Chapter 156: Picking Up Leaks

"Things are valued for their scarcity; if you put all your medicinal herbs on the market at once, the price will inevitably drop," Wu Qi said.

Of course, as hard currency, no matter how much is put up for sale at once, there will always be someone daring enough to buy it all.

As he spoke, Wu Qi stood up and headed to the backstage to trade directly with the private seller; as for the auction house's commission, that would be paid by the seller.

Once the goods were in hand, Wu Qi examined them carefully; this was a piece of soft armor hand-woven from various high-strength metals.

The exterior was deliberately coated with a dark finish, making it difficult for outsiders to notice when worn under clothing.

However, armor has a common flaw: it can only resist attacks, not dissipate impact.

This Nine-Treasure Wish-Fulfilling Soft Armor had soft padding embedded inside, but the impact it could dissipate was limited.

Of course, even so, Wu Qi was very satisfied with it; after all, he himself had mastered the method of force dissipation, and the range the soft armor could withstand meant the impact he received would not be fatal.

The Heaven-Grade Auction had many lots, and going through them one by one was very time-consuming.

At midnight, it reached the key juncture of the auction.

Every lot from here on out was a high-value item, not to be missed.

Lacking that Spirit System soul bone, Dugu Bo's enthusiasm for the auction faded quite a bit.

Seeing that there were no more lots they wanted, Wu Qi and the others left the auction house early.

Among the finale lots were two 50,000-year soul bones, which would definitely lead to a bloody battle; with the pittance they had in their hands, they were simply not in the running.

Upon returning to the academy, Ning Rongrong finally took out the dark blue gemstone from her bosom.

"Rongrong, did you find anything?" Wu Qi asked curiously.

This gemstone was of good quality, and having been artificially cut, it still shone brilliantly under the moonlight.

The price wasn't too expensive either; Ning Rongrong had spent 10,000 Gold Soul Coins to buy it.

Ning Rongrong frowned, "I always feel this thing is somewhat peculiar; it looks very valuable, but looking at it closely, it's just a gemstone."

"Oh?" Wu Qi took the gemstone and examined it carefully against the moonlight.

He could only notice that there were through-cut marks on the waist of the gemstone, but under the craftsman's polishing, the cracks were no longer obvious.

"There is another possibility: there is a treasure hidden inside, and because of the light polarization, the naked eye cannot see it clearly," Chen Ping analyzed.

Wu Qi knew that Ning Rongrong had a hobby of collecting gemstones, so he asked for her opinion, "If your feeling is correct, there is indeed a treasure inside, but we have to smash it to see it!"

Ning Rongrong waved her hand, "Like this kind of gemstone, I have seven or eight others bigger than it; smash away, smash away."

Wu Qi and the others gave a dry laugh.

The world of a rich woman is indeed different from that of ordinary people.

Feng Xiaotian and the others hadn't returned yet; otherwise, having Huo Wu use flames to calcine it, or Huo Wushuang use his sharp claws to cut it, would both have been good choices.

For now, they could only let Chen Ping take action and use his turtle shell to smash the gemstone open.

Qiangu Changkong used an iron plate to enclose the area to prevent the treasure inside from shooting out.

Chen Ping activated his martial soul, and a heavy turtle shell appeared in his hand, "I'm really going to smash it now."

Having received Ning Rongrong's confirmation again, he swung the turtle shell and smashed it heavily onto the gemstone.

A crisp, loud sound rang out, and the gemstone was smashed into countless fragments of varying sizes.

Everyone leaned down and searched patiently on the ground.

And Ning Rongrong, relying on the unique treasure-appraisal ability of her martial soul, found one of the transparent fragments at a glance.

Wu Qi and the others gave a dry laugh and quickly gathered around.

At this moment, they finally understood why the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was so wealthy.

Such a special ability of a martial soul is simply a gift from heaven. As long as one spends years wandering the continent, one doesn't have to worry about not getting rich.

The early disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect likely used this method to allow the sect to accumulate wealth rapidly and achieve its current scale.

"What is this thing? A gemstone embedded in a gemstone, what kind of operation is this?" Qiangu Changkong was puzzled.

Blue, purple, and gold gemstones are the most valuable; the exterior is a blue gemstone, and a transparent gemstone is embedded inside—isn't this just fraud?

Of course, Ning Rongrong's feeling couldn't be wrong, which forced everyone to re-evaluate this gemstone.

A moment later, Wu Qi asked, "Chen Ping, are you still using that Soul Guidance Device of yours?"

Having a better Soul Guidance Device, the previous one was definitely useless. However, he intended to sell it.

Wu Qi said, "Sell it to me for a thousand Gold Soul Coins?"

Chen Ping didn't know why the other party mentioned this, but he had no reason to take the money, "Captain, you gave me such a valuable Soul Guidance Device; if you need this one, just take it."

Wu Qi didn't dwell on it either.

Placing the other's Soul Guidance Device on the hard stone floor, he took a large hammer out of his own Soul Guidance Device.

Under the puzzled gazes of the others, he swung the large hammer and smashed it heavily onto the Soul Guidance Device.

A slight ripple of soul power emanated, and the Soul Guidance Device shattered in response, revealing the core inside.

Soul Guidance Devices with one cubic meter of space are all made of this kind of space jade; Tang San's Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges is made by piecing together multiple pieces of jade.

For those larger than one cubic meter of space, other methods were used, which have now been completely lost.

Previously in Suotuo City, Wu Qi had noticed the exposed core of a Soul Guidance Device in Flender's small shop; now seeing the real object in person, he was certain that the white transparent stone hidden in the blue gemstone was the core of a one-cubic-meter space Soul Guidance Device.

Seeing this situation, the others were not blind and immediately understood.

Chen Ping exclaimed, "Damn, who would go to such great lengths to hide a Soul Guidance Device core inside a gemstone!"

Ning Rongrong had heard similar stories, "Some families, before facing the disaster of extermination, would transfer their treasures and wealth in advance; this might just be one of their methods."

It was possible that the survivors of the family didn't know the secret within and sold it as an ordinary gemstone. It was also possible that the family had already been wiped out, and no one knew about the treasure hidden inside.

"But how are we supposed to take out the treasure inside?"

"Just take it like this." After saying that, Wu Qi's soul power passed through his fingertips into it, and his mental power also permeated along with it.

Because of the long passage of time, the mental imprint within was already extremely fragile and was easily "shattered" by him.

Immediately after, he moved his mind, and all the items inside poured out.

Clatter, clatter~

Countless blue, purple, and gold gemstones, accompanied by gold and silver trinkets, scattered all over the floor.

Feng Xiaotian and the others happened to arrive at the dormitory hall, and seeing this scene, they couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn, did you guys strike it rich?"

A single gold gemstone the size of a pigeon egg is worth at least ten thousand Gold Soul Coins, and there are dozens of them here, not to mention the countless blue and purple gemstones.

Following Ning Rongrong's conjecture, Chen Ping said excitedly, "We have wiped out the entire wealth of a family."

The items here are worth at least one or two million Gold Soul Coins.

Listening to everyone's explanation, Feng Xiaotian also had to praise Ning Rongrong's luck.

With a cost of ten thousand Gold Soul Coins, they suddenly made over a hundred times the profit.

(End of this chapter)