Chapter 11: Gambling Stone Street

"This..." Luo Bi’s luck was indeed good, but gambling on stones first required a large amount of capital. Given their family's current situation, they couldn't afford to take such risks.

Guan Zhuting hesitated for a moment but still agreed to go to the stone-gambling street with Luo Bi; she knew she couldn't stop Luo Bi once she had made up her mind.

They didn't have a hovercar at home, but Luo Bi did have a small runabout for getting around. She drove in the front, while Guan Zhuting squeezed into the cramped space in the back, and that was how the two of them headed to the stone-gambling street.

In the future interstellar era, there were many people active on the stone-gambling street trying their luck. There were ordinary people dreaming of getting rich, scions of noble families looking for amusement, professional stone gamblers, as well as merchants purchasing raw materials and heads of various family factions.

Across the entire galaxy, the stone-gambling street, much like the spirit plant street, enjoyed booming business.

Luo Bi rarely came to the stone-gambling street. She walked along, looking around. The noise from the stone-cutting area was constant, one wave rising higher than the last; someone must have unearthed a high-quality jadeite. Luo Bi only glanced at it twice before calling Guan Zhuting to go into a shop to select stones.

Luo Bi didn't pay attention to the high-priced raw materials. After a quick sweep, she went straight to check the cheap, low-quality ones.

The shop assistant, who had initially greeted them with a smile, showed disdain in his eyes upon seeing this.

"The success rate of these low-quality raw materials is extremely low, and even if you do find jade, the energy contained within is minimal," Guan Zhuting couldn't help but remind her.

Luo Bi didn't speak. She looked at the ones that appeared decent and placed her hand on them, concentrating her mental power to secretly probe. The pile of raw materials was quite large, and there were certainly jadeites inside, but the energy they contained was thin. Luo Bi ignored those with sparse energy and picked and chose, looking for high-quality jadeite raw materials, but after probing a few, she didn't find anything she was satisfied with.

Luo Bi sighed and turned to leave.

Her plan was simple: spend the least amount of interstellar coins to gamble for high-quality jadeite. However, low-quality raw materials already had a low success rate for jade, and the chance of finding high-quality jade was even more minuscule. There were hundreds of shops on the stone-gambling street; it was impossible for Luo Bi to probe every single one, and her mental power couldn't afford the drain. She would just enter the shops that caught her eye and probe them.

After a dozen shops, Luo Bi’s head began to ache from the mental exhaustion. Just then, a wave of chaotic noise erupted from the stone-cutting area, and people, driven by curiosity, rushed in that direction to watch the commotion.

"Someone unearthed something good!" a person shouted as they ran past.

Guan Zhuting stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck to look: "Let's go over and see too."

"No." Seeing someone else unearth something good wouldn't make it hers, so why bother watching? Luo Bi frowned, pressed a hand to her forehead, stared blankly at a shop in front of her for a moment, and then walked toward it.

"Come inside and take a look!" The shop manager was standing at the entrance watching the stone-cutting area, and seeing customers arrive, he invited them into the shop.

Luo Bi wandered briefly through the high-priced raw material section before strolling straight to the cheapest, low-quality section.

The manager didn't show any disrespect because of this, following behind Luo Bi and saying, "These raw materials are relatively cheap."

Luo Bi randomly selected a few raw materials, placed her hand on them, and released her mental power, but she felt nothing. She let out a frustrated breath and touched them one by one. Suddenly, when she touched a piece of black stone raw material, she felt a scorching wave of energy. Upon closer inspection, she actually saw a crimson halo.

The energy was immense and crimson—could it be a red jadeite?

Luo Bi’s heart began to race. After a brief moment of shock, she picked up the black stone raw material and fully released her mental power to probe deep inside.