Stone King

With a top-grade spirit insect, he could immediately begin creating his own top-grade Gu recipe and refine the first top-grade Gu insect of his Gu Cultivator career.

One had to know that there was not a single top-grade Gu insect in the entire marketplace. Owning one was truly an immense temptation to him.

This Stone King had thoroughly tempted him.

However, he needed to think carefully about how to snatch it up by picking up a bargain. Buying it outright was definitely impossible, since he certainly did not have that many spirit stones.

He really did think of several bargain-hunting methods mentioned in novels, but they required extreme conditions to cooperate with them. For instance, picking up a bargain by buying scraps—but he would need someone to cooperate with him.

Could anyone truly afford this Stone King? His gaze suddenly lowered, and when he saw its price tag, his teeth immediately ached.

What a guy, ten million!

Why did they not just rob people? Had they gone mad dreaming of spirit stones?

At a price of ten million, he could sell his blood and kidneys and still not afford it.

"Shopkeeper, isn't your price unreasonable? Even if this Stone King really can yield a top-grade spirit insect, isn't this selling price far too high? Gu refinement has an extremely high failure rate!"

Long Xuan looked at the fat man standing beside the Stone King with his hands behind his back and asked in confusion.

This fat man was called Qian Duoduo, the shopkeeper in charge of this store.

Hearing him, the fat man squeezed a smile onto his round face. He turned to look at the masked youth and said with a smile, "You're an amateur, aren't you?"

"Who told you that the best thing a stone can yield is only a top-grade spirit insect?"

"The principle behind the birth of Gu insects is that swarms of insects devour one another. In the insect world, the weak were meat and the strong ate. A spirit insect that fed on other insects and ate enough of them in a short time could naturally, by a fortunate coincidence, become a Gu insect."

"Although they are rare, naturally born Gu insects definitely exist. Let me teach you a principle known only to master stone gamblers: once a Gu insect enters hibernation, the stone shell it forms is often extremely thick."

"This Stone King absolutely has a chance of yielding a Gu insect, and it could even yield a Gu insect so heaven-defying that it beggared belief. If it yields one of those heaven-defying Gu species on the rankings, it could sell for billions. My price of ten million is already very low."

After looking at the Stone King once more, Long Xuan probed, "Do you have any events? For example, complete some game and get this Stone King for free?"

Qian Duoduo was dumbfounded by Long Xuan's godlike remark.

Give it away for free after playing a game?

Did he think he was an idiot? What brain-dead person would give away a Stone King worth ten million as a game prize? He really dared to dream.

"Are you kidding me? Using something worth ten million as a game prize—are you crazy, or am I crazy?!" Qian Duoduo shouted in exasperation.

"Your idea is actually a good way to gather popularity. It can be done, but the prize absolutely cannot be this outrageous."

"However, there really is a way to take this Stone King away without spending spirit stones, though no one has managed it." Qian Duoduo suddenly said mysteriously.

"Oh? I would like to hear the details." Long Xuan's eyes lit up, and he immediately perked up.

"A Gu insect's abilities can be deeply developed. You know about that, right?" Qian Duoduo asked first.

Long Xuan shook his head. He was a small Rogue Cultivator with no master and no inheritance. No one had taught him anything, and every household guarded its own broom, so much so that he could not even buy books. He could only fumble his way forward alone, and there were many common-sense matters in the Gu World that he did not understand.

Qian Duoduo revealed an expression of knowing it. Patiently, he explained, "The greatest difference between humans and Gu insects is that humans possess the highest intelligence among all living beings, while Gu insects possess the lowest intelligence yet have the power to instantly kill humans. The two happen to complement each other."

"Human wisdom can allow Gu insects to unleash even more terrifying power. For example, a Fireball Gu's ability is to spit fireballs, but its intelligence is too low for it to adapt. It only knows how to keep spitting fireballs."

"But humans are clever. Humans can spread their thoughts wide, making the fireball larger and turning it into the Great Fireball Technique, or making the fireballs more numerous and turning them into the Fireball Barrage Technique."

"Invisibly, the Fireball Gu has effectively gained two more abilities, and its combat power surges."

"There are many similar examples. Many utterly ordinary Gu insects became extremely terrifying in the hands of people with great wisdom, and their value soared."

"It could be said that there were no useless Gu insects, only useless Gu Cultivators. As long as your wisdom was high enough and your imagination vast enough, a Gu insect's abilities would have limitless possibilities."

"The vast majority of Gu insects possessed only one ability, but Gu Cultivators with sufficiently powerful imaginations could develop a second ability for them, a third ability, even a tenth ability."

"Do you see that bidding box?"

Qian Duoduo pointed at the wooden box beside the Stone King.

"My young lady obtained a high-grade natural-element Gu insect some time ago. Aside from eye-type Gu insects, the Gu insects Gu Cultivators in this world most desire are natural-element Gu insects."

"Natural-element Gu insects have no physical form. They are a form of energy and can resist the vast majority of attacks. My young lady spent no small amount of effort catching it back then."

"Unfortunately, this Glow Gu's intelligence is truly too low. Its ability is to control light, yet it only knows the illumination technique."

"Therefore, my young lady is widely gathering everyone's wisdom here. As long as someone has an idea, they can write their imaginative notion on paper and throw it into the bidding box."

"As long as an ability someone develops satisfies my young lady, they can win the bid and become the bid king, then take that Stone King away."

Qian Duoduo smiled at Long Xuan. He had said similar words to countless people already, and he loved seeing the expressions on their faces as though pie were about to fall from the sky.

Long Xuan's heart stirred at those words, but he quickly calmed down and hurriedly questioned, "That's not right. There's no standard at all for how powerful an ability must be to count as winning the bid."

"If she says it wins, it wins. If she says it does not, it does not. Wouldn't that become her word alone, with the final right of interpretation entirely in her own hands?"

"What if someone's imaginative idea moves her, but she cannot bear to give away the Stone King and shamelessly claims it did not win?"

"Wouldn't that make us all suckers, letting her freeload off each of us one by one? I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way."

"Hehe, you're an amateur again, aren't you?" Qian Duoduo remained smiling and did not become angry at all. He explained again, "You are wrong. In fact, you are the only person in the entire world who has such thoughts."

"Every Gu Cultivator in the world knows that members of the Qian Clan refine Integrity Gu. Integrity Gu has one extremely fatal weakness: its host must act with integrity, or else they will suffer backlash from the Integrity Gu."

"At the very least, they would leave behind a heart demon, and their cultivation would never advance another inch for the rest of their lives."

"Yet where there was one drawback, there was also one benefit."

"Precisely because Integrity Gu has such a drawback, Gu Cultivators throughout the world trust the Qian Clan Merchant Association. Whenever they buy cultivation resources, they prioritize the Qian Clan Merchant Association."

"When selling precious treasures, they also consider the Qian Clan Merchant Association first, because Qian Clan merchants carrying Integrity Gu absolutely cannot kill customers by any means, not even through indirect murder."

"That was why the Qian Clan Merchant Association had grown larger and larger, becoming one of the greatest merchant associations here."

"For the Qian Clan Merchant Association to reach its current scale, the restrictions of Integrity Gu have unquestionably rendered outstanding service."

"The Qian Clan therefore established a clan rule that every manager must refine an Integrity Gu."

"So your concerns are completely unnecessary. My young lady absolutely cannot do something against her conscience. Besides, ten million is merely a small sum in the eyes of the Qian Clan Merchant Association. It is even less worth taking such a risk for."

"As long as the ability you develop for the Glow Gu is heaven-defying enough, this Stone King will be yours. The Qian Clan Merchant Association keeps its word."