The areas Professor Qian pointed out that needed signatures corresponded to ’identity verification,’ ’entrusted agency application form,’ ’responsibility and duties,’ and ’Silence Contract.’

When Zheng Qing signed, he inexplicably recalled the time when Su Shijun had tricked him into clicking that × on the computer during his freshman year, forming a stark contrast with this scene, and he couldn’t help but curl his lips slightly.

However, his smile had yet to fully bloom before being interrupted by a muffled voice.

Professor Qian took out a heavy metal board from under the table and placed it in front of Zheng Qing with a thump, then tapped the tabletop. The small deer leather straps tied to the metal board slid aside like serpents, revealing the complex patterns on it.

"Do you know what this is?" the professor asked, pointing at the metal board.

Zheng Qing scrutinized the metal board covered in dense patterns, and several terms flashed through his mind before he tentatively answered, "Mithril?"

"Irrelevant answer."

The professor shook his head, directly took out a magic scroll from the drawer, and untied the silk ties on it. When he unfolded it, an extremely advanced talisman was revealed—or rather, it wasn’t just a talisman, but a very complex rune system formed by many basic runes interlocking together.

With just a glance, Zheng Qing emitted an awed sigh.

As the saying goes, ’An outsider sees the excitement, an insider sees the intricacies.’

This ’system’ made Zheng Qing feel as if he saw a master talisman maker skilled in the art of talismans, waving his talisman pen in front of the scroll, as if he saw countless spiritual machines belonging to different talismans, commanded by a talisman pen, complaining about the cramped space while laying honestly on the same scroll.

Of course, the master talisman maker he referred to wasn’t an actual master talisman maker.

A real master talisman maker, like Qu Kuangqing or Hugong, could use runes to portray their understanding of the essence of magic in the most straightforward manner, integrate them into a complex rune system, and give it a vibrant and realistic life—each rune in such a work would be alive, finding the most suitable way to blend with surrounding runes.

Those slightly inferior master talisman makers are like excellent music conductors who can decide the presentation of a work on stage. They can use the simplest strokes and the least consumption to achieve the best rune operation effect, making the entire rune system harmonious and balanced.

While a terrible rune mage is like a child who has just learned to write, only able to scribble a few words on a large sheet of white paper, each word differing in size, appearing particularly cramped, and causing all viewers to feel a silent choking sensation.

Besides, there is another kind of ’not-so-terrible bad talisman maker’—usually wizards who have reached the rank of Big Wizard or even higher order—who can forcibly squeeze different runes onto the same base plate, making the magic power flow between different dimensions to ensure the normal operation of the rune system.

In short, according to Zheng Qing, anyone capable of drawing the complex rune system on the scroll before him would at least be a ’slightly inferior master talisman maker.’

He analyzed the scroll in front of him with greed, contemplating the techniques that connected different runes and estimating the effects they might produce when intertwined.

Qian Jiuzhou looked at the young man with interest: "Can you see what effects these runes have? Can you find its core nodes? If I asked you to replicate it, could you trace it onto another scroll?"

Zheng Qing didn’t answer immediately.

With his head down, his nose was almost touching the silk paper on the scroll, as the scent of magic power, spiritual machines, silk threads, and cinnabar intertwined and continuously invaded his nose. He widened his eyes, tracing the weight of the strokes sketched on the silk paper, slowly dissecting the system constructed by the runes in his heart.

Runes are extremely simple symbols.

Yet, they are also extremely complex systems.

Simple because the entire rune system is composed of only 1296 basic runes, and complex because different runes can combine to produce countless possibilities and create countless strange functions—simplifying those imaginative complex functions into segments of interlocking runes is a daily challenge for talisman makers.

Calm Heart Talisman, very simple.

Anti-evil charm, Anti-dust charm, not difficult either.

But if you want to make a talisman that allows people to experience the effect of ’originally without dust, where does dust settle,’ it’s not just simple to draw the Calm Heart Talisman and Anti-dust charm on the same talisman paper.

Because that verse possesses profound Buddhist cultural and ideological background, the creator must have a deep understanding of Zen principles to find an appropriate ’node’ that serves as the core connecting two unrelated talismans.

This core is the ’core node’ Professor Qian Jiuzhou just mentioned.

Of course, directly finding the core of a complex rune system is not easy. Typically, a talisman maker begins with a familiar rune, simultaneously analyzing left and right, gradually uncovering its true form.

Just like now.

Zheng Qing began his analysis with the most prominent rune on the scroll.

"This is a rune that serves to strengthen, commonly used on shields or similar structures, capable of resisting most physical and magic attacks... Normally, a system only needs one strengthening rune, but we see this rune appears three times on the entire scroll! Yet, if we carefully analyze, we can see the three strengthening runes are connected to different ’Qi Ports,’ meaning they do not strengthen the same area..."

Zheng Qing’s fingertip floated one millimeter above the silk paper, pursuing the crisscrossing runes, murmuring:

"...One rune is laid out in the most ’orthodox’ manner, strengthening the ’shell’ of this ’device’; one rune takes a different approach, buried between the runes controlling magic flow and shielding psychic attacks, strengthening the ’framework’ of the entire rune system; and magic attack... the last one is very mysterious, it is disconnected from any other rune in this system, yet spans the entire system from head to tail... seemingly strengthens all areas, but simultaneously doesn’t seem to strengthen anywhere... No, it’s connected to runes outside this system... Is this scroll incomplete?!"

The young teaching assistant looked up in astonishment.

Only to see the Elder Wizard behind the desk nod slightly: "Of course, it’s incomplete... You can understand this scroll as a single hair on a giant’s body... So, can you find where this ’hair’s’ core node is?"