Undercover?

Lin Xuan stepped forward and said, "Let me take a look."

The young man in the blue shirt carefully brought out a golden insect egg, about the size of a fist, with some purple markings on its surface.

"Are you looking to trade these eggs or sell them?" Han Changming asked, feeling somewhat tempted.

Some idle cultivators had compiled various rankings for the spirit treasures, spirit medicines, spirit insects, and spirit beasts of the cultivation world. The spirit insects on the Heaven and Earth Exotic Insect Ranking all possessed formidable innate abilities; the higher the ranking, the greater the power.

The Han Clan had a Spirit Beast Hall dedicated to raising spirit beasts, insects, and birds. The hall master was Han Deguang, who possessed a few Purple-Striped Fire Centipedes. After two generations of cultivation, they had reached the second-tier mid-grade. The Purple-Striped Fire Centipede was ranked 135th on the Heaven and Earth Exotic Insect Ranking, and since this Ghost-Faced Scorpion was ranked even higher, its abilities were surely even greater.

"Trade. I am stuck at a bottleneck, and ordinary first-tier pills cannot help me break through. I want to trade for second-tier spirit fruits, spirit water, or spirit liquid."

Lin Xuan shook his head and said, "These eggs have been stored for too long. To hatch them, they must be placed on a spirit vein with abundant spiritual energy or soaked in spirit liquid or spirit water to have any chance of hatching. The success rate is very low. If they were easy to hatch, you wouldn't need to bring them out for trade; you could just spend some time hatching them yourself and then resell them for a large sum of spirit stones."

Han Changming felt that Lin Xuan's words made sense. If they were easy to hatch, the young man in the blue shirt could have just spent the time to hatch them and sold them for a fortune. It wasn't as if he lacked the time; hunting demon beasts for spirit stones was dangerous, but would hatching spirit insect eggs really be more dangerous than hunting?

Lin Xuan carefully examined the five golden insect eggs and found that the life force in each one was very weak, making them difficult to hatch.

Someone immediately took out a jade slip and a classic to check the information on the Ghost-Faced Scorpion.

"The books say the eggs shouldn't be golden, right? Why are there purple markings? Could they be fakes!"

Ye Yufeng raised a question. Some loose cultivators liked to engage in deception, which was highly frowned upon by other cultivators.

"Absolutely not. I, Chen Bin, am definitely not that kind of person. Everyone can check them carefully. As for the purple markings, they must have been stained by some liquid, or perhaps they are mutated."

Lin Xuan shook his head and said, "Mutated? One mutated egg might be plausible, but all five? That doesn't hold up. They must have been stained by some liquid. If Fellow Daoist Chen were a fraud, Brother Yunxiao would not have invited him to participate in this exchange meeting."

Mu Yunxiao was the organizer of the exchange meeting; if Chen Bin were a fraud, it would reflect poorly on Mu Yunxiao.

"Fellow Daoist Chen has been an acquaintance of mine for many years, and I believe he is not that kind of person. However, the life force of these five spirit insect eggs is indeed very weak, and they may not hatch. Those who wish to trade should be mentally prepared."

Mu Yunxiao naturally could not admit that Chen Bin was a fraud, as that would be a slap in his own face, and there was no evidence anyway.

"I don't have second-tier spirit fruit, but I do have half a bottle of diluted Green Mulberry Spirit Liquid. It has some benefits for breaking through bottlenecks. How about trading for these five eggs?"

Lin Xuan took out a pale silver porcelain bottle, pulled out the stopper, and a burst of pure spiritual energy drifted out.

"Five is too many. I can give you two at most. These are Ghost-Faced Scorpion eggs, not ordinary ones."

"Two is too few. Let's make it three! This Green Mulberry Spirit Liquid is a unique product of our Azure Cloud Sect."

Chen Bin hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

"I have a bottle of first-tier spirit water here, which should be beneficial for cultivation. How about trading for two eggs?" Han Changming took out a blue porcelain bottle and handed it to Chen Bin.

