Yama Rising

Chapter 195: A Great Scholar\'s Discovery (2)

Gu Qing didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he blinked several times as he sniffed the air in bewilderment, before suddenly turning to Qin Ye in astonishment, “My lord… do you smell anything?”

“No!” Gu Qing frowned, “This fragrance… I’ve smelt it before… and quite often at that… Where exactly was it…”

“Fetish?” Arthis exclaimed.

“What kind of species of trees can Hell possibly have?” Arthis furrowed her brows, “It’s the same one everywhere. Didn’t you mention earlier that it was the red maple?”

Fragrant rosewood?

Gu Qing turned around and trembled with great excitement, “Mr Qin, if this is truly the Southsea Huanghuali, the entire forest we can see is at least worth several hundred tons…”

“I’m just saying that it’s a possibility! Perhaps it might be the fragrant rosewood.” Gu Qing’s breaths quickened with excitement, “Also known as the Southsea Huanghuali. Second only to the red sandalwood, the fragrant rosewood is one of the four most coveted species of woods out there! There’s a huge market for these trees out there!”

Qin Ye swept his gaze across the sea of “red maples” in front of his very eyes.

If one wanted to show off their status, they wore bracelets made of Southsea Huanghuali.

In essence, these were things that an impoverished soul like him would never have known about. Yet, now…

“I’m rich… I’ve truly struck gold…” An electrifying sensation surged from his tailbone straight through his mind. He gulped anxiously, “Such a large plot of land filled with Southsea Huanghuali… is more than enough to sustain me for the rest of my life…”

Qin Ye took several deep breaths and licked his lips avariciously, “One of the four great woods of Cathay. The market price out there is over ten million per ton. And this was the market price two years ago to boot!”

The trio were silent for a long time. Nobody had ever even imagined the possibility that such a massive gold mine could have been hiding in plain sight all this while. After a long time, Arthis probed further with trembling in her voice, “Ten million… Hell notes?”

He drew a deep breath and looked at the patch of tree stumps in front of him with a quivering voice, “Once a province discovers just hundreds… No! Even if it were just dozens of Southsea Huanghuali trees, the furniture market in the entire province would go crazy over it! There’s no telling how many companies would be begging us to sell these to them, so that they can process it and resell these products to the rich and powerful. And to that end, even the profit arising from these transactions is incidental to them. After all, what matters most is their reputation! The fact that they have such wood in their hands… is sufficient to propel them from being a newcomer in the furniture market to becoming the leading seller in the province… or even an entire district!”

“Most certainly! I’ll even buy you two - one for your use, and one for display!” Qin Ye waved his hand heroically. This wave of euphoria had struck him too suddenly, and he was completely unprepared for it… So, as it turns out, it’s not as though Hell doesn’t have any natural resources. We’ve simply lacked the ability to properly identify it!

Alright, say we round it up to a thousand tons, then we’re looking at… a whopping ten billion!!!

Phew… It feels as though life has just reached a new high… a peak that I’ve never been to before…

Two begrudging glares shot right over immediately.

“Calm down.” Qin Ye pinched himself, “This isn’t a dream… so why am I not feeling any pain?”

Qin Ye took several deep breaths to regulate his emotions before addressing Gu Qing once more, “Mr Gu, what made you think of taking a closer look at these trees? And how did you come to guess that these trees are none other than the fabled Southsea Huanghuali?”

“Mr Qin… Hell may not be the same as the mortal realm, but… the heavens will never stymie one’s path. Seriously.” He spoke earnestly, “Nature’s haunting work is far beyond what the human mind can fathom. The geographic conditions of Gambik County was incredibly harsh. It adjoined an incredibly dense rainforest. Nevertheless, the city was still built there because they discovered the presence of a massive oil field in the vicinity. Apart from that, there’s really nothing much else to talk about.”

“One of the things we were most concerned about was failing to identify the natural resources that were in fact available in the vicinity. However, our team of elites consisted of experts spanning a plethora of industries, ranging from medicine, to light industrial works, to even raw material specialists. To our dismay, we discovered that Gambik had nothing apart from crude oil.”

Qin Ye thought for a moment, and then nodded his head.

Gu Qing continued, “They’re the ones that discovered large tracts of Alkebulan cherry oranges in the tropical rainforest located right behind Gambik!”

“It’s a sex tree. That term refers to none other but the Alkebulan cherry orange. The cherry orange’s potency is comparable to Viagra, and it is therefore also known as the number one natural aphrodisiac in the flora and fauna kingdom. Its rarity is comparable to authentic Changbaishan old mountain ginseng… Most cities in Alkebulan start out this way, and then they eventually rely on their own specialty produce to make a name for themselves on the market. Excavating the first bucket of gold will only promote a virtuous cycle that spurs development. Hell is currently in the nascent stages of development, so precious specialty produce like this is something we’ll need more than anything else!”

“I’d only noticed the possibility of the species of this wood by chance. Nature works in mysterious ways. I happened to have a set of Southsea Huanghuali furniture at home, and that’s why the scent felt so familiar to me. I guess you could also say that my profession contributed some ways in this discovery as well.”

If it is, this could mean a turning point for the new Hell!

Gu Qing nodded his head and crouched down once more. This time, Arthis and Qin Ye followed suit as well. With so much riding on the line, who could be bothered about trivialities like the face of a future King Yanluo?

Wealth moves mountains… I guess that’s where the saying got its meaning from…

After some time, Gu Qing gently stroked the stump and spoke of his own volition, “There are two types of Huanghuali - the Southsea Huanghuali, and the Great Viet Huanghuali. That said, the price for the Southsea Huanghuali is generally higher than the Great Viet Huanghuali. Its grains are generally more beautiful, and its colour more mellow. Furthermore, it takes well to wood-processing works, and its hardness is moderate. Therefore, it doesn’t deform easily. The first point of identification is in terms of its fragrance.”

Qin Ye took a deep breath.

Qin Ye took another look at the tree stumps around him, and his heart cringed in pain.

I blame Arthis for having a voluptuous chest and a peabrain! How could she not know a single thing about the fragrant rosewood?! Trash!

“And that deals with the first point of identification - fragrance. The second point of identification is in terms of colour. Apart from the most common golden-yellow hue, the Southsea Huanghuali comes in various other colours, including purple, brown, red, black, or any combination of these colours. The colour tone is generally on the darker side. This is also one of the distinguishing factors between a genuine good and a counterfeit one.”

He smiled and stroked the stump again, “Is its ‘ghost face’.”

1. This is a highly coveted cosmetic skin for a LoL champion.

2. The african cherry orange is a real thing. In fact, it’s actually more a shrub than a tree.

3. Alternate name for Vietnam.