Chapter 215: Egg Gambling

Chapter 215: Chapter 215: Egg Gambling

As he got closer, he discovered that the stall wasn’t as small as it seemed. The goods for sale were, in fact, eggs.

But these weren’t the ordinary chicken or duck eggs eaten by mortals. They were—Spirit Beast Eggs!

And besides Spirit Beast Eggs, the stall also had Demon Beast Eggs and Spiritual Insect Eggs.

According to the stall owner, they were Cultivators who had traveled from the Demon Spirit State via the Demon Passage, and these eggs had also been transported from the Demon Spirit State.

The "Demon Spirit" in the name Demon Spirit State referred to Demon Beasts and Spirit Beasts.

Demon Beasts and Spirit Beasts were essentially the same type of creature. In Ancient Times, no distinction was made between them; they were all collectively known as Demon Beasts.

Starting in Ancient Times, however, Cultivators began to selectively domesticate certain gentler Demon Beasts that could serve as aides. Generation after generation, they were continuously bred and trained, an evolution that continues to this day. This process changed their innate nature, granting them higher intelligence, greater combat strength, and a higher degree of obedience to humans.

These Demon Beasts, trained over tens of thousands of years—or even longer—came to be known as Spirit Beasts.

Spirit Beasts typically possessed high intelligence, allowing them to understand human language and commands. In some cases, they could even engage in simple communication with humans. Their temperaments were gentle, and they were more willing to coexist peacefully with humans, becoming their friends or assistants.

The intelligence of Demon Beasts varied. Some acted purely on instinct, while others might possess considerable intellect. Demon Beasts were often more independent and fierce, generally showing hostility toward humans. They would display extreme aggression, especially when they felt threatened.

In the Demon Spirit State, there was only one Sect, the Beast Taming Sect, but even it was divided into several factions.

There was the Spirit Beast Sect, which only contracted Spirit Beasts; the Demon Beast Sect, which only contracted Demon Beasts; and other factions like the Fairy Sect, the Elf Sect, and the Odd Insect Sect. There were also factions that only contracted beasts of a certain attribute, such as the Thunder Sect and the Wood Sect.

However, the largest faction of all consisted of those with no affiliation.

Jiang Xu watched for a long time before he finally understood what this stall was all about.

Of course, they were obviously selling various types of eggs.

But the way they sold them wasn’t the simple "you give me Spirit Stones, I give you an egg" transaction you’d find at a common market.

The stall owner explained that this was a traditional selling method from the Demon Spirit State: egg gambling.

Upon first hearing the term, Jiang Xu had no idea what "egg gambling" was.

He only understood after the stall owner gave him an explanation.

It turned out that "egg gambling" was a form of gambling.

In his past life, there had been stone gambling and wood gambling. Similarly, in the Demon Spirit State, there was egg gambling.

Just like the saying for stone gambling, "One cut to poverty, one to riches, one to rags," egg gambling was much the same.

When jadeite is mined, it’s covered by a layer of weathered rind, making it impossible to know the quality of what’s inside until it’s cut.

Many species of Demon Beasts and Spirit Beasts had eggs that looked very similar. As a result, when someone stole their eggs from the wild, very few people could tell what species would hatch from them.

In stone gambling, one must cut the raw stone to know the quality of the jadeite inside.

In egg gambling, one only knew the species inside at the very moment the egg hatched.

If these eggs couldn’t be hatched within the three hours the Black Market was open, then the term "egg gambling" naturally wouldn’t exist.

But there was no need to worry. Since egg gambling had been passed down for so long, there was, of course, a solution.

On the stall owner’s stand was a strange Array with a small altar on it.

As long as a customer’s chosen egg was placed on the altar, the Array could be activated. By feeding it sufficient Spiritual Qi and then catalyzing it with one of the stall owner’s Magic techniques, the egg could be hatched in a short amount of time.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea while the egg is incubating, the egg would occasionally make strange noises. An experienced Gambling Egg Master could use these sounds to judge, based on experience, whether the species inside was rare.

During this period, other Cultivators who weren’t the ones gambling could also make offers for the egg. If the gambler accepted, ownership of the egg would change hands.

As long as a drop of blood was placed on the egg before it finally broke out of its shell, the beast would recognize that person as its master.

Of course, one could also buy an egg and take it home to incubate slowly; it wasn’t necessary to hatch it on the spot.

"Tier Three! Tier Three! Tier Three!"

Right now at the stall, a Cultivator who had bought a Spirit Beast Egg was staring intently at it as it incubated on the altar, desperately chanting "Tier Three" under his breath.

The Tier Three he was referring to was the Spirit Beast’s Bloodline Level.

Tier Two meant the Spirit Beast’s maximum level would only be equivalent to a Cultivator’s Foundation Establishment realm.

Tier Three was equivalent to the Golden Core realm.

And Spirit Beasts and Demon Beasts were different from humans.

As long as they reached adulthood, they would naturally attain their maximum Bloodline Level.

However, reaching adulthood took a very long time and required a vast amount of resources.

In the wild, their growth, whether for Spirit Beasts or Demon Beasts, was incredibly arduous. But there was a shortcut: forming a contract with a Cultivator. The Cultivator would help them grow, and in return, the Contracted Beast would have to contribute its strength.

This Cultivator had just spotted a Spirit Beast Egg with a five-colored pattern on its shell. Supremely confident that it would hatch a Tier Three Spirit Beast, he had spent a large number of Spirit Stones to buy it.

Jiang Xu swept his Divine Sense over the incubating Spirit Beast Egg, but he couldn’t detect anything at all. It wasn’t just this one; he couldn’t see into any of the eggs at the stall.

This was because even unhatched, the eggs possessed their own souls and would instinctively resist the presence of Divine Sense.

’Divine Sense isn’t working, but I have other methods.’

He activated his Spiritual Eye Technique. A wave of dazzling, multicolored Spiritual Power fluctuations appeared before him. He could see traces of Spiritual Qi on the eggs, but he still couldn’t tell if it was inherent to the eggs or the result of some Magic cast by a Cultivator.

THUD—!

A muffled sound echoed from within the egg.

The surrounding Cultivators let out a collective gasp.

That sound was the loudest to come from any of the eggs so far.

’Could it be... that the Spirit Beast inside is truly extraordinary?’

"I will give you 1,500 Spirit Stones for that egg," a short, masked Cultivator next to the gambler said in a muffled voice.

The gambler was stunned for a moment.

He had only spent 1,000 Spirit Stones to buy this egg. He never expected that after less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he could make a clean profit of five hundred Spirit Stones.

’This is an insane profit!’

But even though the man’s offer had startled him, the gambler didn’t let the Spirit Stones go to his head. On the contrary, it only strengthened his belief that the Spirit Beast Egg he’d chosen had the potential of a Golden Core. Otherwise, why would someone offer such a high price for it?