Chapter 500 - Kunwu Stone
As Shen Lian promised to teach Lei Jing sculpture, he did not renege. In the evening, Lei Jing saw an enormous stone in Zhiwei Home. The stone had a smooth texture and was filled with an abundance of spiritual opportunity akin to that of water. Lei Jing could feel it from far away.
More importantly, she came to know about this stone, or more accurately, the origin of Kunwu Stone.
The production of Kunwu stone was in the hand of Xi Hu. Since Xi Hu admitted defeat to Xia Kingdom, it had paid five Kunwu stones as a tribute, and three of them fell into the hand of her father, Lei Nuo, the Prefect Grand Usher.
The swords and knives tempered by the stone beamed like it was daylight, and it could shave a jade like it was made out of the mud. Jade was considered a tough one in the range of stones, but if this stone could do that to jade, one could only imagine its hardness.
Lei Jing walked towards the Kunwu stone and pressed on it with her finger. She had the n.o.blest blood of the Xia Clan, and hence she had an abnormal strength. However, even using her strength to press on the stone, she could not even leave a mark. She could tell it was a bona fide Kunwu stone.
She asked Shen Lian, "Sir, where did you get this stone from?"
Shen Lian smiled, "Your father heard that you want to learn sculpture, hence he gladly gave this Kunwu stone to me."
Lei Jing"s mouth twitched. It could not be the truth. Her father took a great deal of effort to hide the Kunwu stone from the eyes of the public. As much as her father would pamper her, he would not be willing to let her use it for sculpting because even her grandfather, the clan leader of Youhu"s, Lei Hong too could not get one.
She was right, Lei Nuo naturally did not want to hand out Kunwu stone, but he could not reject Shen Lian. Furthermore, Shen Lian took it out before informing Lei Nuo.
The various defenses within the huge manor of the Prefect Grand Usher were like nothing to Shen Lian.
As Lei Nuo knew about what happened to Ming Luo, he could only treat Shen Lian as his ancestor.
Lei Nuo was aware of how powerful Ming Luo was. Back then Xin Lie had already reincarnated six times, and his body was covered by heavenly fire. Any near-body attack would in return be harmed by the heavenly fire. Ming Luo however, just cut off his ears according to Emperor Xia"s order like it was nothing. None of the heavenly fire got to him. Thus, one could tell the depth of his cultivation and could rank him in top ten within Diqiu.
Even someone like that was killed outside the ancestral hall without any signal. It could only reflect how terrifying Shen Lian"s method was.
The only thing Lei Jing was clearly aware of was that Shen Lian was powerful. A smart girl like her too realized Shen Lian shared an unusual relations.h.i.+p with her father.
She did not pursue the answer further if her father decided to not mention anything.
Furthermore, she was unwilling to think about the disdain side of Shen Lian, but she was rejoicing in her father"s misfortune as he had to give up the stone.
Lei Jing said, "Alright, when do we start, sir?"
Shen Lian spoke softly, "Wait for a while."
He took out a book from Zhiwei Home"s book rack. The book was about stone sculpture. Since intellectual beings were born, they began to communicate. Especially for human beings, they had the biggest exchange of messages, which involved everything from what they had seen to the occasional crazy ideas they had.
The writing was the best medium to carry these messages.
Writings, however, were not the earliest medium, and before them, there were stone sculptures, which were the oldest message carriers in any civilizations.
The stone sculpture had more dimensions than writings and hence it carried a more comprehensive message within. A connoisseur could replicate his or her messages completely through time, and it was something that could not be achieved through writing.
In the tombs of Xia, there were many relief sculptures of the ancestors of Xia Clan. Their spirit and essence were sculpted in an expert manner and pa.s.sed on to the next generation who could benefit from watching them.
Shen Lian continued to flip the book and explain the details of the stone sculpture. This teaching method was out of this world.
He understood the art of stone sculpture in that split seconds, and he pa.s.sed his understanding to Lei Jing at the same time. If Guan Longzi saw this, he too would say he would never get there.
After Shen Lian explained all the techniques, he looked at Lei Jing.
Lei Jing smiled with her lips closed, like the blossoming of a lotus flower. She then spoke about what she had just heard. Her soft and crisp voice attracted a lot of eavesdroppings from the students of Guan Longzi outside.
They all knew Lei Jing was a woman, and hence they always tried to peek at her, as such a beautiful lady from Xia Clan was rare.
Despite not being able to date her, it is good to have such an eye candy.
After they heard Lei Jing"s repeat on sculpting, at that time a lot of people thought of learning it too. After that night, stones that are slightly bigger became a rarity in the school.
