They drove most of the evening on a country road, but when midnight struck, they camped amidst dense trees that shielded them from the surroundings.

The fire crackled loudly, and everyone sat around it, warming themselves under a blanket each.

Mai sat next to Liam with a large cup of chicken soup with vegetables in hand, enjoying it slowly. She noticed all the men drawing black lines on the same type of white paper that the women had cleaned earlier. They drew a line, paused to look at it, and then continued to draw another line. It was completely silent, and only the crackling of the flames could be heard.

Liam held a white quill with a large feather and dipped it gently into a black inkwell. He drew three slow, wavy curved lines in three layers.

"Are you studying literature or texts?" Mai asked, curious.

"We men here are training as Rune Masters under Master Kjeld. We practice our runes, which you might know as tattoos." Liam replied as he carefully drew a new line and suddenly glanced over at Master Kjeld, who was also sitting in deep concentration over a piece of paper with a quill in his hand.

He quickly drew five lines and scribbled something down next to them.

"Master, since Mai is a woman, is it okay if we reveal a bit about Rune Masters to her?" Liam asked, removing his quill from his paper.

"Yes, it's fine. She can't use it anyway." replied Master Kjeld, scribbling away.

Liam looked at Mai and said, "Only men can be Rune Masters. It's only us who can make tattoos on people. Tattoos have different abilities that come in the form of such as spells and summoning."

"A silly question, but can everyone use them?" Mai asked, now becoming more curious.

"Yes, but it depends on your cultivation rank. I can see you're at the White Stage, so you can only use one tattoo that lasts for 1 minute." he replied, scanning her body carefully.

To Mai's ears, it sounded like a regular tattoo artist. She had never been fond of tattoos, but the title of Rune Master sounded cool.

She chose not to inquire further into the subject to let them practice, and in silence, she observed how they drew the lines. She discerned a rose in Liam's lines and noticed that the man next to her had drawn a hyacinth flower.

So the tattoos here are of flowers. Interesting.

She broke into a broad smile and now really wanted to try drawing.

Later, people went to bed one by one, and eventually only Mai and Liam were left. They stared at the flames of the fire dancing with a crackling sound. It warmed Mai's cheeks, and she fumbled with her soup in her lap, which had now gone cold. She had so many questions but had kept them inside and had completely forgotten about the soup.

She looked at Liam and asked in a low voice, "I know you said only men have the ability, so will it hurt if I try? I've always enjoyed drawing."

"Being a Rune Master isn't about drawing talent but about how accurately we draw from our Rune Master Book." he replied.

She sighed deeply at his words, but suddenly, he handed her his quill and made a nod towards the paper. She cautiously took hold of the quill, which felt warm, and suddenly it began to tremble slightly, tickling her fingers. It suddenly glowed white, and white dust fell from the large feather.

Liam blinked at the sight, and his eyes slowly widened.

Mai gently dipped the quill into the inkwell and quickly sketched a bunch of lines that eventually formed a large lily. It looked less elegant than Liam's rose, and she stopped when she was about to finish a leaf on the right side.

"Um... This is..."

"A lily. It's beautiful even though it's just a sketch." Liam interrupted, picking up the drawing and studying the lines carefully.

He looked at her and asked, "Have you ever considered becoming a Rune Master?"

It was late, so Mai thought she had misheard and blinked.

"Can you repeat that?" she asked, feeling her heart race.

"You have talent. It's just a sketch, but still, you draw it so quickly and much better than any I've seen. Maybe you were blessed by the gods when you hit your head." he replied, chuckling, which made her furrow her brows.

"Are you joking with me? This isn't the right time for jokes." she said in a hoarse voice. She furrowed her brows and tasted something bitter.

"No. I was serious. I was just surprised by my words." he replied, looking her deeply in the eyes.

Mai suddenly felt a lovely feeling in her heart and broke into a smile. She handed him the quill back, and after he took it, she patted him lightly on the chest a few times and felt her hands warm up.

"Goodnight. Sleep well, Liam." she said and crawled into her tent where three other women were already sleeping.

Liam held onto his chest and smiled.

"A breakthrough is on the way." he said quietly and went into his tent, starting to arrange white oval stones in a circle.

"It shouldn't wake the others." he muttered and sat in the middle of the circle in a lotus position.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. He snapped his fingers, and the white stones suddenly began to glow. Small white spheres flew out from the stones, enclosing him in a sphere.

Later, in Mai's tent, golden dust suddenly appeared in front of her face, illuminating the darkness. It slowly formed into text.

Congratulations. The person has achieved a breakthrough.

The text transformed into a giant lion paw that squeezed her face. Suddenly, golden dust flew out of her nose, flying into the lion paw as it squeezed and disappeared silently.