093 Such a Lucky Break (3000)

Knock, knock, knock.

“Teacher.”

“Come in. The door’s not locked.”

A deep voice came from within.

Xiu Nan took hold of the knob, opened the door, and stepped inside.

The room was brilliantly lit. From the ceiling hung a diamond-shaped stone sphere, each of its faces shedding a natural, gentle radiance. The whole study was as bright as the outdoors, and the light was wonderfully soothing.

In one corner of the study, before a dark table, Omega was still bent over his work in a frenzy of writing. To his right, the discarded drafts had piled up as high as a man’s head. The room was thick with the smell of ink, mingled with a faint fragrance of paper.

With a soft clap, Omega set down his quill.

He turned to look at Xiu Nan. “How have these five days been? Are the meals and lodgings to your liking?”

“Thank you for your concern, Teacher. I’ve more or less adapted already. Senior Brother has taken very good care of me, and now I feel much the same as before. I can devote myself fully to my studies.”

Xiu Nan answered respectfully, describing how things had been lately.

“That’s good. I suppose the Thornflower runes I gave you have already begun their initial study as well. Here, take this paper and pen and try sketching over there at the table.”

Omega handed over the two items.

His eyes, slightly wearied, rested on Xiu Nan. “Don’t be too nervous. This is only a small examination. Draw as much as you can; even if you can only outline a tiny portion, it’s no matter. We have plenty of time…”

Omega kept his hand suspended in midair, but Xiu Nan still had not taken the items, so he went on in a lightly teasing tone, “What is it? Learned nothing at all? Ha… The Thornflower support rune is the core auxiliary rune of our line. It’s only normal to find the beginning difficult, so don’t be too discouraged…”

“Take them. Even if you hand in a blank page, that’s fine.”

Omega shook the pure white paper in his hand. The sheet seemed to be made of some special material; it was remarkably tough.

“Teacher…” Xiu Nan finally opened his mouth. “Actually, I’ve already reached the threshold of the Thornflower rune. Please look.”

Hum—

Xiu Nan closed his eyes sharply, then opened them again. In an instant, his black pupils turned bronze, and within his eyes, the image of a thornflower seemed to bloom in slow motion.

“…”

Omega fell silent.

The hand he had held aloft slowly lowered.

“You…”

Xiu Nan’s right hand moved swiftly through the air, drawing lines as though to trace something invisible. A faint current of air seemed to be stirred in response. A semi-transparent rune hovered in the air, as if it might collapse at any moment.

“It really is the Thornflower rune…” Omega confirmed once more in his heart. Xiu Nan had indeed completed the threshold of entry.

“Teacher.” Xiu Nan asked tentatively.

Smack!

A large hand descended from above and landed heavily on his shoulder. Immediately after, a voice full of delight and excitement rang out.

“Good boy! My eye for disciples really is exceptional! You’ve truly given me a surprise. Five days—just five days, and you’ve already entered the Thornflower rune!”

Omega suddenly rose to his feet, pacing back and forth in the study with great excitement, his emotions running high.

“Let me think…” He pressed a hand to his forehead.

“What was the record for our family’s fastest entry into the Thornflower rune again?” Omega strode quickly to the bookshelf.

He pulled out a black-bound book and flipped it open.

Rustle, rustle—his finger came to rest on a certain line.

“Dean Omega, time to entry: ten days. At the age of twenty-six, he attained the third-ring level of ascension. Afterward, he studied for another fourteen years and broke through to the fourth ring at forty! He once destroyed an entire Sand God clan in a different dimension, and ranks as the third-greatest family patriarch in the thousand-year history of the Omega line…”

With a snap, he shut the book again.

Omega looked into Xiu Nan’s eyes and said, “You’ve already broken every record. It seems your talent is especially suited to the Thornflower support rune!”

His tone was complicated, carrying both the bittersweet feeling of seeing his family’s thousand-year glory broken by an outsider, and the pride of seeing his disciple so outstanding.

“But…” Omega’s expression shifted suddenly.

“You must understand one thing: do not grow arrogant or restless! There are always some people in this world who possess unparalleled talent, and you are undoubtedly one of them. But of all such people, very few ever truly reach the summit. In fact, of those I know, only two have done so. Talent is only one part of what sustains you; it is merely the key that opens the door to becoming a rune master. The larger part lies in diligence, humility, and eagerness to learn. I do not want you to possess such excellent talent only to become ordinary in the end. You must squeeze every ounce of value from your advantages…”

“Tang, I have great confidence in you.”

Omega’s tone and gaze were sincere, so sincere that one could feel the force of his conviction just by listening. Xiu Nan could tell that Omega truly hoped he would amount to something.

“I understand, Teacher.”

“That’s more like it. Hahaha.”

Omega laughed heartily, a stark contrast to his earlier solemn demeanor. Senior Brother Floating Ice had been right after all; the teacher really could be like a child at times.

