Gambling on Stones

For a while afterward, no more customers came by. Seeing that no one was 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 very satisfied.

With a fortune tucked against his chest, he finally had the confidence to hunt for treasures.

Long Xuan eagerly headed deeper into the market, searching for that piece of Darksteel and the high-grade spirit stone that had lingered in his thoughts.

However, after a month and a half, how could he possibly run into them again by such a coincidence?

Besides, every Gu Master was busy cultivating or gathering resources in the wilderness. No one could set up a stall here every day. Whether he encountered them again depended entirely on luck.

After searching around without finding anything, Long Xuan could only give up in disappointment. It seemed he did not possess the protagonist's halo.

Still, it did not matter. There were countless treasures in the world, and every day the market saw new stallholders and new treasures flowing in. Treasures were inexhaustible.

When old treasures left, new treasures arrived. 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 astonishingly large footprint.

Not long ago, a merchant guild that dealt in fossils had moved in here. Countless fossils were piled throughout the shop's courtyard.

In this world, spirit insects came from many sources. Some were caught in the wild, while others were artificially bred.

Spirit herbs in medicinal gardens could also grow insects, but only the spirit insects born from high-grade herbs had value for refining Gu. The insects born from common first-grade spirit herbs were all killed with insecticide powder.

Certain spirit insects also parasitized spirit beasts, and some people might even be born with them inside their bodies. They were called Innate Gu, and such people were often geniuses with unfathomable abilities.

Another portion of spirit insects came from underground, such as earthworms, mole crickets, ants...

Even hard stones might contain insects, and their quality might not be low.

The Ice Age that Earth entered every so often after vast stretches of time also existed in this world, only it was even colder here.

During that time, temperatures plummeted, cold currents swept across the entire world, and icy chill devoured every corner. Snow and glaciers blanketed the earth's surface, turning the whole world into a realm of ice, white with snow and pierced by bone-chilling winds.

Then the land would welcome Eternal Winter. For countless ages, the earth would not see a single warm day again.

During that period, surface plants froze to death on a massive scale, and the land no longer produced food. Living beings throughout the world 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 most resilient lifeforms. When the Ice Age arrived, insects across the world would crawl underground under the leadership of high-grade spirit insects and enter dormancy. At the same time, their bodies would wrap themselves in a thick coat of stone to ward off the cold.

Insects that entered dormancy would fall into a state of suspended death. All bodily functions ceased, allowing them to go without food or water indefinitely. Their energy consumption paused, and even their lifespans stood still, letting them endure endless years.

Only when some outside force disturbed them would they awaken and slowly crawl out of their stone coats. By the time they emerged, the world might have already passed millions, or even tens of billions, of years.

These stones containing ancient spirit insects were called fossils by Gu Masters.

The spirit insects inside fossils were unimaginably ancient. Rare species might appear within them, perhaps even species that had gone extinct countless years ago. Their value was immense, and finding one could make a person rich overnight.

Yet not every spirit insect could survive the Ice Age. Even with stone coats to shield them from the cold, most would freeze to death. The insects that could endure that period were exceedingly rare.

Therefore, most stones contained dead insects that had become true fossils over endless years. Stones containing living insects were fewer than one in a hundred.

To maximize profits, the forces that controlled fossil veins put all their fossils up for sale, transferring all the risk onto others. Whether one lost or profited depended entirely on personal luck.

Thus, the stone-gambling industry, which swept the entire world, came into being.

One cut brought poverty, one cut brought wealth, one cut left you dressed in sackcloth. This industry was all about the thrill.

Although most people lost money, Gu Masters everywhere still threw themselves into it with tireless delight, dreaming that luck would stand on their side and that they could uncover a heaven-defying insect species and become rich overnight. Every last 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, which gave rise to many stone-gambling masters.

But even the greatest stone-gambling master in the world only had a somewhat higher success rate than others. No one could determine with complete certainty what lay inside a stone, whether it held a dead insect or a living one.

But today, an exception entered this stone-gambling shop.

To Long Xuan, stones with no 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 might as well have been handed to him for free.

A faint smile curled Long Xuan's lips. Still masked, he strode inside with confidence brimming in his chest.

This stone-gambling shop was enormous, divided into several major sections. Fossils with attractive appearances and high chances of producing insects were gathered in one area, where their prices were extremely high.

Fossils with poor appearances, more likely to contain dead insects, were gathered in another area. This section occupied the largest area, and its fossils were also cheaper.

This area also had the largest crowd. Everyone wanted to take advantage of a bargain and stumble upon a great windfall.

They picked up fossils, knocking and feeling them, studying them carefully for most of the day. In the end, they would agonize over their choices. Thus, although there were many people here, transactions were not frequent.

The stones came in all sizes. The small ones were only as large as a fist, while the largest stood four meters tall. It was displayed in the middle of the courtyard and called the Stone King. A crowd surrounded it, touching the fossil all over and exclaiming in wonder.

Naturally, this Stone King had the highest price in the entire shop. No one dared to buy it, and few could afford it. It had remained on display all this time; though many gathered to watch, not a single 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 a thick stone coat? With a coat that thick, surely whoever else froze to death, it would not.

Its chances of producing an insect must be extremely high.

Long Xuan instinctively activated his cheat ability. 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. This meant that hidden within might be a top-grade spirit insect that had reached maturity over ten thousand years ago, and top-grade spirit insects were essential materials for refining top-grade Gu.

Long Xuan's eyes immediately lit up, and his heart began pounding wildly.