24: Chapter 24 Treasure Hunting in the Antique Street

Administrator: Cao Xiao (Carbon-based intelligent lifeform, human)

Current Permission Level: Level 1 (Total of nine levels, upgradable)

Personal Combat Power: 8 (Composite of 7 Stamina, 8 Strength, and 6 Agility, plus 1 in Combat Technique; a healthy adult without combat training is generally 10)

Personal Space: 2 * 2 * 2 = 8 cubic meters (Cannot hold living organisms, upgradable)

Technological Knowledge: Primary Level 1 Technological Civilization (Permission upgrade conditions met; can upgrade when stored energy reaches 1000%)

Operating System: 49th Generation Intelligence (No personality, no emotions, possesses basic technological intelligence)

Seeing this information, Cao Xiao almost teared up. When he first obtained the industrial mother machine, he didn't know how to upgrade it, so he had to resort to clumsy trial-and-error methods without knowing when he would meet the upgrade requirements. He had been busy for a week, driving himself dizzy every day, to the point where Liu Chang and the others thought he had developed depression and looked at him with strange expressions. Now, he had finally seen the true face of things.

Regarding the knowledge reserves of a Primary Level 1 Technological Civilization, according to this classification, Earth's technological level should be between the Primary Intermediate and High levels. Cosmic civilizations might be divided into three tiers: Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced, with each tier subdivided into Primary, Intermediate, and High levels. As for whether there are even higher civilizations or other types of civilizations above that, he did not know. With this classification, he would have direction for future upgrades and wouldn't have to blindly experiment.

He checked the energy space; it was now empty, with only 30% of the energy remaining. The energy consumed by organizing and transmitting information was even greater than that required for simple mineral processing.

If he wanted to purchase a large quantity of grain, he had to start ordering now. The quantity was too large, so it could only be transported by rail. Even if purchased locally, it would take several days to transport to the designated location. It was too rushed to find a warehouse now; he needed to save his money for the grain, so finding a warehouse nearby could wait. The lease for the warehouse at the Dachuhe Wharf still had more than two months left, and the goods inside should have been moved out by now. If he placed the order now, it would arrive in a few days. In any case, he planned to go home in a few days, so he could receive it then.

He checked grain prices online; even the worst quality corn cost over a thousand yuan per ton. Cao Xiao didn't know how much corn was needed for ten times the energy, but it would at least be several thousand to ten thousand tons. In any case, the more the better. Even if he didn't need that much, the energy demand would certainly be greater after upgrading his permission level, so preparing more was safer. The money in Cao Xiao's hands was not enough to pay for ten thousand tons of low-quality corn, let alone other things like rice or soybeans. Not to mention the significant transportation costs, which also gave Cao Xiao a headache—where was this money going to come from?

After thinking for a long time, he called Mother He to ask if the coke had been transported. Mother He informed him that it had just been finished yesterday. Cao Xiao brought up the payment, and Mother He immediately said she would have the finance department settle the balance for him. She asked if he needed money, and if so, she could lend him some personally. Cao Xiao declined; he didn't want to owe anyone money anymore.

After the 52 million arrived, Cao Xiao found an agricultural product trading company in the province online. After bargaining, he placed an order for 10,000 tons of low-quality corn kernels at a price of 1,500 yuan per ton, requesting that they be delivered to the warehouse at Dachuhe within five days. Including transportation costs, it cost over 16 million in total. Cao Xiao's account balance was now only 48 million, and he still had to pay the remaining 46 million for the villa. Without hesitation, Cao Xiao went to the Biyuntian real estate sales department and cleared the balance. Finally, there was only over 2 million left in the account.

Actually, Cao Xiao had intended to purchase old grain. For the bio-energy required by the industrial mother machine, old grain might provide more bio-energy. As grain is stored for a long time, it slowly deteriorates, becoming rich in microorganisms, which naturally produce more bio-energy than ordinary grain. Moreover, the price is very low—compared to agricultural products on the market, it is practically dirt cheap. However, upon checking, Cao Xiao learned that bulk purchases of old grain must go through an old grain auction. Only companies engaged in feed processing or animal husbandry can participate in the auction; otherwise, spoiled grain entering the market would cause unforeseeable harm. If he had the chance in the future, he would acquire a feed mill or an animal husbandry enterprise, which would allow him to purchase old grain in bulk legitimately. In this way, he wouldn't have to worry about energy sources in the future.

