Chapter 276 - Work Completed
The black-colored ink cloud silk had a fine and smooth texture. Ai Hui tried to pull it hard but it didn’t break.
Then he put the ink cloud silk on a sheet of iron and chopped it hard with his Dragonspine. After a flash of sword light the iron sheet broke in two, but the silk was still intact.
"Ai Hui, this is a great success!"
Lou Lan said cheerfully.
"Yes, we’re half done." Ai Hui put the silk in front of him and observed it carefully. Seeing no marks on the silk at all, Ai Hui couldn’t help smiling.
Lou Lan’s eyes widened, "Ai Hui, you are really skillful. No one has ever reeled silk from a Star-sinking Ink Cloud. This is an extraordinary invention."
"Oh, really? Not even once?"
"Of course not! Ai Hui, I’ve never seen a record of it in any book."
"If so, how shall I price it to match its value?"
"You want to sell it? I thought you are going to use it yourself." Lou Lan’s eyes widened in confusion.
"Oh, I mean in the future." Ai Hui closed his eyes and his expression indicated his self-satisfaction, "In the future, it will definitely sell for an amazing price&h.e.l.lip;"
Lou Lan glanced at the crucible and interrupted Ai Hui’s imagination. "Ai Hui, the unyielding bamboos are ready."
Ai Hui abruptly came back to his senses.
Lou Lan picked out the unyielding bamboos from the crucible.
The surface of the twelve unyielding bamboos was covered with small honeycomb-like holes, and its original color of cast-iron black had turned grey.
Lou Lan held one unyielding bamboo in his left hand, making a fist with his right hand to hold the other end of the bamboo.
Hiss. His right fist suddenly transformed into quicksand that was revolving around the bamboo at a high speed. It was polis.h.i.+ng the bamboo like a high-speed grinding wheel.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
The workshop was filled with stridulation and sparks.
Lou Lan looked down at the bamboo attentively. The light in his eyes flickered rhythmically. His moves were stable and well-ordered.
A thin, glittery, silver-colored bamboo appeared in Lou Lan’s hands.
The silvery bamboo now was as thin as a finger. It only weighed one-third of its original weight, but was six times stronger than before and could bear amazing power. Besides, its tenacity was greatly improved, and could be bent like a bow. All these features were totally different from what it originally was, and no one could a.s.sociate this new kind of material with unyielding bamboos.
Ai Hui began his work too.
He wove the black-colored ink cloud silk along the thin bamboo sticks.
Ai Hui was very proficient and skillful as if he had done this many times before. It was true, as this scheme was decided after lots of discussion with Lou Lan. Compared with the previous material processing, the weaving technique was the easiest part because he could practice it beforehand.
Ai Hui had practiced many times, and was very confident he could finish it perfectly.
The bamboo sticks had successfully thinned out, taking shape in Lou Lan’s hands, then they were given to Ai Hui and quickly disappeared in the black ink cloud silks.
Once he had started, Ai Hui’s playful expression was all gone. Instead, he was fully focused and his eyes were glittering.
Having polished all twelve bamboos, Lou Lan began to enjoy watching Ai Hui’s techniques. The ink cloud silks jumped here and there with Ai Hui’s flexible fingers between the bamboo sticks moving aesthetically at an amazing rhythm.
Embroidery had a far-reaching influence on Ai Hui.
Ai Hui was not really an embroiderer, but the embroidery skills and theories were like fertile soil that kept producing nutrition for him.
A big black wing appeared in front of Ai Hui.
Even though the whole work was not finished yet, this wing alone had shown its distinguished qualities and glory. Different from ordinary azure wings which were light and agile, it was heavy and powerful like the wing of a demon from h.e.l.l.
Ai Hui was so skillful!
Lou Lan’s eyes were full of admiration and wors.h.i.+p. Actually Ai Hui had bought several azure wings from markets before for practice. As Peace City was the city of Silver Mist Sea that was the closest to Palette Cloud Village, it was convenient to buy azure wings here.
But Ai Hui was not satisfied with any of the wings he bought. So he finally decided to make a pair of azure wings himself.
As a result, Ai Hui and Lou Lan began to study the method of making azure wings. But Lou Lan didn’t expect that Ai Hui would choose Star-sinking Ink Cloud as the raw material.
This was probably the last material one would use to make azure wings. But in Ai Hui’s unconstrained design, it was perfect.
Woven together by the ink cloud silk, the twelve unyielding bamboos const.i.tuted the black skeleton of the wing. If it was fully stretched, the length of the wing was more than six meters. It now looked like the wing of a black bat that exuded an aura of ferocity and ma.s.sacre.
Ai Hui sighed in relief. And fatigue appeared on his face.
He had been working for four hours before he finally finished weaving. This speed was achieved only after more than twenty sessions of practice beforehand.
"The skeleton is finally finished!"
Ai Hui stretched himself. The elemental energy within his body was used up.
Lou Lan brought the elemental soup that he had prepared, and Ai Hui drank up every single drop before he wiped his mouth and began to admire his masterpiece.
Lou Lan said sincerely, "This is beautiful, Ai Hui!"
The thin, unyielding bamboos were like the skeleton of the stretched wing. If one took a closer look, he could see on the translucent surface of the wing many complicated but delicate patterns, some of which could only be seen at certain angles. These embroidery patterns were not for decoration only, but could also facilitate the flow of elemental energy.
