A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (Web Novel)

Chapter 176: Making a Bet

“No bet! Absolutely not! Do you think that I would do the same thing twice?” Martial Ancestor Li shook his head as if he were beating a drum and voiced his refusal.

“No bet? Benefactor Li’s standards are actually so high. Does the blood from the Inner Dan of a demonic flood dragon not even enter his eyes?” The Daoist priest wore an astonished expression as if he couldn’t believe it.

However, when Han Li saw his expression, he felt it was very false.

“Blood from a flood dragon’s Inner Dan?” Although Martial Ancestor Li originally intended to absolutely refuse to be pulled into a relationship with the Daoist priest, when he heard the name of the item, his expression abruptly changed, and his words somewhat trembled.

“Yes! If Benefactor Li wants to know about this item, I shall explain. Thirty years ago, at the dangerous rapids of the State of Yuan Wu’s Coiling Dragon River, I paid a great price for this item so I could procure it for Benefactor!” The Daoist Priest calmly and leisurely said while eating up the other party’s expression.

“Impossible! How could the blood of a flood dragon be acquired, not to mention blood kept in its Inner Dan. This is not something that can be said without thinking. Are you making fun of me?” Martial Ancestor Li sobered up from his excitement and exposed an appearance of doubt.

“Is this humble Daoist not a monk? I would not lie. Benefactor can take a look for himself.”

The Daoist Priest did not want to waste time explaining and merely flipped his hand, revealing a white sphere filled with wisps of blood. Martial Ancestor Li’s eyes widened, wishing he could rush over and grab it.

“If Benefactor’s Horned Silver Python were to consume this Dan and undergo secluded cultivation for ten to twenty years, in all likelihood it would leap from the middle stage of Foundation Establishment to the late stage. With another hundred years of bitter cultivation, it wouldn’t be impossible toenter Core Formation.” The Daoist Priest’s words were filled with enticement.

When Martial Ancestor Li heard these words, he coldly snorted and stiffened his face. It seemed he was unmoved, but his indefinite and flickering gaze exposed the restlessness of his heart.

“With such a rare wager, why is Benefactor hesitating for so long? Could it be you truly don’t think very highly of the strength of your valley’s disciples?” The Daoist Priest curled his lips, goading him to accept.

“To say the disciples of our Yellow Maple Valley are inferior to those of your Clear Void Sect is overcritical.” Martial Ancestor Li wore a displeased expression.

He swept his eyes past the party behind the Daoist Priest and immediately gained a rough estimate of the Clear Void Sect’s disciples. Their strength was about the same as that of the Yellow Maple Valley’s disciples.

“Fine, I will gamble! However, what treasure of mine would you have me wager?”

After a moment of consideration from Martial Ancestor Li, he felt that his odds of winning were fifty percent. With the addition of his extreme longing for that Inner Dan, he eventually nodded and agreed. However, he still cautiously asked that question.

“Hehe, this humble Daoist isn’t interested in any of Benefactor’s other treasures. If he happens to luckily win, then he desires Benefactor to give this humble Daoist two equivalent chunks of iron essence twenty years from now. The essence of Benefactor Li’s True Fire is clear. It is quite famous among the Seven Great Sects. For you, this is surely a trivial matter!” The Daoist Priest said with squinted eyes and a smile. Even so, a faint trace of treachery was contained within his words.

“You want two equivalent chunks of iron essence?” Martial Ancestor Li’s complexion was unsightly and he almost jumped immediately after hearing these words.

“You old facetious Daoist, you plan to have me toil bitterly!”

“How is that? So long as you win, you aren’t required to. This is the Inner Dan of a grade two demonic beast, equivalent to that of us initial Core Formation stage experts. It is absolutely worth the price.” The Daoist Priest said while shaking his head.

Martial Ancestor Li’s complexion grew uncertain. After a moment, he eventually extended his palm and coldly asked, “Are we following the same rules as last time? Which sect gathers the most spiritual medicines, followed by the quality, and lastly the number of people who leave the forbidden area alive!?”

“Of course, it will be the same as before.”

