Chapter 546

Chapter 546: “Mysterious Black Stone (3)”
The lavishly clothed man sighed once more and said: “Less is better than nothing. Just take it for your needs first.”
The bandaged man nevertheless shook his head. “One hundred thousand taels will not be enough! This is ten lives we are talking about! They were brothers in arms who had gone through life and death with me! I could never…. How could I….. If I do not raise the money, I will not be able to hand it over to their families. When I see my brothers in the afterlife, how am I going to face them then!?”
As the man spoke, he got so agitated that he started to tremble visibly. The ever existent pain that wrecked at his body constantly reminded him of everything that had happened that fateful day.
Eleven of them had climbed down the Heaven’s End Cliff. Eleven men….. And finally only he, alone, was able to return alive. All of his comrades had not been able to escape from that terrible place, and he had not been able to even retrieve their bodies. If he still wasn’t able to ensure that their families lived on without worries, then he would be worse than a beast!
This piece of jet black rock, was filled with the blood of all eleven of them, and it was brought back here with ten lives in exchange.
While eleven men had made their way down Heaven’s End Cliff, only one had climbed back up alive, with the black stone rock they had earlier hoisted up the cliff right at the onset.
The bandaged man could no longer remember how he had brought the black rock back here with him, he could only remember his journey back had been filled with tears and blood that had constantly impaired his sight.
The lavishly clothed man sighed helplessly once more. He had found the badly injured man all covered in blood just outside Chan Lin Town that day and had thought the man would not survive his injuries. The garish wounds he had seen would have taken the life of any a lesser man but his friend had determinedly fought to stay alive.
“We’ll wait a little while more then.” Helpless, the lavishly clothed man could do nothing but continue to wait with his friend. But as the person placed in charge of the Chan Lin Auction House, it was very clear to him that no matter what secrets the piece of jet black rock held, they would not be able to sell it off.
To the common man, that was just an ordinary piece of rock.
Within the auction hall, silence hung heavily. No one wanted to give their attention to a piece of rock that was so heavily overpriced.
Meanwhile, up on the second level, Qiao Chu was staring at the piece of jet black rock with undisguised mirth.
“This is a rare sight. I did not know that people can actually bring rocks out for auction, and the asking price is an incredulous three hundred thousand taels!? Is the person mad?” Heaven’s End Cliff or wherever it came from, he had no idea what kind of a place that was. But putting a price on a piece of rock that costs as much as the fees for the Zephyr Academy, almost made someone like Qiao Chu who was so used to leading a life of poverty, almost drop his jaw to the ground.
“It does not matter whether he is mad, but no one is playing along with his insanity. Can’t you see that everyone is not even bothering to look at the piece of rock?” Fei Yan said with a shrug. He was always meticulous and detailed in his observations of people and he had noticed that the crowd was getting a little impatient with the wait and he expects that the outrageous item put up for auction would be removed from the stage in a very short while.
“I found it really incredible, that anyone would in reality possess the confidence to even bring a piece of rock to the auction house and put it up for auction!” Qiao Chu exclaimed indignantly. They had lived a life where they did not even know when their next meal was and here people were hoping to get a windfall from a piece of rock!
“Somehow, I do not feel that is just a common piece of rock.” Fan Zhuo who had not spoken a word all this time suddenly said.
Everyone else turned to look at him.
“Things from beyond Heaven’s End Cliff would not be ordinary. If my guess is correct, the jet black rock is Black Jade Stone. You can extract Black Silver from Black Jade Stone and Black Silver can be used to forge spirit rings whereby its effects would be more outstanding than gold, silver or any precious metals. But the Black Jade Stone is extremely hard and very difficult to cut, but I believe it can be achieved by tempering it by fire.”