Shen Le felt like his whole world had gone wrong.
That brush pot had been ordinary wood before, and not some ultra-hard timber like rosewood.
Shen Le figured it had probably been about as hard as boxwood—something a normal carving knife could handle without too much effort. He could even show off some carving techniques; any reasonably simple pattern would be no problem.
But the moment he got his hands on the brush pot now, he knew something was wrong!
The entire surface of the brush pot gleamed with a crystalline, jade-like luster. Its texture was clearly completely different from before!
He pinched the inside of the brush pot with his fingernail. Just from the sensation, he could tell it was far harder than before. Still unwilling to give up, Shen Le picked up his carving knife and tried the edge against a corner. The blade scraped across it with a shriek like fingernails on a blackboard, making the hairs on Shen Le's back stand on end. He hurriedly put down the knife, held the brush pot in both hands, turned it over and over as he examined it, then touched it with his spiritual power to sense it.
"This hardness... it's completely different all over. A small knife can't carve it at all anymore—I'd need machinery. Like the full set of tools jade carvers use: jade drills, polishing wheels, bow saws, jade-cutting sand... or just a lathe or something."
The problem was, he did not know jade carving. As for tossing and turning a workpiece on a lathe to carve it into the shape he wanted, Shen Le felt his skills were still a little lacking—
Just as he was worrying over this, the Great Camphor Tree came over and said it had caught a bad guy. Shen Le's