12 Chapter 12 - Inscription Pattern

~ Holy Orchid Institute ~

The next day, everyone of the fighter-apprentice class gathered for a lecture by their teacher once again. They were first trained by martial arts experts from the Snow Wind and Divine families. During this time, the teachers would demonstrate moves and then instruct the students to practice it before ending the class with a sparring session between students.

Due to the nobles having trained fighters in their family, they always came out on top since they would be learning martial arts from a young age. Their trainers would also be the best the family had to offer and hence, their knowledge regarding martial arts would surpass others.

The commoners on the other hand, did not have such facilities and as such always drew the short end of the stick. But now, due to new reforms having been introduced by the academy, they were finally allowed to catch up.

The academy would allow students from such backgrounds to be trained in the academy for 6 months, before the year actually began. Though they had to pay for it, it was a pretty good deal. But due to money problems, not many families were able to afford it.

There were some who took out loans and sent their kids to the place, just so they could have a bright future. Such individuals were instantly put on the Snow Wind Family's radar and if they seemed trustworthy and showed potential, they were guaranteed to become something more.

This was great news for commoner students and people were happy for them. Except for some snobby nobles.

Today was the first class of the year and hence, the two instructors took it a little easy on the children. At the end, during the sparring session, Ye Xen and Ye Ziyun were forbidden from participating as their physique was already at Silver rank. If they fought, they might injure their opponent pretty badly.

Ye Ziyun had an idea to allow the two of them to spar, but Ye Xen shot it down by saying he won't hurt 'his cute, little sister'. This got her to shut up and sit down in the sidelines with a red face. She was embarrassed since he said it in front of everyone, but she felt happy that he called her that so lovingly. This of course caused two bastards to have a sour face the entire time.

Without these two competing, it was a fairly one-sided win for Xiao Ning'er with Shen Yue coming in second. The third position surprisingly went to Du Ze who refused to fight Shen Yue out of fear for his family since everyone knows how petty noble families can be, especially against commoners.

That was how the morning ended for the students.

A pleasant surprise during breakfast though, was the boldness of Xiao Ning'er who brought lunch to someone who had helped her a lot. That person being Ye Xen. This of course caused a commotion in the students as it was public knowledge that Ning'er was engaged to Shen Fei of the Sacred Family. But was that still a thing? They did not know that but they were eager to know.

Ye Ziyun was also very happy since her childhood friend was talking to her once again and she knew it had something to with her brother. She was extremely grateful to have such a loving and great brother.

Then an hour later, it was once again time for Shen Xiu's lecture.

She sauntered into the class with a charm once again, a sway in her hips and gentle jiggle in her chest. She started the lecture with the attendance once again. When she announced Ye Xen's name, a blush briefly made way onto her face before she controlled her features. It was easier to control one's emotions once they merge with a demon spirit.

"Today I'm going to talk about Inscription Patterns. Whether if it's fighters or demon spiritualists, Inscription Patterns are very important. Inscription Patterns are separated into two parts, respectively the Enchanting Patterns and the Battle Patterns. Enchanting Patterns can be inscribed on armours and weapons. As it can greatly enhance the combat abilities those armours and weapons, especially if it's used by a Demon Spiritualists, they can make use of weapons and armours with Enchanting Patterns on it to release far more power than their base strength. As for Battle Patterns, they are used with Inscription Pattern Scrolls. By inscribing it onto the scroll and then activating it, can have a sudden burst of fighting power!"

The shocking thing is, Shen Xiu began saying substantial content today.

"Inscription Patterns are extremely profound and mysterious. They have been around since the Snow Wind Empire's age. They are being continuously improved on as time goes by. But during the Age of Darkness, the mainland was under the attack of many demon beasts. Glory City only managed to inherited a small portion of them, coming from three categories. Snow Wind Patterns, Sacred Flaming Patterns, War Prime Patterns. These belong to the Snow Wind attributes, Fire attributes and Neutral attributes."

"Today we will be talking about Enchanting Patterns." Shen Xiu said softly, her tone became gentler compared to the usual tone.

Outside the classroom, three elderly men sat together, listening to the lecture.

"The knowledge from the members of the Sacred family is quite profound. Having her teach these students is definitely more than enough!" one of the elderly men said with a smile. He is Ye Sheng, the vice-principal of Holy Orchid Institute.

"A few students in this class are quite good, no matter if it's Ye Xen, Ye Ziyun, Shen Yue or Xiao Ning'er," one of the elderly men said sounding very pleased. He is a professor in Holy Orchid Institute named Lu Ye.

