Li Hong had been feeling upset for the past few days.
After being tricked by Yi Yun who was a first year rookie, his reputation in the Tai Ah Divine City was ruined. How could he feel happy?
He was a big brother figure in the Tai Ah Divine City, and in the capital, he was the famous Young Master Hong. The most important thing to him was his face.
Now, his face had been tainted by others.
How could Li Hong feel any comfort? Once a warrior's mind was at an unease, their body's Yuan Qi would also turn chaotic like their mind. So, it was easy to become stuck in their cultivation.
Li Hong was at the critical moment of breaking through to the Yuan Foundation realm, but when this happened, he felt as gross as eating shit.
Li Hong kept thinking of ways to save the situation. However, Yi Yun’s strength was rising rapidly. Although Li Hong was conceited, he still had to admit that in about half a year's time, he would not be able to beat Yi Yun anymore.
Once that happened, it would be even harder to save the situation!
He needed an opportunity to deal with Yi Yun, but...where could he find this opportunity?
As Li Hong was thinking, a disturbance erupted outside, "Brother Hong! Brother Hong! Something big has happened! That kid Yi Yun has challenged you, he wants to fight you in the arena tomorrow!"
A few henchmen were charging into Li Hong's courtyard, like a pack of hungry dogs, as they cried out.
When Li Hong heard this, he was stunned.
"Yi Yun is challenging me?" Li Hong was slow to react.
He was just thinking of getting his revenge on Yi Yun to save his face, but now Yi Yun had taken the initiative to knock on his door?
However, this made him feel odd.
Is this kid mad?
Or was there another reason?
Li Hong's face turned sullen. He had some misgivings about the way that Yi Yun challenged him.
Was it a trap?
"Boss, why are you..."
A few of Li Hong’s henchmen expected him to be fuming mad, laughing heartily when he received the news, cursing at Yi Yun's stupidness and his desire to be beaten up.
They did not expect Li Hong to react in such a manner. It was neither anger nor happiness.
"Did you make a video disk array of Yi Yun’s match?" Li Hong suddenly asked. Although he did not want to be present to watch Yi Yun's match, it was a must to watch the video disk array or he would not be able to understand Yi Yun's strength.
"This..."
The henchmen smacked themselves in the forehead. They had forgotten about it and they were single-mindedly rushing here to inform Li Hong!
"We'll go back and get it." A few henchmen rushed back.
In the Tai Ah Divine City, there were many backups of the recordings of the arena's matches. The more intense the battle, the more backups there were. They could be kept for many years, and so as long as one could pay a small amount of dragon scale runes, they could be rented for viewing.
Soon, these brats obtained a disk array and they rushed back to Li Hong’s courtyard breathlessly.
When they returned, they did not expect to see so many people in Li Hong's courtyard. A large number of the people who were present were part of the backbone of the Hongdao Association. A few of them were also veteran cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City.
"They..."
When the brats saw these people, they were shocked. They vaguely knew that Li Hong had a wide circle of friends and he had many powerful friends amongst the veteran cultivators.
They were all the people near the top of the Heaven and Earth roll of honors. There was even a person ranked in the top 50 and he was nicknamed "Hu Tou'.
"Oh? It's him, right…?"
The brats saw this tall and thin teenager who looked 17-19 years old. This person had a necklace filled with large beads on his neck, and his arm had a Fierce Divine Tiger tattooed on it.
Hu Tou was a veteran cultivator who had been in the Tai Ah Divine City for about four years. He had long broken through to the Yuan Foundation realm. He still had a year and nine months left before he graduated. By ranking in the top 50 on the Earth roll, he was definitely one of the best amongst his class of cultivators.
"Let's watch it and analyze it." Li Hong was naturally suspicious. He erred on the side of caution by calling people over. Hu Tou, who had great foresight, might even be able to tell if Yi Yun had any hidden strength.
A few henchmen took the disk arrays of Yi Yun's match, and left it on a table for a group of people to gather around it to study it.
