The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 20: Qilin Who Carries Everything (Part II)

Fatty complained, "Little Brother, I asked you to clean the window, not this. If I had known you were so hard-working, I would've given you the floor just now."

Poker-face shook his head, touched it, and then smelled it. I found that the water he had touched was green.

"Faded? No way." Fatty took a deep breath. "Fuck your grandmother, is the lacquer painted on it fake?"

My heart thumped. If that was true, then his mother's blood would be rotten. Judging from the waiters' cautious actions towards us at the auction earlier, this thing was definitely genuine. But accidents could still occur. If this thing was a fake, then it was a fraud on the part of the auctioneer. If he insisted that the thing at the auction was genuine and became fake in our hands, then we wouldn't be able to wash our reputations clean even by jumping in the Yellow River.

Just as I was going to take a closer look, Poker-face said no and told us not to touch it: "It's poisonous." I looked at his hands and saw that the place where he had touched the liquid had developed a large two-layer red spot that was spreading to the palm of his hand.

I was freaked out, but Fatty clapped his hands and said, "Oh, I know! I heard that Americans sometimes use a chemical substance on antiques in order to prevent theft. People will have a reaction and pass out after touching it. Why, then, was I fine just now?"

"You wrapped it in your clothes so it may have been blocked. It absorbs moisture and dissolves."

The red rash on Poker-face's hand didn't continue to spread and he didn't show any signs of fainting. In fact, he didn't seem to care very much at all. Fatty wrapped the seal in a towel and went down with him to wash it.

After they were done, the seal looked even more exquisitely carved. When we looked at it in the sufficient sunlight in the courtyard, many details that we couldn't see clearly just now immediately appeared. I found that the craftsmanship of the jade seal was so exquisite that it had to be a masterpiece. Even if it wasn't an antique, it was definitely a work of art.

I felt relieved and told myself that everything was alright.

Now that we could carefully examine the seal's knob, I found that it was in the shape of a Qilin stepping on a ghost. The Qilin was holding his head high with his chest out and stepping on a three-headed ghost, whose claws were caught in the Qilin's claws. But after taking a closer look, I found that the Qilin was also made up of a lot of little ghosts. The carving was extremely clever. The whole shape wasn't like the Qilin stepping on a ghost, but the ghost combining to form the Qilin. And these ghosts had scales on their bodies, which made them look like entwined snakes.

Ghost knob dragon fish jade seal... ghost knob was worthy of its name, but where was the dragon fish? I only saw snake-like lines, but when we looked at the imperial seal from another angle, we immediately found that the Qilin's shape had changed into the shape of countless dragon fish. It was only by looking sideways at those little ghosts that the meaning of dragon fish could finally be seen in the tangled shapes.

Amazing!

As someone who had done some research on Chinese traditional crafts, I immediately knew that this thing was extremely valuable. In the antique market, appearance, creativity, workmanship, and background were all very important. Usually, just one of the four elements was considered very good and valuable, but this thing had almost reached the limit in all aspects. In all honesty, the price offered at the auction hadn't been high, and if we hadn't made trouble, I figured the final transaction price would have been astronomical.

With that thought, I broke out in a cold sweat. If I was the seller and this thing had been stolen, I definitely wouldn't spare that person. But at the same time, I felt that we had taken such a powerful thing so easily, as if their protection measures were too trifling.