Nie Zexi

The inscription hall of Holy Orchid Institute was a building entirely given over to Inscriptions Patterns students. Here they created inscription scrolls, tested them in a safer environment, and took lessons. Many inscription Patterns students only left the hall for sleep and sometimes to visit the library. Most of their time they spent here.

Nie Li had to explain his reasons for visiting the hall to the guards before he was allowed to enter. He asked for directions and found her in one of the drawing rooms. Nie Zexi was a dark-haired elegant girl in a blue dress. She was copying an Inscription pattern into a parchment. The way she was working showed that she had some experience. Most Inscriptions masters learned this way. They copied Inscription Patterns into ordinary parchments until it becomes second nature to them. Only then do they begin creating scrolls using special equipment.

Because resources for creating Inscriptions scrolls were expensive. They couldn't waste blank scrolls or expensive demon blood on mistakes. That was one of the reasons they didn't experiment with new Inscription Patterns. Current Inscription Patterns masters in the Glory City could only create scrolls by old formulas. Very rarely has someone tried to create their own or modify an existing design. With the loss of knowledge during the Age of Darkness, it was not an easy feat.

He waited until she finished and walked up to her. He recognized the inscription on the parchment. It was a common bronze rank snow wind Inscription pattern.

"Hi, sister Zexi," said Nie Li sitting in a chair in front of her.

She took her eyes from the parchment and looked at him in confusion, "Who are you?"

"Oh, How couldn't you recognize your own family?" teased Nie Li. He wasn't surprised that she didn't recognize him. Even in his previous life they barely talked to each other.

"I have a big family" she answered unperturbed.

"I am Nie Li," he introduced himself and added, "from elder Nie En's branch."

"What do you want?" she asked.

Nie Li took out the last Inscription scroll he made yesterday and held it out to her, "What can you say about this?"

She took the scroll, opened and inspected it. "Flame pattern … bronze rank?" she said half-questioningly.

"Yes. But what would you say if I tell you that I created it myself with my current 37 soul force?" asked Nie Li.

"Bullshit," she replied immediately, "Not only you won't be able to power the inscription pattern, but also I doubt you have the skills necessary to create the Inscription pattern itself."

"What about we make a bet?" Nie Li said craftily. He loved bets. Especially when the odds were stacked in his favor. "I will try to create an Inscription scroll based on that pattern on your parchment. If I win you will work for me for, let's say, two years. And if I fail, my interspatial ring and everything inside would be yours." Seeing her hesitating he continued, "that includes bronze rank demon spirit, 30 blank Inscription scrolls, number of demon beast ingredients for creating scrolls, and other knick-knacks" he said showing them to her one by one.

She was very tempted. This distant relative of hers that she vaguely recognized was offering her a fortune. Even though Inscriptions Patterns classes, like Genius classes, got additional resources from school administration it was a very small amount. It was barely enough to create a single scroll a month. If she didn't have additional sources of income and her parent's financial help she wouldn't have been able to practice.

And with the resources Nie Li was offering she would be set for at least a year. And she always wanted an interspatial ring of her own. But she still hesitated. This Nie Li looked quite sure of himself, suspiciously sure. And also where did he get all of this wealth. If she remembered correctly his parents were farmers, so it couldn't be them.

Before she questioned him Nie Li continued "I will also tell you the source of that flame type Inscription Pattern and there are many more inscriptions like that, even Silver rank Inscription Patterns."

"Done," said Nie Zexi, "Don't even think of backing out now. Even if the things you bet are not yours, they will be mine when you lose the bet. I will take them from your cold body if necessary"

"Don't scare me like that, sister Zexi" Nie Li exaggeratedly shivered "I keep my words. I hope sister Zexi does as well?"

"Yes" replied Nie Zexi impatiently "Now let's begin. Show your mastery," she said mockingly.

"Okay," said Nie Li and took out his enchanted pen and its accessories. They consisted of a black metal box with a cable coming out of it. Yes, Nie Li literally "black-boxed" the bowl that held the demon spirit and extracted its energy. Right now it looked like a black box with shining crystals on its sides. The brightness of these crystals showed the remaining charge of the demon spirit. And only Nie Li could open the box to replace the demon spirit inside.

Nie Li did this to protect his technology. Even though Nie Li doubted that anyone in Glory City could copy his technology, he didn't want other people to know how it worked. There were no patent laws in this world.

"What is this?" asked Nie Zexi looking at his preparations.

"Oh, this is my equipment to create Inscription scrolls" answered Nie Li, preparing his pen. He replaced the ink container with the one filled with demon blood and connected the wire.

"You didn't say anything about using an artifact" she complained.

"It's not an artifact. And I don't remember us talking about any restrictions. Is sister Zexi going to go back on her words now?" said Nie Li mockingly.

"No, I'm not," She frowned "what are you waiting for? Begin. I don't have all day to watch you preparing your equipment"

"Don't worry, It's ready," He took a blank scroll and began writing on it, not even looking at Nie Zexi's parchment.

Watching him, Nie Zexi became amazed. Nie Li was filling the scroll confidently, his hand moving masterfully without any hesitation. He didn't even look at the parchment as if he had done it thousand times before. Even her teachers created Inscription scrolls slowly and carefully. But Nie Li was filling the scroll at an astonishing rate. If she wasn't seeing the patterns, she had so painstakingly repeated hundreds of times appearing on the surface of the scroll, she would have thought that he was fooling her.

Not even five minutes later Nie Li was finished. He had done the last touches to the Inscription scroll and held it out to Nie Zexi. This pattern was simpler than the ones he created for sale.

Nie Zexi took the scroll astonishingly and stared at it. Every line was artfully written. Even though there were some slight differences from the ones she copied she could see that this way they looked more complete. She couldn't find any fault with the scroll.

"Will we test it?" asked Nie Li.

Seeing his smug face Nie Zexi remembered about the bet. Her mood soured.

"Of course, some lines here look wrong. We definitely must check if it works correctly or not" she answered angrily.

"Lead the way, sister Zexi," Nie Li confidently replied

They went to the testing site at the back of the hall. There Nie Zexi took the Inscription scroll and activated it. An icicle, the length of a meter appeared and shot out towards the target and hit it with a loud bang. Nie Zexi's face turned dark. Scroll worked even better than she expected.

"You must have lied about your soul force. There's no way someone who hasn't reached the bronze rank would be able to create this Inscription scroll" she complained.

"Ah, it hasn't been even ten days since I began studying here. Do you think that anyone with a red soul like me can reach the Bronze rank in such a short time? But if you want, we can check it with a soul crystal" Nie Li replied calmly.

"Yes, we must check it. You're clearly not normal" she said. She knew she was clinging to the last straws, but she didn't want to admit that she lost the bet.

"Okay, I have one here," he said and took out a soul crystal from his interspatial ring.

'What? Is there anything he didn't have in that damned ring of his?' she thought angrily.

Nie Li checked his soul force. It was as expected 37. Nie Zexi took the soul crystal and checked her own soul force. It showed 212. Soul crystal wasn't faulty.