Chapter 14: Stone Eye Insect

"I plan to sell each fossil for ten thousand Spirit Stones. Now, who is willing to be the first to come up and draw lots?" Long Xuan swept his gaze across the faces of the crowd before suddenly shouting.

At this moment, everyone's expression became unsettled; just moments ago they had said whoever bought one was a fool, yet now they had all become fools.

There was no helping it; it was simply too cheap.

The Stone King, originally priced at ten million, could now have one-fiftieth of its mass taken away for a mere ten thousand Spirit Stones in a gamble for luck.

Although the situation now basically confirmed the bet was a loss, one fears not the ten thousand certainties, but the single possibility—what if?

What if the Spirit Insect was truly hidden inside some fossil and had not been discovered? This was entirely possible in theory.

Most importantly, it was cheap; even if the gamble failed, the loss was completely bearable.

But once the gamble succeeded, given the appearance of this stone, a Spirit Insect of any value could be revealed, and then one would truly strike it rich.

This was completely worth a gamble; a profit of ten thousand from a single unit of capital.

Whoever does not gamble is an idiot.

All the gamblers began breathing rapidly, revealing greed in their eyes, their gazes looking as if they wanted to eat people alive.

Only now did they finally realize that Long Xuan had acquired this Stone King at no cost, which was why he dared to sell at such a low price without feeling any pain; every Spirit Stone sold was pure profit—truly a cunning little devil.

Long Xuan was very satisfied with everyone's expressions; indeed, loving to grab small bargains is the psychology of all people.

As long as the price was cheap enough, someone would inevitably harbor a fluke hope, and someone would inevitably fall for the trap; his plan had succeeded.

Qian Duoduo was stunned at this moment; he had never imagined that gambling on stones could be played this way.

In the past, everyone would directly grind the fossils into powder or take them away in bundles; where was the precedent for making a few cuts and selling the remaining material at a low price? This had absolutely no precedent before.

Yet today, he finally witnessed that gambling on stones could actually be played this way.

It had to be said that this move was excellent; utilizing the gamblers' psychology of risking little to gain much and loving to pick up bargains, they were indeed willing to spend Spirit Stones to trade.

Although the earnings were not huge, it was still better than losing everything; moreover, Long Xuan had not paid a single Spirit Stone today, so anything sold was pure profit.

In the end, matters proceeded exactly according to the script Long Xuan had arranged, without any surprises.

Dozens of fossils were frantically snatched up; everyone lost their rationality, and within an instant, all dozens of fossils were swept clean.

Only that smallest fossil, the size of a fist, remained unwanted.

This fossil was simply too small, roughly the same volume as a Spirit Insect, making the possibility of revealing a Spirit Insect infinitely close to zero, so no one wanted it; while ten thousand Spirit Stones seemed small compared to the price of the Stone King, in reality, for every Poor Scattered Cultivator, it was already not a small sum, and ten thousand Spirit Stones were simply not worth gambling on such a tiny stone, as the price was far too high.

Moreover, Long Xuan was cunningly miserly; he actually sold stones of all sizes for the same price, so if one spent the same price while others bought a large one and you bought a small one, it would create a sense of imbalance and make one feel greatly shortchanged; under this psychology, Long Xuan's small stone had even less chance of being sold.

Therefore, even though he desperately begged others, no one was willing to take it; they all waved their hands and left, cursing that he must have gone mad craving Spirit Stones, asking who would exchange ten thousand Spirit Stones for such a small stone, declaring that whoever did so was a fool.

Thus, this 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 home, Long Xuan held up that fist-sized fossil, looking at it excitedly and chuckling foolishly without stopping.

"After calculating every mechanism, it has finally fallen into my hands; I wonder if this harvest will allow me to successfully create a Top Grade Gu Formula on my own."

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

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

The fossil was not large in volume, so it did not take him long; before much time had passed, something resembling an eye was successfully excavated by him.

The eye also awakened at this moment, slowly opening; a sinister qi emanated from within the eye, making it look very ominous.

Since this world even possesses Natural System Gu Insects in energy form, what is strange about a Spirit Insect appearing that looks like an eye? Long Xuan felt not the slightest surprise.

