Chapter 14: The Language of Runes
After a hearty dinner, Yun Che changed into a lighter coat and stepped back into the chilly night.
The streets of Mistforge were much quieter now.
Most shops had already closed, while the rune lamps bathed the stone roads in a gentle white glow.
It was around nine in the evening.
The city slept early.
Most people retired by eleven and rose again before dawn.
Cultivators, however, required far less sleep than ordinary people.
At Yun Che's current level, three hours were usually enough to recover completely.
Foundation Establishment cultivators often stayed awake for an entire day before resting for only an hour.
Still...
Lin Xia wasn't a combat cultivator.
She worked all day in the tailor shop before studying runes every evening.
Even she needed proper rest.
Yun Che hoped he wasn't interrupting anything important.
Cloudweave Outfitters was already closed.
Yun Che knocked gently.
A moment later, Lin Guo opened the door.
"Yun Che?"
"I'm sorry for visiting so late, Uncle."
Lin Guo smiled warmly.
"If it were anyone else, I'd tell them to come back tomorrow."
"But you're family."
He stepped aside.
"Go on."
"She's upstairs studying."
Yun Che thanked him and walked inside.
From the kitchen, Lin Xia's mother smiled as she prepared a tray.
"You two will probably forget the time again."
She placed tea and several sweet pastries onto the tray.
"So you might as well have something to eat."
Yun Che laughed awkwardly.
"...You've noticed."
"I've known you since you were children."
"Of course I noticed."
Lin Xia's room looked exactly as he expected.
Half the room contained fabrics, sketches, and clothing designs.
The other half...
Books.
Runes.
Ink.
Practice scrolls.
Small pieces of metal covered in glowing symbols.
Lin Xia looked up from her desk.
"Oh?"
"What brings you here?"
"I need your help."
She narrowed her eyes immediately.
"...That sentence always worries me."
Yun Che placed several sketches onto the table.
"I've been designing ammunition."
Her expression became curious.
Then...
Confused.
Then...
Increasingly horrified.
"...You want me to do what?"
"I need runes inscribed onto these bullets."
He pointed one by one.
"Explosion."
"Piercing."
"Defense."
"Speed."
"And Ki Storage."
Lin Xia stared at him in complete silence.
Finally...
She slowly placed both hands against her forehead.
"Yun Che."
"...Yes?"
"Have you gone completely insane?"
He blinked.
"I don't think so."
"I do."
She picked up one of the tiny metal bullets.
"Look at this."
"It's smaller than my thumb."
"You want..."
She counted on her fingers.
"...five runes..."
"...combined..."
"...onto this?"
She looked at him flatly.
"I'm still an amateur Rune Artist."
"Not a miracle worker."
Yun Che scratched his cheek.
"...Too difficult?"
She nearly laughed.
"Too difficult?"
"It would already be difficult for experienced Rune Masters."
She pointed toward her ink brush.
"I can currently combine three runes."
"Three."
"Not five."
"And that's only because I've practiced those combinations hundreds of times."
She sighed.
"Drawing runes isn't simply copying lines."
"Every stroke has to remain connected."
"My concentration can't break."
"If I stop halfway..."
"The rune collapses."
"The item is ruined."
She gently set the bullet back down.
"And combining runes is even worse."
"If their concepts conflict..."
"They weaken one another."
"Sometimes they stop working entirely."
Yun Che listened carefully.
This was exactly why he had come.
He understood engineering.
Lin Xia understood runes.
Different knowledge.
Same goal.
She continued.
"You're fortunate these are common runes."
"I already know them by heart."
"If they were advanced runes..."
"I'd first need to buy the manuals."
"They're expensive."
"Then I'd spend months learning the concepts."
Yun Che tilted his head.
"The concepts?"
Lin Xia nodded seriously.
"A rune isn't merely a picture."
"If I don't understand what it represents..."
"It's only a drawing."
"It might activate."
"It might not."
"Usually..."
"It doesn't."
Understanding.
Again.
Yun Che quietly smiled.
The same principle appeared everywhere.
Cultivation.
Forging.
Swordsmanship.
Runes.
Understanding always mattered more than imitation.
"So..."
