Chapter 1349: Trash Stone
Yu Yanluo was surprised. She looked in the direction Zu An indicated, and saw some rocks sitting casually beneath a table in the center of the pavilion. The one who had designed the immortal floor really had excellent taste. Even though the stones were placed somewhat haphazardly, they didn’t seem out of place at all. Yu Yanluo walked over and examined the biggest one carefully. Because it was too large, her Medusa’s Eye only revealed an endless white expanse. It didn’t seem any different from an ordinary stone.
“Ah Zu, are you sure about this stone?” she asked, sounding a bit baffled. She thought that she might have picked the wrong one.
“Yes, that’s the one,” Zu An confirmed.
Yu Yanluo bit her lip. Under the circ.u.mstances, she couldn"t ask Zu An in more detail. After some hesitation, however, she still chose to trust him in the end. As such, she asked the butler, “How much is this one?”
The butler was surprised, replying, “That one? That one is not an unpolished stone, but rather an ordinary rock for decoration.”
“Yes, this is the one,” Yu Yanluo said. She felt extremely nervous. The way things were, she could only brace herself and follow through.
The butler was a bit confused. Could it be that the Jade Garden had made a mistake? He looked at the large stone for a bit. After working there for so long, even though he didn’t have x-ray vision, he was still decent at recognizing precious stones. No matter how he looked at it, though, it looked like a normal stone…
As such, he replied, “It is a hundred heaven grade ki stones.”
Zu An complained, “Are you trying to rob us? You just said it’s just an ordinary stone. Why are you still collecting a hundred heaven-grade ki stones?”
The butler calmly said, “After entering this immortal floor, even an ordinary stone can become extraordinary after absorbing the natural ki here. This is already the cheapest price on the immortal floor. I am already showing you the greatest amount of sincerity.”
Yu Yanluo said calmly, “Then let’s just go with a hundred heaven-grade ki stones.”
She took out the ki stones and handed them to him. She had once been one of the richest individuals in the human world, after all. Even though she had left in a hurry, a hundred heaven-grade ki stones still wasn’t too big of a deal.
The butler had a strange expression. Could it be that all of the Jade Garden’s experts had ended up misjudging the stone, and that there really was a precious gemstone inside? Still, no matter how he looked at it, the stone couldn"t be any more ordinary! Since he had already said what he said, he could only give her the giant stone.
On the other side, someone let out a cry of alarm as Shi Min used his Magic Tap skill to gently tap a disk-shaped stone. It actually produced waves of bright and clear phoenix cries!
“Could this stone’s contents have something to do with a phoenix?”
“Have you all noticed? This stone has several rings of patterns around its surface. I thought they were similar to a tree’s rings, but they seem to be phoenix patterns!”
“Say, do you all think it might be a phoenix egg?”
“That would be ridiculous! For it to be within one of the immortal floor’s stones would mean it was hibernating. If it were properly nurtured, it could produce a real phoenix!”
“The phoenix only exists in legends. I didn’t expect I would actually be able to see the return of a legendary creature!”
…
When she heard their discussions, Yu Yanluo’s expression changed. Anything related to a phoenix was definitely an incredible object. Meanwhile, even if her choice turned out to be more than just an ordinary rock, anything that emerged from it probably wouldn’t be able to compare to that item.
Yun Jianyue was also a bit worried, muttering, “We’re done for, we’re done for! If they chose a phoenix, how the h.e.l.l are we supposed to win? To top it off, it was Little An who chose that d.a.m.n rock!”
Yan Xuehen was also a bit confused, but she still said, “Have some confidence in him. He would not cause trouble in such critical times.”
“Huh? Weren’t you the one who looked down on him the most? Didn’t you want him dead? Why have you kept speaking up for him recently? It’s almost as if you’re bragging about your man or something,” Yun Jianyue said deliberately to annoy her. That wasn’t what she really thought, though; it was just something she had made up to rile Yan Xuehen up. She knew Yan Xuehen couldn"t stand romantic jokes, especially when it involved her and her disciple’s man. So, she really wanted to see what Yan Xuehen would look like when she got angry.
However, Yan Xuehen didn’t get angry. Instead, she seemed a bit guilty and bashful. Yun Jianyue thought, Huh? Why do I feel as if she’s been acting a bit strange recently?
She was just about to ask something when Shi Min quickly walked over with his stone, asking, “How much is this stone?”
The butler slowly replied with a pained expression, “Five thousand heaven-grade ki stones.”
Judging from the signs that had been produced, this stone definitely had some kind of treasure hidden inside. If he could do everything over, he would definitely put away all of these unpolished stones.
However, the stones had been present for so long that many guests had seen them. He couldn"t bring them away even if he wanted to; that would damage the Jade Garden’s reputation. He would also end up offending the powerful Lion race.
“I do not have enough heaven-grade ki stones on me right now, so I will put it on the Lion Race’s tab. I will have them brought over tomorrow,” Shi Min said.
The butler was overjoyed. He quickly replied, sounding troubled, “I fear that will be difficult, third prince. Our Jade Garden has never taken on any debt.”
Since they couldn’t buy it, he would have a pretext to put the stone back into the treasury.
“What? We are the glorious Lion race’s princes. Would we cheat you of your five thousand heaven-grade ki stones?” Shi Gong protested, shooting him an angry glare.
The butler shook his head and said, “Princes, please do not be quick to anger. This is not a rule that is directed at you, but rather one that has been set in place for a long time. In a place of gambling, it is easy for things to get out of hand. A single mistake can make an individual completely bankrupt, or a person might perish. In order to guard against such tragedies, the Jade Garden set this rule. Since then, many people have thanked us after calming down, and it has saved many families. That is why I hope the princes do not take any offense.”
