I, the heir of the great Eastern nation

Royal Magic Academy, office.

Cecilia was dressed as usual, in a black mage robe and gold-rimmed glasses.

The youngest archmage in the magic academy was sitting in a chair, intently studying an ancient book about 'rune magic'.

Her brilliant blonde hair cascaded casually over her shoulders, appearing even more supple and dazzling against the backdrop of her black mage robe.

Knock knock knock~

In the quiet environment, the sudden knocking sounded particularly abrupt.

This immediately made Cecilia, who was concentrating on her reading, frown.

"Who is it?"

Being suddenly interrupted while engrossed in reading made her voice clearly angry.

She had even decided that whoever came would be made to suffer her wrath, no matter who it was.

Just then, a familiar voice came from outside the door.

"Teacher, Teacher Cecilia, it's me, Liu Zhao."

It's him?

Upon hearing that the visitor was Liu Zhao, the talented student she had high hopes for, Cecilia's anger instantly subsided by a third.

However, the frustration of having her train of thought interrupted still made her frown slightly.

Although he is indeed a very talented student, it is still very unpleasant for him to disturb the teacher during his private rest time. I must give him a good scolding later.

Cecilia thought to herself.

"Come in."

The door was gently pushed open, and Cecilia was just about to speak when she saw Liu Zhao walking quickly towards her with great joy.

"Teacher Cecilia, I did it!"

"I won! I got first place in the Freshman Trial Competition!"

Liu Zhao's white mage robe was still covered with bloodstains and broken leaves that were difficult to wash off, and there were even several charred spots from being burned by flames.

But the boy's clear eyes were filled with joy as he looked at Cecilia. His eagerness to share his joy with her and his expectation of praise made Cecilia pause for a moment.

At this time, he should have just returned to school by carriage from Blackrock Mountain.

"They didn't even have time to go back and change into clean clothes, and their first thought was to come to me, their teacher, to share the good news?"

At this moment, looking into the sincere eyes of the young man in front of her, filled with joy, even Cecilia, who always prided herself on being emotionally detached, couldn't help but feel a little touched.

What I intended to say as a stern reprimand turned into a gentle word of encouragement.

"Yes, I saw your performance, and you did a great job."

Encouraged, Liu Zhao chuckled and continued speaking.

"By the way, teacher, besides bringing you good news, I've also come to collect my Dharma Master certification!"

Cecilia smiled faintly at this, casually picked up a certificate bearing the academy's exclusive emblem and her own signature from the table, and handed it to Liu Zhao.

"for you."

The moment Liu Zhao received the certification, he noticed a change in the professional hair care products on his head.

The original black iron color of the "Genius Magician" has turned bronze.

[Genius Magician]

[Quality: Bronze]

[Ability 1: Blessing of Magical Genius: You will always be able to more easily master various magical techniques and properties.]

Ability 2: Blessing of Elemental Balance: You can always perfectly balance the power of various magical elements.

Ability 3: Blessing of Elemental Affinity: You have perfect affinity with all types of magical elements.

Ability 4: Blessing of the Mother Tongue Runes: You can ignore bloodline limitations and resonate with any rune related to your mother tongue (Chinese).

Upon seeing the newly added fourth ability buff, the familiar words in the effect description instantly caught Liu Zhao's eye.

Ignoring bloodline limitations... Chinese language... runes...

Could it be that, just as previously speculated, Chinese characters themselves are a special kind of rune containing powerful energy?

For a moment, Liu Zhao couldn't help but feel excited.

Cecilia, noticing his change in expression, assumed he was just too excited about his recent career advancement and didn't pay much attention.

"Now that you have become a Bronze-rank official mage, in addition to the regular second and third-rank spells, you can also begin to learn and use 'Runic Arcane'."

At this point, Cecilia stood up, walked to the bookshelf next to her, and took down an antique-style magic scroll.

"In addition to the special method of resonating 'Arcane Runes' in this scroll, I have also specially prepared three universal 'Arcane Runes' that are not restricted by bloodline for you. If you can master these three runes and combine them with your magic manipulation skills, you will have a considerable advantage even when facing noble scions with family bloodlines."

As Cecilia spoke, she calmly handed the scroll in her hand to Liu Zhao.

Having already learned from Berica that each 'Arcane Rune' was incredibly precious, Liu Zhao couldn't help but feel moved when he saw Cecilia give it to his third sister so readily.

Just as he was about to say something, Cecilia waved to him.

"Alright, I'm going back to reading. Take your things and hurry up and leave. Go back and practice hard. If you don't understand anything, come and ask me."

Liu Zhao grinned.

"Don't worry, teacher, I will master these three arcane runes as soon as possible and win another championship in the upcoming chief arena competition!"

Cecilia didn't answer, but waved to him again, picked up her book, and sat down in the chair.

Liu Zhao nodded, bowed to her, gently closed the door, and left the office.

Soon, filled with anticipation, he jogged back to his dormitory.

The first thing I did after closing the door was to open the magic scroll and study the contents about using 'Arcane Runes'.

The method wasn't difficult, and he quickly understood what was going on.

As he had learned before, "Arcane Runes" are a special type of rune, which are essentially various special "divine languages" that have been passed down from ancient times. Under normal circumstances, they are used to amplify and strengthen regular magic.

These special runes with magical powers have been passed down to this day, and most of them are owned by various families, subject to extremely strict bloodline restrictions.

If one possesses the corresponding noble bloodline, after systematic learning, even those with average talent can often successfully achieve resonance awakening.

Without the corresponding noble bloodline, even if one obtains these runes by chance, no matter how talented one is, it will be of no use, and one will not be able to resonate with them even after a lifetime of effort.

This is precisely why high-level mages have always been reserved for top-tier noble families.

At this moment, after carefully reading through the contents of the scroll, Liu Zhao sat on the bed and decisively began to verify his guess.

"According to the scroll, generally speaking, the more complex the composition of the runes, the greater their power, but also the more mental energy they consume."

"To be on the safe side, I'll start with the characters that have the fewest strokes."

With this thought in mind, Liu Zhao closed his eyes, concentrated his mental energy, and transformed his thoughts into a wolf-hair brush. Following the basic calligraphy movements he had learned, he slowly wrote the simplest first Chinese character in his mental space using the method of outlining magical runes.

"one"

A single stroke, perfectly fluid.

Looking at the familiar Chinese characters outlined with his mental power, Liu Zhao began the second step.

Visualize and resonate with the meaning of the word according to your own understanding of it.

For a moment, Liu Zhao's thoughts began to wander.

"What is 'one'? What is the original meaning of 'one'?"

"If these abstract images—the number one, the unique, the unity—were manifested in the form of magic, what would they look like?"

"If, as the scroll says, the more profound and complex the imagery contained within a rune, the more powerful it is, then what lofty imagery does the character '一' itself possess?"

Before he knew it, not only memories of more than a decade of compulsory education, but also the extracurricular books he had read and the videos of Chinese character interpretations he had watched online, all flooded into Liu Zhao's mind at that moment.

Thus, the most profound and mysterious interpretation of the imagery that he subconsciously felt was suddenly born in his mental space.

"Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three..."

Almost instantly, the words had just flashed before Liu Zhao felt his mental energy instantly depleted, and he fainted on the spot.

And at the very last moment, his last thought was...

"Damn it, to contemplate the origin of the Great Dao with a mortal body, I've really had enough of living."