The bottle contained diluted spirit water, mixed at a one-to-three ratio. Han Changming used it to feed the Alligator Turtle Beast; diluting it allowed for multiple feedings, making it easier for the beasts to absorb since they were still very weak.

If Chen Bin hadn't brought out the Ghost-Faced Scorpion eggs, he wouldn't have taken out the diluted spirit water.

Chen Bin opened it, took a look, shook his head, and was only willing to trade for one egg. Han Changming agreed.

Others also brought out items to trade, but Chen Bin was not satisfied. Lin Xuan took out a first-tier high-grade Ice Cloud Talisman and traded for the final egg.

After Chen Bin finished his trades, he returned to his seat, and others took turns coming forward to trade.

As long as it was something that caught Lin Xuan's eye, he could produce items to trade for it. He was wealthy and generous. Of course, the reason he could complete his trades was primarily because he was the only son of the Azure Cloud Sect leader, and everyone wanted to build a good relationship with him.

More than an hour later, the exchange meeting ended, and the cultivators left one after another, returning to their respective homes.

"Ninth Brother, where did you get that spirit water?" Han Changshuo asked curiously.

There was first-tier spirit water for sale on the market, but the effects were mediocre. Since Chen Bin was willing to trade for it, the spirit water Han Changming brought out must have been better than what was available on the market.

"I picked it up at the Loose Cultivator Plaza. I intended to use it for refining Cinnabar. I was just trying my luck; I didn't expect the trade to be successful."

This reason was plausible enough, so Han Changshuo did not press further.

Back at his residence, Han Changming looked at the Ghost-Faced Scorpion eggs and observed them carefully.

Lin Xuan was the son of the Azure Cloud Sect leader and was well-informed; the method he mentioned should be correct.

Han Changming first placed a restriction on the eggs, then put them and a Spirit Gathering Stone into a cabinet, waiting for the Ghost-Faced Scorpions to hatch.

He had plenty of Cinnabar on hand and had stored a batch of spirit water, which was enough for his needs. The Alligator Turtle Beast eggs had hatched in just over a month, so the Ghost-Faced Scorpion eggs shouldn't take too long.

Han Changming took out his talisman-making tools and began to refine talismans.

His current task was still to refine talismans and accumulate spirit stones to prepare for learning alchemy in the future.

He had collected a batch of first-tier spirit herbs and books on spirit medicine, also in preparation for the future.

At the Hundred Refinements Pavilion, Han Dehai was talking to Han Deling.

"Seventh Sister, this is the news Changming bought from a loose cultivator. The loose cultivator discovered the tracks of a group of Green-Eyed Fish Demons."

Han Dehai handed a cyan spirit shell to Han Deling.

"Leave this matter to me. You don't need to worry about anything else. Tell Changming to keep it a secret and not talk about it everywhere." Han Deling accepted the cyan shell and warned him with some concern.

Han Dehai nodded and said, "I have already instructed Changming; he won't talk about it everywhere."

After chatting for a few moments, Han Dehai left.

Han Deling took out a Communication Disk and gestured for a moment.

A while later, she left the Hundred Refinements Pavilion and strolled along the street.

Fifteen minutes later, she walked into a teahouse and requested a private room.

The room was furnished simply, with a landscape painting hanging on the wall.

Han Deling closed the door, took out a cyan seashell, and stuck it to the underside of the tea table; anyone entering without prior knowledge would never discover the existence of the cyan seashell.

An hour later, Han Deling left the teahouse.

Guests entered the private room one after another, but none of them noticed the existence of the cyan seashell; who would bother checking under a table for hidden items without reason?

The next morning, a middle-aged man of average build walked in.

After closing the door, the middle-aged man hurriedly retrieved the cyan seashell from under the table.

He checked the contents of the cyan seashell, a look of joy appearing on his face.

More than an hour later, the middle-aged man walked out of the teahouse.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, long time no see." Someone greeted the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man nodded with a smile, acknowledging the greeting.