Other than Ye Sheng, a grey robed, elderly man sat beside them. Lu Ye doesn't know this grey robed elder's identity. This grey robed elder just casually sat down but he gives off a powerful, prestige aura, causing Lu Ye to be careful with his words when he spoke. He didn't dare to make a slight mistake with his speech.

"How is it?" Ye Sheng asked, looking at the grey robe elder.

"Mhm," Grey robed elder non-committedly replied.

Lu Ye whispered in his heart, 'What's the identity of this grey robed elder. He actually treated Lu Sheng vice-principal with indifference. His status mustn't be low. I fear that his status might even be higher than Holy Orchid Institute's principal.'

After thinking about it, Lu Ye dared not to speak any more.

The students in the classroom didn't know that there were people outside the class observing to the lecture. It was hard to imagine that Shen Xiu actually talked about some substantial stuff, so everyone paid attention and listened.

Shen Xiu slightly raised her chest. Her face, which was full of pride, and said, "Today I want to talk about Sacred Flaming Patterns! In the research on Sacred Flaming Patterns, the Sacred family is no doubt has a well-deserved lead!"

"The Sacred Flaming Patterns has 66 foundation patterns. This pattern, for example….," Shen Xiu drew a totem formed from many patterns coming together on the blackboard, "This is the Scarlet Sunburst Pattern. This pattern was created by Sacred family's first-generation house master. It's the most powerful Bronze pattern! This pattern is made up of 36 foundation patterns combined together. It's, also the most complex pattern among the Bronze patterns. Next we'll talk about these 36 foundation patterns."

Shen Xiu began to talk non-stop.

Most of the students in the class were listening with great interest, however Nie Lie was the only one not paying attention. He doesn't have any interest with these foundation patterns. Furthermore, there are more than 600 foundation patterns in the Sacred Flaming Pattern, not 66.

If it wasn't for Ye Ziyun and the treasure in the Holy Orchid Institute, Nie Lie wouldn't even be staying in the class listening to Shen Xiu's pointless teaching. In his view, her knowledge itself was full of flaws. Her lesson simply cannot be listened to. Stating that a simple Scarlet Sunburst Pattern was claimed to be the strongest bronze inscription pattern is simply bragging.

Shen Xiu's gaze swept across the students in the class, and lastly fell onto Nie Lie. Previously, Nie Lie contradicted and looked down on her. He even made a bet with her. She had been hating him in her heart all this time. When she saw that Nie Lie was not paying attention to the lesson, she laughed in her heart. She finally found her chance! Shen Xiu continued gabble about the 36 foundation patterns. Nie Lie doesn't have a single interest in it and simply lied down on the table.

At this moment, Ye Sheng Vice Principal, who has been sitting outside, wasn't very happy when he saw that. He looked at the grey robed elder beside him. There's a important figure here today to observe the lecture and that student was actually sleeping in class. He was simply throwing mud on the Holy Orchid Institute's face. He didn't know the name of that student. if he did, he would definitely expel him from the institute and never let him back!

Seeing that the grey robed elder didn't have any reaction to Nie Lie's action, Ye Sheng Vice-Principal was secretly relieved.

Lu Ye, who is sitting beside them, sternly said, "In the Fighter Apprentice class, it would inevitably have good and bad students mixed together. I will certainly punish this student later! Parents spend so much money on him to send him to school, not to let him sleep!"

Ye Sheng nodded his head. Lu Ye knows his stuff.

Because Nie Lie fell asleep, everyone saw that Shen Xiu's face went heavy. Isn't a student sleeping in class imply that her lesson is boring?

"Nie Lie!" Shen Xiu spoke in a deep voice as she walked towards the side of Nie Li.

Nie Lie was sleeping happily as he hadn't had any good sleep for the past week. He barely opened his eyes, seeing as he's still quite sleepy, and said, "What's the matter?"

Seeing Shen Xiu wake Nie Lie up, a bunch of noble kids secretly laughed. They wanted to see Nie Lie in trouble the most. He insulted their goddess Ziyun. He deserves to suffer.

"He's doomed this time!"

Du Ze and Pu Liao smiled bitterly at each other. No matter what, sleeping in class is something they didn't dare do.

Nie Lie's attitude made Shen Xiu even more furious. She said in a deep voice, "You are actually sleeping in my class. Do you already know all of this stuff?"

