Rock Gambling

The previous commotion around Sima Yan's stall had already vanished, from time to time, another live auction would take place, since there were several others like Sima Yan.

Strangely, the canvas covering all of Sima Yan's stall began flowing chaotically with the wind, only to stop a few breaths later, a young man with a wary expression walked out of

It with a rather sinister smile which quickly faded.

He had a black book strapped to his waist and in his hand was a crystal flower which he pressed against his belly, making it vanish, the young man seemed to be looking for something as he would often change the direction he was looking at, until he locked his eyes on a old man who stood with his crossed arms in front of a small wagon full of flowers and strange herbs.

The young man quickly paced towards the old man, his dark hair flowed with the wind while he approached the wagon.

"Do you have any six divine grass?". The young man asked plain and simply, in a rather stoic manner.

The old man from the wagon was a head taller than him, he looked at the boy with skepticism and even a hint of dissatisfaction as opened his mouth to talk. "It's five Primeval Stones per herb, don't try to haggle... Tch, youngsters these days think being a Gu Master is cheap and easy.... Tch tch tch".

The young man stayed silent for a while and inquired again. "How many do you have? I'll take them all".

The old man was lost for words at first, but quickly laughed it of by saying. "Hah, kid, there's no need to act all cool, here, I'll cut you a deal, two Six Divine Grasses for 9 and a half a Primeval Stones, now get out of here before I decide to not be nice".

"I'll take them all, is that enough?". The young man took one hundred Primeval Stones seemingly out of nowhere and dropped them on the ground.

The old man's eyes widened as he dropped to his knees and quickly began picking the Primeval Stones. "Oh young master! Forgive this blind old man! I'll go fetch your herbs at once!".

The young man chuckled and watched as the old man picked his herbs. Behind them, lots of people passed by including a arrogant looking young man with purple hair, he also looked around, and the wagon full of herbs also got his attention.

"Hey, old man! Do you sell any Wind Willow leaves? I don't feel like picking them down the mountain". The young boy with purple hair approached the wagon and stood beside the young man with dark hair.

The old man quickly nodded and picked a handful of Wind Willow leaves, he didn't question the boy due to the cheap price of the leaves.

The two boys stood beside each other when the old man came with two sacks, one filled with Six Divine Grass and one with Wind Willow leaves, the dark haired boy picked his sacked and rapidly walked away.

"Please come back, young master!". The vendor made sure to treat the boy well after such a lucrative sale. As for the boy with purple hair, his eyes were squinted as he looked at the fading figure of the dark haired young man. "Is that... Shasi? No, how could a mere Rank 1 Gu Master with no backing whatsoever like him could spend so much in herbs... Plus, that person let out a very strange chilly aura, he's probably a member of the caravan itself".

"That'll be 5 Primeval Stones for 50 leaves, young master". The vendor snapped the arrogant young man out of his thoughts, he realized this purple haired boy was likely a noble, so he was naturally very courteous.

The purple haired young man handed the old man a small sack and left without even looking him in the eye, his face showed a slight hint of confusion which quickly faded off as he walked away.

...

Shasi walked as fast as he could trying to

find a rock gambling stall, back there, he bought a very large sum of Six Divine Grass, and almost got caught by his older brother Shayin, "Close call... Somehow, he didn't recognize me... I wonder why... If Shayin discovered something, things would get rather... Troublesome". Shasi didn't realize, but since he inherited Shuang Xue's legacy, small changes happened to his appearance and personality.

His hair had gotten even darker and a bit longer, reaching his upper back, his skin was a bit paler and dark circles began forming around his eyes due to his constant work o his cultivation, coupled with his lengthy and skinny frame, made him look slightly scary, for the first time, Shasi began suspecting something was off about himself, but decided to ignore, since his priority now was trying to find an explanation to justify how he got so many Primeval Stones.

After a few minutes walking, he reached the biggest stall of the whole caravan, it belonged to Jia Gui himself, a very famous Rock Gambling business, it was a very big Rank 3 house type Gu, it showed the prosperity of Jia Gui's business and also of his whole Clan, Shasi wondered how would it compare with Jia Fu's caravan. "It's a pity that Jia Fu's caravan only travels west within the Southern Border".

"Hello, if you wish to gamble, I can be your guide! There's all types of rocks you can bet on, I can even help you pick". A fairly pretty woman with voluptuous breasts approached Shasi as soon as he got close to the stall, she wore alluring clothes which show all the curves of her body.

Normally, any boy the age of Shasi would be allured, but Shasi really wanted to get it over with so he could try to break through, that coupled with his strange change of behavior, made it seem that he didn't even hear the woman's words.

"What are the prices?". Shasi talked without showing emotions, causing the woman's expression to change for a second and then go back to normal. "Humph! Let's see for how long you can ignore me". She thought before responding. "There's 1 Primeval Stones rocks, there's 10s and 100s, the higher the price, the higher the chance to get a Gu, I wonder if young master is feeling lucky today...?". She finished her last sentence while smiling seductively.

"I want five rocks worth 10 Primeval Stones". Shasi simply responded while handing a fairly big Primeval Stone sack to the woman and walking away to pick them without paying any attention to the woman's advances, making her feel outraged.

"Hmm, I remember something in Shang Xue's records about methods to cheat in rock gambling... I wonder if they work...". Shasi thought while biting his index finger, making drops of blood ooze out of it.

Shasi entered the section of the stall which was full of rocks worth 10 Primeval Stones, there were several other Gu Masters there, some also gambled while others just stayed to watch and mock those who got nothing fr their gambles, it was quite a lively place, compared to the 100 Primeval Stones section where only high profile figures would go gamble.

Blood kept oozing out of his finger until it was covered in blood, the alluring woman accompanied Shasi all the way but didn't seem to realize his actions, mainly due to the fact that she was distracted trying to think of ways to suck away all of Shasi's money.

"One drop of blood on each side of the rock and a very subtle infusion of Primeval Essence not to break it... I don't sense nothing! This one's probably empty...". Shasi searched for any rocks which emitted any type of aura, this method didn't have 100% chance of success, but it certainly improved his chance of picking an actual Gu Worm inside a rock.

Some older Gu Masters realized Shasi was picking stones and started mocking.

"Hah, a mere Rank 1 academy boy? You should save your money kid!".

"I can help you if you want... For a certain price of course! There's no better gambler in the Ju Clan than me! Don't waste your Primeval Stones boy".

"You should just give those Primeval Stones to me if you're just going to throw them away, sigh... the young generation is indeed too rash".

"Hey kid, look, I'll help you pick the rocks and you give half of the profit, how about that? It's win-win situation, don't be stupid".

Shasi ignored his fellow clansmen and continued picking, he had already chosen 3 oval shaped stones which he had sensed something coming from the insides of it. "A bunch of good for nothing smart asses, I wonder why aren't you rich yourselves". He casually said, angering the Gu Masters who had mocked him.

The alluring woman couldn't help but chuckle, further angering the Gu Masters. Her voluptuous breasts jiggled while she laughed, her beauty caught the eye of many.