Dragon's Origin

Once he started, Wang Sheng's hands didn't stop. His right hand wielded the hammer like a windmill, while his left hand kept the chisel ringing incessantly, moving with a smooth, uninterrupted flow.

Living here for many years, everyone naturally knew about adobe walls. To put it bluntly, adobe is just clay and mud packed into molds and dried in the sun. Without sintering, the strength isn't very high. Over the years, some adobe exteriors have become brittle and powdery, while some adobe interiors weren't very compact during production, so holes are common.

But Wang Sheng's hammer and chisel landed without any pause due to the brittleness of the adobe. What's even more amazing is that even in the powdery parts, the pieces Wang Sheng wanted to remove would fall off, but the parts he didn't want to fall off would stubbornly stick to the wall without moving at all.

It was as if Wang Sheng's hammering caused no vibration. Not even a speck of dust fell from the wall, and the entire adobe wall remained intact like a solid rock.

The engraved marks on the foot-thick adobe wall were nearly three inches deep, yet they didn't damage the wall's structure at all. Each stroke was the same depth, no more and no less, as precise as if measured with a ruler.

Even more astonishing, everyone saw obvious holes in the fallen adobe pieces, but the marks left on the wall were tight and smooth, without any looseness. It was as if Wang Sheng had perfectly avoided the holes in the wall during his carving, leaving no mistakes.

How was this done? Did Wang Sheng have X-ray vision, able to see inside the adobe wall? Old Man Tie and Master Lu were also puzzled. If it were normal materials, they could hear the internal conditions through the sound of the strikes, but Wang Sheng didn't hit the wall once from beginning to end. Did he use spiritual energy to probe the gaps inside the wall? Considering Wang Sheng's previous walk along the wall while touching it, this was very possible.

When Wang Sheng carved the first stroke, Daoist Qing Ling stood up in surprise. He had guessed whether the few characters Wang Sheng carved were the Nine Syllable Incantation, and it turned out to be true.

An unexpected surprise! Wang Sheng wasn't just carving characters, but like studying the Nine Syllable Incantation on the stone wall at the edge of the Thousand Severing Ground's core, he was perfectly integrating the essence of each character into every stroke, carving them vividly onto this dilapidated earthen wall.

With the 'Lin' character completed, Wang Sheng began to carve the 'Bing' character. Everyone looked at the completed 'Lin' character on the wall and felt an indescribable sensation. A strong, powerful aura washed over them, making them feel their confidence constantly building. A certain indomitable will was gradually forming, giving them an unwavering belief in the skills they possessed.

The 'Bing' character was so comfortable to look at. Their whole bodies seemed to have been cleansed. Surprisingly, just looking at a character made them sweat all over. But after sweating, their bodies felt indescribably comfortable and relaxed.

The 'Dou' character immediately changed to a wild, warlike aura, carrying an invincible, victorious belief. They would dare to charge into a battlefield even if there were thousands of troops ahead.

The 'Zhe' character...

The 'Jie' character...

The 'Zhen' character...

The 'Lie' character...

The 'Qian' character...

The 'Xing' character...

As Wang Sheng completed the nine characters one by one, the onlookers felt as if they had experienced nine lifetimes of baptism. Each character had a different meaning and a different feeling, yet each character made them feel so comfortable and relaxed.

The font was regular script, of average size, average depth, straight strokes, and a square structure. There were no strange strokes or unique brushwork. It was truly regular and straight, a model of calligraphy.

But each of these orthodox characters always gave people a different feeling. It was simply a miracle. If it wasn't that the calligraphy had reached a transcendent level, then the carving had entered a miraculous realm.

If each of the nine characters had a different flavor, looking at all nine characters together suddenly made all the different feelings disappear. The nine characters merged into one, so natural, so simple, perfectly integrated, inseparable.

Daoist Qing Ling was almost dying of happiness. Being able to watch Wang Sheng carve out the nine characters with the true meaning of the Nine Syllable Incantation one by one, allowing him to clearly feel each character once, made this trip worthwhile.

Mei'er was stunned. Wang Sheng's nine characters looked natural and fresh as a whole, but each had its own flavor when separated. She had seen the works of many calligraphy masters, but none had given her such a feeling. No wonder Daoist Qing Ling said that Wang Sheng himself was a calligraphy master. It was not an exaggeration at all! Qian Sheng Yuan's signboard must be written by Wang Sheng, according to this feeling.

As for Master Lu, he was already immersed in the meaning of these nine characters. The other grandmasters were no exception, all with expressions of being lost in thought, as if their souls had been absorbed into the nine characters on the wall. How could any of the grandmasters lack taste and skill?

For a long time after Wang Sheng put away his hammer and chisel, the entire courtyard remained in a silent stillness. No one spoke, only so many people tacitly suppressing their breathing.

No one could bear to let their own voice ruin this opportunity that seemed to communicate with heaven and earth. Everyone hoped to immerse themselves in these nine characters for a while longer, to understand their mysteries more clearly.

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"Alas!" A long sigh came from Master Lu's mouth. This sigh was like a thunderclap, dragging everyone out of that state. Everyone looked at Master Lu with unfriendly expressions, blaming him for ruining their great opportunity.

"Great skill appears clumsy! Great skill requires no artifice!" Master Lu looked at the nine characters on the wall and suddenly praised, "So that's it, so that's it, this is how you return to simplicity."

Hearing Master Lu's words, everyone was thoughtful. Especially Master Wu, looking at these characters and thinking about how he had previously shown off his skills by concentrating all his most superb techniques on that long sword, suddenly felt a little embarrassed. But then he immediately immersed himself in Master Lu's words, his mind filled with great skill appears clumsy, returning to simplicity, great skill requires no artifice, and so on.

"What a pity!" Master Lu shook his head and sighed regretfully, "Just a little bit, just a little bit short! Just a little bit short of stepping into the Grandmaster realm! What a pity!"