Handcraft Master Bai Liye

The jade was cool to the touch, very light. Yun Ruo weighed them in her hand, and there was no difference in weight.

Besides the color, there was nothing else different.

But for some reason, she inexplicably felt that the two pieces of jade were completely different.

Not the outside, but the inside.

“How is it, what do you feel?” Lin Wang asked.

He was just asking routinely, not expecting Yun Ruo to really see the difference, and was prepared to explain it to her.

Jiang Beishan looked at Yun Ruo expectantly.

His doggy eyes couldn’t hide any emotions, and were filled with the desire for her to “quickly answer incorrectly, completely unable to distinguish them, unable to help with work, and then leave the room”.

Yun Ruo really didn’t understand how someone could maintain such a sincere, positive, and exclusionary attitude towards working.

She spread out her palm, looked at the jade stone, and answered uncertainly: “It seems that the clear-colored one is solid, although it looks transparent, it might be different if you cut it open. The other one seems turbid, but the inside seems to be empty…?”

After Yun Ruo finished speaking, she noticed that Jiang Beishan and Lin Wang were looking at her with strange gazes, raising the tone of her voice at the end.

Thinking back on what she said, it did sound strange.

No wonder they were showing that kind of expression.

The two pieces of jade were so small, and they looked solid at a glance.

Why would she have the idea that one of them was more hollow?

It was like the teacher asking in class whether the answer to this question should be A or C, and she answered equal to 1.

“You’re amazing…” Jiang Beishan’s doggy eyes flickered.

Realizing that Yun Ruo was a competitor, his expression quickly became very firm.

He turned around and sat at another table, rolled up his sleeves, and plunged into the intense and fierce jade stone sorting.

Yun Ruo looked at Lin Wang strangely.

Lin Wang also looked at her, his expression changing, and finally smiled: “Not bad, your senses are very sharp.”

Lin Wang took the transparent one from her hand: “The one that feels solid has limited spiritual storage conditions. Even if you engrave an inscription, it won’t be able to store much spiritual power. Pick this kind of one out and don’t use it, but you can make some ordinary, pretty little trinkets.”

“As for the other one, it’s perfect for making barrier jade, the spiritual storage space is good.”

“This is the first step we need to do, sorting the jade stones. Base all the jade stones on the quality of this golden yellow one. Those that are better than it, those that are similar to it, and those that are completely unusable, divide them into three categories.”

“The second step is to make the magical artifact, you have to engrave inscription formations inside the jade stone, so that spiritual power can be stored in it. The third step, which is the last step, is infusing spiritual power.”

“The second step is the most difficult, we don’t need to do it, just hand it over to Ah Ye.”

“That’s it. Did I explain it clearly?”

“I understand, I get it,” Yun Ruo nodded.

No wonder Bai Liye had Lin Wang teach her, his explanation was indeed concise, easy to understand, and clear.

“Got it?” Bai Liye came out from the inner room.

He had changed into a black short-sleeved training uniform, making his figure even taller, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

He was rolling up his sleeves to his elbows, revealing his long, strong, muscular, and well-proportioned forearms.

“I can sort jade stones now,” Yun Ruo gave him an OK sign.

Bai Liye didn’t understand what Yun Ruo’s strange gesture meant, and crooked his index finger and thumb, imitating her and giving her one back: “Alright then, get to work.”

Yun Ruo couldn’t help but laugh.

In the days that followed, she was sorting jade stones.

Yun Ruo felt like a factory worker who had entered a big factory, working as soon as she opened her eyes every day.

She originally thought there were only the ones in the room, but after sorting one batch, Lin Wang brought in another batch.

“Where did all these jade stones come from?”

“Ah Ye and I found them, running around to many places,” Lin Wang said.

“They’re all hidden outside the courtyard wall, just outside your room. The last batch of magical artifacts sold out, we’ll make more this time, there’s a market down the mountain recently, we’ll try to earn more.”

