The remaining jade's value, though not immense individually, totaled over six hundred million.
He had purchased raw stones worth three hundred and fifty million. A subsequent appraisal revealed that the jade and spirit stones he had unearthed were worth significantly more than his initial rough estimate, reaching nearly forty billion.
In other words, he had already filled his storage ring with over thirty-four billion worth of items.
"Taking this over six hundred million with me would be rather inconvenient!" Yang Feilong sighed. "But my storage ring has almost no space left. I was saving that bit of room for the top-grade spirit stone worth ten billion!"
He glanced at the men's bag he held, which contained a few low-grade spirit stones as a backup. This was also to prevent anyone from suspecting he possessed a treasure as valuable as a storage ring, which would put him in even greater danger!
Yang Feilong closed his eyes. He quickly made a decision. He then walked out of the room and summoned the person in charge of the gambling stone workshop. After a brief discussion, the manager readily agreed to Yang Feilong's proposal.
Subsequently, he dispatched people into Yang Feilong's room. Their eyes widened in astonishment. To be honest, they truly did not expect Yang Feilong to finish processing the raw stones so quickly. It seemed he had been rather rough, cutting many stones directly without knowing if there was any jade or other treasures within the discarded portions!
However, they were unaware that although the cut-off raw stones contained jade and other valuable items, their combined worth was only a few million. Yang Feilong found them insignificant!
Yes, it was a waste of time.
He was making billions per hour; how could he afford to waste several hours for a few million?
After chatting with Yang Feilong for a while longer, the manager walked to the podium, picked up a microphone, and said,
"Everyone!" his voice echoed. "I have an announcement to make. Mr. Yang previously spent three hundred and fifty million to purchase over three hundred raw stones. He has now spent two to three hours processing all of them."
This statement caused an uproar.
"How did this guy process the stones? Three hundred and some stones in two to three hours?"
"He probably didn't process them very carefully!"
"If that's the case, how much money did he lose? The gambling stone workshop offers free processing. While doing it himself is faster, if he accidentally cuts into a jade with a single stroke, its value will be greatly diminished!"
"Is this guy a fool?"
"It's that young man, the one who spent three hundred and fifty million in an hour!"
"It's him! Then it's no surprise. When he was selecting stones earlier, he was so fast, it was like just a cursory glance as he picked over three hundred and fifty raw stones. Now he's finished processing them in such a short time. I truly don't know how he did it. Even if he's a cultivator and faster than ordinary people at processing stones, he shouldn't be this fast!"
"..."
Countless people murmured amongst themselves.
James Bond, the leader of the Black River Group's delegation, frowned upon hearing this. "Is this guy giving up on himself?"
In his mind, Yang Feilong's 'treasures' were all meant to be his!
Therefore, he was deeply displeased!
Just then, the manager of the gambling stone workshop spoke again with a smile, "I have already had my people count them. The jade and other treasures unearthed by Mr. Yang are valued at approximately six hundred million in their country's currency!"
This declaration immediately caused another stir.
"What? Six hundred million? He only invested three to four hundred million! And he made over two hundred million profit in one morning?"
"The speed at which he's making money is too fast!"
"This guy can only be described as incredibly lucky. He picked raw stones as if he were picking up scraps, yet he profited so much. Three to four hundred million, with a net profit of over two hundred million – this rate of return is too high!"
Even the people from the Black River Group were stunned. Even they could not guarantee such a high return; in fact, they might even incur losses. This was a common occurrence. Gambling on stones was unlike anything else; with good luck, you might see a massive profit, but with bad luck, you could lose everything.
"He made a profit?" James Bond's brow unfurrowed, but then he became confused again. "What is this guy trying to do?"
At this moment, not only James Bond, but many others were perplexed. If he made a profit, he made a profit; why did he insist on having the manager of the gambling stone workshop announce it?
Could it be...
Vaguely, someone seemed to have an idea.
"That's right, perhaps many have guessed. Mr. Yang intends to sell this batch of jade through auction at its lowest raw material price!" the manager of the gambling stone workshop said with a smile. "He also plans to sell off the waste materials as a lot. Whoever offers the highest price will get them!"
As soon as this was announced, many eyes lit up.
Auction at the lowest price?
Of course, even at the lowest price, if multiple people were interested, the price would still be quite high.
Not everyone who came here was solely focused on gambling for stones; some were here to purchase low-priced jade.
For example, a piece of ice-grade jade with an attractive shape might cost a million in the domestic raw jade market. Here, it might only cost eight hundred thousand. Wasn't this difference in price a saving?
