??Chapter 20: Chapter 0020: Betting on Two Gas
Chapter 20: Chapter 0020: Betting on Two Gas
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At nine o’clock, the square in front of National Master Manor where the Moon-duel stage was located began to let all the outer sect disciples enter. Once they surrounded the hundred stages, the square started to open to outsiders, allowing them to enter the square to watch the Moon-duel.
Every ti the Imperial Master Mansion hosted a Moon-duel, it was a grand event of Zhangshui City, attracting thousands of families. The price of nearby high-rises, including restaurants and teahouses, soared, and seats beca scarce. Betting houses set up betting stalls outside the square, opening betting for popular outer sect disciples. It could be said that every ti the Moon-duel was held, it was a day for rchants to make a fortune.
Qi Tian arrived at the square early. He had already received the information displayed on his identity jade badge. He would enter the stage in the first batch, facing challenges from three challengers he selected on the sa stage, and his challenge to Ling Mu wouldn’t be until several rounds later.
At nine twenty-five, the doors of Huangque Hall opened. Hundred inner sect disciples who were to serve as judges in this Moon-duel, walked out. Each of them was responsible for guarding one stage, not only determining the victory or defeat of the participants but also ensuring their safety.
After the judges went to their respective stages, it was exactly half past nine, a gigantic fireball shot into the sky from the gate of the National Master Manor, bursting out a dazzling firework in the air. This was the signal for the start of the Moon-duel.
The judges started to call nas one after another. Qi Tian went up to the stage, took the initiative to hand his identity badge to the judge, and said, “Greetings, brother, Qi Tian reporting to you.”
After the judge checked the jade badge and confird Qi Tian’s identity, he nodded, took Qi Tian’s identity badge for the anti. He would need to record so things on it later.
“Did Guan Xun co? Aren’t you going to challenge Qi Tian? Co up then.” The judge said.
Guan Xun was at the bottom of the Sparrow List, his fa among the outer sect disciples is no less than that of Zhou Kunlin, only that Zhou Kunlin had a good reputation, while his was bad. This Moon-duel could be said to determine Guan Xun’s fate. If he couldn’t change his bottom-ranking situation, he would have to leave the Imperial Master Mansion after this Moon-duel.
Guan Xun was randomly selected by Qi Tian from the five challengers. He didn’t pay much attention at that ti, only when Guan Xun went up, he seriously looked at this last-ranked participant.
Guan Xun wasn’t young anymore, looking at his appearance, he should be over sixteen years old. According to Qi Tian’s knowledge, Guan Xun joined the Imperial Master Mansion at the age of twelve, and he had successfully cultivated “Black Jade Skills” to reach Qi Cultivation First Level at that ti. That breakthrough must have exhausted his potential. After that, he made no progress and had been dragging on until now. Previously he could rely on his young age to get so bonus points when ranking on the Sparrow List. But as he grew older, this bonus beca less and less. Now it’s completely gone, his ranking plumted, becoming the last. For such a person, the Imperial Master Mansion wouldn’t spend valuable resources to train. That would be a pure waste.
After Qi Tian and Guan Xun stood face to face, the judge made a start gesture. Guan Xun let out a loud yell and rushed towards Qi Tian.
The thods of Qi Cultivation First Level that could be used in fights were limited, like two kindergarten children fighting, it’s hard to show off any fancy skills.
For this challenge, Guan Xun could be said to have made full preparations. He stepped on the Chasing Wind Step, and punched towards Qi Tian. He used all his True Essence in this punch, believing that as long as he could hit Qi Tian, one punch could decide the outco.
Qi Tian didn’t et Guan Xun’s punch, it served no purpose. Seeing Guan Xun rushing over, he also used the Chasing Wind Step, narrowly dodged when Guan Xun’s fist was about to hit him.
Guan Xun charged with too much force and couldn’t stop. He charged past Qi Tian.
Qi Tian turned back and kicked Guan Xun’s buttocks, which flipped Guan Xun to the ground. Guan Xun rolled off the boundary of the stage.
The judge coldly announced with an expressionless face: “Qi Tian wins.”
Qi Tian bowed towards Guan Xun, says: “Thank you for letting
win.”
Guan Xun got up from the ground with his face covered in dust, glanced at Qi Tian with unwillingness and despair. He issued three challenges in this Moon-duel, but only Qi Tian accepted his challenge. He originally wanted to give it a try, but didn’t expect he couldn’t even bear the one kick from Qi Tian.
It’s over, all over. Once the Moon-duel ends and the latest Sparrow List rankings are released, he will truly only have one option left – leave the Imperial Master Mansion.
Qi Tian saw the despair in Guan Xun’s eyes. His heart felt no sympathy, only a slight sense of somberness. If he didn’t strive, he would be in Guan Xun’s shoes tomorrow.
