The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1574

Seeing Longtrouble's peaking interest in the rock Hao Xuan quickly washed his hands of the matter. The feeling he got from the 'Midas Touch' was far too vague to bet with any level of certainty.

But Longtrouble was feeling every nook and cranny on the fist-sized piece of debris trying to study and analyze it.

"Let's do it, I will go with this one. I have a good feeling!" he mumbled in a trance.

Hao Xuan frowned at his odd behavior. The goblin appeared to be enamored by the rock and he knew better than to come between a hungry creature and its meal.

"Fine, it IS your money. Just remember I told you there was little chance of it being valuable."

"Yeah yeah I know..."

Longtrouble shooed him away and brought the rock to a glass case about 2 meters wide and 1 meter long. He lifted the front panel and placed the rock in the center before tapping on the rune located on the exterior of the glass case.

The panel closed, giving him a moment to step back and explain what was about to happen.

"This is a magical device that removes the spatial energy to safely open the rock," he said pointing at the rows of 72 runes that came to life inside the case.

Each of the runes started peeling off small pieces from the rock's outer layer to reveal what was hidden inside.

"The glass box will keep the contents contained while allowing us to see their true form. Usually you have to pay extra for this service but Poli and I have a deal, isn't that right Poli!" Longtrouble rubbed his hands in anticipation.

Poli's hoarse voice answered from the backroom, "Haha...with how much gold you have lost here, you could have bought one of them yourself!"

Hao Xuan tried to crane his neck to get a look at this mysterious Poli but she was squarely out of sight.

It took roughly 40 seconds for the 'treasure' to reveal itself.

Longtrouble watched with bated breath as the "unsealing" process came to a finish.

Inside was a small figurine of a four-legged hairy creature carved out of a light brown stone. It didn't give off any special energy but there was a hint of spirituality inside it.

'Hmm. It looks small but that is only because the glass case is forcefully keeping it in that state. Once the spatial energy dissipates it should return to its original size, which outa be much bigger,' Hao Xuan theorized.

"Hoh, not bad!" Longtrouble muttered while tapping on the outer rune to get more details.

A list of the specifics like size and weight of the 'treasure' were shown on the glass. It weighed roughly 6 tons and measured up to 3.6 meters.

'It's a good thing he used the device to open it. It would have crushed him if he tried to do it himself,' Hao Xuan jokingly thought while Longtrouble took out an embroidered leather pouch from his pocket.

He loosened the opening before placing it on the side of the glass case where a four-inch wide slot appeared and pulled in the figurine.

"Yessir, not bad at all!" Longtrouble patted the pouch while wriggling his toes like a rat.

Hao Xuan couldn't help but ask, "What is it? Would it be enough to cover the fee?"

Longtrouble's smile froze when he remembered their deal.

"N-No. It's a good start but needs more work!"

"How so? What was it exactly?" Hao Xuan asked again.

"It's just an earth spirit," Longtrouble revealed, "With some luck and a little blessing from one of the Old Gods I can help it break through but that will take a long time, 7 years at the very least!"

"Hoh, is that right?"

Hao Xuan hadn't seen an unborn earth spirit before but he knew the value of one. Even a basic one could fertilize large stretches of land, change the topography, and make the environment much more suitable for other creatures.

Inversely, depending on its skills an earth spirit could prove to be a weapon of mass destruction. Often times cultivators would use them to aid in battle but they were not easy to control or to provide for.

With that in mind, a basic Earth Spirit could easily go for several thousand gold coins in here if not more. The only catch was that they needed a lot of time, care, and resources to mature so one needed to keep that in mind.

But even an unborn spirit could fetch a couple hundred gold coins so Longtrouble was definitely trying to take advantage of Hao Xuan.

'I see how it is. Fine then.'

What little grace Hao Xuan had granted the goblin swiftly went out the window. He smiled innocently, "Then let's get you one more."

He went back to the pile and started going through each of the rocks and crystals one by one.

Longtrouble watched on with keen interest trying to pick up a trick or two but that wasn't going to help him in the least.

In the end Hao Xuan chose two pieces from the new pile. He threw one to the goblin, "This one is for you."

Longtrouble examined it carefully. It was a rather plain-looking piece of deformed substrate with all kinds of impurities mixed in.

"This one?" the goblin skeptically inquired before eying the other piece that was still in Hao Xuan's hand, "What about that one?"