Chapter 17: Choosing Jade

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In Hua Yuan Nation, martial arts competitions are held annually and are divided into two parts.

One is the competition for fifteen-year-olds that Shi Hao participated in last year, which strictly limits the age of participants.

Since most people start their martial arts training at fourteen years old, and the earliest at thirteen, training can't start too early, as high-intensity training can severely affect a youth's development, being more harmful than beneficial.

Therefore, fifteen is the age when most people have their first year of martial arts training. It's a time when prodigies are bound to stand out, yet they haven't fully formed, leaving significant room for cultivation. That's why the Imperial Capital Academy selects one person each year for focused training.

As for the other competition, it has no age limit. As long as one is a student of the academy, they are eligible to compete, and the champion can also join the Imperial Capital Academy.

Of course, the maximum age to remain in the academy is twenty years old, so in reality, there are age restrictions; they are just more lenient.

Shi Hao could enter the second type of martial arts competition, and the first thing he needed to do was to earn the right to represent Starwind Academy.

The selection trials will take place in a month. Two representatives will be chosen and then proceed to the County Town to participate in the second round of selection. Only by standing out in this round will they qualify to go to the Imperial Capital for the finals.

There was no rush for this; he would just participate in the selection battle when the time came.

Shi Hao now possessed a vast skillset that was astonishing, with medical skills, alchemy techniques, talisman techniques, artifact forging, and Array Path—diverse and plentiful. He only needed to access the corresponding memories to have complete command of these skills.

However, as far as Shi Hao knew, Hua Yuan Nation only had medical skills, alchemy techniques, and artifact forging. Here, alchemy was simply about mixing medicines, such as Dragon Tiger Balm. From Shi Hao's perspective, it was still at a primitive stage of ignorance.

Artifact forging was the same, even with powerful weapons like the Cloud-Piercing Crossbow, Moon-Slaying Bow, and Purple Crystal Cannon. But even with the mightiest of them all, the Purple Crystal Cannon, a single shot could at most leave a large hole in a city wall.

But in Shi Hao's memories, a powerful magic artifact could destroy mountains in one blow or evaporate oceans, with a horror that's indescribable.

And this, Shi Hao could forge.

Of course, this required the appropriate materials, and besides, Shi Hao's current strength was too weak, hardly strong enough to even swing a hammer.

Array Path interested Shi Hao the most.

Array Path, with the power of mountains and earth, could trap and kill people, even annihilating thousands of troops in an ambush.

However, to construct such a deadly formation would require an abundance of materials, which Shi Hao was currently unable to procure, and it also lacked significance.

What he wanted to set up was a formation called the "Triple Star Spirit Gathering Array."

Once this formation was established, it could forcibly gather the surrounding energy of heaven and earth. Thus, cultivating in such an environment naturally yielded twice the result with half the effort.

To set up this formation, many pieces of jade were needed. Jade served as a medium to communicate with the natural world, and the higher the quality of the jade, the more powerful the formed array would be.

For instance, with the Triple Star Spirit Gathering Array constructed with ordinary jade, it could forcibly extract the energy of heaven and earth within a ten-zhang radius. But if higher-grade jade were used, this range could expand to twenty or thirty zhang—a significant difference indeed.

The next morning, Shi Hao went to the Jade Stone Shop, planning to select some quality jade to establish the Triple Star Spirit Gathering Array. Doing so would mean he wouldn't have to go to Dayun Mountain anymore.

He still had one thousand taels of silver on him. He couldn't count on Lin Yuyue for the moment, but if he truly needed money, Hailing Martial Hall could provide substantial support. After all, it was the local powerhouse in Mengyang City, and over the years, it had surely accumulated a considerable wealth.

"Young master, are you here to buy jade artifacts or gold and silver jewelry?" As soon as he entered the shop, a red-dressed young girl greeted him, asking in a sweet voice, with stars in her eyes.

Shi Hao was already accustomed to such reactions; he was, indeed, quite handsome.

He smiled, almost causing the red-dressed young lady to faint with excitement, "I'm looking to buy some unprocessed Jade Raw Stones."

The young girl found this peculiar since hardly anyone bought raw stones. She surmised with self-assumed cleverness, "So the young master is also a Jade Carving Master!"

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Shi Hao merely smiled, and did not deny it; it wasn't important.

This almost made the red-clothed young girl explode in place, losing herself. After being stunned for a moment, she then said, "Young Master, please wait a moment, I will immediately get the raw stones."

As she went to fetch the raw stones, the other female attendants gathered around, since there was no business anyway, and such a good-looking man was truly rare.

It wasn't long before that red-clothed young girl brought over many pieces of jade, all unprocessed raw stones.

The red-clothed young girl was still introducing them, "This is cotton jade, that is purple jade, and that over there is exquisite jade."

Shi Hao picked up each one to observe, but was not satisfied with any.

Setting aside their appearances, the jade used to construct formation arrays had to be pure, The purer it was, the easier it would be to communicate with the energy of heaven and earth, and the better the constructed formation would consequently be.

"I want the kind of jade that looks transparent, the best would be without a single impurity," he said.

This left the several female attendants astonished. What kind of selection method was this? It was completely different from the aesthetic preferences of the general populace.

"Then I will go look again," said the red-clothed young girl.

She was just about to leave when a wave of fragrant breeze assaulted her nose, and then she saw a fully ripe beauty walking over, swaying a waist as sinuous as a snake, incredibly seductive in every move, making even this young girl blush with embarrassment.

"Sister Yu!" She hurriedly greeted; this was the owner of the Jade Stone Shop.

The other female attendants also hurriedly greeted the beautiful woman before returning to their positions, to avoid a severe scolding.

Shi Hao also glanced over. The beautiful woman appeared to be around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, her skin as white as jade, her almond-shaped eyes like water, her cherry lips on fire, her unruly black hair hanging down her back, with the tips just reaching her slender waist, accentuating it perfectly.

With her figure, provocative front and back, she was explosively hot.

"I was wondering what the commotion was about, turns out it's a handsome young man," said the beauty with a smile, her seductive eyes electrifying, leaving one weak in the knees.

The several female attendants all secretly stuck out their tongues; if their boss took a liking to such a handsome young man, he was sure to be devoured to the bone!

"Sister Yu, this young master wants to buy pure, transparent raw stones," the red-clothed young girl quickly stated, proving that she was indeed working seriously.

"Oh?" The beauty showed a hint of surprise, glanced at Shi Hao, then said, "Go to storage room number three, and bring the raw stones from there."

Upon finishing, she handed the red-clothed young girl a key.

"Yes." The girl took the key and hurried out.

"Young man, may I know what you need these raw stones for?" the beauty inquired, her face alight with seductive curiosity.

Ordinary men, upon seeing this, would surely be unable to resist the temptation and spill everything.

Shi Hao, however, said, "To practice my craft."

The beauty giggled coquettishly, her body trembling like blossoming flowers, a truly lethal allure. Her heaving chest surged tumultuously, enough to make a man of weaker will pounce on her in an instant, and even those with firmer resolve were now unable to avert their gaze.

Shi Hao, however, remained steadfast, as if he saw nothing at all.

The beauty was taken aback, her smile fading, and said, "If it's just for practicing your craft, why do you care whether the jade is pure or not?"

Shi Hao smiled, "OCD."