The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1573

Hao Xuan waved his hand, "I got inducted just a few weeks ago and then had to leave the sanctum before I could earn anything. But I did get a few gifts from my seniors to help me get started."

As expected the mention of gifts garnered the Longtrouble's complete attention.

"Ohh, you don't say," he grinned while inching closer, "What kind of gifts? Hmm?"

He grabbed onto Hao Xuan's leg and began climbing while his eyes shined with greed, "A super rare weapon perhaps? Or an armor to protect yourself? Or maybe even a-"

"Books. I got some books."

Longtrouble jumped down and began walking away with slumped shoulders, unable to even look at him.

"Good luck. I hope you do well my boy," his bleak voice came over a second later forcing Hao Xuan to expose some of his cards.

"Wa-wait, I can earn gold easily!" he told the goblin with no small amount of hesitation.

Longtrouble paused to glance over his shoulder, "How...?"

"I have a gift, a blessing from the Father himself! I can perceive the true value of anything I touch."

"The true...value?!" Longtrouble repeated in a daze before screaming, "Lies! A blessing like that would be-"

"Expensive, VERY expensive. I still paid nearly all the favour I had earned but the Father took pity on me. Trust me, it works. I can show you and in exchange, you lend me your services. Do we have a deal?"

Longtrouble thought about it for a moment before shaking his hand, "Deal but I need to be able to earn at least a hundred gold!"

"Sure, take me to a shop," Hao Xuan promptly agreed.

Longtrouble looked at the dozens of shops in front of them and chose the closest one that dealt in items of unknown value.

It was the third one on the right. Red paper lanterns hung from the awning with some words inscribed on them.

Longtrouble knocked twice on the door before sliding it open to yell, "Poli! Are you in??"

A raspy old voice answered, "Is that Tamari? Come in come in!" and several small lights came on.

Longtrouble gestured for him to follow before going inside.

The first thing Hao Xuan noticed was the overbearing stench of mungbeans which was not too dissimilar from what you would expect death to smell like.

"Take a look...I just got some new stock this morning," the voice said from the backroom, "Don't go overboard...like the last time...!"

It sounded like the speaker was quite an old woman who cared enough about the goblin to remind him not to spend too much.

"I won't!" he yelled back while pointing Hao Xuan to a large basket full of crystals and rocks.

Looking around Hao Xuan could see tens of similar baskets but not only were the rocks inside them divided according to their sizes, colors, and shapes but also by price.

The cheapest one started at 1 gold and the highest one went up to 1000.

Meanwhile, the basket in front of them had all kinds of rocks and crystals mixed together and each one only cost five gold.

'I guess these haven't been itemized yet. Could be duds or something valuable,' Hao Xuan thought, 'But what exactly is inside them?'

Longtrouble took out a gold coin from inside his suit and kissed it before slamming it on the counter behind, "We'll take two."

"Good...luck!" the old woman responded.

He walked up beside Hao Xuan while rubbing his hands, "Alright, show me the magic!"

Hao Xuan randomly picked up a rock from the top of the pile and focused his senses while using 'Midas Touch'. (CH 1466)

The rock suddenly began to feel heavier and heavier but that was it. For a second he felt like he was holding a small hill or something which left him confused.

"What's supposed to be inside these things?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Anything, everything, or nothing at all," Longtrouble nonchalantly answered, "Sometimes tears in space open up in the outside world and they swallow whatever is nearby. All those swallowed things get surrounded by the debris in the space pocket that conceal the real size and appearance of these objects. Then, once they have gone all over the realms they end up within the abyss if they are still in one piece where some people excavate them to be sold."

'Wow, that was a surprisingly clear explanation. So this thing came from somewhere outside the abyss?' Hao Xuan thought inwardly while brushing his fingers over the surface of the fist-sized rock, 'It really could be anything of any size then since the spatial energy is sealing it off quite well.'

"What do you think? Is this a winner?" Longtrouble asked since Hao Xuan 'appeared' quite interested in the one in his hand.

"Hmm? This? Probably not. It just feels heavy, like it weighs a lot."

He took the rock from Hao Xuan to inspect it in detail, "Heavy? This little thing? There is no way."

"If you want to open it then go ahead but it's probably not valuable so don't blame me," Hao Xuan warned.