The deeper one walked, the more beautiful and bustling it became.
Small ground stalls became fewer and fewer, and large tents became more and more.
One could see various large tents in red, blue, yellow, and green. Some were constructed in square shapes, and some were in bucket-like cylinder shapes. Some had two door pillars erected at the rolled-up entrance curtain, while others hung large red lanterns. Inside some of them the lights were brilliant, while inside others it was dim and lightless.
Fang Yuan walked and looked at the same time, ultimately stopping his footsteps at a gray tent.
"This is the place." He raised his eyes to measure it up. Only to see two standing pillars set up at the doorway of this tent. On the standing pillars, a pair of couplets was carved using an intaglio carving method.
On the left: Expend a little courage, obtain the wealth of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
On the right: Greatly display your skills, harvest the riches of east, south, west, and north.
In the middle there was also a horizontal scroll: The Wheel of Fortune Turns.
That's right, this was a gambling house.
This gambling house covered an area of one mu, already belonging to the category of large tents.
Fang Yuan walked inside. Inside the tent, leaning entirely against the edges, three rows of counters were arranged. On the counters lay pieces of amber or fossil. Small ones were only the size of a palm, and large ones were the size of a washbasin. There were also even larger ones, fully as tall as a person. Naturally unable to fit on the counter, they stood directly on the ground.
Different from the bustle of other tent shops, inside here it was quietly silent.
Gu Masters in twos and threes stood in front of the counters. Some carefully scrutinized the stones placed on the counters. Some picked up a fossil and carefully rubbed it in their palms to feel the texture. Some discussed softly with their companions, and some discussed prices with the shop waiters.
But no matter what words they spoke, it was all with soft voices and gentle words, trying their best not to disturb others.
This was a rock gambling house.
In this world of Gu, there were various all sorts, strangely bizarre, and countless Gu. Gu insects had their own specific foods. Without food, a Gu insect could only hold on for a period of time before dying.
However, Mother Nature was both cruel and merciful towards life.
If lacking food, a Gu insect also had a thread of survival opportunity. That was to fall into a deep sleep and self-seal.
For example, without moon orchid petals, a Moonlight Gu might seal itself. It would contract its power as much as possible, similar to hibernation, falling into the deepest sleep. At this time, not only would its body's blue light dissipate, but it would also fade from a transparent crystal shape into a gray stone, shrouded in a layer of stone shell. As days stretched into months, the stone shell would grow thicker and heavier, eventually forming a stubborn rock.
Take the Liquor worm for another example. If it self-sealed, it would form a white silkworm cocoon. It would curl up its body and sleep deeply within the silkworm cocoon.
Of course, this situation of sealing and deep sleep did not happen to the bodies of all Gu insects. The probability of it happening was very small. Under normal circumstances, Gu insects would not sleep deeply, but would starve to death. Only a small, individual minority of Gu insects would self-seal under specific circumstances.
Some Gu Masters accidentally obtained these stubborn rocks or insect cocoons that sealed Gu insects, and awakened the sleeping Gu insects within. Some made a small fortune because of this. Some had a meteoric rise, their life trajectories welcoming a turning point. These situations occurred repeatedly in the Gu Master world, and there were often true or false rumors and gossip, inducing people to daydream.
The source of the stubborn rocks in this rock gambling house lay exactly in this. Of course, the outer appearances of these stones were all suspected to be so. They had to be cut open to confirm whether there truly was a Gu insect hidden inside or not.
"In small rock gambling houses like this kind, out of ten stones, eight or nine are solid, with no Gu insects inside. Even for stone pieces with Gu insects, they might not necessarily all be live bugs; eight or nine out of ten are dead Gu. However, once a live Gu is gambled out, under most circumstances, one can gain a huge profit. If the Gu insect is extremely rare and precious, then they will either have a meteoric rise from then on, or be murdered for their goods."
Fang Yuan's mind was clear and bright; he was very clear about the tricks within this.
During his previous life, he had also participated in caravans and worked as a waiter in a rock gambling house. For a period later on, he had even operated a rock gambling house. It was bigger than this place, being a medium-sized rock gambling house. He had pitted quite a few gamblers, and had also made errors in judgment, having precious and valuable Gu insects gambled out by others a few times.
Fang Yuan stood at the doorway for a while, his gaze sweeping a circle, and only then slowly walked to the counter on the left.
Behind the counter, standing at intervals of a few meters, was a shop waiter, both male and female. Around their waists were all tied green belts; they were not mortals, but all Rank 1 Gu Masters. Most were initial stage, and a few individuals were middle stage.
Seeing Fang Yuan arrive in front of the counter, a female Gu Master closest to him walked over, a smile emerging on her face as she said softly: "This young master, what Gu insect do you need? This side's counter sells every stone piece entirely for ten primeval stones. If you are attempting it for the first time and want a small gamble to delight the mood, you might as well go to the counter on the right, the stones there only sell for five primeval stones. If you want excitement, you might as well go to the high-grade counter straight ahead, the stubborn rocks there sell for twenty primeval stones a piece."
This was an experienced female Gu Master, having already worked in the rock gambling house for quite some time.
