Vile Rabbit Pelts
It had been two weeks since the Xiao Pan squad returned from the hunt, and since then the situation with the rabbits escalated quickly. When the clan first announced the existence of the rabbits, Vile Rabbits as the clan called them, they started to set out missions to hunt them, but somehow word spread within the clan that their corpses were worth quite a bit, so the Xue clan's Gu Masters hunted them endlessly. Xue Mingyu was no exception.
Just now, Xue Mingyu walked back from the forest with the rest of the Xiao Pan squad. They had just finished a long bout of hunting Vile Rabbits.
"With the amount of rabbits we've been hunting recently, I think we can retire early." Xue Nianzu said.
"Easy now Nianzu, some of the younger ones still have some flair in them." Xiao Pan said, his eyes darting between Nianzu, Guo Feng, and Mingyu. Xue MIngyu's enthusiasm towards his goal of becoming a Venerable was well-known within the Xiao Pan group, whereas Xue Guo Feng was a very passionate person who wanted to continue to serve the clan for her whole life.
The squad had just entered the village when they noticed the atmosphere of excitement.
"Did something happen?" Xue Xiao Pan walked over to someone on the side of the street and asked.
"Were you out of town? A merchant caravan arrived!"
"I guess it is around that time. Do you happen to know what clan it's from?" Xue Sun Teng butted into the conversation, while the rest of the Xiao Pan squad was blatantly eavesdropping.
"No, I don't have those kinds of sources. The caravan only arrived ten minutes ago, and I haven't seen it yet. I only knew because some rascal was running down the streets screaming about it. Seriously, they just let mortals do anything these days…"
"Alright. Thank you for your help, sir."
The Xiao Pan squad pretended not to hear the end of the Gu Master's words, partly because they didn't want to get into an argument and waste valuable time with the caravan, and partly because they were generally split about political things like mortal livelihoods.
Xue Mingyu had been scolded before for sharing his political views to the squad. It seemed that Xue Xiao Pan knew that to cultivate a good working relationship they needed to set aside their differences, or rather ignore them.
The Xiao Pan squad arrived at the caravan's rest point. It was far from the south gate, so it took almost half an hour of walking for them to reach it. In that time, the squad missed out on chances to buy many valuable Gu Worms or materials.
Instead of directly buying items at the caravan, Xue Mingyu split off course and briskly walked to the bank. The bank was a place to store not just primeval stones but materials as well. After his attempts at refining the Ignite Spark Gu, Xue Mingyu was left with only a couple hundred primeval stones, but a while had passed since then, and assuming the price of one primeval stone per corpse that Xue Xiao Pan had originally stated was accurate, he would gain almost a thousand primeval stones.
"How can I help you, lord Gu Master?" The receptionist at the bank asked as she saw Xue Mingyu reach the front of the line after twenty minutes of waiting.
"I need a check for some materials."
"Certainly, I'll just need your credentials and your check will be prepared immediately."
Xue Mingyu knew that the bank used a system of two Gu, the Large Stamp Gu and the Mysterious Code Gu, to create checks in the blink of an eye. The Large Stamp Gu read the Mysterious Code Gu's message by stamping it onto a piece of thin tree bark. The only downside of this system was that the Large Stamp Gu required squid ink as food, which was difficult to obtain in the Southern Border, so the bank only had this method available when there was a caravan or a big purchase was made.
"Alright then, here you go." The receptionist passed a check back to Xue Mingyu along with his credentials.
It took an hour for Xue Mingyu to find something that would be worth it for him to buy. He also could have sold his Vile Rabbit corpses, but the line for anywhere willing to buy them was longer than Xue Mingyu's patience could handle.
The Iron Skin Gu, a Rank 1 Gu Worm that applied a layer of iron to one's skin. It wasn't very strong even for its rank, but the primeval energy cost was low, so it was actually quite the sought-after Gu.
Xue Mingyu desperately needed a defensive Gu even when he was only Rank 1. Now that he had advanced a major realm, that weakness was glaring him in the eyes so hard he could basically see it.
But he wasn't satisfied with the Iron Skin Gu. He was planning to refine the Magma Skin Gu like Xue Xiao Pan had recommended, and the Iron Skin Gu was one of two major materials he needed for that.
"170 primeval stones, stop bartering kid!" A grumpy looking bearded Gu Master from the caravan spat. He gave off an odor, but Xue Mingyu was familiar with the strategy of making oneself smell bad using a Gu Worm when a customer was trying their luck.
"165! That's all I can do, otherwise I'll go broke…" Xue Mingyu feigned poverty.
It didn't work.
"Kid, yer a Rank 2 Gu Master, a mere 170 primeval stones won't make ya broke."
"Ugh, fine. 170 primeval stones." Xue Mingyu gave up quickly and threw a check to the merchant. His bartering methods were far from invincible, and he didn't force the matter. The merchant seemed a bit hard-headed, immediately making sure the check was legitimate as if Xue Mingyu would scam him. He aspired to become a Venerable, but he wouldn't stoop that low. Besides, didn't The Legends of Ren Zu say that a good reputation was stronger than a shitty one?
"Good!" The merchant finally spoke and handed over the Iron Skin Gu after he confirmed that Xue Mingyu wasn't foregoing his reputation. "By the way kid, you wouldn't happen to have your hands on any of them Vile Rabbit Pelts, would ya?"
Xue Mingyu frowned as he grabbed the Iron Skin Gu and refined it with the merchant's permission. Normally if he was going to sell something that he wasn't sure about the value of, he would find the most legitimate source, which in this case would be the official stalls where the lines were massive.
"How much?" He asked after deep contemplation.
"Heh. How 'bout three for a corpse? Don't worry, I'm not gonna scam ya. I have a bit of standing in the Long clan." The merchant laughed, revealing his Rank 2 Peak Stage cultivation.
"Three per corpse? R-right, I have around a thousand corpses here." Xue Mingyu said, pulling out the check he had exchanged for earlier with a hint of greed in his jade-green eyes.
"Alright then, ya have yourself a deal!"
***
After exchanging for three thousand primeval stones, Xue Mingyu immediately scolded himself for losing himself to greed. Sure, this time he wasn't scammed, but his idea of the cost of the Vile Rabbit corpses was off by three times. Actually, he could have gotten even more primeval stones if he sold the corpses as pelts instead of raw, but that was a lot of work for such a large amount of corpses.
When he ran into Xue Xiao Pan, the first thing that Xue Mingyu asked was about the price of Vile Rabbit Corpses,
"They're going for three primeval stones for one, but ten corpses gets you an extra stone."
The math wasn't that hard to do; he missed out on about one hundred primeval stones, which wasn't enough to be deterred by for such a large quantity of corpses.
Besides the Iron Skin Gu, Xue Mingyu also bought a Hot Skin Gu as soon as he saw one. Due to the mass influx of primeval stones, the demand for almost all Gu would rise quickly (as Xue Xiao Pan had said), so Xue Mingyu made his purchases quickly. Unfortunately, as a result of being so close to so many large clans, the caravan had already expended most of its Gu Worms by the time it arrived at Cao Da Mountain and he had to pay a little above the normal price.
Two hundred primeval stones poorer, Xue Mingyu arrived at the refinement hall and paid nine primeval stones for a three-day stay in an elite room. His refinement failures were expensive and in high quantity when he refined the Ignite Spark Gu, thus the need to splurge a bit on a room with a refinement formation.