Chapter 769 – Guru Blueway’s Appraisal
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There was an exceedingly small amount of blood spirit jade in the entire Thatch Region; its conditions for formation were simply too harsh. It needed an ancient guardian beast to swallow the spiritual plant it was protecting, and then die before it was digested and be buried underground for 100,000 thousand years to condense.
Even new jade of this variety was extremely rare; ancient blood spirit jade was nearly extinct.
If it wasn’t for the fact that blood spirit jade’s greatest value lay in its ornamental value and its effects of nourishing the soul weren’t much better than the average wood spirit jade, then this pair of blood spirit jade bracelets could sell for a sky high price of 100,000 spirit essence stones.
Though Guru Blueway was an appraisal grandmaster, even he hadn’t touched real blood spirit jade many times in his life. Now that he heard Zhou Kun actually had such a treasure, how could he not be excited?
He even had the thoughts of buying this pair of jade bracelets afterwards.
“You really have a pair of blood spirit jade bracelets?” Guru Blueway looked at Zhou Kun, his eyes shining.
“I found them at White Dragon jade Row. They are said to come from a 10,000 year gravesite that was just unearthed recently. Junior has looked roughly looked at them and they should be a 10,000 year old treasure without a doubt.”
“Hurry and let me see!” Guru Blueway impatiently said. To someone at his boundary, he was only inferior to Peerless Emperor powerhouses and quasi Emperors. There were very few things that could arouse his interest to this point.
Seeing Guru Blueway so anxious, Zhou Kun was filled with a great sense of satisfaction. For someone in the ancient jade carving trade, there were few matters as great as having a highly respected expert be so be eager.
Zhou Kun unhurried opened the box, revealing the pair of blood spirit jade bracelets.
As the blood spirit jade bracelets appeared, Guru Blueway’s eyes locked onto them and no longer moved. He had worked with wood spirit jade carvings with so many years and had handled countless varieties of carving. At this point, his accumulated experience was extremely rich. As long as he looked at something he could judge with a general feeling whether this was an old or new item.
And now, looking at the blood spirit jade bracelets in front of him, he could feel the simple rustic breath emanating from it. Without a doubt, this was a treasure from 10,000 years ago!
As Guru Blueway realized this, he became even more excited. He took out a special treasure for the purposes of appraisals; this was also made from wood spirit jade.
Generally speaking, someone at the level of Guru Blueway no longer needed external aid to help in making appraisals. For him to take out such an appraisal treasure proved just how valuable he considered this pair of jade bracelets to be.
“What a beautiful jade pattern, it truly is a treasure from 10,000 years ago!” Guru Blueway praised out loud. Zhou Kun’s smiling face became even wider as he heard Guru Blueway say this. This had more or less confirmed that this pair of blood spirit jade bracelets was the real thing!
Although the others present were smiling along, they were actually extremely jealous. This was an item that could be sold for 30,000 spirit essence stones. Spirit essence stones were only one benefit. The other benefit was that because Zhou Kun bought this pair of blood spirit jade bracelets, his reputation in the jade carving circles would become much more glorious. If this was a treasure that even Guru Blueway would be excited over, the value could be imagined.
Zhou Kun couldn’t help but shoot a glance over at Li Yifeng, revealing a smile that said he had already won. Li Yifeng seemed fairly calm and carefree, but his innermost feelings were beginning to roil with regret. This was a treasure that he had been just a single step away from attaining. After all, in terms of net worth, there was no way for Zhou Kun to compare with him. As long as he wanted to buy it he could have absolutely won the bidding struggle against Zhou Kun.
Unfortunately, he had hesitated at that time…
Li Yifeng didn’t blame Lin Ming, nor had he ever thought of blaming Lin Ming. After all, Lin Ming was only a novice that was thoughtlessly giving his opinions. In the end, Li Yifeng only blamed himself for his lack of sight and hesitancy in judgment, thus letting Zhou Kun win the advantage. If his eyes had been as bright and illuminative as a torch and he had been able to immediately determine the authenticity of the item himself, then Lin Ming’s words naturally wouldn’t have had any impact on him.
Time passed slowly. Then, Guru Blueway’s unbelievably anxious face began to slowly calm down even as his eyebrows wrinkled together.
As all these changes fell in Zhou Kun’s eyes, his heart skipped a beat. What was the matter? Was there a problem?
Li Yifeng’s heard stirred. Was there a problem with the jade bracelets? An imperfection? A crack? Perhaps they were… a fake?
Even Li Yifeng couldn’t believe it if it were a fake. It was impossible to fake such a beautiful jade pattern. Moreover, Guru Blueway had already affirmed from the start that this object was from 10,000 years ago.
After half an hour passed, Guru Blueway deeply sighed and lifted his head. At that moment, Zhou Kun felt his heart wither into nothing. With his current wealth, it could be said that he had staked everything he had on these expensive blood spirit jade bracelets. Now he could be considered as dead broke. If there was any problems with these jade bracelets then all his work in the past would be wasted; he would never recover from the initial capital he plunked down for them.
“Grandmaster Blueway, how about it?” Zhou Kun nervously asked, his heart caught in his throat.
Guru Blueway slowly swept over everyone. He actually didn’t immediately answer, which made Zhou Kun nervous to the point of wanting to vomit blood. As for everyone else, they were also unbelievably tense. On one hand they hoped to see the ancient blood spirit jade that was nearly impossible to find, but on the other hand they didn’t want to see Zhou Kun make such a great deal; their feelings could be called contradictory.
“This thing… truly is from 10,000 years ago.” Guru Blueway finally said after a long silence. However, these words by themselves weren’t enough to calm the panic in Zhou Kun’s heart. If Guru Blueway said this early then that obviously meant there was some problem.
