Chapter 410: Glimmer of Autumn Moon
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ, KLKL
Translated by: TYZ
Edited by: Kevin
Chapter 410 - Glimmer of Autumn Moon
The appearance of the loom had completely changed. No matter how Mingxiu looked at what Ai Hui was fiddling with, she could not link it to an ordinary loom.
If this thing was a loom, it would be the oddest looking loom in the world.
Whenever the previous loom was switched on, the hollow at the centre of it would be filled with a glow, resembling the peaceful surface of a sea. In the current loom, the hollow had disappeared and was replaced by a peak-like object.
"Wait for a while more."
Ai Hui’s voice came from beneath the loom. Apparently, he had crawled under the base of it.
After a while, Ai Hui crawled out from the base. His entire body was covered in dust, but he not mind at all. "It’s fixed!" Ai Hui said cheerfully.
"You have fixed it?" Mingxiu had a puzzled look on her face.
"Yes," Ai Hui nodded his head with confidence. When he noticed Mingxiu’s facial expression, he immediately knew what she was thinking. He replied with satisfaction, "Oh, I feel that the previous loom has a lot of room for improvement and I conveniently made some modifications to it. When Master made this loom, a lot of theories that he applied to it were not fully developed yet. As such, the previous loom can be considered an outdated version."
Mingxiu was filled with complex feelings. To her, this was not only a loom but an inheritance to commemorate her master and mistress. Originally, she did not wish for anything on this loom to change at all, as she did not care whether or not the loom was useful. If it was a random blacksmith who wanted to make this many modifications to it, she would not have allowed it.
However, the one who modified it was her junior, a person who had the same sentiments as her towards the inheritances from their master and mistress.
"I think Master and Mistress would want us to carry forward their theories, not leave them in the corner of a warehouse for us to commemorate them with."
Ai Hui’s voice was very calm. The sentimental feeling in Mingxiu’s heart was soothed by Ai Hui’s voice. She smiled saying, "Junior is right. Junior, come and introduce me to this brand-new loom."
Looking pleased with himself, Ai Hui replied, "In the previous loom, the operating path of every needle is fixed. Master has created a brilliant yet complicated setting for them. However, this setting has a flaw, that is, its low operating efficiency rate. The modifications I’ve made are inspired by God-subduing Peak. Look at its shape, does it look somewhat like the God-subduing Peak? God-subduing Peak’s elemental energy flow follows the five elemental cycle that grows and multiplies without an end. Using it in the loom, it optimizes the use of elemental energy. Then, how do we move the needles? I solved this issue by using the theories behind sword formations. Can you see that every needle actually resembles a small flying sword? A sword formation can make swords do complicated maneuvers and its operating efficiency is extremely high. Unlike swords, the difficulty of controlling the needles is much lower. The loom will work as long as you can stabilize the flight path of the needles."
"It’s so powerful?" A doubtful looked appeared on Mingxiu’s face.
"This is a brand-new model. Its efficiency rate far surpasses the previous model. If Senior doesn’t believe me, you can give it a try." Ai Hui said proudly.
"I will definitely give it a try," Mingxiu cast a glance at Ai Hui, "If your modifications fail, that means you have destroyed Master’s and Mistress’s inheritance. Ahhh…"
Mingxiu’s words made Ai Hui feel bad. However, he was very confident with his modified loom. "Do you want me to give it a try first?" Ai Hui asked.
"No need," Mingxiu rejected Ai Hui’s offer with confidence. She had been trained in embroidery since she was very young. She had fiddled with all kinds of new looms in the market and she was extremely knowledgeable in this aspect.
She placed her palms on the imprints and channeled her elemental energy into the loom. A buzzing sound came out of the loom as the mini peak on the table suddenly shot out a few finger-sized beams of light. Then a radiance was emitted from the peak and flowed down the peak like liquid. Everywhere it passed through began to buzz loudly.
Mingxiu suddenly yelled in surprise, "Oh my god! There are so many needles!"
Mingxiu understood a lot of types of looms very well. The science behind each loom was quite different. However, the logic behind the number of needles would always be the same. The more needles there were, the higher the grade of the cloth that was produced.
The previous loom that was left behind by her mistress had a total of one hundred and eight needles. This was already a huge amount. Now, there were so many needles within the peak that Mingxiu could not tell how many there were.
This entire peak was made up of needles!
Ai Hui’s proud voice rang across Mingxiu’s ears.
"Nine hundred and seventy-two needles. This is already the limit of its capacity . If more needles are added in, the size of the loom will be terrifying."
Mingxiu was thoroughly shocked by the number of needles in the loom. For a moment, she forgot to channel her elemental energy into the loom and the buzzing sound immediately became softer.
Upon seeing this, Ai Hui quickly reminded her, "Don’t stop. Since this loom has more needles, you must channel enough elemental energy into it to activate the needles."
Mingxiu’s mind jolted. She quickly regained her composure and continued to channel her elemental energy into the loom.
The shock she felt had yet to disappear. An unprecedented feeling arose in her mind. To her surprise, she discovered that she could easily sense the specific position of every needle.
Every single position of the nine hundred and seventy-two needles could be clearly sensed!
Mingxiu felt incredulous. How did her junior do it?
Just as this question flashed across her mind, a whizzing sound rang across her ears. Traces of fine glowing silk erupted from the peak. They were so resplendent that she was entranced by them.
Wait!
This indescribable feeling of familiarity came silently and suddenly.
This was… [Waterfall Weaving Technique]?
Her junior’s irritating and proud voice rang across her ears again.