Yun Ruo thought about Bai Liye telling her about being in debt.

Lin Wang must have known, and Jiang Beishan probably knew too since he was helping with the work.

But they didn’t say anything in front of Ji Yueci, and making magical artifacts was also done secretly, locking the door in Bai Liye’s room, showing that the debt was being kept from Ji Yueci.

Since they didn’t say anything, Yun Ruo naturally wouldn’t be nosy.

Lin Wang’s eyes were blurred from picking jade stones, so he stood up, stretched, and swept the jade stones that he and Yun Ruo had sorted into three bamboo baskets.

Of the three categories of jade stones, those with good quality that could store spiritual power only accounted for one-fifth, and most of them were pretty colors but not very useful.

“What should we do with these?” Yun Ruo pointed to the ordinary jade stones, which already filled several baskets.

“There’s quite a lot,” Lin Wang looked at the row of bamboo baskets placed by the wall, and rubbed his chin.

“Ah Ye, should we make them into small trinkets like before? They sell pretty well.”

“You want to work me to death?” Bai Liye didn’t even lift his head.

“Let’s just throw them on the back mountain.”

Lin Wang clicked his tongue: “Isn’t it because Dirty Face is too fast? I still have to look, observe, and distinguish them for a long time, but as soon as she starts, she knows which one is good and which one is bad. The amount she’s sorted out in just these two days is comparable to what we did in the last ten days or half a month. Blame her.”

Yun Ruo was very innocent: “It’s not all me, Jiang Beishan is also very fast.”

Jiang Beishan didn’t say anything, and kept working hard.

He occasionally raised his head to steal a glance at the sorted jade stones in front of Yun Ruo, comparing them with his own, his eyes burning with flames, and the movements of his hands became even faster.

He must not lose!

“That’s enough, let’s just do this much this time,” Bai Liye sorted out his own and got up, patting Jiang Beishan.

“Stop working, rest.”

“Oh, okay,” Jiang Beishan had no choice but to stop, blinking his sore eyes and shedding two lines of clear tears.

Bai Liye walked to the wall, rummaged through the baskets of unusable jade stones, found a few pieces with pretty colors, put them back on the table, and asked: “Is there anything you want this time?”

Lin Wang: “Bone jade fan.”

Jiang Beishan: “I don’t want anything, Senior Sister Yueci said she was short of a small measuring spoon for making wine.”

“No bone jade fan, measuring spoon is okay,” Bai Liye turned to Yun Ruo.

“What about you?”

Yun Ruo didn’t expect him to ask her, and thought for a moment: “A phone?”

Bai Liye: “?”

Yun Ruo smiled: “I don’t need it, there’s nothing I want.”

Before she transmigrated, she had been fostered in her relatives’ home, her parents had died when she was young, and living under someone else’s roof taught her not to fight, not to grab, and not to make demands.

Everyone knew she was a sensible and good child.

When the adults bought back gifts, she would let her older brothers and sisters pick first, and she would take what was left.

In the three years at the Xuan Yang Sect, her senior brothers treated her very well, and she repaid that kindness with the greatest sincerity and goodwill, but she never actively asked for anything.

Bai Liye didn’t insist, nodding: “I see.”

The three of them came out.

Jiang Beishan was a little listless because he hadn’t won against Yun Ruo.

Lin Wang noticed that he was dejected, and stepped forward, putting his arm around his shoulder: “Your Senior Brother Bai Liye’s candy is almost gone, make him some more, make it round this time, it’ll be more convenient to eat.”

As soon as Jiang Beishan heard this, it was like the sky was falling: “Is the chopstick shape inconvenient to eat? Why didn’t you say so earlier! Ahhh, I made so much last time!”

“No!” Lin Wang immediately denied, knowing this would happen.

“I just want to change it up, try all the shapes.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Lin Wang swore to the sky.

Only then did Jiang Beishan cheer up a little: “Is the recipe the same as last time? I’ll go see if the materials are all there.”

