The Ominous Object

About a few minutes later, the two descended into an empty alley in Hanchang City.

This was the provincial capital of E Province. It was quite well-developed, significantly better than Guangning City, the capital of Xi Province.

Led by Qin Ning, Jiang Yanran followed him to a bustling commercial street.

The two arrived at a notably large exclusive jade shop.

The owner was a white-haired old man in his sixties, wearing a string of Buddhist beads around his neck, leisurely drinking tea.

Seeing Qin Ning and Jiang Yanran arrive, he immediately stood up, greeted them, and said with a smile, "What would you two like to buy?"

Qin Ning did not speak. He merely swept his gaze over the other party and then slightly narrowed his eyes.

He sensed a surge of baleful aura from this old man.

However, this baleful aura did not originate from the old man himself, but from the string of Buddhist beads hanging around his neck.

If such a baleful object were worn for a long time, it would cause a certain degree of damage to the human body. At best, it would lead to hemiplegia; at worst, it would be life-threatening.

There was nothing wrong with the object itself. After all, on Earth, such a baleful object was definitely not man-made, nor could anyone know how to craft these things akin to magical artifacts. The main source of the baleful aura should be the material used for this string of Buddhist beads.

Perhaps because the material was special, it was coincidentally carved into the shape of Buddhist beads, and then bought by this old man who wore it constantly.

Qin Ning merely glanced at the Buddhist beads on the other party's neck and then said, "Nice item."

The owner was slightly taken aback, then laughed, "Right? A friend of mine brought these Buddhist beads back from Country A. I liked them the moment I saw them and spent a high price to buy them from him."

"Heh..."

Qin Ning smiled faintly without saying much, and walked straight past the other party to a display shelf.

Many pieces of jade were displayed here. He directly swept over them with his divine sense and finally selected three items from the shelf: a jade Buddha, a dragon statue, and a jade pendant about the size of half a palm.

The jade Buddha and the dragon statue were quite large, about the size of a watermelon. With such a size, if they were refined into spirit stones, he should be able to get at least twenty of them.

"What is the price for these three items?" He did not waste words and went straight to the point.

"Young friend, you have a good eye. These three pieces are the treasures of our shop. However, the price is indeed relatively expensive. This jade Buddha uses a special mineral material from Yun Province and was carved by a renowned domestic master. The selling price is two million."

"This divine dragon is even more expensive. Whether it is the quality of the material or other aspects, it is much better than the jade Buddha. It costs about five million. As for the last jade pendant, it is less than a million, but still costs eight hundred thousand."

"These three items add up to a total of 7.8 million. If you really want them, young friend, I can give you a discount. 7.5 million will do."

Qin Ning nodded gently. Whether it was a lot of money or a little did not matter to him; it was just a number.

He took out a special black card and handed it to the owner.

"Are you really buying them?"

The owner was stunned. Obviously, he did not expect this young man to be so straightforward.

Moreover, this was 7.5 million, not 750 bucks.

In the entire Hanchang City, the young men who had the strength to take out so much money at once could probably be counted on one hand.

"If possible, I will also buy the string of Buddhist beads on your neck. Name a price," Qin Ning suddenly spoke.

"Uh..."

Hearing this, the owner was stunned again.

His name was Yu Yunhui, exactly sixty years old this year. He had been running this jade shop for more than thirty years and was considered a relatively famous jade merchant in E Province. Over the years, he had seen all kinds of customers.

But he had never seen someone like Qin Ning, who wanted to swipe his card directly without even bargaining.

Too straightforward.

The other party even took a fancy to the string of Buddhist beads on his neck.

"To be honest with you, young friend, I have no intention of selling this item. It's not a matter of money. My friend said that these Buddhist beads were consecrated by a master in Country A and have the effect of warding off evil spirits. I know this kind of thing is just for psychological comfort, but as I get older, I just want to keep it by my side."

"In recent years, have you often felt a bit weak, accompanied by palpitations, and sometimes even found it difficult to wake up from dreams?" Qin Ning asked suddenly.

Hearing this, Yu Yunhui was immediately startled, and a look of vigilance appeared on his face as he looked at Qin Ning, "Who are you? Did you send someone to investigate me?"

Hearing this, Qin Ning suddenly laughed, "In this world, there is not a single person worth my investigation."

"Then how did you know..."

"The root of everything is this string of Buddhist beads."

Qin Ning pointed to the Buddhist beads hanging around his neck and continued, "This is a baleful object. Let alone an ordinary person like you, even martial artists like Jiang Yunshan and Daoist Master Zhang on Wudang Mountain would find it almost impossible to resist the baleful aura it emits if worn for a long time."

Yu Yunhui did not believe it at first, but when the other party mentioned Jiang Yunshan and Zhang Hongye, a look of surprise immediately appeared on his face.

Obviously, Yu Yunhui had also heard of Zhang Hongye and Jiang Yunshan through some channels, knowing that these two were among the few leading martial arts figures in the country, and ordinary people could not possibly know about such things.

Now, a young man like Qin Ning could actually say their names, which showed that the other party likely had a significant background.

Could he also be a descendant of a domestic martial arts family?

If that was really the case, then the other party saying that the string of Buddhist beads on his neck was a baleful object might not be entirely false.

"You know Daoist Master Zhang and Old Master Jiang?" He frowned and asked.

Without waiting for Qin Ning to answer, Jiang Yanran, who was standing to the side, stepped forward and introduced herself, "My name is Jiang Yanran. Jiang Yunshan is my grandfather, and this... is my grandfather's master, Qin Ning."

"Master?"

Hearing this, Yu Yunhui was greatly shocked, his face full of disbelief.

How could that be?

Who was Jiang Yunshan?

Although he was ostensibly the person in charge of the Jiang family in Xi Province, in secret, he was one of the few top martial arts masters in the country.

How could a young man like Qin Ning be his master?

"Whether you believe it or not is up to you. The harm brought by this string of Buddhist beads is far more serious than you imagine. You have three years left at most," Qin Ning said calmly.

Three years...

As soon as he said this, the usually calm Yu Yunhui could finally no longer sit still, and his heart began to panic.

He frowned deeply, and after a moment, he suddenly knelt down toward Qin Ning, "Please save me, Master!"