Chapter 94 – Wager

The time it took for Xu Disheng to finish the fight wasn’t long; it was only about 10 breaths of time.

When he landed in Morning Dew Peak’s circle of light and put away his black Spirit Cloud, he looked straight ahead, causing his expression to turn somewhat strange.

The Peak Master, Lu Changge, was looking at him with a wide smile on his face.

Bai Honghua and the other Dao Foundation stage disciples were also looking at him with burning gazes.

“What is this child’s name?” Lu Changge asked, turning his head to address Bai Honghua at his side.

Even though he had given him spirit stones earlier, he hadn’t asked for Xu Disheng’s name. With this inquiry, it was clear that Xu Disheng had thoroughly piqued his interest with this battle.

“His name is Xu Disheng,” Bai Honghua answered respectfully, slightly bowing his head.

Lu Changge nodded slightly, turning back to face him. “Xu Disheng, not bad! After winning that fight, you can already be considered to be in the top 5,000 in the main tournament! And you’re only at the early Sea of Qi stage too!”

“Thank you, Peak Master,” Xu Disheng replied with a bow. But on his face, there was no sign that he was pleased with himself.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Changge continued, “I estimate that with the battle prowess you showed just now… if you manage to not run into any of the top 100 disciples, it won’t be hard for you to reach the top 500 in the end. If you need any cultivation resources, feel free to let me know! I’m willing to give a high-grade Spirit Tool or something of equivalent value.”

Xu Disheng raised his gaze and asked, “Peak Master, I need some Qi Boosting Pills. Would it be possible to…?”

""

Lu Changge nodded and addressed to his side, “Lu Zimo, go get 5 Qi Boosting Pills for him,” Then, he turned back to Xu Disheng and said, “Go on and get a good rest before the next round then.”

“Thank you, Peak Master,” Xu Disheng responded.

Once he entered the crowd of Morning Dew Peak disciples once more, Bai Zhehua immediately came up to him and said, “Junior Martial Brother Xu! I thought you were going to use…that diagram, but I didn’t expect you to be able to win even without it!”

Seeing that there were other disciples coming closer, he swallowed the words ‘Yin Yang Diagram’.

Even though he wasn’t trying to deliberately hide his possession of this Magic Treasure, there was no benefit to revealing it early.

“Congratulations, Senior Martial Brother Xu,” a voice called out.

Xu Disheng looked to the side. The person who spoke was none other than Li Dan. He was standing amidst the other disciples with a complicated expression on his face.

“Senior Martial Brother Xu, congratulations!” a purple-robed man said, stepping out from the crowd of disciples with a cordial smile.

“Junior Martial Brother Xu, this is Zhang Haobo. He placed 700th or so in the first match of the tournament,” Bai Zhehua said, introducing him.

“Many thanks, Senior Martial Brother Zhang,” Xu Disheng replied, not even acknowledging Li Dan’s greeting. Instead, he got acquainted with the peak Sea of Qi stage disciples from Morning Dew Peak through Bai Zhehua’s enthusiastic introductions.

Regardless of whether they were being genuine or not, they all spoke up and congratulated him with smiles on their faces.

Even Ge Sheng, who had once been at odds with Xu Disheng because of some spirit stones, congratulated him along with everyone else.

Li Dan stood there all by himself, feeling somewhat lonely. Even though that small circle was just a few steps in front of him, it felt as if they were an entire world away.

Next to him, a tender voice could be heard. “Senior Martial Brother Li, Xu Disheng just had good luck. Just now, I heard from a senior martial sister from Falling Snow Peak that his opponent’s name was Zhong Kang. Even though he was placed in the 100s or so, he was only focused on body refining. Next time, his luck won’t be so good.”

Li Dan turned to look at Lu Siwan, who was dressed in white robes and happened to be looking at him with a concerned look on her face.

He calmly took a step away from her and said, “Junior Martial Sister, behave yourself.”

The tiniest hint of anger flashed through Lu Siwan’s eyes, but she didn’t lash out. Continuing with her gentle tone, she said, “How about we get away from this lively place and go walk by the lakeside?”

Li Dan didn’t reply, instead turning around and directly walking away.

Lu Siwan looked at Li Dan’s retreating figure and secretly clenched her teeth.

Li Dan suddenly came to an understanding. He finally realized that Lu Siwan was only leading him on by clinging to him every day. He didn’t receive any benefits from her, and yet he’d been acting in a muddle-headed fashion, slowly squandering the several dozen spirit stones he had in his possession on her. Not to mention, just a few days ago, he had even paid her an advance of 20 spirit stones just because she said that she wanted to buy a Spirit Gathering Pill.

But today, after seeing Xu Disheng making broad strides forward and conversing with those peak Sea of Qi stage disciples, he realized that in comparison, he was just like an ant who could only look up at him from the dirt. There was no way he wouldn’t be brought to his senses by this!

