"I want to buy some rocks." Having picked his targets, Fang Yuan said to the female Gu Master.
"Rookie!" A word immediately popped up in the female Gu Master's mind.
Even the worst gambler, if they wanted to buy, would have to appraise it first. First carefully observe, then hold the stone in their hands and rub it extensively to feel the texture of the stone skin and its weight.
After examining like this a few times, if they felt something was off, gamblers would give up. They wouldn't just open their mouths and say they were buying.
And someone like Fang Yuan, who just opened his mouth and wanted to buy, was undoubtedly a rookie gambling on rocks for the first time.
However, although the female Gu Master thought this way, her expression on the surface did not change at all. Still smiling like a blooming flower, she asked Fang Yuan softly, "Then which piece would you like to choose?"
Fang Yuan pointed, "This piece."
The female Gu Master immediately took it out.
Fang Yuan pointed again, "This piece."
The female Gu Master felt slightly surprised; she didn't expect this young man to buy two pieces at once.
"It seems this young man is the type with a rather big gambling addiction," she evaluated secretly in her heart.
But immediately following that, Fang Yuan pointed again, "Also this piece, and that piece, I'll buy them all."
The female Gu Master was stunned for a moment, greatly surprised, and couldn't help but re-evaluate Fang Yuan.
"It seems this ordinary-looking young man must have a very good family background. Otherwise, how could an ordinary Gu Master have such spare money?" Thinking of this, the female Gu Master's smile became a bit more gentle and friendly. She hadn't expected the young man in front of her to actually be a customer.
This was an unexpected pleasant surprise.
However, Fang Yuan surprised the female Gu Master once again. He pointed to the purple-gold rocks furthest away, "Right, and those two pieces over there."
The female Gu Master couldn't help but feel a slight shock in her heart: "Which wealthy young master of the Gu Yue village is this? Looking at his appearance, he seems to be a successor of a branch family. If I can connect with him, perhaps I won't have to work so hard as a shop assistant here."
Thinking up to this point, the female Gu Master's smile couldn't help but soften even more, and even a trace of flirtatiousness was added to the gaze she directed at Fang Yuan.
Six rocks were placed in front of Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan took out sixty primeval stones on the spot and handed them to the female Gu Master without hesitation.
His action of paying the bill immediately caught the attention of the other Gu Masters in the tent.
"Hmm? Someone has started gambling on rocks."
"We've been watching for over an hour and didn't dare to make a move. Now someone is testing the waters, it's good to take a look."
"It's a student, and to actually pull out sixty primeval stones at once, his net worth is quite abundant. Looks like a downright reckless youth. Hmph, is gambling on rocks that easy? He's going to hit his head until it bleeds today."
The Gu Masters stood in place, discussing softly, their gazes all turning towards Fang Yuan.
"Young Master, do you want to open the rocks on the spot? This casino opens the seals and rocks for you free of charge," the female Gu Master suggested gently, sending flirtatious glances his way frequently.
Fang Yuan glanced around from the corner of his eye, a faint, inexplicable smile playing on his lips. He waved his hand and rejected the female Gu Master, "Purple-gold is my lucky color, and this is my first time gambling on rocks, it has great significance. I want to open the rocks with my own hands!"
The female Gu Master's eyes brightened by another three points as she thought to herself: This kind of boldly generous demeanor, truly a wealthy young master.
She would never have imagined that Fang Yuan in the Gu Yue village could be said to be without family or relatives, drifting like duckweed, without any background or backing, having to fight for everything purely on his own.
"Tch, so what if you have money."
"Who knows what little bastard this is, coming out to waste his parents' hard-earned money!"
"The young lad doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. Who chooses rocks based on lucky colors? Sigh, this kind of behavior is simply throwing primeval stones on the surface of the water, then smashing up splashes just to watch for fun."
The gazes of the Gu Masters in the tent couldn't help but uniformly dim. Having determined that Fang Yuan was a prodigal, their already low expectations instantly diminished to almost nothing.
Some Gu Masters even directly withdrew their lines of sight, turned their heads, and resumed observing the fossils on the counter.
The changes in the surroundings failed to affect Fang Yuan's state of mind the slightest bit. Expressionless, he silently mobilized the primeval essence in his primeval sea and poured it into the Moonlight Gu.
The next moment, the crescent mark in the palm of his right hand emitted a ball of faint blue radiance like water.