Unexpectedly, just as he left the real estate sales department, he received a call from Hao Linger. Hao Linger told him that the company registration was successful and that the registered capital was needed, urging him to transfer the funds to the company account immediately. The registered capital for Dizang Technology Co., Ltd. was 10 million. Where was he supposed to find that now? If he had known, he wouldn't have paid for the villa. Now he could only ask Hao Linger to delay it for a few days. Also, the office had been rented, and the renovation plan was ready. A few days ago, he and Hao Linger had discussed the renovation requirements, and now they just needed to hire a renovation company to do the work. However, he had been impulsive at the time and made the renovation plan a bit too high-end. The renovation budget alone was 5 million, and a 30% advance payment was 1.5 million. After transferring the money, only 800,000 remained in his account. This amount of money might have been a huge sum for Cao Xiao in the past, but now he felt there were still so many things left to do. There were too many places to spend money, and it was completely insufficient.

The matter of the company's registered capital could only rely on the blue amber bracelet he had sent for auction to sell for a high price. Two days ago, Liu Guitang had notified Cao Xiao that the auction would be held in two days, and if Cao Xiao wanted to attend, he should go to him to get an admission ticket.

With no important matters for the moment, Cao Xiao prepared to go to the Antique City. However, before that, he had to visit a few museums in the city. There were also books on antique appraisal in the library, and Cao Xiao had organized these books, but antiques were things where truth and falsehood were mixed and opinions varied. Cao Xiao only had a rough idea; specific details still needed to be verified by comparing them with actual objects, so he had to go to the museums.

Cao Xiao spent the whole morning visiting several museums in the city. He used the Detection Function to scan all the antique information into the intelligent brain database. Then, the intelligent brain automatically verified it against the information in those appraisal books and summarized the correct information. In fact, the Detection Function itself had a certain ability to identify items. Through all-round perspective scanning, it could discover whether the object's structure was complete and uniform; spectral analysis could reveal the material composition of the item; and it could also date items through the degree of isotope decay. However, all this could only distinguish the authenticity of antiques; it could not judge whether they were valuable, or even determine what the artifact actually was.

The splendid civilization of five thousand years has accumulated countless varieties of artifacts, each representing a different significance. Beauty and the meaning behind it are precisely the important criteria for judging the value of artifacts. With the information in the appraisal books as evidence, when the Detection Function scans an item, it can display comprehensive information about the object—authenticity, perspective view, specific era, name, historical significance, approximate price, etc., all will be displayed one by one. Of course, this is limited to those antiques that Cao Xiao has already scanned and verified. As a provincial capital, Huanghe City is also an economic and cultural exchange center for the central, eastern, western, northern, and southern regions. The collections in several museums are very rich, but some rare artifacts are not collected here. Some artifacts have only a few or even just one piece left in existence; if they are collected, they are mostly treated as treasures of the museum, and some are simply not in the country. Therefore, Cao Xiao's database is not yet perfect, and he cannot obtain accurate information when encountering some rare items.

Looking at the book "Detailed Explanation of Artifact Identification" displayed on the interface, Cao Xiao did not rashly choose to transmit it to his mind. The amount of information in it was too vast. It not only contained a vast sea of artifact information but also huge amounts of historical information related to the artifacts, which was several times more than all the basic information of natural science combined. Even a small transmission would consume a lot of time. After a week of torment, Cao Xiao still felt a headache today. Besides, this information was not crucial; he could complete the identification through the Detection Function without having to rack his own brains.

Huanghe Antique City is located on the Antique Street in the center of Huanghe City, a thoroughfare connecting nine provinces. It is the largest antique and art trading center in the province and even the central region. Huanghe Antique City has a total construction area of nearly 30,000 square meters. The architectural layout is simple and elegant, with a distinct and grand Ming and Qing style. It has five floors and nearly a thousand independent shops, with exquisite and gorgeous decoration and layout, unique and ingenious. The Antique City mainly deals in jadeite and jade, porcelain and pottery, bronze ware and Buddha statues, calligraphy and painting, coins and tickets, ancient books and rare editions, mahogany furniture, etc. It also concurrently deals in more than ten varieties and tens of thousands of items, including root carvings, bronzes, bronze sculptures, antique clocks, cultural walnuts, badges, Duan inkstones, stationery, ancient swords, Tibetan artifacts, modern art, embroidery, etc.

When Cao Xiao arrived at the Antique Street in the city center, he was not in a hurry to go to the Antique City to find Liu Guitang. He first went to the bank and withdrew 200,000 yuan in cash. He wanted to enjoy the fun of treasure hunting first and see the actual identification effect of the Detection Function in reality.

The Antique Street not only has shops but also auction houses, pawnshops, exhibition halls, banks, etc. Of course, the most numerous are the street stalls. Cao Xiao's goal was these street stalls. It is rare to pick up a bargain in shops; many antiques have already been appraised, and there are not many genuine items among them. They are all clearly priced, honest and fair, but there are also many fakes. One can only be fooled; wanting to pick up a bargain is simply impossible.

