The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 14: Insect in the Stone

"I plan to sell each fossil for ten thousand spirit stones. Who wants to be the first to try their luck?" Long Xuan shouted after scanning the crowd.

At that moment, everyone’s expressions changed. They had just called anyone who bought a fool, but now they all felt like fools themselves.

It was simply too cheap.

Originally priced at ten million, the King of Stones could now be bought in parts for just ten thousand spirit stones each, a fraction of the cost.

Even though it seemed certain that the gamble would be a loss, there was always a chance, however slim. What if a spirit insect was hiding in one of the fossils and hadn't been discovered yet? Theoretically, it was entirely possible.

The key was the low price. Even if they lost the gamble, the loss was bearable.

But if they won, given the quality of the stone, any value of the spirit insect that emerged could make them rich.

It was worth the gamble—a hundredfold return.

Only a fool wouldn't gamble.

The gamblers started breathing heavily, showing greed in their eyes, staring as if they wanted to eat the stone.

At this point, they finally realized that Long Xuan had acquired the King of Stones at no cost. Therefore, he could afford to sell it cheaply and still make a profit. What a cunning little devil.

Long Xuan was very satisfied with their expressions. Indeed, everyone loves a bargain.

As long as the price is low enough, someone will always take the chance and get fooled. His plan was a success.

Qian Duoduo was stunned. He never thought that gambling on stones could be done this way.

Previously, everyone either ground the fossils into powder or took them away whole. Who ever sold the leftover pieces at a low price? This had no precedent.

But today, he witnessed this new method.

He had to admit, it was brilliant. It took advantage of gamblers' love for bargains and their dream of hitting it big. They were actually willing to spend spirit stones to gamble.

Although the profits weren't huge, it was better than losing everything. Moreover, Long Xuan hadn't spent a single spirit stone today; any sale was pure profit.

As expected, things went according to Long Xuan's plan.

Dozens of fossils were snapped up in a frenzy. Everyone lost their rationality, and the fossils were all gone in an instant.

Only the smallest, fist-sized fossil was left, ignored by everyone.

It was too small, about the size of a spirit insect. The chances of finding a spirit insect in it were almost zero, so no one wanted it. Even though ten thousand spirit stones was a small amount compared to the King of Stones, for the average poor practitioner, it was not insignificant. Ten thousand spirit stones weren't worth gambling on such a small stone; the price was too high.

Moreover, Long Xuan cunningly sold all the stones at the same price, regardless of size. People preferred the larger stones, making them feel they were getting more value. Under such circumstances, the small stone had no chance of being sold.

No one wanted it even when he pleaded. People left, cursing him for being crazy for spirit stones. Who would spend ten thousand spirit stones on such a small stone?

Thus, the fossil containing a supreme spirit insect remained with Long Xuan, who couldn't even give it away.

Back home, Long Xuan held the fist-sized fossil, looking at it excitedly and giggling foolishly.

"All my calculations, and it ends up in my hands. I wonder if this find will help me create a supreme Gu recipe."

He gently stroked the stone, his eyes full of expectation.

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

The fossil wasn't large, so it didn't take long. Soon, he successfully extracted something that looked like an eye.

The eye awakened at that moment, slowly opening, revealing an evil aura, looking very ominous.

In this world, even energy-based natural Gu insects existed, so a spirit insect resembling an eye wasn't strange to Long Xuan.

On the contrary, he was thrilled. If the Gu practitioners in this world loved any type of Gu insects, the second most favored were natural Gu, and the most favored were eye Gu. Eye Gu were the rarest Gu in this world.

Most inner Gu consumed the practitioner's spiritual power or blood, but eye Gu consumed the practitioner's mental power, forming their own system.

Eye Gu fed on mental power, enabling them to perform various incredible illusions. Illusions were a more insidious means of attack than regular Gu. Practitioners proficient in illusions were much stronger than ordinary practitioners.

Each type of eye Gu inherently carried a powerful illusion. The world's most extraordinary illusions could only be performed by eye Gu, or at least, eye Gu could unleash their full potential, thus earning them such a high status.

Now, with an eye insect before him, how could Long Xuan not be excited?

Previously, he hadn't dared use rare materials for creating Gu recipes. Many materials were so rare they were almost impossible to find. Without the materials, no matter how good the Gu recipe was, it was useless.

So, Long Xuan's plan was always to create Gu recipes based on the rare materials he had, rather than creating recipes first and then searching for the materials.

Now, with a rare material in hand, he could create an eye Gu based on it.

Long Xuan had already decided on the direction for this eye Gu.

While he couldn't decide what kind of illusion the eye Gu would have, he could determine its basic abilities.

He didn't care about other aspects, but this eye Gu had to have one specific ability—microscopic magnification.

He hurriedly grabbed paper and pen, sat at his desk, and eagerly started creating his second Gu recipe.

This eye insect was likely an ancient species long extinct, but Long Xuan didn't recognize all the existing species, let alone an extinct one.

But this wouldn't hinder him. Long Xuan had discovered that his golden finger operated based on the host's understanding, not the world's insect terminology.

He could even use modern Chinese characters to create Gu recipes. Many microorganisms in this world hadn't been named yet, so he could name them as he pleased, and the golden finger could still recognize them.

Since he didn't know the name of this insect, he could name it anything. It didn't need to sound nice—he decided to call it "Eye in Stone."

In different places, the same thing often had different names. Why not give it a new name at home?

Long Xuan quickly wrote "Eye of Stone" on the paper. As expected, the golden finger recognized it immediately, and the progress bar appeared.

Long Xuan wrote swiftly, inspired. He recalled an old rural saying: "The cow's eye sees people large, the goose's eye sees people small."

So geese like to peck at people and chase them.

Cows, however, see people as large as the barn and work tirelessly, not resisting even when whipped.

Since cow eyes could magnify objects, Long Xuan's first thought was naturally cow eyes.

He didn't know if putting a cow eye, which wasn't an insect, into the mix would work.

But with the error-correcting device, why not try? It wouldn't cost anything, just a few seconds.

Long Xuan wrote "cow eye," and the progress bar on the Gu recipe increased slightly.

Long Xuan smiled, knowing he had succeeded.