Li Hong mainly wanted to obtain the opinions of veteran cultivators like Hu Tou. After analyzing it in all sorts of manner for a long time, they...could not figure anything out.
They could only make some general speculations from Yi Yun's battle. But no matter how hard they looked at it, Yi Yun seemed to have went all out during his battle with Chu Xiaoran.
"Li Hong, I think that the possibility of Yi Yun having any more hidden strength is low. If he can still have hidden strength under such circumstances, then his acting is just too good. He might even have targeted you from the beginning! But he's just a little kid. How can he think of all this when the rookie ranking competition began? Don't forget, he had been at odds with the entire Hongdao Association. A huge group of people from the Hongdao Association had challenged Yi Yun, including Liu Yuxing who was considered one of the best amongst the rookies. Together with the best rookies, Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu, Yi Yun had to face such opponents. Adding the high stakes bets, he would already be worried over all these things. Do you expect him to have planned such a trap, while handling all those, just to let you, Li Hong jump into it?"
Hu Tou was the first person to express his opinion. What he said was reasonable. Yi Yun was, after all, only thirteen years old. A typical child would be confused when they faced all sorts of complicated problems. If he could even plan a trap at this point of time, and lure Li Hong into it, then he was not normal at all.
Li Hong frowned and said, "Probably..."
If this battle had to be fought, then a bet had to be prepared. Even if he did not want to bet, he still had to do so. By being forced into such a situation, if he did not bet anything, then he would lose all his standing amongst the Hongdao Association's members. The other cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City would even ridicule him.
But Li Hong had still not thought of the item to bet on. The crux of the issue was he did not have many resources he could use.
As Li Hong was thinking about it, a sudden laughter ranged. "Hahaha! Li Hong, you actually opened a huge conference to discuss if you would lose, just because a rookie is challenging you. Do you have no shame!?"
This sudden voice made Li Hong's face livid.
What the other person said was true. To be frightened before the battle after being challenged by a rookie, and holding such a huge analysis conference, he would lose all face if people found this out.
Li Hong turned angry from embarrassment. Just as he was about to flare up, he saw the person who spoke out and immediately shut up.
The person who walked in was dressed in a Qilin robe, with a nine python belt and moccasins. He had a natural air of nobility from top to bottom.
"Yang Dingkun!" The fifteen year old young man who came was the son of King Chu!
King Chu was a noble who had a long history in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. His bloodline could be traced all the way back to the first King Chu, who was the younger brother of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom's founding emperor, so his family was also part of the royal family.
Later on, he was enfeoffed with the Chu state, so he became the vassal of the Chu state all the way to the present day.
Now, the Chu state's Yang family had already bloomed into a super family clan. Of course, their blood relations with the emperor had grown distant, but they were still part of the royal family.
Yang Dingkun, who was ranked in the tens on both the Heaven and Earth rolls in the Tai Ah Divine City, was considered a prominent figure.
The Li family that Li Hong was part of, was also related to the Chu royal residence, but through marriage. In some sense, Yang Dingkun was a distant cousin of Li Hong.
Today, Yang Dingkun suddenly appeared and immediately ridiculed him, making Li Hong feel upset.
"Cousin, what are you doing here?" Li Hong asked.
"Haha, I'm here to be your strategist, Cousin. I know you are tight on resources recently. If you want to borrow dragon scale runes, I can lend it to you, but...I have one condition..." Yang Dingkun pulled his words.
"What condition?"
"That is...the first three volumes of the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'. I want you to win it for me!"
When Yang Dingkun said those words, his eyes lit up!
Yang Dingkun knew that there were rules in the Tai Ah Divine City. The top cultivation techniques, like the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', could be used as stakes, but this was seldom done in the past.
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' cultivation technique jade scroll was very precious and there were a limited number of copies. If a cultivator wanted to exchange dragon scale runes and glory points for the cultivation technique, they were actually renting it for ten months.
In this ten months, the cultivator who rented the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was free to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', but they could not to lend the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' to other cultivators.
Unless it was lost in a gambling match.
