Dragon's Origin

## Chapter 614: Concentric Ghost Craft Sphere (Part 1)

This morning, everyone in the Changsheng Duke's residence seemed to be filled with joy. Especially in the inner courtyard, all the women wore beaming smiles, as if some great happy event was about to occur.

Of course, there was a happy event, though not of the wedding or funeral variety. Rather, it was that the Changsheng Duke was participating in the Grandmaster assessment today, and almost everyone in the residence who knew about it was optimistic about whether Wang Sheng would pass the assessment.

Wang Sheng left with Mei'er and Qiangwei, accompanied by Lingxu Old Daoist. None of them went directly to the Tiangong Workshop. Instead, they invited all the Grandmasters involved in the assessment to the former Changsheng Duke's residence.

Linglong Pavilion had no objections. Many people from various vassal states had come, and they didn't want to be disturbed by them. Coming to Wang Sheng's place was more convenient, and they could see a lot of new things. Grandmasters, both great and small, all liked to come to Wang Sheng's place.

As Wang Sheng's nominal master, Grandmaster Lu was definitely present. In addition, there were several Grandmasters in the field of carving, at least three of whom specialized in carving inkstones and various stationery ornaments. The rest included several potters and several jewelers, all related to fine carving.

Another special one was Elder Qian, the appraisal Grandmaster. The current Elder Qian was no longer a half-baked amateur. His broadened horizons allowed him to immediately determine the approximate value and craftsmanship level of what he saw. Therefore, Elder Qian was now almost a permanent examiner for various Grandmaster assessments.

These were all responsible for the assessment. The total number of people assessing the Grandmaster was eleven. The rest were all there to observe, including Elder Tie and others, including the tailors, blacksmiths, and other Grandmasters at Wang Sheng's residence, and even the musical instrument Grandmasters came, all to witness the event.

Being Grandmasters, Wang Sheng had to greet them one by one.

The assessment location was in the courtyard outside the reception hall of the former Changsheng Duke's residence. There was no other way; there were too many people, and this place also seemed more solemn.

Apart from Mei'er and Qiangwei, who had seen the semi-finished white jade sphere, even the Old Daoist didn't know what Wang Sheng's work was. Everyone was looking forward to it because they all knew that Wang Sheng was someone who often brought miracles, so they were all anticipating Wang Sheng's work.

In fact, it wasn't just those present who were looking forward to it; even the Emperor and Empress were very curious. However, the status of the people present meant that the Emperor and Empress couldn't possibly come to observe, which the Emperor found quite regrettable.

The observers sat on the outer circle, those responsible for the assessment sat in the inner circle, and Wang Sheng was in the very center.

"Alright, Wang Sheng, take out your work!" Once everyone was seated, Grandmaster Lu, representing all the assessing Grandmasters, said to Wang Sheng.

Grandmaster Lu was Wang Sheng's nominal master, with half a master-disciple relationship. Moreover, this was a Grandmaster assessment site, not an official setting, so he directly addressed Wang Sheng by name, rather than by his official position or title.

No one felt there was any problem with this, and Wang Sheng didn't think there was anything wrong either. Nodding to Grandmaster Lu, Wang Sheng reached out, took out his work from his storage ring, and placed it with both hands on the table in the center before stepping aside.

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to the table in the center. The work Wang Sheng took out was placed on a wooden base.

The base was simple. In the eyes of the Grandmasters, it was just a regular wooden base carved from good wood without any display of skill—circular, with a semi-circular groove on top, just enough to hold the white jade sphere.

Wang Sheng's work was indeed a white jade sphere. However, it wasn't an ordinary white jade sphere, but a concentric sphere with a diameter of fifteen centimeters, also known as a ghost craft sphere.

On Earth, ghost craft spheres are nested spheres carved from ivory. Ivory carving of nested spheres is also known as "concentric spheres" or "ghost craft spheres," meaning the work of ghosts and gods. The production is quite complex, and the craftsmanship requirements are extremely high.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou ivory carving artisans drew inspiration from the hollow carving form of stone lions with pearls in their mouths. After careful design and research, and with bold imagination and ingenious craftsmanship, they created a new style of spheres nested within spheres using ivory materials. The nested spheres could reach dozens of layers, and modern technology can even reach sixty layers.

However, this was jade carving, not ivory carving. Jade is extremely hard and difficult to carve. Modern craftsmanship can carve out concentric ghost craft spheres with more than a dozen layers on a diameter of about fifteen centimeters, which is already the limit.

The concentric sphere carved by Wang Sheng himself was different. With a diameter of fifteen centimeters, Wang Sheng carved a full fifty layers. That is to say, with a diameter of fifteen centimeters, a radius of seven and a half centimeters, seventy-five millimeters, the thickness of each layer plus the gap was only one and a half millimeters.

Wang Sheng carved a gap of one millimeter, leaving only zero point five millimeters for the jade part. Not only that, Wang Sheng also carved a simple array on each layer.

The function of the array was simple: to allow the jade sphere of that layer to float with the center of the outermost layer as the center. Each layer had an array, so each layer could float with the very center as the center, making it a truly concentric sphere.

Each layer was a nested sphere, and each set of spheres, inside and out, was carved with exquisite and complex patterns. Just placing it there made people feel extremely complicated.

Wang Sheng gently plucked it from the inside out with a thin needle, and all the nested spheres, inside and out, began to rotate around a common center.

Which of the people present wasn't a Grandmaster in their respective fields? If they felt a little strange when Wang Sheng put up a jade sphere with exquisite patterns at first, then now that Wang Sheng had turned each layer, everyone immediately understood what it was.

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Which Grandmaster wasn't a legendary expert? With a casual look and listen, they knew that there were at least thirty layers inside.

Because of the array, Wang Sheng could easily control the rotation of the inner and outer layers. After rotating for a while, Wang Sheng easily controlled all the nested spheres to stop.

When they stopped, all the carved holes happened to return to their positions, arranged neatly to form several conical holes. But on closer inspection, the conical holes were also subdivided into dozens of layers.

Everyone who watched all this was completely stunned in place. How could so many layers be carved on such a small jade sphere? And it was carved from the outside to the inside, without completely destroying the integrity of the jade sphere. How was this possible?

Everyone had absolutely no idea how this was carved. Carving from the outside in? Were those conical holes the places to start from the inside?

"Wang Sheng, how many layers did you carve in total?" Grandmaster Lu looked at the concentric ghost craft sphere with great surprise and asked incredulously.