Chapter 23: Approaching Four Minutes of Spiritual Energy

  Three thousand five, a hint of regret flashed in Zhao Lei's eyes, and he shook his head and left.

  He has been frugal and thrifty, but now he has only saved more than 5,000 yuan. This is the result of his monthly expenses exceeding 1,000 yuan. If his family conditions were a bit worse, he would not dare to collect.

  This Warring States three-legged stove is not bad, but after all, the quality is not good. Whether it's someone who truly likes to collect or invest and wants to make a profit, their first choice would be something with complete quality. Only then will the potential be higher and the appreciation space greater. Therefore, Zhao Ye won't spend most of his savings on such an item and can only continue walking forward.

  The vendor saw him shake his head and leave without saying a word. The price couldn't be lowered any further, and the vendor also knew that this deal was off.

  But he didn't mind, soon there were other people here, and he started introducing again.

  Time passed quickly in an hour as it slowly turned around.

  In an hour they saw a lot of things, unfortunately those that looked good were either too expensive or not liked, even if there were any, it's not certain to be used as school participating evaluation things, Zhao Lei could only regretfully give up.

  It was Wang Xiaoli who bought a Qing dynasty dressing box, which was not expensive, only 800 yuan, this is what she likes, and did not think about being selected as one of the six items for the exhibition, purely for her own collection.

  There are many people like her who buy things, some of whom don't have good eyesight themselves, and it's just right to borrow the help of seniors with good eyesight in the community to pick out the things they like.

  For a time, many small items in the market were sold out.

  Zhao Lei hasn't bought what he wants yet, not that he hasn't found something he likes. Now his mind is a bit off, always thinking about buying a suitable collectible, one of the six works to be selected by the school for evaluation, and must get points, to make Ren Lijuan proud, to gain face.

  He is now thinking of only Ren Lijuan, unfortunately, to get high scores must be low-priced purchase of high-value treasures, which is equivalent to picking up leaks, no matter big or small, it's not easy to pick up leaks.

  These small vendors are also very shrewd, if they can make money themselves, why would they let you have it.

  Liu Yi Yang didn't buy anything either, his purpose for coming here wasn't to purchase antiques. Now he was leisurely strolling around, continuously absorbing the aura emitted by those truly old objects, feeling extremely comfortable.

  The more spiritual energy he had, the better his spirit was. The better his spirit was, the more focused he became and the faster he absorbed spiritual energy. He was now in a virtuous cycle, with more and more spiritual energy making his face rosy. While others looked listless due to the weather, he seemed full of energy, as if he had no outlet for it. Even Zhao Pei and Wang Xiaoli were amazed at his mental state.

  "Zhao Lei, take a look at this!"

  Wang Xiaoli walked into a small shop, the stalls on that side had almost all been browsed through, and there were no suitable ones to go to Dong Street's shops to take a look. As for Xi Street, several people hadn't even considered it.

  Xijie is where Xuan Ya Zhai is located, it's all big antique shops, the prices of things inside are very high, if you want to buy something cheaper or use a cheap price to buy something, it's very difficult, don't even dream about it.

  Wang Xiaoli was referring to a bronze mirror, which looked like a Tang Dynasty mirror in terms of its pattern and shape.

  The black mirror is placed inside the cabinet, giving people a sense of grandeur and nobility.

  Zhao Lei took a closer look and nodded silently. Wang Xiaoli was very happy to have the waiter bring out the mirror, which she examined carefully on the counter.

  Liu Yi Yang also focused his spirit on the mirror, and soon a thread of red spiritual energy emerged from the mirror. These energies were quickly absorbed by Liu Yi Yang, but unfortunately, it was only for a very short time, without any lingering effects.

  After the aura burst out, a transparent light circle appeared on the body of the copper mirror. The thickness of the light circle was not low, proving that this was an old thing with a long history.

  Pay attention to these and walk directly inside, continuing to find other things to steal spiritual energy.

  These spiritual energies were invisible to others, and only he could absorb them. After absorption, they had no effect on the antiques themselves, nor did Liu Yi Yang have any psychological burden. He opened his mouth without hesitation, like a hungry lion, savoring these delicacies.

  To Liu Yi Yang, these spiritual energies were delicious.

  The store is not large, with an area of only a dozen or so square meters, and it's packed with goods, leaving little room to move around.

  Inside, there were many copper coins, jade articles and Buddha statues, etc. Liu Yi Yang called these things works of art because he simply didn't know how many were genuine. According to his understanding of the antique city, at least half of such shops weren't authentic antiques. The few genuine items had to be found by one's own eyes.

  After sweeping the shelves, Liu Yi Yang was slightly disappointed.

  There are so many things on the opposite shelf, but only two of them are old items, and they all have only a thread of red spiritual energy coming out, which can be seen how high the rate of fake goods is.

  I've heard people say before that these small shops have nine out of ten items as fake products. At that time, he didn't quite believe it, but now he finally understands that the previous rumors were not wrong at all, and in fact, they were understated. Out of a hundred items, if there are four or five real ones, that's already very good.

  It's those copper coins that were put on display, half of which are genuine antiques, but unfortunately even the real ones are not very valuable and are among the ancient coins with a large number of existing copies.