Although there might be some additional costs like transportation, it wouldn't exceed nine hundred thousand!
In fact, if he took it back to the country, he could earn even more. But Yang Feilong couldn't handle so much!
His storage ring was already full. If he hadn't offended anyone, he might have handled it slowly. But now, it was better to earn less.
Why was the auction house willing to do this? Because there were several benefits: firstly, Yang Feilong's substantial profit from simply selecting stones would boost purchasing enthusiasm; secondly, they would charge a 2.5% commission for auctioning on Yang Feilong's behalf.
For instance, if the final sale price was six hundred million, they would pocket over twelve million.
Thirdly, it served as a warm-up for the secondary raw stone king and raw stone king auctions scheduled for the afternoon and evening!
It was a win-win situation; why wouldn't they do it?
Just then, Luo Feixue and Li Yufei arrived beside Yang Feilong. Li Yufei strongly approved of Yang Feilong's decision. Given the crisis that had arisen, selling off the stones was a perfectly normal choice.
However, she was somewhat surprised that the net profit this time seemed a bit low!
Based on her understanding of Yang Feilong, he should have made at least a billion or two.
But she didn't ask; they could discuss it later. Besides, at this moment, she only hoped to return to the country safely.
Luo Feixue appraised Yang Feilong from head to toe, also very surprised. She had done some research on gambling stones. She was already astounded by Yang Feilong's method of selecting raw stones, believing there was a high probability of failure. Professional appraisers would assess repeatedly, whereas Yang Feilong's quick, superficial selection was almost disrespectful to the 'gambling stone' culture.
But the result was a massive profit!
He had nearly doubled his investment.
This could truly be called a huge profit!
Subsequently, the over one hundred types of jade that Yang Feilong had unearthed were brought to the auction stage. Seeing the varied jade, countless people couldn't help but marvel.
"I have to say, this guy's luck is truly incredible! He managed to uncover so much high-quality jade!"
"Yes, especially that glutinous rice jade, it's so large! Worth tens of millions, even hundreds of millions!"
"Tsk tsk, I never would have imagined!"
"This guy has made a fortune!"
Countless people murmured.
Amidst the discussion, the relatively simple auction began. Each item was valued at its minimum price. None failed to sell, but there was less competition, which was normal. If the price was too high, it wouldn't be worthwhile. However, for rarer types of jade, the competition became more intense.
This was because such jade might not be available domestically, and items that cannot be bought would naturally command higher prices.
Thus, over a hundred pieces of jade, and even his remaining raw stone materials, were sold. The raw stone materials fetched over five million. While not a lot, it wasn't a loss and was much more cost-effective than carefully processing them himself!
The selling price was close to Yang Feilong's earlier estimation, totaling over six hundred and thirty-five million. After paying over thirteen million in commission, over six hundred and twenty million remained.
"In one morning, he made over two hundred and seventy million! He really knows how to make money!" Luo Feixue looked at Yang Feilong with complex emotions.
It seemed too easy for him to make money.
Li Yufei was also very happy.
Investing three hundred and fifty million and earning over two hundred and seventy million. Although the return rate wasn't as high as last time, he spent more money this time, and the overall profit was comparable.
In fact, last time he earned significantly more, mainly because of subsequent processing, which took months, incurring considerable time costs. It was normal to earn more under those circumstances.
Unfortunately, they couldn't transport this batch of jade back to sell. Otherwise, this jade would ultimately be worth over fifteen billion; she was confident of that.
She was unaware that Yang Feilong still possessed a batch of even more valuable jade and spirit stones, lying dormant in his storage ring.
The space within the storage ring was relatively static, so there was no worry of damage from collisions.
"Are you buying more?" Luo Feixue asked Yang Feilong.
"No more! I'll just bid on two or three raw stones this afternoon, that will be enough!" Yang Feilong shook his head. Although the amount in his bank card had surged to over seven hundred and seventy million, and he could still make a significant profit by looking for bargains, one shouldn't be too greedy.
Leave some soup for others to drink.
As a result of Yang Feilong's casual selection leading to a significant profit, the number of raw stones purchased greatly increased. The manager of the gambling stone workshop smiled broadly at this sight.
Indeed, agreeing to auction Yang Feilong's jade earlier had been the right decision!
The gambling stone workshop was also making a fortune!
Of course, this was assuming they didn't know about the top-grade spirit stone worth a fortune hidden within the raw stones to be auctioned that afternoon.