"Do you find these needles familiar? Since there are too many needles, the usual weaving technique will not work. That’s when I thought of Mistress’s [Waterfall Weaving Technique]. Don’t tell me you don’t know Mistress’s masterpiece?"
"I don’t know? Of course I know!"
However, Han Yuqin, the person who created [Waterfall Weaving Technique], controlled a total of nine hundred and forty-seven needles! Up till now, she held the record for the most number of needles controlled at once.
This loom had nine hundred and seventy-two needles. That was twenty-five more needles than her mistress’s record!
Mingxiu felt that her brain was in chaos. Her ten years worth of experience and knowledge about embroidery had been overturned in an instant.
"Focus!"
Ai Hi’s reminder brought Mingxiu back to her senses. She took in a deep breath of air and got rid of the distracting thoughts in her head. Following which, her gaze became focused.
Wisps of light rose from the peak, resembling a school of fish that were swimming nimbly and swiftly. An observer would see a dazzling and gorgeous waterfall falling down the peak.
The focused Mingxiu could immediately sense the marvels of the loom. [Waterfall Weaving Technique] was a technique that she was very familiar with. Even though she could not control nine hundred and forty-seven needles like her mistress, she could still control six hundred needles. There were very few people of her age and base level that could achieve this feat.
However, she had never controlled so many needles before. The surprising thing was that she did not feel it was strenuous at all to control so many needles. The pain of controlling several hundreds of needles had completely disappeared. These needles were unusually tame and obedient. Every needle would react the instant she jolted her mind.
Mingxiu became excited as she understood what this meant.
Elemental energy flowed into the loom in an unending stream. Traces of fine needle gleams were swirling around the peak and interweaving with each other, releasing a magnificent burst of sparks in every direction. Deafening sonic booms, hollow sounds of wood and hissing sounds created by the silk yarns rubbing against each other were produced at random.
Ai Hui was entranced by the process.
The needles were moving in a very shocking way. The way the elemental energy fluctuated had certainly amazed him as well. Even though he was the one that created this loom, he could never weave at such a level.
Senior Mingxiu’s achievements in the field of embroidery were displayed in great detail at this instance.
A piece of pure white cloth was formed and it swirled around the peak like a huge, snow-white fish. Countless brilliant glimmers of various colors gathered at the tail of the cloth. Needles were flying around each other with a terrifying speed at the tail of the cloth. Looking from afar, the cloth looked like a huge, snow-white fish that had a tail like colorful fireworks.
The length of the cloth was slowly increasing.
The elemental energy in the air was slightly changing as well. The moving piece of cloth absorbed elemental energy from its surrounding as the elemental energy undulations coming from it became stronger and stronger. Like a whirlpool, the swirling piece of cloth was devouring its surrounding elemental energy endlessly.
Ai Hui’s face displayed astonishment. Anything that could cause changes in Nature’s elemental energy was definitely an extraordinary object!
A layer of faint glimmer enshrouded the white-colored cloth.
The needles gleaming at the tail of the cloth became increasingly magnificent. Beads of perspiration appeared on the tip of Mingxiu’s nose and her forehead. Her gaze remained focused.
Ai Hui was slightly nervous as well. He knew that when a piece of cloth was about to be finished it was at its most critical stage, and this moment was where mistakes could be made the easiest. At this stage, Mingxiu was already very tired and the elemental energy in her body had been almost completely depleted. A moment of carelessness would cause her to fail and waste all the effort she had put in.
Destroying the entire bolt of cloth while one was finishing it up was a common occurrence in the world of embroidery.
The densely-packed needle gleams began to give off fine, whizzing sounds. The whizzing sounds got louder and louder. At this moment, the needle gleams were moving at a speed that human eyes could not see while the whizzing sounds had turned into crisp and deafening sonic booms.
The deafening sonic booms made Ai Hui so nervous that he was gasping for air.
When the last streak of needle gleam pierced through the white cloth, all the sonic booms disappeared.
The piece of white cloth hovered above the peak while its entire body was emitting a glow. The glow was actually concentrated elemental energy.
Mingxiu lifted up her palms as she gasped for air. Her forehead was dripping with perspiration but her eyes were filled with excitement.
"Impressive! Impressive! I didn’t expect myself to weave Glimmer of Autumn Moon!"
Ai Hui froze momentarily. After a while, he returned to his senses and asked with incredulity, "This… this is Glimmer of Autumn Moon?"
In any case, Ai Hui had spent a reasonable amount of time in the embroidery workshop to know what Glimmer of Autumn Moon was. Glimmer of Autumn Moon was a top-grade cloth material. Naturally, it could emit a gentle and cold glimmer, resembling the magnificent glimmer of an autumn moon.
The concentrated elemental energy surrounding the hovering white cloth gradually disappeared and became a gentle glimmer, resembling the glow of a moon. Nothing could be more beautiful than the glimmer.
Mingxiu was mesmerized by the piece of white cloth as well. "Yes, this is Glimmer of Autumn Moon."
Every top-grade cloth material had its unique characteristic. Glimmer of Autumn Moon could only be produced using nine hundred or more needles at the same time. The weaving technique required for this cloth was extremely complicated. Since Mingxiu could only control up to six hundred needles, the piece of cloth she produced was actually Glimmer of Moon, which was a grade lower than Glimmer of Autumn Moon. The lustre of Glimmer of Moon did not contain the cold gleam that Glimmer of Autumn Moon uniquely possessed. Furthermore, the uses and prices of these two materials was extremely different.
Mingxiu never expected her first bolt of Glimmer of Autumn Moon to be produced in such a situation.