With the Peak-grade spiritual insect in hand, Long Xuan could hardly wait to return and create his own Peak-grade Gu formula, losing all interest in mining.
Mining was endless and a waste of valuable cultivation time, so he decided not to spend his precious time on it.
As for any missing spiritual insect materials, he could simply buy them. There was no need to do manual labor.
With this thought in mind, Long Xuan felt an urgent desire to return home. Without any intention to stay, he immediately led his four clones out of the cave.
After exiting the cave and seeing the long-missed sunlight, Long Xuan took a deep breath of fresh oxygen. He then ordered his four clones to seal the cave entrance again, making it look as if no cave existed, before leaving for home.
Half a month later, he returned to Far western Market in a travel-worn state. Having decided to sell the fossil vein, he didn't want to delay to avoid unforeseen complications.
Considering the significant amount involved in this transaction, Long Xuan took multiple precautions for his safety.
Firstly, he disguised himself and wore a mask, which was necessary to avoid most troubles.
Secondly, he needed an identity that others wouldn't dare to provoke. He decided to disguise himself as a alchemist.
But that wasn't enough. Long Xuan, being extremely cautious, decided to let his clones handle everything.
If anything went wrong, it would only be an insignificant clone that perished, and his true self could easily escape.
It was best to let others know inadvertently that it was just an clone, so even capturing it would be pointless.
This way, he could ensure everything went smoothly.
Having made all these preparations, the cautious Long Xuan arrived at the entrance of the Qian Auction House.
Like most rogue cultivators, he believed that the Qian Auction House, bound by the Gu of Integrity, would never bully its customers. So, he always preferred shops with the name "Qian" for both buying and selling resources.
He had developed this habit, feeling a sense of security whenever he thought of the Qian merchants being bound by the Gu of Integrity.
Since the fossil vein's price had no upper limit, if its total value were assessed, even one percent of its value would far exceed what major families could afford.
Therefore, auctioning the fossil vein was undoubtedly the most appropriate method, even though there would still be losses. It was unavoidable.
As soon as Long Xuan entered the auction house, he saw a familiar chubby man attending to customers. His appearance was too distinctive, so Long Xuan immediately recognized him as Qian Duoduo, whom he had met at the Qian Stone Gambling Shop years ago.
Long Xuan saw him, and naturally, Qian Duoduo saw Long Xuan.
Seeing a person covered from head to toe wearing a ghost mask, Qian Duoduo's eyes lit up.
Having been in business for many years, he had developed sharp eyes that could instantly tell who had good stuff and who was just pretending.
In his experience, the more valuable items a person had, the more they covered themselves up to avoid being recognized and attracting trouble.
This person was covered so thoroughly that only his eyes were visible. Qian Duoduo had never seen such a cautious person before, so he concluded that this person must have something valuable. Otherwise, why be so cautious?
Qian Duoduo's round face immediately broke into a smile as he approached.
"Sir, I'm the manager here. Do you have something valuable to auction at our Qian Auction House?" Qian Duoduo asked directly.
Long Xuan nodded and handed over a pill bottle, speaking arrogantly, "This is a Spirit Gathering Pill. Is it qualified for auction?"
He wasn't there to sell pills. He just wanted to inadvertently reveal that he was a alchemist to increase his sense of security.
Years ago, he had bought a pile of waste pills from a little medicine boy, and the Spirit Gathering Pill was the most valuable among them.
Using his Heavenly Eye, he easily deciphered most of the ingredients. For the few unclear parts, he just continued to work on the incomplete formula until he figured it out.
Since his Eye of Heavenly secret had already deciphered most of the ingredients, the formula was nearly complete. It didn't take Long Xuan long to perfect it.
The Spirit Gathering Pill was the most valuable in that pile of waste pills because of its breakthrough-enhancing effect, increasing the breakthrough success rate during the Marrow cleansing stage by ten percent.
Don't underestimate this ten percent. In this region of thin spiritual energy, having a ten percent breakthrough rate with the Spirit Gathering Pill was much better than having an almost zero percent chance without it.
In the distant past, when spiritual energy was abundant, cultivators could achieve breakthroughs without relying on spiritual pills.
But in today's era of scarce spiritual energy, even geniuses had to rely on pills to complete breakthroughs.
For this reason, the Breaking Realm Pills were extremely expensive, making it highly sought after by Gu cultivators of the same level, who would do anything to obtain it.
Moreover, the pill's efficacy varied from person to person. The ten percent success rate of the Spirit Gathering Pill was an average value calculated from a large group.
Gu cultivators with higher aptitude absorbed better, resulting in a higher breakthrough rate, while those with lower aptitude had a lower than ten percent success rate.
For someone like Long Xuan, whose meridians and spiritual sea were as strong as rock, the Spirit Gathering Pill, with such low efficacy, was almost useless. He might even need to create a stronger Breaking Realm Pill formula himself.
Therefore, for talented individuals with purchasing power, the success rate of the Spirit Gathering Pill far exceeded ten percent, making it worth spending their entire fortune on.
Because of these considerations, Long Xuan decided to sell the Spirit Gathering Pill for the first time.
This pill was not just any first-grade spiritual pill. Its high cost and difficulty in refining meant that even a second-grade alchemist would have only about a three percent success rate in making it, while a first-grade alchemist would find it almost impossible.
Given its difficulty, the Spirit Gathering Pill couldn't be mass-produced and was too rare to be found in the market. Once available, it would be highly sought after, with a selling price that could surpass that of second-grade spiritual pills.
Long Xuan's purpose in bringing out the Spirit Gathering Pill was not to make money.
Instead, he wanted to use the pill's refining difficulty to show others that the pill couldn't possibly be made by him, a Spirit Gathering stage Gu cultivator, and must have come from his master's hand, warning others to think twice before making a move.