Chapter 176: The Wager

"No bet! Absolutely no bet. Do you think I will fall for the same trick twice in a row?" Ancestor Li shook his head like a rattle-drum and refused flatly.

"No bet? Ancestor Li's vision is actually so high that even the inner core of the Blood-Thread Jiao (beast) cannot enter your eyes?" The Daoist put on an expression of astonishment and disbelief.

However, no matter how Han Li looked at it, he felt it was extremely fake.

"Blood-Thread Jiao inner core!" Ancestor Li, who had originally intended never to have anything to do with the Daoist again, had his expression change abruptly upon hearing the name of this item, and his voice trembled slightly.

"Isn't it! I heard that Ancestor Li, for the sake of this item, once stayed at the dangerous shoals of the Panlong River in the Yuanwu Kingdom for more than thirty years, but still left with regret. So this time, this poor Daoist spent a great price to specifically seek it out for you!"

The Daoist said unhurriedly, becoming leisurely, with an expression that he had the other party in the palm of his hand.

"Impossible! This Blood-Thread Jiao is so hard to catch, let alone being able to preserve its inner core. Are you not talking nonsense and teasing me?" Ancestor Li sobered up from his excitement and showed a look of suspicion.

"This poor Daoist is a monk, I do not speak lies. You can take a look for yourself."

The Daoist did not want to waste any more breath explaining. With a flip of his hand, a white, blood-vein-covered sphere appeared before Ancestor Li's eyes, making his eyes shine with light, wishing he could snatch it away in one go.

"If your Silver-Armored Horned Python takes this core and cultivates for ten or twenty years, it will surely leap from the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment to the late-stage. If it cultivates hard for another hundred years, entering the Core Formation stage is not impossible." The Daoist's words were full of temptation.

Hearing this, Ancestor Li snorted coldly, his face stiff, seemingly unmoved, but his flickering eyes betrayed the restlessness in his heart.

"For such a rare wager, you are hesitating for so long, Benefactor. Could it be that you truly have so little faith in the strength of your valley's disciples?" The Daoist priest curled his lip, employing a goading tactic.

"The disciples of our Huang Feng Valley are not for your Profound Heaven Sect to judge." Ancestor Li looked displeased.

Then he swept his eyes over the group behind the Daoist, and immediately had a rough understanding of the strength of the Profound Heaven Sect's disciples. It should be about the same as the Huang Feng Valley disciples.

"Fine, I bet! However, which treasure of mine are you eyeing?"

After pondering for a while, Ancestor Li felt that the odds of winning this bet should be fifty-fifty, and coupled with his extreme desire for that inner core, he finally nodded in agreement. But out of caution, he asked a casual question.

"Hehe, this poor Daoist is not interested in your other treasures. I only hope that after luckily winning the bet, you will refine two more pieces of iron essence of the same size for me within the next twenty years. Your True Fire is famous among the Seven Great Sects; I assume this is a small matter!" The Daoist squinted his eyes and smiled, but his words vaguely revealed a hint of craftiness.

"You want two more pieces of iron essence of the same size?" Ancestor Li's face was very ugly, and he almost jumped up immediately.

"Ox-nose, you intend to make me a coolie!"

"How could that be? As long as you win, you won't need to do this. That is the inner core of a Level 5 beast! Equivalent to the early Core Formation stage of us cultivators, it is absolutely worth this price!" The Daoist shook his head and swayed.

Ancestor Li's expression was uncertain. After a good while, he finally slowly extended a palm and asked coldly.

"Still following the old rules? First, see whose sect collected the most spiritual herbs, second, look at the quality, and finally, look at the number of people who walked out of the Forbidden Area alive!"

"Of course, everything is as before!"

The Daoist was overjoyed and hurriedly extended a palm to strike the other party's, establishing the wager.

"Slap!" A crisp sound came.

The Daoist did indeed strike a palm, but there was not a hint of joy on his face; instead, he looked like he was mourning.

He did not strike the palm Ancestor Li had extended, but another dirty hand that appeared out of thin air. This hand appeared abruptly between the two, full of grease and filth, and it was unknown how long it hadn't been washed!

The disciples of the two sects, who had been paying attention to the conversation of their ancestors, were dumbfounded by this ghostly scene.

"Senior Qiong!"

The Daoist and Ancestor Li shouted at the same time, their faces turning green.

"What senior? I dare not accept that. I am in the same Core Formation stage as you, just entered a few years earlier!" A lazy voice sounded between the two, and then a strangely dressed person gradually revealed his figure there.

This person wore a blue shirt with several patches, had short hair several inches long, and had a washed-white green cloth bag tucked at his waist, seemingly a person who loved cleanliness very much. But his face was full of grease, a large black patch, so much so that even his true face could not be seen.

"A few years? It should be several hundred years!"

After seeing the newcomer's appearance clearly, Ancestor Li and the Daoist felt a bitter smile in their hearts. After sighing "It really is this person," they dared not show the slightest disrespect.

This freak was not only terrifyingly old, with one foot already stepped into the Nascent Soul stage, but his self-created Formless Evasion Art was famous in the cultivation world, and even the cultivation sects of the surrounding nations had long heard of his name.

It was unknown if it was because his deadline was approaching, yet he had been unable to fully enter the Nascent Soul stage, but his temperament had become increasingly strange in the last hundred years. He was very fond of teasing Core Formation stage cultivators, and almost all of the few dozen high-level cultivators of the Seven Great Sects had been teased by him until they were in a sorry state.

But these cultivators, who were usually worshipped as ancestors within their sects, had no way to deal with him.

In terms of deep magic power, this person was second to none among Core Formation stage cultivators; in terms of background, he was a member of the Yanyue Sect, the strongest among the Seven Great Sects; asking the Nascent Soul stage "experts" of their own sects to teach him a lesson was possible, but these "experts" mostly knew him, and the few who didn't were unwilling to find trouble for such a small matter!

In this way, among the high-level figures of the cultivation world, he had completely become an image of a "tyrant" and a "rogue." Basically, whoever saw him had to pray for their own good fortune! They hoped his mood was good that day, otherwise a bit of teasing and suffering was unavoidable!

How could the sudden arrival of such a "senior" not shock Ancestor Li and the Daoist, filling them with anxiety! They had both suffered under him before!

"Since it's a bet, wouldn't it be too lonely with just the two of you? Count this old man in!" This Senior Qiong seemed to be in a good mood, but he said words that made the two of them miserable.

"Senior is joking. How can the disciples of our two families compare to the high disciples of the Yanyue Sect? We are definitely going to lose, no need to bet, we admit defeat!" The Daoist forced a smile and accompanied it with a laugh.

Ancestor Li's lips were tightly closed, but the expression on his face indicated that he agreed with this one hundred and twenty percent.

Hearing this, Old Man Qiong sneered a few times, rolled his eyes, and said strangely:

"Would I do such a despicable thing as bullying people? Rest assured, as long as the results of your two families combined exceed our sect, then I lose, and then you two can decide the winner between yourselves."

"Really?"

The Daoist was overjoyed and hurriedly breathed a sigh of relief. Although this person was temperamental, his words were firm and he had never broken a promise. In this way, the wager could be considered very fair, and even the two of them had taken a slight advantage.

"These three Formless Needle Talisman Treasures were refined when I had nothing to do. Anyway, I have no descendants, so let them be the wager this time!" This old man raised his hand, revealed three talismans with seven-colored needles painted on them, and then put them away with a shake.

Seeing this, Ancestor Li and the Daoist could not hide the shock on their faces and couldn't help but look at each other, seeing a hint of greed in each other's eyes.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 177 =====