179: Chapter 179 The Raw Stone Glowing Red Light
Meanwhile, in Myanmar.
A figure returned to the village, their body trembling.
"Ding Lun is back... Did that raw stone sell?"
"It sold, it sold! It went for a whole ten million!"
"That's good. Ten million daxia currency is enough to compensate the miners in the village..."
Speaking of that massive ore, the several elderly people from Myanmar in the village all wore expressions of fear.
After they had mined this massive, hundred-pound jade stone from the mine, the bodies of the several villagers who had participated in the excavation grew weak the very next day. Within a few days, they lay in bed and died without warning, as if by some ominous curse.
And this wasn't just an isolated case; the same situation had occurred in several surrounding villages.
"Sigh, I hope that Great Xia Kingdom person who bought the cursed raw stone is safe and sound..."
The few villagers hypocritically pressed their palms together and prayed to the sky, then began discussing the specific amount of compensation.
...
"Old Zhang and his crew are certainly bold, actually driving to Myanmar to stock up on goods at a time like this. My brother was eaten by a beast just a few days ago while driving along the border line..."
"Who's to say otherwise? In any case, I don't have the guts to go into the wilderness outside the city..."
"However, Old Zhang and his crew are going to make a killing this time. Because of the shortage of supply, the market price for jadeite in the country is rising rapidly!"
"Eh, why is that? Isn't the domestic population down by half now, and consumer purchasing power lower? How has the market value of jadeite risen?"
"That's because—with the appearance of spiritual energy, many of us in the Great Xia Kingdom have started buying jade to protect ourselves and receive blessings, or to pray that our descendants can have smooth sailing on the path of spiritual energy cultivation."
"The market value of jadeite now is at least three times what it used to be!"
"Hiss... Hearing you say that, I also want to take the risk and go to Myanmar to purchase a batch of goods—"
The Great Xia Kingdom has possessed a jade culture since ancient times. One can tell from the character "country" (country) just how obsessed this nation is with jade.
Colorful, translucent jadeite is naturally a major staple of the jade market.
"Most of us who have dealt with jade for half our lives believe that jade possesses spirituality. Not to mention my kid in elementary school; after wearing the Buddha jade pendant I carved for him, he said his speed of absorbing spiritual energy is faster than others..."
"Yeah, it's the same situation in our family. High-quality jade is truly a treasure that's hard to come by these days."
"This might also be the reason why the value of the entire jade market has risen recently; everyone is giving good jade to their own family members or friends and relatives..."
"Zzzzz..."
Just as everyone was discussing and waiting for the cutting machine to cut the jade, the piercing sound of the machine came to an abrupt halt.
"What happened? Why did the cutting machine stop?"
"Could it be that some accident occurred..."
Everyone was stunned. It had only been a short while since the cutting began, and for a large, hundred-pound raw stone like this, it should have taken at least five minutes of cutting time.
But now, only about a minute or two had passed.
Old Zhang, the head of the studio, looked a bit anxious. This raw stone had been purchased using all the cash their studio had. If something were wrong with the stone, their studio would very likely go bankrupt!
"Please, let there not be any accidents with the raw stone..."
"Click!"
He immediately rushed to the cutting machine equipment and opened the cover.
The scene inside the cutting machine equipment came into view.
The sharp cutting blade was firmly embedded in the surface of the raw stone, and the entire outer edge of the blade had gaps. Seeing this, Old Zhang breathed a sigh of relief.
"So it was just the blade that had a problem..."
When he retracted the blade, he suddenly realized that the blade had shattered into several pieces, and the jadeite raw stone inside the machine had only been cut into its thin outer layer.
"Could this raw stone be fake?!"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible. This kind of raw stone couldn't be a fake grown by deception!"
Just as Old Zhang was feeling uneasy inside, a ray of red light refracted from the cut crack, drawing the attention of the dozens of people present.
"My god, could this be top-quality red jadeite?!"
"With such a translucent light, the quality of the jade inside must be extremely high!"
"It looks like Old Zhang is going to strike it rich. Old Zhang, share the wealth! If a large piece of top-quality jadeite really comes out later, sell us some of the scraps..."
"That's right..."
Listening to the congratulations from the people around him, Old Zhang, who was in close contact with the raw stone inside the cutting machine, did not feel happy.
His body trembled, and a trace of fear welled up in his eyes.
Feeling the refracted red light up close made him instinctively feel eerie and afraid. This red light reminded him of the "Super Red Moon" that had brought disaster to all of humanity a few months ago...
"Maybe we shouldn't open this ominous stone today..."
He was having second thoughts. Where would a jade stone spontaneously refract red light when the lighting wasn't even sufficient?
But just as he wanted to give up on cutting open this raw stone that was causing him inner unease, the scene changed.
A wind vortex formed around the raw stone inside the cutting machine, and spiritual energy from the air in the distance surged toward this place rapidly. Soon, the entire shop room was filled with a thick, white mist of spiritual energy.
"So comfortable! What are these white mists?"
"Are you stupid! This is a sign of extremely high spiritual energy density. The surrounding spiritual energy was all attracted here by this jade stone!"
"This jade raw stone must be a treasure! If I could place it in my home and have such rich spiritual energy every day, how great that would be!"
"Old Zhang, I'll pay fifty million to buy this raw stone!"
Inside the shop where the jade raw stone was being cut, the scene was in an uproar!
In the month since spiritual energy appeared, the imagination of the citizens of the Great Xia Kingdom had developed quite a bit. Coupled with the fact that jade itself has the reputation of being "spiritual jade," everyone present who was in the jade business became fanatical!
Only Old Zhang's expression showed panic...
Because as the white mist of spiritual energy in the room was condensed and absorbed by the raw stone into the cracks on its surface, the red light it emitted became brighter and brighter. In the blink of an eye, the red light enveloped the entire room!
Watching the increasingly intense red glow, the crowd, who had been fanatical, also felt that something was wrong.
Quite a few people swallowed hard.
"Why do I feel like this red glow looks a bit like that eerie 'Super Red Moon'..."
"Me too, I feel a bit uneasy..."
"Against the backdrop of spiritual energy, could some kind of monster appear..."
"Let's just leave. This jade stone keeps giving me a strange feeling..."
"Okay!"
"Crack!"
Just as quite a few people were preparing to leave, a crisp, shattering sound attracted everyone's attention.
Looking over, the surface of the raw stone emitting the red glow was rapidly cracking...