Royal Master Painter

Chapter 18
The ox cart drove to another mountain road in Shimen Mountain, the sound of the wheels resounded through the valley, and finally arrived at the destination just before the sunset, and there was a stone cottage at the end of the road.

"Here we go, get out of the car"

Lu Yufu jumped off the shaft, tied the ox cart to a tree on the side of the road, and put some fodder.

"What is this place"

"There are many stonemasons who come here to look for colored stones, so those old stonemasons built this stone cottage here for everyone to rest and communicate."

At first I thought that this stone cottage was a simple room, but I didn't expect to find out that it was not the case after I walked in.

Shilu is a courtyard with two entrances. There is a plaque with four characters "Xiangling Shilu" hanging on the gate. The courtyard walls on both sides are also piled up with stones and no gaps can be seen. The exquisite workmanship is incredible.

There are many ox carts parked in the Shilu courtyard, and there is a stone statue in the center of the large courtyard. An old man with his trousers rolled up and his sleeves straightened out holds a hammer in his right hand and a chisel in his left hand. When passing by this man, Lu Yufu made a salute. Enter with Jiang Greed.

Before he got close to the stone hut, he heard a heated debate coming from inside. Lu Yufu gave Jiang Li a warning before entering the door.

"Don't talk when you're inside, just listen, maybe it will be useful to you"

"it is good"

Lu Yufu pushed the door open and a wave of heat rushed in. The first thing that came into view was a huge blast furnace flame licking the flames.

Two naked-chested strong men stood next to the blast furnace, and one was constantly beating a green stone with a hammer.

"Although there are many stonemasons in Yunzhou, not many are enlightened. Sun Chengtiexuan is one of the few enlightened people, and he is considered a relatively famous stonemason in Yunzhou," Lu Yufu said.

The better the quality of the green stone, the harder the texture. Sun Cheng poured spiritual power into it and waved it many times in a row. Each hammer just fused the spiritual power with the spiritual power of the colored stone, and finally the colored stone finally shattered. , the dots of green become more and more crystal clear like gems in the flames.

And Tie Xuan did not use violent gravel, but kept agitating the bellows, and the flames became hotter and rolled a green stone.

Finally, under the watchful eyes of everyone, the green stone melted into a liquid like magma and slowly flowed into a bowl. Tie Xuan put down the bellows and began to grind.

"Okay, now, the stonemasons Tie Xuan and Sun Cheng have completed their respective productions, and put the paints they made on the scales."

The people watching from the side hurriedly gathered around. The two used the same amount of stone green to make paint, but Sun Cheng's paint was obviously heavier and more colorful.

"It seems that Sun Cheng is going to win. I didn't expect that hammering would produce so much more paint than fire."

"Who says no, at least [-]% more output"

This is a matter related to everyone's vital interests. The more pigments produced, the more money they can make.

People kept talking about the survival of the fittest between the two of them, and Tie Xuan was obviously at a disadvantage, but this big black-faced man puffed up his chest and scolded everyone.

"Give me a big dog's eye, how could I lose?"

"Tie Heizi is willing to gamble and admit defeat, but I am no worse than you in terms of voice."

Tie Xuan was just about to continue scolding with Sun Cheng, but he accidentally saw Lu Yufu waving hurriedly.

"Junior Brother Lu? You're here too"

"Junior brother Lu is here?"

A group of people looked towards the door one after another. Although Lu Yufu was young, he obviously had a high status among the group of stonemasons, and everyone was very enthusiastic.

"Since Junior Brother Lu is here, why not let him be the referee?"

Surrounded by a group of people, Lu Yufu was pushed to the front.

"How can Yufu have virtue?" Lu Yufu hastily declined, obviously he also knew that this was an offending matter.

"Junior Brother Lu, don't be modest, your father and your grandfather are both master stonemasons, I agree with what you say," Tie Xuan laughed.

"Yes, just talk about it, we are all a bunch of big bastards, it doesn't matter who wins or loses," Sun Cheng also said.

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, Lu Yufu could only cup his hands towards the surroundings, and came to the scale and rubbed the paints made by the two of them with his hands respectively. The texture was almost the same.

"Thanks to everyone's love, Yufu He Dehe can only take the liberty of judging, if I say it, it should be that Brother Tiexuan won"

"No way, the texture is almost the same, and there is [-]% more pigment output, how can I lose?"

Someone on the side questioned that [-]% more paint means [-]% more income.

"We are all masons and we are all good at making paints. Brother Sun's hammering combined the technique of casting iron into the crafts of masons, which is refreshing, and the output of paints has also been greatly improved.

But Junior Brother Tiexuan's fire refining can remove the impurities in the colored stones, and it can even ensure that the spirituality in the colored stones will not be lost.

Both sides have their own advantages and disadvantages, and a simple victory or defeat cannot explain who is the winner between Senior Brother Sun and Senior Brother Tie."

Lu Yufu's answer was very emotionally intelligent, and even Jiang Greed couldn't help but look at it differently.

In the following time, this large group of stonemasons was discussing the craftsmanship. From their discussions, Jiang Li had a deeper understanding of the paints and painters in this world.

The pigments in this world are like treasures of heaven and earth, absorbing the spiritual power of heaven and earth to contain spirituality, and painters use painting techniques to combine their own spiritual power and the spirituality in the paint on paper to produce painting spirits.

Painting skills, painting techniques, one's own spiritual power, and the spirituality of paint, all four are indispensable.

What also makes Jiang Li very strange is that these stonemasons seem to use fire to make paints, but the paints he makes himself use water.

"Don't they know about extraction and dissolution?" Jiang Li was a little puzzled.

After the stonemasons had a good chat, they left each other to rest. After all, they had to collect colored stones early the next morning.

Before he knew it, the moon had reached mid-heaven, and Lu Yufu yawned and stretched a little tiredly.

"It's getting so late"

"Brother Lu, I have a question I want to ask. Just now I heard you talking about the use of fire to make paints. Why can't you use water?" Jiang Lu asked.

Lu Yufu immediately laughed when he heard this question.

"Water? Don't ask other people this question. Most of us stonemasons are tough-tempered, and our words are simple and rude. If it were someone else, I would probably fight you right away."

Jiang Greed didn't know how to explain extraction and dissolution, or was it really wrong?
"Let's go, it's late, let's take a rest"

Lu Yufu took Jiang Li to rest. There are dozens of rooms in the Xiangling Shilu, all of which are open to everyone, but when Jiang Li passed by, he found a yard near the Shilu that was locked.

The layout of the room was very simple. Jiang Li lay on the bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep, thinking about the flash of light on the stone wall at dusk all the time in his mind.

But Shimen Mountain has rules and Jiang Li is too embarrassed to break it, so he can only wait for the next day in peace. The night in the mountain is very quiet, except for some inexplicable animal calls that can be heard occasionally.

But when he slept until midnight, Jiang Li heard rustling sounds from outside the door, as if someone was walking around.

"Isn't there a rule in Xiangling Shilu that you can't come and go in Shimen Mountain at night?"

(End of this chapter)