Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 2: From Dream to Reality

Ye Wei dreamt for a long time: he dreamt about the first year of history, the Grand Descent, about how the Sages surveyed Mystic Mount, about them gaining understanding of the mystic runes and creating three thousand mystic stances, he dreamt about the Sword Master refining demon remains and then forging them into mystic arms, and lastly he dreamt of the Combat Master dictating the mystic scrolls, which were then spread all over the world.

Ye Wei’s mind kept wandering as the dream seemed to carry on for centuries..

Meanwhile, Lin Zi Yan was still lecturing and explaining the inner workings of mystic runes. Her lecture was vivid, she tried to make the students understand how much the Three Sages’ attributes mean to the world, as they know them. By appropriately referencing some classical volumes she was doing a great job of keeping the attention of the class. Except our one and only Ye Wei.

“Is this kid planning on ever waking up?”

Miss Zi Yan glanced towards the back of the room, her stare clearly expressed how displeased she was with Ye Wei as he had already slept half the lesson away, despite her best efforts to make a bland topic sound relevant and interesting. But all this meant as little to Ye Wei as pearls do to pigs.

Even when Miss Zi Yan was angry, her elegance did not fade. It made her even more attractive.

The boys sitting on Ye Wei’s left look disgusted by Ye Wei’s behaviour, fast asleep in their favourite teacher’s class. The disrespect was unbearable for them.

‘Ye Wei you are the bloody disgrace of our class, how dare you sleep through Miss Zi Yan’s lessons!?’

‘Maybe I didn’t kick his ass hard enough last time.’

The owner of these thoughts was a thirteen to fourteen years old looking teenager, Xiao Qi. Xiao Qi is always cold, it is evident in the way he is staring at Ye Wei right now, in the way he talks to others, and how he keeps a distance between himself and other human beings. Maybe it is due to the fact that he doesn’t need anyone. Top of the class, five stars Student, and the son of a South Star Academy senior instructor. Xiao wass also an admirer of Miss Zi Yan.

Xiao Qi was gifted, it might have came from his parents, as both of them are senior instructors at South Star. Raised by them two, Xiao’s mastery and knowledge over mystic runes exceeded the rest of the class by a modest margin. Miss Zi Yan appreciates and recognises his talents, and on a few occasions she couldn’t help but praise him. That boosted Xiao’s ego by a mile, which was also the reason why Xiao Qi decided he’s the Guardian of Miss Zi Yan. Ye Wei’s behaviour contradicts many guidelines in his mind as to how people should behave in Miss Zi Yan’s class. Which means... yes Xiao Qi was furious.

Xiao Qi’s aggression was beginning to show from his posture. “Oh gosh, Ye Wei, you idiot! Never learn do you? Falling asleep in THIS lesson in front of Xiao Qi, ha good luck with that!” A few students started gossiping and betting how and when Xiao was going to kick Ye’s head in. “Popcorn time!” They thought.

At this point, Ye Wei was still only a one star Student, taking one step forward and two steps back in terms of his training. It takes little effort, if any, for the five star Xiao to beat up Ye.

In regards to star levels the first four are relatively easy to get through and there are no obvious changes to one’s body except enhanced stamina. But once a Student reaches five stars, their physique will become way better, the primal energy nourishes the skin and the muscles making it possible for one’s skin to become tough as steel under impact. The enhanced muscles will cause one’s strength and speed to improve drastically. Xiao Qi being a five star Student and Ye Wei stuck on the first star the distance between them was vast, like the mud on the ground compared to a fluffy cloud in the sky.

Ye Wei sat next to Cao Ning, and they maintain a healthy relationship with each other.They usually helped each other out both in and out of class. Seeing the anger Xiao directed towards Ye building up Cao tried nudging Ye, an attempt at waking him up, however it didn’t work at all as Ye Wei remained motionless, much like a dead pig.

‘The nudge usually works. Bro it’s not that I don’t want to save you from this one, but you are too far gone...’ Cao thinks with a wry smile on his face, rolling his eyes a little.

At this point Ye Wei was still stuck in the dream, where an uncountable amount of mystic runes were heading straight to his Sentient filling and overloading it. In the dream Ye Wei wandered into his own Sentient, he could see it changing, undergoing metamorphosis. His Sentient was now showing a hint of gold, with countless mysterious runic patterns circulating.

