Indeed, within a few minutes, the greenish mist within the slab of rock became clearer and clearer as Huo Sining continued her rubbing process.
Huo Sining’s grinding wheel continued to scrape the surface of the stone, and the grating sound made the people discussing around them fall silent—they, too, were curious. What kind of jadeite could be carved out from inside this piece of Mogang Rock waste?
Because of the peculiar shape of the jadeite inside, the deeper she went, the more challenging Huo Sining found it, and her rubbing grew increasingly cautious.
As the mist layer slowly vanished and the jadeite within was about to be revealed, onlookers’ eyes widened in study.
Wu Jun hurriedly splashed water on the stone, and the window that had just been rubbed open immediately presented itself before everyone.
"What is this?" The spectators stared blankly at the opened window, stunned and unable to gather their wits.
Huo Sining only rubbed open one window, a palm-sized opening, and all the green mist had disappeared from it.
At that moment, a bright spot, the size of a little fingernail imprint, appeared on the cut surface—a round tip of jadeite emerged, its vivid and pure sunny green starkly prominent under the strong lights.
"It looks like it’s glass-type jadeite, but there’s only such a small spot of green, and it’s unknown how deep it goes." Ouyang Jun’s brow furrowed as he exchanged glances with Qin Tian, both somewhat unable to fathom Huo Sining’s intent.
Huo Sining was known for her eccentric ways; otherwise, neither of them would have suspected she harbored a secret. Now, seeing Huo Sining cut jadeite from the Mogang Rock with such a cautious demeanor, Ouyang Jun and Qin Tian were both puzzled.
"I don’t understand, I can’t make heads or tails of it."
Qin Tian also shook his head in bewilderment. His grandfather was the president of the Imperial Capital Jade Association, so he had encountered countless gambling stones since childhood. However, he really couldn’t read much into the rough stone that Huo Sining had.
That bright spot could indeed be confirmed as jadeite, but before being fully revealed, no one could guess what kind of jadeite it was exactly.
Even if it was jadeite, it might not have value. After all, the value of jadeite is reflected in the finished product. Raw materials are valuable because they can be processed into jadeite finished products.
But now the jadeite inside this rough stone was so small that even if it were glass-type jadeite, it would be worthless if it couldn’t be crafted into anything.
Huo Sining was also very nervous; she had never solved jadeite of this kind before, and she couldn’t tell the Old Stone Solver Master the exact positions of those few Jade Heaven Beads to have someone else operate it—she had to continue using the stone cutting machine to carefully rub it herself.
This time, however, she didn’t continue to rub along that bright spot but instead started to rub another side.
Before long, Huo Sining stopped again. Her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, but she took no notice, busying herself with fetching clean water to wash the cut surface; once again, all the onlookers were stunned.
After cleaning the green mist, two more separate bright spots appeared on the newly rubbed surface, virtually identical in size and color to the jadeite tip that had appeared earlier.
Three bright spots suspected to be glass-type jadeite changed the complexion of those in the know; although they still couldn’t discern what kind of jadeite was hidden inside the rough stone, they felt that something was amiss.
Huo Sining couldn’t care less about what those people were thinking. She had now gotten a handle on the right approach, so her subsequent rubbing speed increased a lot.
Soon after, the remaining mist was rubbed away by Huo Sining, revealing four more bright spots. A total of seven green dots were all exposed, and only then did Huo Sining finally let out a deep sigh of relief.
The seven light spots were only about the size of a little finger, and beneath the sunlight, they radiated a soft, dim green light, reminiscent of the Big Dipper in the sky, both beautiful and mysterious.
After polishing out the light spots, Huo Sining’s stone cutting pace quickened, no longer as slow as before. She used the stone cutting machine to divide the entire piece of rough into seven smaller pieces, each containing a light spot.
The onlookers, who previously did not understand the purpose of Huo Sining’s method of stone cutting, now realized that each of the seven small rough pieces contained a piece of jadeite. Huo Sining’s task now was to cut out these pieces of jadeite intact.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, not blinking, fixated on Huo Sining’s movements, their curiosity about those light spots growing.
Huo Sining took one of the rough pieces with a light spot, secured the grinding wheel to a fixture, and began to polish it in circular motions, the sharp edges of the small piece of rough slowly rounding out on the grinding machine.
As the impurities and rough outer layer diminished, the stone gradually became an oval sphere, and the green mist became denser.
Finally, when polished down to the size of a glass marble, the entire piece of jadeite was revealed, a perfectly round, oval bead about two centimeters in diameter appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Huo Sining took the bead into her palm and scooped a ladle of water, pouring it over the bead.
Amidst the cool clear water, an emerald bead glimmered with warmth and softness under the light, shining brilliantly.
"Emerald Heavenly Bead!"
Upon seeing the bead in Huo Sining’s hand, someone among the onlookers shouted out.
At this remark, Ouyang Jun was stunned, then he looked at the bead in Huo Sining’s hand in astonishment, and even Qin Tian couldn’t help but lean in closer.
"A Jade Heaven Bead, and it’s a glass-type emerald!"
Ouyang Jun reached out and gently caressed the transparent green bead, his hand trembling slightly with excitement, his entire being somewhat uncontrollable.
Many of the onlookers looked on in bewilderment, with only a few who knew what a Heavenly Bead was staring wide-eyed at the small bead in Ouyang Jun’s hand.
Liu Yuxuan was driving from the other end of the street; passing by the square, she saw the crowd at Stone Dissolution Square slowing, curiosity piqued. She was about to ask when she heard someone mention a Jade Heaven Bead. Her expression grew stern as she couldn’t wait to pull Zhou Jiajia out of the car and sprint toward Stone Dissolution Square.
"Miss Huo, for this bead, I offer two million apiece, how about that?"
The person among the onlookers who first called out "Emerald Heavenly Bead" strode out of the crowd, his eyes burning as he stared at the bead in Ouyang Jun’s hand.
"Two million apiece?!"
The onlookers were stunned; a single bead was worth two million, and this woman had cut out seven light spots, which meant seven Emerald Heavenly Beads, equal to an instant profit of fourteen million.
Even though these people were familiar with stone gambling, they were now slightly confused; the Emerald Heavenly Beads, while striking, were not big and could only be made into ring faces. How could they be worth two million each? Could it be that these Heavenly Beads had some special provenance?