Street stalls are different. Most of these vendors do not have much appraisal knowledge, and the items sold are a mixed bag of all sorts. Most of them are modern handicrafts or antique imitations, and some are collected from all over the country. Sometimes even they themselves cannot tell what those things are. Therefore, as long as one has the eye, it is possible to discover valuable things among the thousands of items.

Initially, Cao Xiao was also looking carefully around the stalls with great interest, hoping to find a few treasures. However, after strolling for a long time, he found many valuable things, but after bargaining with the stall owners, he found that the actual value and the selling price were not much different. Although it could be considered a small bargain, if he bought it and sold it to others, the price would be suppressed, and in the end, he wouldn't make much money, and it would take a lot of time to sell it, which was not worth the loss.

Most of the items on these street stalls have been filtered by large numbers of professional treasure hunters with sharp eyes, and there are basically no items of huge value. Cao Xiao browsed through the street stalls and was almost done, with only a string of wooden beads and a thick book in his hand.

That string of wooden beads was bought by Cao Xiao at a small stall selling accessories for 200 yuan. This was the result of Cao Xiao not bargaining; otherwise, he could have gotten it for 100 yuan. This string of wooden beads was actually an old Qi Nan wood bracelet from the Republic of China era. When he bought it, the condition was terrible—the surface was dirty and had scratches, looking as if it had just been picked out of a garbage pile. If it weren't for Cao Xiao's identification through the Detection Function, he wouldn't have believed that this string of beads was actually made of precious Qi Nan wood.

Qi Nan is a mutation that occurs during the aging process of agarwood. It can be said that it has undergone a second "injury" to be aged. The quantity is extremely small. Its resin formation ratio is far greater than that of agarwood, and its scent is peculiar and ever-changing. The difference between Qi Nan and ordinary agarwood is that the former has a feeling of fragrance, numbness, coolness, spiciness, and stickiness upon entering the mouth. Without burning, it has an obvious sweet fragrance itself. The resin is generated from the inside out; generally, the outer skin is light in color, and the inside is dark. When making handicrafts, the resin sticks to the knife, causing very serious damage to the tools. Agarwood resin is formed in a "solid state," while Qi Nan is the most special kind, formed in a "liquid state," with very strong stickiness. The powder of high-quality Qi Nan can even be kneaded into a ball by hand. Therefore, the rarity of its carvings is far greater than that of the raw material. Because of the particularity of its resin, Qi Nan used for making beads often cannot be made perfectly round, and accidental strong squeezing will cause it to deform. Therefore, handicrafts made of Qi Nan are rare in existence, and one piece is enough to be passed down forever.

The "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Agarwood, scent is pungent, slightly warm, non-toxic. Indications: Wind-water poisonous swelling, removing evil spirits; treats heart and abdominal pain, cholera and sudden turmoil, evil spirits and miasma, clears the mind; regulates the middle, tonifies the five internal organs, benefits essence and strengthens yang in men, warms the waist and knees, stops cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea caused by cold, breaks up masses, treats cold wind paralysis, joint dysfunction, rheumatic skin itching, dysentery; tonifies the spleen and stomach, benefits qi and calms the spirit. Treats qi rebellion and asthma, large intestine deficiency and constipation, urinary qi stranguria, male essence cold."

The Qi Nan-grade agarwood bracelet in his hand has 108 beads with a diameter of 8mm, weighing over 30 grams. It is from the Republic of China era and can barely be considered an antique. Nowadays, the price of high-quality Qi Nan starts at tens of thousands of yuan per gram, but such finished products are not bought by the gram. Even if the condition of such an antique Qi Nan piece is poor, it can sell for at least over a million yuan. This is the most conservative estimate; if he meets an incense enthusiast who likes it, the value is hard to say. Even if taken to an auction, one million is just the starting price. Such a rare treasure might cause a scramble and might fetch an astronomical price. Moreover, those marks are seen by many as the charm left by history, which is also a kind of added value. In any case, Cao Xiao picked up a huge bargain today.

Not to mention the value of the book in his hand. Actually, what is valuable is not the book, but what is hidden inside it. This book is just a wuxia novel by Master Jin printed in the 1990s, not a hardcover collector's edition, and its actual value is only a few hundred yuan. However, there are five one-yuan banknotes from the Commercial Bank of China in the 24th year of the Guangxu reign tucked inside. When the book was sold, it looked like it had been soaked in water for a period of time and then taken out; it was even moldy, and the pages were stuck together. Cao Xiao bought it for 50 yuan. But the five banknotes, which were still relatively well-preserved, were worth over 1.5 million.