Whether he disliked something or liked it, he would show it plainly on his face. Such a person was sincere of heart and often possessed an infectious warmth.

“Ah, I’ve just remembered—over the next month, I may not have the time to teach you personally. The White Saint has summoned all the saints and the representatives of every rune faction to the Third Otherworld to study the Aoyin runes together. I can’t be in two places at once, so for now I’ll have to trouble the other professors in the faction…”

Omega looked somewhat troubled, his brows drawing together slightly.

“Don’t worry. The fundamentals are basically the same. As for the various runes unique to our line, I’ll have Floating Ice teach you. You get along well with him, don’t you? That works out perfectly…” He had made up his mind.

Xiu Nan’s expression did not change.

Omega glanced at him and continued, “Still, your teacher ought to give you something in compensation…”

Omega suddenly raised a hand and clenched it lightly. It seemed as though a great deal of matter in the room’s air was being drawn together; countless translucent particles merged and gathered, gradually forming the shape of a sphere in his palm.

When it stabilized, Xiu Nan saw that it was a transparent crystal orb, only as large as an eyeball, with a single point of light within it. It looked much like a glowing tungsten filament inside a lamp.

“This is a legacy crystal. Your teacher here obtained it from the White Saint in exchange for something good. Within it lies all the knowledge of the Milodaren faction that I’ve poured in over the past decade or so…”

“This thing was originally reserved for the crisis when a faction’s inheritance was about to be severed. It can only be used three times in total, and to recharge it you’d have to go back to the White Saint. But I’ll let you use it once. If I weren’t heading to pay my respects to the White Saint anyway, I would never have given it to you…”

“Your spirit should be able to hold out for half an hour. Remember as much as you can, and don’t overreach.”

Xiu Nan’s eyes lit up at once. This was the benefit of revealing extraordinary talent—resources came pouring in, and all manner of treasures arrived without end.

As for the so-called “the tallest tree catches the wind”? That was only because ordinary people have but one life. The moment they show even a little more gift than others, they become terrified, hiding everything they can, pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger, and their advancement slows to a crawl.

But he was different. Xiu Nan had never once intended to avoid exploiting the system by ending his own life after forty days of self-discipline.

His original plan had been simple: ride Senior Brother Floating Ice’s connections, learn the knowledge of mutated runes, then spend every last evolution point on rune mutation.

Then he would die. Since the evolution points came from the Sacred Bone Secret Ring rather than the system, they could be refreshed.

In that way, Xiu Nan would effectively possess eight times the evolution points, enough to brute-force a perfect mutation through sheer quantity.

If he were lucky, he might even produce several.

That had been his plan all along, and yet he never expected that merely showing extraordinary talent would also earn him a legacy crystal!

This was truly beyond incredible.

At this moment, Xiu Nan showed not the slightest resentment simply because Omega could not teach him personally. In his eyes, Omega pulling out one legacy crystal was equivalent to pulling out eight. He was absolutely ecstatic.

The blank mask on his face was already beginning to crack.

Omega glanced at Xiu Nan and seemed to notice his disciple’s utter lack of worry, so with a mischievous glint, he drew another item from his robe: a bronze Thornflower badge.

“Tang, actually you have another choice. Normally, the Thornflower support rune must be cultivated step by step, but I have a shortcut here…”

“This is the original badge passed down in the Omega family, engraved with the first Thornflower rune. It still carries the clearest and most complete aura of that rune. As long as you comprehend it once, your mastery of the Thornflower rune will rise dramatically, and for a period afterward, your cultivation of it will improve by leaps and bounds…”

“It was originally reserved only for members of the Omega family, but today I can make an exception for you.”

Omega wore a sly smile.

“But you must make a choice. You may only take one: the legacy crystal or the original badge. Their value is roughly equal, and either one would help you immensely…”

His expression was that of an old fox.

“How will you choose? How troublesome…”

His tone was a little wicked, thoroughly devious. To place two treasures before one person and force a decision—whichever they chose, they would feel they had lost something.

That was exactly the expression Omega wanted to see on Xiu Nan.

And sure enough, the moment the words fell, the joy on Xiu Nan’s face froze under Omega’s gaze.

“Heh heh…” Omega narrowed his eyes slightly.

But in the very next moment, Xiu Nan’s stiff expression broke into wild delight once more, and the curve of his lips rose even higher than before.

Omega: ???

What was wrong with this boy?

Xiu Nan: Both, of course! What a great and kind teacher!

Omega had thought Xiu Nan would be torn, but Xiu Nan had no intention of being torn at all. On his first life, he would choose the legacy crystal; on his second, the original badge. Then he would repeat the pattern endlessly.

He could enjoy the legacy crystal four times and the original badge four times. And depending on the situation and his own needs, he could decide which one to use more often!

To Xiu Nan, Omega’s little childlike display of slyness could only inspire two cries from the heart.

Was there really such a good thing? Please do this more often!