Chapter 68: Returning to Luochuan
“You’re going back in a few days?”
Jing Shizhen looked at Su Xiaofan with a puzzled expression.
“Are you uncomfortable staying here, or what?”
The beginning of cultivation was when problems were most likely to occur. That was precisely why Jing Shizhen had asked Su Xiaofan to stay at his home.
Normally, after about a month, there would be little chance of anything going wrong while practicing and circulating qi. Jing Shizhen had originally planned to let Su Xiaofan leave after that.
“No, Master. It’s just that Brother Gang and I are about to open our shop.”
Su Xiaofan told him the truth. There was no way he could hide something like opening an antique shop from Uncle Jing, and there was no need to lie about it either.
“How is your cultivation going? Have you memorized the circulation diagram for the Great Heavenly Circuit?”
Jing Shizhen didn’t insist on making him stay. Cultivation also required financial resources to support it.
For one thing, just a single stick of incense costing hundreds of thousands of yuan was already something the current Su Xiaofan couldn’t afford to burn regularly.
Jing Shizhen was Su Xiaofan’s master, not his biological father. In the future, Su Xiaofan would still have to find a way to obtain the resources needed for his cultivation himself.
“I’ve already opened several of the Great Heavenly Circuit meridians, and I’ve memorized the circulation diagram too.”
Su Xiaofan didn’t dare tell him that he had already opened half of the Great Heavenly Circuit meridians. Otherwise, his master would probably suffer another blow to his pride.
“All right, then. Tell me when you’re leaving, and I’ll have a car take you.”
Jing Shizhen nodded.
As the old saying went, “The master leads you through the door; cultivation depends on the individual.”
Su Xiaofan wasn’t his favorite disciple, nor was he his son, so Jing Shizhen couldn’t keep an eye on him all the time.
“Yes, Master!” Su Xiaofan gratefully accepted his master’s kindness.
“By the way, I’ll be returning to Luochuan next month.”
Jing Shizhen suddenly remembered something.
“I’ll have to make a trip to Fengcheng then. Come with me.”
“Fengcheng? Master, what are we going there for?”
Fengcheng wasn’t far from Luochuan. It was also an ancient city, and Su Xiaofan had previously gone there with Zheng Dagan to purchase goods.
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
Jing Shizhen didn’t elaborate. He waved his hand and told Su Xiaofan to go rest.
That night, Su Xiaofan continued sitting in meditation and cultivating.
However, he had already shortened his cultivation time to six hours. As soon as he felt mentally tired, Su Xiaofan would lie down and go to sleep.
Early the next morning, Su Xiaofan didn’t go to the gym to train his strength anymore.
Instead, he drove Uncle Jing’s car directly to Pan Garden Antique Market.
Nowadays, finding hidden treasures at bargain prices was relatively difficult, but Su Xiaofan wasn’t there specifically for that purpose.
He spent most of the day focusing on old copper coins.
Anyone who had been to an antique market knew that there were usually huge quantities of old copper coins. They were often displayed in enormous piles.
Trying to find valuable famous coins and rare treasures from those mountains of copper coins was practically impossible.
Don’t be fooled by the huge quantity of copper coins. The stall owners had definitely examined them one by one already. Anything valuable would have long since been put away.
Most of the copper coins displayed on street stalls were either common coins that had been minted in large quantities or damaged coins.
Su Xiaofan’s approach was different.
What he focused on were those heavily worn copper coins.
Generally speaking, there were two types of wear on copper coins.
The first was caused by frequent use, which gradually wore away the characters and patterns on the surface.
Such coins indicated that they had circulated extensively, and sellers generally wouldn’t realize their true value.
The other type consisted of coins excavated from underground.
Because they had been buried underground and subjected to corrosion, many copper coins were covered entirely in verdigris. Some would even crumble with the slightest force.
Even after being cleaned, the condition of these coins was extremely poor. They were usually placed on street stalls and sold in bulk.
This was exactly the type Su Xiaofan was looking for.
With the Repair System’s ability to identify them, he could completely find what he needed among these unrecognizable copper coins.
However, the reason famous coins were called famous coins was precisely because they were rare.
Su Xiaofan spent an entire day at Pan Garden and only managed to find two ancient coins ranked among the Fifty Great Rarities.
One was the Southern Tang Baoda Yuanbao with a large “Tian” inscription on the reverse, from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Very few of these coins had survived, with only three known examples having ever appeared on the market.
