Chapter 10. Visiting the Zither Department
What came next was placing the completed inscription on a piece of symbol paper.
Cheap symbol paper could be bought at two gold teals for a dozen, while the expensive paper cost several gold teals each.
In truth, the cost of the symbol paper does not affect the quality of the inscription. However, the cheap symbol paper from the market is dark yellow, crude and ugly, and caused Lin Ming's final product in the novel to look like a piece of toilet paper.
Lin Xiang didn't want his high-quality inscription to look like a piece of toilet paper, so he bought several pieces of high quality symbol paper.
Appearances were important, and a high quality symbol paper was a sign of the Inscription Master's skill and status, thus he felt no regret in investing a few gold teals to increase the perceived value of his product.
Lin Xiang took out a piece of the expensive symbol paper. Then with a bit of true essence, the Inscription fell onto a bright clean sheet of symbol paper. Golden light converged and formed a dim and simple Inscription.
At the last minute of forming the symbol paper, Lin Xiang changed the outward design appearance with his soul force, eventually forming the shape of a crescent-moon.
This kind of design left on the inscription treasures would become a sign. His sign! Many Inscription Masters had their own personalized designs as a mark of their work.
Lin Xiang decided on a crescent moon because a moon represented his cultivation journey and his goal.
The moon has existed since ancient times, traveling through the night sky. It was something majestic, something far away and something that ordinary people could never hope to reach.
In this life, he wanted to be like the real moon.
Lin Xiang carefully received this precious symbol paper. He then looked at his calendar which marked the time left until the day of the Seven Profound Martial House's entrance exam - two months and twelve days.
It had only been two weeks, yet Lin Xiang's cultivation had broken through to the Second Stage and he also already succeeded in creating his first Inscription!
Lin Xiang didn't remember such details perfectly, but he felt that he definitely had faster progress than Lin Ming in the novel.
In fact, when it came to creating his first inscription, he was only two days faster than Lin Ming, but his cultivation had actually already reached the Second Stage, which is something that Lin Ming only accomplished three weeks later - this was the result of Lin Xiang using top-quality pills from the beginning and also having a higher cultivation base in the first place.
…
During the next few days Lin Xiang would create two Inscriptions every day.
To not waste time and have his soul force naturally recover, he would create one Inscription in the morning and another Inscriptions in the evening while he cultivated for the majority of the day.
Three days later Lin Xiang used up all of his materials. Because of the failures, he ended up with 5 completed Inscriptions.
According to the soul fragment's memories, the Inscription that he created was called the 'Powerful Symbol'.
Lin Xiang was quite dissatisfied with his 'high-quality' Inscription having such a crude and simple name, so he decided to adapt the English translation of the novel and slightly change it, calling it the 'Overwhelming Symbol'.
The 'Overwhelming Symbol' was only the most basic inscription in Lin Xiang's memory, but it was still good enough to use on superior treasures. If it was used on lower grade treasure, then it might even increase its strength by 60%
Not only that, but the 'Overwhelming Symbol' also granted equipment an additional skill.
Some top tier inscription techniques can add additional martial skill to a treasure. By pouring true essence into the Inscription, it was possible to activate its skill. The skills ranged from energy attacks, armor increasing shields, illusionary techniques to demonic techniques and more.
In the case of Lin Xiang's inscription, if engraved on a weapon, it would give that weapon a skill called the: Violent Strike.
The small inscription is in fact a complex array. When the user poured large amounts of true essence into the weapon, the inscription would absorb this energy and compress it to the limit, and then instantly erupt with a close range attack with formidable might.
Lin Xiang doubted that his Inscription would be able to allow a piece of equipment to achieve a 60% increase in strength with his current level of skill and cultivation, but he still knew that his Inscription was certainly a high-level one for the Sky Fortune Kingdom's standard.
In addition, the inscription skill increased its value by another level.
In the novel Lin Ming sold his inscription to Mister Muyi for 3000 gold taels each. If Lin Xiang sold all five of his Inscriptions for the same price, then he would get a whole 15000 gold taels!
Naturally, what came next was finding a way to sell his Inscription Symbols.
