Chapter 13

"These prayer beads are indeed made of real materials, but they have nothing to do with magical artifacts."

Looking at the text that appeared in his mind, Su Xiaofan shook his head slightly.

Over the past few days, Su Xiaofan had used his spare time to conduct many experiments.

For example, he deliberately broke a bowl to see if it could be repaired. As long as an object was damaged, it could be repaired with repair points. A large bowl only required one repair point to be fixed, but Su Xiaofan naturally wouldn't waste repair points on such useless things.

Su Xiaofan found that modern and inanimate objects required very few repair points to fix. Most of the crafted items were irreparable, clearly having no repair value.

However, if he were to repair a living being, the required repair points were astonishing.

On the day Su Xiaofan moved, he tried to observe the dog that Uncle Niu raised.

The dog had been hit by a car in the neighborhood before and had been limping ever since. Su Xiaofan checked and found that to repair the dog, it would require forty repair points, which even exceeded his current repair points.

Of course, the object that required the most repair points so far was the Han Dynasty dragon-shaped jade pendant hanging around Su Xiaofan's neck, which required fifty repair points.

The Han Dynasty dragon-shaped jade pendant was also an inanimate object, but why it required so many repair points, whether it was related to being a magical artifact or its age, Su Xiaofan couldn't find an answer. This was also why he wanted to find a magical artifact to observe.

Many complete objects, although information about them appeared in Su Xiaofan's mind, were not repairable.

Like the prayer beads in front of Su Xiaofan, the information given was that they were not repairable.

"Brother Gang, these prayer beads are not magical artifacts," Su Xiaofan put down the prayer beads. These were ordinary cultural playthings, priced based on their materials, and had nothing to do with magical artifacts.

"Hehe, I had someone play with them, ten yuan a day, three months to complete. Don't think they're not magical artifacts; they're not cheap," Zheng Dangang chuckled and told Su Xiaofan the truth. These prayer beads were actually played with by students from a nearby vocational school.

Three hundred yuan a month was very attractive to students who spent their days in internet cafes playing games. After being played with, they returned to Zheng Dangang's hands, and he could sell each one for at least three to four thousand yuan. After all, in the eyes of experts, machine-played cultural playthings and hand-played ones were completely different.

"Xiaofan, take a look at this. This is a money sword made from Ming Dynasty coins, definitely a magical artifact."

Zheng Dangang handed Su Xiaofan a money sword about fifty centimeters long from his stall. These items were usually kept at home and not taken out, so Su Xiaofan had never seen them before.

"The money sword is indeed a Daoist magical artifact, but whether yours is one is another matter." Su Xiaofan nodded and took the money sword. Having been in the antique market for so long, he naturally knew what a money sword was used for.

A money sword is typically used by Daoist priests to capture ghosts and subdue demons. It can also be hung at the door to ward off evil. It is made by hand with copper coins and red thread, usually consisting of 108 copper coins strung together and then blessed to become a magical artifact.

["Ming Dynasty damaged copper coins, can be repaired, requires one repair point, do you want to repair?"]

When Su Xiaofan focused on the bronze sword, a text message appeared in his mind. Upon seeing it, Su Xiaofan's expression became somewhat strange.

In the eyes of the repair system in Su Xiaofan's mind, the object in his hand had nothing to do with a money sword. It was just a bunch of copper coins, some of which were damaged and could be repaired with just one repair point. Su Xiaofan couldn't think of what value it could have.

"Brother Gang, where did you get this money sword?" Su Xiaofan asked, still hoping for something when he first saw it.

"I collected the copper coins and made it myself."

Zheng Dangang looked around and whispered, "I used Ming Dynasty old coins and red thread that had been aged. Xiaofan, look at the quality; it's clearly an old object."

"But this has nothing to do with magical artifacts, right?" Su Xiaofan smiled bitterly. He and Zheng Dangang had been close, but they did their own business, and some details were not convenient to ask. He didn't know that Zheng Dangang was so deceptive.

