For a while afterward, no more customers came by. Seeing no one around, Long Xuan packed up his stall.
Although he still had seven Cockroach Gu left unsold, he had at least earned six Mid-Grade Spirit Stones today—equivalent to six hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones. That was no small sum for a Rogue Cultivator, and Long Xuan was quite satisfied.
With a fortune in his pocket, he finally had the confidence to go treasure hunting.
Long Xuan eagerly headed into the depths of the market, searching for that piece of Darksteel and the high-grade Spirit Stone that had lingered in his mind.
But after a month and a half, how could he possibly run into them again by such a coincidence?
Besides, every Gu cultivator was busy cultivating or gathering resources in the wilderness. No one could set up a stall here every day; whether he ran into them again depended entirely on luck.
After searching around without results, Long Xuan could only give up in disappointment. It seemed he did not have a protagonist's halo after all.
But that was no matter. There were treasures everywhere. What day did not see a heap of new stallholders and new treasures flow into the market? Treasures were inexhaustible.
When old treasures left, new treasures came. The newly arrived treasures might not be any worse than the old ones.
After adjusting his mindset, Long Xuan walked toward a shop with an extraordinarily vast footprint.
Not long ago, a merchant association dealing in fossils had moved in here. The shop's courtyard was piled high with countless fossils.
In this world, Spirit Insects came from many sources. Some were caught in the wild, while others were artificially raised.
Spirit herbs in medicinal gardens could also breed insects, but only Spirit Insects born from high-grade Spirit herbs had value for Gu refinement. The insects bred by common first-grade Spirit herbs would simply be killed with insecticide powder.
Certain Spirit Beasts also carried some Spirit Insects within their bodies. Humans might even be born with them, and these were called Innate Gu. Such people were often geniuses with unfathomable abilities.
Some Spirit Insects came from underground as well, such as earthworms, mole crickets, ants...
Even hard stones could contain insects, and their quality might not be low.
Every so often, Earth entered an Ice Age after a long cycle. The same was true in this world, except it was even colder.
During that time, temperatures plummeted, cold currents swept across the entire world, and ice devoured every corner. Heavy snow and glaciers covered the earth, turning the whole world into a realm of ice—white with snow, with winds that cut to the bone.
Thus, the land would welcome Eternal Winter. For countless ages, the earth would not see a single warm day again.
During that time, surface vegetation froze to death on a massive scale, and the land ceased producing food. All living things under heaven either froze to death or starved to death. All vitality was severed; who knew how many species would go extinct during the Ice Age? Those that survived were few and far between.
Insects, however, were among the hardiest forms of life. When the Ice Age arrived, insects across the world would crawl underground under the leadership of high-grade Spirit Insects and enter hibernation. At the same time, their bodies would be wrapped in a thick layer of stone armor to ward off the cold.
Insects that entered hibernation would fall into a state of suspended death. Every bodily function stopped, allowing them to go without food or drink indefinitely. Their energy consumption paused, their lifespans froze, and they could endure endless ages.
Only when some external factor disturbed them would they awaken and slowly crawl out of their stone armor. By the time they emerged, the world might have passed millions—or even tens of billions—of years.
These stones containing ancient Spirit Insects were called fossils by Gu cultivators.
The Spirit Insects inside fossils were far too ancient. Rare species might appear within them, even species that had gone extinct countless years ago. Their value was immense; discovering one could make someone rich overnight with ease.
However, not every Spirit Insect could survive the Ice Age. Most would freeze to death even with stone armor to protect them from the cold. The Spirit Insects that endured that period were few in number.
Thus, most stones contained dead insects that had long since become true fossils over endless ages. Stones containing living insects were fewer than one in a hundred.
To maximize their profits, the powers that controlled Fossil Ore Veins put all their fossils up for sale, shifting all the risk onto others. Whether one lost or profited depended entirely on personal luck.
Thus, the stone-gambling industry that swept the entire world came into being.
One cut could make you poor, one cut could make you rich, one cut could leave you dressed in hemp. This trade was all about the thrill.
Although most people lost money, countless Gu cultivators still flocked to it without tiring, dreaming that luck would stand on their side and that they could uncover a heaven-defying insect species to become rich overnight. Every one of them was a gambler.
There were certain patterns to stone gambling. One could estimate whether a stone contained a living insect by examining its veins and textures, and thus many stone-gambling masters had emerged.
But even the greatest stone-gambling master in the world merely had a few percent higher chance of success than others. No one could completely determine what lay inside a stone—whether it contained a dead insect or a living one.
But today, an exception entered this stone-gambling shop.
In Long Xuan's eyes, stones without visible progress naturally contained no insects, while stones with visible progress naturally contained insects. Moreover, the more digits there were after the decimal point, the better the goods inside.
The good materials in the entire stone-gambling shop were practically being handed to him for free.
A smile curled at Long Xuan's lips. Still veiled, he strode inside with brimming confidence.
This stone-gambling shop was enormous, divided into several major sections. Fossils with good appearances and high odds of yielding insects were piled together in one area, and their prices were extremely high.
Fossils with poor appearances, which were more likely to contain dead insects, were gathered in another area. This section occupied the largest space, and its fossils were also cheaper.
This area also drew the most people. Everyone wanted to take advantage of a bargain and strike it rich with a hidden treasure.
They picked up fossils, knocking and feeling them, studying them carefully for most of the day. In the end, they still agonized over their choices. Though this place was crowded, transactions were not frequent.
The stone materials came in all sizes. The small ones were only as large as fists, while the large ones stood four meters tall. One was displayed in the middle of the courtyard and called the Stone King. A crowd surrounded it, touching the fossil here and there and marveling aloud.
Naturally, this Stone King carried the highest price in the entire shop. No one dared buy it, and few could afford it. It had remained there all along; though many gathered to watch, not one person made a move.
Long Xuan was also startled by the Stone King. Just how afraid of death was this Spirit Insect, to form such thick stone armor? With armor this thick, surely anyone else might freeze to death before it did.
The odds of this Stone King yielding an insect must be extremely high.
Long Xuan subconsciously activated the ability of his golden finger. Sure enough, progress appeared in the center of the Stone King: [82.68732%].
Good heavens, there were a full five digits after the decimal point. That meant a Supreme-grade Spirit Insect hidden inside might have been mature for over ten thousand years, and a Supreme-grade Spirit Insect was a necessary material for refining a supreme-grade Gu worm.
Long Xuan's eyes immediately lit up, and his heart pounded wildly.
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