He was not a well known or famous Inscription Master, and didn't have any connections, thus his products' quality couldn't be confirmed by the various merchants in the city. At the same time he wasn't able to keep his identity hidden.
Lin Xiang certainly didn't plan to place his incredibly valuable Inscriptions on display in a low-end shop for 100 gold teals each and wait for plot armor to lead Qing Xingxuan's Master, who's a surprisingly nice guy, to him.
Instead, he would try to approach Qin Xingxuan directly! He would make connections with her, using her as a proxy that would help him sell the Inscriptions he makes.
In the novel Lin Ming wasn't sure if the Sky Worm Silk that he knew of was the same as the one in the elder's memories, so he visited the Zither Department of the Seven Profound Martial House to research it and ended up being verbally abused by an unreasonable Senior Sister, being called a pervert and appearing quite dull, before finally being saved by Qin Xingxuan.
Originally Lin Xiang had no need to visit the Zither Department of the Seven Profound Martial House because he already knew that the Sky Worm Silk was what he needed, but now he decided to imitate the events from the novel with a hope that he would encounter Qin Xingxuan in the lecture hall.
Two days later Lin Xiang visited the Lin family branch and borrowed a Pass Card for the Seven Profound Martial House from Lin Xiaodong.
One morning he set off to visit the Zither Department's Public Lecture Hall on the day when a public lecture would be held.
…
The majority of Martial Artists use a longsword, sometimes a saber, a staff or others, but ever-so-often there are those that use unique weapons. For instance, the zither.
The Seven Profound Martial House's name naturally originates from the Seven Profound Valleys clan. But the Seven Profound Valleys' name also originates from a faction of seven people that founded the clan, each of which used a different weapon. One of them was a female, and her weapon happened to be the zither.
Therefore the zither is also a legacy inheritance of the Seven Profound Valleys and has been passed down from generation to generation to the present day. Because of this, it is an established department in the Seven Profound Martial House.
But the difficulties of the zither are too many to count. The talent required was unbearably high, and the user also had to have a calm and regal temperament. Due to these requirements, this department of the Seven Profound Martial House had always been lonesome compared with the more popular departments.
The vast majority, at least 99% of those who came to study the zither are women who came to cultivate their character and instrument skills, and held neither interest in bloody killing nor interest in the extreme studying of martial arts.
Each year, the Seven Profound Martial House that's set up in the Sky Fortune Kingdom selects top-tier talents to enter the Seven Profound Valleys clan. At the request of the royal family, the Seven Profound Martial House also gave special permissions to non-students to enter the public halls where they were able to attend lectures.
However, in order to enter the public lecture hall one needed a special Pass Card. Otherwise everyone and their mothers and fathers and pet dogs would come. So the public lecture hall was waterproofed against anyone except those with permission.
The Seven Profound Martial House had laid down the rules for entry. One had to be at least the 3rd stage of Body Transformation, be a part of the Aristocracy, or be a student of the Seven Profound Martial House or the Sky Fortune Martial House.
Others did not have the privilege of entering the public lecture hall. The lectures were truly popular and in high demand, but the real content was still reserved for Core Disciples.
To be able to enter, Lin Xiang's only option was to request Lin Xiaodong and borrow a Pass Card from him. The Lin Family was very big, after all, and many juniors and seniors that cultivated the Martial Path were naturally in the Seven Profound Martial House, so obtaining a Pass Card wasn't too difficult for Lin Xiaodong.
The Zither Department Public Lecture Hall was, in truth, equivalent to a ladies restroom. It was a Holy Land in which all men were expressly forbidden.
The reason for this was that the Zither Department's students were essentially all women. These women who wanted to study the Dao of the Zither tended to be from aristocratic families. In their entire lives they had been gradually influenced by the sweet melodies of music, and thus their appearances also were comparably high!
They were among the most beautiful specimens of womankind. The result of this was that many aristocratic young masters' hearts were disturbed and tempted with lewd thoughts, and had the night dreams that they would poach one or two of these beauties.