To prevent people from deliberately handing over the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' by gambling, the Tai Ah Sacred Technique had strict rules. Once the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was used as a bet, not losing it was alright, but once it was lost in a bet, the remaining rental period was reduced by 30%!
This is why very few people would use the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' as a stake.
Once 30% of the time was lost, many cultivators could not afford it. It might not be possible for them to learn it in ten months, what’s more having 30% deducted.
"The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'!? You are eyeing Yi Yun's Tai Ah Sacred Technique'!?" Realizing Yang Dingkun's outrageous greed, Li Hong jumped. He quickly calculated what his losses would be if he were to agree to Yang Dingkun's condition.
There was no doubt that if Yang Dingkun wanted the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', then he had to put up something that was equivalent to the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' as a stake!
If that happened, this would be a great gamble!
Yang Dingkun was crazy enough!
But Li Hong was also confident that he could beat Yi Yun!
"Have you not have the chance to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'?" Li Hong asked.
Although Yang Dingkun was from the Chu royal residence, he was not privileged enough to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'. There were too many children in the Chu royal residence. Even if Yang Dingkun was the heir apparent to the Chu royal residence, he would still not have that privilege!
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' jade scrolls were too precious. The Divine Kingdom's royal household only had three or four copies and the rest were stored in the Tai Ah Divine City!
Those who had the ability could compete for a chance to cultivate it, but those who lacked the ability could only stand by the side.
Yang Dingkun angrily said, "Tsk! The Divine City's rules are too rigid. Although I have earned enough glory points and dragon scale runes to exchange for the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', the price is too high. Once I exchange it, I would be absolutely impoverished!"
"But this kid Yi Yun had great luck in picking herbs, he obtained a large sum of dragon scale runes and glory points because of it. He exchange for the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' just like that. It's completely unfair! Who gave him the right to do so!?"
"He wants to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'? He is a bumpkin from the Cloud Wilderness! Hmph! As a descendant of the royal household, I still haven't even managed to cultivate this royal secret technique. How is this fair!? Once this 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' is in my hands, I will make its glory bloom!"
After being tricked by Yi Yun who was a first year rookie, his reputation in the Tai Ah Divine City was ruined. How could he feel happy?
He was a big brother figure in the Tai Ah Divine City, and in the capital, he was the famous Young Master Hong. The most important thing to him was his face.
Now, his face had been tainted by others.
How could Li Hong feel any comfort? Once a warrior's mind was at an unease, their body's Yuan Qi would also turn chaotic like their mind. So, it was easy to become stuck in their cultivation.
Li Hong was at the critical moment of breaking through to the Yuan Foundation realm, but when this happened, he felt as gross as eating shit.
Li Hong kept thinking of ways to save the situation. However, Yi Yun’s strength was rising rapidly. Although Li Hong was conceited, he still had to admit that in about half a year's time, he would not be able to beat Yi Yun anymore.
Once that happened, it would be even harder to save the situation!
He needed an opportunity to deal with Yi Yun, but...where could he find this opportunity?
As Li Hong was thinking, a disturbance erupted outside, "Brother Hong! Brother Hong! Something big has happened! That kid Yi Yun has challenged you, he wants to fight you in the arena tomorrow!"
A few henchmen were charging into Li Hong's courtyard, like a pack of hungry dogs, as they cried out.
When Li Hong heard this, he was stunned.
"Yi Yun is challenging me?" Li Hong was slow to react.
He was just thinking of getting his revenge on Yi Yun to save his face, but now Yi Yun had taken the initiative to knock on his door?
However, this made him feel odd.
Is this kid mad?
Or was there another reason?
Li Hong's face turned sullen. He had some misgivings about the way that Yi Yun challenged him.
Was it a trap?
"Boss, why are you..."
A few of Li Hong’s henchmen expected him to be fuming mad, laughing heartily when he received the news, cursing at Yi Yun's stupidness and his desire to be beaten up.
They did not expect Li Hong to react in such a manner. It was neither anger nor happiness.
