Chapter 16

Translator: Zayn_

“The material of these bracelets is real, but they have nothing to do with magic artifacts.”

Su Xiaofan shook his head at the words that appeared in his mind.

Su Xiaofan had used his free time to make many attempts over the past few days.

For example, he could break a bowl on purpose and see if it could be repaired. As long as it was damaged, repair points could be used to repair it. A large bowl could be repaired with only one repair point, but Su Xiaofan would not waste repair points on useless things.

Su Xiaofan realized that the repair value for modern and inanimate objects was not high. Most of the handcrafted works were beyond repair and had no value.

However, if it was to repair a life form, the amount of repair points consumed would be shocking.

On the day Su Xiaofan moved, he tried to observe Uncle Niu’s dog.

The dog had been hit by a car when it was in the neighborhood, and it had been limping. Su Xiaofan took a look at it. If he wanted to repair the dog, he would need 40 repair points, which even exceeded Su Xiaofan’s original repair points.

Of course, the item that required the most repair points so far was the dragon-shaped jade pendant from the Han Dynasty that Su Xiaofan was wearing around his neck, which required 50 repair points.

The dragon-shaped jade pendant from the Han Dynasty was also a dead object, but why did it require so many repair points? Was it related to the artifact or the era? Su Xiaofan could not find the answer, which was why he wanted to find an artifact to observe.

While information would appear in Su Xiaofan’s mind for many intact objects, they couldn’t be repaired.

For example, the information given by the bracelets in front of Su Xiaofan was irreparable.

“Brother Gang, your bracelets aren’t magic artifacts.” Su Xiaofan put down the bracelet. It was just an ordinary item, and its price was based on the material it was made of. It had nothing to do with magic artifacts.

“Hey, I asked someone to order this. It costs ten yuan a day and ships in three months. Don’t think that just because it’s not a magic artifact that it’s cheap.”

Zheng Dagang chuckled and told Su Xiaofan the truth. He had found the students from nearby vocational schools to play with these bracelets.

Three hundred Yuan a month was still very attractive to students who played games in internet cafes all day long. After playing the game, it would return to Zheng Dagang’s hands. His bracelet could be sold for at least three or four thousand Yuan. After all, in the eyes of an expert, the literary game of a mechanical disk and the bracelet were completely different.

“Xiaofan, take a look at this. This is a golden sword made from a string of copper coins from the Ming Dynasty. It’s definitely a magic artifact.”

Zheng Dagang handed a golden sword about 50 centimeters long to Su Xiaofan. He usually kept these items at home and didn’t take them out, so Su Xiaofan had never seen them before.

“The golden sword is a Daoist magic artifact, but it’s hard to say if yours is one.” Su Xiaofan nodded and took the golden sword. Having been in the antique market for so long, he naturally knew what the sword was for.

The golden sword was usually used by Daoist mages to catch ghosts and subdue demons and ghosts. It could also be hung in front of the door to ward off evil spirits. It was handmade with copper coins and red thread. It was usually a magic artifact made by strung together 108 copper coins into a sword and then strengthened.

[ Broken copper coins of the Ming Dynasty can be repaired and need a few repair points. Do you want to repair them? ]

When Su Xiaofan focused his attention on the bronze sword, a message appeared in his mind, and his expression turned strange.

From the perspective of the repair system in Su Xiaofan’s mind, the thing in his hand had nothing to do with the golden sword. It was just a pile of copper coins, and some of them were broken. It could be repaired with a few repair points, so Su Xiaofan couldn’t think of any value in it.

“Brother Gang, where did you get this golden sword?” Su Xiaofan asked. When he saw the golden sword, he still had a lot of hope.

“I took the copper coins and made it up.”

Zheng Dagang looked around and whispered, “I’m using old coins from the Ming Dynasty, and the red string I used is also old. Xiaofan, look at this. It’s obviously an old item.”

“But this has nothing to do with magic artifacts.” Su Xiaofan smiled wryly. He used to be close to Zheng Dagang, but they did their own business and it was inconvenient to ask about some details. He really didn’t know Zheng Dagang was such a scammer.

“How is it not related? This thing can ward off evil spirits without any problem.”

