Lu Mingfei's first Rune lesson was taught by Lu Mingze, a one-on-one, in-person tutorial, and both were very serious.
"Lu Mingfei, do you understand the composition of a Rune?" Lu Mingze held a glass of cold water in his hand; even though it wasn't a stemmed glass, his posture alone revealed his years of elegant upbringing.
Lu Mingfei shook his head. After hearing the term, he had only thought of Rune as a superpower.
"Pronunciation, intonation, grammar, and the user." Lu Mingze slowly raised the glass of water to Lu Mingfei's eyes. Tiny bubbles slowly rose from the bottom of the glass, followed by larger ones. The water in the glass was boiling.
Lu Mingze looked at Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei instinctively took half a step back. For a moment, he thought his blood was boiling in his veins, about to evaporate.
"As Time Zero passes, the first three have gradually been rejected by today's elemental environment. Only the user element never fades. Elements never refuse powerful users." Lu Mingze slowly put down the boiling water:
"Powerful users don't even need to chant when using low-level Runes; the elements will actively cling to them."
"Brother, for you right now, knowing this is enough."
"Am I a powerful user?" Lu Mingfei understood Lu Mingze's implication. "But what should I do?"
"Today, I'll only teach you one method." Lu Mingze's Golden Eyes brightened. "Use your mind to influence this world. This is the foundation of the tall building.Kamaitachi, Junyan, Time Zero are just extensions on top of this, merely displays of different techniques."
Lu Mingfei patted his face, trying to force out a pair of Golden Eyes like Lu Mingze.
Lu Mingze watched Lu Mingfei's actions and chuckled, "Listen to your heartbeat, feel your bones and blood."
Lu Mingfei quickly quieted down at his words. In an instant, only Lu Mingfei's breathing could be heard in the large dormitory. He closed his eyes and heard his heartbeat gradually become clearer.
"Thump"
"Thump thump"
"Thump thump thump"
Blood flowed from the right atrium to the right ventricle, into the pulmonary artery, through the pulmonary veins, and back into the left atrium.
Lu Mingfei's emotions were unprecedentedly calm. Scenes from the past rotated like film reels, stopping abruptly when he learned his parents were leaving him.
"Mingfei, take care of yourself."
Emotional fluctuation.
Golden Eyes burning hot.
"Very good." Lu Mingze nodded in approval. Although he wasn't sure what had happened to Lu Mingfei during this period, he was very satisfied with Lu Mingfei's recent performance.
"But having a pair of Golden Eyes doesn't mean you're not an anomaly," Lu Mingze said faintly, a smile still on his lips.
"Half-bloods need Golden Eyes to prove their lineage, while a king only needs to sit high on his throne."
"What?"
Lu Mingze's words entered Lu Mingfei's ears like a demagnetized tape, making Lu Mingfei unable to resist asking again.
"Golden Eyes are insignificant. Our power doesn't come from them. Golden Eyes are just to scare children." Lu Mingze said, "Next is our main event, brother."
"I'm ready."
"What I'm teaching you today is basic. It won't be very difficult." Lu Mingze waved his hand, and the surrounding environment immediately transformed into a wilderness.
Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, seemingly understanding what Lu Mingze was about to teach him. All the materials in dormitory 303 rapidly transformed into grass and stone sculptures in a strange, particulate form.
"Do you think I took you out of the dorm?" Lu Mingze asked with a smile, looking at Lu Mingfei's surprised eyes.
"Is it like that dream the other day?" Lu Mingfei recalled the 3E Exam.
"That wasn't a dream," Lu Mingze said.
"If it wasn't a dream, was it my hallucination?" Lu Mingfei retorted.
"Correct answer." Lu Mingze snapped his fingers, and they were back in 303.
Lu Mingfei concentrated, cautiously touched the previously boiling water, then quickly pulled his hand back and shook it.
"This is the usage of a technique," Lu Mingze pointed to the hot water in the cup. "And what I just showed you was the usage of a basic skill: using your mind, your consciousness, to influence the world, to influence every single thing in the world."
"You are also among the things."
Lu Mingfei seemed to be lost in thought.
Lu Mingze continued to explain, "That's why I can find you anytime, anywhere, and appear before you. These are all the effects of consciousness. Time is not static; it's just that under my influence, I've slowed down your perception, allowing you to truly feel Measure the Days."
"The world we live in has a fixed, unchanging rhythm, and what we can do with consciousness is to use elements to influence the world's rhythm, to make the elemental flow rhythm of things deviate from the world's rhythm, turning a record that would finish playing in three minutes into thirty minutes."
"Breaking one second into ten, hundred, thousand, or ten thousand smaller rhythms that are identical to the world's rhythm – that's what I'm going to teach you today."
"Use your consciousness to influence elements, to slow down the rhythm of elements, to slow down the rhythm of a certain object, to achieve the goal of deviating from the world's rhythm."
Lu Mingze smiled, "So, do you want to try? Use your consciousness to slow down other things."
Lu Mingfei nodded frantically. Are you kidding? This thing sounded incredibly powerful, and its elusive nature was even cooler. How could he not want to learn it?
"Very good."
Lu Mingze precisely picked up a gift box containing a watch from a pile of gift boxes.
"I've set its time correctly. Now it's at a normal time flow. The surrounding elemental flow is consistent with the rhythm of the entire world. You can try to use your mind to perceive the elements in the air, then use those elements to influence it, to make it deviate from the world's rhythm."
Lu Mingfei quickly noticed a strange feeling. The watch, with its normal rhythm, was extremely out of place in the world Lu Mingze created. He hadn't even felt his mind take effect yet, but he already felt the watch's rhythm deviating from the rhythm of this space.
Use elements to influence it.
Feel the world's rhythm of elemental flow near the watch, and use your mind to slow down the elemental flow rhythm.
Make the elemental flow rhythm disconnect from the world's rhythm.
"Screech~"
The sound of a compass sliding on a stainless steel basin appeared. Lu Mingfei squeezed his eyes shut, covered in sweat. The elemental rhythm began to disconnect from the world's rhythm.
Lu Mingze shook his head with some dissatisfaction. After thousands of years of accumulation, Lu Mingfei found it incredibly difficult just to make an inanimate object disconnect from the world.
"It's done!"
Lu Mingfei let out a long breath. He felt the change in the elemental rhythm near the watch; it was completely different from before, and also completely different from the space Lu Mingze was currently in.
He couldn't help but reach out to touch his "masterpiece."
Lu Mingze stopped him.
"Terrible. Do you want to know the consequences if I let it go, letting it be exposed to the world's rhythm?"
Lu Mingfei was stunned. Before he could answer, he saw Lu Mingze's mischievous smile.
"Wait!"
Lu Mingze ignored him and disappeared from Lu Mingfei's sight.
At the same time, the watch that Lu Mingfei had influenced changed rapidly, shaking very unstably.
"Boom!"
"Equipment Department! What are you guys doing in the middle of the night again!"