Hotan, known as "Khotan" in ancient times, means "a place where jade is produced" in Tibetan, and is known as the "City of Jade".

Surrounded by high mountains (Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, and Pamir Plateau), there are three rivers in the territory: Yulong Kashgar River, Karakash River and Hotan River. Among them, Yulong Kashgar River is rich in white jade, green jade and ink jade, and has been the main river producing Hetian jade since ancient times. Most of the output of the Karakash River is blue jade, blue and white jade, blue and white jade, and the texture and price of the jade are far less than the white jade produced by Yulong Kashgar River.

Hetian jade is generally divided into mountain materials, mountain flowing water and seed materials, among which the seed materials have the best texture.

However, seed material is only produced in the Yulong Kashgar River. Moreover, the Yulong Kashgar River, which has a total length of 325 kilometers, can only be picked up on the 70-kilometer-long riverbed from 200 kilometers to 270 kilometers.

In ancient times, due to transportation problems, it was difficult to get here, so it was very dangerous to go into the mountains to pick jade, and some good seed materials were hard to find.

Now, these are no longer a problem, and people even transported the sand harvesters to the riverbed!

Although this behavior has been stopped, the seed material that has been deposited on the riverbed for many years has almost been lighting up. So now, good seed material is more precious, and the value of the top varieties is even greater than that of the same weight of the top glass jade!

On the current market, the unit price of 3A-level collectible seed material with a weight of between 20 grams and 200 grams is more than 30,000 yuan per gram, which is worth a lot!

After dealing with some trivial matters, Li Yi took Gu Feng to Hotan. At this time, there were still three days before he and He Chong agreed to enter the mountain to pick jade.

"Li Yi, here!"

As soon as he walked out of the airport, Li Yi saw He Chong who kept waving at him.

"This is my elder brother, He Meng."

He Meng is not tall and has a thin figure, but he looks very powerful at first glance.

"Haha, these are all made by carrying jade. Brother, it's very hard to go into the mountains to pick jade. You have to be mentally prepared."

Several people were chatting and laughing and getting on a Toyota off-road vehicle, and then He Meng began to introduce his arrangements this time.

"He Chong should have told you that the Yulong Kashgar River has basically been dug by sand mining machines. Although each flood will bring some new seed materials, there are too many people picking jade, so there have been basically no good production in recent years."

"Oh? Brother Meng means that in addition to this place, there are other places that produce seed materials?"

He Meng nodded,

"Well, the current jade picking season is generally divided into three stages. At the beginning and when it is about to end, we are also on the side of the Yulong Kashgar River, but in fact, everyone's focus is on the Agejuga Valley in the Black Mountains, where there is a tributary of the Yulong Kashgar River, which also produces seed materials and some good mountain flowing water."

"However, the Agjuga Valley is still in an undeveloped state, and the environment is relatively dangerous, so you can only reach it on foot. However, because of this, fewer people go there, and if you are lucky, you should gain something."

"Then let's go to Agjuga Valley!"

He Chong's face showed an expression that was indeed the case.

"Li Yi, it's good to have Ageju's valley, but it's an original mountain, and the danger coefficient is much higher than that of the Yulong Kashgar River. We are not professionals..."

"Haha, it doesn't matter. Isn't Brother Meng there? Besides, since Brother Meng has mentioned this place, he must have been prepared for it. What's there to be afraid of?"

He Meng smiled bitterly,

"I'm not prepared for a long time, but in a year, there is only one short week to pass. If I miss it, I have to wait for another year..."

"Haha, that's even more. Okay, Brother Meng, you should prepare something and make a list for me. We will never drag you down."

"Even if you want to, you can't delay it! My brother can only take us into the valley. As for whether we can find seed materials after entering and what kind of seed materials, it depends on everyone's luck, and no one can help you if you want!"

He Chong shook his head with a smile.

"Actually, at the beginning, I didn't plan to let you go to Ageju Gai Valley, but my brother said that if we make this arrangement, even if we have no harvest in Ageju Gai Valley, we can still go to Yulong Kashgar River to try our luck, so..."

"So I'm lucky."

Li Yi spread his hands and patted He Chong on the shoulder hard.

"Don't worry, I'm nothing else, I'm just very lucky, so I will definitely not return empty-handed!"

