Insect in Stone

"I plan to sell each piece of fossil for ten thousand spirit stones. Who wants to come up first and try their luck?" Long Xuan swept his gaze over the crowd, then suddenly shouted.

At that moment, no one could remain calm. Just moments ago, they had said anyone who bought one was an idiot, yet now they had all become idiots themselves.

It could not be helped. The price was simply too cheap.

The Stone King, originally priced at ten million, now offered one-fiftieth of itself for a mere ten thousand spirit stones, giving them a chance to strike it rich.

Although the current situation had basically confirmed that the gamble had failed, one could never be too sure. What if?

What if the spirit insect really was hiding inside one of the fossil pieces and had gone unnoticed? Theoretically, that was entirely possible.

Most importantly, it was cheap. Even if they lost, the loss was completely bearable.

But if they won, then given the appearance of this stone, any value of spirit insect could potentially be cut out. They would truly strike it rich then.

This was absolutely worth a gamble. One investment, ten thousandfold returns.

Anyone who did not gamble was a complete idiot.

All the gamblers began breathing heavily, greed filling their faces, their eyes looking as though they wanted to devour someone alive.

Only now did they finally realize that Long Xuan had obtained this Stone King at no cost. That was why he dared to sell it cheaply without feeling any pain. No matter how many spirit stones he made, it was all profit. What a crafty little brat.

Long Xuan was quite satisfied by their expressions. Sure enough, loving petty bargains was human nature.

As long as the price was cheap enough, someone would surely harbor lucky hopes, and someone would surely take the bait. His plan had succeeded.

Qian Duoduo was dumbfounded. He had never imagined that stone gambling could be played this way.

In the past, everyone either cut fossils directly into powder or packed them up and carried them away. Who would make a few cuts and then sell the leftover material cheaply? There had never been such a precedent before.

Yet today, he had finally witnessed that stone gambling could actually be played this way.

It had to be said that this was an excellent move. Taking advantage of gamblers' desire to win big with little and pick up bargains, they really were willing to spend spirit stones on it.

Although the profit was not much, it was better than losing everything. Besides, Long Xuan had not spent a single spirit stone today. Anything he sold was profit.

In the end, things proceeded exactly according to Long Xuan's script.

Dozens of fossil pieces were snatched up in a frenzy. Everyone had lost their minds, and the dozens of pieces were sold out in the blink of an eye.

Only the smallest fossil, no larger than a fist, remained unwanted.

That fossil was simply too small, about the same size as a spirit insect. The chance of cutting out a spirit insect from it was infinitely close to zero, so no one wanted it. Ten thousand spirit stones might have seemed little compared to the Stone King's price, but to every poor Rogue Cultivator, it was no small sum. It was absolutely not worth gambling ten thousand spirit stones on such a tiny rock. The price was far too high.

Moreover, Long Xuan was sly as a monkey. He had actually sold stones of every size at the same price. For the same amount, everyone else bought large ones, while you bought a small one. That would leave anyone feeling unbalanced, as though they had suffered a huge loss. With that mentality, Long Xuan's little stone was even less likely to sell.

So no matter how desperately he begged, no one wanted it. They all waved their sleeves and left, cursing that he had gone mad for spirit stones. Who would trade ten thousand spirit stones for such a tiny rock? Anyone who did was an idiot.

And so, the fossil concealing a top-grade spirit insect had no choice but to remain in Long Xuan's hands. He could not even give it away.

After returning to his Household, Long Xuan held up the fist-sized fossil and stared at it excitedly, giggling foolishly without end.

"After all my calculations, it has ultimately fallen into my hands. I wonder whether this harvest will let me successfully create a top-grade Gu recipe of my own."

Long Xuan gently stroked the stone, his eyes brimming with anticipation.

After playing with it for a while, he finally began cutting the stone.

The fossil was not large, so it took him very little time. Before long, he successfully dug out something that looked like an eye.

The eye awoke at that moment and slowly opened. A sinister aura seeped from it, making it look deeply inauspicious.

This world even had natural-type Gu insects formed from energy. What was strange about a spirit insect shaped like an eye? Long Xuan did not find it strange at all.

On the contrary, he was thrilled. If one were to ask what type of Gu insects Gu cultivators in this world most liked to form blood contracts with—

Natural-type Gu insects ranked second. The undisputed first were Eye Gu, which were also the rarest Gu species in the current world.

The vast majority of internal Gu fed on a Gu cultivator's spiritual power or vital energy. Only Eye Gu, despite being internal Gu, fed on a Gu cultivator's mental power, forming a system of their own.

Eye Gu fed on mental power and could unleash all manner of unimaginable illusions. Illusions were an even harder-to-guard-against method of harming people than planting Gu. Gu cultivators proficient in illusions were often far stronger than ordinary Gu cultivators.

Every type of Eye Gu was born carrying a powerful illusion technique. The most heaven-defying illusions in this world could only be cast by Eye Gu—or rather, only Eye Gu could bring out their greatest power. That was why Eye Gu held such an exalted status in this world.

Now that an eye insect had appeared before him, how could Long Xuan not be excited?

Previously, he had not dared use overly rare materials when creating his own Gu recipes. Many materials could only be encountered by chance, not sought after. Some were not seen even once in a hundred years, and with bad luck, one might never see them in an entire lifetime.

If he could not find the materials, what use was a Gu recipe, no matter how incredible it was?

Therefore, Long Xuan had always planned to create Gu recipes based on the rare materials he collected, rather than create the recipes first and then scour the world for materials.

Now that he had a rare material, he could use it as the primary ingredient and create an Eye Gu of his own.

As for what direction this Eye Gu should take, Long Xuan had long since made up his mind.

He could not decide what sort of illusion each Eye Gu would carry, but he could still decide what basic abilities it would have.

He did not care about anything else, but this Eye Gu had to possess one ability—the microscopic magnification ability he had always been thinking about...

He hurriedly took out paper and brush, rushed to the table and chair, and sat down. Brimming with enthusiasm, he began creating his second Gu recipe.

This eye was very likely an insect species that had gone extinct long ago in the distant ancient era. But Long Xuan did not even recognize all the insect species that currently existed, so how could he recognize a spirit insect that had long been extinct?

But that would not hinder him. Through his research, Long Xuan had already discovered that this golden finger was based primarily on the host's knowledge, not on the insect species names of this world.

He could create Gu recipes using modern Chinese characters, and the various microorganisms in this world had yet to be named. He could give them any names he wanted, and the golden finger would still recognize them perfectly.

Since he did not know what kind of insect it was, he would simply give it a name. There was no need to consider whether it sounded nice. He would call it Stone Eye.

After all, the same thing often had different names in different places. What was wrong with calling this insect something else in his own Household?

Long Xuan quickly wrote the three characters "Stone Eye" on the paper. As expected, the golden finger recognized them perfectly, and progress immediately appeared.

Long Xuan's brush moved like a god's. He recalled an old saying from the countryside: ox eyes saw people as large, goose eyes saw people as small.

That was why geese liked pecking people and chasing after them.

Oxen, however, saw people as large as cattle sheds, so they toiled without complaint and did not know to resist even when whipped.

Since ox eyes had the ability to magnify what they saw, ox eyes were naturally the first thing Long Xuan thought of.

The principle of Gu was that swarms of insects devoured one another. He did not know whether adding an ox eye, which was not an insect, would work.

But with the error corrector, why not give it a try? It would not cost him anything. At most, he would waste a few seconds.

Long Xuan raised his brush and wrote down "ox eye." The progress on the Gu recipe immediately rose by a slight amount as well.

A smile appeared on Long Xuan's lips. He knew he had succeeded.