Chapter 275: Visitor
Translator: Cynthia Editor: KLKL
The workshop was ablaze with lights.
Ai Hui had spent a long time preparing for this, especially for the materials. The Star-sinking Ink Cloud and the unyielding bamboos were the last two important materials.
In the Heavy Sand Crucible that was purchased for a high price, nine red flowers, resembling the shape of flames, were piled up in order like a tower.
Those were fire flowers picked up from the black plain at the foot of the Calabash Mountain in the Fire Prairie.
Every September, the Calabash Mountain would spew out flames that covered the whole black plain like a heavy snow. Once the flames fell on the earth, they would take root and grow into delicate fire flowers.
The Calabash Mountain eruptions usually lasted for a whole month. When it was October, the immense black plain, that used to be desolated, would be covered with bright red fire flowers. The towering Calabash Mountain rose straight up in the distance, the peak of which was always shrouded by smoke and clouds. Together with the sea of red flowers, the whole picture was indeed a feast for the eyes.
Every year in October, many visitors would go to the Fire Prairie to enjoy the sight of the flower sea on the black plain.
Although desolate, the black plain contained fire elemental energy in its soil, which was exactly what the fire flowers needed for growth. The blooming period for fire flowers was not fixed. It could be as short as a few days, or as long as many years.
Flower pickers would start their work in October to look for mature blooms in the sea of fire flowers.
Although the Fire Prairie was now in the hands of the Blood of God, it kept erupting every year, and fire flowers could still be seen in the markets.
The quality of fire flowers was dependent on the number of petals it had. The flowers with three petals were of the lowest quality, while those with nine were of the highest.
What Ai Hui used were six-petaled fire flowers.
Water from Silver Mist River ran through the conduit of the crucible and dropped on the fire flowers.
The stacked fire flowers then began to burn. The flame was not intense, but very stable and quiet. Besides, it could burn for a long time – usually more than ten hours.
Lou Lan threw a green elemental energy bean into the flames. The bean contained one thousand points of wood elemental energy, and the flames began to turn a bit transparent in the crucible. Then Lou Lan kept throwing the rest of the beans, and after he threw the twenty-secondth one into the crucible, the flames became completely transparent and could hardly be seen with naked eyes.
But Lou Lan could still see it clearly. He reminded Ai Hui, "The fire is very stable."
Hearing what Lou Lan said, Ai Hui began to put the materials one by one into the crucible. He’d gotten the materials ready long ago.
Silverlight Iron, blackshell miica, blood crystals and so on.
Lou Lan’s eyes kept flickering. Whenever Ai Hui put in some materials, he would throw in some elemental energy beans of different colors.
Elemental energy of different attributes surged in the crucible, and the color of the liquid inside kept changing too. It was sometimes deep blue, sometimes bright purple and maybe sometimes rust red.
They were very well coordinated, and everything had gone smoothly so far.
The liquid in the crucible became as clear and transparent as water.
"Perfect!"
Ai Hui licked his lips. He was a bit excited to see the clear fluid concoction inside the crucible. But he also knew that as for the whole plan, there was still a lot to do.
Lou Lan held the Heavy Sand Crucible and poured half of the concoction out into the ice tank.
Then he threw twelve of the unyielding bamboos into the crucible and kept boiling.
Blub blub blub.
Small bubbles came out of the unyielding bamboos now and then.
Starting from now, the unyielding bamboos needed to be heated in the concoction for six hours.
Ai Hui carried the box with the Star-sinking Ink Cloud inside to the ice tank.
Ai Hui opened the box. The dark and heavy Star-sinking Ink Cloud was quietly frozen in the ice cube. Star-sinking Ink Cloud was one of the clouds with the highest densities. Its name indicated that even stars would sink if they struck against the cloud.
The most common usage of Star-sinking Ink Cloud was to make armors and shields, especially scale armors. Apart from its outstanding protective properties, Star-sinking Ink Cloud had excellent ductility like clay, and could be moulded into any form.
Ai Hui broke up the ice cube and threw the Star-sinking Ink Cloud into the ice tank.
Soaked by the fluid concoction, the Cloud began to diffuse like an ink stick, producing streaks of black substances in the liquid.
Ai Hui widened his eyes and stirred the liquid with a hair-thin silver wire. An extremely thin thread of black silk was lifted up.
Ai Hui quickly pinched the black silk and infused his elemental energy into it. The thin silk solidified in the air. Then he tied a knot at a spinning wheel with this ink cloud silk proficiently.
Next, he turned the spindle with one hand, and put the other hand softly on the ink cloud silk. Elemental energy flew along his fingers into the silk at a constant speed.
Ai Hui’s metal elemental energy quickly hardened the ink cloud silk.
Anyone who saw this scene would be so shocked that their jaws would ricochet off the ground.
Reeling silk from cocoons was a skill that embroiderers were proficient at. And now Ai Hui had carried it forward. This was one of Ai Hui’s most familiar skills, and as soon as he’d thought of Star-sinking Ink Cloud, this idea occurred to him.
Since the Star-sinking Ink Cloud could be made into any form, like clay, why couldn’t it be made into silk?
With Lou Lan’s help, this bold idea was finally realized.
Ai Hui did it all with great accuracy, no matter if it was the infusing speed of elemental energy or the speed with which he turned the spindle.
Ai Hui was definitely an expert in reeling silk.
His masterpiece, the weasel bristle arrow that was called "See You Later", was an upgraded version of the bunny hair arrow and was more powerful. To make this kind of arrow, he also needed to keep reeling silks with even greater difficulty.
