Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness - Chapter 558

Chapter 558: Chapter 555: Found a Treasure

Bi Fang stood in the sunlight and blurted out after a long time, “Jadeite!”

Jadeite?

What jadeite, where’s the jadeite?

As Bi Fang pointed toward the edge of the forest, millions of viewers’ gazes also shifted in that direction.

Kogawa Kobayashi and Shizuka Minamoto both widened their eyes, too shocked to speak.

The drone had flown earlier, through the sparse trees, until it arrived at a steep slope and looked down from top to bottom.

Atop a hill a few hundred meters high, a huge brown landslide, like a scab being peeled away, revealed grayish-white limestone, damp earth, fallen trees, and in the middle, an enormously large stone with a green fracture face.

Between the brown and gray, this touch of green was quite eye-catching. It was dotted as if it were a dormant Mangshan pit viper that, due to rainfall, had some of its soil washed away, exposing parts of its body to the air.

If this were a snake, it would definitely qualify to appear in Ugly Country’s sci-fi flicks like “Python vs Crocodile” or “Python vs Spider.” Not only the Huaxia audience, but also the Japanese netizens were boiling over.

Jadeite, that’s their “national stone” in Japan!

Not just in Huaxia, Japan is also extremely enthusiastic about jade. In 2016, they even designated jadeite as their national “national stone,” which speaks volumes.

Seeing Bi Fang uncovering jadeite out in the open now was enough to make anyone green with envy.

This is like walking down the street and suddenly finding a lottery ticket worth a billion!

What is this?

This is what?

I’m envious.

I’m jealous.

My heart is tired.

No matter how much the viewers howled inside, they had to offer up their congratulations with their barrage of comments, secretly indicating their envy.

[Jadeite, it’s really jadeite, I’m not mistaken!]

[Such a huge piece, it’s massive!]

[Damn, hitting the jackpot here!]

“Is it really jadeite? Could there be a mistake?” the female commentator still couldn’t believe it, “How much would such a big piece cost?”

Kogawa Kobayashi made an estimate, “About a cubic meter, judging by the cross-section?”

“It’s amazing, this earthquake actually shook a piece of jadeite out of the ground. Is there a jadeite mine here?”

If it truly was jadeite, and so immense at that, there couldn’t just be this one piece, right?

Thinking this, the audience became even more excited.

A mine, how much would that cost?

Most of the audience were ordinary people; they might not understand the exact value of a mine, but they clearly knew it would be an astronomical figure.

After all, anything that can be associated with a “mountain” is never simple.

[Boss Fang is rich again, hey, why do I say ‘again’?]

[Fast forward to leasing the whole hill and starting mining]

Bi Fang was also a bit nervous, the feeling of discovering unanticipated wealth was too abrupt, so sudden that it could make one’s heart skip a beat.

“Don’t worry, let’s go down there and take a look, I just feel like it’s jadeite, it might not be real, maybe I’m mistaken, it might just be a piece of serpentine, they’re both green.”

Jadeite is formed under geological processes and reaches the quality of jade as a crystalline aggregate, while serpentine is mostly the product of alteration of pyroxene and amphibole crystals.

The only difference is that the former is a gem—jade and the latter is simply igneous rock, that is, magmatic rock, a worthless thing.

The two can easily be discerned at a glance, and Bi Fang’s eyesight isn’t that bad.

“Saying this, the greater intention was still to calm down the excited emotions, whether it was my own or the audience’s, we were all somewhat excited.”

After taking a few breaths, Bi Fang, who had regained his composure, came to the slope and looked down.

Fortunately, the forest lay below the slope, not some residential town, so no casualties had occurred.

Without any trees here, Bi Fang tied the rope around a large tree nearby that showed no risk of sliding and then proceeded down the slope, stepping on the boulders and moving towards the center of the landslide scar.

[Old Fang, are you sure this is jadeite?]

[Why do I feel like it looks like green marble (amused icon)]

[It doesn’t look quite the same as the ones I’ve seen before.]

[What is jadeite?]

[A kind of stone.]

Asian viewers were very familiar with the term jadeite, but foreign ones not so much, and some had never even heard of it.

“It’s a very beautiful kind of stone, similar to diamonds, but personally, I think jade is much more valuable than diamonds,” Bi Fang couldn’t help but say.

Simply put, gemstones are beautiful and rare stones that are loved for their beauty and valued for their scarcity.

Jadeite is even more so, as jade itself is very rare, let alone the king of jade—jadeite.

This is even more the case with the cultural enhancement of Huaxia over thousands of years.

As for diamonds, in Bi Fang’s eyes, they really aren’t worth much.

If you’ve seen Little Leo’s movie “Blood Diamond,” you’d understand that this stuff is mined in such large quantities it’s staggering, Africa is replete with veins of it, and it can form under high temperature and pressure; “scarcity” is entirely due to monopolization.

Before artificial synthesis was possible, they hyped up its perpetuity; once artificial synthesis was achieved, they praised the natural, the cutting techniques, the certifications. Bi Fang once saved a chieftain who gave him a small bag of them, along with a thick stack of certificates.

