Since the sect mission had been completed, there was no longer any meaning in staying at the Thousand Blade Valley.
Thus, Wan Qian blew a short whistle that was unique to the sect and gathered everyone before returning.
After arriving at the mission pavilion, everyone submitted the materials that they had obtained. If they did not want to hand them in, they had to use sect contribution or primeval stones to buy them.
After all, they were picked from the sect's territory and were considered the sect's assets.
Due to the tight time, many people who traveled far to explore the depths returned empty-handed.
As a result, the ones who ultimately benefited were the strongest and the weakest.
Fang Yuan was one of them.
The reward for directly completing the mission made everyone extremely envious.
A total of three bags of palm-sized primeval stone were probably comparable to decades worth of their monthly salaries from the sect.
People did not reveal their wealth to avoid arousing jealousy.
Robberies in the sect also happened from time to time.
Fang Yuan gave Li Tongzhou half of the bag and walked out of the mission pavilion in a very low-key manner. He put on a cloak and prepared to use the remaining primeval stones to buy another batch of pills to raise his realm.
"Congratulations, Junior Fang."
Wan Qian chased after him to congratulate him. Her gaze swept toward the door behind her and quickly turned back. She asked, "Where are you planning to go?"
"The pill pavilion."
"I'll be passing by. Shall we go together?"
Fang Yuan knew that Wan Qian was trying to help him avoid any accidents, so he nodded and agreed.
The two of them walked away side by side, shocking all the male cultivators.
"Isn't that Senior Wan?"
"Yeah, I thought I was wrong!"
"Since when did Senior Wan go out with the opposite sex?"
"Fuck, my youth is over!"
"Who is that man? In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn! I want all of his information!"
...
Wails continued to sound.
But the two people involved acted as if nothing had happened and calmly walked to the entrance of the pill pavilion.
Fang Yuan stood still and turned to bow to Wan Qian. "Thank you for escorting me all the way, Senior."
"Don't thank me yet. I was planning to return the favor, but..."
Wan Qian's lips curled up slightly. "It seems that you are now being targeted by many people."
"As long as they are not greedy for my money, just let them stare. I will not lose a piece of meat." Fang Yuan shrugged nonchalantly.
"I didn't expect you to be greedy."
"Of course. If you come from a poor family, cultivation resources are more important than the sky."
"I gave you a bag of primeval stones earlier, so why didn't you accept it?"
"This involves principles, it's hard to say."
Wan Qian rolled her eyes.
She did not continue chatting. She waved her hand and turned to leave.
Fang Yuan watched her disappearing into the forest path, and he started to do his own things.
This time, he had enough money. He bought a lot of pills, herbs, and beast blood, and he still had 2,000 primeval stones left, so he threw them all into his storage space.
Next, he went into seclusion for a few more days.
As he ate the medicinal pills and soaked in the medicinal bath, the cultivation speed of the Gu worms increased.
Finally, before the materials were used up, he broke through another layer.
"Hu..."
Fang Yuan let out a long breath. "The breakthrough is getting slower and slower. Why is the consumption so high? Could it be because I have eight Gu worms?"
He could not help but shake his head. If he were to nurture hundreds of Gu worms at the same time, even if they could cultivate on their own, it would be very expensive if he wanted to increase the speed.
Even so, he still had to continue moving forward.
In this world, only a strong enough strength could let him firmly hold his life in his own hands.
"Looks like I have to find a faster way to earn money."
Fang Yuan could not help but think.
The sect mission could no longer satisfy his current self.
High-paying missions like picking the blood lotus was not something that came by every day.
Most of it were still ordinary missions to collect a large number of low-level herbs.
It was troublesome, and the reward was very little.
"I should go and ask Li Tongzhou. Maybe he knows about something."
After making up his mind, Fang Yuan immediately acted.
When he arrived at the destination, Li Tongzhou did not disappoint him.
"To quickly earn primeval stones, I know a way, but it requires a certain amount of capital."
"What way?"
"Stone gambling."
Following that, Li Tongzhou talked about the details.
It turned out that this so-called stone gambling was similar to jade gambling in the secular world.
Some Gu worms were parasitic on some special stones, and opening up the stone was equivalent to opening a lottery ticket.
No one could see through the inside of the stone, thus, they could only gamble on illusory luck.
What was certain was that most of the stones were empty, and even if one was lucky enough to open one with a Gu worm, it might be dead or alive.
Because of the special nature of the parasitic worms, if one could open one with a live Gu, they would earn a huge sum of money. If not, it would be worthless.
"Alright, I'll do this then. Bring me there to take a look."
Fang Yuan felt that with the True Sight Gu, it might be of some help, but if it was not possible, he could do something else instead.
"Alright then!"
Li Tongzhou rubbed his hands, "It just so happens that the primeval stones you gave me a few days ago have not been spent. Let's go play with them too."
Fang Yuan could not help but raise his eyebrows, "Weren't you the enemy of gambling and drugs?"
Li Tongzhou did not blush at all and pulled him out.
"Now I am the enemy of drugs!"
"..."
The nearest quarry was in Yunding City. After going through the procedures to get out of the sect, they arrived at the destination and found that there were quite a lot of people there. All kinds of stones were placed on the ground, making it seem a little messy.
Fang Yuan first used the system's scanning program to try it out, but as expected, he could not see through the stones. Even the information panel did not appear.
This was within his expectations, and he immediately used the True Sight Gu's True Sight skill.
As a golden light flashed in his eyes, the stone he saw suddenly changed.
From inside to outside, layers of stone color appeared in front of him.
At a glance, the stones on the ground were indeed like what Li Tongzhou had described. Most of them were solid, and there were no parasites at all.
But there were still good goods, though they were very limited.
A small portion of the stones had a black shadow in the center, cutting off the original stone.
Moreover, there was a twisted line extending from the outside to the inside.
It was obvious that it was the small hole left by the Gu worm at the beginning, and even after the stones changed over time, the traces were still there.
Although he could not obtain the specific information of the Gu worm inside, Fang Yuan was already very satisfied.
Compared to others, with this advantage, the chances of finding a stone that has a Gu worm inside were much higher.
He was not afraid of opening one with a dead Gu worm.
As long as he observed for a while and saw if the Gu worm inside had any traces of movement, he could determine whether it was alive or dead.
In the end, he used this ability to pick out five stones.
Li Tongzhou followed suit and bought two stones, shouting excitedly that he would be the first to cut them.