208: Chapter 208 If you can't see through it, then that's right.

An irrepressible gasp of astonishment echoed throughout the third floor.

The spectating Cultivators whispered among themselves, their gazes shifting back and forth between the moonlight spirit jade and the Grey-robed Elder, their eyes filled with awe.

Sun Mingcheng stood in the corner, his fists clenched in excitement. The stone-gambling ability displayed by the Grey-robed Elder was so formidable that he wished he could immediately take him as his master.

The Grey-robed Elder looked at the spirit jade emitting a soft glow on the stone-cutting platform, his expression remaining indifferent. He merely nodded slightly, as if uncovering a Heaven Rank High Grade spirit material was nothing more than a mundane affair for him.

He turned to look at Jiang Changge, said nothing, and simply raised his hand in a gesture of invitation.

Jiang Changge smiled and walked up to the counter.

His gaze swept across the three jade boxes. Currently, only the dark red Scarlet Flame Blood Marrow Stone and the palm-sized, mysterious dark grey raw stone remained.

He did not rush to reach out, but tilted his head slightly, the faint light deep within his pupils beginning to circulate once more.

Under the Star Web Myriad Phenomena, the scene inside the Scarlet Flame Blood Marrow Stone was laid bare before his eyes.

About three inches beneath the stone skin, a fist-sized crimson-gold crystal was slowly rotating. Sealed within the crystal was a wisp of extremely pure fire-attribute Origin power; its quality was indeed not low.

However, although that power was pure, it was not complete. There were several hair-thin cracks on the surface of the crystal, likely caused by shocks during the mining of the vein, which had led to flaws in its internal structure.

In terms of grade, it was likely between Heaven Rank Low Grade and Medium Grade; it would be hard to win if this were uncovered.

He turned his gaze to the dark grey raw stone. As the insight of the Star Web Myriad Phenomena touched the surface of the stone skin, it encountered an extremely strange resistance, as if some sort of extremely ancient substance itself was resisting his investigation.

His gaze penetrated the stone skin to see the interior, but all he saw was a blur of unrecognizable grey mist.

The mist churned slowly inside the stone, without a fixed form, yet it emitted an aura that made even him feel alarmed.

The aura was extremely weak, as if it had been under a Seal for countless years and could dissipate at any moment, yet the level of power contained within that weakness far exceeded any other raw stone present.

Jiang Changge withdrew his gaze, a flash of contemplation crossing his eyes.

He turned to look at the Grey-robed Elder, his smile unchanged: "Old sir, I said just now that if you won, I would gift you a life-substitution talisman. Since you have shown such courage in choosing this moonlight spirit jade, I naturally cannot take advantage of you."

He raised his finger to point at the palm-sized dark grey raw stone in the third jade box: "Bafang Pavilion cannot even determine the grade of this stone. Surely you must have seen that there is something strange inside it as well, right?"

The Grey-robed Elder's gaze fell upon the dark grey raw stone, and he nodded slightly: "I cannot see through it."

"Then that is correct."

Jiang Changge reached out and took the dark grey raw stone from the jade box, spinning it on his fingertips. The stone felt extremely heavy in his hand, far exceeding ordinary raw stones of the same size.

The fine, dense patterns on the surface felt uneven to the touch, resembling some kind of long-lost ancient script.

"Since neither you nor I can see through it, I will choose this one to see whether the moonlight spirit jade you saw through is more valuable, or if this stone that even I cannot see through is more valuable."

He placed the dark grey raw stone on the stone-cutting platform and gestured to Pavilion Master Guo Peng: "Pavilion Master Guo, please."

Pavilion Master Guo Peng stepped forward, looking at the pitch-black stone before him, but did not immediately bring down his blade as he had done before.

He first probed the stone skin with his Divine Sense, but after a moment, his brows furrowed.

His Divine Sense was bounced back by an invisible force less than half an inch beneath the stone skin, unable to penetrate any deeper.

He then took out several types of detection Magical Artifacts and placed a coin-sized spirit-probing Formation Plate onto the stone surface. The runes on the Formation Plate lit up and went out, lit up and went out, repeating several times, until finally, it only fed back a series of extremely weak and chaotic spirit power fluctuations.

Pavilion Master Guo Peng's expression turned solemn. He took out an ancient spirit-probing Talisman from his storage ring—a trump card he had been saving—and placed it on the stone surface.

The Talisman paper lit up the moment it touched the stone skin, and then silently turned to ash.

The third floor was deathly silent.

Everyone saw the moment the spirit-probing Talisman turned to ash, and many knowledgeable Cultivators gasped.

An ancient spirit-probing Talisman—that was a High Grade Talisman capable of detecting even Heaven Rank spirit materials! How could it have been backlashed by this unremarkable stone?

Pavilion Master Guo Peng took a deep breath and pinched the stone-cutting blade between his fingers again.

He did not hesitate any longer, driving his Divine Sense and spirit power to the extreme. His cultivation at the Peak of Integration Stage was poured into the blade without reservation at this moment.

He selected the thickest vein right in the center of the stone, his blade hovering three inches above the stone skin, yet he hesitated to bring it down.

Pavilion Master Guo Peng's hand remained steady as a rock, but his brows furrowed imperceptibly.

It was not that he dared not cut; rather, on the street outside Bafang Pavilion, several unmasked, powerful auras were rapidly approaching.

Any one of those auras was no weaker than his own at the Peak of Integration Stage, and one or two of them even made him, a branch Pavilion Master of Bafang Pavilion, feel a trace of oppression.

He looked up, his gaze crossing the third-floor window lattice to fall upon the main street below.

The main street of Huaiyang City was now teeming with people.

The peddlers who had originally been setting up stalls on the street had long since packed up, and the clerks and customers in the shops had flocked to the doorways, stretching their necks to peer in the direction of Bafang Pavilion.

Most of them did not know what was happening; they only knew that within the short span of an incense stick, the big shots in Huaiyang City, who were usually elusive as dragons, had appeared one after another.

The first to arrive was City Lord Zhao Guangbi. He was not riding in his iconic Spirit Beast carriage, but was dressed in plain clothes, accompanied by two personal guards, and had come in a hurry from the direction of the City Lord's Mansion.

The common people along the way retreated one after another, and some Cultivators who recognized him whispered in astonishment: "Why has the City Lord himself come?"

Zhao Guangbi ignored those gazes. He stopped in front of Bafang Pavilion and looked up at the open window on the third floor, his eyes meeting the gaze cast by Pavilion Master Guo Peng.

The two nodded slightly across the distance, acknowledging each other.

Zhao Guangbi did not rush upstairs, but stood still at the entrance of Bafang Pavilion, his gaze sweeping across both ends of the street, as if waiting for someone.

He did not wait long. From the eastern end of the street, a figure approached quickly.

The person arriving was dressed in a dark brown brocade robe, his face five parts similar to Sun Mingcheng's; it was none other than Clan Head Sun Henian of the Sun Family.

He was followed by three Sun Family Elders, all of whom wore solemn expressions.

Clan Head Sun Henian walked to the front of Bafang Pavilion, exchanged a glance with Zhao Guangbi, and cupped his hands: "City Lord Zhao, you have come as well."

Zhao Guangbi returned the salute, his tone indifferent: "A life-substitution talisman has appeared in the world; naturally, this City Lord must come to see for himself."

As the two spoke, another sound of footsteps came from the western end of the street.