The first raw gemstone that was chosen by Ou Yangming was unexpected.

It was not a full stone without a cut, but one that had a notch on one corner. Of course, most importantly, Ou Yangming was obviously thoughtless when he touched the stone, whereas He Liangce was the one who had actually paid attention to it.

In other words, the first stone that was chosen by Ou Yangming was actually the one that He Liangce had paid the most attention to earlier.

No wonder He Liangce's people could not help but denounce Ou Yangming, whereas Zheng Ziwen and the rest looked rather embarrassed.

"Head Shopkeeper Lin, it's inappropriate of you to do this!" The white-haired elder, who had spoken earlier, remarked with anger.

The thick-faced Lin Yichen cleared his throat and was about to fool him with his words.

Right then, He Liangce laughed and waved his hand. "Don't shout blindly. When was there a rule in precious stone appraisal that one's not supposed to choose something that was appraised by the other person? Master Ou has inspected most of the raw gemstones here, so according to what you said, does it mean that I'm left with no options?"

The people behind him exchanged glances and were forced to keep quiet.

Yes, Ou Yangming had been randomly looking through the raw gemstones earlier. Although he seemed to have searched cluelessly like a blindfolded fly, he had gone through many raw gemstones. If their logic was adopted, the challenge could not go on anymore because the stones that were appraised by their young master had also been touched by Ou Yangming. In that case, it meant that their young master would lose the challenge by default.

Ou Yangming grinned. No matter what, He Liangce's bearing was deeply convincing.

"Young Master He, how about we both pick one each?" He took a step back and said, "Please."

"Alright, I'll show my inadequacy then." He Liangce hesitated for a while before he agreed. He was a straightforward person, so he walked into the bunch of raw gemstones and glanced for only a brief moment before he picked one up.

He Liangce had gone with his own order as he picked one of the raw gemstones that he had carefully appraised earlier.

Ou Yangming secretly sighed a breath of relief when he realized that he had guessed it right; He Liangce only chose those that had inspected earlier.

Following that, Ou Yangming went to another corner without a sound and took another raw gemstone.

The crowd could not help but express their surprise when he picked up the gemstone.

Everyone thought he would play the same trick by choosing one that He Liangce had paid attention to. Within the hour earlier, even though He Liangce could not check all 10,000 raw gemstones in the backyard, he had expressed extreme interest in roughly 50 of them.

If Ou Yangming picked from those raw gemstones, he would likely get something good.

Nonetheless, Ou Yangming's second choice was not from the bunch of stones, hence the crowd felt that it was strange.

The white-haired elder even guessed, 'Did my mocking and Young Master's generosity influence the b*stard so that he dares not openly steal Young Master's achievements anymore?'

On the other hand, He Liangce calmly took his second piece as though he was not surprised by Ou Yangming's choice.

They had locked onto their respective targets, so they chose their raw gemstones without any hesitation in a short span of time.

Ou Yangming seemed like he had only scanned the raw gemstones briefly earlier, but he remembered well the ones that gave him a unique feeling.

It was worth noting that He Liangce's vision and judgment in raw gemstones were top-notch and could not be compared by ordinary people.

Among the 50 half-naked raw gemstones that he attached importance to, roughly 20 of them actually gave Ou Yangming a unique feeling. In other words, He Liangce had a 50% success rate in obtaining precious gems among the 50 stones.

Such a probability was shocking even for half-naked raw gemstones like that.

The first one that Ou Yangming had chosen happened to be the one that gave him the best feeling among the bunch of half-naked raw gemstones. Therefore, he quickly beat He Liangce to it and picked it.

Needless to say, among the remaining raw gemstones, apart from the sky blue one, there were also three that were not inferior to it at all. That said, Ou Yangming did not pick all of them at once.

It was incredibly difficult to pick a gem of such a grade among half-naked raw gemstones and ordinary ones. If he were to find three or even four of them at once… The other people would likely associate his luck with something else.

Once the twenty raw gemstones were placed on two different sides on the ground, Lin Yichen inhaled deeply and asked, "Ladies and gentlemen, the stone-cracking process begins now, who should we begin with?"

"Since I started picking first, you may start with me." Ou Yangming smiled and pointed at one of the gemstones. "Open this one first!"

Various tools had already been prepared in the Yi Pavilion, and professional stone-cracking masters had also come.

A middle-aged man amid the masters took the lead, and his eyes looked fierce as he glanced around. Ou Yangming felt a tingling sensation when he noticed it.

He was slightly taken aback. 'This stone-cracking master is actually a Yang Grade powerhouse?

'Since when were Yang Grade powerhouses so worthless?'

