It was a black rock.
The size of a person's face, the black rock's surface glowed with bits of blue light.
At one glance, it resembled the stars shining in the night sky.
This was a stellar stone.
But different from the surrounding stellar stones, this one was cubic and looked like a brick.
But this rock, buried in a pile, was that legendary Gu that someone obtained. And that lucky person, from someone unknown, he became a famous strength path Gu Master all due to this Gu, causing everyone to look in envy.
Fang Yuan stood here, observing the surroundings, instantly understanding why no one cared about this rock.
This was an extravagant large sized gambling den, and had great business.
Although it was third inner city, there was human crowd around it.
Gambling rocks were classified into five categories; scrap, low, medium, high, and super grade.
At scrap grade, each rock was sold for over ten primeval stones. Low grade rocks were around a hundred primeval stones, medium grade were a thousand, high grade were ten thousand, and super grade were a few hundred thousand per piece.
And this stellar stone was of scrap grade.
Scrap grade gambling rocks were the ones most looked down on. Most were solid on the inside, even if there was a Gu, it was mostly dead carcasses.
Especially after the demonic Gu Master Wei Shen Jing's appearance, it caused the scrap grade rocks' market value to be severely affected.
Wei Shen Jing was skilled at creating counterfeit items, called the Counterfeit Master by people.
He had once sold large amounts of counterfeit scrap grade gambling rocks, causing almost all large clans to post his arrest warrant. In the southern border, he was hated by everybody.
This caused the scrap grade gambling rocks to become even more unpopular, but it was not completely ignored.
Sometimes, when Gu Masters were in the mood when they were shopping, they would engage in small gambles for fun. Buying a few scrap grade gambling rocks, just for entertainment. Other than that, professional gamblers also used them for practice.
After all, scrap grade gambling rocks were cheap, to some Gu Masters, there was no pain in losing the gamble.
But the problem was, this is third inner city.
Here, most Gu Masters were rank three.
Rank three was clan elder level, at this stage, most had their own assets. Even if they were practising, the would choose low grade rocks which had a much higher chance of winning.
Scrap grade rocks were an insult to them.
Despite so, in such a large gambling den, which was overflowing with people, there were certain Gu Masters who had their attention on these scrap rocks.
But still…
"Hehehe, how would they guess, that the stellar stone used to support a leg of this counter would hide a legendary Gu worm." Fang Yuan laughed in his heart.
Indeed, this stellar stone was used to fix a shaky counter, placed below one of its legs.
People moved about, but who would notice an ordinary counter out of tens of rows of counters at the scrap rock area.
These counters were filled with scrap grade rocks, one piled on top of another. They were so cheap it was like the rows of vegetables and fruits in a market back on Earth.
None of the Gu Masters who came here placed their sights on these scrap grade gambling rocks.
Thus, this stellar stone became unnoticed, and eventually gathered a layer of dust, causing it to be even more unappealing.
No one knew when this stellar stone started being used as counter support, but during this period, an uncountable number of people walked past it daily.
Until one day.
A down-and-out Gu Master, came here, and tripped at this counter.
To be honest, this Gu Master should be blamed for not looking at where he's going. The counter was an inanimate object, so many Gu Masters walked past it daily but no one had ever been tripped by it.
Like a lamp post, it stood straight on the street, being no obstacle to men, but some people tend to knock onto it for no reason. Can you blame the lamp post for that?
But no matter what world it is, reasons do not resolve arguments, only strength does.
A farmer raised a rooster, but it was so noisy the farmer could not get his nap. Feeling angered, the farmer slaughtered the rooster, there was seemingly nothing wrong with that.
No matter which world, the stronger person only had to relent a little to resolve conflicts. But the eventual settlement of the issue would often result in the stronger person not giving in, and the weaker person would pay a heavy price.
The Gu Master was tripped, even though he did not fall down, he was angry. He vented his anger on this piece of rock.
Since you dared to trip me, I will slice you open!
Thus, the Gu Master bought this rock, and dissected it in public.
And then, the legendary Gu appeared in this world.
It was a very dramatic incident, but precisely because it was so dramatic that people passed around the story in Fang Yuan's previous life.
And now, this incident has not happened yet.
This stellar stone, was still used as a counter support, quietly and silently awaiting its fate.
And Fang Yuan's feet, was only two inches from it.
"Dear customer, is this your first time here?" A clerk walked over seeing Fang Yuan's dazed expression, he was not aware Fang Yuan was looking at this rock with the corner of his eye.
Fang Yuan rubbed his nose, saying: "Yeah I guess." If he did not consider his previous life, this was the second time he was at a gambling den.
Newbie.
Easy to trick!
The clerk's smile became extremely bright: "Please come inside, to speak the truth, the rocks here are the cheapest, but nothing cheap is good. They have poor quality, and are of all shapes and sizes, what can you get out of them? Let me introduce for you, customer."