The shape of a gem cocoon was like a gemstone. After it was melted into liquid, complicated techniques would be needed to produce thin silks out of it.
But no one ever heard of someone reeling silk from Star-sinking Ink Cloud.
Ai Hui was focused. Neither his gestures nor his elemental energy had any fluctuation. Even his breath and his heart beat were so stable as if he was a machine.
Lou Lan was observing the flames carefully. The surface of the unyielding bamboos in the crucible began to turn crispy with many small holes like a honeycomb.
Time slipped away quietly.
When Ai Hui began his work, Su Qingye, exhausted, walked slowly step by step to go back home. His sand puppet was even more frazzled. It fell loose on the ground and was crawling like a turtle after him.
Suddenly, it occurred to Su Qingye that today was the day when his teacher would go to fish for treasures, upon which he was very vexed.
Watching his teacher fishing for treasures was always his favourite. Although he had watched it many times, he never felt bored. His teacher was different from anyone else - the treasure-fishing process was very short, but it was extremely amazing.
Especially when Qingye saw the jealousy on other anglers’ faces, he would feel very complacent.
If he had remembered this earlier, he would never have mentioned the Dragonrise Training Hall. Now he was assigned more training courses, and he would even miss the treasure-fishing.
What bad luck!
His teacher was definitely a demon. The amount of training he arranged for Su Qingye always made him reach his physical limit. Even his sand puppet would be exhausted to the extent that it had no strength to maintain its form at all and fell apart every time.
His sand puppet was kind of disappointing. Su Qingye felt disheartened.
Just look at his teacher’s sand puppet. He was skillful and smart. When practicing with Lou Lan, Su Qingye always felt like he himself was the sand puppet.
So far he hadn’t had the chance to practice with his teacher, not even once. His teacher said he could practice with him when Su Qingye could defeat Lou Lan.
Okay. This was something too far away, and he didn’t need to think about it for now.
When he saw the signboard of his family’s enterprise "Sea Pacific Enterprise", he was so happy that he almost burst into tears.
Su Qingye moved slowly into the gate. Seeing his miserable look, the assistants were all delighted and guffawed loudly. Although Su Qingye was their young master, he was so good-tempered that no one was afraid of him. He himself was not angry either, as he knew in fact they were just envying him.
The school fee was very expensive, and out of the whole enterprise, he was the only one who could afford it. The swordsman school had been open for a long time since there was no other training hall in Peace City. Therefore, its business was supposed to be flourishing, but the name, "swordsman" made it sound unreliable. Besides, most people shrank back at the sight of its high cost.
Maybe it was because Su Qingye had arrived home, he felt his energy had more or less recovered.
Sea Pacific Enterprise was not a major enterprise in Peace City, so it was not large. The shop and their house was in one building connected by a passage, shop in the front and residence at back.
Su Qingye, who was still very tired, walked toward the residence.
He wanted to discuss with his father to ask if he could get a more powerful sand puppet. He had already been training so hard.
There was no one in the living room. If his father was not in the living room, he must be in the study.
It suddenly occurred to him that there would be guests today, and his father had told him to stay at home. Therefore, he decided to snoop around first to see what was happening. Just as he had walked stealthily to the door of the study, he heard the cold and clear voice of a woman from inside the room.
"Yellow Sand Corner and the Fire Prairie could hardly be taken back within such a short period of time, and the earth and fire elementalists were very dissatisfied. The Elders Guild was also badly battered. Some time ago, there was a proposal to establish a lesser Avalon of Five Elements within a scope of five cities, so that earth and fire elementalists can have somewhere to practice. And in this way we can retain some wood elementalists too. The earth and fire elementalists are still concerned about joining the Blood of God – after all, not very many people are eager to become god elementalists. The wood elementalists are more than willing to go to the Jadeite Forest."
"That means…"
Su Qingye clearly heard some wild excitement in his father’s voice.
"Yes, it’s Peace City. To build a lesser Avalon of five elements, we must first of all have two connected cities, one is of metal attribute and the other is of water attribute, which makes Peace City and Cloud Ridge City the only choices. As to the remaining three cities, we need to open up the Wilderness to build the cities of wood, fire and earth. In this way, the five cities will be connected end to end and once again a harmonious five elemental cycle will be created. Only by doing so will elemental energies be produced endlessly. Unless something unexpected happens, the possibility that the Elders Guide will pass the proposal is higher than seventy percent."
"That’s why so many people came to Peace City recently…" Su’s father suddenly understood why.
"They all have different sources, and came to take up a place for themselves. Sea Pacific Enterprise is one of the earliest enterprises, so you really have a head start…" suddenly the woman stopped talking, and shouted loudly, "Who?"
Su Qingye who was focused on overhearing their conversation shuddered from hearing the shout. In the next instant, the door of the study was totally pulverized, and Su Qingye was shrouded by piercingly cold light.
Su Qingye’s mind was blank, and he reacted by instinct.
The sand puppet that had fallen loose behind him suddenly jumped in front of him, and meanwhile he rolled away on the ground.
The ray of light pierced the sand puppet, leaving a deep hole on the ground. The sand puppet, with a big hole in his chest, abruptly transformed into a sand spear and stabbed toward the woman.
"Qingye!" Su Qingye’s father was startled.
A thin and white hand slapped the spear apart effortlessly, and then a short-haired woman’s neat and tidy face appeared in Su Qingye’s line of sight.
When she heard the name, her expression was relaxed, but she still looked surprised.
The sand puppet counter technique…was good!