Chapter 12: Opening Up A Stone

Opening Up A Stone

The Stone Gambling Pavillion was a traditional Chinese pagoda with three floors. From what he learned from Li Huo, the top floor was off-limits as it was where the management stayed. But the first and second floors were where the stones were sold.

After he explained the layout, Li Huo Brought Xue Bai and The Wang Twins in.

The pagoda's interior was a vast hall separated down the middle by a long table that stretched through the entire first floor. On the tables were Jade colored stones of various shapes and sizes. Some were only the size of a fist, while others were as tall as four meters in height.

These stones were what people gambled on. Their true names were Spiritual Jade Stones. However, they were usually called stones by gamblers.

These Spiritual Jade Stones were normal jades that had gained somehow absorbed Spiritual Qi and evolved. They had three traits. The first was their absurdly long lifespan, some living up to hundreds of thousands of years. Second, was that after gaining spirituality, they would attach its self to the largest thing closet to it and start to grow around it until it encased it completely. And the other was to stop any spiritual sense completely. So the only way to know what was in a Spiritual Jade Stone was to break it open.

And with Jade being a common mineral all over the Baishen Plane, Spiritual Jade Stones could contain virtually anything. So an intelligent man discovered their business potential and created the first Stone Gambling Pavilion.

The premise was simple various Spiritual Jade Stones were set on display and priced on their possibility of having something in them. While you couldn't sense what was in it, cultivators made educated guesses according to size, age, and how much Spiritual Qi it radiated.

However, Xue Bai couldn't do any of that, so he planned to pick one randomly. If he had great fortune, it didn't matter what he chose.

As the group of four Entered the pagoda, they instantly gained the crowd's attention. However, Xue Bai ignored them and went to the displays.

"Uncle Li, have you ever been here before? I need some tips." Xue Bai asked

"While I have been here before, I wasn't fully in the correct mind." Of course, Uncle LI wouldn't say he was piss drunk and gambled away almost One Million Spirit Stones, so he only indirectly mentioned his blunder.

"It's fine. Any advice is good advice. You've been here a few times. Surely you must know the rules of this place at least."

"Nephew Bai, one must experience failure firsthand to learn. Following the footsteps of others will guide you in the beginning but will only trap you later on."

"Uncle Li, we are talking about gambling stones right now. Why did you suddenly start speaking so philosophically?"

"Ahem, you are my nephew. I must take any chance I can get to teach you about the world. Better now than on the battlefield."

While Xue Bai was confused about why Li Huo was acting weird, he decided to leave him and ask the Shopkeeper about the rules.

The Shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with average looks and basic features. However, he had a scar covering almost the entire left side of his face, ruining any looks he had.

"Shopkeeper, what are the rules here? I haven't been here before and want to buy some Spiritual Jade Stones." Xue Bai asked the man at the counter.

"Young Duke, why don't you ask Marquis Li? He has.." Before the Shopkeeper couldn't finish his words, he suddenly felt like he had fallen into an ice lake and froze. A terrifying pressure had suddenly engulfed him couldn't move.

Until he heard a voice in his head, 'If you tell my nephew what I did that day, I'll cripple you. We are both men. Give me some face and save my reputation in front of the younger generation.'

It was, of course, Li Huo trying to cover up his dark history by intimidating the poor Shopkeeper.

Which worked, and the Shopkeeper quickly adjusted his train of speech before continuing, "The rules are simple here, Young Duke. You can look at any display and do whatever you want to the Spiritual Jade Stone. However, you can't touch it under any circumstance. Touching it means you plan to purchase that Stone. After purchase, you can either let us remove the Spiritual Jade covering the item inside. Or take it home and do it yourself. Also, finally, after you uncover your item, you can choose to sell it back to us at market price."

"I see. Thank you, Shopkeeper. I'll go choose which ones I want."

"This servant is just doing his job. Young Duke, no need to thank me." The Shopkeeper saw off Xue Bai with a bow.

