Are you extorting money without looking at the target?

Xiao Ran and his Master had only strolled halfway Lakeside Street when they encountered a whole host of problems.

A mysterious beggar, a persistent clay figurine, Wife Cake that promises to help you find a wife next year if you eat it, and two of the headquarters' top talents, whether they came intentionally or by chance.

Having just refused the genius's invitation to hunt dragons, and before his Master had gone far, he stomped on and crushed a rock.

Calling it a stone would be an understatement; it's just a piece of old soil.

It was worth one copper coin.

However, the stall owner wanted to charge 100 Spirit Stone.

The reason is simple: this is a stall selling Gamble Stone, and each stone costs one hundred Spirit Stone.

Xiao Ran was no stranger to Gamble Stone; he often saw it in urban novels when he read novels in his previous life.

"Gamble Stone" is a term in the jewelry industry, referring to a method of trading Jade Rough Stone that involves gambling.

When jadeite is mined, it is covered by a weathered rind, making it impossible to know its quality until it is cut open.

Therefore, the trading of Jade Rough Stone with a uniform price and weighed by weight is called "Gamble Stone".

Gamble Stone is like gambling with your life.

If you win the bet, you can earn ten or a hundred times your initial investment and become a millionaire overnight.

If you gamble and lose, you lose everything.

In urban society, ordinary people cannot distinguish the minerals inside a rough stone with the naked eye or even with scientific methods without cutting it open, which is why there is an element of gambling in rough stone trading.

However, in the Cultivation World, cultivators all possess divine sense, which allows them to penetrate the interior of raw stones and clearly observe the mineral composition inside. Therefore, very few people Gamble Stone.

This was the first time Xiao Ran had encountered Gamble Stone stall since his transmigration.

This piqued Xiao Ran's interest.

The owner of the Gamble Stone stall was a Golden Core cultivator who gambled big.

The yellow cloth flag that was raised displayed the general rules of Gamble Stone.

The raw stones come from the ruins of Ancient Expert Cave Abode. Each raw stone costs one hundred Spirit Stone, no bargaining, and there is no limit to the size.

Those below the Mahayana level can use their divine sense freely and are not restricted in choosing any magical artifacts.

Pay first, then choose your stone; each stone can only be selected within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Xiao Ran glanced at the pile of stones, which consisted of black, broken stones of various sizes piled up into a small mountain, numbering over a thousand.

It was indeed an ancient stone ore that had just been unearthed, with a layer of oxidized Black Seabream on the surface, and it exuded a strong aura of Mahayana restrictions and a faint Spiritual Power of beast bones.

The same applies to clods of earth that were accidentally crushed by the Master.

The aura of the Mahayana prohibition is real.

This cannot be faked.

However, because the method of forming the Mahayana restriction is too advanced, once the divine sense probes in, it will become dizzy and lose its ability to distinguish, making it impossible to locate the exact source of Spiritual Pressure.

This seems very fake, as if it were a special effect attached to Mahayana restriction, something made by an ancient Mahayana cultivator in his spare time to fool people, or even a replica made by a contemporary Mahayana cultivator.

Even Xiao Ran couldn't tell for a moment.

But upon closer inspection, he discovered that the animal bone subtly resonated with the dragon bone on his body.

Could there be dragon bones? Xiao Ran used his second-level Resonance Divine Sense to probe inside, but he could only slowly see a little bit inside, which was very time-consuming and he could not immediately determine whether there were dragon bones.

But two things are certain—

First, judging from the extremely thin and singular Spiritual Pressure of the beast bone, there is only one beast bone.

Secondly, the level of the beast bones may be very high, so much so that even Mahayana restriction could not completely conceal them.

Xiao Ran guessed that the Mahayana restriction was probably meant to conceal the existence of the beast bones. Because of the great age and the fact that the stone was broken, the Spiritual Pressure of the beast bones was faintly revealed.

The stones come from the same site.

The restrictions were imposed by the same person.

The animal bones are real.

What Mahayana cultivator would go to such lengths to hide is certainly not an ordinary beast bone; it must be at least a divine beast bone.

But they couldn't tell which stone the Spiritual Pressure of the beast bone came from, what kind of beast bone it was, or what the original beast's level was...

That's what makes gambling fun.

However, Xiao Ran guessed that with the stall owner's Golden Core Cultivation Level, he was probably just a middleman who didn't know if there were any valuable beast bones among these stones, so he only dared to ask for a price of one hundred Spirit Stone.

Xiao Ran's intuition told him that the value of a certain beast bone was likely to exceed one hundred Spirit Stone multiplied by the total number of stones.

On the other side.

Lingzhou Yue accidentally stepped on a clod of dirt and was asked for a hundred Spirit Stone, which made her laugh in anger.

With a swift movement, he grabbed the middle-aged stall owner, who was at the Golden Core Realm stage, from a distance, choking him and leaving him dangling in the air.

"Don't you care about your partner when you try to extort money from them?"

The middle-aged man, unable to make a sound with his throat being gripped, shouted through his abdomen—

"Would I dare to Spirit Severing off Senior Spirit Severing? This stone is only worth this price!"

Xiao Ran smiled. This guy was very tough on the outside, but upon closer inspection, there was an element of deception in it.

These stones are very well hidden, and the stall owner deliberately scattered them along the roadside.

As a result, the poor mortals didn't step on any of the steps, while the higher the Cultivation Level.

After all, only the strong have money, so who cares about a mere hundred Spirit Stone?

If you hit the mark, some people will pay you; others will pay you even more if you pay attention to the Gamble Stone business.

Moreover, the city lord of Chaos City is located within the city and attaches great importance to the city's business environment. Even if a powerful person has objections to Gamble Stone, they would not want to make a big fuss over a mere hundred Spirit Stone and alarm the city lord.