The next two challenges went smoothly. The challengers were no match for him at all. Qi Tian easily won three victories and earned six precious points. Although the points were few, they were valuable. Accumulating ten points could be exchanged for a single Middle-grade Essence Qi Pill.
After the three challenges, the referee returned Qi Tian’s identity jade plate. The six points Qi Tian won were already recorded in the jade plate, ready for conversion into money at any ti.
The challenge matches of others were still ongoing. Qi Tian checked the ti; it was still early when it was his turn to challenge Ling Mu. Ling Mu’s ranking was too high, so his turn to take the stage was scheduled later.
Qi Tian weighed his identity jade plate; six points were too few. He needed to find a way to make it more. After so thought, Qi Tian squeezed out of the crowd, heading to a corner of the square. Several betting shops in Zhangshui City were located here. The array of bets was dazzling and complex. Sotis, even for the sa event, the setups of the betting shops varied.
Qi Tian looked around and found a betting shop that highly favored Ling Mu – the Lucky Gambling House. The shop regarded Ling Mu as one of the favorites in this Moon-duel. Every challenger against Ling Mu was given high odds. As the Sparrow List had ranked Qi Tian nearly two thousandth, challenging Ling Mu gave him an odds of one to ten at Lucky Gambling House. This ant that if Qi Tian won, those who bet on him would receive ten tis the payout.
Earlier, Qi Tian also noticed that Lucky Gambling House had set up odds for Huang Yaozu, with even higher odds. For Qi Tian’s challenge against Huang Yaozu, the odds were one to fifteen.
Qi Tian quickly put all his newly won six points as well as over two hundred taels of silver left in his money bag on his own victory. He and Lucky Gambling House agreed that if he won the challenge against Ling Mu, he would not collect his winnings. Instead, he would authorize Lucky Gambling House to put all the winnings on his challenge against Huang Yaozu, all on his own victory.
All this money was Qi Tian’s entire fortune. Even increasing it ten-fold would be peanuts to the Lucky Gambling House. It was like re pennies to them, so they readily agreed to Qi Tian’s request and accepted his bet.
Qi Tian actually wanted to put the winnings on his challenge against Zhou Kunlin. However, Zhou Kunlin had not accepted his challenge, and he had lost his opportunity for a third challenge during this Moon-duel. It was a pity.
Qi Tian returned to the edge of the stage, watching the ongoing challenge while waiting for Ling Mu to take the stage.
Although the cultivation realm of the outer sect disciples was not high, their fights and challenges were still intense. Generally, those ranked lower would choose higher-ranked opponents with similar strength. They would not choose those with too large a disparity in strength. High-strength individuals would basically have the sa idea when choosing challengers. This way, both sides could at least hone their fighting skills during the battle.
Having close strength ans that each fight is quite ti-consuming. So with similar strength might not be able to determine a winner even after a whole day and night of battling. This situation often occurred in the past. To avoid wasting everyone’s ti and delaying the Moon-duel, a rule was added to the Moon-duel: if the two parties fought for more than fifteen minutes, the referee had the power to end the fight. When the fight reached half an hour, the referee must end the fight and make a judgnt. The referee’s decision could be a win, a loss, or a draw.
With this rule, the Moon-duel timing was greatly shortened. Yet against so evenly matched opponents, the matches would still be ti-consuming. By the ti it was Ling Mu’s turn to take the stage, it was already afternoon. The Moon-duel did not stop at noon and continued. Fearful of missing the challenge, Qi Tian hadn’t eat lunch but munched on a at sandwich he bought in advance.
Ling Mu did not take the stage empty-handed. He held a teor hamr in his hand. Not only was it densely filled with spikes, but it also had many talismans engraved on it. Qi Tian recognized several power talismans, and there were others he didn’t know. However, he was certain that they weren’t for decoration. They must be of imnse benefits, similar to power talismans.
Standing on the stage, Ling Mu saw Qi Tian outside the stage. He pointed at Qi Tian, crooked his finger, and showed his sowhat yellow teeth, a smirk on his face.
“Qi Tian, please take the stage for the challenge,” the referee called out.
Qi Tian hurried onto the stage, handing over his identity jade plate.
The referee took the identity jade plate and looked up at Qi Tian, blinking in surprise, “Why is it you?”
Qi Tian had been focused on the teor hamr in Ling Mu’s hand and hadn’t paid attention to the referee until now. He realized the referee was an acquaintance. He had t him before at the Huangque Hall. When he went to the Huangque Hall to register for the County Master selection, this attendant nad Liang Xiaolong received him.
Qi Tian quickly clasped his fists in a salute and greeted Liang Xiaolong, “Younger brother greets Brother Liang.”
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