“I can’t believe you couldn’t even beat a few Wordless brats in a fight. You’re such a disappointment, Jade.”

 

When she opened her brown eyes, she didn’t feel any pain. In fact, her body felt completely healthy. Then she looked over and realized she was in the basement. Celadon was standing in front of a flat stone table and using his fingers to mold some marble like it was wet clay. He coughed and cleared his throat a few times, but eventually he created a bust of three teenage girls with horrified expressions on their beautiful faces. They didn’t have any blemishes or imperfections, so Jade barely recognized them.

 

“Papa… What happened? Why did those girls attack me?”

 

“Why else? Because you’re an easy target.”

 

He glanced over at the teary-eyed and confused little girl, then turned back to continue sculpting the rest of the marble into young, feminine bodies.

 

“Jade. We aren’t the same as those Wordless fools. Your talent is mediocre, but at least you inherited ‘something’ from me. Becoming a Stone Sculptor at ten years old is acceptable. These pathetic creatures are a different breed entirely. Compared to us… They’re only Mortals. While ‘we’ are Gods.”

 

After the heads were connected to their torsos, the marble turned into pinkish flesh and the three teenage girls started screaming. Their green eyes were filled with terror and confusion. Jade also stared at that scene in shock and shivered in fear while looking at the back of her tall, green-robed father.

 

“Silence!”

 

As soon as he spoke, their mouths were sealed shut. As if they didn’t even have mouths in the first place. Celadon looked up and down their bodies with a smirk, then nodded with his right hand on his hairless chin.

 

“Good. Now you’re worthy to serve me. Kneel down and apologize to my useless daughter.”

 

The three girls struggled a bit but quickly knelt down in front of the stone bench where Jade was sitting. Their mouths started working again as they quickly scrambled to apologize and beg for mercy.

 

“Okay, now be quiet again. It seems like I need to work on your voices in the future… Is it really worth it though? Hmmm, maybe I’ll just seal your mouths shut forever?”

 

“No, please! Please Master, don’t!”

 

“Yes, Master, we’ll do whatever you want!”

 

“Fine.” Celadon waved his hand casually, “Go see Beryl for your uniforms and training. I don’t need useless trash to serve me.”

 

“Yes, Master!” The three girls quickly scampered away. Of course, they wanted to escape, but their bodies weren’t fully under their control. Heading up the stairs to the kitchen, where the expressionless and immaculate woman was struggling to wash dishes without breaking them.

 

“Papa…” Jade trembled but still asked, “Papa, am I like them?”

 

“Of course not. You’re a perfect masterpiece at my peak. They’re just some useless garbage I created casually.”

 

“I…”

 

“Enough. You’ve wasted enough of my time today. Hurry up and get to work.” Celadon coughed into his right hand a few times and waved the left. Shooing her away. However, what she noticed was that the ‘V’ turned into ‘IV’. This time though, she didn’t stick around to ask anything else. Just ran away to another part of the basement to practice her own Sculpting technique under the watchful gaze of her mother.

 

“Mama… Are we real people?”

 

Jade held a hammer in one hand and a small chisel in the other, carefully carving a block of gray stone into a cute puppy. It was a very slow and time-consuming process though. Not to mention the physical strength involved.

 

“We are human beings. We are people by definition.”

 

“Are we really human?”

 

She looked over at her mother, who was also sculpting a very similar-looking Greenstone Mastiff puppy. However, her technique was much more precise and efficient. It took her only a few minutes to accomplish what her daughter would need an hour to achieve.

 

“Aren’t we just sculptures that Papa created?”

 

“We are not simple sculptures.” Marble squinted at her daughter, still hammering and chiseling away at the gray stone without even looking.

 

“We are masterpieces created by Celadon the Legendary Sculptor.”

 

“So we were really just… Created. Your name is Marble, Mama. Did Papa create you out of marble? Am I made out of Jade?”

 

“We are masterpieces created by Celadon the Legendary Sculptor.”

 

“Mama, you said that already.”

 

“I have completed my work. You are as inefficient as always.” Marble turned back to her puppy, picked it up and placed it against the wall with several others. Then she easily lifted up a huge cubic block of tan sandstone and placed it onto a pedestal.

 

“If you do not complete your work before 9 PM, your father will be very disappointed.”

 

“Yes, Mama…”