Martial World

Chapter 768 – Guru Blueway, Destiny Decree

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The young men that were reprimanded by the white-clothed old man didn’t seem perturbed at all. One of them laughed and said, “Old White, consider me as having spoken a hasty remark, but such a rare wood spirit jade carving must have a price to it. We are also newcomers to this area so our experience is limited. Just tell us how many spirit essence stones you think this is worth so we can open our eyes.”

As the white-clothed old man heard the young man’s words, his expression became like a dead log. But, Zhou Kun actually bluntly said, “This pair of blood spirit jade bracelets can be sold on the auction house for 25,000 to 30,000 spirit essence stones. If you manage to bump into someone wealthy that loves blood spirit jade then it might go for even higher.”

As Zhou Kun reported this price, all of the young men present sucked in a deep breath of air. 30,000 spirit essence stones! Those present only had a net worth of several thousand spirit essence stones. This was an amount several times their complete wealth!

When they played with jade carvings they only messed around with small items. As for the expensive ones, those were only for looking. Who could play around like Zhou Kun?

At this moment, Zhou Kun saw Li Yifeng nearby.

“Haha, Brother Li is also here! I saw that Brother Li bought an ancient dragon carving from the White Dragon Jade Row. I just happen to have Mister White here. Mister White has a great deal of experience; he’s already looked at my blood spirit jade bracelets.”

Zhou Kun casually spoke these words for two reasons. First to show off that this white-clothed old man had affirmed that these blood spirit jade bracelets were real, and secondly because he didn’t have much faith in the ancient jade dragon carving that Li Yifeng had bought. He wanted to have Mister White appraise it to embarrass Li Yifeng. After all, that ancient jade dragon had been one of the ambiguous items and had been at the White Dragon Jade Row for far too long. If it were really something good then someone would have bought it up a long time ago.

Li Yifeng knit his eyebrows together. As he saw that Zhou Kun was showing off his blood spirit jade bracelets to the circle of men and also simultaneously hearing that he had obtained Mister White’s confirmation, it would be wrong to say that he didn’t feel a twinge of regret in his heart. This Mister White had been in the jade carving trade for several dozen years now. Although he wasn’t a top class appraisal grandmaster, he could still be considered an expert in his profession. He had even been banned from entering the White Dragon Jade Row; he was no longer a character that they could entertain.

After hearing that this type of person had confirmed the veracity of the blood spirit jade bracelets, he only shook his head. After all, he too had been biased towards thinking that they were the real deal to begin with. “Brother Lin, let’s get out of here. I plan on going to the grandmaster to appraise this ancient jade dragon carving; perhaps it might be real, hahaha!”

Lin Ming didn’t speak. In the ancient jade carving trade, it was easy to be influenced by thoughts and give birth to past regrets if one didn’t make the purchase, one made the purchase, or made them think that they had been fooling themselves all along.

“Mm, alright.” Lin Ming didn’t mind. He had already identified the items that he bought as being quite good, and now he just lacked spirit essence stones.

Opening the third gate of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates didn’t require a specific kind of miraculous body transformation medicine. As long as he had some body transformation miracle medicine of a certain rank, no matter what type it was, it was completely applicable to him. Lin Ming had searched through the Realm of the Gods alchemist’s memories several times and had locked onto several types of medicines that he could refine. As long as he had enough time and materials then he was confident he could successfully concoct them. And the bountiful lands of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom were much better than Lin Ming had imagined. He would be able to find many materials he needed here. Of course, that was providing he had enough spirit essence stones.

Lin Ming and Li Yifeng headed towards the mansion of this small city’s appraisal grandmaster.

As Zhou Kun saw the two people walking away, he immediately realized where they were going. He faintly smiled as he darkly thought, ‘Li Yifeng must be going to Guru Blueway to have that ancient jade dragon carving of his appraised. He didn’t dare to let Mister White appraise it  because he feared that his jade dragon carving might be a fake, and it would be a loss of face if that was revealed in front of everyone, hahaha. I’ll go see Grandmaster Blueway and take a look at just how precious your ancient jade dragon carving is.’

………..

The so-called appraiser residency that Li Yifeng had mentioned was in truth a very ordinary-looking house. The courtyard walls were built from rough stones and the whole place looked a bit shabby and worn out from the outside. It was impossible to imagine that a sixth grade Life Destruction powerhouse lived here.

“Brother Lin, this appraisal grandmaster has lived here for the last 100 years; his name is Guru Blueway. He’s one of the top 300 ranked characters on the Destiny Decree!”

“Destiny Decree?” Lin Ming asked, a bit stunned.

“Mm, the Destiny Decree is a ranking list for strength within the Sky Spill Continent. Only Life Destruction powerhouses are listed on it and it is jointly issued out by several great intelligence organizations. Aside from the Destiny Decree, there is also an Emperor Decree which only has Divine Sea powerhouses. However, the Emperor Decree rarely changes. Those Divine Sea Supreme Elders are always wandering around with unknown whereabouts so it's difficult to collect any information on them.

“Ranking the Life Destruction powerhouses isn’t easy either; it’s only a rough estimate used for reference.”

There were over 100 Emperor level powerhouses in the Sky Spill Continent, but definitely no  more than 200. As for the number of Life Destruction powerhouses, that was far too difficult to calculate. Wanting to arrange the top ranked of these individuals in a list was extremely difficult.

Li Yifeng chuckled and said, “It naturally isn’t easy, but this Destiny Decree is actually quite accurate. It’s not much of a difference if you’re three or four ranks away from someone, but being 30-40 ranks basically isn’t wrong. The only exceptions are if you come across a massive lucky chance or recently experienced a breakthrough without anything knowing. The Destiny Decree is changed every three years, and is an important factor for the great forces to decide who to win over. As for the four Divine Kingdoms, they often use this ranking list as a way to contrast the quantity and quality of their young elites.

