Selecting Stones

The moment my fingertips made contact, a strange sensation washed over me.

The stone skin was coarse and bone-chillingly cold.

Some stones felt even more frigid, while others were relatively mild, yet the inherent quality of blocking spiritual sense and severing intent remained constant.

Size, shape, and surface texture seemed to have no absolute correlation with what lay within.

His actions caught the attention of Li Jinrong nearby.

The chubby young master had just finished paying and was feeling quite pleased with himself; turning to see Chen Mo's cautious, probing manner, he couldn't help but puff out his large belly in triumph.

Such a stingy, petty look...

He wanted to throw out a few mocking remarks, but upon remembering he was in the Ghost Market and recalling the eerie methods of the old man from earlier, he wisely shut his mouth.

Chen Mo sensed the other's gaze but ignored it, his fingertips resting on a grey-black stone about the size of two fists.

The surface of this stone was covered in fine, spiderweb-like cracks, and it felt particularly cold and heavy to the touch.

Yet, the very moment his fingers brushed over it, the Moonlight Treasure Mirror, which had been dormant in his sea of consciousness, suddenly trembled.

Something good?

What is it?

Chen Mo continued his search with a calm expression, only turning back a few minutes later to pick up the Yin Stone that had triggered the reaction.

"How much for this one?"

"1200."

The one-eyed stall owner glanced at the stone with his remaining eye, then swept a look over Chen Mo, quoting a price much lower than the one Li Jinrong had paid.

Chen Mo did not haggle, promptly paying for the stone and the cutting fee.

This type of Yin Stone was extremely hard in texture, and the method of opening it required expertise; otherwise, he would have preferred to open it himself in private.

"Haha, you're actually buying it?"

Li Jinrong found this amusing and pointed at the crack-riddled stone in Chen Mo's hand. "Even a dog wouldn't sniff at this thing if you threw it on the side of the road. You're treating it like a treasure? Don't be surprised if you open it up to find a puddle of black sludge, or if it's just completely empty!"

"Third Young Master."

Li Zhong gave a low reminder, signaling him to say less, though his own gaze landed on the stone Chen Mo had chosen, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

The quality of this stone really didn't look like it could yield anything good; the excessive cracks often meant the internal structure was unstable, suggesting that whatever was sealed inside might have long since decayed, or that it was more prone to leaking dangerous auras.

The stone cutter was ready.

As before, he started by opening Li Jinrong's large stone.

Under the steady strikes of specialized tools, the stone skin peeled away, eventually revealing a large chunk of Yin Marrow Iron with dull spiritual energy.

The triumph on Li Jinrong's face froze instantly, turning ugly. "Damn it, three thousand silver dollars of mine wasted."

"Your turn." The stone cutter turned to Chen Mo with an expressionless face, taking the grey-black cracked stone.

The scrap Yin Marrow Iron from the large stone had drawn suppressed laughter and whispers from the onlookers, and now, seeing Chen Mo about to open his stone, many gazes converged once more.

The stone cutter took the cracked stone from Chen Mo, his rough fingers tracing over the fine fissures, and his brows twitched slightly.

He didn't start immediately, instead bringing the stone close to his eyes to carefully examine the direction of several cracks, then holding it to his ear and tapping different parts with his small, specialized hammer, listening intently.

"Judging by this stone-listening technique, this cracked stone doesn't seem simple."

Among the onlookers, a middle-aged man in a green robe, who was not wearing a mask, whispered to his companion, "A stone cutter wouldn't be this cautious with an ordinary cracked stone. I fear these cracks weren't caused by accidental knocks, but by the object inside or the pressure of the earth veins during its formation."

"Brother Wang is right. Look at the direction of those cracks; they seem chaotic, but if you look closely, there are faint traces of what the ancient manuals record as Yin Pattern Embracing Pearl or Sha Qi Piercing Stone..."

Another old man with white hair and beard squinted, stroking his beard in contemplation. "However, these signs are too obscure; it could also just be flaws in the stone itself. For this lad to dare choose it, he is either a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse, or he truly has some skill."

"You lot talk a big game, yet whenever you open your own stones, you only get trash." Someone sneered.

The green-robed Brother Wang felt embarrassed after being provoked by the sneer.

He turned toward the source of the sound to see a short, stocky man standing with his arms crossed, looking utterly disdainful.

"This brother's words are incorrect." Brother Wang puffed out his chest, trying to maintain his composure. "Observing stones and identifying patterns is a matter of experience; even if one misses, it is common. How can one give up eating for fear of choking and claim this knowledge is useless? Just look at the cracks on this stone..."

"Experience? Knowledge?" The stocky man interrupted him, his voice rising with heavy mockery. "You pedants love to be mysterious! 'Yin Pattern Embracing Pearl,' 'Sha Qi Piercing Stone'—you talk as if it's all true!"

"I've been hanging around this Ghost Market for over a decade and have seen plenty of you lot who treat half a tattered book like a secret manual. And what happens? Nine out of ten stones you open are garbage! If you really had that kind of skill, why wouldn't you gamble on a few stones to make a fortune instead of just flapping your gums here?"

"You... vulgar!" Brother Wang's face flushed with anger.

"Vulgar? I call this being realistic!" The stocky man spat. "Stone gambling is three parts skill, seven parts luck! Where do all these twists and turns come from? This thing is cracked to hell; how could it possibly yield anything good?"

"I'll put it this way: if he can open something more valuable than that piece of scrap Yin Marrow Iron, I'll eat the stone skin right here on the spot!"

His words drew a round of laughter from the crowd.

"Exactly! Brother Zhuang is right!"

"Instead of all that pretentious nonsense, it's better to just look at the price. Expensive doesn't always mean good, but something this cheap definitely won't have anything good in it!"

"This stone looks cursed; with so many cracks, it probably leaked its energy long ago. There's nothing inside!"

Li Jinrong watched this group of people and idlers bickering until their faces turned red over a piece of worthless rock; he was stunned at first, then found it rather amusing.

It was like watching a monkey show, and the frustration from his earlier failed stone-cutting dissipated somewhat; he even felt a slight urge to join the ranks of those mocking the poor lad, but was stopped by Li Zhong's stern gaze.

The one-eyed stall owner remained leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, seemingly oblivious to the argument before him, though a flicker of barely perceptible contemplation would cross his single eye whenever it swept over the cracked stone in Chen Mo's hand.

The stone cutter seemed long accustomed to such scenes; only when the bickering subsided did he expressionlessly raise the specialized small hammer and short chisel in his hands, aiming at a relatively intact area of the grayish-black cracked stone, and tapped down for the first time.

"Thud."

A muffled sound, not crisp at all.

Everyone's gaze was instantly drawn back, and the arguing came to an abrupt halt.

A tiny flake of stone dust fell in response.

"Thud."

With another dull strike, stone shavings fell in a rustle, revealing an even deeper grayish-black texture underneath, showing nothing out of the ordinary.

The stone cutter's expression remained unchanged as he shifted angles, following the edge of a deeper crack to chisel once more.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

The tapping sounds were exceptionally clear in the silenced air.

As the stone skin continued to peel away, the grayish-black rock gradually shrank in size.

The stone texture along the cracks seemed particularly fragile, sometimes flaking off in entire sections to reveal a slightly lighter-colored material within.