Chapter 9

"Even 150 stone coins are fine, but let me pick a stone!"

Yang Junshan pointed to the three pieces of ore in front of him, this was his true intention.

"What? Impossible!" Li Lao San reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, exploding immediately.

But Li Lao San quickly calmed down, looked around, and said, "Kid, you want to gamble on the stones?"

Yang Junshan was surprised, "What, is that not allowed?"

Li Lao San sneered, "Of course it's allowed, but these three pieces of ore come from different old veins. Such stones always have something inside, the difference is only in quantity. Each piece is worth at least 50 stone coins. I already feel like I'm losing a lot by giving you this heart-protecting mirror for 150 stone coins, and you still want me to give you a stone for free? Don't even think about it."

Old veins? Yang Junshan inwardly sneered: If you could get ore from old veins, would you be so destitute?

However, Yang Junshan did not show his thoughts on his face. Instead, he cautiously said, "Then, add ten more stone coins?"

Li Lao San glared, "I'll give you ten stone coins off, 190 stone coins, take it!"

Yang Junshan fumbled in his pocket for a long time, reluctantly taking out a jade coin and 69 stone coins, and said with some difficulty, "Look, all my jade coins and stone coins are here, ..."

Li Lao San's eyelids twitched, suppressing the anger in his heart. At this moment, he realized that the person in front of him was just a child, no matter how mature he acted, how many stone coins could a child around eleven or twelve years old have?

To be honest, when Li Lao San saw that Yang Junshan could come up with 169 stone coins, he was already quite surprised and did not suspect that Yang Junshan had any more stone coins.

Li Lao San was somewhat reluctant but even more unwilling to give up so many stone coins. For a mortal realm cultivator like him, over a hundred stone coins was a significant income.

Li Lao San gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, looking as if he had lost a lot, and impatiently waved his hand, "Alright, alright, it's yours, it's yours. Quickly pick a stone, take the heart-protecting mirror and go. Don't delay my business. I've already lost a lot on you, you little brat!"

Yang Junshan eagerly put away the heart-protecting mirror but hesitated for a moment in front of the three pieces of ore. Only when Li Lao San's impatience grew did he hesitantly pick one, "Then, this one!"

Li Lao San did not suspect anything. He had already seen two groups of people stopping at his stall, looking through his items. He hurriedly said, "This is a piece of ore containing low-grade refined iron. If you can extract three-tenths of the refined iron, you'll make a profit. Go, go, don't say I'm bullying kids."

Three-tenths refined iron? Li Lao San himself scoffed; if this ore could extract one-tenth refined iron, it would be good enough!

Watching Li Lao San's back as he hurriedly returned to his stall, Yang Junshan tossed the ore in his hand, which had a faint, inch-long red rust pattern, and smiled smugly.

Yang Junshan first happily put away the heart-protecting mirror with a fist imprint. This heart-protecting mirror was a low-grade magical artifact with most of its array destroyed, but from Yang Junshan's perspective in his previous life, this heart-protecting mirror was a waste of good material from the start. Or, to put it another way, the skill of the person who made it was not very good, reducing a potentially mid-grade magical artifact to a low-grade one.

Blue-red steel, a mid-grade spiritual material, is excellent for making mid-grade protective magical artifacts.

After the heart-protecting mirror was hit by a fist, the four finger marks on the surface glowed with a blue-red light, confirming to Yang Junshan that the original material of the heart-protecting mirror must have contained blue-red steel.

In his previous life, after his family was destroyed, Yang Junshan wandered as a wandering cultivator. To save all cultivation resources, or more accurately, even if he had a little, he couldn't find anyone to help, so he had to do more things himself. Therefore, the biggest characteristic of wandering cultivators was that they had to know a little about everything, which could be described as broad but not deep, or even just a superficial understanding of everything.

Even so, in his previous life, Yang Junshan had tenaciously pushed his cultivation to the fourth level of the Martial Realm. If he were in a powerful faction, he could control a small town, and his knowledge and experience were naturally far beyond a wandering cultivator like Li Lao San, who had not even reached the Martial Realm.

Li Lao San did not recognize the blue-red steel, but Yang Junshan was confident he had not misjudged.

Spending 150 stone coins on this heart-protecting mirror, even if it were melted down and the blue-red steel extracted, it would be worth at least five jade coins.

