Chapter 135: Winter Insect Assembly (Large Chapter)

  The treasure aura in this ancient jade seems to be one level lower than that in the fish plate. On that day, Zhou Yi only touched the fish plate and discovered the treasure aura, but the one in the ancient jade needs to be actively explored. If not for cultivating internal energy, it might not have been discovered.

  However, the emergence of treasure gas in jade is good news for Zhou Yi. Absorbing this treasure gas will not make Liu Ke, a connoisseur of antiques, discover that it lacks any 'historical aura'. Moreover, if ancient jade has treasure gas, do diamonds, jadeite and ordinary jade also have it?

  If these high-priced 'stones' all have aura, then there will be another way to get upgrade potential points. When I'm free and have nothing to do, I'll take Liu Xue to the jewelry store, and won't everything be available?

  Thinking of this, Zhou Yi picked up the jade lock he had prepared to give to his little nephew. What made him a bit disappointed was that although the material of this jade lock was not bad, there was no treasure energy in it. Maybe it was because the age of this jade was not enough, and it hadn't been nurtured yet?

  "Mr. Zhou's ancient jade pendant..."

  "I'll take it. Is this South African Fire Opal?"

  Zhou Yi picked up two diamond rings, each weighing six carats. The South African fire diamonds were indeed famous for their reputation. Under the refraction of indoor light, the fire colors on these two diamonds were much clearer than ordinary diamonds, as if there were flames burning inside the crystal clear diamonds, filled with mysterious and seductive colors.

  "No wonder women all like this thing flying..."

  Zhou Yi smiled and shook his head, putting the two diamond rings back into the jewelry box. What made him feel disappointed was that there was no aura of treasure in the precious South African fire diamonds either.

  "It seems that producing Baqi is not easy, I wonder if there will be any in the jade?"

  Wang Bao'er brought the most varieties of jade accessories, including bangles, pendants, earrings, rings... The pendants were Buddha, Guanyin, twelve zodiac animals, flowers, birds, fish and insects. Zhou Yi picked up two Guanyin pendants that Wang Bao'er highly recommended, gently stroking them with his fingers, looking like a connoisseur, but actually using his inner energy to explore in secret.

  "Hmm, there's treasure energy in this jade!"

  This time, he didn't disappoint him. In the two glass pendants with Emperor Green, there was indeed a treasure aura, although it wasn't as abundant as in ancient jade, and the "Treasure Aura World" inside was also a blurry green, but the system had reacted.

  "Alright, alright, after all, ancient jade is hard to come by, these are things that have been passed down for hundreds or thousands of years, I feel a bit guilty about absorbing the precious energy from them; since there's jadeite inside, then it can't get any better than this."

  The I Ching prepared to give the Guanyin pendant and two high-transparency ice-type bangles, as well as a pair of Huang Fei Piao Hua earrings to his two brothers-in-law, but instead picked up two Emperor Green rings. This time, without hesitation, he instantly absorbed the treasure energy from them. The system immediately gave out the result: "Absorbed treasure energy, converted into 20 points of upgrade potential."

  "It's just 8 o'clock?"

  I'm a bit disappointed with the outcome of the divination. The treasure energy in the fish plate was converted into 30 upgrade potential points, but the two glass rings that Wang Bao'er praised to the sky only converted into 20 potential points. It seems that getting 100,000 upgrade potential points and quickly lifting the restrictions of this crappy system on myself is still a daunting task.

  "Zhou, little brother, have you finished looking at everything?"

  Liu Ke saw Zhou Yi put down the two rings and didn't say a word, thinking he was calculating the price. Suddenly, he smiled and said: "Whatever you need, just speak up, big brother here will give it to you at wholesale price...it's not much different from giving it away for free..."

  Wang Bao'er's eyes lit up, and she couldn't help but take a deep look at Zhou Yi; this young handsome guy is awesome, when did Chu Du produce such a character, and I didn't even know?

  "I want all of these: this jade lock, two ancient jade pendants, two imperial green Guanyin pendants, two emerald bangles and two pairs of earrings, as well as the two diamond rings..."

  Zhou Yi smiled and glanced at Wang Bao'er: "Manager Wang, give an estimate?"

  "Uh... according to market price, these top-grade accessories would be around eight million yuan for Mr. Zhou's price tag..." Wang Bao'er hesitated here and looked up at Liu Ke.

  "You don't have to look at me, I've already said it's okay, just give Zhou a discount according to the wholesale price."

  Liu Ke nodded at her, meaning that this was a truly noble guest, and I wasn't just being polite earlier.

  "According to the purchase price, it's a total of 35.8 million, and if we give Mr. Zhou 35 million..."

  "Hehe, thanks then."

