Chapter 580 High-Level Deception (1/2)

Chapter 580: High-Level Deception

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

With the little bug's eyes looking at the opals up close, the surfaces of the gemstones were revealed to be not very smooth. The surfaces had some very, very small holes, which made them look like the surface of the ground after the soil had been struck by raindrops during a rainstorm.

Looking further inside, black dust spots could be seen. The biggest selling point of an opal was the gorgeous change in colors. However, the insides of the gemstones were lifeless and not gorgeous at all, as if the patterns were inlaid.

It took a type of intuition. Looking at the gemstones after having seen a lot of natural fire opals made it easy for Li Du to realize the difference between the two.

In addition, the inside and outside of a natural opal was consistent and had homogenous colors linked by a natural color transition layer. When looking slowly along the opal, the change in colors was not noticeable.

It was the effect of the color transition layer that perfectly blended the colors, which were different in intensity, together.

On the other hand, the color transition layer in the gemstones was ineffective. The gemstones surfaces would look beautiful with their orange-red or bright red color, but the color began to quickly fade away further into the gemstones.

The further into the gemstones, the worse the situation got. Some of the gemstones did not even have a color transition layer, resulting in the red and off-white colors being very distinct from each other!

Li Du only needed to think for a bit after seeing the gemstones to figure out what they were.

Owen had just explained the nature of fake opals earlier that morning. The gemstones were fake opals.

Christopher was right: he was a rookie. If it weren't for the reassurance provided by the little bug's vision, he would not be able to ascertain the authenticity of the gemstones.

Truth be told, looking from the outside, the gemstones had been forged very realistically. Even if the gemstones were in the hands of an expert, without the use of professional tools to examine the gemstones, they would most likely not be able to tell if the gemstones were real or fake.

With the little bug, Li Du was roughly able to identify the gemstones as Gilson stones, after having a detailed look inside.

Gilson stone was a type of synthetic opal that had been successfully synthesized in a laboratory during the 1970s by a French scientist named ”Gilson.” It displayed a very similar color gradation found in natural opal.

However, as Li Du had seen earlier, the color gradation of a natural opal was more vibrant, whereas the color gradation of a synthetic opal was more often than not very stagnant, resulting in a huge distinction between the two.

Such a distinction was quite subjective and completely relied on a person's observation skills and experience. Yet, in the European and American gemstone markets, subjective experience could not be used in place of an official verification certificate.

As such, the accrediting body had found a reliable identification method, which was to enlarge the image of the opal using an instrument. It allowed the lines on the top side of Gilson synthetic opals, which looked like snake and lizard skin lines, to be observable.

Li Du had seen the thin and ineffective color transition layer within the gemstones, which caused a tenuous connection between the different colors and hence, formed the lines found in Gilson stones.

Although he'd determined the identity of the gemstones, he was not very confident of it as the gemstones had more intense and beautiful colors than Gilson stones.

After contemplating, he decided to spend the energy and use the little bug's Reverse the Past to see exactly what was going on.

Once the ability was activated, scene by scene began to appear.

As expected by him, the gemstones were fake and made by someone in a laboratory; this confirmed that they were Gilson stones.

After their initial creation, someone else had heated up the Gilson stones and soaked them in some wine-red solution before taking them out to air dry. The person then continued to further process the Gilson stones before ultimately producing the fake gemstones.

Li Du came to a sudden realization that those people had put in a lot of effort into the forgery as they did not simply use the Gilson stones and instead, used them as a raw material for a further round of forgery.

Together with the knowledge passed down from Owen, he could very easily identify the name of the second round of forgery, which was called ”counterfeit dyeing.”