In the Yulan continent, one gold coin equaled ten silver coins equaled a thousand copper coins. The average commoner would be able to earn twenty or thirty gold coins in a year. Even the average army soldier would only earn a hundred or so gold coins. “The price is too low.” Hogg shook his head.
“Hogg, you must know that in all the ten thousand plus years of the Yulan continent, there have been countless sculptures made. The true value of a sculpture is in terms of its artisanship. As far as the artisanship of this one… well, heh, suffice to say, I just like it. Five hundred gold really is my highest offer. If you don’t accept, then let’s just forget about it.”
Philip laughed as he turned to look at the grandfather clock in the hall. His eyes gleaming, he said, “Hogg, if you were to sell this clock, however, I would be willing to pay a thousand gold.” Hogg’s face instantly grew cold. “Ahem, two thousand gold would be acceptable as well. This would be my highest offer.” Philip added hurriedly.
Hogg sternly shook his head firmly. “The grandfather clock is not for sale! As for the sculpture, six hundred gold. Take it or leave it.”
Philip carefully studied Hogg for a moment, then chuckled. “Fine, Hogg. I’ll give you some face. Six hundred gold it is. Housekeeper, bring me six hundred gold.” The caretaker for his manor, who had been waiting outside the entire time, immediately ran over with six sacks of yellow gold. “Six hundred gold, Hogg. You can count it, if you want.” Philip smiled.
Hogg hefted the sacks. Just based on weight alone, Hogg was certain that there really were six hundred gold coins in them, a hundred gold per sack. Hogg smiled and nodded. “Philip, how about staying and having dinner with us?”
“No need, I still have some business back home.” Philip laughed. Philip’s housekeeper subsequently instructed two powerfully built warriors to lift and carry away the sculpture, which they did with difficulty.
After Philip and his entourage had departed, Hogg stared at the six sacks of gold, a dim look in his eyes. This time, he sold the stone sculpture. Next time? Although the manor still had many things remaining, sooner or later, they would have nothing left.
“Father, I want to learn to be a sculptor!” Linley suddenly said. Linley knew very well that in the Yulan continent, those famous master sculptors could produce works valued at tens of thousands of gold pieces each. Some famous sculptures could even reach a hundred thousand gold pieces. And wealth aside, the societal ranking of these sculptors was also very high.
“If I can become a master sculptor, then… then father will no longer have to sell our family possessions.” This is what Linley was thinking.
“Sculpting?” Hogg glanced at Linley, his eyes cold. “Linley, amongst the hundreds of millions of people in the Holy Union, there are at least several million who have studied sculpting. But in the entire Holy Union, the number of true masters can be counted on one hand. In addition, if you don’t have a good instructor, you simply cannot succeed on your own.”
“The inner circle of sculptors is not one which ordinary people are allowed into. You only see the sky-high valuation of the works of the masters, but do you know that the vast majority of sculptors only make a few dozen gold coins each year?” Hogg’s voice was very fierce.
Linley was so frightened he immediately knelt down. Just now, he only spoke because he thought that sculpting could improve his family’s situation. He didn’t expect his father to say so much and lecture him so sternly.
“Enough! The ancestral hall needs some cleaning. After lunch, go and clean it up,” Hogg said coldly.
“Yes, father,” Linley said respectfully.
Looking at Linley, Hogg sighed in his heart. “Sculpting? Oh, dear child... do you know that in the past, Id also practiced sculpting? I spent ten full years of my life trying to learn. But unfortunately, my sculptures weren’t worth a single coin.” Hogg, too, had once foolishly dreamed of becoming a master sculptor and thereby improving his clan’s situation.
But in his heart, he felt very helpless. Despite spending ten years training, his sculptures were still worthless. The field of sculpting could be described as a pyramid. Those famous master sculptors were at the top of the pyramid. They enjoyed a high status, and each sculpture they made was worth hundreds of thousands of coins.
But the valuation of the work of the countless low-level sculptors at the bottom of the pyramid was soul-crushingly low. Most of their works would just be bought by commoners for just a few silver coins to use as decorations in their homes.
