Chapter 27: Yin Sha Stone (Part 2)
Although the amount of Repair Value gained from absorbing the Yin Sha Stone was a little low, no matter what, Su Xiaofan was still very satisfied to have found a way to increase his Repair Value.
Su Xiaofan had spent the whole day yesterday standing in Bronze Ware Village welcoming and seeing off guests, and was indeed quite exhausted. After absorbing the Yin Sha Stone, he fell into a deep sleep.
Su Xiaofan had always slept very well. Besides, he had gone to bed around one or two in the morning the previous night, so he slept all the way until after ten in the morning, when he was finally awakened by the phone.
“Brother Gang, what’s up?” Su Xiaofan picked up his phone and glanced at the caller ID before answering. He was not prone to morning grumpiness, and once awakened, he was wide awake.
“Xiaofan, you still have that stone from yesterday, right? Uncle Jing said he’ll be back in a few days, so he wants you to keep that stone safe.” Zheng Dagang sounded somewhat anxious.
“Ah, I... After I entered the residential compound yesterday, I threw that stone into the artificial lake in the compound.”
Hearing this, Su Xiaofan froze for a moment, then said, “You and Xiaoxiao both said that thing was rather unlucky and a little sinister. I figured that was probably true too, so I threw it away.”
Su Xiaofan was very glad that he had come up with an excuse yesterday. Otherwise, if Jing Shizhen wanted the Yin Sha Stone when he returned, Su Xiaofan really would not know what to do. After all, when he bought that compass bell, Su Xiaofan had essentially owed Jing Shizhen a very large favor.
“What? You threw it away? Are you telling me the truth or not?”
Zheng Dagang’s voice suddenly rose by eight octaves. “Brother, you... couldn’t you have kept it for just one night? Didn’t I say I’d ask Uncle Jing today?”
“Of course it’s true. Xiaoxiao was right beside me when I threw it away.” Su Xiaofan replied.
“Wait for me, I’m coming over to your place now!” Before Su Xiaofan could respond, Zheng Dagang hurriedly hung up the phone.
“Could this thing be worth a lot of money?”
After hanging up, Su Xiaofan was somewhat puzzled. However, judging by how anxious Zheng Dagang had become, the Yin Sha Stone was obviously quite valuable.
Zheng Dagang arrived very quickly. Less than half an hour after Su Xiaofan hung up, he was already knocking on the door outside.
“Where did you throw it?” Zheng Dagang asked as soon as he entered.
“There, look.”
Su Xiaofan led Zheng Dagang to the balcony and pointed at the artificial lake below. “I threw it into the lake, about ten or twenty meters from the shore. I roughly remember the spot.”
“Fuck, how are we supposed to find it?”
Standing on the balcony and looking at the entire artificial lake, Zheng Dagang was dumbfounded.
The apartments in this residential compound were expensive, and naturally there was a reason for that.
The compound Su Xiaofan had bought an apartment in had an extremely low floor-area ratio. The central area had originally been a pond before development began, and the developer simply enlarged the pond and turned it into an artificial lake, taking up nearly a quarter of the entire compound.
The buildings in the compound were built around the artificial lake, and no matter which direction an apartment faced, residents could see the lake scenery. This was also one of the compound’s selling points.
Seeing that the artificial lake was large enough for boats to actually sail on it, Zheng Dagang immediately gave up hope. He had seen that stone himself. Something only about the size of a thumb thrown into the lake would be impossible to find even if they drained the entire lake.
“Brother Gang, what exactly is that stone? What’s the story behind it?”
Su Xiaofan asked. Of course he knew it was a Yin Sha Stone, but he knew nothing about where the Yin Sha Stone came from or what it was used for.
“Ah, brother, three million, three million gone just like that!”
Zheng Dagang looked as if he were about to cry. Even though the three million the stone might have sold for had nothing to do with him, seeing Su Xiaofan lose three million for nothing still made Zheng Dagang ache.