Has the whole bothersome red Sentient situation changed?

Ordinarily the colour of one’s Sentient can only be one of the seven colours of the rainbow, a golden Sentient was unheard of. Ye Wei’s Sentient was still mainly red, but a touch of gold was definitely present.

BOOM!!

His Sentient finally expanded, and it’s about to crack into pieces.

“ARRGGGHH!”

Ye Wei suddenly woke up, covered in cold sweat panting and gasping for air, and his head was still mildly aching. With a hint of fear lingering on his face, he started rubbing his temple, attempting to shake the headache. His vision started to clear up, and the objects in front of him looked like tables and chairs again as he regained consciousness.

At this point, the whole class had their judgemental eyes set on Ye Wei due to the scream he let out. “Is this Ye Wei guy for real? Let’s say we forgive him for sleeping through Miss Zi Yan’s class.. The screaming and the nightmares are a bit much!”

“This guy is seeking attention or what?”

“This daydreaming cretin!” The class started talking.

“Ye Wei isn’t the brightest of minds, but usually he’s better disciplined in class and didn’t put his nose into other people’s business. Is he doing this to catch Miss Zi Yan’s Attention?”

“Oh god, Ye Wei is gonna get into trouble.”

A couple of kind hearted students saw Xiao Qi’s ashen angry face and started to sympathise for Ye Wei, as they know for sure a beating was coming.

The classroom filled with laughter over Ye Wei’s apparent stupidity and also sympathetic sighs. But Ye Wei seemed to be ignoring all of the noise, his eyes showed no emotion, he had a big frown as if he’s experiencing great pain.

New knowledge about hundreds of thousands of mystic runes was jumping around in his head, overloading his mind, and trying to become part of his memory. As his mind gradually settled, his eyes stopped darting around erratically and regained focus.

‘What was that towering mountain in my dream? What happened to my Sentient?’

‘Why did I fall asleep, and why did I have such a ridiculous dream?’

Ye Wei’s gaze displayed how lost and incredibly surprised he was about the experience, his mood was also slightly affected by the long dream, and a peace and calmness grew inside him.

Miss Zi Yan had decided to pause her lecture, she was well mannered and patient, she tolerated Ye Wei sleeping through her lecture, but the screaming disrupted her attempt to educate and that was simply just too rude and out of line.

“You, stand up!” She gazed upon Ye, her crisp voice seemed a bit stern.

Ye Wei realised Miss Zi Yan was addressing him so he quickly stood up.

“What’s your name?” Zi Yan kept eye contact with Ye, asking with annoyance.

Zi Yan was frustrated, as she enjoyed giving lectures and she liked the company of most of these students; she always over prepared for her lectures and the students usually enjoyed how enthusiastic she was with teaching. It was unimaginable that someone would fall asleep in her lectures, but this act of disruption topped the unimaginable.

“Ye Wei!” He replied subconsciously, while slowly raising his head, half of his body didn’t know it was awake. Information was slowly arranging itself in chronological order in his head: “This is Lin Zi Yan, one of the best students in the ‘class of the gifted’, South Star Academy, ten star level, soon to be Warrior, kind of a goddess in this academy and our sub teacher for the day.”

Ye Wei looked at her for a couple more seconds, her lilac glazed waist length hair flows in the wind as the fragrance from her hair diffuses across the room waking Ye Wei. “I’m in the middle of a class!” He finally sobered up and realised.

“This kid... hasn’t he woken up yet!?”

Miss Zi Yan looked at Ye Wei observing him. He’s slightly taller than her, slim build. The proportional facial features, and the dreamy eyes displayed a cool and relaxed temperament.

Openly and shamelessly sleeping in class, screaming and disturbing. Even Zi Yan has great patience, but this goes beyond that.

Although she’s only a substitute teacher for junior three, she gives her all to the job not giving up on a single student. Ye Wei was recognised as a waste of seat in the classroom by many, and teaching him was as hard as building a wall with nothing but mud. Even still Zi Yan cared and was willing to pay extra attention to help him in class.

Giving him one last chance Miss Zi Yan said, “Ye Wei, come up to the podium.”