Chapter 101: The Insect Pavilion, Selecting Insect Eggs

Arius was, of course, in desperate need of spirit stones.

Whether it was upgrading his aptitude, enhancing techniques, or refining pills, spirit stones were the best resource for consumption.

“Five low-grade spirit stones per stalk?”

Hearing Arius’s offer, the old man widened his eyes in disbelief.

If the price was truly five low-grade spirit stones per stalk, he would barely make any profit.

“Fellow Daoist, you must be joking, right?”

“If you’re truly sincere about selling, I could barely accept three low-grade spirit stones per stalk…” the old man said again, tentatively testing Arius’s resolve.

If it were just one or two hundred-year-old Tiddis herbs, he wouldn’t have even bothered haggling.

But this was an entire batch of thirty stalks!

The value of thirty hundred-year-old Tiddis herbs was equivalent to half the wealth of an average Level 2 cultivator.

However, a price of three low-grade spirit stones per stalk was far from satisfactory for Arius.

If not for his unwillingness to waste time and the fact that his Appraising Immortal Mirror allowed him to upgrade hundred-year-old spiritual herbs in bulk, he would have already taken these thirty herbs to various smaller cities and sold them individually.

In those places, he could fetch double, even triple the price.

But that would be incredibly troublesome.

Small-scale cultivation markets had limited spirit stone reserves; a single market could at most afford to buy two or three stalks of Tiddis herb.

Moreover, with demonic cultivators running rampant, these small markets might already be overrun by them… conducting business there was no longer safe.

Although Arius had various trump cards at his disposal, he had no desire to invite trouble upon himself.

Recklessly stepping into danger was a grave mistake.

Arius would never set foot into unknown and uncontrollable peril.

After a round of bargaining, he finally settled on a deal with the old man.

The thirty stalks of hundred-year-old Tiddis herb were sold for a total of one hundred and ten low-grade spirit stones.

“Sigh…”

“This is truly a losing deal for me,” the old man lamented, shaking his head and sighing repeatedly.

It was as if paying one hundred and ten spirit stones had cost him his very life.

Arius watched the act in silence.

The more the old man complained, the more profit he was actually making.

Leaving the shop, Arius wandered around the second floor of Floating Dream Pavilion for a while.

There were many shops on this floor, each with distinct functions.

For instance, the Herb Pavilion he had just visited dealt solely in medicinal herbs—both selling and purchasing them.

Shops with the Pill Pavilion signboard specialized in selling elixirs and medicinal pills.

Arius spent five low-grade spirit stones on various miscellaneous items before stepping into a store marked Myriad Insect Pavilion.

As the name suggested, Myriad Insect Pavilion sold all kinds of spiritual insects and poisonous bugs.

Some were already fully cultivated, while others were still in their egg stage.

The fully nurtured ones came with exorbitant price tags.

The most powerful spiritual and poisonous insects here were comparable to Peak Level 1 cultivators in strength.

Of course, such insects were far beyond Arius’s purchasing power.

Even the weaker ones—those at the Organ Tempering stage—cost dozens, even hundreds, of low-grade spirit stones each.

“Fellow Daoist, what kind of spiritual insect are you looking for?”

Since Arius made no effort to conceal his cultivation level, the shopkeeper immediately sensed the Late-stage Level 1 aura radiating from him.

Setting aside the ledger in his hands, the shopkeeper approached with a broad smile.

Late-stage Level 1 cultivators were rarely short on wealth.

He was already preparing to squeeze as many spirit stones as possible from Arius.

To operate a business on the second floor of Floating Dream Pavilion, this shopkeeper was certainly no ordinary figure either.

The shopkeeper of Myriad Insect Pavilion had a large, round belly, and when he smiled, a mouthful of golden teeth gleamed under the light.

He was an Outer Affairs Steward of Albigensians Sect, a title he had acquired after greasing a few palms and pulling the right strings.

Most of the time, however, he was simply here in Floating Dream Pavilion, raking in wealth.

His Myriad Insect Pavilion boasted an enormous collection of insects, claiming to have Myriad kinds of spiritual and poisonous insects, all flawless.

But at the same time, it was also one of the most deceitful shops in the Floating Dream Pavilion.

Countless cultivators had fallen for his schemes.

Even those who had no experience in nurturing insects had been persuaded—through a mix of flattery and coercion—into buying all sorts of spiritual and poisonous bugs.

“Ah! Fellow Daoist, you carry yourself with an air of majesty! A dragon among men, your very brows hint at a destiny soaring like a dragon in the heavens!”

“Come, come!!”

“I, Evan Daguel, have always enjoyed befriending men of great fortune and vision such as yourself!”

“Fellow Daoist, stepping into my Myriad Insect Pavilion is no different from returning home!”

“As family, I must ensure that you receive only the finest spiritual and poisonous insects!”

“Yiyi! Hurry up and serve our esteemed guest!”

“Bring out the tea! The best tea!”

Evan was a master of flattery.

At his call, a young man and woman immediately approached, carrying trays of tea and refreshments, offering them to Arius with utmost enthusiasm.

However, Arius remained indifferent, his expression unmoved.

He had no intention of purchasing fully cultivated spiritual or poisonous insects.

What he wanted were insect eggs.

After all, insect eggs were thousands, even tens of thousands, of times cheaper than mature insects!

“What?”

“Fellow Daoist wishes to buy insect eggs?”

Hearing this, Evan showed no signs of panic.

Although insect eggs were cheap, hatching and nurturing them to adulthood was an arduous process.

Mature spiritual and poisonous insects were terrifying creatures capable of mass slaughter, but upon hatching, even those with Level 5-level potential were fragile and weak.

Especially within the first seven days after breaking out of their shells—most insect larvae were no different from ordinary insects found in the wild.

Only a select few were born with monstrous vitality, capable of slaughtering large beasts the moment they hatched.

But such creatures were extremely rare.

“Fellow Daoist, raising insect eggs is an arduous endeavor!”

“Waiting for them to hatch, then nurturing them to full strength—it demands an immense investment of time and energy!”

“And the most crucial part? If you fail, you have to start all over again!”

“Myriad insect eggs might cost the same as a single mature insect…”

“But among those Myriad eggs, you may not even be able to cultivate a single one into adulthood. When you factor in your investment, the cost becomes far too steep!”

Evan put on an expression of genuine concern, as though he were truly looking out for Arius.

For an ordinary cultivator looking to purchase poisonous or spiritual insects, his words would have sown doubt and hesitation.

But Arius had no such concerns.

With the Appraising Immortal Mirror, he could simply enhance the insect eggs, directly boosting their hatching rate and improving the larvae’s overall vitality.