Of course, there was undoubtedly a problem with these jade bracelets, otherwise Guru Blueway would have never made such an expression. Now Zhou Kun only hoped that Guru Blueway would only say that there were minor defects that wouldn’t greatly affect the value so he wouldn’t lose too much money.
“Unfortunately…” Guru Blueway shook his head, making Zhou Kun’s heart chill to icy temperatures.
“These bracelets are not fake, and they are extremely valuable and ancient jade bracelets. However, they are not blood spirit jade, thus the value is greatly reduced.”
Guru Blueway’s words were like a bath of cold water poured on everyone. Zhou Kun felt his surroundings go dark and he nearly fainted.
“It isn’t blood spirit jade? How could that be possible!?”
Zhou Kun had already repeatedly confirmed his appraisal again and again. He had worried that this was new blood spirit jade instead of ancient blood spirit jade. However, learning that this was another type of jade masquerading as blood spirit jade was like being struck by a bolt of lightning on a clear summer day!
Zhou Kun could not be compared with Li Yifeng. Li Yifeng was a Prince and he had an excellent future awaiting him. But, Zhou Kun was a failed High Prince successor and the resources he was assigned were extremely limited. The spirit essence stones he had used to buy the blood spirit jade just now were the entirety of his savings. Once his lost it, it would be immensely difficult to recover from such damage. It would even cause him to lack training resources in the future.
Guru Blueway said, “Sir Zhou, these jade bracelets are made from corpse jade. Corpse jade is wood spirit jade that is buried in the mouth of a tomb owner, or perhaps sealed in their stomach. After tens of thousands of years, the blood of the martial artist permeates into the jade. This sort of jade is very similar to blood spirit jade and is also exceedingly rare. Corpse jade originally had only minor differences with blood spirit jade, and once a martial artist skilled in corpse techniques and a wood-attribute martial artist join forces, they can skillfully transform this corpse jade into something that is nearly impossible to distinguish from real blood spirit jade. Let alone you, it’s even hard for old me to clearly identify it unless I’m paying attention. This is also the first time that I’ve seen corpse jade disguised as blood spirit jade.”
Guru Blueway’s words could be regarded as sentencing this pair of ‘blood spirit jade bracelets’ to death.
Li Yifeng felt a chill crawl up his spine. Good heavens! He had almost been the one to fall into this deathtrap!
Such a marvelous and clever method of fraud! Even if his sight was ten times better, he feared that he still wouldn’t be able to see through it!
15,000 spirit essence stones was an amount that would strain even Li Yifeng’s resources. Moreover, those old men in his family had originally been opposed to him playing around in the ancient jade carving trade to begin with. Although these sorts of items were capable of nourishing the soul, being addicted to such games would also ruin his will and mind. If they knew that Li Yifeng had lost 15,000 spirit essence stones because of this, the consequences could be imagined!
“That was a close call, how dangerous! If I really got screwed here and that insane Murong girl actually reported me to the higher ups, I fear even my legs would be taken away!”
As Li Yifeng was gasping in fear, his mind suddenly stirred and he looked to Lin Ming at his side. Lin Ming had a calm expression as if he wasn’t affected at all by these blood spirit jade bracelets being fakes. It was reasonable to say that this matter was greatly related to Lin Ming. If Guru Blueway had determined that these jade bracelets were fakes, then Lin Ming should have breathed out a sigh of relief. Since he was so calm, that could only be because he had known these jade bracelets were fakes all along!
Things began to make more sense. If a normal person didn’t know anything about jade carvings, they certainly wouldn’t stick their nose into such an important trade. After all, that was a transaction involving 15,000 spirit essence stones. Luckily, his suggestion had been right, otherwise it would be difficult for him to absolve himself of guilt.
Since Lin Ming dared to speak out then he must have had a certain assurance in himself. As Li Yifeng remembered the warning Lin Ming had given him about the ancient jade dragon carving, he realized that these two matters together absolutely couldn’t be a coincidence!
That Knifescar fellow who gave Lin Ming the White Dragon Jade Card must have done so not because he thought Lin Ming was some brain-addled money machine, but because he admired Lin Ming’s keen eyesight.
As Li Yifeng thought of this, he asked, “Brother Lin, you already knew those jade bracelets were fakes?”
“I just had a strange feeling. Those bracelets didn’t feel too good to me.” Lin Ming faintly smiled, giving a short explanation. His words were vague to begin with but in fact he didn’t need to explain anyway; Li Yifeng would think as he wished to.
Li Yifeng didn’t press the matter further. Whether it was some mystical sixth sense or whether it was something else that Lin Ming didn’t wish to speak about, everyone had their own secrets. The power of the stars sealed in Li Yifeng’s right hand was also a secret of his.
“Brother Lin, your brother me has received your gratitude this time. You mentioned earlier that you wanted to buy wood spirit jade. If you have any need for help, I will assist you as best as I can.”
“Mm, okay.” Lin Ming didn’t turn down the offer. In the future if he wanted to practice alchemy he would need a massive amount of materials and wood spirit jade. Collecting all of that would be slow by himself. Li Yifeng’s help would save a great deal of trouble.
At this time, Zhou Kun had been shocked into a daze. Playing in the wood spirit jade carving trade was an enormous risk to begin with, he couldn’t go looking for trouble with the White Dragon Jade Row. The White Dragon Jade Row relied on selling fakes to make a living, otherwise they would never have sold real goods at such lower prices. If one wished to buy goods at such low prices, they naturally needed to mentally prepare themselves to be tricked. These were the rules of the Jade Row and also the unspoken rules of the jade carving trade. If he went to look for trouble then not only would he not be compensated, but others would laugh at him instead as someone playing games beyond their means.