Dragon Hermit

“Old Mister, you don’t want to buy it, so why are you stopping other people from buying it?” The man said. He wasn’t willing to accept this!

“Martial Uncle, I just think that the decorative designs marked on this object are quite interesting and I want to study it. I may manage to learn something new through it,” Xia Yan explained with a smile.

“Fine, this is up to you,” Yao Shigu nodded and stopped trying to persuade him. This object cost only several thousand Yuan, and this wasn’t a lot in his eyes.

“10.000¥, I won’t go lower than it,” The man still didn’t yield.

“Fine, I will pay you 10,000¥, but you have to tell me honestly where you got this object, okay?” Xia Yan said.

“Okay, but we must speak in private,” the man looked at the crowd and spoke.

“No problem,” Xia Yan turned his head around and spoke sheepishly with Yao Shigu, “Martial Uncle, can you loan me 10.000¥? I don’t have enough money in hand.”

“Lil kid, why are you talking about loans? You don’t have to be so reserved with me, and you can look at this place as your own home.” Yao Shigu chided him and asked Yao Ting to take 10,000¥ from the counter and hand it over to Xia Yan. Thereafter, Xia Yan paid Mister Li and got the bronze rod.

“Let’s go out, I’ll tell you about it,” The man said. He stuffed the money into his pocket and stood up with the woven bag in his hand.

Xia Yan went outside along with him and listened to him recounting its origin in a low voice. Upon finishing this, Xia Yan went back to the store, while the man carried his woven bag and quickly disappeared in a corner of the street.

“Is this object worth so much money?” Jiang Wenchuan was aware that he was only an amateur and that was why he didn’t speak until now. But upon seeing Xia Yan coming back, he couldn’t help but question him.

“I don’t know, but its decorative designs are quite interesting and I want to study them,” Xia Yan said.

“Are you serious?” Jiang Wenchuan didn’t believe him.

“Even my Martial Uncle didn’t want to buy it. So, do you think this object is worth several hundred thousand?” Xia Yan said with a smile.

Jiang Wenchuan was still sceptical, but he had already accepted this explanation.

Xia Yan put the bronze rod in his backpack. He planned to study it again whenever he had free time.

“Martial Uncle, I’ll return your money in several days.” After he collected the rod properly, Xia Yan spoke with Yao Shigu earnestly.

“Lil kid…” Yao Shigu was quite frustrated and could only smile wryly.

“Oh, by the way. Xia Yan…” At this moment, Yao Ting recalled something and said with a smile, “Since you are short of cash, why don’t you carve several sculptures and leave them in our store. Won’t you get enough money then?”

“That’s right, Lil Yan,” Yao Shigu’s eyes lit up, and he said, “With your skills, they will surely get sold out, and you can also help your Martial Uncle raise his fame. Hahaha!”

“This is…” Xia Yan hesitated for a moment before he said, “Fine, Martial Uncle, Miss Ting, I will trouble you with this.”

“I have sufficient materials here, and you can use everything that meets your eye. I know that you don’t want to take advantage of me, so you can pay me back after selling the products.” Yao Shigu was overjoyed. He didn’t care about money, but about One-Knife School’s fame.

Yao Shigu’s senior brother went into seclusion fifteen years ago, and One-Knife School had already been forgotten by many people, and it was finally time for it to come back to the stage.

[Senior Brother, Senior Brother. I hope that the disciple taught by you with utmost care can regain One-Knife School’s former glory.]

Jiang Wenchuan stayed in the Antique Collectibles Store and continued chatting about anything and everything. He pestered Yao Ting!

“Lil Yan, don’t you want to carve jade? Let’s go upstairs. There is a workroom there,” Yao Shigu asked Xia Yan to go upstairs.

Xia Yan still wanted to thwart Jiang Wenchuan, but he had already realized that Yao Ting was annoyed by this guy, and it wouldn’t be possible for her to fall for him. That was why he went upstairs with his mind at ease.

Even though Yao Shigu’s skill wasn’t exceptional, he was still a disciple of One-Knife School and had an ardent love for carving craft. There were all kinds of instruments in this fifty square meters workroom, and there were also all kinds of materials on the tables. There was even a large safe at a corner of the room.

Upon sitting in front of a workbench, Xia Yan quickly calmed down and started pondering over the jade ornament’s design. After several minutes, he took the jadeite and carving knife into his hands and started carving a sculpture.

Yao Shigu waited for him in another room and didn’t come inside to watch him. Even though he was also a disciple of One-Knife School, he didn’t get the whole inheritance because of his lacking comprehension ability, and if he observed Xia Yan without Han Yidao’s consent, he would violate the school’s rules, and he didn’t want to do so.

…

“Lil Yan, I have all kinds of electric machines here, and I also have traditional instruments. You can choose whatever you want.”

“Okay, Martial Uncle.”

Xia Yan closed the workroom’s door and looked at the various instruments placed in the room. Jade stones were too hard, and it was impossible to carve them without using the right instruments, even One-Knife School’s craft wasn’t able to achieve this.

But, even though Xia Yan had been a formal apprentice for ten years, he had never gotten to use a high-grade material like jadeite, and that was mainly because his master was too poor.

“You should leave high-end materials like jadeite until later, and you should slowly carve them when you get a chance. There are various kinds of instruments, but as long as you are skilled in this craft, you will quickly get used to them.” This was what Xia Yan’s master had said to him in the past.

Xia Yan had only studied those instruments’ usage methods on the net, and he had never used them.

But, he didn’t really plan to use them on this day. There was a better method in the Lich’s memory.

In Heavenspan continent, mages were extremely knowledgeable people, and they were adept in various hand skills. They were quite versatile, as they could carve sculptures, draw paintings, and they were also skilled in mathematics, languages, astronomy, geography, chemistry, anatomy, and… All of those subjects were helpful to them in their study and usage of magic.

For example, carving skill was a necessary skill to carve Magical Enchanting Arrays; as for how they could carve magical arrays on hard materials? The mages had resolved this issue long ago.

There were all kinds of strange Magical Metals, Magical Beasts’ bones, and even the hardest Giant Dragons’ bones, as well as Phoenixes’ claws. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to leave even a mark on those materials, but the strong mages had their own means for processing those materials.

According to the Lich’s memory, there were only a few great Enchanters in Heavenspan continent, and every Enchanted Equipment was a great piece of art.

Xia Yan took out a mineral water bottle from his backpack. This bottle was half-filled with yellow powder.

Xia Yan had scraped this powder from the mammoth’s tusk. This was a very good magical material for any necromancer, and it was a lot better than ordinary bones’ powder. But, it still wasn’t on par with Magical Beasts’ bone powder, or Giant Dragons’ bone powder. However, this was already enough for the current Xia Yan.

Xia Yan poured a third of the mammoth tusk’s powder on the workbench and spread it. He pondered for a while over what he should do later, before he started using the powder to draw with his finger.

In the beginning, Xia Yan’s movements were quite clumsy, but his body quickly assimilated the Lich’s memory and his speed got higher. He didn’t stop or hesitate during the process and he drew an abstruse pattern with the mammoth tusk’s powder.

When Xia Yan lifted his finger again, a perfect Magical Array’s outline had already been drawn by him. This was a Six-Light Star Array, but there was still another smaller pattern within the array. The whole array emitted a mysterious aura!

This was the Undead Alchemy Array!