"How can it not be related? This thing can definitely ward off evil." Zheng Dangang said, "A few people who work in the fields asked me to sell it, and I didn't sell it even for five thousand yuan. Xiaofan, I'm telling you, if this thing sells well, it could fetch three to five thousand yuan."

"Brother Gang, you really have a wide range of contacts, even dealing with tomb raiders."

Hearing Zheng Dangang's words, Su Xiaofan was both amused and exasperated. "But, Brother Gang, do you have any truly blessed magical artifacts? I want to see such things to have a better understanding for future imitation."

Su Xiaofan's eyes swept over the other items on the stall, finding that most were modern crafts. One jade ruyi was a Qing Dynasty object, but it wasn't a magical artifact, just an antique.

"Hmm? I can identify the age, so I can find some good deals." Su Xiaofan suddenly had this thought. He came to look for magical artifacts this time just because he had a damaged magical artifact around his neck and wanted to find a similar one to compare and determine its value.

But from a business perspective, the dating function in Su Xiaofan's mind, along with the repair system, was extremely powerful and practical. Regardless of whether an item could be repaired, Su Xiaofan could use the system to distinguish between genuine and fake items, thus finding good deals in the antique market.

Thinking about this, Su Xiaofan's heart rate quickened. This was definitely a huge bug.

Although the antique market had been thriving for decades, finding good deals was already very difficult, but in such a large market, there were still some overlooked items. Even if he didn't find big deals, finding a few thousand yuan worth of small deals each time could make Su Xiaofan rich.

"Recently, the Mang Mountains seem to be a bit unstable, and there are many people buying magical artifacts. This one is pretty good."

Zheng Dangang didn't notice Su Xiaofan's expression and said enthusiastically, "Among magical artifacts, small bronze items sell the best. You can make a batch, then age them a bit. We won't sell them as antiques, just as magical artifacts. This doesn't violate the rules of your village, right?"

Zheng Dangang knew that in the village where Su Xiaofan came from, it was strictly forbidden to sell bronze artifacts as antiques. First, the state prohibited the trading of bronze artifacts. Second, aging and selling fakes was considered fraud, and the old village chief would send anyone caught to jail without hesitation.

Su Xiaofan thought about it and said, "Actually, there's no need to deliberately age them. I can add some things during the production process, but Brother Gang, you can only sell them as magical artifacts, not as antiques."

In Su Xiaofan's view, selling the bronze artifacts he made as antiques would be fraudulent and violate the village rules.

But magical artifacts were intangible and had no clear criteria for identification. As long as the buyer was willing to accept it, no one could interfere.

Since he was a child, Su Xiaofan had watched his grandfather and others make bronze artifacts. He was familiar with the entire process of making molds, casting, and aging with strong acid by the time he was in elementary school.

Around the age of ten, Su Xiaofan began to try making molds and casting bronze artifacts himself. When he reached junior high school and learned chemistry, he upgraded the materials used to cast bronze artifacts.

Many people didn't know that bronze is actually an alloy of pure copper or purple copper with tin or lead.

Compared to pure copper and purple copper, bronze has higher strength and a lower melting point, making it easier to cast, more wear-resistant, and chemically stable.

After bronze was invented, it quickly became popular, and human history entered a new era—the Bronze Age. The importance of bronze artifacts to human society is evident from the fact that an entire era is named after them. During this period, bronze artifacts were used in almost every aspect of human life.

Su Xiaofan attended junior high school in town, which was close to his village. He had a lot of time to experiment with bronze artifacts at home. He conducted many experiments by varying the proportions of tin and lead added to yellow copper and purple copper.

By chance, Su Xiaofan added another metal with a very low melting point to the tin and lead, and found that the bronze artifacts made with this metal had an oxidized appearance. After a few days, even without strong acid aging, they looked like ancient objects.

Although Su Xiaofan was young at the time, he was very clear-minded. He knew that if his discovery were to be revealed, it would have a significant impact.

So, over the years, most of the oxidized bronze artifacts he made for practice were melted down and recast. The only one he kept, which he sold to Wu Chuanbao, unexpectedly caused trouble.