Li Dan’s departure didn’t arouse anyone’s attention. Only Xu Disheng glanced at Lu Siwan, who was standing there, out of the corner of his eye.

The atmosphere among the disciples of Morning Dew Peak was extremely harmonious. It was especially so among the small circle at the top of the social ladder. Zhang Haobo and several other peak Sea of Qi stage disciples were watching the matches going on in the nearby arenas with Xu Disheng and Bai Zhehua. From time to time, they would talk and converse amongst themselves.

Atop the arenas, the battles were becoming more and more entertaining. As the rankings of the contestants on stage became lower, the contestants were more and more evenly matched.

It even reached the point that some of the more clever disciples set up tables and started to call out and encourage people to place their bets. The rules of betting were very simple. They just had to bet on who would be the winner out of the two contestants!

The atmosphere became even more festive. Around half of the several tens of thousands of disciples standing around watching the matches started to move around between the 10 arenas. If there were any competing disciples that looked promising, they would cast courageous bets!

From time to time, there would be ecstatic disciples beaming with happiness as they raked piles of spirit stones into their storage pouches.

There would be even more disciples who looked deathly pale. They had clearly gotten ahead of themselves after winning too much and bet a lot of spirit stones, but ended up losing all of it in one go. On the other hand, those who weren’t interested in betting whatsoever would silently leave the Green Lotus Domain, riding away on their beams of light.

Although Xu Disheng was chatting with several people, most of his attention was still focused on the arenas.

There would be people who would take out giant puppets and crush their opponents.

There were also other disciples who would throw out a handful of talismans, blasting their opponents off the stage before they could even react and protect themselves.

There were even beast tamers who would blow on their flutes with cold expressions on their faces, summoning their spirit beasts to rush out and swarm their opponents.

Bai Zhehua was also carried along by the mood and cast several bets, but in the end, he lost several dozen spirit stones and stopped betting with a bitter smile on his face.

After no less than three full days, all 10,000 disciples had their respective turns and finished competing. Tao Yuanbai looked down at the complete record in the jade slip in his hand before stepping onto the shoulder of the giant turtle and announcing to the crowd below, “This marks the start of the second round of the main competition of the Mingxin Mountain Internal Disciple Tournament. The 5,000 remaining contestants will be assigned to their respective arenas from before. Those at the lower end of the ranking will go up first and select their own opponents.”

When he finished speaking, ten radiant beams of light spilled forth from his hand, landing in the hands of the Dao Foundation stage Deacons standing by each of the 10 arenas.

The Deacon standing by the 2nd arena caught the jade slip and glanced at the contents within. The names of all the disciples who had emerged victorious on the 2nd arena in the last round were recorded within, still arranged according to their placement in the first match of the tournament, from the bottom to the top.

Putting away the jade slip, the Deacon announced, “8,675th place.”

An early Sea of Qi stage disciple rode a white Spirit Cloud up to the arena and looked at the Deacon.

“What are you looking at me for? Select your opponent!” the Deacon said, sounding somewhat irate as he pointed over at the several hundred people standing to one side of the 2nd arena. These people had emerged victorious in the first round on the 2nd arena.

The disciple had an ugly expression on his face. In the first round, he only managed to win because he was lucky enough to run into another early Sea of Qi stage disciple who had been ranked 9,000th or so.

At the moment, most of the several hundred people standing off to one side of the 2nd arena were at the peak Sea of Qi stage. Only a scant few were at the early Sea of Qi stage. Finger trembling slightly, the early Sea of Qi stage disciple pointed at one person and said, “Then I’ll choose you.”

The disciple who had been chosen scoffed once, but he didn’t say anything extra before hopping onto the arena.

“Start,” the Deacon said after seeing the two contestants squaring off against each other.

The disciple who had been selected waved his hand, summoning two spirit beasts, which rapidly dashed forward. Both of them appeared to be at the peak Sea of Qi stage, causing the early Sea of Qi stage disciple’s face immediately turned ashen. He called out, “I admit defeat!”

The beast tamer disciple lightly whistled and the two spirit beasts stopped their forward charge. When he turned around, the spirit beasts were sucked back into a gourd Spirit Tool. Then, he put the gourd Spirit Tool away and jumped nonchalantly back off the arena.

The next several battles were all early Sea of Qi stage disciples who had placed near the bottom of the ranking in the first match. After they went up and selected their opponents, they all suffered defeat one after the other.

“5,675th place, come up to the arena.”

Xu Disheng walked out from the crowd. He hadn’t cultivated any body refining cultivation methods, so he summoned his black Spirit Cloud and flew onto the tall arena.

“Come on, place your bets! Place your bets here! This is the disciple who won against Zhong Kang in the first round!”

The several hundred disciples who were waiting for their match were standing off to one side of the arena, while the other majority of the disciples were surrounding the arena in a tight circle. Seeing Xu Disheng go up to the arena, many people immediately set up tables and prepared to place bets.

Most people decided to wait until Xu Disheng made his choice before placing their bets.