Actually, Xilonen did not start out with the goal of becoming a Name-Forging Master.
In fact, among the many educational courses about [Ancient Names], she was only interested in the purely technical details.
For example: how to carve the most efficient Phlogiston inscriptions, how to use Phlogiston to drive various devices, how to modify existing inscription diagrams...
Every time such a class started, the students around her would involuntarily feel their eyelids drooping and their heads spinning. As time passed, one by one they would lie down on their desks and fall asleep.
In the end, only Xilonen remained the sole student among the crowd who did not fall asleep. Under the admiring gaze of the artisan teaching the class, Xilonen would even raise the notebook in her hand and ask her own questions.
"Does Phlogiston inscription operate by relying on the flow of Phlogiston? Then if I jumped into a pool full of Phlogiston, would the Phlogiston inscription diagram on my body activate, stop, or explode?"
"Does Phlogiston have a gaseous state? If it does, suppose I fill a smoker with gaseous Phlogiston and then drop a piece of beast meat from the top, how tall would the smoker need to be and how dense would the Phlogiston need to be for the beast meat to be perfectly roasted by the Phlogiston the moment it lands?"
These sharp or bizarre questions did not annoy the famous Name-Forging Master [Taiyigi]. She did not feel that Xilonen was causing trouble at all.
The respected Taiyigi was simply astonished that Xilonen could patiently endure such a dry and boring course.
Most children had no interest in it whatsoever. Their favorite classes were listening to the elders tell legends of heroes from various tribes.
Then imagining themselves as the protagonists of those legends, skipping over the hardships and suffering, and directly going to receive flowers and cheers.
Xilonen, however, had no interest in this at all.
But in order to pass the exams for these literature and history subjects, she would still bribe her classmates with milk candies, borrow their notes to copy them in detail, and then force herself to memorize them so she could get a score that would not be questioned.
Empty imagination was not her strength. Accurate axioms and equations were what she loved. Only such things could benefit future generations and were worth studying and pondering.
As for those stories...
They were neither accurate nor concise, had neither definitions nor axioms, and were truly without order to follow. Apart from scoring points on exam papers, they had no value in paying attention to.
All of this was seen by Taiyigi, but she did not immediately stop or reprimand Xilonen.
She only tapped on Xilonen's notebook full of equations and said kindly, "I once thought the same as you, Xilonen."
"But for us [Name-Forging Masters], stories and equations are essentially no different."
At that time, Xilonen still did not understand.
Because in the story classes at school, they talked about things like Son of the Sands, Menelik... countless stories of heroes who rose up to fight for Natlan and sacrificed themselves for justice and virtue.
These stories fascinated all the children except Xilonen the most.
Although they had previously seen related stories in the classics.
But Grandma Taiyigi's narration was more detailed and vivid than the records in the classics.
How that hero pulled out a stalactite and used it as a long halberd to pierce the eye of a monster;
How this hero crossed a deep valley with a single rope and hunted an evil dragon alone...
Countless rich details gave the heroes in the stories flesh and blood, bringing them to life in the children's hearts.
But rich details always brought rich contradictions.
One child raised his head from the story first and questioned the storyteller.
He had read many books and had many questions.
"Grandma, I have a question. In the previous records of the classics, this hero went to hunt with his companions. Why in the story you told is he alone?"
Taiyigi answered gently: "I have also read that classic. So what do you think — which of the stories we tell is truly reliable?"
The child frowned, clearly unable to answer the teacher's question well.
The elderly Name-Forging Master smiled and patiently spoke again: "That is to question truth and falsehood based on a single statement without any supporting evidence or actual proof."
The child refused to admit defeat and puffed out his chest as he replied: "Stories… what evidence do they need? There are so many stories in this world; the evidence simply cannot be found completely."
After all, stories and legends were mostly passed down orally. In the long process of transmission, changes and alterations were inevitable.
Even the same story or the same character could have completely opposite narratives between different tribes.
Xilonen, who had been listening for a long time, had already closed her eyes in boredom and was calculating a new round of formulas on her own.
This was no different from her own thinking. Such disordered things were not worth a second glance from her.
However, Taiyigi's next words actually sparked her interest.
She nodded in approval of the child's statement, then said: "Natlan's hero stories are as vast as the sea. Perhaps they truly have no evidence to verify."
"In oral transmission, countless stories become distorted or exaggerated, either focusing on praising someone's great achievements or subtly shifting the pen to secretly belittle someone nonstop..."
"But in the future, all of you will wield the forging hammer and cast the great deeds of the martyrs into Ancient Names."
"At that time, if the great deeds of the martyrs you want to cast into Ancient Names have countless unofficial histories and side theories."
"Then how will you strike the hammer and walk the sound?"
A sudden heavy burden pressed down on everyone's shoulders.
The originally noisy classroom instantly fell silent.
Taiyigi closed the storybook and announced to the children: "Legends have veins, and stories also have axioms."
"You have already heard many stories and seen many woven scrolls."
"Now, you are going to take the next lesson."
Xilonen slightly opened her eyes. Reading stories from this angle was actually somewhat interesting.
The Name-Forging Master's class continued, only changing in difficulty and teaching method.
The children were no longer just listening to the teacher tell hero stories.
Instead, under her guidance, they trudged with bitter faces through mountains of books and seas of records.
Reading those hero stories they had heard a hundred times, a thousand times, over and over again, prying open every single detail.
Hoping to find clues that connected with the content of other records.
Adding a rough but traceable chain of evidence to a certain story.
To prove the credibility of that story.
The children who previously found those hero stories wonderful and interesting, never getting tired no matter how many times they looked at them, were already thinking of ways to escape this class.
If they continued studying like this, they probably would never want to look at any story again.
Every point had to land solidly, with no room for imagination at all. For them, it was indeed somewhat boring.
On the contrary, Xilonen's notes grew more and more.
She greatly enjoyed this feeling of turning evidence into something solid.
Imagination was like the breeze blowing between rock walls — light, cool, pervasive, and omnipresent.
But no one could definitively say what shape the wind was, nor could they make it stay by their side for long.
However, if there was a way to make the wind fall to the ground, then turn the wind into pitch-black, hard, silent stones, and let the formless story accept tangible forging...
To Xilonen, such a thought experiment was indeed somewhat interesting.
However, this was still not enough to make her want to become a [Name-Forging Master].
She had no interest in catching the light breeze, nor the energy to lift the heavy stones.
"I don't want to forge Ancient Names. There are so many people in the tribe; wouldn't it be fine to just find someone who can forge them?"
This was not to say that Xilonen had been a slacker since childhood.
It was because her father was a Name-Forging Master.
Xilonen had observed her dad in normal times. He always had a smiling face when talking business with people, but when it came time to seriously swing the hammer, he would involuntarily put on a bitter expression.
Work always exhausted both the mind and body.
The reason she changed was because of the departure of that kind grandmother — Taiyigi...