Qian Jinjin

Long Xuan's pen flew across the page as he swiftly wrote down some of his ideas.

In truth, his various ideas for manipulating light were only theoretically achievable—mere paper talk. Whether they would work in practice was another matter entirely.

To play it safe, he did not dare write down only one idea, but he could not write too many either. His wild imaginings were worth far more than a billion.

He wrote down all the ideas that posed no threat to himself while holding back the abilities that were too heaven-defying.

Whether she could obtain all of his ideas in the future would depend on whether she could offer something that satisfied him.

Yet even this tiny fraction of his ideas was profound enough.

Afraid that the young lady would not understand, he wrote in great detail, filling several sheets of paper.

Finally, he signed the pages, folded them up, and confidently tossed them into the bidding box.

If this Glow Gu could truly bring all his ideas to life, it would absolutely become a Great Devil King.

Other than being utterly useless on dark or overcast days, the Glow Gu would be ridiculously powerful in daylight.

Unfortunately, his attributes were the five of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. He did not possess the light attribute; otherwise, he would have raised a Glow Gu no matter what.

After tossing his note into the bidding box, he quickly began browsing the entire gambling stone shop. Whenever he saw a fossil displaying progress, he bought it without hesitation.

But aside from that Stone King, he did not encounter a second fossil with five digits after the decimal point.

He remained rational and stopped after buying only several dozen stones. On one hand, he lacked spirit stones; on the other, he did not dare buy them all.

He feared that once the Qian Clan Merchant Association discovered that their shop was full of worthless material, they might suspect someone possessed the ability to see through fossils.

Though that concern might have been unnecessary, he still had no intention of taking risks.

Even if he won the bid, he would need to proceed cautiously and carefully devise a plan for safely taking the Stone King away.

Cutting the stone on the spot was likely impossible. Unearthing a top-grade spirit insect would invite disaster, while selling it immediately and carrying a huge sum of money would also invite disaster. Then he would be caught between selling and not selling. Once a treasure's value reached a certain level, the market's no-killing decree might as well be useless.

Taking it away was likely even less feasible. For one thing, his storage pouch was the lowest grade, with cramped space; there was no way it could hold the four-meter-tall Stone King.

Even if he had a storage pouch with ample space, so many people had seen him take away a Stone King worth ten million. They would likely harbor thoughts of murder and robbery. Then taking it away would not work, and leaving it behind would not work either.

He would be trapped in a dilemma.

He needed to come up with a solution that would kill two birds with one stone. It was time to test his intelligence.

While he was selecting fossils, the bidding period swiftly came to an end. A breathtaking young woman in a white dress emerged from the shop, her waist slender enough to encircle with one hand, her eyes crystalline and clear yet carrying a trace of slyness.

Though a veil covered her face and concealed her features, the sight of everything above her nose was enough to confirm that she possessed beauty capable of making fish sink and geese fall.

He wondered whether there was some rule that whoever removed her veil would have to marry her.

Her appearance silenced the entire crowd. Many people revealed burning gazes. These were all participants in the bidding, anxiously awaiting the results until their hearts felt scorched with impatience.

Now that the person in question had finally appeared, someone could no longer wait and hurriedly shouted from the crowd, "Skip the pleasantries and check the bidding box already! My idea will absolutely make your eyes light up."

"Bullshit!" someone immediately retorted from the crowd. "You dare call that an idea in front of your grandpa? You have not seen what I wrote. If you did, I guarantee you would be ashamed of your own inferiority."

"What the hell are you bragging about? Everyone knows your intelligence is famously low. What could a brain like yours possibly write? Don't make a fool of yourself."

"Bullshit..."

The crowd traded barbs, and before long, they were arguing in a chaotic uproar.

Every one of them was supremely confident in their masterpiece, each more arrogantly overblown than the last, bursting with confidence and utterly lacking self-awareness, as though the winning bid could belong to no one but them.

At this moment, even Long Xuan wanted to say, I'm not targeting anyone in particular, but everyone here is trash.

"Silence..."

At last, Qian Duoduo stepped out to maintain order, looking at the crowd with dissatisfaction.

They were all leeks about to be harvested. What was there to fight over? The Stone King would not fall into any of their hands. They were merely a pack of suckers.

Qian Duoduo carried a certain degree of authority. Once he spoke, the entire venue truly fell silent.

"The young lady is about to inspect the bids. No one is allowed to make a sound and disturb her."

As he spoke, Qian Duoduo carried away the bidding box, quickly walked over to Qian Jinjin, then gently set it down before her with an ingratiating expression.

"Young Lady, please. The wisdom of the entire market is all in here."

"Mhm." Qian Jinjin nodded. Sparing words like gold, she opened the bidding box and casually picked up a note.

The entire venue was silent enough for a falling needle to be heard. Everyone held their breath, afraid of making any noise that might disturb her, their expressions tense as they watched the young woman reading the notes.

As she rapidly read one note after another, the young woman soon furrowed her brows slightly.

She had hoped to gather wisdom from many minds and quickly develop powerful abilities for the Glow Gu. For such a powerful natural-type Gu insect to know only an illumination technique was truly rather embarrassing.

This market was not her first stop. Before coming here, she had traveled to many places using the same method, but the results had all been poor.

The world's fundamental attributes were seven in number: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning.

Most people possessed several among those attributes.

Any attributes beyond those seven were mutated attributes, exceedingly rare in number.

The light attribute was simply too obscure. There were few who understood it, so even after gathering the wisdom of the masses, she gained very little.

This time was the same. They were all brimming with confidence and arrogant beyond measure, truly thinking they had researched something extraordinary, yet the results were all shit.

Most of them had even gone off-topic. They boasted loudly about light-speed attacks and light-speed movement. Did she not know that light was fast? Did she need them to tell her?

The problem was that the Glow Gu's ability was merely to control light. Abilities unrelated to controlling light were simply impossible.

Some had gone even further, copying down existing light-attribute abilities. Everyone had heard of those abilities and knew them well, such as the Light Healing Technique, Light Orb, Light Shield...

It was as though they thought she had never read a book before.

The ones shouting the loudest were even more incoherent, claiming that Light Reversal could turn back time. She felt that person was insulting her intelligence.

Then, a note folded from several sheets of paper suddenly gave her a refreshing feeling, as though her eyes had lit up. The owner's ideas were simply as wild and unconstrained as a heavenly steed soaring through the sky.

It contained all manner of novel theories she had never heard before, greatly broadening her horizons.

For example, why human eyes could see the world, and the reflection and refraction of light...

She had never heard of such knowledge. It opened up her worldview, and she became completely absorbed in reading it.

The various abilities developed within made her scalp explode with shock. They were so dazzling that her scalp went numb, and she could not help slapping the table in admiration.

Light-manipulating abilities could actually be developed this way? It was simply incredible.

She could not help admiring the monster who had come up with these ideas. Just how had that brain grown? Qian Jinjin wondered curiously.