Historical Celebrity 107

  One after another, the masters of the appraisal symbols released their results. As expected by everyone, Chu's workshop and the Nangong family were in a stalemate.

  Almost everyone's attention was focused on the top two, and as for the other rankings, they were instead overlooked.

  "Look, Master Qin Hui from Hongyun City has ranked Chu's studio as number one, it's now 10 to 0."

  "It seems like the competition between the two families will continue!"

  "Fifteen to eighteen, the Nan Gong family is starting to pull away."

  "Fifteen versus nineteen, Mo Yun City's Zi Che Lie Master chose Nan Gong Family."

  "Fifteen to twenty, Master Zhu Huang of Green Cloud City also chose the South Palace family. The 'Spirit Arc Engraving' of the South Palace family still has the upper hand, it seems that victory and defeat will soon be decided."

  The Fu masters of the Nan Gong family in the Fu Luan Hall looked at the information on the crystal screen, all letting out a sigh of relief. In their opinion, victory or defeat should be determined by now.

  Nangong's face also floated with a faint smile.

  At this moment, Nangong Shuang's face changed slightly because the information on the crystal screen changed again.

  "Look, Qingyun City's Yun Jue Master chose Chu Shi Workshop, 16 vs 20."

  "Nie Feng Master of Qingyun City also chose Chu's studio, it's already 17 to 20, looks like Chu's studio still has hope."

  "Master Zhou Hai of Green Cloud City also chose Chu's studio."

  "It's unbelievable, Chu Shi Workshop has caught up, and Fang Han Master from Mo Yun City has also chosen Chu Shi Workshop, the score is now 19 to 20."

  Almost every time a master of the zodiac releases an assessment result, it will bring countless screams.

  Especially when the Chu family workshop was left behind by such a large distance, they actually caught up again. This also made the talisman makers participating in the Fu Lu exchange conference know that the outcome is still uncertain.

  "The two masters of White Cloud City also chose Chu's studio, oh my, Chu's studio has already surpassed the Nangong family, 21 to 20."

  "Twenty-two versus twenty, Master Cao Chong of Huangyun City chose Chu's studio."

  "It seems that Chu's studio has a chance of winning first prize!"

  "If Chu Shi Studio really wins, then this unknown studio will make a name for itself in Ning Province."

  "I'd rather hope that the Chu family workshop wins, after all, it's always been the top-tier forces like the Nangong family who take away the championship, and we small workshops and enterprises never even get a chance."

  Many of the makers watched the evaluation information appear on the crystal screen, and their hearts fluctuated with it.

  Even many people hope that Chu Shi's workshop will win the championship.

  "How could this be? My Spirit Arc recording can't possibly fall behind Chu Clan's workshop's Spirit Circle Refining Technique?"

  Nangong Shang looked at the crystal screen and saw that the Master of the Seal was choosing one after another from the Chu family workshop, which made him very annoyed.

  In his view, the "Ling Arc Engraving" he studied is unparalleled in the world and can greatly improve the quality of talismans.

  "Huang Yun City's other master ranked the Nangong family as number one, twenty-two to twenty-one."

  "Chengyun City's Wang Yang Master chose the Nangong Family, 22 to 22, and it was a tie again. It seems that the research of both families is indeed successful and can be said to be evenly matched, each with its own strengths."

  "Yes, this is a rare situation. In the past, the symbol exchange conferences were usually dominated by one side, and it was rare to have such a stalemate occur. I think even the evaluating masters of the symbol are also very hesitant!"

  A lot of comments and discussions are going on in various exhibition halls.

  In the outer No. 5 exhibition hall, Chu Jun and others from the Chu Shi workshop also had their hearts jump out.

  They were both excited and nervous, excited that this time the studio work would make a big splash, famous throughout Ning Province, and afterwards, as long as Chu Shi's studio didn't take a wrong turn, it would definitely go smoothly.

  It was tense until the end whether they could win the championship. Although second place is also a great honor for Chu Shi Workshop, isn't first place even better?

  Chu Xiao looked at the evaluation information of the masters on the crystal screen, and was quite surprised in his heart. He didn't expect that someone's research results could compare with his own "Ling Circle Refining Technique". It seems that the final outcome is difficult to predict, if he had known earlier, he would have added more things to it.

  But there is no regret medicine in the world, he can only watch the changes quietly.