"Did you make a video disk array of Yi Yun’s match?" Li Hong suddenly asked. Although he did not want to be present to watch Yi Yun's match, it was a must to watch the video disk array or he would not be able to understand Yi Yun's strength.
"This..."
The henchmen smacked themselves in the forehead. They had forgotten about it and they were single-mindedly rushing here to inform Li Hong!
"We'll go back and get it." A few henchmen rushed back.
In the Tai Ah Divine City, there were many backups of the recordings of the arena's matches. The more intense the battle, the more backups there were. They could be kept for many years, and so as long as one could pay a small amount of dragon scale runes, they could be rented for viewing.
Soon, these brats obtained a disk array and they rushed back to Li Hong’s courtyard breathlessly.
When they returned, they did not expect to see so many people in Li Hong's courtyard. A large number of the people who were present were part of the backbone of the Hongdao Association. A few of them were also veteran cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City.
"They..."
When the brats saw these people, they were shocked. They vaguely knew that Li Hong had a wide circle of friends and he had many powerful friends amongst the veteran cultivators.
They were all the people near the top of the Heaven and Earth roll of honors. There was even a person ranked in the top 50 and he was nicknamed "Hu Tou'.
"Oh? It's him, right…?"
The brats saw this tall and thin teenager who looked 17-19 years old. This person had a necklace filled with large beads on his neck, and his arm had a Fierce Divine Tiger tattooed on it.
Hu Tou was a veteran cultivator who had been in the Tai Ah Divine City for about four years. He had long broken through to the Yuan Foundation realm. He still had a year and nine months left before he graduated. By ranking in the top 50 on the Earth roll, he was definitely one of the best amongst his class of cultivators.
"Let's watch it and analyze it." Li Hong was naturally suspicious. He erred on the side of caution by calling people over. Hu Tou, who had great foresight, might even be able to tell if Yi Yun had any hidden strength.
A few henchmen took the disk arrays of Yi Yun's match, and left it on a table for a group of people to gather around it to study it.
Li Hong mainly wanted to obtain the opinions of veteran cultivators like Hu Tou. After analyzing it in all sorts of manner for a long time, they...could not figure anything out.
They could only make some general speculations from Yi Yun's battle. But no matter how hard they looked at it, Yi Yun seemed to have went all out during his battle with Chu Xiaoran.
"Li Hong, I think that the possibility of Yi Yun having any more hidden strength is low. If he can still have hidden strength under such circumstances, then his acting is just too good. He might even have targeted you from the beginning! But he's just a little kid. How can he think of all this when the rookie ranking competition began? Don't forget, he had been at odds with the entire Hongdao Association. A huge group of people from the Hongdao Association had challenged Yi Yun, including Liu Yuxing who was considered one of the best amongst the rookies. Together with the best rookies, Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu, Yi Yun had to face such opponents. Adding the high stakes bets, he would already be worried over all these things. Do you expect him to have planned such a trap, while handling all those, just to let you, Li Hong jump into it?"
Hu Tou was the first person to express his opinion. What he said was reasonable. Yi Yun was, after all, only thirteen years old. A typical child would be confused when they faced all sorts of complicated problems. If he could even plan a trap at this point of time, and lure Li Hong into it, then he was not normal at all.
Li Hong frowned and said, "Probably..."
If this battle had to be fought, then a bet had to be prepared. Even if he did not want to bet, he still had to do so. By being forced into such a situation, if he did not bet anything, then he would lose all his standing amongst the Hongdao Association's members. The other cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City would even ridicule him.
But Li Hong had still not thought of the item to bet on. The crux of the issue was he did not have many resources he could use.
As Li Hong was thinking about it, a sudden laughter ranged. "Hahaha! Li Hong, you actually opened a huge conference to discuss if you would lose, just because a rookie is challenging you. Do you have no shame!?"
This sudden voice made Li Hong's face livid.
What the other person said was true. To be frightened before the battle after being challenged by a rookie, and holding such a huge analysis conference, he would lose all face if people found this out.
Li Hong turned angry from embarrassment. Just as he was about to flare up, he saw the person who spoke out and immediately shut up.