  Zhou Yi didn't stand on ceremony, took out his bank card and handed it to Wang Bao'er, saying: "By the way, Manager Wang, these few pieces of jade jewelry suddenly made me interested in jade, I don't know if you can give me a few more? This time I'm not buying, just want to broaden my horizons..."

  "Uh, of course, that's no problem. But for top-notch goods like these, even our company doesn't have a large stock... Mr. Zhou, what you're getting at is..."

  Wang Baoer didn't understand what Zhou Yi meant for a moment. After all, Chufeng Jewelry Company couldn't compare to those century-old brands, and they mainly sold ordinary A-goods. High-transparency ice-type and glass-type goods like these were rare, and for the time being, they really couldn't come up with more.

  "I didn't say I wanted to buy it, I just want to know more about jade. What kind of goods are available? As long as you don't bring that stuff with chemical additives, I'm afraid of radiation."

  The Book of Changes is trying to figure out what level of jade will have treasure energy, but those B-goods are not even worth considering, even if they do have treasure energy, he doesn't dare absorb it, they're all three-deer-brands...

  "I'm telling you, Zhou, are you trying to humiliate me? How could the esteemed Chu Feng Company possibly have something like that?"

  Liu Ke looked at Zhou Yi with a puffed face, but actually felt quite happy in his heart. One of the reasons he deliberately made friends with Zhou Yi was that he suspected Zhou Yi was one of those legendary figures with "heavenly eyes". Now that he saw Zhou Yi showing interest in jade, he was naturally delighted? As the saying goes, "jade and stone are not separated from the family", today Zhou Yi has developed an interest in jade, next step may be antiques, as a verifier of legend, Liu Ke felt very happy.

  "Manager Wang, bring some more goods over and also find a few workers to bring that piece of rough jade our company just unsealed the other day for Zhou to take a look. To understand jadeite, it's not possible if you're not familiar with the rough stone."

  "Do you want that piece of raw jade too?"

  Wang Bao'er was confused, and she really didn't understand what the old president and this surname Zhou's high-ranking rich man were going to do. However, since the chairman had given orders, she could only follow them.

  "Raw stone?"

  Zhou Yi was taken aback and suddenly became interested.

  In recent years, wealthy people in the country have been increasingly enthusiastic about jade, and TV shows often mention stories of 'gambling on stones'. Especially online, countless imaginative 'big brothers' have been making a fuss about gambling on stones, stirring up a storm in a teacup, and churning out sensationalized articles. This topic has almost been written to death, but readers still find it thrilling and exciting.

  Why is that? It's all because of the word "gamble". Gambling on stones is a legitimate form of gambling, and everyone can't help but imagine themselves as the protagonist making a fortune.

  I'm not interested in gambling on stones, but it's still great to see the legendary "one knife down, one knife rich" original stone.

  Not long after, a loud "heave ho" sound came from the entrance, and several stout men with thick waists carried in a large stone on wooden poles as thick as bowls.

  Is this the raw material?

  Zhou Yi walked closer to take a careful look and couldn't help but exclaim in wonder. This stone was half a block, with an outer shell that presented a yellow-green color. At first glance, it looked no different from ordinary stones, but the cut surface was extremely beautiful, with various colors such as yellow, green, white, and black all mixed together, just like a paint shop had been turned upside down.

  "This rock looks really good..."

  Zhou Yi's mouth was praising, with one hand secretly placed on the stone, quietly exploring the treasure energy inside the original stone.

  Indeed, there were not a few treasures in the original stone world, but they were extremely scattered and had to be absorbed several times. It took Zhou Yi more than three minutes to finally absorb everything, and the system gave out the result of gaining thirty potential points.

  Perhaps due to the upgrade of basic skills or the result of internal energy training in I Ching, he no longer gets tired easily when absorbing treasure aura like the first time he encountered the fish plate. He converted 40 points of potential in a short while and felt nothing, his spirit was still very good.

  "Does it look good? It's just a piece of cut stone, and I lost over 2 million... " Just mentioning this, Liu Ke's face hurts.

  "Mr. Zhou, we also have various jade products here, do you want to take a look?" Wang Bao'er led in over a dozen salesgirls, each carrying a stack of boxes, it looked like the Chu Feng Jewelry Company was moving out.

  "Look, look..."

  Where can you find such a good thing that can increase knowledge and secretly absorb treasure energy? Moreover, Liu Ke had no reaction to absorbing the treasure energy twice before, so Zhou Yi's courage grew even bigger.

  ……

  After looking at the jade accessories brought by Wang Bao'er, Zhou Yi not only gained a deeper understanding of jade but also drew a conclusion: as long as it is natural jade, there is always a treasure gas present; however, the treasure gas content is richest and easiest to absorb in glass species, followed by ice species, then glutinous rice species, and finally, for glutinous species, it's already not worth it, although there is still some treasure gas that can be absorbed, but it takes too much time and effort.