After she saw Fang Yuan walk in, from his outer appearance, age, height, and so on, she deduced that he was a student.
Those who came to gamble on rocks were all Gu Masters, there would be no mortals. While students could only be considered reserve Gu Masters, having just stepped onto cultivation. It was usual to be strapped for cash because of feeding Gu insects, so where would they have any spare money to gamble on rocks?
Students like this often just came in to take a look, broaden their horizons, and seek novelty. The vast majority only looked and did not buy. A small, individual minority with decent family backgrounds might perhaps buy one to attempt it. But usually, they would only buy the cheapest fossils.
Therefore, regarding how many stones Fang Yuan could purchase, the female Gu Master did not hold any expectations.
"I will look first." Fang Yuan nodded at her expressionlessly, then lowered his head to observe.
In his memory, it should be precisely this counter of this rock gambling house.
But five hundred years was truly too long. Many things were exceedingly blurry, especially since the memory of five hundred years was truly a massive reserve. Truthfully speaking, Fang Yuan did not remember it very clearly.
He only vaguely remembered that it was exactly in this year, on the first night the caravan arrived, that a lucky person spent ten primeval stones to buy a fossil with a purple-gold luster shining on its stone skin.
After he cut the stone on the spot, he obtained a Mudskin Toad. Afterwards, this Toad Gu was purchased by someone, and he earned quite a few primeval stones because of this.
Fang Yuan looked for a while, his brows furrowing slightly.
On this counter, there were over twenty fossils with purple-gold radiance shining on their outer appearances. Exactly which piece held the Mudskin Toad hidden inside?
Every stone on this side sold universally for ten primeval stones. Fang Yuan currently had ninety-eight primeval stones on his body; estimating according to this, he could at most buy nine pieces.
But in reality, it could not be calculated like this.
For any adventure and gamble, the consequences had to be considered.
Fang Yuan was long no longer that kind of rash youth, nor was he a conceited gambler. Those who thought they were favored by fate were usually broken under the teasing of fate.
"I am entirely alone, without the financial support of relatives and friends. I must leave behind some primeval stones to support my living, as well as to buy food materials to feed my Gu insects." He calculated slightly, and after leaving a basic guarantee, he could at most purchase seven fossils.
"This piece of stone, purple-gold adorns it like stars, but it is flat as a pancake, a Mudskin Toad cannot be hidden inside."
"This purple-gold piece is dazzling, but it is only the size of a fist. If a Mudskin Toad is truly hidden inside, it should be at least thirty percent larger than this."
"This purple-gold fossil is large alright, but the surface is exceedingly smooth, while the rock skin of a Mudskin Toad is full of potholes and bumps. Obviously not it…"
Fang Yuan continuously measured up and observed, eliminating and filtering.
After a Gu insect was sealed and fell into a deep sleep, the formed fossil became a unified whole, inherently putting an end to the vast majority of detection methods in the world. The remaining few detection methods were almost all tough and barbarous; once used, they would directly kill the dying Gu insect inside.
Therefore, when Gu Masters came to select stones, they could only rely on guessing, on experience, on luck, and on the occasional flash of inspiration.
If it were not so, this place would not be called a gambling house.
Of course, in this boundless universe, there are all sorts of strange things, and it was not ruled out that there were an extremely rare few gentle detection methods that could let a Gu Master know in advance whether a Gu insect was hidden inside the stone.
In his previous life, Fang Yuan had heard some rumors of this, but later after verification, he discovered they were all rumors.
Fang Yuan privately assumed: if such methods truly existed, they must also be secret inheritances, only grasped in the hands of an extremely small number of mysterious people. It had no impact on the overall situation of the entire gambling industry.
It was still somewhat better around this Qingmao Mountain area; the further east one went, the more prevalent gambling houses became. Reaching the White Hair Mountain area, every mountain village had gambling houses set up. In some large-scale mountain villages, large-scale gambling houses stood in great numbers. In the three great mountain villages famous for their faraway visions in rock gambling: Firm Rock Village, Ancient Tomb Village, and Azure Whale Village, there were even super-large-scale rock gambling houses.
These three super-large-scale rock gambling houses each had histories spanning over a thousand years. Today their businesses were still prosperous, with an endless stream of gamblers. An incident of being swept clean by someone had never occurred.
This tent Fang Yuan was currently in could at best be barely considered a small-sized gambling house.
But if other fifteen-year-old youths came here, their eyes would certainly be dazzled by these fossils, and even if they selected fossils, it would purely be blindly guessing and pointing randomly.
But Fang Yuan was different.
Firstly, he already knew a portion of the answer in advance, therefore the selection scope was abruptly narrowed down to below thirty pieces.
Of course, to pick out that single unique piece from these over twenty fossils was also extremely not easy.
However, Fang Yuan had the foundation of five hundred years of experience. Relying on such a thick and solid foundation, he observed for a short moment and filtered out the six purple-gold fossils that best matched the standards.
He had eighty percent certainty to confirm—the Mudskin Toad was precisely sleeping deeply inside one of these purple-gold fossils!