Inscriptions Explained

Morning.

Levi opened his eyes and found himself leaning against the side of his bed, a rancid stench wafting up to his nose.

Without any further thought, he went to bathe.

As he walked down stairs, the old inn keeper kept silent.

After bathing, Levi left the in and headed to the clothes store to look for the old man.

He pushed open the shop's door, walking in without the invisibility of his coat.

" What can i do for you, sir?" The attendant walked up and asked.

" I want a few robes, they don't have to be high in quality." Levi spoke coldly before walking to the back room.

Click, the door opened.

" Hmmm?" Old gray glanced at Levi before looking back down, looking around, the other old man was also present.

" You came because you failed an inscription, right?" Old gray asked with a heavy tone.

Old lin looked at Levi with a heavy expression.

" Yes." Levi replied simply.

"..." Old grays face twisted and old lin's face darkened.

" BWAHWAHWAHWA! See?! Now hand over that 100, 000 gold, old lin!" Old gray burst out laughing.

Old lin restrained his anger and handed over a bank note.

" You thought that he would come because he failed to learn the commandments? Haha, when it comes to gambling, i'm still superior!" Old gray held his head high, while old lin almost burst a vein restraining himself.

" I did." Levi's voice interrupted the two.

" Eh?" Old gray looked at Levi.

" I failed both." Levi clarified.

"...Oh? Hehe, old gray..." Old lin laughed.

" Give me back my money!" He shouted as he grabbed the bank note.

" What are you talking about?! At most i can only return half!" Old gray tightened his grip on the bank note.

" Oh, fine fine. boy, what happened?" Old gray finnaly let go of the bank note and asked.

" When i first tried, i formed and stacked the 3 patterns, before trying to attach them to a coin, but they broke apart." Levi said.

" Hm hm." Old gray nodded his head, signaling for Levi to continue.

" The second time, the patterns broke apart before touching the coin." Levi said.

" Hm hm." Old gray nodded.

" And the third time, the patterns were going into the coin, but my mental energy ran out, causing them to break once again." Levi said.

" Hm hm, alright, do you know why thse things happened?" Old gray asked.

" Except for the last one, no." Levi replied.

" Alright, i will explain it to you." Old gray said.

" The first time, you were being to forceful."

" After successfully stacking the patters, you coated them in mental energy and sent them towards the coin."

" The mental energy coating is there to protect the patterns, but if you forcefully try to send the patterns into the coin, it would be like coating an egg with only a small amount of qi before smashing it against a rock." Old gray slowly explained.

" The second time, after your first failure, you were most likely irritated and coated the patterns with even more mental energy so that they wouldn't break."

" But the patterns are delicate structures that are easily broken, so that extra mental energy broke the patterns that it was supposed to be protecting." He continued.

" As for the last time, due to your qi and mental energy being depleted, you almost succeded in attaching the inscription to the coin."

" Because you had no extra qi or mental energy to destroy the patterns or smash them against the coin, they slowly sank into the coin."

" But before this could be completed, both your qi and mental energy had run out." Old gray said, as Levi listened quietly.

He had thought that he knew why he failed the last time, and while his initial thought's weren't wrong, he still missed a lot.

" The patterns are fragile, so the mental energy protects them. But too much of anything isn't good."

" Although the mental energy is there to protect the patterns, it is also there so that you can attach the inscription to whichever material is being inscribed.

" And if the patterns and mental energy lose that perfect balance, the whole thing will break down." Old gray said.

" In the instance where almost all of your mental energy and qi were used up, you accidentally found that perfect balance, but ran out of both mental energy and qi before you could try to attach the inscription." He continued.

" After the patterns are sent into the material, if you just left it like that, they would just dissapte."

" So you use the mental energy to weave parts of the pattern's structures into the tiny particles of the materials. Do you understand?" Old gray asked.

"....No." levi replied honestly.

Old gray patiently explained again.

A few hours passed before Levi finally grasped the concept, through this time, old gray patiently explained.

" So you do this...." Levi took out a silver coin and put it on the wooden tailor's table.

He formed the three patterns before stacking them.

His heart beat nervously as he began attaching the pattern to the coin.

" Fuuu..." After succesfully attaching the patterns, he sighed in relief.

After multiple trials and errors, he was finally able to attach the patterns.

" Why don't you try sending qi into it?" Old gray asked with a slight smile on his wrinkled face.

Levi did as he was told, he injected qi into the coin.

" Hmm?" After injecting the qi, the coin only heat up slightly.

When he injected qi again, it didn't heat up at all.

" Don't mind that. Since this was your first time, it's a given that you would make some mistakes. " Old gray said with a smile.

" Oh, what happened to the commandment skills? What went wrong?" Old gray suddenly asked.

" I tried to learn the lightning commandment, but failed." Levi replied.

' Well of course you would fail if you tried to learn the lightning commandment first! I knew you were like me, but to what extent?!' Old grays lips twitched as he thought.

" You should try the cloud or water commandments first."

" Cloud is control, as in qi control and water is qi, as in a qi cultivation technique. While wind is an agility technique and lightning is an offensive technique. you have to start with either qi control or qi cultivation." Old gray explained.

" Hmm." Levi nodded and sat on the ground, trying the water commandment.

His qi cultivation was giving him a lot of trouble.

The water commandment required one to let their qi flow like water, smooth and gracefully.

It required a calm mind and heart.

Levi's qi erupted from his body, as he tried to make it flow smoothly.

His qi was rigid and volatile, he tried hard to make it flow smoothly but failed.

Again...Failed. Again, Failed.

Levi's eyes opened as he furrowed his brows, his face twisting.

Smak!

" What are you getting angry for, boy?" Old gray walked up and slapped the side of Levi's head.

" Your cultivation is stagnating, isn't it?" Old gray asked, Levi nodded lightly.

" That is because cultivation requires a calm heart and firm resolve."

" I can see that you have the resolve, but a clam heart? Haha! I can't even describe how chaotic your heart is."

" Filled with anger, hatred, the desire to kill. All of these negative emotions are blocking your cultivation, causing it to stagnate." Old gray said as he looked Levi in his eyes.