4
Coiling Dragon Ring
The rosy clouds underneath the setting sun seemed to cover half the sky, casting their red hue upon the entire world.
“Cleaning the ancestral hall is pretty easy.” Departing the ancestral hall, Linley had to admit that he had over-prepared. He had slotted an hour for this job, but in just fifteen minutes he was finished cleaning.
On the Yulan continent, each year was divided into twelve months, each month thirty days, each day twenty-four hours, and each hour sixty minutes. Most noble families owned grandfather clocks, and were able to accurately tell time. Some extremely wealthy or extremely high-status individuals might even own meticulously calibrated wrist watches.
“The ancestral hall is cleaned every month. Honestly, in just a month, the ancestral hall won’t get too dirty. All I have to do is just wipe it down a bit. I have almost an hour before training starts. What should I do?” Bored, Linley looked around in all directions.
The ancient Baruch mansion had five thousand years of history. The front courtyard was cleaned every day, but the rooms in the much larger back courtyard, aside from the ancestral hall, were all covered in dust, and even the walls were cracked. Wild grasses and dark green lichen covered the floors and even ran up the walls.
“Heeeeey…” Seeing the decrepit architecture, Linley’s eyes slowly brightened. “Lots of places in the back courtyard haven’t been visited in over a century. I wonder if there are any ancient, valuable items there?”
Upon thinking of this possibility, Linley’s heart began to pound. “If I am able to find some valuable things and give them to Father, no doubt he will be very happy.” Linley took a deep breath, then immediately entered a decrepit room next to the ancestral hall. Step by step he walked carefully, wielding a sturdy wooden stick in his hands which he used to strike down the cobwebs, allowing himself a more careful examination.
Immediately upon entering the room, a rotten scent wafted past Linley’s nose. Thick cobwebs could be seen in each corner, and spiders could even be seen clambering about.
Many spiderwebs were covering decorative curtains and furnishings. Upon closer examination, all of these curtains appeared very ancient. Unfortunately, the curtains were tattered beyond belief and just barely holding together.
“If these curtains weren’t ruined, no doubt they would be worth a lot of money.” Linley helplessly shook his head. He continued to inspect the room, using his stick to brush aside the layers of cobwebs as he carefully searched. He searched the floor, the cabinets, and even to see if there were any secret passageways on the walls.
“According to the books I’ve read, it is quite common for walls to contain hidden levers or passages.” Linley carefully rapped the walls, listening to the sounds. Linley very much enjoyed this feeling of searching for treasures in the ancient room. Alas, he had forgotten something. If he could come up with this idea, wouldn’t his father, his grandfather, and the other elders of the Baruch clan also have thought of this? These ancient rooms had long ago been scoured clean by the long-dead ancestors of the Baruch clan.
Linley was only eight years old, after all. Although the strict education of the clan helped him mature quickly, there was still a large gap between him and an adult. Naturally, he wouldn’t be able to consider things from a more complete point of view.
“Nothing in this room. Next one…” Linley exited the first room and entered the second. There were actually many rooms in the back courtyard. Afte
r all, the front courtyard which Linley resided in, constituted only a third of the entire manor. The back courtyard was far larger. Linley would probably have to spend an entire day in order to finish searching the entire back courtyard.
“All these decorations are ruined. Not a single one of them is worth any money.” Linley exited yet another empty room, then stared up at the sky. “Eh, looks like it’s almost time for training. I have another fifteen minutes or so at most.”
Linley turned his head around and stared at an extremely large room. “I’ll just look at that last one, that big one. I’ll spend about ten minutes searching. If I can’t find anything, I’ll go off to training.” Having made up his mind, Linley raced towards the room.
This ancient room was much larger than even the main hall in the front courtyard. Stepping inside, Linley carefully scrutinized the place. “I bet that centuries ago, this was the dining hall for our Baruch clan.” From the ornaments and furniture, Linley could tell that this was a hall for people to reside in. It was a truly huge, grandiose-looking hall.