Lei Jing did not pay attention to the others. Her spiritual intelligence was high and she had a strong ability to learn. When she repeated, she learned it all over again as she spoke of the details of stone sculpting.
Shen Lian nodded, "Not bad, but there is something that the book did not discuss. It is something important."
Lei Jing said, "What is it?"
Shen Lian grabbed Lei Jing"s hand and placed it on the Kunwu stone. Lei Jing"s heartbeat increased slightly, but she pretended to be calm, "Sir, what do you want to do?"
Shen Lian said, "How do you feel?"
Lei Jing posed a shy demeanor, "Sir, your hand is warm."
Shen Lian shot a glance at her. His eyes were deep.
Lei Jing stopped teasing Shen Lian. She said, "I can feel the texture of the stone, and the spiritual opportunity within it, which is flowing within the texture. It has an indescribable rhythm. It is beautiful."
Shen Lian admired her talent, "Good, techniques are just the branches. The most important thing is for you to feel the texture of the Kunwu stone, to understand its structure, and then to disintegrate it. From now onward, keep feeling the Kunwu stone, until what falls into your eyes is no longer a stone. Then you can move on to the next stage."
Lei Jing looked up at Shen Lian and said, "This is not hard, give me a night"s time."
Her words were full of confidence, and her gaze was firm.
Xia Palace was enormous and deep, and where Yinglong stayed was a huge pond. A few black steel pillars were found not far away from the pond, and they all displayed a black-red color. Underneath the steel pillars was the fire of the Netherworld. There were individuals tied to the pillars, and they were either aristocrats or the country leaders from outside of the region.
They had no energy left to even scream. The fire of the Netherworld not only dealt damage on the body but also the spirit. As the strength of the fire of the Netherworld was pa.s.sed on by the black steel pillars, these people would not die too soon.
This was the hot pillar punishment invented by Emperor Xia, it was known to be the most fearful punishment within Xia Kingdom.
Emperor Xia sat at a high place, observing the suffering of these people as he smiled cruelly.
Since Yinglong was woken up by Shen Lian last time, it no longer slept. It was not too interested with Emperor Xia"s distasteful hobby, but the meat cooked by the fire of the Netherworld was indeed different.
When Yinglong opened its mouth to chew on another person, a loud and bright squeak by a bird was heard from the sky.
As Shen Lian promised to teach Lei Jing sculpture, he did not renege. In the evening, Lei Jing saw an enormous stone in Zhiwei Home. The stone had a smooth texture and was filled with an abundance of spiritual opportunity akin to that of water. Lei Jing could feel it from far away.
More importantly, she came to know about this stone, or more accurately, the origin of Kunwu Stone.
The production of Kunwu Stone was in the hand of Xi Hu. Since Xi Hu admitted defeat to Da Xia, it had paid five Kunwu stones as a tribute, and three of them fell in the hand of her father, Lei Nuo of Prefect Grand Usher.
The swords and knives tempered by the stone beamed like it was daylight, and it could shave a jade-like it was made of mud. Jade was considered a tough one in the range of stones, but if this stone could do that to jade, one could only imagine its hardness.
Lei Jing walked towards the Kunwu stone and pressed on it with her finger. She had the n.o.blest blood of the Xia clan, and hence she had an abnormal strength. However, even using her strength to press on the stone, she could not even leave a mark. She could tell it was a bona fide Kunwu stone.
She asked Shen Lian, "Sir, where did you get this stone from?"
Shen Lian smiled, "Your father learned that you want to learn sculpture, hence he gladly gave this Kunwu stone to me."
Lei Jing"s mouth twitched. It could not be the truth. While her father pampered her, but he took a great deal of effort to hide the Kunwu stone from the public eye. Even her grandfather, the clan leader of Youhu"s, Lei Hong too could not get one. He would not be willing to let her use it for sculpting.
She was right, Lei Nuo naturally did not want to hand out Kunwu Stone, but he could not reject Shen Lian. Furthermore, Shen Lian took it out before informing Lei Nuo.
The various defenses within the huge manor of the Prefect Grand Usher were like nothing to Shen Lian.
As Lei Nuo knew about what happened to Ming Luo, he could only treat Shen Lian as his ancestor.
Lei Nuo was aware of how powerful Ming Luo was. Back then Xin Lie had reincarnated six times, and his body was covered by heavenly fire. Any near-body attack would in return be harmed by the heavenly fire. Ming Luo however, just cut off his ears according to Emperor Xia"s order like it was nothing. None of the heavenly fire got to him. One could tell the depth of his cultivation, which could rank him in top ten within Diqiu.
