Auction

Yu Wen Zi was a little confused when Gu Guangzhi hoped for a luck path gu worm in the auction.

"Luck path is a mysterious path. Giant Sun Immortal Venerable created this path but did not spread it around very much. So it is very unlikely that the auction may contain a luck path gu worm. Even if it does, its price will definitely be beyond our reach. Why do you want a luck path gu worm now?", asked Yu Wen Zi.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking of ways to improve my attacks.", replied Gu Guangzhi.

"Your refinement techniques are as good as mine. You only need more experience now to consolidate that knowledge. All paths lead to the great Dao so I'm sure you'll soon be able to find intuition to refine some luck path gu worms as well."

Gu Guangzhi nodded his head half heartedly. He kept brainstorming if there was any luck path gu insect he could make with the bamboo family of gu insects, he was most proficient with. He went to his home and tidied himself. After a while, he went to the banquet hall. After some polite greetings, he sat down and still kept thinking about luck path gu worms.

"Sir Jia Fu, I heard that your younger brother has also come with you on this caravan. Why hasn't he come to the banquet? Is he not feeling well?", asked the clan leader.

"Hmm. I have not seen him today as well. He must be around here somewhere.", replied Jia Fu.

"Ohh. Do you want me to send some gu masters to look around for him?", asked the clan elder.

"There's really no need for that. To tell you the truth, he doesn't do justice to the Jia family name. I reprimanded him a few days ago for trying to cheat a customer. So he must be sulking somewhere or playing around with some of his slaves.", replied Jia Fu.

The talks drifted to all different topics while the banquet was going on. When Jia Fu was describing various interesting gu he encountered during his travels, Gu Guangzhi asked him, "Have you encountered any luck path gu worms during you travels?" The whole table became a bit silent at Gu Guangzhi's question. This was the first question that he asked and all the elders were curious towards Gu Guangzhi's interests.

Jia Fu paused for a while and answered, "I've been doing this business for a long time now but I've auctioned off a luck path gu insect only once. It was only a Rank 2 gu insect but it got sold off for more than 12,000 primeval stones. I don't remember what that gu was exactly but weirdly, it was detrimental to the gu master. Nevertheless, it was sold for such a high price. That is how trades involving luck path gu worms are. Rich Gu masters would buy them and keep them in their treasury even if they never used it." Gu Guangzhi listened to it with great interest and thanked Jia Fu for sharing his story.

After the dinner ended, Jia Fu invited everyone to another hall where he made necessary arrangements for a small scale auction. Gu Guangzhi made his way towards the hall as well. There were several rare gu worms present there. Rare gu worms such as Black Boar Gu, Jade Skin Gu, Red steel Relic Gu and Cleansing Gu and many more were placed there.

"Initially, I wanted to sell these gu worms in my next destination but I brought these out as a thanks to the Xiong clan.", said Jia Fu to Xiong clan leader Xiong Hu Zhong.

"Thank you brother Jia Fu. You will definitely not make a loss with this decision.", replied the clan elder.

Usually, the opening prices at the auction were low in order to attract several bids but since there were limited participants in the hall, the opening prices were set as market prices. Gu Guangzhi finally became excited once he saw the Cleansing Gu in the display. It was a gu usually used for detoxification.

In some cases where a gu master was unable to breakthrough to next rank, they would seek the help of another gu master to infuse external primeval essence into their aperture. This would help the gu masters in breaking through but since external primeval essence was harmful to one's own aperture, it needs to be cleansed and flushed out. If that didn't happen soon, they would be at the risk of losing aptitude. Since the external primeval essence was akin to toxin to one's aperture, if a gu master could target the external primeval essence, Cleansing Gu could be used to purify one's aperture as well. This was a much tougher task than it seemed to be. So most gu masters who needed their aperture cleansed, used Cleansing Water Gu, whose sole purpose was to flush out all external energies in the aperture.

The market price for Cleansing Gu was 300 primeval stones. Gu Guangzhi wrote a bid in secret and placed his bid. When the other elders present saw this, they were shocked. They all had their suspicions as to how Gu Guangzhi broke through to Rank 3. Now, when they saw that Gu Guangzhi tried to buy a Cleansing Gu, they thought that Gu Guangzhi might have taken external primeval essence from Yu Wen Zi to break through to Rank 3. They became furious that Gu Guangzhi had tried to cheat them by babbling nonsense about some insight he gained from fighting Bai Ning Bing.

But very quickly devious thoughts entered their minds. If they could get the Cleansing Gu in this auction, they could extort Gu Guangzhi into joining their faction. Then they could use the Cleansing Gu on Gu Guangzhi such that a tiny portion of external primeval essence always remained in his aperture. Such a tiny portion wouldn't cause Gu Guangzhi's talent to drop but would accumulate over time. This way, they could add Gu Guangzhi and his water wolf's strength to their faction while keeping him under their control.

Gu Guangzhi was recently offered 10,000 primeval stones worth of gifts during his marriage proposal negotiations. If they could get Gu Guangzhi using this gu insect for a much cheaper price, they would be hitting two birds with one stone. So one elder wrote 450 primeval stones as his bid. Another elder went a step further and wrote 500 primeval stones. Another elder estimated the price could go unto 600 primeval stones, so he wrote 610 primeval stones.

One senior elder remembered the amount of compensation Gu Guangzhi received for turning in several gu insects, the other day. Due to the large contribution, the clan leader awarded 15,000 primeval stones. But he gave only a portion of the reward at that time and promised that the rest would be distributed across a year, once every month. 'Gu Guangzhi received 2000 primeval stones at the time. This Cleansing Gu is most important to Gu Guangzhi in order to preserve his aptitude. Gu Guangzhi will have no other way to purchase this gu once the caravan leaves. If Gu Guangzhi spends his entire fortune on this single gu insect, I will miss the opportunity to bring Gu Guangzhi to my side. I might as well take the risk and buy this Cleansing Gu for 2050 primeval stones… No no… What if he has some savings as well? Let me bid it for 2500 primeval stones! In a way, I am saving some money that I would've otherwise spent on betrothal gifts.', thought the senior elder and placed his bid.

When Jia Fu opened the bids placed for Cleansing Gu, his eyes widened in shock. Never would he have thought that such extraordinary amounts were placed as bids. When he announced the senior elder as the winner, all the other members of senior elder's faction praised the senior elder for his foresight. Gu Guangzhi was confused at this sight. So was Jia Fu but he was very happy. He made a decision to bring more products for sale to the Xiong clan next year.

In the end Gu Guangzhi was only able to obtain Rank 2 Earth concealment Gu from the auction. It was a rare earth path gu insect used for concealing parts of land. One of the weaknesses of Bamboo swamp Gu was the distinct moss green color of the swamp it created. In fact, several other earth path gu insects had this weakness. If the gu masters avoided the green swamp, they would be out of range to attack. With help of Earth concealment Gu, the moss green color of the swamp could be concealed allowing for better attacks.

Gu Guangzhi also wanted to buy the Cleansing Gu for the purpose of improving his attacks. He wanted to improve his combination attack aimed towards Bai Ning Bing. As of now, the combination attack worked very slowly. Gu Guangzhi formulated that he could significantly improve it by using Cleansing Gu. But now he could only wait for another opportunity to improve this attack.