Ai Hui named it elemental trace. It originated from his teacher, w.a.n.g Shouchuan’s plan of "treating the city as a piece of cloth" that he designed for Central Pine City.
In this plan, there were a lot of carefully-designed patterns to dredge and guide the flow of elemental energy. Ai Hui had in mind every detail of the plan, and had been trying to perceive and understand its deeper implications for the past three years. With Lou Lan’s help, he had gained a lot from it.
When making the See You Later that had been selling very well in the market, Ai Hui also utilized similar techniques – he wove the special patterns with gemstone silk which could significantly improve the power of the arrows.
Ai Hui knew that there were spiritual traces in Cultivation Era, and G.o.d traces for G.o.d elementalist. Therefore, he simply called this pattern elemental trace.
He also knew that the original copies of his teacher’s plan, including the structural drafts of the nine gold needles, were all sent to the Elders Guild.
Ai Hui felt his elemental energy was almost recovered when the day began to dawn. That was when they realized that they had been working for a whole night.
Ai Hui said with a high spirit, "Lou Lan, is the gemstone silk ready? Let’s finish altogether!"
"Yes, it’s ready!" Lou Lan brought out a box which was full of gemstone silks.
The gemstone silks looked like gla.s.s fibers but were more s.h.i.+ny and attractive. The silks in the box were all three inches long.
Gemstone silk was the silk produced by gemstone silkworms, and it was the main material needed to make [See You Later]. Gemstone silkworms were very ugly , and their skin surface was all grey with numerous black spots. But their coc.o.o.ns were extremely beautiful like gems, hence its name.
The gem coc.o.o.n was very solid. After the silk took shape and hardened, it continued to crystalize. That was how the silk gained gem-like l.u.s.ter and intensity. Gemstone silk was made through a process of melting gemstone coc.o.o.ns into liquid, wire drawing and crystallization. That was why the length of gemstone silk was always short – usually no longer than half a meter.
For the next step, Ai Hui had to do it together with Lou Lan.
They both were proficient at weaving gemstone coc.o.o.ns and ink cloud silk. Soon they both made a black leaf in their hand.
The leaf was about three-inch long and resembled the shape of a sword. The gemstone silk, which was harder, became the veins of the leaves, while the black ink cloud silk const.i.tuted their bodies. Even on the surface of the three-inch leaf, exquisite elemental traces could be clearly seen.
They didn’t stop at all, and continued to weave.
As time went by, there were more and more leaves like these. Finally, when the number reached three hundred and sixty, which was a lucky number, they stopped.
Then they attached the black-colored leaves to the translucent azure wing, which changed its appearance. As the number of leaves that were attached to the wing increased, the azure wing became more and more full-fledged.
"Done!"
Ai Hui and Lou Lan high fived.
Both of them were enchanted by their elaborate work.
Previously, the black yarn wing with a clear skeleton awoke a sense of danger, but now with the leaves, it became much milder. With the thickly dotted leaves, which looked like real feathers, the azure wing resembled an ordinary black wing of a bird. The l.u.s.ter of the gem silk also added to the brightness and delicacy of the dark Star-sinking Ink Cloud.
"Ai Hui, it’s beautiful!" Lou Lan admired.
Ai Hui also marveled, "Yes, for such a good azure wing, I’m wondering how much we can sell it for."
"Aren’t you going to give it a try?"
"I’m going to sleep!" Ai Hui stretched and yawned in fatigue, feeling quite sleepy, "Wait until I wake up. Lou Lan, no matter what happens, don’t wake me up."
"No problem, Ai Hui." Lou Lan said in a cheerful tone.
When the sun began to rise, the quiet Peace City gradually became bustling and lively. The a.s.sistants of the companies opened their gates and cleaned up their doorways. More and more people flowed into the streets. The fully-loaded bamboo carts took off one after another. They const.i.tuted mighty fleets in the sky and started their journeys.
Huaijun looked up at the numerous bamboo carts in the sky and was actually enjoying the new experience. Compared with the Peace City, the Silver City was more prosperous. But it was too enormous and delicate. Everyone there was extravagant and everything was luxurious. In contrast, the Peace City was much simpler, but more lively.
She was glad that she came to Peace City.
Su Qingye was already used to this kind of scene, "It’s not the weekend today. Otherwise, there would be even more bamboo carts."
Huaijun turned her eyes back to him and asked, "Has your teacher woken up by this time of the day?"
"Of course!" Su Qingye glanced at his aunt, "In Peace City, even kids have woken up by now."
His father told him that she was his aunt. Su Qingye felt awkward, as they were of similar age. However, having witnessed the powerful fighting capabilities of this aunt, Su Qingye didn’t dare to say anything.
But last night Aunt Huaijun spoke highly of his sand puppet’s counter technique, which made his father very gratified. Besides, as his aunt had already destroyed the sand puppet, his father finally agreed to buy him a new one.
Earlier this morning, his aunt said she wanted to pay a visit to his teacher.
Huaijun could sense from his tone that Su Qingye was not convinced. But she didn’t pay much attention. Instead, she asked, "Qingye, what kind of person is your teacher?"
At the mention of his teacher, Su Qingye immediately became excited. He began to brag about how skillful he was, and about his unparalleled swordsmans.h.i.+p and how he got the nickname of King of Anglers.
Light flickered in Huaijun’s eyes.