"Yeah," Nie Lie calmly said.

"You..." Shen Xiu became speechless from being choked by Nie Lie's words. Since the start of the lesson Nie Lie has been sleeping. He actually said that he knows it already. Who would believe in his words?

Shen Xiu coldly sneered, "Since you already know, why don't you tell us about the inscription pattern on the board?"

Nie Lie's eyes swept across the inscription pattern and said, "This is a low-graded Sacred Flaming Pattern. It can barely be considered a Bronze pattern. With 38 patterns in its structure, it's power is weak, but if used to boil water, it would be good enough"

Hearing what Nie Lie just said, the whole class started laughing.

"Haha, I almost died from laughing. He really did not listen to anything teacher said. To actually say that this Scarlet Sunburst Pattern has 38 foundation patterns in its structure when, earlier on, teacher Shen Xiu just introduced that there are 36 foundation patterns in its structure!"

"I laughed to the point that tears began to come out. He actually said that it's used to boil water!" one of the noble kids said while he's laughing.

While many couldn't help but smile thinking it as a jest, Shen Yue became a little angry. Nie Li just said that the Bronze pattern that's been passed down in his family is actually used to boil water. This, simply, cannot be tolerated! Among all the students, only Xiao Ning'er, Ye Ziyun and Ye Xen remained calm, quite frankly because they did not care.

At that moment, outside of the classroom, Lu Ye also laughed. "This student is really funny. That smart aleck actually said that there are 38 foundation patterns in Scarlet Sunburst's structure and even said that it is only used to boil water!"

While he's laughing, he noticed that the Vice-Principal, Ye Sheng, and the grey robed elder did not laugh. He suddenly stopped by pushing his laughter back into his stomach.

"What's so funny? The Scarlet Sunburst is indeed made from 38 foundation patterns." Vice-Principal Ye Sheng calmly said. At his and grey robed elder's level, with in-depth investigation they would find that there are 2 foundation patterns in the Scarlet Sunburst pattern that are actually not only made from 2 foundation patterns, but made from 4 foundation patterns. However, what made them feel shocked is that this information actually came from a student. Was this student randomly guessing? And for experts like them, the Scarlet Sunburst, this sort of rubbish inscription pattern, can only be used to boil water; it's actual effect in battle is very small.

A light flashed across the grey robed elder's eye as his eyes slightly narrowed, but he did not say anything and remained silent. This was the youth that the young master of the Snow Wind Family had warned the elders about.

Nie Lie did not pay any attention to the students that were laughing at him and continued, "This inscription pattern was originated from the seventh volume of the Book of Divine Lightning Fire. The original name of this inscription pattern is called Lightning Flame Burst Pattern. It consisted of 60 foundation patterns.

It can be considered a little complicated, but some smart ass went and cut part of the inscription pattern, slightly changed it, and turned it into this nondescript Scarlet Sunburst Pattern. With no real combat capabilities, it could only be given to the Sacred Flame Pattern practitioners to study."

Book of Divine Lightning Fire, what is that? The students in the class looked at each other.

Shen Xiu and Shen Yue were about to reprimand him when Ye Xen spoke up, "He is telling the truth. Many of the inscriptions that the Sacred Family has released were ancient inscriptions that were too advanced to understand for anyone in Glory City and as such, they proceeded to cut out pieces of the inscriptions to make it easier for us to understand.

By doing this, they have surely contributed to Glory City but they have violated the Demon Spiritualist code of conduct since they claimed that the patterns were self-created. It is against the laws of the conduct and as such plagiarizing isn't tolerated. The Sacred Family will suffer the backlash and the City Lord shall personally be involved in the process. He has been making preparations ever since I brought the issue to him a few days ago."

The students were shocked! Nie Lie was actually right. The Sacred Family had indeed violated the code of conduct, something that is far worse than treason for a Demon Spiritualist. The Sacred Family's reputation was surely going down the drain as their rise to fame was solely due to their Inscription Patterns.

Even Shen Xiu and Shen Yue's heart sank. What was going to happen to their family? This was not a small crime like stealing someone's clothing. No, this was much, much worse.

"But I would like to know how you came to posses this knowledge, Nie Lie. This book is only available in the library of our institute, so you couldn't have read it before you joined. And in the last two days that you were here, I have never seen you in the library. I know this because I have spent a lot of time in the libraries here. So, how come you possess knowledge regarding this book?" Ye Xen questioned Nie Lie, his eyes narrowed.