’m a member of the guild.”

And I can look for an alchemy mentor during that time!

“Good…Sorry about this. It seems my procrastination has caught up to me and I have to go fulfill some requests in person. That stupid old guild master, holding my promotion qualification over me to get me to do things.”

“...Good luck.”

The two soon returned to Yi Lin’s abode and spent the rest of the day working on various requests Li Lang’s mentor had piled up. While Li Lang acted only as an assistant or spectator at times, it was still fruitful for him to simply observe.

With the auto-analyzer not being able to decipher anything other than the Qi signature of the talismans, the importance of these sessions was only magnified.

During that night, Li Lang once again returned to the artifact space once he had finished his cultivation session.

“Welcome back, master, and congratulations on your breakthrough! The auto-analyzer should be even faster now!” Ruby’s childish voice immediately sounded out.

“Thanks, Ruby. I also have a question for you.”

“Hmm?”

“If you consume my Brushweaving tools, will I be able to create talismans in here?”

“Of course! I am not so limited that I can’t even do that. However, just like with anything else containing Qi, I won’t be able to handle anything beyond your current cultivation. There’s just no way to analyze or simulate Qi beyond Master’s realm.”

“That’s understandable…It still works out perfectly. Thanks, Ruby.”

“Hehe.”

Having heard his answers, Li Lang began diving straight into the results from the previous day, monitoring their toxin levels and various parameters.

Now then, I just need to procure another set of Brushweaver tools. I should also look into getting an Alchemy mentor while Yi Lin is away.