This time, Hu Yong finally found a chance to mock the lion princes. “You don’t even have enough ki stones, and yet you want to play around here? Butler, I’m going to buy this stone!”
The others’ expressions became strange. Quite a few among them had similar thoughts. However, fearing the possibility of offending the Lion race, that didn’t seem like a good deal. Furthermore, if there turned out to be nothing inside, they would be losing out even more.
However, the Tiger race’s princes didn’t have such misgivings. On the contrary, p.i.s.sing off the Lion race was an added benefit.
Shi Min was furious, retorting, “I clearly chose this stone. What are you getting involved for?!”
Hu Yong shrugged and replied, “What, am I not allowed to buy it if you don’t buy it? Get out of the way already, and don’t touch my stone.”
“Who said I cannot buy it?!” Shi Min said through gritted teeth. He took out a golden glove. And said, “This is a heaven-grade weapon. Its value is much higher than five thousand heaven-grade ki stones.”
Heaven-grade weapons were divided into strong ones and weak ones. His weapon was of the weaker category, but even then, the weakest ones wouldn’t be worth fewer than five thousand heaven-grade ki stones.
Hu Yong roared with laughter and remarked, “You’re even putting up household goods for collateral. The Lion race really has fallen!”
Shi Min glowered and ignored Hu Yong.
“This…” The butler was a bit troubled. He asked, “Must the prince do this?”
“Don’t tell me this is not enough?” Shi Min said in a low growl.
“It is enough, it is enough,” the butler replied. He knew that at this point, refusing further would completely offend the Lion race. He said, “We will keep this glove well for the prince. As long as you deliver five thousand ki stones within three days, we will return it with grat.i.tude.”
Shi Min’s expression finally became a bit better. It seemed the Jade Garden was still rather tactful.
Purchasing the stone that way left him quite angry. However, when he saw Zu An carrying over a large stone, it immediately made him feel much better. He remarked, “After all of this, that thing is what you ended up with?”
“Is there a problem?” Zu An replied with a harrumph.
“Not at all; why would I have a problem with that?” Shi Min replied, feeling a little better. “I just find it rather funny. You know, in rock betting, bigger is not always better, hahaha…”
“Shut up and open your stone already,” Zu An said. He didn’t feel like wasting any more words on Shi Min.
“How about opening yours first this time?” Shi Min replied with a sneer. Last time, the other group had opened up something more precious afterward, which really made him feel awful. That was why this time, he wanted to go second.
“You really want us to go first? I’m just scared that after you see what’s in ours, you won’t have the courage to even open yours anymore,” Zu An said calmly.
“Heh, you really know how to shoot your mouth off. You’re gonna do that with that shoddy stone of yours?” The lion princes all roared with laughter.
Even the others’ expressions were growing strange, because in their opinion, the Snake race’s side would lose for sure.
“Then should we make another bet?” Zu An shot back, giving Shi Min a provocative look.
Shi Gong and Shi Rong were easily provoked and immediately fired back, “If you want a bet, then a bet it is. Who is scared of who?”
“Hey, do not act impulsively. We are going to win for sure anyway. There is no need to let side issues keep growing,” Shi Min said, quickly stopping them.
For some reason, when he saw how relaxed Zu An was, he remembered what had happened on the yellow floor again. He was worried that Zu An had some other tricks, so he decided he just wouldn’t play along with the other side’s games.
Shi Rong and Shi Gong had always respected their third brother. As such, they gave Zu An an angry look and said, “Count yourself lucky.”
Hu Yong roared with laughter and said mockingly, “Tsk tsk, are you all really from the Lion race? You’re too scared to even make another bet? How cowardly! In my opinion, perhaps you’re actually from the Mouse race!”
Flames practically seemed about to come out of Shi Gong and Shi Rong’s eyes. Perhaps because Shi Rong felt that victory was already in his grasp, he only felt happier and retorted “Even though our Lion race is brave, we aren’t ignorant and brash like you guys. It’s almost as if you’re from the Ox race or something.”
“What did you say?!” Hu Yong and his brothers were furious. The sparks between the two sides seemed about to erupt into flames again.
“Stop causing trouble already. We should open up the stones first,” the Second Imperial Prince said with a frown; he was clearly a bit unhappy.
The Little Golden Peng King also said calmly, “If you want to fight, do it outside. I am more interested in what is inside these two stones.”
Seeing that the other races were unhappy, the Lion and Tiger races couldn"t just draw public anger by fighting. As such, they harrumphed and said, “Once this rock betting is finished, we will have a proper chat then.”
The butler quickly began to cut Zu An’s stone, which looked like a large millstone. Even though he didn’t think there was some treasure inside, he was still concerned with the possibility. As such, he started by cutting as carefully as he had before. Unfortunately, even after dozens of cuts, nothing but ash-gray stone revealed itself. It was no different from an ordinary rock.
The butler then increased his speed. At first, it was as if he were cutting a sausage. Later on, he just cut into it chunk by chunk. The millstone-sized stone quickly became smaller and smaller. In the end, it turned into a pile of crushed rocks.
Shi Min sighed in relief. Shi Rong quickly said mockingly, “Hahaha, there was nothing inside after all!”
Yu Yanluo’s expression turned completely white. Even though she had felt that it was just an ordinary rock, she had been willing to trust Zu An. But why had this been the result?
Princess Suolun looked at her worriedly. She thought to herself, This loss is really going to have heavy consequences…
Shang Liuyu looked at Zu An, her beautiful eyes full of puzzlement.
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