“Search the ground first.” Same as before, Linley lowered his head, widened his eyes, and began carefully searching the room one part at a time. Upon seeing anything interesting, he would tap it twice with his stick. If it was made out of stone, he would ignore it. Since he didn’t have much time left before training was to start, his searching speed increased as well.
“Time to search the walls and the curtains. Oi. Last, best hope.” Linley grimaced as he scanned the surroundings. “Clan elders, I really hope you guys left one or two things behind for me to find. Even something small would do.”
Linley carefully searched the walls, even peeking behind the tattered curtains. On the ancient walls were many rotted wooden cabinets, each of which had many drawers. Linley pulled open each and every drawer, but the drawers were totally empty, almost immaculately so. The only thing inside of them? Some dust.
“Ugh!” After pulling open the last drawer, Linley felt bitter disappointment in his heart. “After searching for all this time, I didn’t even find a single valuable item. All I did was cover myself with sweat and dust.” Linley stared at his clothes. They really were filthy, now. Linley couldn’t help but feel discontented.
Linley’s gaze once more flashed across the room. “Hmph. I’m leaving.” Linley angrily used the stick in his hand to strike hard against a nearby cabinet, as though he wanted to give vent to all the anger that had built up over an hour of fruitless searching.
“Thud!” The stick struck the cabinet square in the middle. The cabinet was extremely ancient. After having been chewed on by mites for a hundred years, it couldn’t withstand any weight at all. After having been struck so fiercely, it began to creak and groan.
Hearing this, Linley couldn’t help but look behind him in alarm. “Uh oh, it’s going to fall!” While searching the other rooms Linley had also destroyed a few other pieces of furniture, so by now, he was very experienced. Linley hurriedly dodged to one side.
The cabinet, which was twice as tall as Linley himself, collapsed with a crashing sound, smashing against the floor and breaking into seven or eight pieces. It covered the room with even more dust… but hidden amidst the dust, unseen by Linley, was something special.
Upon the shattering of the cabinet, a black ring which had been hidden within the wooden supports came tumbling out, falling to the ground.
“Ew, ew!” Linley spat out the two words as he hurriedly tried to escape the wave of dust. “My luck is terrible! I’m completely covered with dust now, and I bet training is about to start. I’d best go take a quick shower and put on some new clothes.” With a wave of his arm, Linley pushed open the door and departed the ancient room.
The black ring had rolled forward, landing precisely in front of the doorway. As a result ,when Linley had strode forward by three steps, reaching the doorway, he came to a sudden halt because he could clearly feel that he had stepped on something hard.
“Just now, I searched the ground and didn’t see a single rock. This must have come from the shattered drawers.” Thinking about the collapsed drawers, Linley couldn’t help but feel angry. He viciously stomped on the piece of ‘shattered wood’ beneath his feet.
Linley expected it to be a piece of shattered wood which would easily be stomped into fragments. But in reality…
“Whoah, it’s hard! What’s under my foot?” Linley felt that the item underneath his foot was extraordinarily tough, and immediately stepped aside to take a closer look. He saw a jet-black object in the shape of a ring lying peacefully on the ground. It was covered by a layer of dust, and was not at all catching to the eye.
“Oh, a ring?” Linley’s eyes were bandit-sharp. He happily plucked the ring up, then used his filthy sleeves to give the black ring a vigorous rub-down. Only then could Linley make out what this item really looked like.
This black ring was made of a material that seemed to have properties of both wood and stone. On the body of the ring, there was a very faint carving of an indistinct object as well. “Is that an earthworm?” Linley suspiciously looked at the carving on the ring. At first glance, Linley felt that the sinuous carving on the ring seemed to be that of an earthworm.
Linley laughed to himself, “Whoever carved this on the ring did a terrible job. I bet even a mediocre carver could make something more attractive. What a shame. This black ring doesn’t even have a single diamond on it, much less any valuable magic crystals.”
Most rings were adorned with either diamonds or magic crystals. Unfortunately, this black ring seemed to have been made out of a material that had properties of both wood and stone. Not even the shadow of a gemstone could be seen. Clearly, it was worthless.
