Chapter Forty-Five Buying Jade

  After a verbal spat with Lin Xueqi, Zhao Yang took the piece of 'Thousand Year Wood Heart' wrapped in clothes back to his room to put it away. He then took out the 10,000 yuan in cash he had looted from Hei Hu's gang last time and the bank card left by his grandfather and went out.

  At present, his cultivation has broken through to the 'Condensation Period', and he can already set up a 'Soul Gathering Array' which is a low-level magic array.

  The function of the 'Spirit Gathering Array' is to gather the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, in order to assist the cultivator in their cultivation. At the same time, it can also use the spiritual energy gathered by the array method to nourish the magic tool.

  Today, he unexpectedly obtained a piece of thousand-year-old wood heart. Zhao Yang did not plan to refine the essence of the wood to improve his cultivation, but instead planned to refine it into a magic weapon.

  Nowadays, he doesn't even have any low-level magic tools. Moreover, given the current state of the earth, it's likely that materials for refining magic tools are extremely scarce. Now that he has finally obtained a piece of 'Thousand-Year Wood Heart', Zhao Yang would not refine it and waste it.

  Zhao Yang's current cultivation is only barely at the 'Condensing Qi' stage, and he doesn't have true fire in his body, so he can only rely on his true qi to slowly refine this piece of 'Thousand Year Wood Heart' through water grinding techniques. At the same time, with the help of the 'Gathering Spirit Array', he can greatly accelerate his refining speed.

  As soon as he left the house, Zhao Yang went straight to the nearby antique market.

  There are also many people who specialize in jade business on the antique market. Last time Zhao Yang saw several shops that specialized in jade products.

  Setting up the 'Soul Gathering Array' requires thirty-six two-inch-wide jade plates, and the quality of the jade cannot be too poor. Especially each piece of jade must have similar quality, there can't be any inferior or extremely high-quality pieces. The 'Soul Gathering Array' is extremely particular about the balance of the array's layout. If the jade stones used to set up the array are of uneven quality, it will cause the spell array to become unstable, the yuanqi to become disordered, and the array method to collapse, and in severe cases, a violent explosion may occur.

  So when deploying troops, the selection of the base of the formation must be taken seriously and carefully.

  Zhao Yang's experience of over 500 years in the 'local immortal land' had already made him extremely familiar with array deployment, so there was no need to worry about making mistakes in this aspect. Now he just needed to see if he could buy suitable jade stones. It would be best if he could directly purchase raw jade for cutting, otherwise it wouldn't be easy to find 36 pieces of jade with similar quality and size that met the requirements.

  Arriving at the antique market, Zhao Yang first walked into a jade stone shop. The top priority now is to buy the jade stones needed for the "Gathering Spirit Array". As for going to look at those antiques and picking up bargains, that's purely a matter of luck, and it can wait until after finishing the main task.

  "Hello, what kind of jade does this handsome guy want to buy?"

  Zhao Yang walked into the store and was immediately greeted by a female salesperson.

  Zhao Yang looked up at her and glanced around the counter, where various jade pieces were displayed. He couldn't help but ask: "Hello, do you have any raw jade for sale? I'd like to buy some high-quality raw jade and then ask you to cut it according to my requirements..."

  Zhao Yang then explained his intentions.

  The female salesperson hesitated for a moment and said: "Please wait for a moment, I'll ask our boss about it."

  "Uh-huh, okay. Then I'll trouble you." Zhao Yang nodded and said.

  "You're welcome." The salesgirl smiled and replied, then walked to the back to ask her boss. Zhao Yang was casually browsing the jade articles on the counter, waiting quietly.

  After a while, a man in his forties with a big belly followed the female salesperson out.

  "Is this young brother wanting to buy a jade?" The middle-aged man walked over and enthusiastically asked Zhao Yang.

  Zhao Yang nodded and said: "Yes. If there is suitable rough jade, I would like to buy some and ask you to cut them according to my requirements."

  The middle-aged man heard this and couldn't help but ask: "I don't know how much quantity the young brother plans to buy. You also know that we generally do not sell raw jade directly."

  Zhao Yang nodded understandingly: "I can understand that. However, I have some requirements for the jade stone and can only buy the original jade cutting."

  "I need a total of thirty-six pieces of jade, each roughly two fingers wide. As for the exact dimensions, I'll let you know once we find suitable jade."

  "Also, I won't be short of paying for the cutting fee."

  When Zhao Yang finished speaking, the middle-aged man's eyes lit up slightly. Although selling raw jade directly was not as profitable as selling finished jade products, it made up for the large quantity that Zhao Yang wanted.

  After some thought, the middle-aged man nodded and said: "Alright, since you want a large quantity, I can sell you the raw jade, but the price..."

  Zhao Yang said: "I think we should go and take a look at the jade first, if we find a suitable one, then we can discuss the price in detail."

  "That's good too. Then come with me." The middle-aged man nodded and took Zhao Yang into the back of the store.

  Behind is a small courtyard, on the ground are placed many uncut and unprocessed jade stones, in addition to some cutting, grinding and polishing equipment for jade stones. At this moment, there are several jade masters busy with their work, either cutting or carving.

  "Little brother, most of my goods are here. Take a look and see which one you need." The middle-aged man pointed at the large pile of jade stones on the ground and said to Zhao Yang.

  Zhao Yang immediately squatted down, slowly selecting them one by one. As for the knowledge of jade stones, Zhao Yang can be said to be a master-level figure. During his cultivation in 'Di Yuan Xian Lu', he often used jade stones, and over the course of hundreds of years, the experience and eye power accumulated were far beyond what ordinary people could compare to. Usually, with just one glance, he could tell whether a piece of jade stone was good or bad.

  Moreover, Zhao Yang's cultivation had already reached the 'Condensing Qi' stage, so he could use his true qi to probe the overall quality of a piece of jade.

  Watching Zhao Yang squatting on the ground and picking up things with ease, the middle-aged man was not in a hurry either, patiently waiting beside him.

  After a while, almost all the jade stones on the ground had passed through Zhao Yang's hands. Only then did he stand up and pointed to the two pieces of jade under his feet, saying: "Just these two pieces. I don't know how much money it will take for them to be sold to me."

  The middle-aged man looked down at the two pieces of jade selected by Zhao Yang, and suddenly knew that the young man in front of him was not someone who could be easily fooled. Although these two pieces of jade were not the best among his collection, they were also one of the top-notch ones.

  After some thought, the middle-aged man stretched out two fingers and said, "A flat price, 2 million!"

  Zhao Yang shook his head slightly and said: "Older brother, this price is a bit too high, 100,000! For these two pieces of jade, I can only offer 100,000."

  They charge exorbitant prices but return the money when they sit on the ground. In doing business, it is inevitable to haggle over prices with each other.

  The middle-aged man said, "Little brother, the two pieces of jade you've chosen are top-quality jade stones. Asking for 200,000 yuan is not expensive at all. I'll give you a slight discount, 190,000 yuan, and you can take them away. Additionally, I can also waive the cutting fee for you."

  Zhao Yang still smiled and shook his head, 190,000 yuan he couldn't take out.

  "Older brother, this price is still too high. Although the quality of these two pieces of jade is not bad, it's not that great either. I can only offer up to 110,000 yuan at most, if it's any more than that, I really won't be able to afford it and will have to look elsewhere for a suitable piece of jade."

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