The first thing that Yvette saw within the book was a symbol. At the bottom of the page, the word ‘Endure’ was written while a short description of it was written underneath the word.

Flipping to the next page, she saw a different symbol with the word ‘Absorb’ and a description at the bottom.

She then continued to flip through the book, only giving a momentary glance at the page before going to the next page, not bothering to memorize them.

Once she finished, she closed her eyes as she pondered quietly.

Moments later, she once again opened her eyes and glanced at a certain direction. But she did not look for long before once again refocusing to her book.

Unlike before, this time she stayed at each page for a longer period of time, engraving the symbols and descriptions into her memories, before continuing to the next symbol.

Even though she has the memories which explained about the basics of formations, the memory did not give any deeper explanation, as if whoever left those memories wanted her to comprehend them on her own.

After an hour, she finished memorizing the last symbol inside the book and once again closed her eyes to ponder.

But this time, she thought of each and every symbol she saw and tried to verify her conjecture.

Moments later, she quietly muttered to herself before glancing to the place where she looked at before.

“These symbols are actually another language, while the name and description of it are a translation of it, is that it?”

At first, when she was speaking, there was no reply, as if she was talking to herself. But moments later, light distorted at that direction as Nastaran appeared out of the void.

“Correct, to be able to deduce it on your own in such a short time, you are quite perceptive.”

At her praise, no change occurred to Yvette’s expression as she said back.

“That is not so, it is quite obvious once anyone give it some thought.”

But to her words, Nastaran shook her head as she moved closer.

“Most people thought so too, but on the contrary, many beginners did not realize that even after a long time without their teachers telling it to them, and those who required others to tell them this are known to have limited achievement in the field of rune formation, as if a force is stopping with low perception from understanding it.”

Yvette’s expression remained unchanged, as if those words meant nothing to her, but the look in her eyes changed as she stared deeply into the book, as if wanting to uncover the secret it may withhold.

Noticing the change in her gaze, Nastaran smiled, but she thought of how Yvette managed to notice her even with her concealment technique. The first answer that came into her mind was her sharp perception. Even though she found it unreasonable, it is still the most likely answer.

But she did not linger on those thoughts any longer and took out a few items from her pouch.

“Now, you will learn how to engrave rune formations, I will carve an example for you on a spirit board, then you will have to carve a copy of it onto another spirit board. But once you make a mistake during the carving process, it cannot be fixed, and might even cause the spirit board to be destroyed. The training will be finished once you carved a copy of the formation or when the spirit boards has all been used up.”

She then handed an engraving pen, dozens of blank spirit boards, and a single spirit board with a carving to Yvette before leaving her to her own devices.

Seeing her leaving, Yvette proceeded to prepare herself do her assignments.

Examining the already engraved spirit board, she squinted her eyes as she forced her mind to memorize each and every detail of the engraved formation, even to the smallest details.

After a few minutes, she closed her eyes as the formation surfaced in her mind before once again examining the engraved formation in comparison.

Once she made sure that the formation was perfectly memorized, she picked up the engraving pen and had her white colored Qi flow from her dantian into the engraving pen.

When the engraving pen was covered with her Qi, it lit up with a faint white light as its sharp tip gave off a feeling of sharpness.

She then picked up the nearest blank spirit board and slowly neared the sharp tip of the engraving pen to it.

Once the tip connected, it easily penetrated into the spirit board. Seeing this, Yvette squinted her eyes, concentrating to keep herself from making any mistakes.

As her hands stiffly moved, she noticed that there is a slight error in her engraving. As she knitted her brows, she sighed inwardly and continued to engrave the formation.

To compare it with calligraphy writing would be an insult. Unlike writing on paper, certain amount of strength would be needed to stop the hand from making too deep of a mark on the item. And even then, the carved symbols have to be an exact copy or it would produce a major difference to the result.

When she finished, not a trace of happiness nor frustration appeared on her face. Instead, she calmly picked up the spirit board she carved on and compared the formation she engraved with the one Nastaran prepared.

Once she finished examining it a few times in search of the biggest mistakes, she tried inserting Qi into the spirit board.

At first, a faint light appeared over the spirit board accompanied by a weak suction force. But not long after, the light receded together with the suction force as a line of crack appeared from the middle-top of the spirit board to the bottom, dividing it into two broken halves.

Expecting these results, Yvette shook her head while leaving the broken halves aside and started engraving on another spirit board.

This time, she tried to relax her hand, but after a few moments, her hand would unconsciously turn stiff once more from her effort to follow the formation within her memories. But she was still undiscouraged and continued to move her hand.

Once her engraving pen arrived at one the part she failed on, her eyes squinted as she increased her concentration, doing her best to keep herself from making another mistake.