He Chong sent Li Yi and the others to the hotel, and after putting down the things, several people came to the hotel restaurant.

"Your main task in the past few days is to rest and adapt to the climate here. The things you need to prepare are very simple. I have already bought them all, so I can just take them for you. Li Yi, you must not be careless. The altitude of the Agejuga Valley is close to 5,000 meters, and we have to stay there for at least 5 days before someone will come to pick us up, so maintaining our strength is the most important thing."

Li Yi nodded to show that he understood.

"By the way, Brother Chong, where is the Hetian jade market here? I'm going to go over and take a look when I have time."

"The shops that operate Hetian jade here are mainly concentrated in Yanjing West Road and Guangchang Road. There is also a Hetian jade trading market on the old bridge of Yulong Kashgar River. In this way, after dinner, you can rest first. I will take you around tomorrow."

After dinner, the two of He Chong and his brothers said goodbye and left. Li Yi looked at the time. Although it was already 7 o'clock in the evening, the sun had not yet set, so he took Gu Feng out of the hotel. He wanted to go to the two places He Chong said first.

The hotel He Chong helped Li Yi and the others booked was on Yanjing West Road, so after walking not far, Li Yi saw a shop that operated Hetian jade.

This store is not big, and the main things they sell are jade bracelets and pendants, and there are also some large ornaments, but the jade quality is very poor.

After a brief understanding of the price, Li Yi shook his head. The asking price of this store is actually more expensive than that of Panjiayuan. Isn’t this obviously a bully?

After seeing several stores in a row, almost the same situation was true. Li Yi couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Just as he was about to go back, Gu Feng suddenly pointed to the opposite side of the road and said:

"Brother Yi, there is a big shop there."

Li Yi turned his head and saw that there was a big shop about 100 meters in front of him. Looking at the storefront, it was at least equivalent to the sum of the stores they had just visited. He couldn't help but get some interest.

"Let's go, take a look!"

This is indeed a big store, not only with an area of ​​more than 300 square meters, but also has a very large name, called Hetian Jade City.

The things in the store are also different from those of them. Not only are there jewelry and ornaments, but also Hetian jade raw stones that can be used to gambling stones.

Among Hetian jade, seed materials and mountain materials can be gambled, but the most gambled is mountain materials, because most of the mountain materials are big, including many types such as hammer materials, expansion materials, cannon materials, car push materials and mountain flowing materials.

If you have a big individual, you will have a big change. If you bet on this kind of stone, you will have good eyesight and you can cut out several pairs of bracelets with a few kilograms. If you have poor eyesight, you will look like it is all made of beautiful jade and cut it, and you may not even be able to get a single brand!

The required gambling Hetian jade is generally divided into three types. One is stone-pawn jade. As the name suggests, this material has a layer of stone skin on the outside. You cannot directly see the jade quality inside from the outside. This type can be divided into two types: window opening and full gambling.

The second type is jade stone. This material has a jade-like appearance, but the contents are different. It may be stone inside, or it may be deteriorated. Hetian jade of this material is relatively rare, and there are more jadeite, but it does not mean that Hetian jade does not have it.

The third type is called jade mixed stone. From the outside, this material often presents two textures of jade and stone at the same time. There are clear boundaries and some mixed together, but they are not cut open. No one can guarantee what the situation inside the stone will be.

The stone part in this material is generally called "stone zombie", so this material is also called zombie stone jade.

Li Yi had gambling with Hetian jade in Panjiayuan before, but most of them were betting on seed materials, all of which were stone-packed jade, and he also had a top-quality five-color jade, but this was the first time he had seen such jade-packed stones and jade mixed stones.

There are a lot of stones in this restaurant, including seed materials and mountain materials, but basically all of them are large materials over 30 kilograms.

Li Yi walked around the gambling stone area and fell in love with the largest piece of gambling material.

This is a piece of gray-white stone-covered jade. Judging from the smoothness of the stone-covered skin on the outside, it should be a piece of seed material.

The height of this piece of material can reach Li Yi's waist. The thickest part is nearly three feet in circumference. The weight given by the store is 528 kilograms and the price is 2 million yuan.

"Brother Yi, this is also seed material?"