These young masters relied on their status to attain a Pass Card and could thus frequent the Zither Department to spy on girls with their dark and frankly dirty intentions. They did not come for the lectures, instead focusing their eyes on perving on the female student's curves, especially those with luscious thighs and… rounder chests.
Even after the lectures were over they would follow them around and eat meals in their proximity and badger them as the ladies went shopping!
Finally the beauties of the Zither Department reach the limits of their patience! They had come here to learn the Dao of the Zither and they needed to maintain a calm heart and peaceful mind, which was impossible with all these lewd dogs hounding them about!
Gradually the Zither Department began to prevent men from entering, in particular those shifty eyed male hooligans and directly threw them out, relentlessly and without mercy!
Lin Xiang was already well aware of all this. Although it was possible that Qin Xingxuan might not attend the Zither Lecture on that day, Lin Xiang felt that he should still be able to get himself out while avoiding trouble if this happened.
As Lin Xiang entered the Zither Department Lecture Hall, the lecture time had not yet started, and several female students were quietly inside, exchanging talk and zither skills with each other.
In the center, a girl was playing a new tune. It was a nimble and fresh tune that was filled with elegance as the notes flowed out; it was a tempting tune that lingered on one's mind.
Lin Xiang listened for a while to the song as he watched the young girl gently stroke the strings of her zither.
Although the complexity of the song could not be compared to the songs of Earth, perhaps thanks to the use of true essence, listening to these simple zither notes felt incredibly pleasant. The song was certainly beautiful and mesmerizing.
The girl who was playing the zither was too dedicated to her craft to notice Lin Xiang, but the two other female students who were listening naturally noticed the presence of a male. They knitted their brows and frowned, but did not speak.
Every now and then there would always be some men with evil intentions hovering like flies. They would wait for their turn and while pretending to be some zither enthusiast, they would come closer, only to look at the female students' chests. These sorts of men made the female students feel utter revulsion.
The female students who studied the Dao of the Zither tended to be thin skinned, and did not want to lose face over arguing against some dirty beast over whether their goods were ogled, so many sexual deviants would be intense and even maybe cop a feel with their hands or feet.
It wasn't until a group of sisters banded together under the guidance of the Elder Senior Sister that all the perverts were shown the door.
Even so, there were still those utterly shameless and thick-skinned rogues and rascals, who even after being thrown out, would come crawling back with the excuse that they were true students of the Dao of the Zither, and that they wanted to study this 'Dao of the Zither' together with other female students, and that they certainly did not entertain any dirty thoughts. But they were, without a doubt, shameless students who were only masters of the Dao of Depravity!
Because of this, the Elder Senior Sister also became equally ruthless, and on the second day she set up a bold sign above the entrance upon which was written: 'Men and Dogs, Do Not Enter."
The matter became increasingly serious and was finally addressed through the intervention of high level members within the department.
Men were therefore banned from the Zither Department Lecture Hall. The exception was that male students who came in could still enter, but under the absolute condition that their presence was determined by the Zither Department's female students. Any men that had a hint of lewd of evil intentions were instantly expelled and had all privileges forever revoked!
As a result, over time the Zither Department Lecture Hall no longer saw even the shadows of men.
After seeing the female disciples frown at him, Lin Xing let out a wry smile and walked to the side of the hall where there was a collection of books.
As he left, several students finished playing and they looked at the distant Lin Xiang that was standing near the bookshelves. They said with a whisper, "This fellow doesn't look like he studies the zither."
"Mm, I think I saw that little shifty-eyed rascal looking at Xiao Sian's hand a moment ago."
"Surprisingly he doesn't seem that old. He looks around 15 years old."
"Humph! This is our home turf here. A 15 year old male should already be married. Someone at my age might already be a mother," the girl who spoke was only a light 17 year old girl.
In Sky Fortune City 18 year olds would generally be already married. In the more rural countryside, they would even marry one or two years in advance, so a 16 year old married man wasn't too rare.
"Whatever, it is not under our control. Elder Senior Sister will come to the lecture soon. He didn't seem to do anything yet but, if this fellow has any dirty thoughts, she will immediately ask him to leave."