Episode 3: The Devil and the Beast Mountain Range Chapter 1: Stone Carving Works (Up)

The spring sun was warm and comfortable, and the teenagers of dormitory 1987 were staying in the middle of the courtyard.

Yale, George, Reynolds three people are chatting with each other, now Yale, George are sixteen years old, and Reynolds is also fourteen years old. The height of the three of them also scaled up very quickly, even the shortest George was more than one meter six, and the tallest Yale was a staggering one meter nine.

“George, don’t pretend with the two of us, the oldest four have broken their virginity, you and the oldest three are still pretending? This way, at the end of this month you and Old Three go to Finlay City’s ‘Aqua Paradise’, I’ll pay for the expenses, I’ll guarantee that you’ll be comfortable, and I’ll also guarantee that the little girl is a virgin, how about it?”

Yale held two small stone piers and kept exercising his chest muscles, while playfully saying with a smile on his lips.

These two small stone piers, estimated to be twenty to thirty pounds each, normally Linley would not even look at them.

George smiled and said, “Boss Yale, don’t force me, you guys go to Aqua Paradise, I’ll drink outside with Lao San, isn’t that good?”

Reno also bristled from the side, “George, you, are not a man at all.”

George could only smile helplessly and bitterly.

Suddenly footsteps sounded outside the courtyard, Yale put down the two small stone piers and looked towards the courtyard entrance, his mouth said, “I’m afraid Lao San is here, let’s go, let’s get ready to eat-”

Halfway through his sentence, Yale’s words came to a halt.

Only to see Linley carrying a huge stone on his shoulders, which was a meter high and definitely hundreds of pounds.

But Linley appeared to be carrying the boulder with ease as he stepped into the courtyard, Yale, George, and Reynolds were dumbfounded as Linley casually placed the hundreds of pounds of boulder in the nooks and crannies of the courtyard, and the heavy sound of the boulder hitting the ground sent a shiver down the spine of Yale’s three people.

“Hell this is, Lao San, I know you have a lot of strength, but how come it’s so big?”

Yale stared at the boulder, “Could this boulder be hollow?”

Said Yale even walked up and tried to lift the boulder with both hands.

“Hmph!”

Yale desperately exerted himself, his face was suffocating red, but the boulder didn’t move a bit as if it was rooted.

“Boss Yale, don’t waste your strength, you can’t move it.”

Linley said with a smile.

Yale’s physical strength was not even that of a level one warrior, how could he possibly move it?

Reno looked at the boulder with wide eyes and marveled for a few moments before turning his head towards Linley and wondering, “Hey, Linley, what are you doing getting such a large rock into the dormitory? Ah, I see.”

Reno’s eyes lit up, “I’ve seen powerful warriors once, their hands constantly lifting weights with boulders to exercise their bodies, could it be that you’re preparing to lift weights as well, Linley?”

“Such a large boulder could have smashed me into a meat pie.”

George took a look at the boulder and marveled a few times as well, before looking at Linley and wondering, “Oldest, what exactly are you doing with this boulder when you carry it into the dormitory?”

Linley smiled as he looked at his three best brothers and spat out two words from his mouth, “Stone sculpture!”

According to Derinkelwalt’s words, his own stone carvings were already considered to be in their infancy, and stone carvings took a long time to carve up, usually one or two days was not enough. In the past, it could be casually guarded in the back of the mountain and damage was not a concern, but now it was different.

“Stone carvings?”

Yale, Reno, and George all looked at Linley with wide eyes in surprise.

“What, surprised?”

Linley looked at his three brothers.

Reynolds said repeatedly, “Not very surprised, very surprised, our four brothers have been together for six or seven years, but we’ve never seen you carve before, could it be that you’re prepared to start learning to carve stone sculptures from today onwards?”

Linley smiled, “Who says I’m going to start learning to carve from today, I’ve been practicing carving in the back of the mountains for over five years now, and this time, this piece of artwork is carved out, I’m going to send it to the Proulx Guild Hall for an exhibition by the way, to see if I can sell it for some money.”

In order to raise enough gold coins for his younger brother, Little Walton, to travel to the O’Brien Empire with his butler ‘Hilly’ to pursue his studies, the Baruch family’s money was almost emptied out.

But even so, Hogg was happy.

So what if the family was emptied? Nowadays, his eldest son ‘Linley’ was a student of the Ernst Academy, and when he came out, he would surely be a great magician of honorable status, while his youngest son ‘Walton’ even possessed the possibility of becoming a Dragon Blood Warrior.