'Brother Ou, this is Yue Dingtian, the number one powerhouse in the prefecture's Yi Pavilion. His greatest hobby is stone gambling," Ni Yunhong whispered to Ou Yangming, then spoke even softer after a pause. "He's rewarded very generously, but he uses all his money in stone gambling. When he's out of money, he satisfies himself by doing stone-cracking, and he's considered the person who's the most addicted to it."

Ou Yangming nodded. 'There really is any kind of person in this world.

'But since he's a stone-cracking master who's also a Yang Grade powerhouse, his speed must be superior to an ordinary person's.'

Yue Dingtian studied the raw gemstone for a while before he retrieved a slicing knife to shave it. As the crowd watched the stone being shaved continuously, as though its skin was being peeled, they were nervous.

Even the people from He Liangce's side, who were confident about being victorious, were tensed up.

He Liangce stole a glance at Ou Yangming but did not notice any sign from his face. He was moved, and he guessed that the young fellow was either extremely confident or an amateur who did not know the immensity of Heaven and Earth. He Liangce also furrowed his eyebrows a little because he was surprised that he could not perceive Ou Yangming.

Yue Dingtian worked extremely fast, and he announced after the last shave was made, "No gem."

The people from He Liangce's side were instantly relieved. They exchanged looks as though they were telling each other that they knew Ou Yangming was only a pretentious person without genuine skills.

On the other side, the workers and supervisors from the Yi Pavilion looked embarrassed, and they were strongly displeased with Lin Yichen, who had just been promoted and transferred here.

'It's fine that you failed to invite Old Tributary Shen, but why did you ask a weird and insignificant young fella to take the challenge instead? Aren't you ruining the Yi Pavilion's reputation on purpose?'

He Liangce grinned and took one of the ten raw gemstones in front of him. "Thank you for the trouble, Elder Yue."

Yue Dingtian was stunned, and he stared at He Liangce with his cold eyes as he commented, "Young Master He, you even know who I am, you've indeed come prepared."

"Since I was coming to the prefecture, I asked around for some information. Hehe, that's all, Elder Yue, you're overthinking," He Liangce responded calmly.

"I hope that's the case," Yue Dingtian said.

Without further ado, he accepted the half-naked raw gemstone and wielded the knife. The same scene of a stone being turned over appeared once more.

Ou Yangming shook his head a little. Perhaps the other people had not noticed, but with the integration of Heaven and man, as well as the thoroughly meticulous state, he could easily tell that Yue Dingtian valued this raw gemstone more than he did Ou Yangming's.

It was evident that the powerful Yang Grade powerhouse had doubts about Ou Yangming too.

Yue Dingtian maneuvered the slicing knife at the speed of light. Once he shaved roughly half of the gemstone, he suddenly slowed down.

A green luster was emitted from within the raw gemstone.

"It's glowing, there's indeed a gem inside!"

The people around He Liangce smiled brightly. 'Sure enough, our young master is impressive.'

After a brief moment, the gem was successfully removed from the raw gemstone.

It was not a huge gem, and its color seemed to be flawed, but it was much better than the raw gemstone that was chosen by Ou Yangming, which contained nothing.

Yue Dingtian announced coldly, "A Good Grade gem. It can improve some Physique."

When the crowd turned to look at Ou Yangming, he smiled and retrieved the half-naked raw gemstone.

The people from He Liangce's side looked disgruntled, but they could not do anything about it. They also had contradicting thoughts because they did not know if they wanted the raw gemstone to contain a gem or not.

Nevertheless, they did not need to wonder anymore after a short while because they quickly became furious.

This was because a red gem was seen in Yue Dingtian's hands.

Based on its color alone, everyone knew the gem's grade was above Good Grade.

As expected, a flash of a smile was seen on Yue Dingtian's face. "This is a Fire-resistant Gem, and it's of Fine Grade. Master Ou, you have a good eye indeed."

He Liangce's people were indignant. 'Does Ou Yangming have a good eye? It was picked by our young master, okay?'

Lin Yichen's eyes lit up, and he smiled gladly.

'Lucky, he's really lucky!

'With this Fine Grade gem, we won't be defeated today.'

The supervisors and workers, who were standing behind him, reacted as if they had just seen a ghost.

'This… How is that even possible!'

He Liangce's eyes glowed because he was rather surprised and regretful too.

Despite having paid importance to the half-naked raw gemstone, before stone-cracking was done unto it, he did not know exactly what its grade would be…

After looking deeply at the expressionless Ou Yangming, He Liangce was finally feeling a little uneasy.

'He actually acquired a Fine Grade gem. Have I really used up my good luck after challenging seventeen cities, and I'm going to fall badly here?'