Su Xiaofan checked the price and found that this rare ancient coin had a transaction value of around 500,000 yuan.
After using Repair Value on it, he had barely broken even.
The other copper coin was a Jingkang Yuanbao, minted during the reign of Emperor Qinzong of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Because the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the amount of currency minted under the Jingkang era name was extremely small. Whether considering surviving specimens or archaeological excavations, such coins were exceedingly rare.
Both copper coins Su Xiaofan had found were excavated pieces.
The rust on their surfaces had completely corroded the original inscriptions, making the coins impossible to identify.
Without the Repair System displaying their names, even Su Xiaofan would never have been able to recognize them.
In the enormous Pan Garden Antique Market, Su Xiaofan had managed to find two rare ancient coins.
Even he couldn’t say whether he was happy or disappointed.
The next day, Su Xiaofan visited three different antique markets and obtained four more ancient coins, all of which were severely damaged.
Six rare ancient coins in two days had cost Su Xiaofan only 180 yuan.
Instead, he had spent five or six hundred yuan on transportation and food.
On the third day, however, Su Xiaofan’s harvest was considerable.
Besides two ancient coins, he also found another valuable treasure.
It was a wooden bowl he bought from a street stall selling miscellaneous antiques.
The wooden bowl appeared to have been burned by fire, as its entire surface was pitch black.
However, the Repair System displayed the words “Zabzaya Wooden Bowl.”
This reminded Su Xiaofan of the Zabzaya wooden bowl he had seen a few days earlier when he visited the New Palace Museum.
This was truly a good item. It had been a tribute from the Tibetan region to the Qing imperial court during the mid-Qing period.
For only 80 yuan, Su Xiaofan took the Zabzaya wooden bowl, whose exquisite craftsmanship couldn’t even be recognized at first glance, into his possession.
Eight rare ancient coins and one Zabzaya wooden bowl—that was what Su Xiaofan had gained over the past few days.
He hadn’t spent much money at all. The total was less than 500 yuan.
However, Su Xiaofan had spent nine points of Repair Value to restore all nine items.
After restoration, the rare ancient coins still retained a faint bluish-green patina characteristic of ancient bronze coins, but their condition could be described as perfect.
At a glance, they looked like ancient coins that had been carefully preserved and passed down through generations, rather than excavated from underground.
As for the Zabzaya wooden bowl, it opened Su Xiaofan’s eyes.
Zabzaya was a Tibetan word meaning “root” or “knob.”
The entire wooden bowl had been carved from a tree root.
Although the bowl itself wasn’t large, it incorporated all kinds of craftsmanship, including engraving, inlay work, openwork carving, and carved decorative borders.
Su Xiaofan looked it up and found that the Zabzaya wooden bowl was said to possess detoxifying properties.
At present, the only known one in a museum collection was the one housed at the New Palace Museum.
The origin of this wooden bowl could no longer be verified.
Perhaps it was an object that had survived the great fire more than a hundred years ago. It was simply unknown how it had eventually made its way into the antique market.
After repairing these nine objects, Su Xiaofan was left with only 46 points of Repair Value.
Finding rare meteorites had obviously become his most urgent task.
Meteorites gave him Repair Value, and Repair Value allowed him to cultivate faster.
Therefore, everything ultimately came back to meteorites.
On the evening of the third day, Su Xiaofan also made a trip to Yanjing University to bring his younger sister some specialty snacks from Yanjing that he had bought while visiting the antique markets.
Looking at his sister’s round, stuffed cheeks as she ate, Su Xiaofan felt that there was no need for him to worry about this girl anymore.
Although he now knew what his sister’s special admissions class was actually for, Su Xiaofan didn’t ask further questions and didn’t say anything either.
So far, Su Xiaofan had already experienced the benefits of cultivation.
For one thing, his body was now countless times stronger than before, and his senses had also become extraordinarily sharp.
After walking around all day, he only needed to circulate his true qi once through the meridians in the soles of his feet, and his fatigue would disappear instantly.
At present, Su Xiaofan still didn’t know about the disadvantages of cultivation.
If he discovered any problems with it in the future, at worst, he could simply have his sister drop out of school.
After all, he could afford to support her himself.
After sorting through everything he had acquired during his trip to Yanjing, Su Xiaofan immediately felt that he had gained a great deal.
Among the magical artifacts, there was the string of Vajra Bodhi Bracelet, which had made a full circle and returned to Su Xiaofan’s hands.