Unfortunately, he encountered his Master.

Lingzhou Yue, holding the stall owner an inch away, drunkenly pouted and said, "You say you're not a liar, then show me a valuable stone yourself."

The stall owner couldn't find it either, so he immediately changed the subject:

"What kind of skill is hitting people? If you're so capable, pick out a valuable stone, and you can take one hundred Spirit Stone with you."

Upon hearing the news of the fight, passersby on the street all turned to look.

Who is this? How dare they beat someone up in Chaos City? Lingzhou Yue wasn't fooled by the stall owner.

She was greedy for money, but not a gambler.

The gambling was just a ploy to entrap law enforcement officers and extort money, but today they've been the ones being extorted instead.

If she doesn't retaliate, will she still be called Lingzhou Yue? "You've already swindled money from me, but you've also swindled money from the common people. Today, I will act on behalf of Heaven and report you to the Dao Alliance for illegal business operations. The tall woman behind me is my Junior Sister, Law Enforcer from the Dao Alliance Headquarters. If you don't pay me 10,000 Spirit Stone today, I'll have her arrest you right now."

Upon hearing that the Dao Alliance, passersby's gazes changed. Even if the stall owner was indeed lying, they all stared at Lingzhou Yue with hostility.

There's no way around it; the citizens of Chaos City hate the Dao Alliance the most.

After all, the other four major powers each only have one Dao Alliance teleportation array near their respective areas, but Chaos City has four teleportation arrays around it. Once a conflict occurs, the Dao Alliance can directly send troops to surround Chaos City.

The stall owner was a little confused.

"Why do you need money to uphold justice?"

The passersby were in an uproar, marveling at the news, and were almost ready to hurl insults at him.

Xiao Ran sensed that something was off.

Wherever I went with my Master, I was treated like a great hero. It's not good to suddenly become a bad guy.

He immediately took out two hundred Spirit Stone, put them in a brocade pouch, and threw them onto the stone mountain.

"Here are two hundred Spirit Stone. One hundred of them will be used to offset the clod of earth that Master crushed, and the other hundred will be used to buy you a stone."

Lingzhou Yue frowned, threw the stall owner onto the pile of stones, and turned to scold Xiao Ran.

"How could you be so stupid? I've seen this kind of trick countless times back in the Dao Alliance Headquarters. There are no divine beast bones here; these stones are all fake!"

"Perhaps it's true."

Xiao Ran smiled calmly.

The stall owner put away the Spirit Stone, hurriedly got up from the pile of stones, and sat down on the small stool behind the stall.

"Young man, you have good taste. I hope you find the treasure at first sight. But you only have the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, so don't hesitate if you find one you like."

Xiao Ran nodded.

"One incense stick is enough."

Seeing Xiao Ran's serious expression, Lingzhou Yue seemed to smell the scent of money and immediately fell silent.

The people around him then looked much kinder.

Some people recognized Lingzhou Yue and Xiao Ran and cast approving glances at them.

For Xiao Ran, finding the beast bones within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn is quite difficult. He must fully activate his Resonance Divine Sense and combine it with the Formless Stealth to achieve Resonance.

If one incense stick's time isn't enough, then another hundred Spirit Stone will do. Compared to the potential dragon bone, this amount of money is nothing.

Thinking this, Xiao Ran fully activated his first-level Resonance Divine Sense, concealed his figure, and disappeared in front of the stall.

His soul attempted to Resonance with a thousand stones, completely detaching from his body and entering the interior of the stones.

Disappeared? The passersby around them became increasingly curious.

Xiao Ran disappeared; only the stones were seen moving.

The stall owner was starting to panic.

Upon closer inspection, there's nothing of value here, just some remnants of Mahayana restrictions. What's the rush?

Xiao Ran went all out, connecting his first-order Resonance Divine Sense with the dragon bone in the System Space, and combined it with the Formless Stealth. This severely consumed his physical strength, but greatly improved his detection efficiency.

Half an incense stick later.

Xiao Ran finally found that most special stone.

This rock is very large and long and narrow.

The surface is covered in crystals, which shimmer with colorful light under the lakeside lights, making them look particularly flashy and eye-catching.

In fact, the more conspicuous a stone is, the less likely it is to be bought.

Just like if you dress up as a rural non-mainstream person or someone from the "Funeral Love Family" (a subculture known for its tragic lifestyle), people will subconsciously think you're incompetent. True strong people are usually more low-key, at least they don't decorate themselves with flashy things.

So to this day, that stone remains in the most conspicuous place, untouched by anyone.

There are very few, if any, fingerprints on the surface.

Inside was a shattered beast tooth!

Xiao Ran couldn't recognize what kind of divine beast it was, but the extremely concentrated Spiritual Power on it was indeed very similar to the dragon bone that Xuan Yuan Guang had given him...

Could this be Dragon Tooth? Xiao Ran could even sense that this Dragon Tooth and the dragon bone sent by Xuan Yuan Guang came from the same dragon.

No wonder they found it so quickly!

Without saying a word, Xiao Ran immediately reached out and grabbed the stone while in stealth mode.

At the same time--

The other end of the stone was picked up by another person.

The two, one in the light and one in the shadows, actually picked the same stone at the same time! Hmm? There's another expert?

Xiao Ran suddenly appeared, and when he looked up, he saw that it was the short, proud prodigy from before, Wu Yu!

Upon seeing Xiao Ran suddenly appear, Wu Yu was so frightened that she took a step back and instinctively withdrew her hand.

Composing himself, he said apologetically:

"Junior Brother Xiao has keen insight; I had gone to great lengths."

Chapter 157 The King of Lewd Talk: All Good Things Have an Ending