CH 18.1

Lu Yuan walked up to the first rough stone and the live feed switched to the surface of the raw rough stone immediately:

“This, is an ordinary yellow sand crust rough stone, which isn’t easy to identify, but look carefully, there are several greyish-white spots scattered on its surface, mostly on one side and very unevenly; look at its crust again ……”

Bai Jing gained a better understanding of this rough stone thanks to his careful explanation. As expected of a Senior Stone Gambler, he had noticed many details that he had missed.

The live audience, on the other hand, was uninterested in these dull explanations. Fortunately, an experienced Stone Solver was available to solve the stone while the explanation was being given.

The thrill of being able to stand by and watch the stone solving process in person, with the virtual port being accessed, led to a surge in traffic, causing the live stream to successfully surpass the 80 million mark.

The first rough stone was cut three times in succession along the different directions of the crust and was unsurprisingly a white stone, making the crowd unable to help but sigh softly.

The second rough stone was cut once along the ringworm at the bottom and came out green on the second cut, but just as everyone was getting excited, the Stone Solver made two more cuts and found it to be green against the skin, causing many to sigh again.

Then the third rough stone ……

Over the course of an hour, the Stone Solver unraveled a total of eleven rough stones, only one of which had jadeite, however the flesh was so fractured that it was unusable. This made the crowd’s spirits sag.

At this point, the Stone Solver moved the white salt skin rough stone, numbered ’12’, to the stone-cutting machine.

The candidates’ hearts immediately hung in the balance, as more than half of them had chosen this rough stone. They started praying that nothing would go wrong and that they would pass the exams.

The moment Ning Yuxuan saw this white salt skin rough stone, she hadn’t hesitated to put the number ’12’ into the last column of the answer sheet.

Hence she was in a very relaxed mood: with this rough stone, the jadeite inside wouldn’t be bad at all!

A smile appeared on Lu Yuan’s handsome face as he rubbed his hand over the surface of the rough stone gently and introduced it:

“This piece of white salt skin has a rough surface and a strong sense of desiccation, typical of the first field opening of the Sotho District, and is the best of the white salt skins. The surface of the crust is compact and fine, indicating the age of the stone.” [Note]

On the surface, the green pine flowers were distributed symmetrically, making it a very good rough stone, with a high probability of producing jadeite of the ice-glass or even glass variety!

Following Lu Yuan’s detailed explanation, the Stone Solver looked back and forth carefully before beginning to polish the stone along the course of the pine blossoms, which soon revealed a hazy surface.

This fast and fog had appeared, it was actually white fog!

Immediately, the crowd’s enthusiasm was ignited and the popularity of the live broadcast room soared to a fevered pitch, with the number of people increasing steadily.

The candidates sitting in front of the screen were equally excited…

White fog was coming out and judging by the sprinkled cut, the jadeite inside would definitely not be bad…

This bet was definitely up, and it was a great gain!

Seeing the white fog, the Stone Solver was much more careful, rubbing the stone along the misted surface a little bit, and soon a palm-sized window appeared.

After sprinkling water on the surface, the cut was clear as ice, with a hazy coolness.

It was of the ice variety!

The Stone Solver observed the outline of the cut and the direction of the loose flowers at the bottom carefully then made a cut near the bottom…

As expected of an experienced master, this cut was just right, cutting the jadeite out neatly to the right size.

As the old saying went, ‘it’s not a great yield when you rub it, only when you cut it is it considered a great yield’. After this cut, the outline of the jadeite was almost completely revealed, and it was a definitive cut.

In the end, a 3.4kg piece of ice jadeite was extracted from this rough stone with white salt skin.

The crystal-clear ice jadeite was like a flowing icy spring with a hint of turquoise, as if floating in clouds, with a delicate texture and full watery color, a fresh and elegant piece.

The live broadcast room was immediately swept with gifts, and people were thrilled as they came forward to admire and feel the coolness of the ice jadeite through the holographic technology, their hearts filled with awe.

[This is the first time I’ve seen the birth of an ice jadeite in person. It’s hard to believe it was solved in one stone, it’s really beautiful–]

[A 3.4kg piece of ice jadeite, it’s an absolute great gain!]

[Is the Gambling Guild selling it? I’ll pay 4,000,000 Star coins for this jadeite.]

[I’ll give you 4.5 million!]

[I’ll give you 5 million, I don’t think anyone will pay more than I have.]

A group of people took the opportunity to shout out prices, but it was quickly brushed away by other pop-ups…

[Brothers and sisters, quick, hit me with ‘great gain’ on the public screen!]

In a flash, the live stream was flooded with screens full of ‘great gain’.

The candidates who chose number ’12’ heaved sighs of relief then couldn’t wait to look up to the sky and shout out that they had gotten it right!

With this 5-point advantage, it was enough to pull them up quite a few places.

Just then, the President of the Gambling Guild who had been sitting on the sidelines watching the proceedings smiled and motioned for the camera to turn to him.

The light screen quickly switched to the President’s smiling face.

The crowd, who had just been watching the ice jadeite up close were bounced out of the virtual space and were confused when they heard the voice of the Chairman of the Guild:

“This rough stone has indeed produced an ice jadeite, but it is not a bet yielding a great gain.”

The pop-up screen exploded. How could this not be a bet yielding a great gain?

This was an ice jadeite, did it have to be glass jadeite of the highest quality to be considered a bet yielding a great gain?

Ning Yuxuan frowned as well. What did the President mean by this?

Instead of answering directly, the President of the Gambling Guild asked a question: “Tell us, what is a bet that yields a great gain?”

[Naturally, it was a bet that the price of a jadeite produced from a raw stone would be higher than the price of the original rough stone.]