  After several rounds of stalemate, it finally came to the most critical moment. At this moment, Chu's studio and Nangong family were tied at 24:24. For such a number, almost everyone felt that it was too coincidental!

  Forty-nine masters, now forty-eight masters have released evaluation information.

  Almost everyone knows who the last unassessed master is, naturally it's Cai Ning, the only intermediate-level pattern master in Ning Province.

  It can be said that Cai Ning decided the final champion.

  However, many informed seal carvers don't think highly of the Chu family workshop because Cai Ning has an extraordinary relationship with the Nangong family.

  At this moment, there were also many discussions in Hall No. 5.

  "It seems that Chu's studio has lost for sure."

  "Yes, I heard that Cai Dashi's closed-door disciple is from the Nangong family. With this relationship, Cai Dashi should choose the Nangong family."

  "It's not necessarily so, everyone knows this relationship, Master Cai should have some reservations."

  "What's there to consider? You've all seen it, the two sides drew evenly, which means that the Nan Gong family's research results are no worse than those of the Chu Shi workshop. Even if Master Cai chooses the Nan Gong family, no one will object."

  "This time you've won for sure, kid."

  The middle-aged beauty sitting beside Nan Gong Sheng smiled lightly and said.

  "Win? Not necessarily, I'm familiar with Master's style, he won't show favoritism to me, and I don't want to get the championship because of his bias either. A championship like that, I'd rather not have it."

  Nangong Shang shook his head, and his eyes became very profound, radiating an inexplicable light.

  He is eager to see what kind of research achievement the spiritual circle's talismanic technique is, and there are so many masters of talismans who have chosen it.

  On the central platform of the Fu Luan Hall, many masters of talismans cast their eyes on a crane-haired old man with a youthful face in the center. The old man's face was kind and his body was not tall and large, but rather thin and small, yet he exuded an air of seniority, and among the many masters, he had a particularly striking presence.

  It was clear that this old man was Cai Ning, the president of the Ning Province Zhi Fu Zhi Hui and a mid-level Zhi Fu Da Shi.

  It seems that Cai Ning felt the gaze of many talisman masters, and he smiled slightly: "I must say, this time's Talisman Exchange Conference is the most meaningful one I've experienced, because such excellent research results are presented, whether it's 'Ling Circle Refining Talismans' or 'Ling Arc Engraving', even in Yunzhou or the entire Cultivation Alliance, they absolutely belong to the most representative research results, and no one can ignore them. Therefore, many talisman masters were torn between two choices, I think many masters present should be regretful for not choosing another research result at the same time."

  Cai Ning's voice echoed clearly in all exhibition halls through a special sound transmission array.

  The many masters present also nodded in agreement, they too found it difficult to make a decision.

  "Hehe, then let me analyze these two research results. This way, everyone will know why so many masters chose these two research results as the first and second place."

  Cai Ning continued.

  At this moment, almost everyone in the exhibition hall was holding their breath and perking up their ears, as if afraid of missing a single word. A mid-level symbol master was analyzing a research result, which was extremely rare and an unexpected delight for the symbol masters present.

  Nangong's eyes lit up, and a hint of anticipation appeared on his face. He wanted to see what kind of research results this Ling Circle Refining Symbol technique had achieved.

  Chu Xiao was no exception, and he was extremely curious about Ling Hu's recording.

  "I'll just mention 'Ling Arc Engraving' first. This research result was studied by my last disciple, Nangong Shang."

  Cai Ning said with a tone full of pride that he was the one who had researched and created the "Ling Arc Engraving" technique.

  "I didn't expect that the Linghuo Kèlù was actually researched by Nángōng Shāng, who is said to have the talent of Zhìfú Eight Segments, just like Cài Níng Dàshī. After showing amazing talent in Zhìfú, he was taken as a closed disciple by Master Cài and became a fourth-grade Zhìfú craftsman at the age of ten."

  "In our Yunzhou, people with the Eight Trigrams Innate Talent are extremely rare. Master Cai's intention in accepting him as a closed-door disciple is to cultivate Nan Gongsheng into his successor."

  "It seems that Nan Gong's injury is indeed extremely talented, his research on the spiritual arc record has made so many masters attach great importance to it, I wonder what this spiritual arc record is?"

  "Just watch Master Cai's analysis and you'll know."

  Chu Xiao learned some information about Nangong's injury from the discussions of many seal masters around him.

  As Master Cai Ning began to interpret "Ling Arc Engraving", the entire exhibition hall fell silent, with only the sound of a needle dropping being audible.