When Gu Feng saw the jade sign saying that it was a piece of seed material, he couldn't help but be a little confused. It can be called seed material so big?

"Haha, it seems that you don't understand what seed material is. The definition of seed material refers to a kind of "peggy egg-shaped jade species formed by the ancient times that fell off the Kunlun Mountains and was eroded by the river water for years. However, the peggy eggs here are just a description. The most important thing is weathered and fall off and river water for years. As long as these two points are met, they can be called seed material."

Li Yi gently patted the super-large seed material.

"Usually, the seed material is indeed relatively small, but do you know how big the largest seed material found so far?"

Gu Feng shook his head.

"16 tons, the largest piece of seed material weighs more than 16 tons! It is a piece of Hotan jade, priceless!"

Gu Feng gasped, Damn, 16 tons can be called seeds, which completely overturned his definition of seed material?

Smiling and shook his head, Li Yi began to carefully check the seed material.

The gambling stones of Hetian jade are different from jadeites, especially seed materials. They usually look at the shape first, and then look at the oiliness and moisturization of the stone skin.

According to the friction principle of water rinsing, it should be the quality and density. Stone parts with relatively poor moisturization will be ground first, rounded, and jade parts with relatively large moisturization, density and hardness will be smoothed later. Therefore, common seed jades are generally water droplet-shaped, melon seed-shaped and oval-shaped, and large materials are no exception.

Relatively speaking, the risk of melon seed shape and water drop shape is slightly greater, because the force of water flushing is uniform, the more uneven the shape of the material, the larger the possibility that it contains "stone stagnation". The oval shape can at least prove that the material is relatively uniform, even if it is all stones, at least it is uniform.

Although this piece of material is not regular, it is almost elliptical overall, and judging from the oiliness of the stone skin, it should be of material.

However, Li Yi could only see this step. As for what color of material it was inside and what grade it was, he could not judge it without anyone teaching it.

After checking again, he found that no characteristics were missing, so Li Yi directly activated the spirit-reflecting card.

The scene in front of him changed, and he saw directly inside the material. Then, he grinned. There was indeed material in this piece, but the quality of the material was too poor, and it was not even the worst ordinary processed material!

The grades of seed materials are generally divided into three types: collection grades, high-quality processing materials and ordinary processing materials.

Among them, the collection level is divided into three types: top-level, special-level and high-quality, with the logos: Collection level 3a, Collection level 2a and 1a respectively.

The most expensive collection-grade product is more than 30,000 yuan per gram, but the ones that can be sold at this price are small materials below 200 grams, and the most expensive one gram is only about 2,000 yuan.

Similarly, high-quality processed materials are divided into three types: top-grade, special-grade and high-quality, with the labels as high-quality 3a, 2a and 1a respectively. The most expensive material is about 6,000 per gram.

Ordinary processed materials are different. Although there are three levels, they can only be called ordinary level one, ordinary level two, and third, and they are directly called external level!

The most expensive gram of this material is no more than 500 yuan, and the external grade does not even have a guide price!

This super large piece of seed material is a piece of externally processed material. Depending on the quality, Li Yi estimated that after cutting it open, he would not even be sold for 1 million yuan. In other words, if you don’t gamble, you will be fine, and if you bet, you will lose.

Shaking his head, he turned his gaze to a piece of material next to him.

This is also a large piece of material, weighing more than 100 kilograms, but it is a piece of flowing water. Judging from the exposed part of the jade, it should be a piece of jade mixed stone.

At present, in addition to the clear classification of seed jade, the classification standards for mountain materials and mountain stream water materials are still being formulated. Therefore, part of the assessment of the quality of these two materials on the market is based on indicators such as moisturization, clarity and fineness. In addition, some people have also learned from the classification of seed materials, while Li Yi uses the latter.

After careful study, Li Yi confirmed that the color of the jade in this mountain flowing water should be close to the level of ordinary first-class ordinary processed materials in the seed material, that is, the material is still sloppy.

However, from the appearance of this material, the jasper part is less than one-third, and it is distributed relatively scattered. The largest piece is less than one-fifth of the surface area, so it should be nothing to do.

However, no matter whether he has any trouble or not, he will use a spiritual card to protect the situation. What's more, such jade-like exposed jade can absorb some cold air, so how could he let it go?
Chapter completed!