"Oh? Then talk." Fang Yuan's eyebrows raised as he followed the clerk into the gambling den.
"Customer, do you know how gambling rocks are formed?" The clerk walked ahead as he looked back and asked.
Before Fang Yuan replied, he answered already: "As the saying goes, Man is the spirit of all livings beings, Gu is the essence of heaven and earth. Man has great inspiration and thus are able to innovate. They have the highest intelligence, and can create many things, many new Gu worms that do not originate from nature.
Gu is the essence of heaven and earth, they have little intelligence, but their tiny bodies contain the law fragments of the Great Dao."
"Heaven and earth always leaves a chance of survival, some Gu worms get gravely injured, or run out of food, they might go into hibernation. Through long periods of time, a rock layer would form around their bodies. The rock gets thicker, and thicker, until it gains substantial mass. As time passes, more and more layers form, until a fossil is created.
These rocks wrap around the Gu worms, and due to the influence of the law fragments in the Gu worms, they become different from other rocks, and look very different compared to the surrounding soil. People find these fossils, and collect them, this is the truth of the gambling rock that you see before you."
Fang Yuan nodded, as he walked, he answered: "Hmm, I've heard of the story of the gambling rock before."
The deeper he went into the gambling den, the more Gu Masters he saw.
Many Gu Masters were picking rocks, or discussing quietly.
The gambling stage and empty spaces felt even more silent due to the soft discussions.
The clerk calmly said: "Since customer wants to gamble, you cannot be rash about it. We might be a gambling den, but we do not scam our customers. We have to let you gamble with a peace of mind, and be informed about your decisions. Here, we sell old man stones, pushing cart stones, stellar stones, cold ice stones. Each rock are split into five grades according to quality, and have different prices.
It ranges from over a hundred thousand to a few primeval stones."
"Customer, the area you were at earlier was the cheapest scrap grade area, I did not recommend you to buy from there because the quality there is the worst, let's take the stellar stone for example."
"In the stellar stone, starlight type Gu are the most commonly seen. These Gu contain the law of the stars, thus, the fossil develops markings that resembles shining stars. Among star type Gu, the most commonly seen are the rank one star dart Gu, thus the fossil would become the shape of a dart. If it is the star arrow Gu, the fossil would be long and have a pointy tip and a spreading end.
There is also the shooting star Gu, the fossil would be round but carries a tail. There is a very high chance of having a Gu within rocks of these shapes."
"Of course, other than the appearance, there are many other elements, like the number of shining stars, the more there are, the more likely there is a Gu within, and the higher rank it could be. Customer, what you are seeing now, are medium grade rocks. You will discover that better grade rocks are better. Of course, the price is steeper."
"Yes, that is indeed so." Fang Yuan casually remarked.
The clerk used a proud tone as he said: "Our shop has the most talented rock dissecting masters, they have at least twenty years of experience. There is a Master Duan, he specializes in using acid to dissect the rocks, having over fifty years of experience."
"I strongly advise you to dissect the rock in our shop after choosing your gambling rock. The rock dissecting master are professionals, and they have a set of Gu worms specially used to dissect rocks."
"The method of dissecting has to be appropriate, like for the stellar stone, magnetism should be used. For old man stone, acid should be used."
"If there is a Gu within the gambling rock, they are extremely weak. If a wrong method is used to excavate them, it can deal a fatal blow to them, it would be too late then."
"Customer, if you choose rocks from the high and super grade area, we can dissect the rock for you for free. If you choose from low or medium grade, you will have to pay yourself. For scrap grade, hehe, we do not advise you to waste money hiring a dissecting master. The cost of hiring him would greatly exceed the price of the rocks itself."
Back on Qing Mao mountain, when Jia clan caravan came, Fang Yuan once dissected the purple gold rock for himself.
But his method, was simply brute force.
Thankfully, the purple gold rock was softer, the mudskin toad had a strong life force, of course, it also had to do with Fang Yuan's great experience.
Rock dissecting cannot be done through brute force, it would easily murder the Gu worm inside.
If Fang Yuan wanted to dissect rocks, he would need to employ the rock dissecting masters in this shop.
After one round, Fang Yuan chose a few rocks at the low grade area. Old man stones, pushing cart stones, and stellar stones, a few of each.
The clerk was disappointed, after spending so much effort in speaking and encouraging, trying to convince Fang Yuan to buy a few high grade rocks, but how could Fang Yuan fall for this.
Getting this result after such a long time, the clerk spoke listlessly: "Dear customer, do you have a token? If it is a yellow pear token and above, there are discounts available. Please show me your token if you have one."
Soon after, his expression changed, as he opened his mouth wide, his eyes about to fall off.
"Purple thorn token? Oh my god!"