He looked back at the bullet.
"If three is the limit..."
"Which three would you choose?"
Lin Xia thought for a moment.
"If your goal is making these useful in battle..."
She pointed at three names.
"Speed."
"Defense."
"Explosion."
"Speed ensures the projectile reaches the target."
"Defense keeps the bullet intact during acceleration."
"And Explosion..."
She smiled.
"...is self-explanatory."
Yun Che nodded happily.
"Perfect."
The first version didn't need perfection.
It only needed to work.
After discussing the bullets, Yun Che hesitated before asking another question.
"...Can I ask something unrelated?"
"When have you ever asked anything normal?"
"...Fair point."
He pulled out his notebook.
"I want to understand rune combinations."
Lin Xia became interested immediately.
"You mean cultivation runes?"
"They're the same system, aren't they?"
She blinked.
"...You're right."
"They are."
"Different applications."
"Same foundation."
Yun Che leaned forward.
"Could you draw me a simple example?"
She took a clean sheet of paper.
"Individual runes are easy."
She first drew the Iron Rune.
A simple yet sturdy design.
"This is one of the oldest runes."
"It represents stability."
"Defense."
"Structure."
"It serves as the core for many combinations."
Then she drew another beside it.
"The Rotation Rune."
Several curved lines surrounded a central point.
"This governs motion."
"Continuous spinning."
"Momentum."
Finally...
She added a third.
"The Weight Rune."
Its lines pointed downward.
"This increases or decreases weight depending upon Ki flow."
She carefully connected all three together.
Not randomly.
Each line flowed naturally into the next until they formed one complete symbol.
Yun Che's eyes widened.
"...So that's how."
Lin Xia smiled.
"The core rune always stabilizes the others."
She drew another example.
Again, the Iron Rune stood at the center.
This time...
She connected it to the Attraction Rune.
Then...
The Flame Rune.
"This combination appears on certain specialized tools."
"The Iron Rune provides stability."
"The Attraction Rune draws metallic objects."
"And the Flame Rune heats them."
She chuckled.
"Blacksmiths with too much money love buying equipment like this."
Yun Che stared intently at every line she drew.
Not because he intended to copy it.
Because...
For the first time...
He could almost see the logic behind the patterns.
Runes weren't random symbols.
They were...
A language.
A language that described reality itself.
And languages...
Could be learned.
---------------------------------
Yun Che carefully copied the rune combinations into his notebook before looking back at Lin Xia.
"Can I ask you something else?"
She smiled.
"When you ask questions like that, it usually means I'm about to spend another hour explaining something."
"Probably."
"What is it?"
"I don't want to know how to draw the runes."
"I want to know what they mean."
Lin Xia tilted her head.
"Their... meaning?"
"The concepts behind them."
"You said a Rune Master has to understand the concept."
"So..."
"How do you understand them?"
Lin Xia's eyes brightened.
Finally.
A question she could answer confidently.
She pointed at the Iron Rune first.
"This rune represents stability."
"Things that don't bend."
"Things that endure."
"It is the symbol of defense."
"It protects."
"It supports."
"It bears weight without breaking."
Yun Che wrote every word.
Then she pointed at the Attraction Rune.
"This one represents pulling."
"Calling something toward yourself."
"It doesn't only work on metal."
"It can attract Ki under certain circumstances."
"But its strongest affinity is metal."
She frowned thoughtfully.
"Master Fu always said..."
"'Everything wishes to return to something.'"
"So attraction is that desire."
Yun Che nodded slowly.
Interesting...
But incomplete.
"What about Rotation?"
Lin Xia drew a small circle with her brush.
"Movement."
"Continuous movement."
"A wheel."
"A spinning spear."
"A whirlwind."
"The faster something rotates..."
"The stronger its momentum becomes."
She shrugged.
"I don't really know why."
"It simply does."
"And Weight?"
"That's easier."
"It increases heaviness."
"Or decreases it."
"The rune changes how heavy an object feels."
She smiled proudly.
"That's everything Master Fu taught me."
Yun Che remained silent.
His notebook stayed open.
Yet...
His brush didn't move.
Something bothered him.
Not because Lin Xia was wrong.
