Chapter 41 Fossil

  Xiao Ping's luck seems to be good lately, he just thought about buying jade, and someone called him proactively. On the same evening, Xiao Ping received a strange phone call, and the middle-aged man on the other end of the line asked with a smile: "Is it Mr. Xiao from the Jade Factory? I'm Old Huang who sells jade materials."

  Xiao Ping was stunned for a second before he remembered that Old Huang sold jade materials in the antique market, and then hastily asked: "Old Huang, what brings you here?"

  "Boss Xiao, I recently got a large piece of jade material, don't know if you're interested in taking a look?" Old Huang said to Xiao Ping with great enthusiasm: "This piece of material is the largest and best I've seen this year. If we carve it into a large-scale object, we can make several times the profit as soon as it's released!"

  For Xiao Ping, who originally wanted to buy jade materials, Lao Huang's phone call was undoubtedly a pillow sent when he was sleepy, so he immediately agreed to go to his place to see the goods. The next day, Xiao Ping followed Lao Huang to his warehouse, a farmhouse located in the suburbs of the city.

  Old Huang was indeed doing a good business in jade, with hundreds of square meters of courtyard piled high with stones. These stones looked unremarkable, but among them were many genuine jade materials. Xiao Ping hadn't even entered the gate yet when the Lian Yao Hu began to sense something and started trembling slightly.

  Lao Huang said on the phone that the large piece of jade was placed in the house. Although Xiao Ping had some mental preparation, he was still surprised when he first saw this piece of jade. This piece of jade could only be hugged by two people, and it might weigh several tons. After Xiao Ping approached this piece of jade, the feeling of the Lian Yao Hu became more obvious, and it seemed that not only was the volume of this piece of jade huge, but its quality was also very good.

  Xiao Ping, with a calm and collected demeanor, took a look at the jade material for a while, then turned to Old Huang beside him and said, "The thing is not bad, I don't know how much you plan to sell it for?"

  "Xiao boss, if you want it, I'll give you a real price, 1.5 million!" Old Huang said with great generosity.

  Xiao Ping furrowed his brow upon hearing the price. Although he had made some money recently, he spent almost as much as he earned. The cost of renovating the farm was particularly high, and it wasn't even fully completed yet - the money from selling ginseng last time had already been used up. At present, Xiao Ping only had some money left over from selling vegetables, but he couldn't spend it all on buying jade materials, so he seemed a bit hesitant.

  Xiao Ping hesitated, and Old Huang was getting anxious. The jade material was a bit too large, making it difficult to sell, he didn't want to miss out on such a big client like Xiao Ping, so he hurriedly offered a discount: "Director Xiao, how about I let it go for another 10,000? 140,000, what do you think?"

  "One hundred and thirty thousand, I'll take it." Considering the strong resonance of the Alchemy Cauldron, Xiao Ping reported his psychological price.

  Lao Huang thought for a moment and nodded heavily: "Deal!"

  Xiao Ping nodded in satisfaction and said: "Then come with me to the city to get the money, and help me deliver this piece of jade material to Xiao Zhou Village at the foot of Baiyun Mountain."

  Xiao Ping's request was also very normal, and Old Huang agreed without thinking, finding a few people to help lift the jade stone onto the truck. At this moment, another small truck drove into the yard to unload goods. During unloading, an ordinary-looking stone rolled to Xiao Ping's feet, and he immediately felt the Lian Yao Hu (a magical artifact) crazily shaking up.

  "What's going on?" Xiao Ping hastily pressed down the Xuan Yin Hu (Mystical Seal Bottle) at his chest, curiously looking around in all directions. However, apart from the stone at his feet, he didn't see anything suspicious.

  Xiao Ping picked up the stone and brought it closer to the Lian Yao Hu, immediately discovering that the Lian Yao Hu's response became even stronger. He was certain that this stone was important for the Lian Yao Hu, so he found Old Huang and asked: "How much does this thing sell for?"

  Lao Huang carelessly glanced at the stone a few times, and smiled at Xiao Ping: "Boss Xiao is joking, how could I sell this kind of ordinary stone to you? If you like it, take it away, consider it a gift."

  "Then thank you." Xiao Ping didn't stand on ceremony either and stuffed the stone into his backpack.

  The transaction went very smoothly, and the jade material was quickly delivered to the small building in the farm. Xiao Ping waited until the workers were off duty at night before putting the Lian Yao Hu on the jade material.

  Just like the previous times, the Alchemy Cauldron quickly absorbed the essence of the jade material as soon as it came into contact with it. The warm and lustrous parts of the jade material disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving behind only coarse and dull residue. Although this piece of jade material weighed several tons, it was completely absorbed by the Alchemy Cauldron in just over ten minutes, leaving behind a large pile of gray powder.

  "1.3 million, gone in the blink of an eye!" Xiao Ping sighed with a tinge of heartache, then entered the space within the Lian Yao Hu to see what changes had occurred.

  After absorbing such a large piece of jade material, the refining cauldron space has expanded a lot, almost approaching the size of one mu. The pond for raising knife fish has also become larger, but the water depth hasn't changed much. The small trees growing by the spring eye have also undergone some changes, with new buds unfolding and already taking on the shape of young leaves. From these changes, Xiao Ping feels that the over a million spent was quite worthwhile.

  Xiao Ping quickly left the Lian Yao Hu space and focused his attention on that unremarkable stone. From any aspect, it was an ordinary stone - not even a jade material. However, the Lian Yao Hu indeed had a very strong sense of this stone, curious Xiao Ping found a hammer to lightly tap the stone, hoping to understand its secrets. After just a few taps, the stone cracked open, revealing a strange object from within.

  This thing is only about two joints of a finger in size, with joint-like shapes at both ends, looking very much like a bone. Perhaps due to the long years, it has turned grayish-black, completely consistent with the color of the surrounding stone. Xiao Ping curiously looked at the thing found from the stone, muttering uncertainly: "What animal's fossil is this?"

  Xiao Ping didn't care what kind of animal fossil it was, he only cared about whether it would be helpful for the Alchemy Cauldron. He placed the fossil on top of the cauldron and immediately discovered that it could also be absorbed by the cauldron. The small fossil was quickly absorbed clean, leaving Xiao Ping surprised that there were no residues left behind after the fossil was completely absorbed.

  As soon as the fossil was absorbed, Xiao Ping eagerly entered the Lian Yao Hu space. He really wanted to know what changes would occur in the Lian Yao Hu after absorbing the fossil. However, when Xiao Ping entered the Lian Yao Hu space, he couldn't help but be shocked immediately.

  The change in Lian Yao Hu after absorbing the fossil is even greater than when it absorbed that large piece of jade earlier!

  The area of the space has expanded a lot and now covers an area of one and a half acres. The tender buds on the trees by the spring have fully unfolded and have formally grown into a complete leaf. The area of the pond is even larger, with two knife fish swimming happily in it, and even the small stream connecting the spring and the pond has widened significantly.

  A small piece of fossil was more useful to the Alchemy Cauldron than a jade material worth over 100,000 yuan, which was beyond Xiao Ping's expectations. He looked at the greatly changed space inside the Alchemy Cauldron and couldn't help but think to himself: "It seems that in the future, I'll have to find a way to get some fossils for the Alchemy Cauldron to absorb, this thing is much more effective than jade!"

  In fact, this is just Xiao Ping's wishful thinking. Fossils are rarer than jade and many are prohibited from being bought and sold by the state. It's not easy to get fossils. But buying fossils is something for later, what's most important for Xiao Ping right now is to think of a way to utilize the empty space in the Lian Yao Hu as soon as possible.