On the contrary, he was very excited; if one were to ask which type of Gu Insect Gu Cultivators in this world like to Blood Contract the most.

Then the Natural System Gu Insect would rank second, while the absolute first place belongs to the Pupil Gu, which is also the rarest type of Gu in the current world.

The vast majority of Inner Gu feed on the Spiritual Power or Qi and Blood of the Gu Cultivator, but uniquely, although the Pupil Gu is an Inner Gu, it feeds on the Gu Cultivator's Spiritual Sense, forming a system of its own.

Feeding on Spiritual Sense, the Pupil Gu can unleash various unimaginable Illusion Techniques; Illusion Techniques are a means of harming people that is even harder to guard against than casting Gu itself. Gu Cultivators proficient in Illusion Techniques are often a whole tier stronger than ordinary Gu Cultivators.

Every type of Pupil Gu innately carries a powerful Illusion Technique; the most Heaven-defying Illusion Techniques in this world can only be unleashed by Pupil Gu, or rather, only Pupil Gu can exert their greatest power, which is why Pupil Gu hold such a transcendent status in this world.

Now that a Pupil Insect appeared before his eyes, how could Long Xuan not be excited?

In the past, when creating Gu Formulas on his own, he dared not use materials that were too rare; many materials were meetable but not seekable, or even encountered once in a hundred years, and with bad luck, one might never see them in a lifetime.

If one could not find the materials, what use was it even if one researched the Gu Formula to be incredibly awesome?

Therefore, Long Xuan's consistent plan had been to create Gu Formulas based on the rare materials he had collected, rather than creating the formula first and then searching the entire world for materials.

Now that he had the rare material, he could completely use this rare material as the Main Material to create a type of Pupil Gu on his own.

As for which direction this Pupil Gu should be researched toward, Long Xuan had already made a decision in his heart long ago.

He could not decide what kind of Illusion Technique each Pupil Gu would carry, but he could still decide what basic abilities the Pupil Gu would possess.

He did not care about other aspects, but this Pupil Gu must have one ability: the microscopic magnification ability he had always been concerned with...

He hurriedly took out paper and brush, quickly ran to sit at the table and chair, and with great interest began to create his second Gu Formula.

This eye was very likely an Insect Species that had gone extinct long ago in Ancient Times, but since Long Xuan could not even recognize all the existing Insect Species, how could he possibly know this Spirit Insect that had long been extinct?

But this would not hinder him; through research, Long Xuan had already discovered that this Golden Finger operated based on the host's cognition as the primary factor, rather than being based on the Insect Species terminology of this world.

Even if he used modern Chinese characters to create a Gu Formula, it would work; since the various Microbes of this world had not yet been named, he could name them whatever he liked, and the Golden Finger would still completely recognize them.

Since he did not know what Insect Species this was, he might as well name it randomly; there was no need to consider whether it sounded good, so he would just call it the Stone Eye.

After all, the same thing often has different names in different places, so what harm was there in giving this insect a different name in his own home?

Long Xuan quickly wrote the three characters 'Stone Eye' on the paper; without surprise, the Golden Finger completely recognized it, and Progress immediately appeared.

Long Xuan wrote as if aided by spirits; he thought of an old saying from the countryside: an Ox Eye sees people as large, while a goose eye sees people as small.

Therefore, geese like to peck at people and like to chase people around.

Oxen, however, see people as being the size of an ox pen, so they bear hardships and work tirelessly, not knowing to resist even when whipped.

Since the Ox Eye has the ability to magnify what it sees, the first thing Long Xuan naturally thought of was the Ox Eye.

The principle of Gu is that a group of insects devour each other; he did not know whether putting an Ox Eye, which does not belong to the insect category, into it would work.

But with the cheat tool present, what harm was there in trying? Anyway, it required paying no cost at most wasting a few seconds of time.

Long Xuan lifted his brush and wrote 'Ox Eye' onto it, and the Progress on the Gu Formula immediately showed a slight increase.

A smile touched Long Xuan's lips; he knew he had succeeded.

(End of Chapter)