122 – Rune-Carving Shop

Kou Wei just said, “There’s no hurry.”

The next day, he was taken aback.

The banner outside the Hall of Immortals had been taken down, there was nothing on the elevated stage, and the announcer and the boss were in a panic.

The various spectators were in chaos too.

The pharmacology arenas weren’t as interesting as the martial art arenas, so it was hard to get an audience to watch. More than half of the spectators here today came after hearing about the miracle that happened yesterday, but nobody expected that the host wouldn’t show up!

“Where does Miss Lu stay? ‘I don’t know’? What the hell do you mean by ‘I don’t know’!?” the boss shouted.

Ever since their own Pharmacologist Qin lost, the boss planned to invest in Miss Lu and make her famous. She was young and incredibly powerful, so there was no doubt that she would attract a huge audience and make the Hall of Immortals famous just the way the boss wanted. That would be the best way to make up for the loss of Pharmacologist Qin.

Even the boss was shocked at how fast he came up with a plan to cover such a huge loss.

But unexpectedly, after a mere day, a child came in the morning with a letter from Miss Lu saying that she was going to ditch the arena.

“But… she didn’t tell me where she lives!”

“Haven’t you heard of ‘asking,’ you idiot?”

The announcer sighed in exasperation. How is this my fault? Why would I ask when I had no clue she would disappear after a single day? Besides, Miss Lu was in the Harmonization Realm, he didn’t dare to offend her.

On the other hand, Kou Wei and the rest were taken aback by this information.

“Didn’t the rules say three consecutive days?”

“Yeah!” Qi Sheng was also confused by this situation.

“What does she want? Who in the world would do such things?”

“I want to know too!”

All eyes turned toward Shao Zhengyang.

Shao Zhengyang smiled bitterly, “I haven’t seen Junior Sister Lu these past few days.”

The best juniors of the various clans just stood there looking at each other, not knowing what to do.

Meanwhile, at a rune-carving shop down the street, there were two children standing near the door.

One of them sighed dejectedly, “Haish, why do other arenas have customers, but we don’t?”

The other child pouted, “Carving runes isn’t as interesting as martial arts, that’s why nobody wants to watch us.”

Rune-carving was a skill lost to history. In the past, the making of medicine, weapons, and runes were the three biggest industries in China. But now, after many years, the medicine industry was on the rise, the weapon industry remained the same, while the rune-carving industry was basically gone.

Rune-carving was the practice of carving a certain rune on a weapon to allow it to possess a certain ability. Back during the war between mankind and the barbarians, rune-carving was very popular. Even a basic amulet equipped by commoners could be used to fight in the war.

As time passed, martial arts became more and more popular, and rune-carving slowly became more and more unpopular. Compared to martial arts, the ability of a rune varied depending on the day, and sometimes it might’ve even hurt the user as well. Thus, people chose martial arts over rune-carving. To this day, the rune-carving shops all survived by carving basic runes on weapons, which all weapons had.

Arena competitions started to trend in Tianyun City these days, and the martial arts hall were the ones who started it. After that, the boss of some pharmacy jumped on the bandwagon, and soon, the metal shops did too.

Seeing all that, the rune-carving shop jumped on the bandwagon too, but…

How many rune carvers were even in Tianyun City? Not many; there were only a few people around that could carve runes. When the arena was first set up, it attracted quite a large audience who came out of curiosity. However, after all the rune carvers had competed with each other, there was no one left to actually have a contest anymore, so all the fun went down the drain. Thus, there was no audience nowadays.

On the stage, there were just two people drawing. If one didn’t know about rune-carving, it would look like watching two adults just doodling on stage.

The martial arts halls and the pharmacies had earned a lot thanks to the arenas, but the rune-carving shop earned nothing from the arena.

One of the children yawned, “Why don’t we just remove the arena? No one’s coming anyways.”

“Nah, boss wouldn’t like that idea,” the other child wiggled his eyebrows, “He loves his reputation quite a lot.”

That sentence gave both children the giggles.

“May I-”

“Let’s go get some Tanghulu later?” tang hulu is a traditional chinese sweet

“Sure! Lend me two cents first.”

“Nah,” the other child stuck out his tongue, “you still haven’t paid me back what you borrowed last time.”

“May I-”

“What do you-!” the child snapped. Being in a heated discussion about food, the child was annoyed that he was being cut off, but he managed to calm down.

A fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl stood in front of them. She had a fair complexion and wore a white shirt. Her emotionless face made her look like an iceberg.

The child immediately scrambled up, “Yes, Miss?”

Lu Mingshu pointed to the red paper stuck on the door, “You have an arena here, right?”

“Yes, we do,” the child nodded while yawning, “but Miss, you might have to wait a while if you want to watch….”

“Because there’s no one to compete with the host?”

The child stared blankly at her. What is she trying to say?

“I want to compete.”

As soon as she finished her words, the children looked at her as if she was their goddess.

“Miss, you want to compete?” their eyes sparkled.

“The arena is about carving runes – this is a rune-carving shop.”

“Yeah, do you want to reconsider?”

Lu Mingshu smiled at them, “Why, are you not welcoming me?”

“No, no, no, no such thing.”

“Of course not!”

The children then bowed as an apology.

“I’m so sorry. Here, Miss.”

“Welcome.”

What a joke; this was their first customer after so many days, the boss would surely cut their heads off if they scared her away. Well, not literally, but still…. Moreover, she would bring them more money!

However, this Miss here was so young, was she actually capable? Rune-carving was not easy; it was a skill that required years to pick up. Even then, it was so complex that, without a lot of talent, you wouldn’t be able to get any good at it. All rune carvers that were famous were at least in their thirties due to the experience required and the amount of training they had to go through. Even after intense training, it was still possible to not get any harvest in the field of rune-carving, that’s why there were less and less rune carvers these days.

Ah, whatever, that’s their problem. Just do my job and bring the customer in.

“Uncle Hai! Someone is here to compete!”

Following the children, Lu Mingshu scanned the shop upon entering.

This was the best rune-carving shop she could find according to the map, but looking at its interior, she thought otherwise. The martial arts halls attracted students with their fame and the Hall of Immortals was rather neat, but this place…

“Customer, huh…?” Uncle Hai walked out and smiled widely, “Miss, you’re here to compete?” He was then rooted to the ground upon seeing that the customer was Lu Mingshu.

“Yes,” seeing the shock on Uncle Hai’s face, Lu Mingshu added, “Why? Can’t I compete?”

Uncle Hai shook his head immediately, “No, of course not; we welcome business from everywhere. It’s just that, our rune carvers all have more than twenty years of experience….” he said, trying to hint that a beginner should just give up.

Lu Mingshu nodded, “I’m here to learn from your excellent standards.”