Protect Our Patriarch

Book 1: Chapter 53: Talent for eating

In the next two days, Wang Shouzhe and Long Yan Ancestor planned to stay in the courtyard of the inn to cultivate and not go anywhere else.

Long Yan Ancestor had been tortured by the Yin Sha poison for fifty years and had long been disgusted with this state. The method was very simple, even ordinary wandering cultivators could understand it. After a little contemplation, she began to try to transform.

Wang Shouzhe was afraid of accidents, so he decided to accompany her and let the Ancestor guide him on any doubts he had in his cultivation. After Long Yan Ancestor advanced to the Lingtai Realm in the Purple Mansion Academy, she became a disciple of Binglan Master and cultivated to the mid-stage of the Lingtai Realm at a young age. In terms of talent and knowledge, she was not comparable to Ming Sheng Ancestor of the Lu family.

A casual gesture made Wang Shouzhe suddenly enlightened, and his thoughts surged.

On the other hand, the eldest girl in the family, Wang Lici, was too young and couldn't stay still. Wang Shouzhe arranged for a servant to accompany her out for a walk and rewarded her with ten Top Gold for her recent hard work and careful service to the Ancestor.

At noon, Wang Lici ran into Wang Shouzhe's room crying with a round and chubby face full of grievances, "Fourth Uncle, Fourth Uncle, I was cheated by a nasty wandering cultivator. Sob, sob, sob, I bought this piece of stone for ten Top Gold, but there's nothing good inside."

As she spoke, she took out a fist-sized stone that had been cut open by her, revealing a white piece inside.

Wang Shouzhe's heart skipped a beat. Ten Top Gold were not a small amount. But since he had given it to her, it was her own money. It was just a waste. Wang Shouzhe was a bit tired of it.

Could it be that Brother Shouxin was good at raising prodigal sons and daughters? One likes gambling, and the other likes to eat!

What good food could there be in a stone? This intelligence is too worrying.

"Wait a minute." Wang Shouzhe suddenly felt his eyelids twitch and took the stone that had been cut into two pieces by her.

The outer skin of the stone was green and beautiful. It was very obvious that this was the most common kind of gambling stone on the wandering cultivator's stall! Some very powerful families, such as the Tianren family, or other big forces, might have some spiritual stone mines.

Many scraps would appear in the spiritual stone mine, and occasionally, spiritual stones would be found in those scraps. However, in order to pursue greater benefits, those scraps were sold as gambling stones.

At first, only some wandering cultivators participated in it, but later, this thing became an industry chain. Wandering cultivators brought gambling stones to various places to let people try their luck.

Everyone knows that ten bets and nine losses.

But some people have a strong luck, such as spending ten gold coins and winning a spiritual stone worth several hundred or even thousands of gold coins, thus becoming rich overnight.

Various legends made the gambling stone industry prosperous, and those families that owned spiritual mines were also happy to maximize their profits.

But Wang Shouzhe usually didn't even look at this kind of gambling stone. He didn't have any golden eyes or anything like that. The probability of losing was far greater than that of winning. It was better to earn money by farming steadily.

However, this gambling stone of the eldest girl...the white piece inside was full of spiritual energy, and even Wang Shouzhe could feel the coolness penetrating his body when he held it.

Of course, he knew this was a spiritual stone, but he was unsure of how much spiritual energy it contained. After all, Wang Shouzhe had only seen a spiritual stone once or twice in his life.

Therefore, Wang Shouzhe grabbed Wang Lici, who was still crying and making a fuss, and went to find Long Yan Ancestor to take a look.Even with Long Yan Ancestor's extensive knowledge, after examining the stone for a while, she was slightly surprised and made a judgment, saying, "It is indeed a spiritual stone. It can be cut and polished into three or four pieces."

Three or four pieces?

Wang Shouzhe's expression froze. He had added ten spiritual stones to his purchase list this time, worth thousands of Top Gold. He had planned to use one or two of them to try and cultivate and see the effect. The rest of the spiritual stones would mostly be used at the prosperous farm to try and open up more spiritual fields, combined with the Gathering Spirit Formation. He knew that there was a spiritual spring in the prosperous farm that could support about sixty acres of spiritual fields.

However, at present, there were only twenty acres of spiritual fields in the prosperous farm, due to the economic difficulties the clan had faced. Originally, they had planned to wait for Fourth Uncle Wang Xiaohan to reach the Lingtai Realm and stabilize the clan's situation before slowly developing the remaining spiritual fields. However, Wang Xiaohan's failure to reach the Lingtai Realm had also caused the plan to develop the spiritual fields to be put on hold.

