Chapter 434 Stone Louse Gu
The industry of appraisers is very special because it emphasizes reputation, qualifications, and experience most, and cheating means destroying one’s own “signboard”. Therefore, Ding Ning did not have the slightest fear that they and the appraisers would collude to fool him.
“Childe Ding, you are broad-minded. If we didn’t have grudges, I would like to make friends with you.”
Ding Ning had been behaving indifferently and calmly, making Childe Liu and his partners begin to admire him. Childe Liu heaved a sigh and said quite sincerely.
Ding Ning smiled coolly but did not say anything. He would not make friends with Childe Liu because he didn’t have good moral standards.
Yes, moral standards. Ding Ning did not make friends with the social status as his standard, but with moral standards. Only those who were pleasing to his eye and did not have huge flaws in their moral standards could be liked by him.
With his powerful family as support, Childe Liu was high-profile and domineering. After being beaten, he was not brave enough to take revenge like a real man because he feared the strong. Instead, he wanted to save face through stone gambling. In Ding Ning’s mind, such a useless playboy didn’t deserve to be his friend at all.
To some extent, even Qian Le, the terrible black sheep of the Fourth Childe of Qian Family, was courageous than Childe Liu. At least, he dared to shout in Ding Ning’s face and took open revenge.
The appraisers came on invitation soon. The Navigation Auction House did business flexibly. Its appraisers not only appraised items in its house in working hours, but they could also go out to appraise items for anyone who was willing to pay them.
Xiang Bolong paid them, and this shop was close to the auction house. Naturally, these appraisers would not refuse him.
One of the seven appraisers was Ding Ning’s old acquaintance and also the most authoritative Mr. Liu of the Navigation Auction House.
Apparently, Mr. Liu had recognized him and nodded at him with a smile, but did not come over to greet him to avoid suspicion.
Ding Ning gave a reserved smile and glanced at Master Mo. “This is the stone-gambling master you’ve invited, right?”
“Right, this is Master Mo, who has been famous in Ninghai recently. What? You are afraid?”
Childe Liu feared that Ding Ning would regret it when he knew Master Mo’s reputation, so he goaded him. “When we made the gamble last night, we never said we could not invite a helper, and you can also invite someone.”
“What? That is Master Mo?”
“G.o.d, it is Master Mo. He looks like a G.o.d and deserves to be a master.”
“Sure, this little guy won’t dare to gamble. Master Mo, he is the most popular one in Ninghai.”
“Only an idiot will gamble with Master Mo because he is a stone-gambling master. It is said that he has never made a mistake so far.”
“D*mn, who on earth has such great honor to have got Master Mo’s help? If Master Mo can help me once, I will be rich.”
“You are dreaming. Each time Master Mo helps someone, he consumes his power. To invite him, you will have to spend unimaginable sums of money. Go, that little guy won’t have the courage to gamble for sure.”
…
Those who were attracted and came had an uproar when they heard these words and looking at Master Mo with admiration, talked about him.
Looking at Childe Liu who fancied himself clever and Master Mo who was being complimented by the crowd but remained reserved, Ding Ning had disdain in his eyes. “No need. I want to see how excellent this stone-gambling master can be.”
“What? To agree to gamble? Is this young man insane?”
“Humph, the young man has no idea about fear or the vastness and greatness of the world.”
“Haha, as long as we can watch the fun, that’s enough. Maybe he is a master with brilliant skills.”
“Huh, he doesn’t know who he is. Youths are vigorous and are not in awe of anything. Arrogant!”
“Alas, he dares to agree to gamble against Master Mo. This little young man is over.”
“I’ve heard that their wager is 300 million. D*mn, this young man’s dressing is ordinary. Can he have 300 million?”
“Since he dares to agree to gamble, it proves that he has so much money. These years, the rich people who play the poor to humiliate others are many.”
“The moral degeneration of the world is getting worse day by day. This little guy is so young, so how could he have so much money? He is to gamble with the money his parents made with painstaking efforts, isn’t he? We are not as good as our ancestors were.”