Hogg could predict the glory of his own Baruch family in the future!

“Proulx Guild Hall?”

The Yale trio listened and looked at Linley with some surprise.

Linley was the pride of their Dormitory 1987, having entered the fifth year of Ernst College at the tender age of fifteen, and moreover being jointly known as ‘Ernst College’s two greatest geniuses’ with Dixie, the Yale three also recognized Linley as a genius, but ……

Stone carving, that was an extremely profound art.

Many people who had studied stone carving and engraving painstakingly for decades could only be considered ordinary artisans. As an art with the longest heritage, was it so easy to succeed? Linley even presumed to have his work get exhibited at the highest hall of stone carving, the ‘Proulx Guild Hall’.

“Old Three, don’t get hot-headed.”

George joked and said comfortingly.

“Linley, I’m worried …… about your work, will anyone buy it?”

Reno frowned with a tone of disbelief in Linley.

Yale laughed and said, “What do you call this, Lao San, you just go to the exhibition, as long as it’s your work, I’ll pay 10,000 gold coins to buy it for you.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

Linley took out a flat blade from his arms.

“A flat knife?”

Reno said in surprise, “It seems like you’re well prepared, Linley, but I was prepared to learn stone carving in the first place, there are many tools for stone carving, there are flat knives, round knives, triangular knives, jade bowl knives, and axes and whatnot, what, you’re just going to use this one tool?”

Whether it was Reno, or Yale, or George, they were all considered to have a general understanding of various arts.

Linley didn’t say much.

Holding a flat blade in his hand, Linley’s entire person naturally entered a state of mental stillness and naturalness, and his entire person also felt the flow of the earth elements within the boulder in front of him, and Linley was able to barely sense the veins within the boulder, and Linley smiled as he swung his blade instantly.

The light of the blade was like a shadow, the reflected sunlight made the three Reynolds beside him involuntarily squint their eyes, but the three of them continued to stare at the boulder.

“Hohohoho!”

The shadow of the blade drifted and quickly chipped at the same place consecutively, and a large piece of rubble waste was thrown up.

“How is that possible?”

Yale looked at this scene in shock, “Such a large piece of rubble should be chopped off with an axe, to think that it was chipped off with just a flat blade, how amazing is this wrist strength?”

Next to him, Reno and George were even more completely silent.

Wrist strength?

To be as ethereal as Linley, to excise a surface that was so naturally flat, it wasn’t something that could be done with strong wrist strength alone.

Lin Lei the whole person like a serene lake general natural, the hand of the flat knife is like an extension of the right hand, the flat knife quickly and constantly chipped in the various parts of the boulder, stone waste is also constantly thrown up, Lin Lei carving up this kind of ethereal natural, single watch is a kind of enjoyment.

“Lao-san, he ……”

Yale, George, and Reynolds looked at each other, they had a feeling in their hearts at the moment, Linley was afraid that he really was a stone carving expert.

Tranquility, nature, peace.

Lin Lei very much enjoy carving this feeling, to the point where Lin Lei now, stone any place, how much force should be used. There is no need to think, the hand of the flat knife will naturally reach the perfect point. It was a subconscious ground.

Compared to the ‘flat knife’ school.

Other schools of stone carving could not have this kind of enjoyment, and the masters of other schools of stone carving would have to spend a lot of thought just on the different tools that needed to be used in different places when carving.

In this peaceful situation of integration into nature, Linley’s spiritual energy also seemed to grow rapidly as if the grass had been bathed in spring rain, and that feeling of natural growth was also something that made Linley feel wonderful to the peak, it was comforting from the bottom of his heart.

Linley’s right hand suddenly stopped.

Stone scraps were tossed about for a while before they completely landed, and the boulder already had a rough embryonic model of a reptile.

“What are you three standing around for, staring blankly?”

Linley smiled and turned his head to look at the Yale trio, “It’s only now that we’ve gotten the simplest rough embryo, it’s going to take a long time behind us, let’s go, we’ll go eat lunch first.”

Yale, Reno, and George looked at each other.

Just now, with Linley’s revealed hand alone, the three of them were certain – “An expert.”

Yale said in admiration.

“Genius.”

Reno marveled even more.

“A genius amongst experts.”

George added.

Even for those who studied stone carving and engraving, I’m afraid it would be difficult to see one in a hundred years if they were able to reach a level like Linley’s within five or six years.