The Daoist Priest was greatly happy and hastily extended his palm. He struck it against the other party’s, officializing the bet.

A sharp Pa! sound out.

Although the Daoist Priest struck his palm, he wasn’t happy in the least and was actually grieving.

The palm he struck was not Martial Ancestor Li’s, but rather a different, filthy hand. This hand strangely appeared between the two and was covered with grease and filth. Nobody knew when it had last been washed!

Two sects’ disciples who had been closely paying attention to the two Martial Ancestors’ dialogue were stunned by this ghostly scene.

“Senior Qiong!”

The Daoist Priest and Martial Ancestor Li yelled at the same time with a green complexion.

“Who is a Senior? I don’t dare to be regarded as such. I am at Core Formation, much like yourselves. It’s just that I happened to enter it a few years earlier!” The lazy voice that came from between them was spoken by a queerly dressed man.

This person wore a blue garment with several patches and had short hair that was several inches long. He had an azure cloth bag at his waist that had been washed pale. Even though his bag made it seem like he was a person who loved cleanliness, his face was smothered with dark grease to the point where his true face could not be seen.

“A few years? More like several hundred!”

After clearly seeing the person’s appearance, Martial Ancestor Li and the Daoist Priest bitterly smiled. They both let out a regretful sigh, ‘It was this person as expected’. However, they didn’t dare to show the slightest disrespect.

Not only was this eccentric a step into the Nascent Soul stage, but his age alone was large enough to scare people. Furthermore, his self-created Incorporeal Evasion Technique had shaken the cultivation world and was well-known in the cultivation sects of nearby countries.

It was unknown whether it was because his death was imminent or if he was unable to enter Nascent Soul, but in the past hundred years, he had become more and more eccentric and became very fond of teasing other Core Formation experts. Nearly all of the tens of these high-level experts had been pranked to exhaustion.

However, there was nothing even his sect’s Great Martial Ancestors could do to him.

With regards to the deepness of his magic power, this person was number one among Core Formation Experts. As for background, he was a member of the strongest sect among the Seven Great Sects, the Masked Moon Sect. If one were to look for one of the sect’s Nascent Soul “Authorities” to lecture him, these “Authorities” were likely to ignore those people as they were unwilling to invite trouble over such trivial matters!

As it was, this person was among the higher powers in the cultivation world, known for being an evil tyrant and a hoodlum. Essentially, whoever saw him was subject to the whims of fate! They could only hope that his mood for the day was good, else suffering from his small tricks would be unavoidable!

When this “Senior” suddenly graced them with his presence, how could Martial Ancestor Li and the Daoist Priest not be startled and feel their stomachs grow restless!? These two people have already suffered from his torment!

“Since you’ve made a wager, just so that you’re not too lonely, count this rotten old man in as well!” This great Senior’s mood seemed to be quite good; however, his words caused the two to complain incessantly.

“Senior must be joking. How could the disciples of our sects compare to the Masked Moon Sect’s brilliant students? We would be certain to lose, so there is no need to gamble. We respectfully concede!” said the Daoist Priest with a forced smile.

Martial Ancestor Li closed his lips, but his face revealed an expression that showed he was a hundred and twenty percent in favor of those words.

When the exalted old man heard this, he coldly laughed several times and turned his eyes, strangely saying, “How could I take such an unfair advantage? Be at ease, so long as the performance of both your sects surpass my own, then that will count as my loss. Afterwards, you can then decide who won among yourselves.”

“Really?”

When the Daoist Priest heard this, he could not help but let out a breath of relief. Although this person was moody and laughed or scolded as he desired, his words were certainly resolute and decisive, and he never turned his back on a promise. With that said, this wager could be regarded as fair, even giving the two a small advantage.

“I refined these three Incorporeal Needle treasure talismans at a whim, but I don’t have any juniors, so I will stake them in the gamble!” This Elder raised his hand, suddenly revealing three talismans with a seven-colored needle drawn on each one. He then put them away in an instant.

When Martial Ancestor Li and the Daoist Priest saw this, they were unable to conceal the alarm on their faces. They couldn’t help but look at each other and make out the greed in each other’s eyes.