Chapter 611 - Top-Notch Treasures
The golden kitten stopped in front of a piece of fist-sized raw jade ore and glanced at Xiaocao. When it saw that she bent over to pick up the material, it continued to walk forward. It didn't take Xiaocao much effort before she picked four to five pieces. There were some large ones, small ones, exquisite-looking ones, and even some crude-looking ones.
The raw jade ores selected by Yu Xiaocao were all in Zhu Junyang's hands. He was reluctant to make his little lass do all the work, so whenever she picked up one from the ground, he would take it from her and carry it. Both of his hands were now full of ores, luckily, none of the rocks selected by the little divine stone were overly large, so he could still handle the ones he was currently holding.
In the end, the golden kitten stopped in front of an ore that was covered in tiny little dots, similar to the tiny pores on a human's face. The kitten's golden dark eyes flashed with joy when it sensed the rich aura inside the rock. The aura the rock was exuding was some comfortable and warm that all it wanted to do was lay on top of the ore.
Shopkeeper Zhang saw that Miss Yu's gaze had landed on top of the raw jade ore that was as large as a millstone and hurriedly gone over to explain "Don't judge it by its appearance. Although the surface of this rock is bumpy and full of holes, this type of ore falls under the 'sandy, rough, and bumpy' category of jade. The rough exterior of this raw jade ore is classified as one of the 'finer jades', and it has a relatively high chance to develop into a quality jade. If you like this one, then I'll have someone get it out for you."
"This piece is rather large, so moving it out will be too troublesome. Why don't we break into it right here?" Yu Xiaocao marked a few lines on the stone under the little divine stone's guidance and then nodded her head at an experienced master to break it out.
After thirty minutes had passed, the stone cracked open and a piece of smooth, exquisite, and mutton fat white jade was exposed. This piece of mutton fat jade was white and flawless in appearance; it was as moist as milk. It was even slightly warm to the touch.
The experienced master who was brought over to extract the jade held the mutton fat jade that was bigger than the size of a regular basketball. His eyes shone as he exclaimed in admiration, "I have worked in this field for decades and I have never seen such high equality mutton fat jade before!"
It was well known that jades were expensive and can support people financially, this was especially true for quality-jades, which can fetch a higher price than regular jades. Quality jade was hard to come by, but there was no doubt that the jade in the experienced extraction master's hand was a top-notch jade. Based on its color, texture, and appearance, it was impeccably perfect.
Even a small jade pendant or jade tassel made from this variety of mutton fat jade would cost a fortune. This jade exceeded the quality needed to make a jade bracelet. It was not an exaggeration to say that this jade was priceless. If any of the family had a jade bracelet made from this jade piece, then it could even be regarded as a family heirloom and pass it down through the generations!
It would be more than enough to carve ten jade bracelets from this large mutton fat jade and still have some remaining jade leftover. The remaining material from this piece of jade could be sculpted into small flower decorations. This piece of jade was worth enough to produce the amount Wisdom Jade Pavilion could earn in three years! If they carved this large piece of jade into a larger object instead of bracelets, then it would definitely become one of the great treasures of the capital. There were only a few people who could afford such a jade sculpture in this world!
The final product of the jade was based on the 'material', 'craftsmanship', and 'meaning' behind the jade. The price could increase by ten times when the material was made from the finest jade material and it could increase by ten times again if the craftsmanship was done by a first-class craftsman. The quality of this jade was definitely the best among the best. There were many excellent jade craftsman masters in Wisdom Jade Pavilion. There were only a few craftsmen in the entire Great Ming Dynasty who had surpassed the mastery of the craftsmen in Wisdom Jade Pavilion. Those craftsmen rarely took the initiative to openly carve for others. As for the 'meaning' behind the jade, as long as Master Wu from the Wisdom Jade Pavilion sculpted the jade, then there would be no problem.