  After walking a few steps, Liu Yi Yang arrived at the innermost counter.

  Inside this counter are a large number of jade articles, including jade buttons, jade gourds, jade belts, jade pendants, jade Buddhas and some auspicious beasts made of jade.

  In the collection, ancient jade is a major category, many people like it, and many counterfeit ones. With the availability of cheap jade materials in modern times, fake ancient jades made from real jade materials are even more confusing.

  Liu Yi Yang smiled slightly as he looked at the various jade pieces on the counter, his attention directly focused on them.

  He is not a collector, nor does he intend to buy collectibles. His goal is the true spiritual energy on the ancient jade body, no matter how much he wants, accumulating little by little. The spiritual energy he absorbed in this one hour is absolutely no less than what he absorbs from his usual maintenance.

  Soon, a faint red mist emerged from several ancient jade pieces and passed directly through the glass into his forehead.

  Liu Yi Yang had long discovered that nothing could stop these red auras, even steel plates couldn't block them, and they all ended up piercing through his forehead into his body.

  Right as he was absorbing it, Liu Yi Yang's eyes suddenly revealed a hint of surprise.

  Among these jade instruments, there was a slightly larger one that kept emitting red spiritual energy, while the others had all disappeared. It remained unchanged, continuously emitting spiritual energy into Liu Yi Yang's body, making him feel soft and comfortable all over, as if every pore on his body was breathing freely.

  One minute, two minutes, three minutes, a full three and a bit more than four minutes passed before the red aura on the jade artifact was completely released. Liu Yi Yang had already closed his eyes, standing there with a smile as if he had fallen asleep.

  Suddenly, Liu Yi Yang's eyes opened, and a sharp light flashed through his eyes.

  According to his previous summary of experience, the more red spiritual energy an antique has, the higher its value. At least among the hundreds of antiques he has absorbed so far, none have broken this rule.

  If that's the case, then the value of this jade is absolutely not low. Exceeding three minutes means it's worth over 1 million, and from three to five minutes is the time frame for a value of 10 million to 100 million. The longer the time, the higher the value. Liu Yi Yang also discovered that the value-time segment he summarized was not equally increasing in time; the higher the value, the shorter the increase in time. Below three minutes is worth 100,000, and at five minutes it's already worth 10 million. Above 10 million, because Liu Yi Yang has had limited contact with such items, it's temporarily unclear.

  At this thought, Liu Yi Yang's heart began to beat rapidly and uncontrollably.

  If his experience is correct, then isn't it saying that this is a piece of jade worth over one million, even tens of millions? How could such a valuable piece of jade be casually placed on a small counter?

  Even in Xuan Ya Zhai, jade articles worth hundreds of thousands have special brackets to support them and are displayed in specially made tempered glass cabinets.

  It's placed here, in a very inconspicuous place, and mixed with a large pile of messy jade utensils. There is only one possibility.

  This might be because the owner of this store doesn't know its true value, so it's placed here.

  If it's really like this, then isn't this a leak, and probably not a small one.

  Liu Yi Yang's heart beat faster, he was very clear that even if the town's treasure could be worth over a million, generally valuable things would only be in the tens of thousands, and most were just a few hundred or thousand yuan.

  There are still many, dozens or even tens of dollars worth of handicrafts, which can make some profit after being sold.

  "Boss, can you come over for a moment?"

  Liu Yi Yang suppressed his heartbeat and beckoned to the shop owner who was standing by waiting.

  Zhao Lei and Wang Xiaoli have already asked about the price of that copper mirror, both of them are very fond of this copper mirror, and the price has also met their satisfaction.

  Wang Xiaoli really wanted to buy it down, but Zhao Ye called Gu Jiyue over for consultation to be on the safe side.

  This mirror is worth a lot, five thousand yuan, fortunately Wang Xiaoli's family is very good, her father is a developer, and the monthly living expenses are not less than five thousand, buying this thing is no problem.

  "What have you set your eyes on, little brother?"

  The shop owner walked over with a smile, saying with a smile that everyone doing business here is a connoisseur, and naturally seeing that the couple just now had the intention of buying, so they waited at ease. The attitude towards Liu Yi Yang who was with them was also very good.

  "Can I take a look at these jade pieces?"

  Liu Yi Yang pointed to the jade artifact that had just emitted a large amount of red spiritual energy, and said in a low voice, his facial expression unchanged, as if he was just casually pointing at something.

  Among those jade objects, there was a large quantity of red-colored ones.

  "Yi Yang, I didn't know you liked ancient jade!"

  Zhao Lei and Wang Xiao Li both walked over, Zhao Lei still looked very interested, more than an hour had passed and Liu Yi Yang hadn't really pointed out a single thing, this was the first time he actively asked to take things out to look.

  "It looks good, I want to take a look!"

  Hesitating for a moment, Liu Yi Yang smiled and said something, but he didn't express his inner thoughts. Firstly, he hadn't fully verified it, and secondly, such things couldn't be told to others. He couldn't possibly tell Zhao Lei that he suspected there was a huge leak of over 100,000, or even several hundred thousand, which is why he wanted to buy it.