As ti passed, the atmosphere in the inner hall began to boil like a pot of slow-simred old soup.
But contrary to the expectations of many onlookers, mixed within this boiling heat was a suffocating rationality and restraint.
"Three hundred ten."
Lin Feng bid. His voice was steady, showing no signs of losing his head.
Beside him, an old clan enshrined expert squinted, his inspection lamp pressed against a "Green-Grey Skin" raw stone, examining every crack on the shell.
"Three hundred twenty."
Not far away, Lin Ze played with his iron walnuts and followed with a faint bid.
Behind him stood an experienced clan steward, nodding slightly to him.
Though their words had been sharp before, their bidding was extrely cautious.
"Three hundred thirty." Lin Feng raised again, a flash of determination in his eyes.
"If this stone yields a tal Path or durability-type Gu, it will rge perfectly with my 'Iron Bone' Prival Essence and boost my physical defense."
"Even at a slight premium, it is a necessity for cultivation."
Hearing this, Lin Ze wanted to speak, but the steward behind him gently tugged his sleeve.
Lin Ze's eyes flickered.
He thought inwardly: "re defensive auxiliary material, and tal Path at that. It doesn't match the Earth Path resources my Storage Lineage favors."
"Rather than fight him out of spite here, better to save my bullets for the Earth Path Gu later."
Thinking this through, the competitive urge in Lin Ze's eyes vanished instantly.
He shrugged and withdrew cleanly. "Since Cousin has a rigid need, it's yours."
No acting on impulse. No mindless throwing of money.
This was the norm under the elite education of large clans. They might be arrogant or greedy, but they were absolutely not stupid.
In gas involving hundreds of Prival Stones, interests and needs always held the upper hand.
Finally, Lin Feng took the stone for three hundred thirty.
Cut open on the spot. It was a Rank 1 Bronze Skin Gu. Market price roughly three hundred fifty.
A profit of twenty stones, and he filled a gap in his defense. Lin Feng nodded with satisfaction. This was an effective investnt.
Such scenes played out constantly in the inner hall.
The young masters won and lost, but all within a "safe line." No huge losses, no huge gains. The scene was lively, but lacked the "explosive point" to make blood boil.
This was not the effect Jia Jinsheng wanted.
He was here to establish dominance, to prove his business ability. With this tepid trading volu, how could he go back and fight his outstanding brothers for the family inheritance?
"n! Bring up that 'Crimson Blood Stone'!"
Jia Jinsheng snapped his folding fan shut, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.
Soon, several strongn huffed and puffed as they carried up a massive raw stone, the size of a millstone, colored entirely dark red.
The mont the stone landed, a faint sll of blood perated the air. Even the surrounding temperature seed to rise a few degrees.
"Everyone! This is old pit material transported from the battlefields of Northern Plains! Tight skin, color like blood—a sign of a big yield!"
Jia Jinsheng stood by the stone, doing his utmost to fan the flas of emotion. "Starting bid: three hundred Prival Stones!"
"Good stuff!"
"That shell is definitely the real deal!"
The crowd instantly beca restless. The appearance of this stone was too good; even layn could see it was extraordinary.
"Three hundred fifty!"
"Four hundred!"
"Four hundred fifty!"
The price soared. Lin Feng and Lin Ze couldn't help but participate in a few rounds.
But when the price broke the five hundred barrier, their advisory teams acted again, shaking their heads to signal excessive risk.
Thus, even though they were envious, they could only rationally withdraw.
"Six hundred stones!"
Just then, a fleshy foreign rchant covered in gold and silver slamd the table and roared out this astronomical price.
Silence filled the hall. Six hundred. That was a massive sum.
"Good! This boss is generous!" Jia Jinsheng was overjoyed and brought the hamr down imdiately.
The dissection master stepped forward. Knife light flashed.
As the stone skin peeled away layer by layer, a dense blood light shot into the sky.
"Profit! Huge profit!"
"It's a Rank 2 Blood Qi Gu! It's a top-tier Gu for healing and auxiliary cultivation!"
The crowd exploded. This Blood Qi Gu had a market price of at least eight hundred. If sold to soone in urgent need, one thousand wasn't rare.
The rchant laughed wildly as he hugged the Gu worm, his face flushed red.
And the rationality in the eyes of the surrounding people—whether young masters or lone cultivators—was instantly burned away by jealousy and greed.
This was rock gambling! This was getting rich overnight!
Waves of heat rolled over, sweeping through the entire inner hall.
Lin Mu, who had been hiding in the shadows watching coldly, also felt his mind beco restless under this heatwave.
"Red Mud Gu is most sensitive to blood qi and earth qi... Since that Crimson Blood Stone yielded goods, it ans my logic is correct."
Lin Mu touched his chest, feeling the faint restlessness coming from the Red Mud Gu.
"I have the Red Mud Gu's sensing. Though not X-ray vision, it's better than these blind guessers."
"I am one step away from Rank 1 Middle Stage. If I can make a profit from finding leaks, I can get more Prival Stones, combine them with the Liquor Worm to refine essence, charge towards Rank 1 Peak, or even prepare for Rank 2..."
This urgency to "beco stronger quickly" was like dry wood, instantly igniting the greed in his heart.
Although his funds could barely afford a few expensive stones, Lin Mu wasn't stupid—using this ager capital to touch high-priced goods was like filling an elephant's stomach with a toothpick. Futile.
It was better to focus on the budget raw stones in the inner hall priced between thirty and fifty stones. That was the safer choice.
After all, the entry threshold was there. The selection in the inner hall was worlds apart from the outer field.
The outer field was mostly petty play; the budget goods here, which made up seventy percent of the stock, actually had high cost-performance ratios.
