As Zhang Ruochen saw the Eight Princes and Shan Xiangling, they also saw Zhang Ruochen standing outside the Inscription Guild.
When he saw Zhang Ruochen, the eighth prince’s heart became very irritated and he sneered, “Ninth brother, aren’t you a martial arts prodigy now? What are you doing at the Inscription Guild?”
Zhang Ruochen gently shook his head, not wanting to entangle himself with the Eighth Prince, and instructed Yun’er, “Sister Yun’er, wait for me on top of the Antelope Mako Carriage, I’ll go to the Inscription Guild to purchase some things first.”
Zhang Ruochen stepped off the Antelope Horse Ancient Carriage, and then travelled towards the gate of the Inscription Guild.
Behind him, a very soft and melodious voice came from behind him, “Your Highness the Ninth Prince, wait.”
Zhang Ruochen stopped and turned around, glancing towards the approaching Shan Xiangling, saying, “You are?”
In Qingxuan Pavilion, Zhang Ruochen had met Shan Xiangling once, but he did not know Shan Xiangling’s identity or name. It was only known that she seemed to be the Eighth Prince’s senior sister from a certain sect.
“Fire Cloud Sect, Shan Xiangling. His Highness the Ninth Prince really opened Xiangling’s eyes during the end of the year examination, with a cultivation of the Yellow Extremity Realm Small Extremity Position, yet he was able to defeat a Yellow Extremity Realm Large Extremity Position martial artist. If there is an opportunity, Xiangling would love to be able to exchange martial arts with His Highness the Ninth Prince.”
Shan Xiangling walked towards Zhang Ruochen in a graceful manner, her body exuding a faint ethereal fragrance, her eyes carrying a slight look of anticipation.
Noble as one of the Four Great Beauties of the Junior Generation of the Yunwu County Kingdom, Shan Xiangling was indeed very beautiful looking, with eyebrows like willow leaves, long and curved eyelashes, and very delicate features that were almost like a work of art that had been finely carved by the Creator.
Originally, when she first met Zhang Ruochen in Qingxuan Pavilion, she still regarded Zhang Ruochen as an invalid who could not cultivate martial arts, and even suspected that Zhang Ruochen was Qin Ya’s face, and very much despised him.
However, during the end of the year assessment battle, Zhang Ruochen had displayed a terrifying talent for martial arts, lifting a thousand-pound stone disc as if it were a game, hunting a first-ranked upper class savage beast, and defeating his enemy across two minor realms.
Among teenage martial artists, it wasn’t an easy task to do any of these things.
How could a martial arts prodigy like Zhang Ruochen go and be someone else’s face and be reduced to a plaything for a loose/sl*tty woman?
Zhang Ruochen took a slight glance at Shan Xiangling and was slightly shocked in his heart, “Not only is this woman very good looking, her martial dao talent is surprisingly high as well, she has actually already cultivated to the Yellow Extremity Realm Great Extremity Position, which is a step above the cultivation of both the Nine Counties’ Lords and Lin Nishanshan.”
In fact, the Nine County Lords, Lin Mishan, and Shan Xiangling were all included as one of the Four Great Beauties of the Junior Generation because of their beautiful looks and extremely high martial arts talent.
If they didn’t have the talent to cultivate martial arts, even if they looked beautiful, they wouldn’t be qualified to become the goddess-level figures that so many martial artists talked about so much.
Shan Xiangling’s age, already seventeen years old, was a little older than both the Nine County Lords and Lin Mishan, and her cultivation was naturally a little higher.
Seeing that Shan Xiangling had actually taken the initiative to show her affection to Zhang Ruochen, the Eighth Prince sensed a crisis and immediately rushed over, saying, “Senior Sister, have you forgotten about what happened between the Ninth Brother and the Qingxuan Pavilion’s Boss Lady? This kind of person, you’d better stay away from him ……”
Shan Xiangling slightly raised her hand, interrupting the eighth prince’s continued words, and with a bright-eyed smile, she said, “What kind of young talent is the ninth prince, and how could he possibly be the kind of person you’re talking about?”
That sense of crisis, became even stronger!
“Senior sister! Let’s go! Come back next time to worship the master!” The Eighth Prince grabbed Shan Xiangling’s wrist and tried to pull her away.
“Wow!”
The true qi in Shan Xiangling’s body ran at a rapid pace, a powerful force emanated from her wrist, and with a gentle shake, she directly shook the Eighth Prince away.
“Your Highness the Eighth Prince, there is a difference between men and women, please respect yourself.” Shan Xiangling said coldly.
“Senior sister ……,” The eighth prince’s five fingers were numb with pain, and he couldn’t lift his entire arm.
Shan Xiangling glanced towards the eighth prince and gently shook her head.
When she looked over towards Zhang Ruochen again, a soft smile immediately appeared on her face, and her voice was very pleasant as she said, “Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, Xiangling has come to the Inscription Guild to pay homage to her master, and she intends to learn the art of refining weapons. What about you?”
Zhang Ruochen took in everything that had just happened and said indifferently, “I came to purchase Inscription Brushes and Spirit Paper, intending to learn Inscription.”
“Really? That’s really great, I’ve been learning inscription patterns since I was a child and I can already burn some basic inscription patterns. I also have some research on inscription pens and spirit paper, if His Highness the Ninth Prince wants to purchase these two things, perhaps, Xiangling can help.” Shan Xiangling said.
Zhang Ruochen thought for a moment before realising that he really didn’t seem to know much about inscription pens and spirit paper, so he agreed.
Looking at Zhang Ruochen and Shan Xiangling’s back, the eighth prince was simply frustrated to the extreme.