Even someone like that was killed outside the ancestral hall without any signal. It could only reflect how terrifying Shen Lian"s method was.
The only thing Lei Jing was clearly aware of was that Shen Lian was powerful. A smart girl like her too realized Shen Lian shared an unusual relations.h.i.+p with her father.
She did not pursue the answer further if her father decided to not mention anything.
Furthermore, she was unwilling to think about the bad parts of Shen Lian, but she was rejoicing in her father"s misfortune as he had to give up the stone.
Lei Jing said, "Alright, when do we start, sir?"
Shen Lian spoke softly, "Wait for a while."
He took out a book from Zhiwei Home"s book rack. The book talked about stone sculpture. Since intellectual beings were born, they began to communicate. Especially for human beings, they had the biggest exchange of messages, which involved everything from what they had seen to the occasional crazy ideas they had.
The writing was the best medium to carry these messages.
Writings, however, were not the earliest medium, and before them, there was stone sculpture, which was the oldest message carrier in any civilization.
Stone sculpture had more dimensions than writings and hence it carried a more comprehensive message within. A connoisseur could replicate his or her messages completely through time, and it was something that could not be achieved through writing.
In the tombs of Xia there were many relief sculptures of the ancestors of Xia clan. Their spirit and essence were sculpted in an expert manner and pa.s.sed on to the next generation who could benefit from watching them.
Shen Lian continued to flip the book and explain the details of the stone sculpture. This teaching method was out of this world.
He understood the art of stone sculpture in that split second, and he pa.s.sed his understanding to Lei Jing at the same time. If Guan Longzi saw this, he too would say he would never get there.
After Shen Lian explained all the techniques, he looked at Lei Jing.
Lei Jing smiled with her lips closed, like the blossoming of a lotus flower. She then spoke about what she had just heard. Her soft and crisp voice attracted a lot of eavesdropping from the students of Guan Longzi outside.
They all knew Lei Jing was a woman, and hence they always tried to peek on her, as such a beautiful lady from Xia clan was rare.
Despite not being able to date her, it is good to have such an eye candy.
After they heard Lei Jing"s repeat on sculpting, at that time a lot of people thought of learning it too. After that night, stones that are slightly bigger became a rarity in the school.
Lei Jing did not pay attention to the others. Her spiritual intelligence was high and she had a strong ability to learn. When she repeated, she learned it all over again as she spoke of the details of stone sculpting.
Shen Lian nodded, "Not bad, but there is something the book did not speak about. It is something important."
Lei Jing said, "What is it?"
Shen Lian grabbed Lei Jing"s hand and placed it on the Kunwu Stone. Lei Jing"s heartbeat increased slightly, but she pretended to be calm, "Sir, what do you want to do?"
Shen Lian said, "How do you feel?"
Lei Jing posed a shy demeanor, "Sir, your hand is warm."
Shen Lian shot a glance at her. His eyes were deep.
Lei Jing stopped teasing Shen Lian. She said, "I can feel the texture of the stone, and the spiritual opportunity within it, which is flowing within the texture. It has an indescribable rhythm. It is beautiful."
Shen Lian seemed to be admiring her talent, "Good, techniques are just the branches. The most important thing is for you to feel the texture of the Kunwu Stone, to understand its structure, and then to disintegrate it. From now onward, keep feeling the Kunwu Stone, until what falls into your eyes is no longer a stone. Then you can move on to the next stage."
Lei Jing looked up at Shen Lian and said, "This is not hard, give me a night"s time."
Her words were full of confidence, and her gaze was firm.
Xia Palace was enormous and deep, and where Yinglong stayed was a huge pond. A few black steel pillars were found not far away from the pond, and they all displayed a black-red color. Underneath the steel pillars was the fire of the Netherworld. There were individuals being tied to the pillars, and they were either aristocrats or the country leaders from outside of the region.
They had no energy left to even scream. The fire of the Netherworld not only dealt damage on the body but also the spirit. As the strength of the fire of the Netherworld was pa.s.sed on by the black steel pillars, these people would not die too soon.
This was the hot pillar punishment invented by Emperor Xia, it was known to be the most feared punishment within Xia Kingdom.
Emperor Xia sat at a high place, observing the suffering of these people as he smiled cruelly.
Since Yinglong was woken up by Shen Lian last time, it no longer slept. It was not too interested with Emperor Xia"s distasteful hobby, but the meat cooked by the fire of the Netherworld was indeed different.
When Yinglong opened its mouth to chew on another person, a loud and bright squeak by a bird was heard from the sky.