Chapter 440 Chalcedony

• Right then, the host hurried up. “Anyone else bidding? If no one raises the paddle, this third stone goes to Mr. Hua!” Everyone went quiet. Come on, this was gods duking it out. Regular folks had no business jumping in. Besides, the price had already been driven up to a sky-high ten million. Most people couldn’t take that hit. Even if they could, no one dared bid. Didn’t you see Hua Tingwen looking like he’d tear someone apart? If anyone tried to top him, he’d probably rip them to shreds on the spot. “Since there are no more bids, this third stone belongs to Master Hua!” After Hua Tingwen took the third stone, he kept his mouth shut for a long stretch and didn’t join any more bidding. During that time, a few stones were actually decent, but he still didn’t make a move. One, these stones weren’t as good as the ones he had his eye on later. Two, if he kept bidding and Caio Solari’s crew started jacking up prices again, he might shell out big money for useless rocks. That was the last thing he wanted. Before long, they reached the fifteenth stone. When a stone the size of an adult’s fist was brought out—its shape like a turtle shell—both Hua Tingwen and the ever-steady Zuo Yu suddenly sat forward. This stone was the gem of the lot—the absolute best. It was the one they both were dead set on getting. Zuo Yu had come today for this stone and this stone alone. Seeing Zuo Yu and Hua Tingwen light up, the crowd turned their eyes to the stone they’d dismissed earlier as mediocre. Whispers spread—maybe there was a treasure inside. Some folks even got itchy to bid. If both Hua Tingwen and Zuo Yu cared this much, how could everyone else not be curious? Caio Solari shot the first question at Felix Cohen. “Felix, does this stone have something good inside?” Felix nodded, then gave a slight shake of his head. When he’d first seen the stone, he’d paused. At a glance, he’d noticed thick spiritual natural energy shrouding it. He’d thought it was a top-grade jade, maybe even rarer—chalcedony. Only truly exceptional jade or the scarcer chalcedony could draw in spiritual natural energy. But when he used his sight to look through it, he found only a fingernail-sized bit of jade inside, its texture mixed and uneven. What shocked him more was that a small, ugly rock under this one—the kind that looked dug out of a latrine—actually held a piece of chalcedony. In that moment, Felix understood. The spiritual natural energy was being lured by the stone that contained the chalcedony. But that chalcedony had already soaked up all it could—saturated. It wasn’t absorbing any more. The energy that was drawn in began seeping into the stones around the chalcedony instead. Clearly, this stone and the one with chalcedony had formed together. Give it hundreds or thousands of years bathing in spiritual natural energy, and this stone would likely grow its own chalcedony inside. Too bad it got dug up early. Even after being unearthed, it was still stored next to the chalcedony-bearing rock, so the spiritual natural energy never fully dispersed. Felix figured Hua Tingwen and Zuo Yu had both been misled by the energy clinging to this stone—made them think there was something amazing sealed within.