A moment later, fighting spirit returned to the eighth prince’s eyes, and in his heart, he said, “As long as I become a disciple of Zuo En’s refiner, at that time, my senior sister will definitely return to my side again.
……
“Inscription brushes and spirit paper are both divided into five grades, which are basic, intermediate, advanced, heavenly, and divine, corresponding to the five grades of inscriptions.”
“To inscribe a basic inscription, you only need to use a basic grade inscription pen and spirit paper.”
“Those whose spiritual power is below the 30th rank can only inscribe basic inscriptions. The higher the spirit power, the more basic inscriptions one can inscribe, the more stable the inscriptions are, and the higher the success rate.”
Shan Xiangling introduced Zhang Ruochen while saying, “I’ve been cultivating my spiritual power since I was a child while learning about inscription patterns. My current spiritual power has reached the sixteenth rank, and I can also inscribe several basic inscription patterns, but the success rate is quite low. It takes twenty times of engraving to succeed once.”
“For someone like Zorn Refiner, the success rate is already quite high, carving ten times, all of them will succeed at least seven or eight times.”
In the Red Cloud Sect, it also recruited refiners who had cultivated spiritual power. However, the Red Cloud Sect was, after all, a martial sect, and the highest spirit power refiner had only cultivated his spirit power to the eighteenth rank. With his attainments, it was already difficult to instruct Shan Xiangling.
That was why Shan Xiangling had come to the Inscription Guild in the King City, wanting to join under the door of Zorn’s Weaponry Refiner, to continue learning inscription and weaponry refining, and to strive to reach the rank of First Grade Weaponry Refiner as soon as possible.
“Your spiritual power has actually reached the sixteenth rank!” Zhang Ruochen said.
One should know that one could be called a genius if they cultivated their spiritual force to the fifteenth rank before the age of twenty. Shan Xiangling’s mental strength was already considered quite remarkable amongst young girls of the same age.
Mentioning the strength of her spiritual power, Shan Xiangling was also quite proud of herself, and a sense of superiority rose in her heart as she said, “Generally speaking, when one reaches the fifteenth rank of spiritual power, they have the chance to become a first grade refiner.”
After a pause, she then said with some frustration, “Unfortunately, my skills in refining weapons and inscribing inscriptions are a bit poorer, and after taking the exam twice, I failed to pass the examination for a first grade refiner. If I was able to worship under a second grade refiner and receive his guidance, I would definitely be able to become a first grade refiner very quickly.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “So what if I become a First Grade Artifact Refiner? Are there any benefits?”
“There are simply too many benefits! Firstly, by becoming a First Grade Weapon Refiner, you can formally join the Inscription Guild and become a member of the Inscription Guild, with the opportunity to learn even more profound Spiritual Power Dharma Scrolls, and moreover, there’s also the opportunity to listen to lectures from Spiritual Power Masters.”
“At the same time, when you become a First Grade Refiner, you will be able to obtain a set of Refiner’s Dharma Robes specially refined by the Inscription Guild. As long as you wear the vestments, it represents your identity. As long as it’s not a personal grudge, or you take the initiative to stir up trouble yourself, if anyone dares to go against you, the Inscription Guild will step in to help you out.”
“Of course, being a First Grade Alchemist is actually respected by martial artists. Generally speaking, there are simply no human martial artists who would take the initiative to offend a weapon refiner or alchemist.”
Zhang Ruochen was also somewhat moved, knowing that the Inscription Guild had a very long history, having been born in the Middle Ages, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Even the First Central Empire opened by Empress Chi Yao was only 800 years old.
It could be said that even the heritage of the First Central Empire, which now ruled the Kunlun Realm, had absolutely no way to compare to the Inscription Guild.
No one knew just how much energy the Inscription Guild had, and no one dared to mess with the Inscription Guild anyway.
If one could become a member of the Inscription Guild, it seemed to be a good thing. Zhang Ruochen nodded thoughtfully.
Inscription brushes and spirit paper were both very expensive.
A basic-grade inscription pen was sold for a thousand silver coins.
A basic grade spirit paper would sell for one silver coin.
Seeing the prices, ordinary martial artists would have already turned away in fear.
Learning inscription was simply burning money, only the big families and big clans could cultivate a few alchemists and artefact smiths, moreover, before cultivating them, they had to be carefully selected, and they had to pick out geniuses with strong spiritual power.
If there was no way to cultivate them into a first-rate alchemist, or a first-rate weapon smith, then they would lose their money.
Zhang Ruochen purchased a total of ten inscription brushes and ten thousand sheets of spirit paper, spending a total of twenty thousand silver coins. Even though he was not short of money right now, he still spent them with great pain.
Zhang Ruochen purchased the inscribing pens and spirit paper, then he and Shan Xiangling went to pay a visit to Zorn Refiner. Zhang Ruochen could be said to know nothing about inscribing inscriptions right now, relying entirely on his own fumbling.
If he could get guidance from an expert, perhaps, he would be able to get twice the result with half the effort.
From a distance, they heard a voice.
“Congratulations, Your Highness the Eighth Prince, your spiritual power has reached the twelfth rank. You really haven’t cultivated spiritual power before?” Zorn Refiner said with some awe.
At the age of the eighth prince, if he could reach the twelfth rank without really having cultivated spiritual power, it would definitely be considered an exceptional talent.
“This prince has naturally not cultivated spiritual power before.”
Seeing Zhang Ruochen and Shan Xiangling who were walking towards this side, the Eighth Prince had a smug smile in his eyes as he deliberately raised his voice and said, “With the meaning of the Grandmaster, wouldn’t this prince be a natural born spiritual powerhouse?”
Having received the affirmation from Zorn Refiner, the Eighth Prince was very excited, and thus, was impatient to show off his natural talent to Shan Xiangling.
……