The person who walked in was dressed in a Qilin robe, with a nine python belt and moccasins. He had a natural air of nobility from top to bottom.
"Yang Dingkun!" The fifteen year old young man who came was the son of King Chu!
King Chu was a noble who had a long history in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. His bloodline could be traced all the way back to the first King Chu, who was the younger brother of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom's founding emperor, so his family was also part of the royal family.
Later on, he was enfeoffed with the Chu state, so he became the vassal of the Chu state all the way to the present day.
Now, the Chu state's Yang family had already bloomed into a super family clan. Of course, their blood relations with the emperor had grown distant, but they were still part of the royal family.
Yang Dingkun, who was ranked in the tens on both the Heaven and Earth rolls in the Tai Ah Divine City, was considered a prominent figure.
The Li family that Li Hong was part of, was also related to the Chu royal residence, but through marriage. In some sense, Yang Dingkun was a distant cousin of Li Hong.
Today, Yang Dingkun suddenly appeared and immediately ridiculed him, making Li Hong feel upset.
"Cousin, what are you doing here?" Li Hong asked.
"Haha, I'm here to be your strategist, Cousin. I know you are tight on resources recently. If you want to borrow dragon scale runes, I can lend it to you, but...I have one condition..." Yang Dingkun pulled his words.
"What condition?"
"That is...the first three volumes of the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'. I want you to win it for me!"
When Yang Dingkun said those words, his eyes lit up!
Yang Dingkun knew that there were rules in the Tai Ah Divine City. The top cultivation techniques, like the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', could be used as stakes, but this was seldom done in the past.
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' cultivation technique jade scroll was very precious and there were a limited number of copies. If a cultivator wanted to exchange dragon scale runes and glory points for the cultivation technique, they were actually renting it for ten months.
In this ten months, the cultivator who rented the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was free to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', but they could not to lend the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' to other cultivators.
Unless it was lost in a gambling match.
To prevent people from deliberately handing over the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' by gambling, the Tai Ah Sacred Technique had strict rules. Once the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was used as a bet, not losing it was alright, but once it was lost in a bet, the remaining rental period was reduced by 30%!
This is why very few people would use the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' as a stake.
Once 30% of the time was lost, many cultivators could not afford it. It might not be possible for them to learn it in ten months, what’s more having 30% deducted.
"The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'!? You are eyeing Yi Yun's Tai Ah Sacred Technique'!?" Realizing Yang Dingkun's outrageous greed, Li Hong jumped. He quickly calculated what his losses would be if he were to agree to Yang Dingkun's condition.
There was no doubt that if Yang Dingkun wanted the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', then he had to put up something that was equivalent to the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' as a stake!
If that happened, this would be a great gamble!
Yang Dingkun was crazy enough!
But Li Hong was also confident that he could beat Yi Yun!
"Have you not have the chance to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'?" Li Hong asked.
Although Yang Dingkun was from the Chu royal residence, he was not privileged enough to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'. There were too many children in the Chu royal residence. Even if Yang Dingkun was the heir apparent to the Chu royal residence, he would still not have that privilege!
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' jade scrolls were too precious. The Divine Kingdom's royal household only had three or four copies and the rest were stored in the Tai Ah Divine City!
Those who had the ability could compete for a chance to cultivate it, but those who lacked the ability could only stand by the side.
Yang Dingkun angrily said, "Tsk! The Divine City's rules are too rigid. Although I have earned enough glory points and dragon scale runes to exchange for the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', the price is too high. Once I exchange it, I would be absolutely impoverished!"
"But this kid Yi Yun had great luck in picking herbs, he obtained a large sum of dragon scale runes and glory points because of it. He exchange for the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' just like that. It's completely unfair! Who gave him the right to do so!?"
"He wants to cultivate the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'? He is a bumpkin from the Cloud Wilderness! Hmph! As a descendant of the royal household, I still haven't even managed to cultivate this royal secret technique. How is this fair!? Once this 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' is in my hands, I will make its glory bloom!"
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