The deeper that he went, the more beautiful and brisk the scenery became.
Small stalls were getting less and less as they were replaced by cottages that were getting larger and larger as time went on.
There were numerous of colorful cottages; some were square-shaped while others were round. Red lanterns were hung on two standing pillars in front of the roller blinds at the entrance of some stores. Some were shining with light while others were bleak inside.
Fang Yuan looked around as he walked ahead. Finally, he stopped at a gray cottage.
"It was here." He looked up and examined the place. There were two pillars at the entrance of the cottage. Using the sculpture techniques, a couplet was being carved on those standing pillars.
The left side: Used tiny courage and gained the good fortune of all seasons.
The right side: Showed one's skill and obtained wealth in every direction.
The middle was laid with a horizontal scroll that said, "Fortune is smiling."
Yes, this was a gambling house.
This gambling house took up one mu[1] of land and could already be considered as a large cottage.
Fang Yuan went inside. In the cottage, on the side were placed three rows of counters. There were pieces of ambers or fossils on each counter. They were small as the size of a fist or as big as a washing basin. There were ones that were bigger and taller than a person. These couldn't be displayed on the counter, instead, they were directly placed on the ground.
Different from the noisy and bustling cottages outside, this one was silent and peaceful.
There were groups of three to five Gu Masters standing in front of the counter. Some of them carefully looked at the rocks placed on the counter while others picked up the fossil in their palms and were carefully rubbing it in feeling the sensations brought by doing so. There were people who were quietly talking with their companions and some were discussing the price with the servant of the store.
However, no matter what they said, it was all whispers, so as not to disturb other people.
This was a gambling field.
In this world of Gu, there were all kinds of strange Gus existing in a large quantity. A Gu had its own specific food. Without the food, the Gu could only adhere to a certain period of time before dying.
Nevertheless, towards life, nature had always been cold yet merciful.
With a lack of food, the Gu could only have one hope of living, which was to fall into a deep sleep, self-sealing.
For an instant, if the Moonlight Gu didn't have any Moon Orchid's petal, it might seal itself. It would try to shrink its power, which was similar to being in hibernation and fell into the deepest sleep. At this time, the blue aureole on its body would be dissipated. Moreover, from the transparent crystal state, it would turn into a piece of limestone as its body was being enveloped with a layer of stone shell. Over time, the stone shell would become thicker and thicker, until it completely formed a rock.
Taking the Wine Gu as another example, if it had self-sealed itself, it would form into a white cocoon. It would then curl up its body, falling into a deep sleep inside the cocoon.
Of course, this type of sleeping when sealing event, wouldn't occur on every Gu. The probability of it happening was extremely small. Under normal circumstances, the Gu wouldn't have fallen asleep, but in being starved to death. Only a few individual Gus could self-seal in particular cases.
Some Gu Masters would accidentally obtain the sealed Gu in the form of a rock or a cocoon. After the sleeping Gu had awakened, they could make a small fortune out of it. Some were advancing at a fast pace and were welcoming the sudden changes in their living orbit. These circumstances usually happened in the world of Gu Masters, often with either true or false rumors, making people daydream.
These rocks had originated from this gambling field and from here onward. Of course, these rocks all had a deceptive appearance. Only opening it could one then determine whether or not there was any hidden Gu inside.
"Like this small gambling field, out of ten rocks, at least eight to nine of them are solid. There will be no Gu inside. Even if there were Gu inside, in most cases, they would be all dead. However, once one could find a Gu, they could make a fortune. Those Gu are extremely rare. One had to try to quickly enhance it before someone might have snatched it away."
Fang Yuan's mind was clear as he thoroughly understood this doorway.
In his past life, he had also participated in a caravan in being a servant at a gambling field. Later, he had even operated a gambling field that was even bigger than this one. It was a medium-sized gambling field. He had defrauded several gamblers. Anyhow, there were several times when the gamblers had gained some precious Gus.
Fang Yuan stood at the door for a while as his eyes glanced around once and he slowly walked to the left of the counter.
A few meters behind the counter stood a shop servant. There were also male and females. Blue belts were tied around their waists. They were not mortals but level one Gu Masters. Most of them were Beginners; only a few individuals were at the Intermediate level.
Seeing Fang Yuan having approached to the front of the counter, a female Gu Master near him immediately came over. A smile emerged on her face as she softly spoke, "Childe, what Gu do you need? On this side of the counter, each rock costs ten Primeval Stones. If this is your first time gambling, you may wish to go to the right side of this counter, where the small bets are placed. The rocks there only cost five pieces of Primeval Stone. If you are looking for some stimulation, please go to the advanced front counter, where the rocks have a price of twenty Primeval Stones."
This was an experienced female Gu Master. She had spent a lot of time working in this gambling field.
