Chapter 1773: Appraising Styles
All eyes were instantly on the prince this time. It didn’t matter whether Li Qiye’s arms were worth the aforementioned price or not, the prince was the one who started all of this.
He would lose all face by backing down right now. It was either to take out 1,000,000 Dao Sage Chaos Stones to bet against Li Qiye or use his own arms.
Otherwise, his reputation as an imperial successor would be gone completely. The only thing he would be known for was a crown prince who got humiliated by a mortal.
“Bang!” The prince took out three Dao Sage weapons at the same time, all at the Golden Inlaid level.
“I don’t have that many chaos stones on me so I’ll bet these weapons instead!” He uttered coldly.
These three artifacts were indeed worth around 1,000,000 Dao Sage Chaos Stones.
Li Qiye glanced at the weapons and smiled: “Fine, what bet now?”
The prince took a deep breath and tapped on Li Langxuan’s back who was standing next to him: “Brother Langxuan will represent me. Brother, beat him, I want his arms!”
Severing Li Qiye’s arms was only the beginning. If Li Langxuan were to win, a long torture was awaiting Li Qiye before everyone. The prince wanted Li Qiye’s scream to echo across the Western Market.
Even though murder was forbidden here, losing a gamble justified the punishment. No one would be able to save Li Qiye then!
Langxuan was surprised to hear this. He regained his wits and stared at Li Qiye with a little anticipation.
This mortal was indeed a challenge for him. Earlier, Li Qiye’s cutting skill proved that he was an amazing appraiser.
Langxuan was considered the number one young appraiser in Pure so after seeing Li Qiye in action, his eyes did lit up and he thought about challenging the guy.
“Your Highness, I’m not sure if I can handle this great responsibility.” Langxuan humbly said.
“Brother Langxuan, you are the best appraiser right now and he’s only a mortal. Just take his arms for me.” The prince said.
“I’ll have to listen then.” Langxuan cupped his fist.
Langxuan and Li Qiye instantly fell into the limelight. Li Qiye has proven his abilities while Langxuan’s reputation preceded him.
One was a mortal while the other was a genius so Langxuan clearly had the upper hand. No wonder why the prince left this to him.
“Even the older appraisers don’t want to play against Langxuan. Many have lost to him already.” One expert said. All eyes were on this contest.
“How do you want to do this?” Li Langxuan cupped his fist towards Li Qiye, still showing respect towards a mortal.
“Whatever you want.” Li Qiye smiled and freely said.
Langxuan didn’t dare to underestimate the enemy. He took a deep breath and said: “Your vision is quite keen. How about we pick a dao material from the Waiting Zone; whoever can cut the better dao fetus out will be the winner. What do you think?”
“We’ll do that then.” Li Qiye had no objection.
The Waiting Zone was a special area at the Stone Workshop. Many dao materials were waiting to be appraised here or couldn’t be decided by the appraisers.
In this place, someone can find the best dao fetus or just White Adornments.
The prices here weren’t cheap on purpose; the workshop wanted the gamblers to come here and test their luck or abilities.
“I heard the majority of the dao material here are White Adornments. But in order to make money and attract the adventurous type, the workshop purposely put some good materials in there.” A frequent visitor snickered.
People smiled back after hearing this. In fact, this strategy by the workshop was well known. Of course, there were some dao materials that couldn’t be appraised so they placed them here to attract more gamblers as well.
After reaching the Waiting Zone, Li Qiye and Langxuan carefully looked for a dao material. This was a test of their vision.
It was impossible to see the fetus inside without cutting the materials. Of course, the experienced appraisers could make educated guesses on the fetuses based on the material’s affinity, origin, weight, and shape…
For example, if one material was part of a divine beast’s corpse, then the grade of the fetus would certainly be better than if it was from an ordinary beast. The appraisers in the workshop were very good in this regard. All the origin and affinity of these materials were clearly written down. The chance of passing off the fish eyes as pearls was quite minuscule.
Langxuan’s cultivation speed was no match for the imperial princes but conversely, the princes were no match for him with regards to finding dao materials.
Nevertheless, he still treated Li Qiye as a formidable opponent. Because of this, he mustered all of his abilities while looking at each piece.
Li Qiye did the same but not as carefully as Langxuan who was smelling, listening, looking, and even knocking on each piece. He simply stared at their texture and affinity and didn’t go all out.
It wasn’t because he was overconfident. This contest was simply unfair because he had been doing this in an old era, even before the birth of some of the current monarchs and emperors. Many talented appraisers back then all wanted to call him master.
Langxuan eventually picked an egg-shaped material that was made from stone. It had flowing red lines with a dark light in the center and gave off a sanguine appearance.
“That’s a master for you.” Another appraiser confirmed: “This dao material is exquisite with a touch of greasy oil outside. I’m not completely positive but there’s a large chance that it came from a Red-jade Immortal Mine. If this is the case, it might be an Orange Martial fetus.”
A few businessmen heard this and took a look as well. They agreed with this assessment.
Langxuan paid a fair amount for this great material and went to the betting table to wait for Li Qiye.
He was completely confident in his choice since this wasn’t his first time betting; many older appraisers have been his victims.
“Brother Langxuan, how is this dao material?” The prince asked after seeing his confidence.
He smiled and said: “I won’t let you down, Your Highness. I’m certain I can cut an Orange Martial fetus from this but if I’m lucky, maybe even a Heaven Bestowment.”
The prince became excited after hearing this with a murderous glint in his eyes. He declared with a sinister smile: “I’ll cut his arms then his legs before gouging his eyes so he won’t ever appraise again!”
Li Langxuan disapproved of the prince in his mind. He didn’t want to harm Li Qiye at all for this duel but he had a good relationship with the prince on top of wanting to test his skill against a mortal appraiser.
Finally, Li Qiye had also made his pick. He tapped on one material and said: “This one.”
The price he paid was very cheap since his material looked like a lump of coal that had been incinerated by thunderfire. It looked completely conspicuous.
“The origin of this material isn’t good at all, is he just testing his luck?” One appraiser said: “It came from a red fir tree, forming at the root with the natural harmonization. It’s really too common. Normally, young cultivators who want to become appraisers would train with it.”