There was also the Hetian jade Guanyin pendant and the Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams bronze mirror.
Not counting his own dragon-shaped jade pendant, that made a total of three magical artifacts.
In fact, while visiting the antique markets over the past few days, Su Xiaofan had also encountered several objects that could potentially be nurtured into magical artifacts.
This allowed him to discover a certain pattern.
Su Xiaofan found that whether they were modern handicrafts or antiques, objects made from exceptionally high-quality materials could potentially be nurtured into magical artifacts.
After discovering this, Su Xiaofan didn’t bother buying those objects.
Such things could also be found at the Luochuan Antique Market. Before solving his Repair Value problem, he would put aside the matter of nurturing magical artifacts for now.
As for antiques, there were nine items in total—the eight rare ancient coins plus the Zabzaya wooden bowl.
All nine of these items were treasures worthy of being put up for auction.
Especially the Zabzaya wooden bowl. Su Xiaofan estimated that it was worth at least ten million yuan.
The eight rare ancient coins combined could also fetch more than ten million yuan at auction.
As long as he could successfully put them up for auction and establish connections with the various auction houses, Su Xiaofan would be able to continuously provide auction items in the future.
In other words, he could use a small amount of Repair Value to generate cash, then use that money to purchase rare meteorites.
As for the idea of becoming a meteorite hunter, Su Xiaofan had put it aside for the time being.
Perhaps he would eventually travel around searching for meteorites himself.
But for now, he had money in hand, so Su Xiaofan still wanted to acquire meteorites as quickly as possible from major auction houses or private collectors.
The efficiency would undoubtedly be much higher that way.
As for the several meteorites that he couldn’t absorb, Su Xiaofan had also placed them in a box.
At least they could still serve as props or decorations later on.
…
Early the next morning, Su Xiaofan boarded a train bound for Luochuan.
Several hours later, Su Xiaofan walked out of the station carrying his suitcase.
The moment he looked up, he saw Zheng Dagang waiting there to pick him up.
“If you didn’t come back soon, I was going to go to Yanjing to look for you.”
Zheng Dagang snatched the suitcase from Su Xiaofan’s hand and complained with an aggrieved expression.
Su Xiaofan had been the one who told him to open the antique shop.
All the necessary paperwork had already been completed, yet Su Xiaofan himself had disappeared without a trace.
It had nearly driven Zheng Dagang crazy with impatience.
“Xiaofan, what good stuff did you manage to find this time?”
As soon as they got into the car, Zheng Dagang eagerly asked.
“Eight rare ancient coins!”
Su Xiaofan decided to give Brother Gang some reassurance.
“All eight are rare treasures?”
Zheng Dagang’s hand trembled slightly on the gearshift.
He had been in the antique market for more than ten years and had dealt with almost every type of antique.
Whether he was an expert in them was another matter, but at the very least, Zheng Dagang understood the basics of almost everything.
“All of them are rare treasures, and their condition is good enough to be put up for auction!”
Su Xiaofan nodded.
“They all came from the same place. Brother Gang, don’t ask about their origins. I can’t tell you.”
Su Xiaofan deliberately said this first to stop Zheng Dagang from asking too many questions.
“Won’t ask, won’t ask!”
Zheng Dagang was so excited that he nearly drove the SUV like a racing car, slamming his foot down on the accelerator.
“Heh heh, eight rare treasures.”
“Xiaofan, just watch me. I’m going to find an auction house and get them to hold a special auction dedicated to rare ancient coins for us.”
During this period, Zheng Dagang hadn’t been idle either. He had been constantly researching matters related to auctions.
Zheng Dagang knew most of the shop owners in the antique market.
By dropping by every day and chatting with them, he had managed to gather quite a bit of information.
The spring and autumn auctions held by auction houses every year were the most important events.
Based on the items submitted for auction, auction houses would choose a theme for each sale.
For example, if a large number of porcelain pieces were submitted for one auction, the auction house might organize a special porcelain auction, promoting it in advance to attract collectors of porcelain.
Rare ancient coins, however, were always relatively uncommon among auction items.
Sometimes, not even a single rare ancient coin would appear at auction for three to five years.
Now, Su Xiaofan had suddenly obtained eight of them.
Zheng Dagang was very confident that he could negotiate with an auction house and get them to hold a special auction dedicated to rare ancient coins.
(End of Chapter)
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