Chapter 644 Rich Ore Deposi (2/2)

Seeing this, Li Du became excited.

As this piece of land did not consist purely of rocks and instead, consisted of soil and hillocks covered by rocks, it was likely that this piece of land had not been searched by anyone before.

Due to geographical reasons, there were fewer fire opals and more gemstones and ore hiding underneath the ground.

This place was an exception. In fact, the ground that people saw was formed by soil falling from the few small hillocks and covering the rock-filled land. Underneath the thin layer of soil, there were crushed rocks as well.

As no one had searched this place before, the number of fire opals here was greater. After all, for the last hundred years everywhere else in the national park had been searched.

Even though other people did not possess the ability Li Du had that enabled large amounts of fire opals to be discovered, there were still a lot of opals that had been extracted from the area over the course of time.

Sure enough, after the little bug had searched this place meticulously, it immediately discovered a few opals, which had decent colors as well. This place was a rich gemstone deposit.

Having confirmed the target, Li Du left.

They first drove to the motel nearby and rented a room before taking a hot water bath as well as an afternoon nap. Like before, he set off anew in the evening.

This time around, he rented two one-hectare pieces of land that were adjacent to each other. Owen, who was waiting at the ticket counter with a few jewelers, saw him walk over and asked, ”Li, how's the harvest?”

Li Du wore a dispirited look and said, ”Very bad, man. It seems like God has suddenly distanced himself from me. My efforts last night were wasted.”

”Patience,” Owen said. ”You have to be patient, mate. God will bless you.” He gave him a meaningful smile.

If not for Brother Wolf's warning, Li Du would not observe Owen's expression in detail and hence, would not uncover the meaning behind that smile. Although he was no longer looking at Owen directly, he released the little bug to stare at him.

Through the little bug's vision, he discovered the strange smile and became cautious.

Our ancestors were right—you might know a person's looks but you do not know their true intentions!

Seeing him purchase two hectares of land in one go, someone with his arms crossed, said, ”Dude, are you sure you can search through such a big area in one day's time?”

Other people joined in. ”Yeah, you walking around the two-hectares once will already take a considerable amount of time. Truth be told, newbie, finding opals requires deep and meticulous digging.”

”You seem very confident renting such a large area of land. Don't tell me you are using machines to do the work?”

Once the last few words left this person's mouth, quite a number of people, including the ticket seller and security guard, stared at Li Du.

The Petrified Forest National Park strictly forbade machines from entering. The main purpose was to prevent machines from causing harm to this protected area as well as to guarantee the output of opals.

The national park, which was a very famous attraction among the locals, had over 3,000,000 people visitors every year and approximately 10,000 visitors on average each day. The people did not only come to admire the petrified forest but also to search for opals.

Without the allure of the fire opals, the number of visitors would decrease by at least half.

Rumors such as a tourist discovering a fire opal after randomly kicking aside a few rocks, a tourist discovering a fire opal during a picnic, and how tourists discovered fire opals, would frequently spread from the national park.

These rumors have attracted a huge number of people, who did not know the truth, to come here. After all, everyone had the desire to get rich and was willing to come here and try their luck.

The national park took delight in seeing tourists come over to search for fire opals not just because of an admission ticket, but also because of the revenue from the discovery of opals.

According to regulations, after a tourist discovered a fire opal, the tourist would have to pay the national park 20 percent of the profits. Gem hunters were not required to pay this fee.

If the tourists wanted to take away other stones from the national park, they would also have to pay a certain fee. This was done to protect the ore here as well.

Otherwise, if taking away ore was free of charge, it was likely that tourists would drive over in pickup trucks and drag the ore away.