Zheng Dagang said, “Last time, a few farmers asked me to buy it. They offered me 5000 Yuan, but I didn’t sell it. Xiaofan, let me tell you. If this thing is sold well, 30,000 to 50,000 Yuan is not a problem.”

“Brother Gang, you’re really wild. You’ve even come into contact with people who fight underground.”

Hearing Zheng Dagang’s words, Su Xiaofan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “But Brother Gang, don’t you have a real magical artifact that has been enhanced? I want to see that kind of thing, so that I can have a plan to copy it in the future.”

Su Xiaofan glanced at the other items on the stall and found that most of them were modern crafts. One of them was a jade ruyi from the Qing Dynasty, but it was not a magic artifact. At best, it was an antique.

“Eh? I can tell the age, so I can pick up some good stuff.” The thought suddenly came to Su Xiaofan’s mind. He had come to look for a Dharma artifact because he had an incomplete one on his neck. He wanted to compare it with another one and determine its value.

But from a business point of view, the generation deduction function of the repair system in Su Xiaofan’s mind was very powerful and practical. Regardless of whether the item could be repaired or not, Su Xiaofan could use the system to distinguish whether it was real or fake, and then he could pick up scraps in the antique market.

Su Xiaofan’s heart beat faster at that thought. This was definitely a huge bug!

Although antiques had been popular for decades, and it was not easy to pick up scraps, there were still some fish that slipped through the net in the huge antique market. There was no need to pick up big scraps. Every time he picked up a few small scraps that were worth tens of thousands, Su Xiaofan would become rich.

“It doesn’t seem to be very peaceful in Yao mountain recently. There are many people buying magic artifacts. I’m already considered pretty good.”

Zheng Dagang didn’t notice Su Xiaofan’s expression and said excitedly, “Among the magic artifacts, small pieces of bronze are the best to sell. You can make a batch of them later and make some old ones. We won’t sell them as antiques, we’ll sell them as magic weapons. This doesn’t go against the rules of your village, right?”

Zheng Dagang knew that in the bronze village where Su Xiaofan was born, it was strictly forbidden to sell bronze handicrafts as antiques. Firstly, the country prohibited the trade of cultural relics and bronze, and secondly, selling antiques and counterfeits was considered fraud. The old village chief had never been careless about it.

Su Xiaofan thought for a moment and said, “Actually, you don’t have to deliberately make it old. I’ll just add a few things when I make it. But Brother Gang, you can only treat it as a magic artifact and not an antique.”

From Su Xiaofan’s point of view, selling the bronze ware he made as an antique was suspected of fraud and a violation of the village rules.

However, magic artifacts were illusory, and there was no screening method or final conclusion at all. As long as the buyer was willing to acknowledge it, no one could care about it.

Su Xiaofan had watched his grandfather make bronze ever since he started wearing open-crotch pants. He had learned the process of casting bronze with acid since elementary school.

When he was about ten years old, Su Xiaofan had tried to make molds with live mud, wax, and cast bronze with water. When he got into junior high school and learned about chemistry, Su Xiaofan had upgraded the raw materials for casting bronze.

What many people didn’t know was that bronze was actually an alloy of pure copper or purple copper with tin or lead.

Compared to pure copper and purple copper, bronze had a higher strength and a lower melting point. It also had good casting, wear-resistant, and stable chemical properties.

Therefore, after bronze was invented, it immediately became popular, and human history entered a new stage… The Bronze Age was named after an era, which showed the importance of bronze to human beings. In that era, bronze could almost be deeply penetrated into all aspects of human life.

Su Xiaofan went to junior high in a town, which was very close to the village. He had a lot of time tinkering with bronze at home. He had done many experiments according to the ratio of tin and lead added to brass and purple copper.

By chance, Su Xiaofan had added another metal with a very low melting point in addition to the tin and lead. He found that after the metal was added, the color of the shaped bronze was oxidized. After a few days, it looked like an antique even without aging with strong acid.

Even though Su Xiaofan was young back then, he was very clear-headed and knew how big of an impact his discovery would have if it were to spread.

Therefore, Su Xiaofan had basically recycled all the oxidized bronze he had made over the years. The “bronze” he sold to Wu Chuanbao was the only one he had left, but he didn’t expect it to cause trouble.