But for some reason, upon seeing the ring, Linley immediately felt that he had taken a liking to it. He suspected that it was most likely because this was the only thing he had discovered after spending a prodigious amount of effort in searching the manor.
“Hm, this ring is really thick. There’s no way to wear it on my finger without it slipping off. I’ll string it through with silk and wear it around my neck.” Linley’s eyes brightened. The eight-year-old Linley’s hands, after all, were much smaller than the hands of an adult. There was no way he could wear the ring on his fingers.
“Now, what name should I choose for this black ring? Earthworm Ring? No way, that sounds terrible.” Linley mumbled for a few moments, then his eyes lit up. “Haha, that sinuous thing can also be considered a ‘dragon’, right? A dragon curled around the ring… then, I’ll call it the Coiling Dragon Ring!” Although in his heart Linley felt like the carving looked more like an earthworm, he still chose the name ‘Coiling Dragon Ring’ for it.
“The Coiling Dragon Ring!” Lifting up the dark, unadorned ring, Linley felt exceptionally pleased.
“Wait. Crap! It’s almost time for training!” Linley suddenly remembered. He frantically stared at his filthy clothes, covered in dust and grime. He looked like a beggar. “Oh no…” Linley had no time to think. He immediately ran out of the ancient courtyard and charged straight for the washroom.
The sound of rushing water could be heard as Linley dumped water over himself. His skin was bright and vigorous, and muscular lines were already beginning to develop all over his body. This was the result of Linley’s training. Underneath the rushing water flow, the dust was quickly washed away.
Using the least amount of time necessary, Linley washed himself clean then hurriedly put on his training clothes. “String, string…” Linley hurriedly looked about for a thread on which he could hang the Coiling Dragon Ring. Suddenly, Linley’s gaze fell on a ruined old washcloth. His eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled a string out from within the washcloth.
Although the washcloth was very ordinary, it was very sturdy and durable. The string, too, would be very resilient. He quickly strung on the Coiling Dragon Ring, then immediately put on his makeshift necklace.
“I’m gonna be late. This is my first time being late!�
�� Linley bolted out like a roaring flame. As he ran, he tucked the Coiling Dragon Ring into his clothes. Feeling the coolness of the ring against his chest, Linley couldn’t help but feel happy.
In exchange for being late, he gained the Coiling Dragon Ring.
Linley rushed out of the Baruch clan manor in a flash, and then immediately ran towards the empty training ground east of the town of Wushan. By this time, most of the commoners had already returned home, leaving the streets empty, but as they saw Linley run, they were able to guess the reason.
“Young master Linley, careful, don’t hurt yourself!”
“Master Hillman is extremely rigorous. I’m afraid young master Linley is going to be punished.”
The kindness that the Baruch clan had showed the commoners caused them to also be filled with love and goodwill towards Linley.
“How will Uncle Hillman punish me?” Even as he hurriedly rushed forward, Linley was still thinking about this question. At this point, Linley had no time to chat or pay respects to any of the uncles or aunties nearby. In a short period of time, Linley arrived at the training field of the town of Wushan. By this time, all three squads had already lined up. Hillman was speaking, but upon hearing Linley’s footsteps, Hillman’s cold gaze couldn’t help but shoot towards him.
Linley ran towards the training squads. Taking position next to the squads, he nervously awaited Hillman’s orders. “Today’s training exercises will be doubled for you. Return to your team!” Hillman said calmly.
“Yes sir!” Linley raised his head high and said in a bright voice. The youngsters nearby couldn’t help but stick out their tongues at the severity of it. Linley had only been late by minutes, but his punishment was double duty training. Today, Linley probably wouldn’t have any time to go home and eat dinner.
Just as Linley began jogging towards his usual position in the team, suddenly… THUD! The entire earth began to tremble slightly, with a strangely regular cadence. It was as though a giant creature was walking on the earth, causing it to tremble with each step. “East. It came from the east.” Linley immediately discerned the direction.
Coiling Dragon_Book 1 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 5