  "It is well known that when engraving talismans, the curved lines are the most difficult to record. As a result, there are countless techniques for recording curved lines on talismans. Currently, the three most widely spread and classic techniques for recording curved lines are: the 'Three Yang Arcs' of Bai Lixi, a master talisman maker from over 900 years ago; the 'Bow-shaped Arcs' of Niu Meng, a high-level talisman maker from 700 years ago; and the 'Arc-shaped Cutting Arcs' that have been passed down since ancient times. I think that almost all talisman makers use curved line recording techniques that are derived from these three classic techniques. However, Nan Gong Shang's 'Spiritual Arc Recording' technique goes beyond these three classic curved line recording techniques and can be considered a fourth technique. Of course, this curved line recording technique is not yet perfect and can even be said to be rough. Nevertheless, I believe that if he studies it carefully, he will definitely be able to perfect this technique."

  "The three yang arc strength uses the three yang meridians to condense and form a powerful force, which is then used to carve out an arc. This follows the extreme yang route, with an overabundance of dominance but a lack of flexibility. However, the bow-shaped strength is formed by the back, arms, and wrists creating a bow shape, and then using a simple bow-shaped meridian to circulate the strength. The bow-shaped strength follows a sharp and fierce route, which can be described as combining both hardness and softness. Nevertheless, this bow-shaped strength has one weakness: once it is released, it becomes difficult to control, requiring a single breath to complete; any slight delay will affect the entire arc's carving. On the other hand, the arc-cutting strength should be said to be the most gentle method, using an arc to cut an arc. However, this requires the talisman master to possess extremely high spiritual micro-control; otherwise, poor control of the cutting strength will affect the subsequent arc, thereby affecting the entire process. Therefore, the arc-cutting strength is the one with the highest requirements. Precisely because of this, the number of talisman masters using the arc-cutting strength is the smallest."

  "As for the spiritual arc engraving, it should be said that it evolved from the arc-shaped cutting style. Why I say it already belongs to the fourth kind of engraving technique is because it must create a virtual spiritual arc line in the jade that needs to be engraved, and then use this spiritual arc line as a baseline to engrave out the desired arc lines with cutting style. It can be said that only if this spiritual arc line is virtually constructed, then the subsequent arc line engravings are almost flawless and will not have any deviations."

  Master Cai Ning said a lot and even personally simulated the details of the spiritual arc recording with his divine power.

  The originally bewildered talisman makers suddenly enlightened, their eyes shining brightly, they felt that this engraving method was simply too miraculous, with such a spiritual arc line, the originally most difficult arc line engraving became simple, they believed that as long as they mastered this spiritual arc engraving method, they would be able to improve the quality of the talismans by one grade.

  Chu Xiao looked at it and was shocked, because this engraving method was actually a part of the symbol transformation he needed to carry out. Although Nan Gong Shang's research on Ling Arc Engraving was rough and hadn't found the most core thing, it had undoubtedly touched the edge of the truth. As long as he delved deeper into his research, he would definitely be able to find a spiritual point.

  Not bad, this kind of engraving method should be called Lingdian Engraving Technique, and Linghu Engraving is just a part of it.

  Chu Xiao hastily checked the information about Lingdian Keklou Technique, and soon he let out a light breath, with a hint of astonishment in his eyes. It turned out that the founder of this technique was actually named Nangong Shang.

  According to the Xiu Zhen system, Nan Gong Yi did not thoroughly perfect the Ling Dian Ke Lu Shu, but only completed a framework. It was his later generations who perfected the Ling Dian Ke Lu Shu.

  However, just with the invention of this Ling Dian Ke Lu technique, it can be seen how much Nan Gong Xiang has contributed to the world of talismans.

  Chu Xiao didn't expect to meet a historical celebrity.

  At the same time, he couldn't help but shake his head secretly. Fortunately, this time he didn't use the Lingdian Kechu technique, one of his research results. Otherwise, it's estimated that a collision would have occurred.

  At this moment, Master Cai's voice continued to spread from the transmission device: "The spiritual arc engraving has been analyzed, and next is the spiritual circle refining talisman technique. I can say that the spiritual circle refining talisman technique is a research result that is not inferior to the spiritual arc engraving at all. In fact, I think that the spiritual circle refining talisman technique has even greater significance for our talisman world than the spiritual arc engraving."

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