Choosing Stones

The moment his fingertips made contact, a strange sensation washed over him.

The stone skin was rough and bone-chillingly cold.

Some stones felt colder than others, while some were relatively mild, but all shared the same nature: they shut out spirit and stifled thought.

Their size, shape, and whether their surfaces were smooth or rough seemed to have no absolute connection to what lay inside.

His actions caught Li Jinrong's attention.

The portly young master had just paid and was feeling rather pleased with himself. When he turned and saw Chen Mo carefully feeling around, he couldn't help but puff out his belly smugly.

What a stingy little miser...

He was just about to make a few sarcastic remarks when he remembered that this was the Ghost Market. Thinking of the old man's bizarre tricks from earlier, he wisely shut his mouth.

Chen Mo noticed the other man's gaze but paid it no mind. His fingertips stopped on a nearly charcoal-gray stone about the size of two fists.

Its surface was covered in fine, spiderweb-like cracks, and it felt especially cold and heavy.

Yet just as his fingers had brushed over it, the Moonlight Treasure Mirror, silent within his sea of consciousness, suddenly trembled.

Could there be something inside?

What was it?

Chen Mo continued searching without showing a hint of emotion. Only after a few minutes did he turn back and pick up the Yin Stone that had stirred the mirror.

"How much for this one?"

"1,200."

The One-Eyed Stall Owner glanced at the stone with his remaining eye, then looked Chen Mo over and named a price far lower than the one for Li Jinrong's stone.

Chen Mo didn't haggle. He promptly paid for the stone and the cutting fee.

Yin Stones like this were extremely hard, and cutting them required a particular technique. Otherwise, he really would have wanted to open it himself in private.

"Haha, you're actually buying that?"

Li Jinrong laughed when he saw this. Pointing at the cracked stone in Chen Mo's hand, he said, "Even dogs wouldn't chew on that thing if you tossed it by the roadside, and you're treating it like a treasure? Just don't come crying when it turns out to be a puddle of black water—or completely empty!"

"Third Young Master."

Li Zhong quietly reminded him to hold his tongue, but his gaze also fell on the stone Chen Mo had chosen, and his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

This stone really didn't look like it could contain anything valuable. There were too many cracks. That often meant the internal structure was unstable, the thing sealed inside might already be damaged, or dangerous energy could leak out more easily.

The stone cutter was ready.

As before, he began with Li Jinrong's large stone.

Under the steady blows of the specially made tools, the stone skin peeled away, finally revealing a large piece of Yin Marrow Iron with dull spiritual energy.

The smug look on Li Jinrong's face froze, then turned ugly. "Damn it, my three thousand silver coins have gone down the drain."

"Your turn." The stone cutter turned to Chen Mo without changing expression and took the gray-black cracked stone.

The useless Yin Marrow Iron revealed inside the large stone drew a suppressed burst of laughter and chatter from the onlookers. Now that they saw Chen Mo was about to have his stone cut, many gazes gathered around again.

The stone cutter took the cracked stone from Chen Mo. His rough fingers rubbed over its fine fissures, and his brow twitched faintly.

He didn't start cutting right away. Instead, he held the stone close and carefully examined the direction of several cracks. Then he put it to his ear and lightly tapped different spots with the special little hammer, listening intently.

"Judging by the way he's listening to the stone, this cracked one might not be simple."

Among the onlookers, a middle-aged man in a green robe, his face uncovered, murmured to his companion. "A stone cutter wouldn't be this cautious with an ordinary cracked stone. These fractures may not have come from bumps after the fact. They could have been caused by something inside when the stone formed, or by pressure from the earth's veins."

"Brother Wang makes a good point. Look at the direction of the cracks. They seem chaotic, but on closer inspection, they faintly resemble the signs described in ancient records of Yin Pattern Embracing Pearl or Sha Qi Piercing Stone..."

Another elderly man, his beard and hair white, narrowed his eyes and stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. "Still, these signs are too subtle. The stone itself may simply have flaws. This young man either got lucky like a blind cat catching a dead mouse, or he really knows a thing or two."

"You all talk like experts. How come you only ever find junk when you cut stones yourselves?" someone sneered.

The sneer stung the middle-aged man in green, Brother Wang, and he looked a little embarrassed.

He turned toward the speaker. It was a short, burly man, standing with his arms crossed and a look of disdain on his face.

"My good sir, you're mistaken." Brother Wang puffed out his chest, trying to maintain his composure. "Reading a stone's grain is a matter of experience. Even experts make mistakes sometimes. How can you reject the whole discipline just because of a few failures? Look at the cracks on this stone..."

"Experience? A discipline?" The burly man cut him off, raising his voice, his tone thick with mockery. "You bookish types love to make things sound mysterious! Yin Pattern Embracing Pearl, Sha Qi Piercing Stone—you talk as if it's all real!"

"I've been around the Ghost Market for over ten years. I've seen plenty of people like you, carrying half a tattered book around and treating it like a secret manual. And what do they end up with? Nine out of ten stones they cut are worthless! If you really had the skill, why not bet on a few stones and get rich instead of running your mouth here?"

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

"Uncouth? I call it being honest!" The burly man spat. "Stone gambling takes three parts skill and seven parts luck! What's with all these twists and turns? This stone's cracked to hell. How could it possibly contain anything good?"

"I'll put it plainly: if this thing turns out to be worth more than that worthless Yin Marrow Iron, I'll eat the stone skin right here!"

His words drew a burst of laughter from the people around them.

"Exactly! Brother Zhuang's got it right!"

"Enough with all that highfalutin nonsense. Just look at the price. Expensive doesn't always mean good, but cheap stones are definitely no good!"

"That stone looks unlucky as hell. With all those cracks, the energy might've leaked out long ago. There might not be a thing inside!"

Li Jinrong watched the crowd of busybodies and idlers arguing themselves red in the face over a busted old stone. He was startled at first, then found it quite entertaining.

It was like watching a troupe of monkeys. Some of the frustration from losing on his own stone faded, and he even felt tempted to join in and mock the poor brat. But Li Zhong stopped him with a stern look.

The One-Eyed Stall Owner still leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, seemingly oblivious to the argument. Yet whenever his lone eye swept over the cracked stone in Chen Mo's hand, a nearly imperceptible glint of thought crossed it.

The stone cutter seemed long accustomed to scenes like this. He waited until the argument had died down a little before raising the specially made little hammer and short chisel in his hand. He positioned them over a relatively intact area of the gray-black cracked stone and tapped it lightly for the first time.

"Tok."

The sound was dull, not crisp.

Everyone's attention snapped back to the stone, and the argument stopped dead.

A tiny chip of stone fell away with the sound.

"Tok."

Another dull blow. Stone dust pattered down, revealing a deeper gray-black layer beneath. Nothing seemed unusual.

The stone cutter's expression didn't change. He shifted his angle and struck again along the edge of a deeper crack.

"Tok...tok...tok..."

The blows rang out especially clearly in the now-silent air.

As the stone skin continued to peel away, the gray-black stone gradually shrank.

The stone around the cracks seemed especially brittle. Sometimes whole sections came away, revealing a slightly lighter-colored layer beneath.