Returning to Li Huo, Xue Bai started to look at the various stones. However, they all looked like green rocks. He couldn't see any difference besides their sizes. After looking for almost 5 minutes, he decided he had seen enough and chose three random ones of different sizes.

One was the size of a fist. Another was as big as a grown man's torso, and the last was almost 3 meters tall.

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The first two were relatively cheap at only a few thousand Spirit Stones. However, the large one was 3 Million Spirit Stones.

"Shopkeeper! I chose these three. Can you remove the Jade on the tall one? I'll open this one here. The rest I'll take home," Xue Bai called over the Shopkeeper.

While he didn't want to expose his findings publicly, it was his first public showing in the Dukedom, so he needed to show his good sides. And showing off the uncovering of an expensive and large Stone would do the job well.

"Yes, Young Duke, I will call my best worker over right now." Bowing, the Shopkeeper went to the staircase leading up, presumably to call the worker over.

The Shopkeeper was fast and soon arrived with another man. The man in question looked like a blacksmith with signature tanned skin and a hairless face.

"Young Duke, you can call this servant Blacksmith Guo. I was told you would like me to uncover a Spiritual Jade Stone. Which ones would you want me to start on." Blacksmith Guo wasn't a man for pleasantries and went straight to business after greeting Xue Bai.

"Blacksmith Guo, just this large one. The other two stones I would like to uncover myself at home ." Xue Bai instructed.

Hearing Xue Bai, Blacksmith Guo got to work. The process was relatively simple. He would get a chisel and hammer and slowly chip off the Jade. However, with the possibility of a thin Jade covering, the process was slow to avoid chipping the item inside.

Looking at Blacksmith Guo's work, Xue Bai was impressed.

Blacksmith Guo put his entire focus into every hammer swing and was tensed the whole time, ready to stop a swing at the sight of something other than Jade.

But while simple, the process took some time and was only finished after an hour.

Xue Bai had noticed that Blacksmith Guo had taken the entire top layer of Jade leaving only a thin membrane of Jade on the surface. He had done it like that for extra effect. Now instead of revealing it himself, he handed a hammer to Xue Bai to finish the job.

"While I know that Spiritual Jade Stones are fragile, at the end of the day, it's still a Spiritual Ore. I haven't begun to cultivate yet. Can I break it?" Xue Bai wasn't sure he could break the ore with his strength.

"Young Duke, don't worry. This hammer is specially designed to break Spiritual Jade Stones. Even if this one was still complete, it could shatter it, let alone now." Blacksmith Guo was confident in his answer.

"Then wouldn't I break whatever was inside instead?" Xue Bai couldn't understand what this Blacksmith was trying to accomplish.

"Oh, I forgot to explain. This hammer's power matches its user's strength, so when I meant it could shatter the complete version, I meant if I swung it. If the Young Duke had taken a swing at the complete version, you'd hurt yourself more than the Spiritual Jade Stone. But now that the Stone is only protected by this thin membrane, your strength should be enough." Blacksmith explained awkwardly.

"Then I will try. However, if I hurt myself, this is going to be free. Is that a deal?" Xue Bai proposed.

"Young Duke, this old man has never been wrong about an ore before. If you hurt yourself, you can choose any Stone to take home." Blacksmith Guo patted his chest confidently. He wasn't at all nervous that his calculations could be wrong.

"Then I'll take you up on that offer." After speaking, Xue Bai took a swing at the Stone.

Immediately after making contact with the thin Jade membrane, the hammer shattered it and left the inside uncovered.

However, after the membrane fell, before anyone could see the contents inside, all the surrounding Spiritual Qi was immediately sucked towards the item inside, shocking everyone inside the Stone Gambling Pavilion.

"Is that a phenomenon? But only a natural treasure Earth Grade or above can create one."

"Then did the Young Duke uncover an Earth Grade Treasure on his first try?"

"My heavens, the Young Duke's luck is amazing."

As the crowd of people in the Stone Gambling Pavilion began an uproar, the Spiritual Qi storm subsided and began unveiling what was in the Spiritual Jade Stone.

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