Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 287

She wore a high-waisted ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), draped in silk, stood on auspicious clouds, and had her hair adorned with pearls and jade.

Absolutely stunning.

The players watching were all wide-eyed!

"My mech grand marshal, what is this?"

"Ahhh, why have I never seen such a beautiful nut carving before!"

"How much? Name your price, and I'll buy it if you dare to ask!"

How could the stall owner possibly sell this? This string of beads is far more precious than the previous Thirteen Forms of the Monkey King. It's much rarer; the milky-grayish-white material alone is extremely scarce, let alone being carved into such an exquisite piece.

"No, no, we're not selling. Everyone knows what the real purpose of this auction is. We're just happy that we can give everyone a good look."

Then, he took out another piece of his work!

This is a round-carved Guan Gong figurine made from asbestos walnut wood, with a white jade base. Guan Gong is depicted holding his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, stroking his beard, and sitting on a unique rock shaped like auspicious clouds.

The walnuts selected are extra-large, with an average diameter of eight centimeters—giants in the walnut world, too big to fit in one hand. The walnuts haven't been handled or nurtured; their color is a skin-red, lacking vibrancy. Walnuts that are frequently handled and used for collecting develop a vibrant, golden-red color, with a jade-like texture and a beautiful, ethereal quality.

This large walnut carving, paired with a white jade base, allows the carving to be easily picked up and gently placed back into place on the base.

The players around him gasped as soon as he placed it!

It's so majestic and imposing, and so beautiful and exquisite.

"My great mecha marshal, where did you get all these things?"

"I've never encountered anything like this before. Where did you find it?"

"Sell it to me, please sell it to me. Name your price."

Another wave of bidding ensued, but the stall owner remained unmoved, calmly producing another enormous box. Inside, neatly arranged sculptures of the Twenty-Eight Star Gods, forming a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) pattern, were a truly awe-inspiring sight.

The Twenty-Eight Star Gods are carved from walnut pits on the outer perimeter, with their hanging cords facing inwards, forming a radiating circle. Below them is an amber cat's-eye stone. In the center is a string of four divine figures carved from black peach pits, each one solemn and dignified, exuding an aura of warding off evil.

After a series of combos, the players watching around were almost unable to breathe!

This set of carved nut boxes is quite large, a full half meter in diameter. The nut carvings are in the round and have no inscriptions, but the corresponding pendant tassel has been transformed into a jade plaque, on which the sacred title of the corresponding nut carving deity is carved. The corresponding sacred title is also carved next to the nut carving on the box, making it look incredibly exquisite and magnificent.

I can't even imagine how much money this set would fetch; it's already priceless.

The enormous peach pits used to depict the four directional deities—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise—average a full 6 centimeters in diameter, making them extremely rare. It's worth noting that most peach pits average between 3 and 4 centimeters in diameter; 6 centimeters is practically the absolute maximum. The materials themselves are already incredibly scarce and difficult to collect, and with the addition of those ruined by drying in the shade for three years or those damaged during carving, the remaining ones are practically nonexistent.

Not to mention that it can be so large after being sculpted in the round, which is simply rare in the world.

The Bodhi seeds used to carve the Twenty-Eight Star Lords are quite large, with an average diameter of four centimeters. The material used for carving was also an extra-large, hard-to-find seed.

Many players first looked at the walnut carving and were then surprised by its name.

"Why does this name sound exactly the same as so many first-magnitude stars?"

"Huh? That's right! The Void Sun Rat is the planet I used to live on?"

"Kui Mulang! My mecha Grand Marshal, you are my planet."

"Look at these, everyone: Bi Yuewu, Gui Jin Yang, Nu Fu, Jin Niu, Fang Tu, Huo Hu! They are all names of first-magnitude stars."

"Qingfengyi actually used the name of a first-magnitude star in its content. Was it forced upon them by higher-ups?"

"Yeah, this ad is so good it makes my face burn."

"No way, does Qingfengyi really need capital support right now?"

"I must say, these names are really nice to hear, no wonder only first-magnitude stars can use them."

"Yes, the names of first-magnitude stars were predetermined. I heard that it was a rule set by the first human leader that the regions or areas he led could only choose one of the names he gave them as their names. Originally, it was called a district, then it became a planet, and then it became a first-magnitude star. Many second-magnitude and third-magnitude stars were aiming for that name, which is something that first-magnitude stars are very proud of."

“My father is the planetary lord of a third-magnitude star, and he desperately wants the name of a first-magnitude star. I’ve heard that such an honor represents not only prestige, but also power, money, and status.”

The surrounding crowd buzzed with discussion, creating a noisy atmosphere. The set of Twenty-Eight Star Lords and Four Divine Core Carvings was truly stunning, and the association with the names of first-magnitude stars astonished everyone. Several bloggers and journalists quickly obtained the stall owner's permission to film and upload lengthy videos to the StarNet.

Some historians were moved to tears. What does this mean? It means that the interstellar people are indeed descendants of the Chinese people. They have roots, and they are not rootless people who have lost their ancestral heritage!

Those with the status to access the list and who knew about this set of walnut carvings quickly went to look up historical records and found that they really corresponded to the Twenty-Eight Star Lords!

Some people were so excited that tears streamed down their faces, and their hands trembled.

"We've found the root! We've really found the root!"

This document is stored in an isolation room made of special materials, so it will not be affected by the forces of spacetime alignment.

Scientists previously claimed that the summoned beings were the origin of interstellar civilizations, and only those connected to the same spacetime would be summoned. However, many knew this was merely theoretical; no one had ever tested it, so who knew what kind of beings were being summoned? They simply kept the useful ones and discarded the useless ones. They considered it another instance of humanity assimilating into a foreign culture, after all, the assimilation of the Zerg culture was quite successful.

Things are different now. There is irrefutable evidence that the interstellar people mainly originated from China, and some may have been forced or had vested interests to board Chinese escape ships during the Great Escape.

This list is incomplete; the leader of the fleeing ship died in the Zerg war, leaving behind only fragments. Recordings show that, before his death, the leader strongly requested his successor to use this list as the name for humanity's future key regions or ships.

The successor agreed.

One historian sighed, “Those were incredibly difficult times, otherwise our leader wouldn’t have let us lose our roots. This origin is also his last testament, alas.”

"Yes, every major purge is a process of discarding culture. We discard a little today, a little tomorrow, and in a major catastrophe we discard 80 or 90 percent, and in the end all that's left is this list."

Lin Shuying didn't hear this sentence; if she had, she would have agreed with it.