As she saw Fang Yuan coming in, from his appearance, age, height, etc. she had guessed that he was a disciple.
The people coming to this gambling field were all Gu Masters. There were no mortals. Disciples could only be regarded as a preparatory Gu master, who had just set foot on the cultivation path. Normally, they would encounter economic constraint due to raising their Gus. How could they have any money to come here and gamble?
This type of disciple often came in just to take a look, to open their eyes, to see a new picture. The vast majority just looked but didn't buy. There were a few that had a fairly good family's background; they would have tried once. However, usually, they would only buy the cheapest fossils.
Therefore, regarding how many rocks thatFang Yuan would have bought, the female Gu Master didn't have great expectations.
"I will take a look first." Fang Yuan expressionlessly nodded to her, then buried his head inside to watch.
In his memory, it should have been on this side of the counter.
However, five hundred years was a long period. A lot of things were very vague, especially when the memory of five hundred years was a huge reserve. Honestly, Fang Yuan didn't remember it clearly.
He vaguely recalled that on the first night that the caravan arrived in this year, there was a lucky person that had used ten Primeval Stones to buy a rock which was glowing with purple-gold color.
When he opened up the fossil, he gained a Leprous Earth Toad. After selling it to someone else, that guy then earned quite a bit of Primeval Stones.
Fang Yuan looked for a while; then he furrowed his brows.
There were more than twenty rocks that were glowing with purple-gold light on this counter. Which one could have hidden the Leprous Earth Toad inside of it?
On this side, each rock was priced at ten Primeval Stones. Fang Yuan now had ninety-eight pieces of Primeval Stone on him. According to this, the most he could buy was just nine rocks.
However, in fact, it couldn't be calculated like that.
No matter whether it was taking risks or gambling, one needed to consider the consequences.
Fang Yuan wasn't a hot-blooded youngster or a pretentious gambler anymore. Those that thought about being favored by fate had usually ended up being teased by fate itself.
"I am all alone, without any aid from friends or families, I have to leave some Primeval Stones to support my life, and also buying food to raise the Gus." After calculating, to ensure his basic needs, he could buy seven fossils at most.
"This one has a beautiful purple-gold glow, but it is flat as a cake. There won't be any hidden Leprous Earth Toad in there."
"The light on this one is dazzling. However, it is only the size of a fist. If there were a Leprous Earth Toad, it might be three times the size of this one."
"This purple-gold fossil is big. However, the surface is extremely smooth, and the Toad' skin is full of potholes. It is obviously not this one..."
Fang Yuan was constantly observing and screening.
After sealing themselves and having fallen into a deep sleep, they would turn into fossils, putting an end to most detecting means there were in this world. The rest of the methods to detect it were tough and ruthless. It would have directly killed the dying Gu inside.
Hence, when a Gu Master chose his rock, he could only count on speculation, experience, luck, and even occasional flashing divine light.
If that was not the case, this place wouldn't be called a gambling house.
Of course, in this vast world, nothing was too bizarre. There were still mild means of detection that could let the Gu Master know in advance whether the rock possessed any Gu.
In his past life, Fang Yuan had heard of some rumors. Anyhow, after verification, he had found out that they were all false.
Fang Yuan silently envisaged: If such method really existed, it must be some secret inheritance and only stayed in the hands of a handful of mysterious people. These didn't affect the overall state of the gambling industry.
This Green Thatch Mountain was better. The more one went toward the east side; the more popular the gambling houses were. Around the Whitehead Mountain, each mountain stronghold had a gambling house. Some large mountain stronghold even had large-sized gambling house. In the history of gambling houses, these three were known as the three major mountain strongholds: The Monolith, the Ancient Tomb and the Deep Blue Whale Mountain Stronghold, each had an ultra-large gambling house.
These three ultra-large gambling houses had a history of thousands of years. Now, the business was still booming as the gamblers were as an endless stream. Things like being swept away never happened here.
Today, the cottage where Fang Yuan was sitting could only be considered as a small gambling house.
But if another fifteen-year-old boy came here, he would definitely be confused by all of these fossils. Even when choosing the rocks, he would just blindly point to one.
However, Fang Yuan was different.
First of all, he had already known a part of the answer in advance. Hence, the scope of selection was now narrowed down to thirty or fewer pieces.
Of course, choosing one among twenty pieces of fossils wasn't anything easy.
However, Fang Yuan had already had five hundred years of experiences to back him up. Relying on such robust concrete details, he observed for a while more before choosing out six purple-gold pieces that fitted the standard the most.
He was eighty percent sure that the Leprous Earth Toad was deeply sleeping inside one of these fossils!
[1] Unit of measurement, classified for fields. 1 mu = 1/15 hectare.