  I Ching estimates that this is because the lower the quality of jade, the more impurities in the treasure gas, just like that piece of Liu Ke said was cut off from the original stone, although the size is big enough, it took him several minutes to absorb successfully, and only got 30 potential points, which belongs to the type of being cheated.

  But those high-quality finished jade products are different, even if it's just an ordinary ice-type Buddha statue, he easily got 40 potential points. If there were large pieces of top-grade glass type, getting hundreds or even thousands of potential points at once wouldn't be a pipe dream either.

  This time he didn't come in vain, not only did he buy what he needed at a low price, but also 'stole' the treasure from the jade products brought by Wang Bao'er. The people present were not only unaware of it, but also deeply moved by his good learning spirit. Liu Ke even took him as an example and scolded those soft salesgirls on the spot: "Look, if you have half of Zhou's research spirit, can your business level not be improved? Manager Wang, from tomorrow on, organize a study for me, let every salesperson become an expert!"

  The soft-selling salesgirls now see Zhou Yi and feel itchy teeth, just because this tall, rich and handsome man appears, taking away their precious time to chat with their boyfriends, watch movies, eat and talk nonsense. They curse him to be a bachelor for his whole life!

  Among the vicious curses of a dozen or so soft girls, Zhou Yi felt quite beautiful. In just this short period of time, he had obtained more than 500 potential points, which would normally take three months to accumulate.

  "Little brother, are you tired? Big brother is treating you to a bath and relaxation. Tonight, let's have Old Wang's chef cook us a great meal at our usual spot..."

  Liu Ke smiled and said: "At that time, I have something good to tell you, but I don't know if you're interested."

  "Alright then, I'll be bothering you two brothers for a bit..."

  After the 'Linggen Xianti' basic skill was upgraded to level 3, Zhou Yi's physical strength had exceeded that of an ordinary person by at least ten times. Even if he carried a large package for a whole day, he wouldn't feel tired; but this time, absorbing the treasure energy actually made him feel somewhat fatigued. Liu Ke's suggestion was just what he needed.

  Followed the two bosses to the most luxurious bathhouse in Chudu, soaking in the hot tub, sauna, scrubbing back, applying bath salts, and having a massage from a young woman. Zhou Yi refreshed his mind and body, politely declining the affectionate advances of the masseuse. After waiting for over an hour, he left the bathhouse with Liu Ke and Zhang Zuo, who had just finished their own relaxing experience.

  It's just dinner time, Cloud Chef has already prepared a table of fragrant dishes, and is ready with his notebook and pen to taste them after consulting Zhou Yi, the great consultant.

  Today, Zhou Yi's mood was great. On the one hand, he was savoring the delicious dishes carefully prepared by Yun Da Zhuo, a top-notch chef. On the other hand, he was giving the chef some pointers, which made the chef so grateful that he almost knelt down and begged Zhou Yi to take him as his apprentice on the spot. In the end, it was Zhang Zuo who helped Zhou Yi out of this predicament, using all sorts of tactics to coax the chef, who was willing to die for his craft, out of the room.

  "Liu Ge, come on, what trick are you going to play on me again?" Now they were getting more and more familiar, Zhou Yi directly started joking with Liu Ke.

  "Are you saying that your brother is the one who's been fooling you?"

  Liu Ke smiled and said: "Younger brother, you're a big idle person, don't you have anything to busy yourself with recently?"

  "It's always busy in the autumn and idle in the winter, I don't have much to do recently." Zhou Yi calculated that it would be more than a week before going to Singapore, and during this time, he really didn't have anything to do, so bored that he was about to go crazy.

  "That's good. I think you're just a person who likes to enjoy life, but staying in the mountains for too long can get boring, right?"

  Liu Ke smiled and said, "Let's go to Kyoto with Brother. Two days later, there is a gathering of literati in Kyoto, and both Zhang Ge and I are planning to attend. If you also come, then the three brothers will be together..."

  "A gathering for men of letters?" Zhou Yi looked at Zhang Zuo strangely. Has this guy become a man of letters too?

  "Don't listen to Liu Ge's nonsense, what literary exchange meeting? It's just a gathering of idle chit-chat between 49 City and some famous players from all over the country. But it's quite interesting, little brother you'll definitely like it..."

  Zhang Zuo smiled and said: "This also has a name, called 'Winter Insect Gathering'. Younger brother, you should understand now?"

  "Winter insect?"

  Zhou Yi smiled: "Isn't it just a cricket? These people are playing at a pretty high level, crickets that have survived the winter are treasures. It's not easy to raise crickets until this time."