BXBX NOVEL Chapter 154 - 150: Levels
As soon as Tang Luo brought it up, Old Master Xu groused, “These pleasure quarters in Xiling are indeed beautiful, but their consumption is too startling!” “Thousands of gold for a single night, where do you expect me, your cousin, to get so much gold from. Also, the combat arena here in Xiling is dreadful, and doesn’t even hold competitions. Where do you think I can get money from!” Tang Luo rubbed his throbbing temples. According to his limited experience, it seemed likely that Old Master Xu had been taken for a ride. Still, considering the renowned reputation of Tianxiang Building, they should not be capable of such a thing. So, he hesitantly asked, “The prices at Tianxiang Building typically range from a few hundred to a thousand gold. You’re spending so much every night, did you hire the best courtesan or excessively order drinks?” Old Master Xu rubbed the back of his head and chuckled innocently, “No, no, no, I just ordered more girls.”
“You ordered more?”
“Eight.”
“Hisss!” Tang Luo covered his face with his hand, unable to bear the sight. Eight girls for one night cost thousands of gold. This cousin of his was really making him feel frustrated.
“Serves you right.”
Tang Luo turned to leave, but his sleeve was suddenly grabbed and tugged back.
“Don’t leave, Cousin!” Old Master Xu wore a flattering expression and whispered in a low voice, “I came to ask you for a solution.”
Tang Luo turned his head back and remained expressionless. He completely disbelieved that a foreign warrior would have any solutions. Did he intend to rob houses?
Seeing his cousin’s indifferent expression, Old Master Xu coughed twice and excitedly began to outline his grand plan!
“Cousin, do you know about the Xiling First Martial Arts Tournament?”
Tang Luo crossed his arms, nodding.
This was an event held in Xiling every ten years, open to all local and foreign warriors from the Mortal Realm. The top three places came with generous rewards, drawing many wandering warriors from far and wide to participate. As a city that had enjoyed peace for a long time, this tournament was a means for the various clans to scout for talent. The Xiling First Martial Arts Tournament was a major event organised by both the Tang and Mi Clans. Apart from recruiting talents, the more critical aspect was to showcase the strength of the younger generation from the two clans, Tang Mi.
If Old Master Xu brought this up, he certainly aimed for the championship. However, the tournament would be held in six months, meaning he would have to stay in Xiling for another five months. According to his nightly spending rate in the thousands of gold, his total spending would be in the hundreds of thousands of gold.
“Even if you win, it won’t be enough to cover your debts,” Tang Luo bluntly stated the brutal truth.
“Eh- hey!” Old Master Xu brushed off Tang Luo’s naivete, “When I sign up, you should bet all your wealth on me winning. Isn’t that a big income? Don’t you trust your cousin’s abilities? We can split the profits 50/50! We’ll become fabulously wealthy in no time.”
Silently observing Old Master Xu, who was immersed in rapture, Tang Luo’s cold gaze made Xu shudder.
He looked down at himself in confusion and asked, “What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong? I’d even be fine with 60/40!”
“I suppose you think that all of Xiling’s bookmakers are idiots?” Tang Luo shook his head in reminder. Old Master Xu’s proposal was not bad, if he could wait until the Xiling First Martial Arts Tournament before making his move. At least on the first day of opening odds, their betting odds should be quite good, worth a try. But now, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Not everyone who had seen Old Master Xu in action was dead yet. There was a warrior and a shopkeeper who had probably already sold information about Old Master Xu. With the sudden appearance of such a talented warrior, they didn’t even know if the betting house could remain open. And yet, he was so deluded as to dream of a massive windfall.
As if a cold breeze brushed against Old Master Xu’s face, he stammered, “You… are… you saying…?”
“Yes.” Tang Luo nodded, responding in a cold tone, “Your odds are likely to
collapse.”
Old Master Xu murmured helplessly as realization dawned, “It seems I can only sell my Divine Armor!”
“Hiss—” Looking at his cousin, Tang Luo genuinely wanted to slap him into his senses. Was it possible to sell Dragon Soul Armor? Is he out of his mind?
“Cousin, are you interested, I can offer it to you at a reduced price.” Old Master Xu held his hands to his chest, enticing Tang Luo with his peach blossom eyes.
“Have you lost your mind?” Tang Luo was left speechless. Just because he was short on gold for his lewd activities, he was willing to sell off the treasured assets of his clan. Such a thought process was astonishingly peculiar.
Wearing a mournful face, Old Master Xu said, “I can’t earn money, and I don’t have any solutions, so I can only consider selling my Spiritual Armor to maintain my lifestyle. I would also sell the Divine Sword!”
If anyone dared to buy a Divine Armor or Divine Sword from a Holy Clan, they would surely be ruthlessly exterminated. This was not selling, it was a trap!
Tang Luo roared in his heart!
“Eh- hey!?” It seemed as though Old Master Xu suddenly remembered something and asked, “Cousin, how much money do you have?”
“For what?”
“Lend me some to tide me over, I will pay you back later!”
Tang Luo looked at the man indifferently and suggested, “No need, just go back to Tianxiang Building and tell them you’re my cousin.”
Old Master Xu asked with a surprised face, “Can I do that?”
“Of course, you can’t just say it without any proof.” Tang Luo pulled out his clan elder’s plaque and handed it to Old Master Xu, “Just take this with you.” Old Master Xu received it joyously, hugging Tang Luo’s neck tightly and said, “Cousin, you are terrific. If there is anything you can’t handle in the future, tell me. I will stand up for you.”
Struggling his way out of the man’s arms, Tang Luo asked, “Actually, I have a question to ask you.”
“What is it?” Playing with the plaque, Old Master Xu casually responded.
“Where do you rank among the young warriors of Yuanzhou?” Tang Luo asked seriously.
Although he already knew that the other party was part of a Holy Clan, some things were better to clear up first-hand rather than guessing prematurely.
On the subject of martial arts, Old Master Xu stopped his careless chattering and replied solemnly, “Invincible in the Mortal Realm, but there are only a few who can fight me for more than three hundred rounds.”
Tang Luo nodded, his evaluation was not very different from his own. Even though their understanding of Mortal Realm warriors was comprehensive, he could not think of how to further strengthen this cousin of his. Without a doubt, Xu had reached the true peak of the Mortal Realm. However, the fact that a few people could withstand hundreds of moves against him only indicated that Yuanzhou was a formidable martial arts sacred place not to be underestimated.
“Your ultimate victory is due to your superior breathing technique, right?”
“Eh?” Old Master Xu asked with surprise, “How did you know?”
As expected! Observing Old Master Xu’s reaction, Tang Luo thought to himself. Over the past few days, he had been researching about the fusion of single-person martial techniques. He had made quite a few successful cases, and the effects were remarkable. After the fusion of martial techniques, the resulting power was close to that of Fierce Realm killing techniques, but the key problem he faced was the issue of Spiritual Power consumption.
A fused technique of three moves which consumed five hundred spiritual power, in the end, achieved a destructive force that could reach six thousand spiritual power points. Three moves costing one thousand five hundred points of spiritual power loss would just barely achieve the crisis point of ten thousand points of spiritual power quality transformation. Only a technique that consumes two thousand points of spiritual power could display a quality-transforming killing technique.
This brought Tang Luo’s research to another bottleneck. If he did it this way, releasing a strike with six thousand spiritual power points would be the total yield of spiritual power for nearly two hundred days.. How could he bear this?