Chapter 3613 — An Absurd Reason

Meng Jueming was convinced that his goal was as good as achieved—until Wei Zhao's next words nearly made him cough up a mouthful of blood: "No trade."

"Good heavens! Still no? Are you out of your mind?" Before Meng Jueming could even speak, Meng Zhou had already leapt to his feet. Sixteen spirit jades for one small spirit jade, and the man was still hemming and hawing—this Wei Zhao was plainly deranged!

"Shut your mouth!" Meng Jueming shot him a savage glare, then turned back to Wei Zhao. "Why refuse? Surely you do not still distrust me, Junior Brother Wei Zhao?"

Wei Zhao regarded him with an amused, probing look and said mildly, "Sixteen spirit jades for one small spirit jade of mine—even a fool could see there is something fishy in that. So why should I trade? Perhaps this little jade of mine is rather special, and worth far more than sixteen."

"Ho! I do you a kindness and offer you a profit, and instead of appreciating it, you fancy yourself a rare commodity, do you?" The penny dropped, and Meng Jueming burst into laughter, sneering with contempt, "Stop dreaming, boy. That little spirit jade of yours is small, and that is the whole of it—there is nothing special about it whatsoever. Were it not for my looking after you, it would be worth half a spirit jade at most. More than sixteen? You are chasing a fool's dream!"

"If there is nothing special about it, then why trade so many spirit jades for it? Or are all these jades of yours worthless waste jade?" Wei Zhao countered. In truth, in the days since the small jade came into his hands, he had found nothing to distinguish it from any other spirit jade besides its size—but that there was no trick in this at all, Wei Zhao refused to believe.

"Eat what you like, but watch what you say!" Meng Jueming's expression shifted at once, and he declared righteously, "Cloud Terrace Island strictly forbids the trading of waste jade on the market. Besides, you have mined for two days now, Junior Brother Wei Zhao—you must know how things stand in the Spirit Jade Hall. Waste jade is always piled up in the veins to go on absorbing the qi of heaven and earth; not a single piece is permitted out. How could I possibly have so much waste jade in my possession?"

Wei Zhao gave him a noncommittal look. What Meng Jueming said was not false, but neither was it the whole truth—it was good at most for fooling newcomers fresh off the boat. Cloud Terrace Island did indeed forbid trading in waste jade, but this was like counterfeit money in the mortal world: it could be banned in the open, yet private dealings could never be stamped out entirely.

For cultivators, of course, telling good jade from waste was a simple matter, so the odds of passing off waste jade as good were not high. Under normal circumstances, people drained the spiritual qi from a spirit jade clean rather than deliberately wasting it and leaving waste jade behind. Thus for the vast majority, having a piece or two of spent waste jade on hand was quite normal. But to accumulate as many as sixteen—that was rarely seen!

Still, what was unlikely for others was not necessarily impossible for Meng Jueming, who had schemed so hard to trap Wei Zhao. And with his wide connections in the Spirit Jade Hall, getting his hands on a few pieces of waste jade would be no difficult feat!

Fearing Wei Zhao would press further and expose a flaw, Meng Jueming hurried to dispel his doubts. "Enough—lest you keep seeing ghosts everywhere, I may as well tell you the truth. The reason I would pay such a price for your small spirit jade, apart from getting you to agree to the swap of mining zones, is chiefly that I am acting on another's behalf. Someone wants this jade of yours for a jade carving."

"A jade carving?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. Such things were common enough in the mortal world; but spirit jade, though fine in texture, was filled with the qi of heaven and earth and was exceedingly hard. Carving it should be no easy task.

"Just so. You know yourself that spirit jade brimming with qi is hard, and very difficult to cut. Yet draining the qi from it degrades the quality of the jade. So if one would carve spirit jade, one must use raw spirit jade of a similar size. In the jade mines these spirit jades are distributed along veins, and each piece you dig out is broken off along its original vein—you cannot smash out whatever size you please. Hence small pieces suit carving, while a large piece, even for a master at the peak of late Foundation Establishment, would be hard pressed to cut cleanly!"

Meng Jueming glanced at Wei Zhao and went on, "Before long comes the birthday of the Pavilion Master of Soaring Heaven Pavilion's only granddaughter. Zhao Yu, the legitimate grandson of Elder Zhao of our own Azure Cloud Pavilion, wants a jade rabbit carving made to wear close to the body as a birthday gift, and so he has been scouring everywhere for spirit jade the size of a hen's egg. Now he has come to me, and it occurred to me that you happen to have just such a small spirit jade in hand—hence my wish to trade with you. Now you know the whole of it."

Wei Zhao nodded slightly. The explanation did not sound like empty talk; after all, apart from being small enough, his little jade had nothing special about it, and beyond making a carving it truly had no great use.

But looked at another way—Qiao Hongcai's and Xiao Che's jades were none too large either. Would it not be easier to threaten those two? Why come to him, this thorn in the side? So Wei Zhao still did not believe him.

Seeing this, Meng Jueming pressed his advantage. "A small spirit jade like this is really of no use in the hand, and though this size is uncommon, a bit of asking around would turn one up sooner or later. That I would pay such a price to buy yours—this is nothing but me looking after you! As I said, this chance will not come twice; if you will not have it, I shall turn and find someone else, and not another word!"

Wei Zhao pondered a moment, then said, "If you want this small spirit jade of mine, fine—I want thirty."

At the first half of this Meng Jueming felt some delight; at the second half, only shock and fury remained. Beside him Meng Zhou could not help stamping his feet. "Good heavens! You scoundrel, you are jacking up the price on the spot!"

Meng Jueming hesitated a moment, then said, "Seventeen, and not a piece more! Think carefully, Wei Zhao—you are not the only one with a small spirit jade in hand. Do not push your luck!"

"Twenty-eight," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"Eighteen!" At any other time Meng Jueming would have turned on him to his face, or at the very least stormed off in a huff; but now, with his plan so close to fruition, he could not bear to see it all go to waste, and could only grit his teeth and raise his bid.

"Twenty-six," Wei Zhao went on, expression unchanged—and by the look of him, he seemed quite in the mood to drag this out.

Meng Jueming ground his teeth and drew four spirit jades from his broad sleeve… RP