However, at this moment, Yang Junshan did not intend to greedily extract the blue-red steel. Even without the array, the heart-protecting mirror, made of blue-red steel, could withstand the strikes of a hundred-refined weapon.

Moreover, in Yang Junshan's view, the remaining array patterns on the heart-protecting mirror could still be utilized!

This was a clear sign of the poverty of wandering cultivators, who had to make the most of all resources, even damaged magical artifacts and spiritual artifacts.

Although the array patterns on the heart-protecting mirror were mostly damaged, the few remaining patterns could still be connected by Yang Junshan, though they could not reach the power of a magical artifact, they could at least enhance the heart-protecting mirror's defensive capabilities.

The heart-protecting mirror alone was already worth more than the 169 stone coins Yang Junshan had spent, let alone the piece of ore he now held.

Previously, Yang Junshan seemed to be indecisive among the three pieces of ore, but in fact, from the beginning, his target was the piece of ore with the red rust pattern, and the heart-protecting mirror was just a tool to cover his true intentions.

In the cultivation world, some iron and stone cultivation resources are hidden in stones or even dissolved in the stone. Even the most skilled cultivators find it extremely difficult to determine if there is anything they need inside, or if they can determine it, they cannot determine the quantity. Therefore, the practice of gambling on stones was born in the cultivation world.

Gambling on stones is about this uncertainty. If the content of the ore were certain, there would be no point in gambling. Therefore, any ore whose content is known and widely recognized cannot be used for gambling.

Red-rust raw stone is a type of ore that can be determined to contain a specific cultivation resource, but this knowledge was only widely spread more than ten years later.

A young man from a family that had been in the ore business for generations discovered this type of ore, which has a layer of refined iron on the outside and often has a faint, inch-long red rust pattern. If not examined closely, this red rust pattern could be easily overlooked. Inside such ore, there is always a small piece of spirit jade!

Yes, spirit jade, the raw material for cutting jade coins, and a treasure that cultivators can use directly to aid their cultivation.

After discovering this secret, the young man quickly reported it to his family, who saw it as an opportunity for their rise. They quickly tried to secretly collect a large amount of red-rust raw stone, but this type of ore was very rare, and the family did not want to make a big fuss, so the amount collected was not much.

Three years later, this secret was discovered and widely spread, and the previously ignored red-rust raw stone was quickly controlled by various factions, making it rare in the market.

Despite this, the family that first discovered the secret of red-rust raw stone, after three years of secret accumulation, produced a True Human Realm expert within thirty years, elevating the family from a prominent family in a remote town to a powerful family in a county.

Later, Yang Junshan had a deep friendship with a member of this family, who once told him that if the red-rust raw stone were not so rare, the family could have produced at least one or two more True Human Realm experts after three years of secret accumulation, and even become a prominent family in a county.

In fact, red-rust raw stone is not only rare but also usually very small, no larger than a fist, which limits the size of the spirit jade inside. In his previous life, the largest piece of spirit jade extracted from red-rust raw stone was only enough to cut thirty jade coins, and it was common to extract only a small, thin piece of spirit jade, not even enough for one jade coin.

However, regardless of the size of the spirit jade inside the red-rust raw stone, one thing is certain: spirit jade is always present inside.

Yang Junshan weighed the ore in his hand and thought, this is a shortcut to wealth, but red-rust raw stone is already rare, and the probability of finding it in a remote place like this is even smaller. Moreover, at his current age, frequently going to the market to gamble on stones would attract too much attention.

Moreover, the most critical point is that with his current cultivation, he cannot extract the spirit jade from the red-rust raw stone, and without the spirit jade, he cannot cut jade coins, and without jade coins, how can he secretly collect red-rust raw stone?

It seems that to accumulate wealth in advance, he still needs to rely on his father's strength. With his father's cultivation at the Martial Realm, gambling on stones as a hobby would not raise suspicion from others.

Yang Junshan seemed to have thought of something, and his expression became serious: Moreover, to resist the disaster that will sweep through the entire Yu Prefecture in a few years, he must do his best to help Yang Tiangang improve his cultivation. Only then is there a chance to avoid the tragedy of family destruction and death.

Page AD starts

Page AD ends