Each time her hand moved, a line would be carved, sometimes moving stiffly, and with fluid movements at other times.

When she finished carving on the second board and compared it to the first broken board, she noticed a few improvements on her carving, but when she compared it to Nastaran’s board, she saw even more mistakes than her improvements.

And even after trying to power it with her Qi, the result was no different than before, splitting the spirit board into halves.

But instead of being discouraged and seeing them as the difference, she saw them as the improvements she could make.

Once again, she picked up another blank spirit board and started to carve without a change of expression.

Time passed quickly as Yvette used up most of the spirit boards, only leaving a small amount of spirit board unused.

At that moment, Yvette could be seen wielding the engraving pen like a brush, fluently carving symbols and lines on the spirit board as drops of perspiration flowed down her forehead.

Compared to her first try, the difference is quite obvious. But if anyone took a look at the pile broken spirit boards, from her first to the last, they would see how her skills improve with each try.

Now, engraving the last line onto the spirit board, Yvette finally finished carving on the spirit board. At the same time, the engraving pen fell as the hand holding it turned limp. Finally noticing the fatigue on her mind and arm, she sat in the lotus position and relaxed her whole body to meditate and recover, not minding the finished formation she carved.

After she could no longer feel any fatigue, she opened her eyes and took the spirit board she just carved on and Nastaran’s spirit board to compare the two.

Once Yvette finished comparing the two, she realized that the two boards almost have no difference whatsoever. Seeing this, no change happened to her expression, but on the corner of her lip, the faintest of smiles could almost be seen.

But that unnoticeable smile went as quickly as it came, leaving the usual expressionless look on her face.

Then, putting away Nastaran’s spirit board, Yvette slowly poured her Qi into her spirit board. Moments later, a white light covered the board accompanied by an energy pulling force.

As she kept on pouring her Qi into the board, no change happened as it continued to pull in the energy from the surroundings.

Once she felt the disappearance of a fair amount of Qi, Yvette finally stopped pouring in Qi into the board, causing the white light and suction force to slowly disappear from the board.

At that moment, a voice drifted from her back.

“A perfect copy, to have you as my student really makes me gratified.”

Looking behind her, Yvette saw Nastaran smiling slightly while watching her since who knows when. But to Nastaran’s praise, she only replied indifferently.

“It was only copying, anyone would have been able to do so with some training and effort.”

“That is not so.” Nastaran said while shaking her head, “Learning the art of formations is not that simple. To go far in this path, you would need talent, strong will, wealth, luck, and some destiny.”

At her words which pointed towards the painful truth, Yvette asked doubtfully.

“If that is the case, would it not be unfair for people who are unable to fulfill all of the requirements yet still wants to walk on that path?”

Suddenly, the calmness within Nastaran’s eyes disappeared, replaced by a look filled with strong will as she answered steadily.

“We are born unequal, the heaven is unfair, that is why we cultivators cultivate in the first place. To grasp the chance to go against what we were fated as and reach the peak. Many people will have different reasons to cultivate, but all of them will have something to do with going against their predetermined fate. Some may die trying, but others will survive and reach the peak.”

Her usual calmness then returned as she looked towards the twilight sky.

“It is getting late; you may go now.”

Saying that, she collected all the spirit boards, the destroyed, unused, and engraved ones, and the engraving pen, before walking away.

Following Nastaran’s back going farther away with her gaze, Yvette thoughtfully pondered over those words as she walked towards the Pavilion of Knowledge.

When she arrived, she saw the old protector talking with a middle-aged woman. Noticing Yvette’s arrival, the old protector flashed a kind smile towards her and said a few words to the middle-aged woman before going towards her.

“Is there anything I can help with you with today, young mistress?”

“I would like to bother you to help me search for books regarding beginner inscription knowledge.”

“It would not be a bother, please follow me.”

She then gave an apologetic smile towards the middle-aged woman, who only smiled back in return, before motioning Yvette to follow her.

As Yvette followed the old woman into the Pavilion of Knowledge, she secretly glanced back towards the middle-aged woman outside the pavilion.

After a few moments, she suddenly realized that the woman is the person whom she met after arriving at peak.

“Are you curious about the identity of that woman?”

Hearing the voice, Yvette looked back towards the old woman who is still guiding her without turning her head. After Yvette affirmed those words, the old woman continued.

“She is one of the elders of the North Yin Peak, one who is responsible for taking care of the peak’s security and teleportation array. As for what we were talking about, I believe it would not be something you need to currently be mindful of.”

Saying that, she slightly turned her head and flashed a kind smile towards Yvette before continuing to guide her.