“Shh, talk less. The one who can use 300 million as a wager is not a person who can be easily dealt with. He is willing to use his money to act willfully because of dissatisfaction, so you don’t have to care about it.”
“Humph, I really don’t like the guy who gambles with the money his parents made with painstaking efforts. If I had such a son, I would kill him with a slap.”
“Forget it. You are also coming to gamble on stones with your family’s money. You are no better than him, so don’t criticize him. Let’s just watch the drama.”
“I…I only gamble on stones but don’t gamble.”
…
Ding Ning’s act led to numerous comments. His provocation made the crowd bustle and babble, and their look at him was like looking at an idiot.
A man’s reputation is as important as a tree’s shadow. Indeed, Master Mo had won enough reputation since he took on this job several times during this time. Nearly no one in the stone-gambling sector had not heard of his great name.
Ding Ning’s disdainful provocation made the crowd think that he was one of those decently rich spendthrifts, and even these appraisers smiled bitterly and shook their heads silently. “This young man is so unaware of his own limitation.”
Even Mr. Liu also shook his head and sighed, thinking that Ding Ning was a little too high-profile. He extended his great grat.i.tude to Ding Ning for selling him the Seven-Star Gra.s.s and wanted to admonish him, but when he saw Ding Ning’s indifferent and calm appearance, he didn’t think it was suitable to say anything and only hoped that he could have nature-defying luck and get valuable jadeite.
“Since it is so, let’s begin the game now, and the time limit is 30 minutes. Childe Ding should select three raw stones, and so should Master Mo. We will open the stones on the scene and also evaluate them on the scene.”
Seeing that Ding Ning still insisted on gambling although he had known Master Mo’s reputation, Childe Liu was immediately overjoyed. Fearing that Ding Ning would change his mind, he announced loudly and hurriedly.
Master Mo was afraid of Ding Ning, but he didn’t have the slightest fear about stone gambling. Instantly, he put his hands in a knot behind his back and swaggered to pick the raw stones.
Indifferent, Ding Ning walked after him. Just now, he had basically examined the raw stones and knew which stones were valuable, and he had also numbered all of them according to their data value.
He was very curious about Master Mo’s method. “How could he dare to bear the stone-gambling master’s name?”
As he pretended to pick raw stones, he kept a secret eye on Master Mo’s behavior.
Master Mo stood unhurriedly before each raw stone for a while as if he was to observe them according to his experience, looking like a stone-gambling master. After a short time, he had selected his first raw stone and asked someone to carry it to the stone cutting machine.
Ding Ning was shocked. “Master Mo has some skills. That raw stone is indeed valuable and has been marked by me as No. 8.
“Is this guy also a superpower holder who can see what is inside raw stones?”
Ding Ning suddenly became nervous. As he kept an eye on Master Mo, he walked with pretended uncertainty to the best value stone marked as No.1, hesitated for a long time, and then hesitantly asked someone to take No.1 away.
At this point, Master Mo had also examined a few raw stones and then came to a stone that had not been numbered by Ding Ning. After observing it for a short while, he asked someone to take it away.
Ding Ning was so much relieved. “It seems that this Master Mo does have the way to judge whether a raw stone contains jadeite or not, but he can’t tell the type of jadeite, or he would not have chosen this raw stone.”
In this raw stone, there was jadeite and it was big, but the data value was too low. Ding Ning estimated that this one should be the least valuable dry and white type.
Even if such dry and white jadeite was taken out, its price would only match the price of the raw stone at most, so they would not have gain or loss.
Even if it was only like this, he was brilliant. With such an ability to know which raw stone contained jadeite, he deserved to be Master Mo.
Thus, Ding Ning became more curious. “What method does Master Mo use to accurately judge if there is jadeite in the raw stone?” It was true that one could not even see through the raw stone with the Spiritual Strength. Even if he was a Spiritual Master, he could not tell if there was jadeite in the raw stone.