Using this right hand, Fang Yuan grabbed a piece of purple-gold rock and held it in his palm. Then, closing his five fingers, he slowly kneaded and rubbed the surface of the fossil.
The blue light continuously flickered, and as the light rippled like water, the purple-gold rock became smaller and smaller. A large amount of powdery stone debris leaked through the crevices of Fang Yuan's fingers onto the carpet in the tent.
"Good technique, Young Master!" The female Gu Master seized the opportunity to immediately speak up and praise.
"This young man isn't useless after all. He has some real skill." Seeing this scene, a trace of complex light flashed in the eyes of the Gu Masters. They began to view Fang Yuan in a new light.
Fang Yuan using the blue light to grind the surface of the stone was a type of fine manipulation of the Moonlight Gu. Normally, only Gu Masters who had used the Moonlight Gu for two or three years could reach this level.
At Fang Yuan's age, and being just a student, achieving this was quite rare.
"Look, what he's using is the unique Moonlight Gu of our Gu Yue clan." Some Gu Masters noticed this, immediately feeling a shared sense of honor, and found Fang Yuan much more pleasing to the eye.
"But this technique is still too rough to be used for opening rocks." Some steady and experienced Gu Masters shook their heads instead.
The purple-gold rock became smaller and smaller. At first, an open palm couldn't wrap around it, but after a moment, it shrank to the size of a fist, enveloped by Fang Yuan's fingers.
The blue light grew even stronger, and the fossil turned the size of a marble. Until eventually, only a pile of stone powder was left, falling onto the carpet to form a small mound.
This was a completely solid rock; there were no Gu worms inside at all.
"Sure enough, unreliable." The Gu Masters shook their heads endlessly.
"Young Master, there are still five pieces of purple-gold rocks," the female Gu Master encouraged warmly.
Fang Yuan's expression was calm, completely unaffected. He grabbed the second purple-gold rock and continued grinding.
But the result for this piece was still a solid stone, with no Gu worms inside.
Moving onto the third piece, it remained the same.
Among the Gu Masters, someone grew impatient: "Stop looking, there is absolutely no need to gamble on rocks picked by color."
"If he can gamble out a good Gu, I will eat all this stone powder on the ground." Someone teased with a faint smile.
"Don't lose heart, Young Master. Aren't there still three pieces? You've only opened half," the female Gu Master exhaled like an orchid, cheering Fang Yuan on.
Fang Yuan grabbed the fourth piece. When he ground it down to the size of a palm, his movements suddenly paused.
"Eh? There's stuff inside!"
"The stone material has changed, it's no longer purple-gold stone material, but taking on a black ink color."
"Could it be that this blind cat really caught a dead mouse?"
A sudden, light gasp of astonishment erupted from the surrounding Gu Masters.
"Young Master, please be careful opening the rock next. Make sure your movements aren't too large; dormant Gu worms are extremely fragile. If you use too much force, you might mistakenly kill the Gu worm inside." The female Gu Master hadn't expected this situation to actually occur either; she was taken aback and hurriedly gave a careful reminder.
Fang Yuan's movements slowed down significantly. As his fingers rubbed against it, the powder rustled down intermittently. It was disjointed, no longer continuous like before.
Black stone powder drifted down, and the stone became smaller and smaller, while Fang Yuan's movements grew even slower and gentler.
The stone powder on the carpet piled up higher and higher, and the black ink stone core in Fang Yuan's hands was ultimately worn away to nothing.
"Sigh, what a pity, it was just a stone within a stone."
"Wasting my emotions for nothing, I thought there really was a Gu worm."
"You guys are too easily fooled. Is gambling on rocks that easy of a thing? Eight or nine out of ten are empty, otherwise how would the shops make money?"
"Young Master, your luck is actually already quite good. To be able to gamble a stone within a stone on your first time is something ordinary people cannot do either." The female Gu Master comforted Fang Yuan in different ways, while at the same time laying the psychological groundwork for the upcoming results.
Coming up empty-handed from gambling on rocks was something that happened eight or nine times out of ten; it was far too common. In her eyes, Fang Yuan was just acting on a whim, and the possibility of him selecting a fossil with a Gu inside was microscopic.
Fang Yuan smiled and didn't reply, but instead proceeded to take out the fifth piece.
He ground it finely. This time, in just the span of ten breaths, the purple-gold stone skin on the surface was entirely ground away, revealing a bumpy, yellow mud ball.