“Three million, it... it can sell for that much?”
Su Xiaofan was stunned when he heard this. He truly had not expected the Yin Sha Stone to be so precious. Such a small piece was actually worth far more than a magical artifact.
“Uncle Jing said three million over the phone. The exact price still depends on the actual item.”
Zheng Dagang said weakly, “But Uncle Jing said that even the worst one could sell for three million. If the quality is a little better, four or five million isn’t impossible.”
“Fuck!”
Su Xiaofan could not help swearing. This time he was genuinely shocked. Absorbing the Yin Sha Stone had only increased his Repair Value by ten points. Calculated this way, one point of Repair Value was equivalent to three or four hundred thousand yuan.
“I threw away a whole apartment?”
Su Xiaofan now wore an utterly devastated expression. This time he was not showing off his acting skills; he really did regret it a little.
Although Repair Value was useful, at present, spending three or four million to buy ten points of Repair Value was simply far too poor in terms of cost-effectiveness.
After buying that bell magical artifact, Su Xiaofan no longer had enough money on hand to cover his younger sister’s tuition and living expenses for three years. Naturally, he regretted absorbing the Yin Sha Stone.
Of course, even if he had not absorbed the Yin Sha Stone, Su Xiaofan might not necessarily have sold it, but he would have kept it on hand for emergencies.
“How about I dive into the lake and look for it?” Zheng Dagang said, still somewhat unwilling to give up. “I’m pretty good in the water. Maybe I can actually find it.”
“Forget it, Brother Gang. I guess this fortune just wasn’t meant for me.”
Hearing this, Su Xiaofan could not help but smile bitterly. Did he not know what he had done? Let alone Zheng Dagang being good in the water, even if he were a mermaid, he would not be able to find the Yin Sha Stone in that artificial lake.
“At least I got something out of it. At the very least, I know that absorbing one low-grade Yin Sha Stone can increase my Repair Value by ten points.” Su Xiaofan consoled himself.
“You should have kept it until today.” Zheng Dagang still felt it was a pity for Su Xiaofan.
“Brother Gang, stop dwelling on useless things.”
Su Xiaofan waved his hand and said, “Tell me what exactly that stone is. Maybe we’ll be able to find another one in the future.”
“Uncle Jing said that thing is called a Yin Stone...”
“Hm? A Yin Stone?”
Su Xiaofan interrupted Zheng Dagang. That thing was clearly called a Yin Sha Stone.
“Right, it’s called a Yin Stone.”
Zheng Dagang nodded firmly. “The conditions required for a Yin Stone to form are extremely harsh. It can only have a chance of forming in places where Yin energy is extraordinarily abundant and pervasive.
And the probability is very low. The formation of a Yin Stone requires not only nourishment from Yin energy, but also the impact of baleful energy. Only then can a Yin Stone be produced...”
According to Uncle Jing, Yin Stones mostly appeared in two kinds of places.
One was naturally formed places of extreme Yin. Such places were barren, with not a blade of grass growing and no human ever reaching them. Moreover, Yin Stones would only form in Yin acupoints. Yin Stones produced under such conditions were relatively high in quality.
The second place where Yin Stones could appear was inside certain tombs, and they had to be tombs with exceptionally good feng shui.
The appearance of Yin Stones in tombs was even more difficult than in places of extreme Yin. Since the Yin energy in tombs was not as strong as in places of extreme Yin, baleful energy also had to be mixed in, making it possible for Yin Stones to be nourished into existence.
However, the quality of Yin Stones found in tombs was much poorer than that of Yin Stones found in places of extreme Yin.
But whether they appeared in places of extreme Yin or in tombs, Yin Stones were extremely rare. In Uncle Jing’s words, he had only seen two Yin Stones in his entire life.
“I see. No wonder it’s also called a Yin Sha Stone. Looks like it came from a tomb.”
