Shrouding the Heavens: Starting by joining the Holy Land of Yao Guang

Chapter 34 Gambling on Stones
The sacred land of Yaoguang is shrouded in clouds and mist, with towering mountains floating in the sky, not sitting on the ground at all.

Each mountain is majestic and imposing, some shrouded in magical clouds, others surrounded by colorful mist, as if they have existed since the beginning of time, exuding an ancient aura.

At this moment, in a temple deep within the Rising Sun Island, more than a dozen figures of the Supreme Elder level have gathered. They are all pillars of the Rising Sun Island lineage, rarely gathering together, each guarding their own territory.

These people only come together to discuss things after something major has happened.

Their purpose in gathering this time was solely to discuss Li Yao's future treatment.

News of Li Yao's defeat of two peak Divine Bridge cultivators in the Holy City has already spread. Since those two Divine Bridge cultivators were not insignificant figures and had a certain reputation in the Yao Guang Holy Land, the higher-ups of the Rising Sun Divine Island paid special attention to this.

The conversation lasted a full hour.

Ultimately, after a unanimous decision by all the high-level officials, the original monthly allowance of 1,000 catties of pure source for the Divine Bridge Realm was increased to 2,000 catties, a full doubling.

……

Li Yao, who was far away in the Holy City of the Northern Region, was unaware of this matter. At this moment, he only wanted to test the effectiveness of his Origin Technique.

Three months have passed since Li Yao first arrived in the Holy City. When he first came here, it was still autumn, but after a period of seclusion, winter has arrived in the human world.

Snowflakes danced and fell to the ground, turning the earth into a silvery white, but the holy city remained a pristine land. Although it was already winter, the city was lush and green, without a trace of cold, just like springtime. A warm breeze caressed the face, and the vegetation was abundant, making it impossible to feel the change of seasons.

Yaoguang Ward is very large, covering an area of ​​at least several hundred miles. It is divided into front and back sections. The back section is where the disciples live, while the front section is the market area.

Living in the holy city is no easy feat.

Every inch of land here has been divided up by various forces. Anyone who can do business in the Holy City, even if it's just a thatched hut, can easily make a fortune by selling a few source stones.

However, the Yao Guang Holy Land occupies hundreds of miles of land, which also proves the power of the Yao Guang Holy Land.

Li Yao didn't plan to go to other stone workshops. He was just practicing and seeing how good his source techniques were, so he planned to randomly pick two source stones at the Yaoguang Stone Workshop to do some experiments.

Yaoguang's jade gambling market covers a vast area, making it the largest market in the entire Yaoguang area, and is surrounded by high walls.

The gambling on jade stones is very popular in the Beidou Star Region, and Yaoguang Jade Stone Gambling Hall, as one of the largest jade stone gambling halls in the Holy City, also has a large flow of people.

When Li Yao entered the stone gambling market, there were already at least several hundred people walking around, looking at the source stones.

The jade gambling market has many courtyards, with source stones scattered all over the ground, ranging from tens of thousands of kilograms to just a few ounces, densely packed together.

The first courtyard was clearly the lowest grade, and few people lingered there. Here, you could find only the most ordinary source stones; in fact, many of them were simply hauled in to make up the numbers.

"This batch of jade from Yaoguang Stone Gambling Shop is no good; a lot of it is substandard."

"Several months ago, Jiang Yi, one of the thirteen great bandits of the Northern Region, plundered the source area of ​​the Yao Guang Holy Land. It just so happened that the source stones that the Yao Guang Holy Land was preparing to transport to the gambling stone market were stored there. Half a year's worth of storage was completely plundered. The Yao Guang gambling stone market had no new source stones to replenish, and did not want to be empty, so it could only use some inferior source stones to fill the gap."

As soon as Li Yao entered the jade gambling market, he overheard some people's discussion and was taken aback. He remembered this incident; he had been a witness to it and had a deep impression of it.

"Unexpectedly, Yaoguang Stone Gambling Shop was also affected."

Li Yao shook his head. With his current strength, a battle between powerful beings was too far beyond his reach, and paying attention to it would be useless.

He ignored their conversation and focused his attention on the source stones. He wandered around the first courtyard, patting one and tapping another, looking very serious. "As expected, they're all just for show. There's hardly anything good in this first courtyard. The best one, according to the Source Identification Chapter in the Source Technique Scripture, only has a chance of yielding a source stone."

However, Li Yao was only interested in learning something new this time, and he didn't care whether he would make a profit. So he picked out a source stone with the highest chance of yielding a source stone in the first courtyard, and then summoned a Yao Guang disciple on duty.

"How much are the Originium stones here?" he asked.

"Senior brother, the source stones here are worthless, please cut as many as you like." After the disciple came over, he bowed respectfully to Li Yao and said in a very respectful tone.

The battle that took place more than a month ago has already spread throughout Yaoguangfang, and now every disciple knows Li Yao.

When you become successful, you'll be surrounded by good people—this saying applies even in the Big Dipper constellation.

"According to the rules, how much is this source stone?"

Li Yao shook his head and declined the disciple's offer. One jin of source stone in the first courtyard could probably buy a thousand jin of stone, so there was no need to owe someone a favor for such a small amount.

Liu Shi was a little embarrassed, but he quickly said, "The source stones in the first courtyard are worth a thousand catties per catty. This source stone weighs a thousand four hundred catties. Senior brother, just give me one catty and four ounces of source stone."

Li Yao took out 1.4 jin of Yuan and handed it to the disciple. It was just the right amount, not too much and not too little. Unlike the heroes in martial arts dramas who would give more than ten taels of silver for a meal, Li Yao did not do this.

After paying the source, Li Yao took matters into his own hands and cut open the massive boulder he had his eye on. He had a good haul and got nearly ten pounds of source from it.

Liu Shi stared wide-eyed, his eyes filled with disbelief, and his heart was filled with turmoil.

"Wow, dude, you're really good at this!"

In Liu Shi's mind, Li Yao was just here to have fun. After all, a cultivator who had only embarked on the path of cultivation for half a year and had already broken through to the Divine Bridge Realm must have spent all his time on cultivation. He didn't seem like someone who knew Origin Techniques at all!

"Luck, absolutely luck. Even if there are people in this world who are good at everything, they still need time to mature."

Liu Shi thought to himself, he could not accept that his cultivation level had skyrocketed in just half a year, and that he had become powerful in combat while also possessing Origin Techniques.

"It's just a source stone, it doesn't mean anything. It's just good luck. When I'm lucky, I can also shine." He thought to himself.

Next, in order to verify his conjecture, Liu Shi followed Li Yao to the second courtyard.

Then, Li Yao bought two more source stones here, spending dozens of kilograms of source stones. While cutting the stones, Liu Shi held his breath and concentrated, afraid of missing a single detail.

The first Originium was cut open, and it turned out to be a worthless piece of stone.

"Phew." Liu Shi breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, "I knew it, it must be good luck. How could someone possibly learn a source technique while simultaneously improving their cultivation and combat power in half a year? Impossible, absolutely impossible."

"Clang!"

"Brilliant! Brilliant!"

A gasp rang out, and Liu Shi instantly lost heart. The first time was luck, but the second time was clearly not luck.

"There really are such people in this world! What others take a hundred years to do, he can do in just half a year."

(End of this chapter)