Chapter 802: Hidden Gemstones
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Within these rocks, Li Du found a l.u.s.trous piece of gemstone.
The piece of gemstone was approximately the size of a newborn baby"s fist, had a pale black base color, was translucent, and had a colorful top.
Generally, the gemstones were like painter"s palettes that had been filled with a variety of colored pigments. The various colored pigments blended with each other and were arranged in a messy but interesting manner, giving the gemstones a strange and eccentric charm.
With just one glance, Li Du was able to figure out the ident.i.ty of the gemstone.
Black opal!
Indeed, the gemstone was a black opal. Furthermore, the gemstone was a top grade specimen that had a black base color.
It was common knowledge that the term, "black opal" generally referred to opals that were black or grey, had play-of-color, and displayed vibrant colors within their dark-colored bodies.
Although black opals were described as being black, they were not actually completely black. It was just that when compared to the light colored bodies of other types of opals, the bodies of black opals had darker colors.
Despite that, there truly were opals that had naturally black bodies. Due to the rarity of the patterns that black opals had, the prices of black opals were very high.
Right now, Li Du had spotted a piece that was embedded in a wall.
As he had already predicted something similar to this before releasing the little bug, he was not shocked by the discovery.
Instead of being isolated like the fire opals in the national park, the black opals in Lightning Ridge were embedded inside rocks and were one with them.
As such, it was much more difficult to find them. Just like jade, black opals were encased inside rocks. If a person wanted to find black opals, they would have to shatter the rocks.
However, it was impossible to shatter every rock on this piece of land, as no one would have that much energy and resources.
Generally speaking, there was a pattern to the discovery of black opals. Black opals were very rarely found alone and were usually found in groups that formed a black opal rich zone.
Under such circ.u.mstances, the shattering of rocks was targeted at the black opal rich zone. Once a piece of black opal was found, all the rocks in the surrounding area would be shattered.
Despite that, not every black opal was located in a black opal rich zone. Consequently, a lot of black opals that were hidden inside rocks had been overlooked. Most of the time, gemstones that were found by tourists fell into this category.
Li Du knew that he would find black opals in open mines on the ground. However, he did not expect that the first black opal he spotted would be under such circ.u.mstances.
Even though he had found a black opal, he was not able to take it out from inside the wall. Just like the Single Prince Castle, this infrastructure was also government property and was considered something like an intangible cultural heritage site and hence, no one was allowed to demolish it.
After the little bug continued flying along the wall, another piece of black opal appeared in his vision.
Li Du knew that no matter how many gemstones the infrastructure had, there was no way for him to retrieve them.
Logically speaking, it would be best for him not to continue searching under such circ.u.mstances. Not only would it be a complete waste of energy, it would also cause him to be tempted by the gemstones.
However, humans were flawed creatures. Being curious, Li Du wanted to take a look inside the infrastructure to find out exactly how many black opals there were and how unlucky the person who built the infrastructure was to have missed so many precious gemstones.
While the little bug was flying in and out of the infrastructure, Li Du kept finding black opals: three, four, five, eight, ten pieces… so many that Li Du could no longer be bothered to count. The infrastructure contained at least tens of millions of AUD worth of gemstones!
Furthermore, he slowly began to realize that the owner of the infrastructure might have found the gemstones. As some of the gemstones were embedded near the surface of the rocks, and the rocks had been smoothed out before being stuck together, it was impossible for the owner to have not noticed the gemstones.
After recalling the life story of the infrastructure"s owner, Li Du suspected that the owner might have come to search for gemstones not to get rich but to vent his discontent with his fate.
Even though the owner did manage to find gemstones, he did not dig them out to sell them. For the purpose of leaving behind his experiences and to mock this ridiculous world, he sealed the gemstones inside the infrastructure.
This was Li Du"s speculation. In the end, Li Du left the strange infrastructure with some regret after recalling the little bug.
While Brother Wolf was driving the car, Li Du said to him, "There are gemstones inside, very valuable gemstones."
Brother Wolf asked, "Do you want them?"
Li Du shook his head. "They don"t belong to us. Also, I can"t buy the infrastructure with money. The local government probably won"t sell it."
Even if the local government wanted to sell the infrastructure, Li Du would also be ashamed to destroy it to retrieve the gemstones. As the owner of the infrastructure was using the infrastructure to express his hopelessness and grievances, it would be too despicable of him to destroy it for the purpose of retrieving the gemstones.
Brother Wolf responded, "There"s no surveillance around the infrastructure. I will demolish it at night and retrieve the gemstones inside."
Li Du burst into laughter and said, "No no, it"s not necessary, man. We are standing on gemstone mines. There are gemstone mines all around us. It is not a must for us to retrieve the gemstones here. There are plenty of gemstones elsewhere."
Reality proved Li Du wrong.
Although they had been driving around for an entire day and had used up quite a bit of gasoline, Li Du was unable to find anything. After the little bug had flown in and out of those rocks, he had yet to find a single piece of opal!
Judging from this, it was evident how meticulous the local miners were. Unless there was a special reason, the local miners would not cast aside a single piece of rock that pa.s.sed through their hands, and they would definitely find and take the black opals that were inside those rocks.
After spending the entire day wandering around outside, Li Du and the others were covered from head to toe with dust. In the evening, they returned to the hotel.
Sophie did not accompany them and stayed in the hotel to look after the four furry children.
Displeased with Ali, Ah Ow and the other two furry children, who were full of energy, formed an alliance and came up with a way to bully Ali. As Sophie was exhausted, she was, like before, unable to keep an eye on them.
When Li Du returned, Ah Meow was scurrying up to the ceiling while holding Ali in his mouth.
Like an expert in extreme sports, Ah Meow ran speedily up to the top of a wall, nimbly turned his body, jumped off the wall, grabbed onto a fan blade, and lifted himself up with a twist of his body.
Having jumped onto a fan blade, Ah Meow opened his mouth and placed Ali on the fan blade before jumping back down onto the bed.
Ah Ow and Crispy Noodles raised their heads and looked indifferently at Ali"s predicament.
As Ali, who was too frightened to move, peed itself, drops of liquid fell from the top of the fan blade.
At this moment, Li Du walked into the room. When Ali squeaked and moved its small body after seeing Li Du, the fan blade moved along with it. All of a sudden, Ali slipped and fell off the fan blade.
Li Du hurriedly used the ability to slow down time and rushed over before opening his arms to catch Ali.
A figure leaped off the bed. After leaping into the air, Ah Meow opened his mouth and bit Ali"s head.
After catching Ali by its b.u.t.t while it was falling, Li Du gave Ah Meow a slap on his head and bellowed, "What were you trying to do?"
If Ah Meow had not jumped into the air to save Ali, Li Du would have had to teach the little b*tch a lesson.
However, from Ah Meow"s s.h.i.+elding posture, it was evident that he knew what he was doing, and that his intention was to scare Ali and not to kill it.
After being caught by Li Du, Ali, who was nearly scared out of its wits from the three furry children"s prank, burrowed into Li Du"s embrace, opened up its pair of large watery eyes, and looked around its surroundings in horror.