But now, Wang Shouzhe had to open up the spiritual fields, otherwise it would hinder the progress and development of the clan's descendants. They couldn't keep purchasing spiritual rice from outside forever, could they?

He had bought ten spiritual stones with gritted teeth. However, he didn't expect that Wang Lici, this troublesome girl, had won three or four pieces with ten gold coins!

"Girl, do you know that gambling on stones is not right?" Wang Shouzhe's voice was somewhat stern. Although winning at gambling was a temporary gain, this trend could not continue. Otherwise, if the elder sister tasted the sweetness and became addicted to gambling on stones, even more money would be lost.

"Huh?"

Wang Lici was frightened, her face turned pale, trembling and whimpering, "Fourth Uncle, what is gambling on stones? I just thought there was something delicious inside the stone, like something really delicious. That despicable wandering cultivator also said there must be something good inside. Who knew he was deceiving me~ wuwuwu, my money is gone. I could have bought so many small dried fish, octopus jerky, squid strips..."

Since coming to the Hundred Island Guard, Wang Lici had become obsessed with delicious food like small dried fish, which she thought was even better than candied fruit. She had never seen or heard of spiritual stones before.

"Foodie! How could there be anything delicious inside a stone!? What are you thinking about all day?" Wang Shouzhe rubbed his forehead, feeling both amused and annoyed.

"Alright, stop crying for now." Fourth Aunt Xu Zhirou hurriedly came out to mediate, comforting Wang Lici and persuading Wang Shouzhe, "Shouzhe, the elder sister is still young and hasn't been out much. She doesn't understand these things."

"Wuwuwu~ Fourth Granny, that despicable wandering cultivator didn't know what he did to make me think there was something delicious inside. But, when everything came out, it was all useless junk." Wang Lici was heartbroken and angry.

Junk?

Wang Shouzhe rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit dizzy. If spiritual stones were all junk, were there still treasures in the world? However, Wang Lici probably didn't know what spiritual stones were, she had grown up in the clan since she was young. The Wang Clan was too poor, and there were too few spiritual stones.

At this point, Wang Shouzhe was sure that his elder sister wasn't lying to him. She didn't have that kind of intelligence!

"Shouzhe, if the elder sister can really feel that there is something delicious inside, doesn't that mean..." Fourth Aunt Xu Zhirou's eyes were hopeful as she spoke.

Wang Shouzhe also thought of this, but he was still somewhat unable to understand, so he looked towards Long Yan Ancestor.Long Yan Ancestor's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she couldn't help but express her doubts, "As far as I know, even a Sky Realm cultivator would need to use a secret method to see through the gambling stones, and the consumption and movement involved would not be insignificant. However, I have heard of some extraordinary people with special eye techniques who can also see through gambling stones. But such people are extremely rare, and using their eye techniques would cause obvious changes in their eyes, making it easy to expose them. As for Lici... I have never heard of such a case."

After a pause, the Ancestor continued, "Shouzhe, the world is far beyond your imagination. My knowledge and experience are just a drop in the ocean. Perhaps, this girl Lici has a natural talent in spiritual perception."

What spiritual talent? Wang Shouzhe was somewhat skeptical. Even if this girl had some talent, it was probably just a talent for eating.

They would know after trying.

Wang Shouzhe took out thirty Top Gold and handed them to Wang Lici, saying, "Go and buy three more stones, and remember, you must choose the ones that you feel have something delicious inside."

Then Wang Lici stopped crying, and with innocent eyes, she looked at Wang Shouzhe with a caring expression, as if asking if her Fourth Uncle had been driven mad by anger. Hadn't he learned his lesson from being cheated once?

"Hehe."

Wang Shouzhe's cheeks twitched, and he sneered, "My dear girl, I forgot to tell you that Fourth Uncle just bought two books..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

Wang Lici tightly gripped the thirty Top Gold banknotes and ran off like the wind.

Her speed and reaction were so fast that even Wang Shouzhe was a bit taken aback. He couldn't be sure if the girl had any spiritual talent, but he was certain that she definitely had a talent for speed.

However, fearing that she might suffer a loss, he quickly asked Wang Zhong and Wang Yong to follow her.

"Shouzhe, you really are..." Aunt Xu Zhirou, who was standing nearby, smiled.

...