“All-seeing Eye, open!”
The Art of War says that if you know your enemy and yourself, you will not lose in battles. Ding Ning must figure out Master Mo’s secret. Secretly, he opened the All-seeing Eye, and then every of Master Mo’s moves was in his eyes.
Now, Master Mo was squatting before a raw stone without anything on it, pretending to observe it carefully, but a beam of almost imperceptible dim light rushed out of his nostril and entered the raw stone.
In a short time, that beam of dim light rushed out and returned to Master Mo, and then he began to examine the next raw stone.
Ding Ning suddenly became clear. “G.o.d, Master Mo’s Natal Spiritual Gu is a Stone Louse Gu. That’s why he can find out which piece of raw stone contains jadeite but can’t judge the quality of it.”
The Stone Louse Gu was extremely rare. First, 100 kinds of venomous insects were put into a Gu vessel, then they were left to fight and kill each other, and finally only one would survive and become a Gu insect, and this insect must be a stone louse insect.
It was impossible for a Gu raiser to get the Stone Louse Gu only because he wanted it. The only fair explanation for Master Mo to have successfully raised the Stone Louse Gu was that he was exceptionally lucky, for getting it was even harder than winning a 5 million lottery prize.
The truth was that apart from having a little venom and the talent to going into the stone, the stone louse insect was useless, including fighting ability shortage. It could become the only survivor among the more than 100 kinds of venomous insects, which was really a miracle.
It was fair to say that in the field of Gu masters, raising a Stone Louse Gu was truly useless, and this Gu was regarded as a pile of useless rubbish. Unexpectedly, Master Mo used the Stone Louse Gu to do stone gambling. Yes, he was a genius.
What Ding Ning did not know was that when Master Mo initially found the Life Gu he had made with pains and suffering was merely a Stone Louse Gu, he almost pa.s.sed out. When his peers learned it, they crazily laughed at him, making him feel too ashamed to show his face.
If it were not that he had been unable to collect all the venomous insects used for making the Life Gu, he would have decided to bear this Stone Louse Gu’s counterattack and cut his connection with it.
But he never expected that when he left the Demon Cult in distress to wander around and came across the stone-gamblers when looking for venomous insects, he suddenly had the idea of using the Stone Louse Gu to make money.
It happened that Nie Fan, who had a good relationship with him when they were in the Demon Cult but had long left the sect to fool around in the earthly world, contacted him, hoping to invite him to Ninghai to help him. Then, he came to Ninghai.
Initially, Nie Fan inviting him to come was because he valued his Gu-planting ability, but Nie Fan never thought that his Life Gu was a Stone Louse Gu, which made Nie Fan quite disappointed. After all, the Stone Louse Gu was no lethal weapon, but only a pile of waste.
But when he learned that the Stone Louse Gu could enter the raw stone and tell if there was jadeite in it, he immediately stopped his disappointment and began to admire Master Mo and then joined hands with him to make lucrative sums at the Fantastic Stones Shop.
Unfortunately, the Stone Louse Gu didn’t have any gnosis. It could only tell Master Mo if there was jadeite in the raw stone but could not judge the value of the jadeite. This was also why Master Mo had been unable to guarantee that he could be 100% successful in gambling.
But this ability was already enough for him to make large sums of money in the stone-gambling industry. Then, he was praised by those playboys who liked playing the stone-gambling game and worshipped like an ancestor by them with the service that he could drink good alcohols, have feasts, live in mansions, drive luxury cars, and bed beautiful women. After that, he had long forgotten his true self and treated himself as a real stone-gambling master.
After finding out Master Mo’s secret, Ding Ning did not take him seriously anymore. When Master Mo got the third stone, Ding Ning selected two jadeite-less raw stones confidently.
Although Master Mo’s three raw stones contained jadeite, all their jadeite value was not comparable to that of raw stone No. 1. Naturally, Ding Ning did not have to be so ostentatious and draw the attention of some people who had unpredictable ideas.