After hearing Zheng Dagang’s explanation, Su Xiaofan understood the origin of the Yin Sha Stone, and it happened to correspond perfectly with the place where Wu Chuanpeng had obtained the Yin Sha Stone.
“Something containing baleful energy isn’t something an ordinary person can carry around. Looks like those two brothers are going to suffer a serious illness even if they don’t die.”
Su Xiaofan pondered inwardly. The Yin Sha Stone really could cause considerable harm to ordinary people.
“Exactly. Those two bastards yesterday were definitely tomb raiders, and they’re in the same line of work as us. Bah!”
There was an ecosystem in the antique world as well. Major collectors looked down on minor collectors, minor collectors looked down on ordinary players, and ordinary players looked down on those who set up street stalls.
However, street vendors were not at the very bottom of the ecosystem. The people they despised most were tomb raiders, because the things those grave robbers brought out were all stolen goods.
“Brother Gang, aside from places of extreme Yin, can Yin Stones only be found in tombs?”
Su Xiaofan had never even heard of a place of extreme Yin, so naturally he had no idea where such places were.
But tombs were everywhere in Mangshan, and countless ones had been looted. Su Xiaofan thought that perhaps he could acquire some from those tomb raiders.
“Uncle Jing said those are the only two places where they can be found, but there aren’t many in tombs either.” Zheng Dagang nodded. He was merely relaying Uncle Jing’s words.
“Then if this thing sells for so much, what is it used for?”
Su Xiaofan asked. At present, he only knew one use of the Yin Sha Stone: it could be absorbed and converted into Repair Value.
“Uncle Jing didn’t explain it very clearly.”
Zheng Dagang thought for a moment and said, “I think he said this thing can affect the magnetic field of the surrounding environment and cause people to hallucinate. It’s an excellent material for setting up formations. I didn’t really understand it either.”
“Hmm, those two encountering a ghostly wall yesterday may have been caused by the Yin Stone, but what exactly is a formation?”
Thinking of what had happened yesterday, Su Xiaofan confirmed this function of the Yin Stone, but he was rather confused about the formation Zheng Dagang mentioned. Was it the Bagua formation he had once paid to play with in a park?
“Uncle Jing only mentioned it in passing and didn’t explain it specifically.”
Zheng Dagang scratched his head and said somewhat gleefully, “If you want to know, call Uncle Jing yourself. But you’d better be prepared to get chewed out. You threw away such a fine treasure, kid. That’s practically throwing away a priceless treasure.”
When Zheng Dagang had called Uncle Jing, he could tell that this Yin Stone was the kind of item that was priceless because there was no market for it, impossible to measure in specific monetary terms. The price Uncle Jing had mentioned was merely a reference.
“I’m not calling Uncle Jing, and I don’t even have his number.”
Su Xiaofan hurriedly shook his head and chuckled. “In a few days I’m taking Xiaoxiao to Yanjing to register. Even if Uncle Jing comes back, he won’t be able to find me.”
“I’ll call Uncle Jing later and tell him not to come back.”
Zheng Dagang was also helpless. The thing had already been thrown away, and into a place where it was fundamentally impossible to retrieve. There was no point in Jing Shizhen coming back either.
“Forget it, let’s not talk about this anymore. Where’s Xiaoxiao? I’ll treat you two to lunch. Consider it a farewell meal for Xiaoxiao.”
Zheng Dagang changed the subject. After all, it was not his own thing. If it was thrown away, then so be it. Su Xiaofan himself did not feel it was a pity, so why should he worry about it?
“Xiaoxiao probably went shopping with her classmates again. Brother Gang, let’s find somewhere to eat lunch.”
The two had been sitting in the living room talking for quite a while, yet the sociable Su Xiaoxiao had not come out. In all likelihood, she had gone out.
Actually, if it were not for the fact that the Yin Stone was extremely valuable, Su Xiaofan would have been in a very good mood today. After all, he had found a way to increase his Repair Value, which was certainly worth celebrating.
(End of Chapter)
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