“Add more sugar paste,” Lin Wang reminded him.

“I know.”

So, the candy she had eaten last time was made by him, and he had given it such a high-end name as “Seven-Colored Exquisite Jade Ambrosia” to sell it at a high price.

As soon as Lin Wang saw her expression, he knew what Yun Ruo was thinking, stretched lazily and said: “That’s for Ah Ye to eat, not for sale. I only took it out for you to eat because I saw you were nervous last time.”

He gave her candy because she was nervous, treating her like a child.

No, the main point was that Bai Liye actually liked to eat candy.

Yun Ruo looked at the tightly closed door.

The jade stones they had picked out were all being made into magical artifacts by Bai Liye, a full two baskets’ worth: “Don’t you need our help?”

“No, you can’t help,” Lin Wang waved his hand.

“You can’t be distracted when making magical artifacts, don’t disturb him.”

Bai Liye locked himself in the room for three whole days.

Lin Wang went down the mountain every day to scout out the towns and find stalls, and Jiang Beishan had to raise poultry, plant vegetables, weed, water, fertilize, and cook.

The job of delivering food to Bai Liye and Ji Yueci fell on Yun Ruo.

Jiang Beishan wasn’t happy about it at first.

He was usually very polite and respectful to Yun Ruo, but as long as it involved competing with him for work, he would glare at her.

But after he finished cooking, he had to stay by the stove and boil the sugar paste, unable to leave, so he had to reluctantly hand over the task of delivering food.

Yun Ruo felt like she had taken half of his life when she took the food box from him.

Although she didn’t understand, she respected it.

Ji Yueci’s food only needed to be placed on the windowsill, and she would knock on the window to indicate that it had been delivered.

After the person left, she would open the window and take it herself.

Bai Liye’s had to be delivered into the room.

Yun Ruo had gone several times, and remembered Lin Wang saying that he couldn’t be distracted, so she always put down the food box gently and left.

Bai Liye was very focused, and never looked up.

Yun Ruo suspected that he didn’t even remember to eat, but when she went to pick up the food box next time, it had been eaten clean and tidied up.

The magical artifacts were made for three days, and the light in Bai Liye’s room was on for two whole nights.

On the third day, Yun Ruo went in to deliver food, and Bai Liye was almost finished.

He finally left the table, opened the window, and took the food box to the window to eat.

Yun Ruo went to the table to look at the finished products.

They weren’t very different from when they had been picked out, but if you looked closely, you could see complex golden patterns flowing inside.

“You won’t be able to see them after the spiritual power is infused,” Bai Liye said.

“How did you engrave them?” Yun Ruo asked.

Bai Liye ate, saying casually: “You’re interested? I’ll teach you someday if I have the chance.”

Yun Ruo shook her head.

Lin Wang had explained to her that making magical artifacts required talent, not just awakened spiritual meridians.

Moreover, everyone who made magical artifacts had their own unique characteristics and techniques, which they basically wouldn’t tell others.

The Xuan Yang Sect’s Second Senior Brother also knew how to make magical artifacts, but she had never seen him before they were completed, and had no way of knowing the process.

Bai Liye was probably just saying it casually.

Before, Yun Ruo had been busy sorting jade stones and hadn’t paid attention.

The few times she had come in to deliver food, she had also left quickly.

This time, she had the time to notice that there were many things on the shelves in Bai Liye’s room.

Some she recognized, and most she didn’t.

But she could tell that they were all made by Bai Liye himself, because one row of shelves had the utensils she had seen in the kitchen, including a small hoe leaning against the shelf, which was exactly the same as the one Jiang Beishan used for weeding.

In another row, she recognized a set of beautiful wine cups and a distiller, and the others should also be tools for making wine.

No wonder he was the one doing the most difficult step in making magical artifacts.

Bai Liye was simply a walking tool-making machine, a handmade expert.