Lin Mu hesitated no longer. He squeezed to the "Budget Zone" shelves in the corner where prices ranged from 30 to 50 stones.
He quietly activated the Red Mud Gu, his fingertips sliding over the stone skins one by one.
Soon, he sensed a trace of faint "death qi" on a dusty grey stone, sowhat similar to the fossil of the Red Mud Gu earlier.
"A chance!"
Lin Mu rejoiced internally and bought it without hesitation for thirty stones.
Imdiately after, he sensed a mass of dense, accumulated "earth qi" in another stone, as if heavy soil was hidden inside.
"Earth Path Gu worm!"
Lin Mu struck again. Twenty stones.
Finally, he chose a stone to which the Red Mud Gu reacted most strongly, even transmitting a trace of desire. Thirty stones.
Total: eighty Prival Stones. One-third of his entire net worth.
Holding the three stones, Lin Mu didn't choose to dissect them publicly.
Instead, he requested a secret room. He needed to keep a low profile, and he needed to verify the Red Mud Gu's ability.
Inside the secret room, lights blazed.
Lin Mu took a deep breath, took out his rusty dagger, and cut into the first stone.
Stone skin peeled off.
When the dagger pried open the last bit of rubble, half a crumbling centipede shell stuck to the blade. It turned to powder at a touch.
Lin Mu's fingertip stiffened instantly. The ecstasy froze at the corner of his mouth. Even the Prival Essence in his aperture fell into disorder for half a beat.
"Waste material..."
The "death qi" sensed by the Red Mud Gu was indeed left by a Gu worm. But that Gu worm had died thoroughly eight hundred years ago.
Refusing to believe in evil, he cut open the second one.
Crack.
The mont the stone skin split, a stench of rotting mud assaulted his face. Black, rotten sludge flowed down the cracks. Where was any Earth Path Gu worm?
Lin Mu took a deep breath. His knuckles gripped the dagger until they turned white. Even the roots of his ears flushed red.
Fifty Prival Stones.
That was enough to buy ten catties of top-grade Green-Striped Rice for cultivation, or exchange for a common support Gu in the black market.
Just like that, it turned into two piles of trash.
"There is still the last one..."
Lin Mu's hand began to tremble slightly. This was the one the Red Mud Gu reacted to most strongly.
"It must yield sothing!"
Gritting his teeth, he cut down.
Ding!
A crisp sound. The stone skin cracked, revealing a sar of grey-brown inside.
A spherical Gu worm, the size of a fingernail and shaped like a stone pellet, rolled out.
Alive!
Lin Mu's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly picked it up to look, but his heart imdiately sank to rock bottom.
Rank 1 Stone Bullet Gu.
This was an extrely ordinary consumable attack Gu.
It could fire a triple stone bullet burst, with power comparable to a Rank 2 Gu Master's full strength. But it would disintegrate after a single activation.
Market price was extrely low.
About... eighty-five Prival Stones.
Lin Mu looked at the inconspicuous Stone Bullet Gu in his hand, fingers rubbing its hard, rough shell.
He felt only coldness in his palm. His breathing tasted bitter.
Worked for half the day. Lived in fear. Invested eighty stones of principal.
Output: Eighty-five stones.
Net profit: Five stones.
And that wasn't the end.
Lin Mu sensed his aperture.
Because of three consecutive high-intensity sensing attempts, the Red Mud Gu had beco listless. The dark red luster on its surface had faded a few degrees.
It was clearly overdrawn.
To make it recover, he had to feed it fresh beast blood and mineral slag imdiately. This was another hidden cost.
If he counted the wear and tear, energy, and the risk borne... this was fundantally a losing business!
The so-called "picking up leaks" appeared so pale and powerless before cruel probability.
Outside the secret room, frenzied cheers could still be heard faintly from the outer field. It seed soone else had cut a profit.
But to Lin Mu, that sound was incredibly piercing, like countless slaps to his face.
He slumped in the chair, clutching that cheap Stone Bullet Gu tightly.
"Fang Yuan stopped after earning five hundred stones because he knew that apart from that MudSkin Toad, the other stones were unknowns."
"He relied on absolute intelligence brought by rebirth. He was 'cheating'."
"And ? I deluded myself into thinking I could challenge the stone appraisal thods accumulated by the Jia Clan for centuries with a half-baked Red Mud Gu?"
The Red Mud Gu was rely an aid. It could sense blood qi and earth qi, but it couldn't distinguish between a live worm and a corpse, nor between spiritual soil and rotten mud.
"I got carried away."
Lin Mu closed his eyes, letting out a self-mocking sigh.
Since transmigrating, a series of successes had given him an illusion—that he was the protagonist, that the opportunities of this world should belong to him.
But reality gave him a harsh slap.
The waters of rock gambling were too deep. Without absolute "original work foresight" as intelligence, so-called picking up leaks was essentially giving away money.
Huu...
Lin Mu stood up. He stored the Stone Bullet Gu in his aperture.
A wisp of pale green Prival Essence condensed at his fingertip, grinding the waste slag into fine powder and blowing it into the ventilation duct, leaving not a trace of dissection.
His eyes beca clear again, even calr than ever before.
"A lesson for five Prival Stones. Very cheap."
Lin Mu pushed open the door of the secret room and strode out.
Passing the center of the inner hall, he happened to see two Gu Masters bidding on a pitch-black "Black Iron Stone." Their faces were flushed, veins bulging on their necks. Only naked greed remained in their eyes.
Lin Mu didn't stop his steps. He didn't even lift his eyelids.
The fanaticism that had once made his heart itch now seed incredibly absurd in his eyes.
The night wind blew, carrying a trace of chill, yet making Lin Mu feel incredibly real.
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