“How young are those martial artists on the list?” Lin Ming emphasized the word ‘young’.

“Relatively young. For a Life Destruction powerhouse, even 50 years old is considered young. To be ranked on the list at 50 years of age isn’t easy at all! Most of the martial artists on the ranking list are at least at the fifth or sixth stage of Life Destruction; there are even some abnormal seventh stage Life Destruction monsters. Moreover, these martial artists are all astounding individuals in their generation. If your foundation is poor, you might not make it on even if your cultivation is high!”

As Li Yifeng spoke to here, they finally arrived. He reached out his hand to knock on Guru Blueway’s gate.

With a soft creaking sound, the gate automatically opened.

In the courtyard, the ground was covered with fallen leaves. Underneath the gently falling leaves was a stone table with a checkerboard engraved atop of it. A blue-clothed old man was sitting at the stone table with a pot of boiling tea nearby. He had two black and white board pieces in his hands and his entire body was tense with concentration as he seemed completely focused on his game. From time to time he would lay down alternating black and white pieces; it turned out he was playing chess with himself.

“Oh, it’s the Li Family’s little baby boy again. Did you come to ask me to be your grunt again?”

The blue-clothed old man laughed. With a wave of his sleeves a pair of thin and elegant teacups suddenly appeared on the table, filled with a light amber tea. From the refreshing fragrance emanating from the tea, this tea was not the… popular… shredded meat tea of the Thatch Region, but a very high quality and exceptional tea.

“Hehe, Uncle Blueway, I came this time to specifically bring you some good things.” Li Yifeng was apparently extremely familiar with this blue-clothed old man. He good-naturedly grinned as he laughed.

As Li Yifeng spoke he took out the ancient dragon carving jade carving from his spatial ring. The blue-clothed old man glanced at the ancient jade dragon carving but didn’t speak; he had already guessed that Li Yifeng had gone shopping at White Dragon Jade Row and had come to ask him for an appraisal.

Li Yifeng was just about to walk forwards but he suddenly stopped in his steps. He swiveled around and saw Zhou Kun arriving along with the others from the street corner.

“Zhou Kun! That brat!” Li Yifeng frowned. Zhou Kun had bought the blood spirit jade bracelets, but Li Yifeng had only bought the ancient dragon jade carving which he didn’t even know was real or fake. Even if it were real he would still lose face, and there was no need to mention what it would be like if it were fake. That damned brat had come just to embarrass him.

“Grandmaster Blueway, I brought some good things for you to look at today.” Zhou Kun was all smiles as he approached. He was apparently also familiar with Guru Blueway.

“Yo! Sir Li, what a coincidence meeting you here.” Zhou Kun pretended that he accidently bumped into Li Yifeng here. His eyes immediately locked onto Li Yifeng’s ancient jade dragon carving. “Isn’t that the White Dragon Jade Row’s ancient jade dragon carving that is priced at 3300 spirit essence stones? Did you come to ask Grandmaster Blueway to appraise that for you?”

Since Zhou Kun had brought the shame game to this level, even the normally tranquil and carefree Li Yifeng had an extremely ugly look plastered on his face. But in front of Grandmaster Blueway, he could only endure this insult.

As Guru Blueway saw Li Yifeng and Zhou Kun in a tiff with each other, he only faintly smiled as he slowly sipped his tea, not saying anything. It was far too common for youths to engage in such disputes. And not to mention youths, but in the ancient jade carving trade, even those old experts would flush with anger with rage as they argued over the authenticity of their treasures.

Zhou Kun snickered and made an inviting gesture with his hands, “Sir Li, since you arrived first?”

At this time, Li Yifeng was holding onto the box containing his ancient jade dragon carving. He could only place it on Guru Blueway’s stone table and say, “Uncle Blueway, this is an ancient jade dragon carving I bought at the White Dragon jade Row. In truth, I don’t dare to confirm that this is a real item. It’s just that I’ve looked at it several times and I had an unbearable itch to buy it. I would like to ask Uncle Blueway to apprise this for me.”

Li Yifeng respectfully opened the box with the ancient jade dragon carving and presented it to Guru Blueway.

Guru Blueway looked at the jade carving and released a wisp of his perception to gently circle around it. He gently traced the ancient jade dragon carving’s scales. After a quarter hour, Guru Blueway finally stopped and said, “This ancient jade dragon carving comes from the hands of a famous expert. But, it’s a bit young; it’s only from a few hundred years ago. There have been some clever methods used to modify the appearance and give off this beautiful look, otherwise there is no way that the fine hairs on the surface would be so stiff. Generally speaking, this is a pretty good item – it is genuine true essence jade. It is ninth grade true essence jade, and roughly estimating, it should be worth around 800 spirit essence stones.”

As Li Yifeng heard Guru Blueway’s appraisal he looked a bit pained. He originally bought this item without caring if it was real or fake, and it would have been fine if he had it secretly appraised, but now in front of so many people, this was simply a great loss of face. In this circle, buying imitation goods at such a high price was really a laughable matter.

“Brother Li, oh, it really is such a pity. This ancient jade dragon carving really does have a beautiful appearance. If it were me I also might be a bit impulsive and buy it.” Zhou Kun smiled as he gloated at Li Yifeng’s misfortune. But, the surrounding people didn’t say anything, only watching the good play unfold before them.

Zhou Kun’s eyes shined as he took this moment to take out a wood box from his spatial ring. “Grandmaster Blueway, this is a pair of 10,000 year old blood spirit jade bracelets that I just bought. Could you take a look at them?”

“What? Blood spirit jade?” Guru Blueway’s eyebrows shot up. His interest had obviously been stirred up.