When the shopkeeper, Shitou, heard that Lumine still wanted to choose this Uncut Stone, he said nothing more.
But Zhong Baiye could tell from Shitou's casual movements that he had no faith in this Uncut Stone yielding anything good.
Shitou looked completely relaxed as he slowly sliced along the stone's natural grain with his short knife.
Before long, the Uncut Stone, originally the size of a jar, had been reduced to the size of a fist.
The people who had gathered to watch the cutting all began to think this Uncut Stone was worthless.
"They've cut this far without finding anything good. It's probably a dud."
"After that treasure he found earlier, I thought this master had such a good eye that the people with him would have good judgment too."
"I could tell from the start that this Uncut Stone wouldn't yield anything good, but you wouldn't believe me."
As she watched the onlookers offer their conflicting opinions, Lumine's initial indifference to whether the stone yielded anything vanished.
Watching the Uncut Stone grow smaller and listening to the spectators' chatter, Lumine began to feel some pressure.
Just then, a hand suddenly took hers. She turned to find Zhong Baiye holding her hand.
Zhong Baiye's smile made all her anxiety melt away. Now, she no longer cared even if the Uncut Stone yielded nothing good.
As the Uncut Stone continued to shrink, the spectators' hearts rose into their throats.
Soon, it had been cut into several finger-sized pieces.
Shitou's attention grew increasingly focused, and his short knife slowed. If anything good was going to emerge, this was the most critical moment.
A fellow jade trader watched Shitou's expression and explained in surprise.
"This is the first time I've ever seen Boss Shitou look like that. Maybe this Uncut Stone really will yield something good."
An inveterate gambler nearby had been adamant that nothing would turn up. Now, he was no longer quite so sure, but he still retorted sourly.
"That's hardly possible, is it? It's so small now. Even if something turns up, it won't be worth any Mora..."
Another onlooker, a plump wealthy man, immediately countered the gambler's words.
"That's not necessarily true. Apparently, someone once found a fingernail-sized Starstone that actually contained an Adeptus's longing. It finally fetched ten million Mora at auction."
As the wealthy merchant said this, he suddenly realized that the blue gemstone from earlier looked rather familiar. It resembled the legendary Starstone that held an Adeptus's longing.
But the Starstone sold at the previous auction had been red, so he could not be certain of his guess.
Soon, the pieces of Uncut Stone had been ground away one by one, leaving only a single untouched piece.
Shitou stared intently at the thumb-sized Uncut Stone, his forehead covered in sweat.
With a few strokes of his short knife, that last piece was sliced open too.
There was no unexpected turnaround. Only powder remained scattered on the ground.
The spectators erupted into an uproar.
"I told you it was impossible! How could a worthless Uncut Stone like that yield anything good?"
The gambler from earlier finally breathed easy.
"Exactly!"
The spectators beside him agreed.
Even Lumine felt a little disappointed. She had felt a certain affinity with this Uncut Stone and thought it might yield something good.
But when she turned to look at Zhong Baiye holding her hand, she no longer cared that the Uncut Stone had yielded nothing.
Seeing the outcome, Paimon felt reassured too and wiped the nervous sweat from her face.
She had opened so many Uncut Stones without finding anything good. If both Zhongli and Lumine had found something, she would definitely have wondered whether her own character was to blame.
At that moment, only a handful of people noticed that Shitou's knife hand was trembling slightly. Those who knew him froze in shock.
This was Shitou, a shopkeeper who had spent decades in the jade trade. His hand would not shake even when he cut out a priceless treasure.
For a professional stone cutter, shaky hands were the greatest taboo. Yet Shitou's hand was trembling now.
An employee saw Shitou standing in a daze and patted his shoulder, but he did not react at all.
The others caught on too and realized that Shitou was staring blankly at the pile of stone dust.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The perfectly clear sky suddenly darkened. Inside the shop, the darkness was so complete that no one could even see their hand in front of their face.
It was noon. Even a solar eclipse could not have made it this dark.
Before the strange sight could send them into a panic, a streak of light flashed across the sky.
The next instant, the darkened sky became clear again, as though nothing had happened.
Only Paimon, clinging to Zhong Baiye with her body trembling, bore witness to what had just occurred.
Once everyone had recovered their senses, a sudden shriek rang out.
"Look at this..."
Everyone immediately turned their attention toward it. On the tabletop, which had been covered in dust moments before, sat a Runestone emitting a strange, shifting glow.
The Runestone was about the size and shape of half a bottle cap, with strange markings on its surface. One glance at those markings evoked a profound sense of ancient history.
Paimon knew this had to be a valuable treasure, and it should have come from Lumine's Uncut Stone. She immediately rushed over to pick it up.
But the moment Paimon touched the Runestone, something unexpected happened.
The shifting light on the Runestone seemed to come alive, taking the shape of a Stick Figure.
The next instant, the Stick Figure raised his right hand and reached toward Paimon's finger.
Paimon thought the Stick Figure wanted to shake hands with her, so she did not pull her finger away.
Then disaster struck.
Boom!
The instant the Stick Figure touched Paimon's finger, everyone heard a tremendous crash, and thick smoke engulfed the area.
Seeing this, Lumine quickly summoned a small whirlwind to blow the smoke away.
Once the smoke cleared, Paimon was nowhere to be seen, and the Stick Figure had vanished too. Only the Runestone remained unchanged, still emitting its strange, shifting glow.
Zhong Baiye and Lumine searched everywhere for Paimon, finally finding a clue overhead.
They looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling shaped exactly like Paimon.
Putting that together with the smoke and the crash, Zhong Baiye and Lumine immediately guessed that the Stick Figure had swatted Paimon up into the ceiling.
The Stick Figure had struck with such tremendous force that even the ceiling had failed to stop Paimon. She had punched a large hole straight through it.
Before you continue