Now, the technology of the Hua Science Academy has made another breakthrough; they can even grow diamonds, truly natural ones. It remains to be seen how diamond merchants will spin that.

Jadeite, however, is different. The conditions required for its formation begin with regional metamorphism, where native sodium feldspar loses silica to form jadeite rock, followed by plate collision, creating conditions of low temperature and ultra-high pressure.

Low temperature and ultra-high pressure—if you hear this, you know how preposterous it is, as it is a contradiction in terms.

In physics, the deeper into the mantle, the greater the pressure and the higher the temperature will be.

But jadeite requires low temperature and high pressure, and it also needs sustained ultra-high pressures. Low temperatures indicate shallow earth, while high pressures suggest deep layers. So, theoretically, such conditions do not exist.

Many viewers were hearing this explanation for the first time.

[Wow, how does this stuff even form then?]

“This has to do with the plate tectonic theory in geology. The mine site is located near the intersection of the Eurasian Plate and the Indian Ocean Plate, and millions of years ago, the collision between the Indian Ocean Plate and the Eurasian Plate provided the low temperature and ultra-high pressure conditions necessary for the formation of jadeite.”

“The northern part of the surface site, particularly the Meng Gong area in Mizhina, has been ‘favored by the heavens.’ Its location just happens to meet the geological environment requirements for jadeite ore formation. Such demanding conditions are one in a million, and this place is almost the only source for gemstone-grade jadeite.”

It can be said that the entire world’s gem-grade jadeite is only found in a strip about 200 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, and even on that strip, most of the jadeite mined is of extremely poor quality, with only a few pieces qualifying as gemstones.

As for synthetic versions, what is produced is dross…

Outrageous, isn’t it?

It’s not that other places don’t have jadeite at all, apart from the site, there is jadeite in Guatemala, Japan’s Honshu Island, Colombia, Old Zealand, California in the Ugly Country, and Polar Bear, but these can’t really be called gemstones. The quality is embarrassingly low, and there’s no top-grade jadeite.

They are just greener, smoother large rocks.

The most typical case is Yunnan in Huaxia; not to mention the poorer quality, there isn’t any at all, even though it’s in the same region and less than 150 kilometers away from the Meng Gong area.

Because Yunnan and the Meng Gong area in Myanmar both belong to the plate junction zone, but on the Huaxia side, it’s part of the rising zone under compression, whereas the surface site belongs to a subduction boundary, which is also a mountain building area.

In the collision mountain system, the area with the greatest force is the subduction boundary mountain building region. The force in the rising zone is used to arch up the mountain ranges, so only at this spot is there the low temperature and ultra-high pressure environment needed to form jadeite.

The location of this point is precisely where the Meng Gong area is situated.

It’s that surprising, the geological environments on both sides are completely different.

Given its rarity, jadeite mining has also become the pillar industry for the surface site.

“Gawazi doesn’t count.”

Bi Fang said, “So don’t get too excited. Even if it really is jade, the quality can’t be that high since it’s ‘mountain material’, which is even worse.”

Many viewers didn’t understand the term and asked what ‘mountain material’ meant.

“Mountain material refers to jade found in the mountains. Besides that, there’s ‘seed material’, which falls into rivers by various accidents. After being washed for countless years and undergoing material exchange, it forms a layer of stone skin, making the jade inside smoother.”

“Mountain material doesn’t have that, so we can see it exposed directly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recognize it and might think it’s just an ordinary rock.”

The jade in a mine is in a static environment, hidden deep within the rock from start to finish, lacking the polishing of external forces, leading to incomplete or non-existent skin, with clear, unrounded edges.

Bi Fang tightened the rope, confirming it was secure, then approached the steep slope’s edge. Standing on a rock, he steadied himself before lightly jumping to the next one.

The rocks here were only partially lodged in the mountainside, exposed by the landslide, and not necessarily stable, so Bi Fang moved very cautiously with minor adjustments.

The drone flew over Bi Fang’s head, casting him in the light of a stunt performer treading on invisible stairs as it filmed from above.

With a crash,

a semi-protruding boulder broke away from the mountain wall. Bi Fang’s foot found empty air, so he jumped off the nearby cliff face, landing on another big rock, which also wobbled and soon broke off and fell.

Damn!

Cold sweat covered Bi Fang’s body as all his pores expanded. He quickly grabbed the rope at his waist and continued stepping on the cliff face, using the reaction force to move forward and land on another small rock. Unfortunately, the smaller rocks were even less reliable, continuously breaking and falling as soon as he landed, forcing him to jump again.

A mass of rubble tumbled down the steep slope, the smaller pieces flying out mid-air into the forest, while the larger ones rolled down, smashing directly into the trees, kicking up a cloud of dust.

No birds were startled.

Long before the earthquake arrived, all the birds had flown away. The entire forest now lay eerily silent, even the insect noise had quieted down significantly.