She wasn't.
Her explanations matched exactly how Rune Masters understood those symbols.
The problem was...
Nobody had asked why.
"Lin Xia."
"Hm?"
"What causes attraction?"
She blinked.
"...The Attraction Rune."
"No."
"I mean..."
"Why do two pieces of metal attract?"
She frowned.
"They just do."
"Why?"
"...Because that's their nature?"
"And why does weight exist?"
"...Because things are heavy."
"What makes them heavy?"
Lin Xia slowly lowered her brush.
"...I..."
"...don't know."
Yun Che smiled gently.
"Neither would people from my..." He caught himself. "...Neither would most people."
He pulled another sheet of paper toward himself.
"May I show you something?"
She nodded immediately.
Yun Che drew a circle.
"This is a planet."
Then another smaller circle.
"This is the moon."
He drew arrows toward the larger circle.
"Everything pulls everything else."
"Large objects pull harder."
"The planet pulls us."
"It also pulls the moon."
"That's why we don't float into the sky."
Lin Xia stared.
"So..."
"Weight isn't simply..."
"...weight?"
"It's the result of being pulled."
"Exactly."
Her eyes widened.
"So..."
"If someone understood this..."
"The Weight Rune..."
"...might become stronger?"
"I don't know."
Yun Che answered honestly.
"But understanding usually improves everything."
She quickly began writing notes.
Next...
Yun Che picked up two small iron nails lying on her desk.
"I need a magnet."
"A what?"
"...Right."
"This world doesn't call it that."
He thought for a moment.
"Do you have naturally attractive ore?"
Lin Xia immediately reached into a drawer.
She produced a dark gray stone.
"Master Fu uses this sometimes."
Yun Che smiled.
"Perfect."
He placed the stone beside the nails.
One nail shifted slightly.
Lin Xia's mouth slowly opened.
"It moved..."
"It wasn't the rune."
"It wasn't Ki."
Yun Che nodded.
"This is called magnetism."
"Certain materials naturally pull iron."
"The Attraction Rune..."
He pointed toward the stone.
"...may be copying this natural law."
Lin Xia quickly wrote another page of notes.
"What about Rotation?"
Yun Che spun a small metal washer across the table.
It circled smoothly before finally falling over.
"When something spins..."
"It wants to keep spinning."
"The faster it spins..."
"The harder it becomes to stop."
He demonstrated again.
"The Rotation Rune may strengthen that natural tendency."
Lin Xia watched in fascination.
"So..."
"Runes aren't creating miracles..."
"They're strengthening things that already exist?"
Yun Che smiled.
"Maybe."
"I don't know."
"But that's the hypothesis I'd investigate."
The room became quiet.
Lin Xia looked down at the pages they had filled together.
Her handwriting.
His diagrams.
Old knowledge beside entirely new ideas.
Finally...
She looked up.
"You've been asking about cultivation runes."
Yun Che became very still.
"You asked how combinations work."
"You asked about concepts."
"You asked whether runes in cultivation and inscriptions are related."
She folded her arms.
"You're thinking about changing your cultivation method."
It wasn't an accusation.
Simply an observation.
Yun Che sighed.
"...Researching."
"Only researching."
"I'm not planning to do anything reckless."
Lin Xia narrowed her eyes.
"I hope not."
"I mean it."
"I do."
She pointed the brush at him.
"I don't want you exploding all over Mistforge."
Yun Che blinked.
"...Exploding?"
She nodded very seriously.
"You remember Old Man Qiao?"
"...The inventor?"
"The lunatic."
"The one who tried combining six incompatible runes."
Yun Che winced.
"...Right."
"He exploded."
"The workshop exploded."
"The chicken coop exploded."
She paused.
"I still don't understand how the chicken coop exploded."
"Neither does anyone else."
She pointed the brush at him again.
"So promise me."
"No reckless experiments."
Yun Che raised both hands.
"I promise."
"For now..."
"I'm only trying to understand."
Lin Xia smiled with visible relief.
"Good."
"Because I'd much rather help you build impossible machines..."
"...than collect pieces of you from across the city."
Yun Che laughed.
"...That's surprisingly encouraging."
"It was meant to be."