Divine Level Witch Doctor

Zhao Yuan asked for Xing Hong’s bank account number and used his phone’s online banking app to make the transfer. A few minutes later, Xing Hong received a text message: the ten thousand yuan had arrived.

”The money’s arrived, right? Can I take the items and go now?” Zhao Yuan asked.

Xing Hong replied with a miserable look, ”Y-Yes, you can.”

In his heart, he was complaining: ’I wish I could say no, but I don’t have the guts.’

Zhao Yuan walked up, grabbed the cloth on the table, and rolled all the antiques up in it, preparing to carry them away just like that.

Seeing his rough handling, Yang Zi was pained and couldn’t help but cry out, ”Can’t you be a little more gentle? There are two porcelain pieces in there! It’ll be such a shame if they get chipped or shattered.”

Zhao Yuan smiled and said, ”It’s no big loss. Those two porcelain pieces are worthless—they’re both fakes.”

Hearing this, Xing Hong flushed and couldn’t help but mutter, ”I didn’t think the kid was an expert. No wonder his offer was so precise. Sigh, why didn’t I see it sooner? I just made a fool of myself for nothing.”

The eight of them and the cat quickly left the antique market. Instead of rushing back to the hotel, they found a nearby teahouse, got a small private room, and closed the door after heading inside.

Yang Zi was still complaining, ”Xiaoyuanzi, oh Xiaoyuanzi, you worked so hard to save up some money. How could you just spend it on all this junk? That was ten thousand yuan! How many part-time jobs will you have to work to earn that back?”

Wu Yan’s focus was on something different. He asked curiously, ”Third Brother, what’s up with you? Did you strike it rich recently?”

You have to understand, just over a month ago, Zhao Yuan was still stressing about money for his daily meals, living on nothing but congee, steamed buns, and pickled vegetables. He couldn’t even bear to spend money on meat or fish. But now, he had just pulled out ten thousand yuan in one go. It was only natural for Wu Yan and the others to be surprised.

”You guessed right. I really did get a windfall recently. A while ago, at Rongcheng City’s Antique Street, I spent a few hundred yuan on a rock. And guess what? We cut it open and found good Jade inside! I turned around and sold it for over two hundred thousand!”

Zhao Yuan told them about his stone-gambling experience, but he significantly lowered the prices he mentioned for buying and selling the stone. It wasn’t that he intended to deceive them; it was just that if he told them the real prices, he would have scared them half to death, and they might have even suspected he had mental problems...

Everyone gasped, shocked by this ’huge sum’. ”What? A stone worth a few hundred yuan sold for two hundred thousand? My god, that’s a hundred-fold profit! No way, you have to treat us!”

Zhao Yuan laughed and agreed, ”Alright, no problem. I’ll treat you all to duck blood and vermicelli soup later.”

After a few more jokes, Liu Zhu’s gaze shifted to the antiques wrapped in the cloth. He asked expectantly, ”Third Brother, you spent ten thousand yuan on this stuff. Is it because there’s a valuable treasure hidden among them?”

”There’s a treasure, but I don’t know if it’s valuable,” Zhao Yuan said as he unwrapped the cloth and took out a round ball from within.

The ball was slightly larger than a fist, just barely fitting in one hand. It looked like it was forged from brass and was covered in crisscrossing grooves, though it was unclear what they were for.

”This copper ball is the treasure?” Liu Zhu asked with a frown. This was a far cry from the treasure he had imagined.

”That’s right,” Zhao Yuan nodded.

At Xing Hong’s antique stall, besides the Copper Bell swallowed by the White Cat in one gulp, only this copper ball contained Qi.

Yang Zi took the copper ball and, after examining it curiously with Lin Xue and the others, shook her head and said, ”It really doesn’t look like a treasure.”

”What on earth is this thing? A cannonball from an ancient cannon?” Wu Yan guessed, letting his imagination run wild.

Wang Rongfeng immediately shot him down. ”As I recall, ancient cannonballs were made of cast iron or lead, right? Copper was basically money in ancient times. To cast money into cannonballs to smash people with? That’s a bit too extravagant, isn’t it?”

Wu Yan was annoyed and retorted, ”Well, what do you think it is, then?”

”I can’t tell,” Wang Rongfeng said, shaking his head.

In the end, it was Zhao Yuan who provided the answer. ”This is a Spiritual Pearl from the mouth of a Gatekeeper Lion!”

Wu Yan was taken aback. ”Gatekeeper Lion? What’s that? I’ve only ever heard of a goalkeeper.”

”Dummy,” Liu Zhu said, slapping him on the head. ”You don’t even know what a Gatekeeper Lion is? They’re the stone lions you see at the entrances of many companies and organizations.”

Lin Xue said, ”It does look a bit like the balls held in the mouths of Gatekeeper Lions, but as I recall, most of those are made of stone, right? Ones cast in copper are really rare.”

Yang Zi said, ”No matter how rare it is, it’s still just a copper ball. Xiaoyuanzi, are you sure this thing is a treasure?”

Zhao Yuan took the copper ball back into his hands and said with a smile, ”It’s not just a copper ball. The outside is only a layer of Copper Armor.”

Through his Qi Observation Technique, Zhao Yuan not only saw the Qi stored within the copper ball but also discovered that it only had a layer of Metal Qi on the surface, while the inside was filled with dense Earth Qi!

Based on this arrangement of the Qi of the Five Elements, Zhao Yuan immediately determined that the ball was only coated with a layer of copper on the surface, while the inside was likely stone.

An ordinary stone could not possibly generate Qi, so what was wrapped inside the Copper Armor was most likely some kind of gemstone!

”Third Brother, you mean this copper ball has more to it than meets the eye?” Wu Yan’s interest was suddenly piqued.

Yang Zi, however, asked with a confused look, ”Xiaoyuanzi, how did you tell there was something hidden inside this copper ball?”

”By its weight.”

Of course, Zhao Yuan couldn’t tell Yang Zi the truth, so he had to tell a little lie.

”The weight of this copper ball felt off, so I guessed there must be something hidden inside.”

”Oh, so that’s how it is.” Yang Zi was completely taken in. She actually believed him and didn’t press any further.

In reality, if one thought about it for just a moment, they would find many holes in Zhao Yuan’s story.

If the copper ball’s weight was off, wouldn’t Xing Hong have noticed? Although he was cunning and greedy, he still had some skill; otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived in the treacherous waters of the antique trade. Besides, even if the weight really was off, that didn’t necessarily mean there was a treasure inside, did it? What if it was just an ordinary rock wrapped in Copper Armor?

Fortunately, none of the young men and women present knew anything about antiques, or else Zhao Yuan’s explanation would have never passed muster.

Wu Yan urged, ”Third Brother, enough talk! Hurry up and get that layer of Copper Armor off. Let’s see what kind of treasure is hidden inside!”

Zhao Yuan was also eager to scrape off the Copper Armor and see what the Qi-containing object inside was, and whether it could be used to make a Protective Talisman. The only problem was that he didn’t have a suitable tool.

Lin Xue got up, pushed the door open, and left. A moment later, she returned with a fruit knife and asked, ”Do you think this knife can be used to scrape off the Copper Armor?”

Zhao Yuan asked curiously, ”Where did you get the knife? Did you go out and buy it?”

Lin Xue shook her head. ”No, I borrowed it from the teahouse owner.”

”As expected of the Sweetheart Goddess, your charm is truly extraordinary,” Zhao Yuan joked. He took the knife, held the ball down, and began to scrape at the Copper Armor.