Even the viewers, under the drone’s surveillance, could see snakes crawling down from the trees, heading downhill at this moment. In just a few minutes, six or seven made a chilling sight.

Bi Fang was like a wilderness version of Supermarket Warrior, jumping over a dozen rocks before he finally stabilized himself and leaned against the cliff wall, gasping for air.

Even though his sweatshirt was quick-dry, at this moment sweat stains were still visible.

The viewers silently sweated for Bi Fang, thankful for the rope; otherwise, it would have been too thrilling, and their hearts couldn’t take it.

After descending about twenty meters more, Bi Fang finally neared the green boulder he had spotted earlier.

Upon closer inspection, Bi Fang confirmed thoroughly.

This motherfucker is a piece of jade!

And it’s huge!

The surface area exposed above ground alone was over half a square meter, and the whole rock was estimated to be around half a cubic meter!

Kogawa Kobayashi and Shizuka Minamoto looked at each other in shock.

The next moment,

they clasped their fingers tightly, screaming.

“Ah!!!”

Gang Tianwu crossed his arms, looking at the soaring popularity figures on his computer with a look of life’s disbelief.

An earthquake had revealed a huge piece of jade.

How come such good fortune never fell upon him?

Nobita Nobi envied even more, his face full of yearning. The last time he felt such an obvious earthquake, all he got was a big bump on his head from a falling fan, which cost him a good sum of money to treat at the hospital, and nothing else.

Despite always doing good deeds, helping grandmas across the street, feeding stray cats and dogs.

Sigh.

There’s really a big difference between people.

[It really is jade!]

[Awesome!!!]

[Lord Mu sent the anchor 66 yachts—— Handsome guy, bring it over and have some fun]

[Gross!]

[Isn’t this embarrassing?]

[So cool, following Old Fang one really gets to see a wide array of things, encountering all sorts of situations]

[Nonsense, hasn’t Old Fang nearly traveled all over Earth by now?]

[Ashtray sent the anchor 10 Spaceships——Pretty good-looking, wonder if there’s a part for me (smirk)]

[Aren’t you filming, or are you watching the live broadcast? Is the new movie out yet?]

Bi Fang clutched the rope tightly, his body firmly pressed against the slope.

Due to the landslide, the slope had exceeded seventy degrees. At thirty degrees, it’s already difficult to stand steady; at seventy to eighty degrees, it’s virtually indistinguishable from being completely vertical—no way to stand at all.

After some friction and kicking loose stones, Bi Fang reached the edge of the jade. He gently tapped it with his foot, and seeing that it was stable, he kicked harder, eliciting a wail from the viewers.

[Oh no, stop kicking, what if you break it?]

[If it falls, it’ll shatter. Think thrice, Boss Fang, think thrice!]

[Stop it, I don’t allow you to do that!]

[Jade, my jade, hehe]

[How about knocking off a piece to give away to everyone?]

After a few forceful kicks, confirming its sturdiness, the audience screamed in dismay.

Because Bi Fang stood directly on top of this huge rock, he stomped forcefully, finding it very solid: “It seems there’s still a large part inside the mountain; otherwise, it wouldn’t be this solid. It’s really big, but the quality indeed is average.”

He squatted down, brought the camera closer, and now everything became clear.

It wasn’t the all-encompassing emerald green that the viewers had imagined, it was more like…

A very green, very large rock?

[Some look like this before they’re polished. Some become much prettier after polishing.]

Bi Fang touched with his fingers, wiping away as he went, revealing many fine cracks.

“Mountain material, as the name suggests, is found in mountain ranges, not having been soaked and washed by river water. It’s characterized by generally large sizes. This one in front of me is conservatively estimated to be half a cubic meter. They mostly have an unremarkable appearance, with edges and angles, and the surface is quite rough with obvious cracks and fissures.”

“The more famous mountain jade deposits are known for producing large pieces, mostly without a complete outer crust or mist layer, and they are huge blocks of jade weighing tons, tens of tons, and even hundreds of tons for the really big ones—frighteningly large.”

“However, mountain materials generally have poor water, which can also be understood as immature jade raw stones.”

“Because of the poor quality and large size, they are mainly used to manufacture fake jade or make low-end bracelets and large ornaments. It’s difficult to make into the fine jade pendants or bracelets we commonly see.”

“The quality of this piece we have here is considered good.”

This piece before him couldn’t be called good, nor could it be called bad.

How much it was worth, Bi Fang didn’t know, being a complete layman.

But it must be worth quite a bit of money, right?

The only issue was how to take it away. Due to its formation under extremely high pressure, the jade was very dense, much denser than ordinary rocks.

A half cubic meter, the weight was close to two tons.

Even injecting Bi Fang with Supermarket Warrior serum might not be enough for him to handle it.

[No problem, just tell me the address, I’ll go dig it out right away!]

[Boss Fang must have too much money, let me do it, let me show you what the human limit is, a super warrior.]

After thinking for a while, Bi Fang said, “I’d better go down the mountain and find someone to help.”