Chapter Eleven: The Primordial Crystal
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“Nonsense. Of course I’ve seen it.” The thick-browed man nodded and sneered. “You’re not going to tell me you can catch bullets like the Fire Cloud Evil God, are you?”
At those words, disdainful laughter immediately filled the carriage. Catching bullets? Did he think this was a movie?
“I can’t catch bullets.” Yang Qi shook his head and continued, “But I can step on toes!”
The moment he finished speaking, before the two men beside him could react, Yang Qi abruptly lowered his head. In the next instant, both his feet came down hard on the feet of the thick-browed man and the bald man holding him in place. He followed with two vicious punches to their stomachs. Then he lunged forward, and by the time the man behind him regained his senses, Yang Qi had already kicked him squarely in the chest.
“Ah! Ah!”
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. By the time the other two men in the carriage recovered, Yang Qi was already idly twirling two daggers in his left hand, while a third was pressed against the thick-browed man’s throat.
For a moment, the carriage fell unnaturally silent. The only sound was Brother Da Fei swallowing nervously.
Ignoring the excruciating pain in his feet and chest, Brother Da Fei forced an ingratiating smile. “Big brother, let’s talk this over. Be careful your hand doesn’t slip.”
“Don’t worry. My hand rarely slips,” Yang Qi said calmly.
Hearing this, Brother Da Fei could not help relaxing. But before he had time to feel relieved, Yang Qi’s voice sounded again.
“Still, I was frightened by three daggers just now. Whether my hand trembles or not, I really couldn’t say.”
“Big brother, I was wrong! I’ll let you off the moment we stop, and I swear I won’t trouble you again,” the thick-browed man hurriedly said.
Yang Qi curled his lips and looked at him calmly. “Don’t do that. You, Brother Da Fei, have ruled Qinghe for six or seven years. I don’t want to end up dead in the street someday. No matter how good your kung fu is, you still have to fear a kitchen knife, don’t you?”
“Big brother, I was only joking!” Brother Da Fei was practically on the verge of tears as he hastily explained. “Big brother, just tell me what it’ll take for you to let us go. As long as it’s within Da Fei’s power, I won’t even blink!”
Yang Qi did not answer immediately. After pondering for a moment, he asked, “Was it Hou Lei who sent you?”
The thick-browed man nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, that bastard! He gave me fifty thousand and told me to teach you a lesson. He said you had ruined his plans.”
So it really was him!
A chill entered Yang Qi’s gaze. He had merely been dragged in by Tang Xinjie to serve as a shield, yet Hou Lei had still come to resent him enough to pay people to deal with him. That revealed just how narrow-minded the man was. Tang Xinjie’s original assessment of him had probably been too generous.
“Do you have any money on you?” Yang Qi slowly asked, looking at the thick-browed man.
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The thick-browed man froze, then immediately shouted at everyone in the carriage, “Quick! Take out all your wallets!”
The men in the carriage reluctantly pulled the money from their pockets.
“Big brother, this is everything.” Brother Da Fei cautiously handed Yang Qi the cash in his possession.
Yang Qi glanced at the small bills—mostly tens and fives. Added together, there probably was not even a hundred and fifty. His expression darkened. “That’s all?”
“Big brother, this really is everything.” Brother Da Fei looked aggrieved, practically ready to cry. “To be honest, we’re all… well… We haven’t started work yet today, so…”
As he spoke, Da Fei raised two fingers and waved them.
Pickpockets!
Yang Qi curled his lips. These men were supposed to be seasoned gangsters, yet they did not even carry ten or twenty thousand with them when they went out. All together, they had barely a hundred and a few coins—worse off than he was. He truly had no idea how they had managed to survive in the underworld.
Suddenly, Yang Qi’s gaze fell upon the emerald-green Guanyin pendant hanging on the thick-browed man’s chest.
The thick-browed man was no ordinary underling, and his eyesight was naturally sharp. He immediately understood. Hurriedly removing the pendant, he said, “Big brother, this is an emerald Guanyin. If you like it, I’ll give it to you.”
As he spoke, he quickly placed the statue in Yang Qi’s hand.
The moment it touched his palm, Yang Qi’s expression changed. From within the Guanyin, he sensed a faint fluctuation of primordial energy.
Primordial Crystal!
The name flashed through his mind.
According to Haoyang’s memories, countless treasures existed in the world. Among them was something known as a Primordial Crystal, which contained pure primordial energy. Martial artists could absorb that energy with ease, without any side effects, making it the finest treasure for cultivation.
With that thought, Yang Qi hurriedly circulated the Heaven-Splitting Art and attempted to absorb the energy within the Guanyin. In the next instant, a thin stream of primordial energy flowed from the statue into his body, rapidly transforming into vital force before merging into his dantian.
It really was a Primordial Crystal.
Excitement surged through Yang Qi. With a Primordial Crystal, his cultivation speed would undoubtedly increase once more.
Yang Qi turned to Brother Da Fei beside him and hurriedly asked, “How did you get this Guanyin statue?”
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“This Guanyin statue?” Da Fei was startled, then laughed. “I saw it on Antique Street. The seller claimed it had been excavated from an ancient tomb dating back to the previous dynasty and demanded five thousand for it. Wasn’t that daylight robbery? Who does he think I am? If I want something, do I still need to pay? I simply took it.”
“An ancient tomb?” Yang Qi frowned. If it had truly been excavated from an ancient tomb, would he have to become a tomb robber? That was illegal, and ancient tombs were not exactly easy to find.
“Wait…”
Suddenly, Yang Qi realized that he had overlooked something. His eyes lit up.
“Emerald!”
Yang Qi had focused only on the pendant’s origins and forgotten that, even if the Guanyin statue had been buried in an ancient tomb, it could have been there for only a few centuries at most. Emerald and jade, however, were formed through countless years of subterranean transformation, creating mineral deposits. Compared with the place where the pendant had come from, its material was far more important.
Once he understood this, Yang Qi immediately realized that the reason the Guanyin pendant contained such powerful primordial energy was very likely because it was made of emerald.
“Where can I find emerald?” Yang Qi asked anxiously.
Da Fei was taken aback. In a low voice, he replied, “Jewelry stores. Antique Street.”
Jewelry stores!
Yang Qi’s heart sank. What kind of place was a jewelry store? Could an ordinary person afford to go there? Even the cheapest items cost thousands, while anything slightly more expensive ran into tens or hundreds of thousands. It was simply beyond his means.
“Where can I find raw emerald ore?” Yang Qi suddenly remembered reading several novels about stone gambling. They had explained that emerald was extracted from rough stones.
Compared with finished emerald, rough ore was as different as heaven from earth in terms of price. He could not afford emerald, but he might still be able to afford rough ore. Moreover, since he cultivated the Heaven-Splitting Art and could sense the primordial energy within emerald, perhaps he could also sense the energy inside emerald ore. If so, obtaining Primordial Crystals would become much easier.
“Antique Street,” Brother Da Fei hurriedly replied. Although he had no idea why Yang Qi had suddenly begun asking about it, he answered honestly.
“Antique Street? Shouldn’t there be a rough-stone market?” Yang Qi frowned. He distinctly remembered the books saying that emerald rough stones were supposed to be sold at rough-stone markets.
“Qingzhou doesn’t have a rough-stone market. There are only a few rough-stone stalls on Antique Street,” Da Fei said quietly.
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