Chapter 851 - Completion! (1/2)

Even the saying “The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing his own special talent” was insufficient to describe what Yuan Zhou and Yang Shuxin were doing.

Both of them put all their focus into it and tried their very best. The two hours of sculpting had greatly exhausted Yang Shuxin mentally. His forehead was filled with beads of sweat. For him to be drenched in sweat in such weather, it was clear how hard he was focusing.

Yuan Zhou wasn’t any better off either. He was drenched in sweat as well. He had also finally understood the words a certain hairstylist had told him in the restaurant before.

The hairstylist told him that when he asked a customer what hairstyle he wanted, the scariest answer was “anything”.

The customer might say “anything”, but in reality, this caused the hairstylist to take note of more details. The current Yuan Zhou was in a similar predicament.

When sculpting clouds, one had to be free and unrestrained, yet it was precisely this free and unrestrained characteristic that required more attention on the details. One could not sculpt as one wished and could not go overboard in any aspects of the sculpting process.

If too much force was used, the sculpture would give off a heavy feeling, but if he used too little force, the effect he wanted would not be achieved. Therefore, he had to maintain a perfect balance, causing his wrist to ache badly.

It was fortunate that he had been exercising every day without fail. Otherwise, such high-intensity sculpting would definitely be something his body couldn’t endure.

After the deep and profound clouds, Yuan Zhou focused on sculpting trees.

In Yuan Zhou’s Nine Dragon Sculpture, there were no heavens and earth, and there were no rivers or oceans as well. Because of that, the clouds he sculpted would not look like clouds.

One had to acknowledge the wisdom of the ancient people. The ancient people had come up with two methods to deal with this. As evidenced by many ancient paintings, whenever there were clouds, there would be trees.

“Hu… I still need more practice in ice sculpting. I’m still not at the level where I can do heavy work like it is light, let alone doing light work like it is heavy work,” Yuan Zhou sighed.

Without a doubt, Yuan Zhou was, in fact, feeling confident inside. It had not been two months since he started practicing ice sculpting. He was able to reach this level in two months, yet, he was still unhappy. If the others heard this, they would probably beat him to death.

Generally speaking, most trees used in accompaniment of clouds in works of art would be pine trees. But to actually put this into practice, there would still be a difference between painting and sculpting.

When painting, one could use the brush to outline the tree leaves and lush branches. But if one tried the same when ice sculpting, it would be very easy to cause the entire sculpture to melt instead. Simply put, leaves and branches were too thin and thin pieces of ice would melt very easily.

And thus, the day before, Yuan Zhou had decided to use peach trees instead. To be precise, peach trees during winter. Why peach trees? Because in winter, peach trees only had branches. With this, he could avoid sculpting those tiny leaves and reached a perfect balance.

A lot of craftsmen were, in fact, unaware that they were creating a piece of art when they were doing so. They were merely giving all their attention and working on every single tiny detail with all their heart. Once it reached completion, a masterpiece would be created.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Yuan Zhou waved his knife three times speedily, shaving chunks of ice away. Instantly, a fine forked branch was sculpted.

Although Yuan Zhou sculpted with an unorthodox technique he self-taught, he still had his own secret technique. What he demonstrated earlier was precisely a technique he had created after gaining inspiration from cutting watermelons. In a very narcissistic manner, Yuan Zhou named this technique The Phoenix Nods Thrice.

Why was this name chosen? Because Yuan Zhou thought it was cool.

In truth, the crowd around them were clueless in ice sculpting. But even so, they were endlessly impressed by Yuan Zhou’s demonstrated secret technique.

“Only Boss Yuan can use such exquisite knife technique.”

“It’s like he’s filming a movie. His technique is too over the top. Sculpting an ice block is unlike sculpting a carrot. Both strength and accuracy are required. That is way too difficult.”