New Uses for the Copper Fragment Cultivation Method

Sigh, it seems I can't be lazy after all. No, wait, be patient, explain it one more time. Perhaps the Ink Marker just needs time to process?

In order to avoid doing the work himself, Shen Le patiently explained it all over again.

Seeing that the Ink Marker still hadn't reacted, he simply placed it on the table, picked up another wooden ball, grabbed a pencil, and began drawing line by line.

He marked a vertex, drew an arc down along the sphere, then another, until the two arcs intersected. He found the north and south poles, drew a few lines at the south pole to roughly divide the sphere into equal parts;

Then he extended the meridians downward, divided them into equal segments, and drew the parallels...

After half an hour of drawing without looking up, he finally had the wooden ball marked out, roughly, possibly, and approximately equally.

As for precision, there was no point in thinking about that; he would just adjust it later when drilling...

Hmm, if I keep working like this, I should be able to manage making a Devil's Work Ball. Shen Le gave himself a mental pat on the back, turned his head, and looked toward the Ink Marker—

His smile froze instantly on his face.

The Lead Weight stood upright toward the sky, balancing a small wooden ball on its tip, perfectly steady. On the wooden ball, the meridians and parallels were distinct and clear, every line clean and crisp.

By comparison, his own attempt—drawn with a pencil, traced over and over, constantly erased and corrected, with crooked, overlapping, and messy lines—was like a coal-hauling donkey standing in front of a Ferghana Horse.

Shen Le: T_T

If you were willing to work, you could have just said so!

You could have just said so!

Oh, right, you can't talk. Then you could have tapped the Lead Weight, or knocked your base against the table to give me a hint?

Regardless, the wooden ball already had its points marked, so it couldn't go to waste.

Shen Le fixed the wooden ball into the Woodworking Clamp, pressed the clamp firmly with his left hand, picked up the pen-shaped Electric Drill with his right, and swapped in the thinnest drill bit:

"Zzz..."

The drill bit spun rapidly, sinking inward, and wood shavings poured out of the hole like snowflakes.

Shen Le held his breath, steadied the drill, and let the fine, needle-like bit follow the pre-drawn arc.

After one circle, he could see a perfect, slightly recessed circle carved into the surface of the wooden ball by the drill bit...

Based on this circle, he drilled further down and inward. He carved out a circular plane, removed a tiny cylinder, took off the drill bit, and switched to a blade:

"Hmm, as expected, only a sharpening blade can take on this heavy responsibility..."

A sharpening blade, as the name suggests, is a tool used to hone carving knives. A small disc is attached to the top of the drill, and both sides of the disc are exceptionally hard and rough.

In the past, without this disc-shaped sharpening blade, one would have to turn a very thin straight blade sideways and cut inward bit by bit;

Now, with the sharpening blade, he pressed it against the very bottom of the cylinder, kept it against the edge, and let the blade spin rapidly; it naturally cut inward:

"Swish, swish, swish, swish... swish, swish, swish, swish..."

The umbrella-shaped blade moved slightly, wood shavings flew, and the inner and outer layers of the wooden ball naturally separated. Shen Le controlled the direction of the blade, keeping it against the edge of the cylinder, turning it once, then again, then again. Seeing the cut getting deeper and deeper, he knew that after cutting around the perimeter like this, the inner wooden ball would be able to rotate...

"Ah!"

Dammit!

The outer shell was cut through!

This Devil's Work Ball had failed at the very first step...

My hands are truly too clumsy!

Shen Le slumped, sighed at his own carving skills, and pressed on.

A wooden ball had 12 circular holes marked on it, which meant he had 12 chances to fail. Whether he cut it off or dug through it, all 12 holes had to be finished!

Then, Shen Le proceeded to perform a variety of never-repeating, spectacular failures:

"Ah! Cut through again!"

"Cut through again, again, and again!"

"Ah, the second layer snapped!"

"Cut too deep, the third layer is gone!"

"This hole is crooked!"

"Oh no, the inner ball fell out..."

Drilling 12 holes into a 1.5-centimeter wooden ball and hollowing out three layers—the difficulty of this far exceeded Shen Le's craftsmanship.

If the woodworking and carving skills of an average art student were a 1—meaning they could handle assignments and occasionally get an 80 from their teacher—

Then Shen Le's skills, tempered by three years of cultural relic restoration, were a 2.

After all, he occasionally had to carve wooden window frames or Wooden Que-ti Brackets, featuring dragons, phoenixes, qilin, pavilions, figures, flowers, birds, and auspicious clouds—sometimes even works by famous masters.

However, to carve a Devil's Work Ball, even a three-layered wooden one, the skill requirement was probably a 10.

Shen Le drilled 12 holes and failed in 12 different ways; he changed to a new ball, drilled again, and failed in 12 more ways...

"It seems... using an electric drill isn't going to work; I still have to do it by hand. The drill is too fast, too fast, I can't control it..."

Shen Le sighed, set down the electric drill, and swapped it for the smallest wood chisel. After a brief pause, he replaced the chisel with a curved blade featuring a 7-Shaped Blade tip.

He followed the seam between the first and second layers, carefully carving inward, stroke by stroke.

"Back then... the person who made this Devil's Work Ball didn't have an electric drill, did he? He must have relied on manual labor, carving bit by bit, polishing little by little...

I suppose chasing after a girl really is the greatest motivation; he was actually willing to challenge his own craftsmanship just to create a Devil's Work Ball... Then again, what am I even after?"

Oh, right, I'm after the superpower granted by the Copper Fragment once the restoration is perfect. Never mind, then.

Fortunately, making a Devil's Work Ball was a genuinely interesting challenge. Shen Le became immersed in the process, tireless and content. He ruined one wooden ball, then ruined a second...

After fighting continuously for several days, until he had used up the entire bag of Practice Wooden Balls, he was finally able to create a three-layered wooden ball with an interior that could roll.

Although the two inner layers weren't smooth, and it would jam every now and then as it turned, Shen Le could still rightfully declare:

I've made a Devil's Work Ball!

With the Practice Wooden Balls exhausted, it was time to start working on the Jujube Wood Bead. The moment the carving knife touched the wood, Shen Le let out a miserable yelp:

Help!

The hardness of the jujube wood was truly on a completely different level compared to the Practice Wooden Balls, which were likely made of pine wood or Chinese fir!

With pine or fir, he could hold the ball in one hand and the knife in the other, carving with ease;

With the jujube wood, one stroke sent the blade sinking deep into the wood, while the back of the blade sank just as deeply into his finger...

There was a deep red mark on his fingertip!

Shen Le's face twitched. He rubbed his thumb with the knuckle of his right index finger, trying to dissipate the red mark. With a grimace, he carved once, then again, and again...

"This won't do. If I keep going like this, my fingers will be ruined before the Devil's Work Ball is even finished! At the very least, I'll end up with tendonitis or something...

Come to think of it, at this stage of the restoration, can the Ink Marker be considered fixed?"