CH 28.1

Bai Jing knew nothing about what was happening online. By the time he came out of the Gu Conglomerate’s Gambling House, it was already dark.

After the betting wars, Gu Yuanzhao took him to [the Imperial Rose Restaurant] for an expensive lunch, but Bai Jing in the end paid for the meal first as a little reward to his ‘creditor’.

The two of them then went to the negative first floor of the Gu Conglomerate, the unsorted rough stone section of the Gu Conglomerate’s Gambling House.

It was a large underground warehouse, where all the rough stones were put together, with no partitioning, and a rough estimate of at least ten thousand pieces.

Many of the rough stones still had sand on their crusts, and were probably the most primitive rough stones that had just been transported from various planets.

Hundreds of cleaning robots cleaned the surfaces of the rough stones meticulously with specialized tools, then wiped them clean before placing them one by one on the stone tables.

Gu Yuanzhao: “This is where the Gu Conglomerate stores its rough stones which aren’t partitioned yet and are replaced with new rough stones every two months.

I have entered your ID information at the entrance. If it is convenient for you in the near future, come here more often to familiarize yourself with them. I hope it will help you.”

“In a week’s time, the Senior Stone Gambler team hired by the Gu Conglomerate will be zoning the rough stones. Until then, you can come over and learn.”

Bai Jing’s clear eyes were tinged with a touch of complexity: “You’re giving me so much access, aren’t you afraid I’ll–“

Tamper with something?

Gu Yuanzhao interrupted him softly, the corners of his lips rising upwards, “You won’t, I trust you.”

Bai Jing’s long, thick eyelashes fluttered lightly, like a butterfly flapping its wings and his expression softened, “Thank you.”

In this moment, Bai Jing’s heart was filled with an indescribable warmth and gratitude as he met Gu Yuanzhao’s trusting gaze.

The memory of being betrayed by his teammates in the post-apocalyptic world seemed to fade away and was replaced by Gu Yuanzhao’s words, ‘I trust you’.

Perhaps, it was time to forget everything that had happened before and start a new life.

Bai Jing looked at the rough stones one by one. The rough stones here were divided according to the planet they had come from and the order in which they were placed was clear. The more one touched them, the more one could clearly see the characteristics of each planet’s rough stones.

He looked over the rows, trying to summarize the characteristics of each planet’s rough stone, an action that would strengthen his judgement of rough stones.

At the same time, Bai Jing looked for rough stones that he couldn’t identify, especially those that were plain on the surface, used his sense perception ability to detect them and after coming to a conclusion, would go back, look at the causes and would often find areas that he had missed before.

As the saying went, practice made perfect.

Even those who had no knowledge of gambling on rough stones would learn something from experience, let alone a Stone Gambler like Bai Jing who was an excellent learner.

It wasn’t until the last betting wars were over that Bai Jing came out of the underground warehouse, and by then, it was completely dark.

A white hover car rose into the sky and soon arrived at an eggshell-like enclosed building, the heavy hatch closing quickly after the hover car entered, like a natural defense base.

Since Bai Jing’s arrival, the only way in and out was by hover car every day, a result of the security system’s iris and vehicle recognition working together, but it was a lot easier than it used to be.

Fortunately, the black hover car wasn’t Gu Yuanzhao’s cool black ‘S’ class, but rather a more understated and restrained looking model.

However, what Bai Jing didn’t know was that the white hover car he drove was also an ‘S’ class and part of the same series as the black one.

The two hover cars, one black and one white; one flamboyant, one restrained; one cool, one elegant, were known as the ‘heavenly choice’ of hover cars.

When he got home, Bai Jing took a hot shower and changed into comfortable loungewear. Then, he clicked on his light brain, logged into his Starnet store account and checked the Starnet auction house for responses.

He wondered if his energy fluid had been authenticated?

As soon as Bai Jing went online, he was inundated with news.

[Appraiser Lu Meng: Master, are you there?]

[Appraiser Lu Meng: Master, the energy fluid you are consigning has reached grade 4 and it’s the best!]

[Appraiser Lu Meng: Don’t worry, we at Star Ocean Auction House will do our best to sell it at the right price!]

Perhaps because he didn’t reply, it wasn’t long before a different person sent a message.

[Head of Star Ocean: Master, your energy fluid is of high purity, would you like to cooperate with us at Star Ocean Auction House?]

[Head of Star Ocean: The auction house is willing to charge 10 points less in commission as long as you consign your energy fluid with us.]

After a few minutes, another message arrived unwillingly.

[Head of Star Ocean: If you don’t agree, we can talk about it.]

[Head of Star Ocean: How about this? The auction house will only charge you 5% of the commission. This is already the best price, what do you think?]

Afternoon.

[Head of Star Ocean: Master, your energy fluid has been auctioned off and you will receive starcoins after settlement.]

[Appraiser Lu Meng: Master, are you there? (Cat in tears emoticon)]

Bai Jing: ……

It wasn’t a wonder why the appraiser was so excited. This was a grade 4 energy fluid with a purity of over 40%, and the purity of this energy fluid was already close to 50%. It was one of the best grade 4s!

Usually, energy fluids of grade 4 or above were not auctioned in online auction houses, they were auctioned in groups of ten in large offline auction houses.

Lu Meng, as the only appraiser in Star Ocean Auction House had to deal with all kinds of consignment items every day and nearly half of them weren’t up to scratch, which really annoyed him.

Hence when he saw Bai Jing’s silver energy box, he wasn’t surprised.

There were so many junior energy masters nowadays that the amount of energy fluid sent to him every day was in the hundreds, if not dozens, and many of them weren’t up to the standard of consignment.

Lu Meng sighed. Although it was an online shop, it was a regular auction house anyway, so not everything could be consigned.

Who would buy a grade 1 energy fluid, or even energy fluid of less than grade 1 purity, unless it was sold in bulk to a robotics factory?

With so many items in his possession every day, Lu Meng had developed an unparalleled speed of identification, with each item in his hands taking less than 30 seconds.

When he had opened Bai Jing’s silver box, at a casual glance, he found that it was only a third of the weight.

Lu Meng had sighed. It was probably another novice with poor mental energy who was unable to refine even a whole box of energy fluid.

He had rolled his eyes helplessly, poured the liquid in the silver box into the special testing equipment and went back to his work of identifying other items.

After half an hour or so, after he finally got some of the mess out of his hands, he stretched out to take a break.

And his eyes glanced inadvertently at the screen of the tester, then he saw that it read: purity 48.75%, grade 4 energy fluid.

Oh, a level 4 energy fluid. It was really something for newbies to use for practice.

Lu Meng was just about to sit down when his body suddenly jolted and he sprang up from his chair.

No, that wasn’t right. Did it just show a grade 4 energy fluid?

Lu Meng couldn’t rest anymore. Running the instrument twice more hurriedly, he got the same result: 48.75% purity, grade 4 energy fluid!

Hiss, he was overwhelmed with excitement. This grade of energy fluid had never appeared in Star Ocean Auction House before.

To be able to refine a grade 4 energy fluid and to be of the highest purity in grade 4, this energy master was at least of intermediate level or probably even a high level energy master!