Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1417: Hall of wealth (1)

After about half a minute, Li Gang, with his gentlemanly smile still in place, placed the green jade ladle back on the podium. The podium instantly flared to life as a silvery-gold light flowed through its entire body like water moving through fissures—except instead of fissures, it was lines of scripts and arrays that burst into life with every surge of silver light. The energy finally settled on the lotus-designed surface at the top of the platform, upon which the ladle rested.

"Everybody, please," Li Gang said politely, elegantly gesturing toward the ladle.

"You may now observe it to your heart’s content, using any means available to you, from the comfort of your seats," he continued. "And as always, viewing time will be three minutes," he added.

He immediately waved one hand, and two additional podiums appeared, roughly half a step to the right and left of the main one holding the aqua-green ladle. They shared the same polished orange-red wood design as the central platform.

As the podiums materialized, Li Gang nodded to his left and right, seemingly signaling someone. No sooner had he done so than two young men in matching orange robes appeared, each holding incense sticks. They nodded politely to Li Gang before placing the incense sticks on the two podiums and promptly lighting them.

Li Gang nodded gratefully to them before turning his attention back to the audience. "Everybody, please," he said with a polite gesture, taking a step back as if to say the floor was now theirs.

The moment he did, countless spiritual senses fell upon the podium holding the ladle, Yang Qing’s among them.

What some of the scripts on that podium did needed no introduction, because the instant his spiritual sense touched both podium and ladle, he felt it amplified by four times. This allowed him to capture even more details about the ladle than he already had.

He could not help but marvel at how intricately that design had been made, given how smooth the amplification was. There was little to no disorientation from the sudden increase.

Yang Qing quickly moved to examine the ladle. "Truly worthy of a prominent merchant company," he muttered in praise and envy as he reached for a sip of his wine, his eyes and spiritual sense never leaving the platform.

"A ladle made from sea green jade," he said wistfully. "I can’t believe someone is auctioning such an item," he added before taking another swig of wine, accompanied by a handful of spicy peanuts.

"Then again, the jade’s nature does suit a ladle," he immediately added, his eyes glowing with excitement as he debated whether to join the bidding, even though he hardly ever engaged in alchemy experiments, despite being something of a jack of all trades.

Truthfully, aside from the fact that it demanded a great deal of focus and effort—and his physique would not allow him as many shortcuts as it did with herbology—the other reason he never had any interest in it was that his body was a furnace of its own, capable of effortlessly refining objects in their natural form.

Alchemy converted materials into easily digestible forms, and since his body needed no such assistance, learning alchemy was not exactly a requirement. Not to mention that, for all its stingy nature, pills and potions were actually cheap in the Order, with some even given out for free.

And now, seeing that ladle (with his eyes burning with excitement every time its green-blue hue caught his gaze, or that slightly cool air it released, and the spiritual qi funneling toward it as if drawn to a mother’s embrace), all of that still did not change his opinion about alchemy.

But having said that, a huge part of him wanted to bid for it. And it was not the part that liked to collect random things; it was because of the potential the ladle held for some of his other hobbies. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Where most, if not all, within the auction house were likely imagining how their brewing success would improve thanks to the ladle, all Yang Qing could think of was how much richer in flavor his stews would be if he used it to stir, or how much of a boost Yi Jie’s wines might gain if he had it.

He would probably be attacked by the entire auction house if they knew what he was planning for that ladle, but Yang Qing was nothing if not consistent.

This could serve as a good gift for him when he comes out of seclusion, Yang Qing thought, licking his lips in anticipation. Though it’s bound to be pricey, he added, as that heated gaze morphed into one of worry.

Others within the auction house likely shared the same fears. After all, this was a ladle made from sea green jade stone. The material was not only rare but equally precious. Add to that the refinement it underwent to transform it into a ladle, and its cost was bound to run even higher.

Sea green jade stone was a unique material found in high-grade spirit veins on the cusp of evolving into a lesser dragon vein. If that alone were enough to form them, they would not be as rare as they were, nor considered unique, because as precious as they were, the continent was swarming with high-grade spirit veins, and among them, the number on the verge of evolving into lesser dragon veins was not small.

The reason sea green jade stone was rare was that it could only form in a high-grade spirit vein that, since its formation or evolution, had never seen or experienced any cultivation-related activity. Its spiritual qi could not have been absorbed in any way—whether by human cultivator, animal, plant, or any other object capable of absorbing and refining spiritual qi.

Basically, everything within and around the high-grade spirit vein needed to be barren, and it needed to remain so for at least ten thousand years. That was roughly the duration needed for a lake to form from the dense spiritual qi it produced. After that, one would have to wait another ten thousand years for that lake to nurture a sea green jade, and even then, an element of luck was involved.

The reason sea green jade stone was rare was that it could only form in a high-grade spirit vein that, since its formation or evolution, had never seen or experienced any cultivation-related activity. Its spiritual qi could not have been absorbed in any way—whether by human cultivator, animal, plant, or any other object capable of absorbing and refining spiritual qi.

Basically, everything within and around the high-grade spirit vein needed to be barren, and it needed to remain so for at least ten thousand years. That was roughly the duration needed for a lake to form from the dense spiritual qi it produced. After that, one would have to wait another ten thousand years for that lake to nurture a sea green jade, and even then, an element of luck was still needed.