Chapter 360: Black Gold

Translator: Midasthefloof

Wu Yu followed after the alluring swagger of Feng Er's footsteps as they entered the battle platforms on the lower decks. It was quite similar to the Immortal Battleground, but the space for battle here was even wider than that. This ensured that each individual battle did not affect one another.

As Wu Yu raised his head, he noticed that the view from the upper deck's betting area was excellent. One could basically have a clear view of every single battle from above.

"Fellow dao practitioner Wu, please pay 200 Golden Essence Pills here. This is the entry fee that everyone has to pay in order to step into the battle platform." Feng Er smiled as she brought Wu Yu to a counter.

Wu Yu felt downcast immediately. He did not expect there to be an entry fee.

As though she had noticed Wu Yu's poverty-stricken state, Feng Er added, "If you don't have any Golden Essence Pills on you, then other immortal medicines will suffice as well. You can hand in immortal treasures as a deposit as well. After you've won some money, you can then return here to pay the fee instead."

She gently explained.

Wu Yu found her gentle gaze extremely dangerous. There were probably countless idiots who had lost their entire family's fortune right here. Based on his confidence in himself, he took out approximately 200 Golden Essence Pills worth of spiritual immortal treasures and handed them over. Due to this, one of his doppelgangers no longer had any immortal treasures equipped.

Feng Er smiled as she explained, "That's fine for now. May I ask if friend of dao Wu would like to claim a battle platform of his own, or would you like to challenge others on their own battle platforms instead? If you want to claim your own platform, you can't reject challenges more than five times a day."

This was not a rule that was in place back at the Immortal Battleground. Back there, while you claimed an arena, you could continue to reject opponents for as long as you wanted.

"I'll claim one for myself," Wu Yu replied. He felt that it was more convenient to wait for others to challenge him. After all, this also meant that he could control the wager amount.

"Wow, you're so brave. Please follow me and watch your step." Feng Er's pretty face maintained a captivating smile. Her tone was gentle and soft to the point of making others cringe.

Following after Feng Er, Wu Yu entered the battle platforms. The surrounding battles were all clearly visible to him. Most of them were battles between Jindan Dao cultivators, but there were occasionally a few Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea cultivators sparring as well. The battles between the latter were exceptionally explosive, and large crowds watched those from above.

In fact, once one entered the Violet Kingdom of the Inner SeaRealm, they were considered figures of some importance. These people would not often appear below, and most of them spent their time on the upper decks drinking tea, chatting, making friends, and placing bets instead.

"Here's an empty battle platform. Please go onto it." Feng Er gestured toward the platform to invite Wu Yu up with a slight bow. As she bowed, her low-cut dress revealed a delightful sight...

After what had happened with Nangong Wei, Wu Yu had no interest in women right now. Without a second word, he got onto the platform and tossed out all the spiritual immortal treasures he owned from his Sumeru Pouch to the wager area. At this moment, Feng Er had gone up to the battle platform as well. When she made it over to the wager area, her eyes lit up brightly as she tallied up all of Wu Yu's treasures. After some discussion with a male attendant from the Shangyuan Dao Sect, she announced its total value - 2,800 Golden Essence Pills.

"This man's name is Wu Yu, and he is an eighth tier Jindan Dao cultivator that does not belong to any sect. The wager is 2,800 Golden Essence Pills. Challengers are now welcome," Feng Er announced.

The truth was that she was slightly surprised by this as well. She never expected Wu Yu to be as bold as to place such a wager from the get-go.

"He only has five rejections available. Basically all First-time gamblers suffer huge losses, and it's only after some years of being a regular here that one becomes smarter about these things. I wonder if Wu Yu will start to weep on the spot after he loses it all. From what I can see, it seems like these things are all the valuables he has to his name. He couldn't even pay 200 Golden Essence Pills, how poor indeed," Feng Er thought to herself.

A wager that was close to 3,000 was considered above average among the hundred or so battle platforms. Therefore, it did not take long for a few dozen people to start to crowd around.

"Looks like it's a poor fledgling with no money at all. I'm afraid this is even his first time here."

"That's right. I've never seen him before, so it's definitely his first time here. After all, when we first came here, we gambled huge sums and lost it all in one go as well. First-timers tend to be bolder since they want to get rich quick in just a single night. Haha..."

"It's not like we're all idiots here, so how's it possible that we'll hand over our Golden Essence Pills so easily?"

historical

The people below the platform started to laugh mockingly.

"I'll earn this learner's fee from him!" Not long after, someone rushed atop the battle platform. This was a bald man with a stocky build. He was taller than Wu Yu and his dark, tanned body had a rough, stone-like complexion. In his hands, a spiritual immortal treasure had already been equipped. It was a pitch-black axe that gave him an imposing presence. He also wore a silver necklace that looked very much like a silver snake coiling around his neck.

"This is the leader of the Blackrock Sect."

"How shameful of him to go up so quickly. Given his scary appearance, I'm pretty sure that Wu Yu will reject him."

"There are only five chances to reject a challenge, so I think he'll be more prudent with them."

This opponent was an eighth tier Jindan Dao cultivator as well. He was at the same level as Wu Yu. Of course, Wu Yu immediately accepted this challenge. His clear-cut decisiveness made everyone shocked.

"Ladies and gentlemen up there, are there any of you who would like to place a bet as well? You have a time of 20 breaths to decide," Feng Er told everyone in her delicate voice.

After the two parties had agreed to battle, the people in the betting area could place their wagers. The cut-off time for the battle was a quarter of an hour, and within this time, the battle would end in either a win, a loss, or a draw. The Shangyuan Dao Sect set the odds for each battle. For instance, the odds for betting on Wu Yu's victory were definitely much higher than his opponent’s.

Even though it was not clear what was going on above, it seemed like there were quite a few who had placed bets on this battle.

After 20 breaths, Feng Er gave a lovable smile as she said, "This battle of yours has attracted the attention of many others. At total of 30,000 Golden Essence Pills have been wagered. This isn't bad at all. You have a quarter of an hour. Please begin."

Once Feng Er finished speaking, the thug started to guffaw. "Little Brat, you seem to have paid a little too much for your learner's fee today. Let Big Brother here teach you how to mingle in this Wind Flower Snow Moon Palace."

"Thank you for your wise instruction." Wu Yu laughed. In fact, Wu Yu was already warning himself to take special notice not to win too easily. He had to look like he was struggling to win, or else he would not be able to win any more battles. While nobody knew his true potential around here, he had to take advantage of this fact and earn a handsome sum!

Fighting another eighth tier Jindan dao cultivator was quite pointless. However, Wu Yu put up a serious performance, and at the start, he even let his opponent get the upper hand. Just as a quarter of an hour was about to pass, he acted as though he had gained the courage to come back from death's door and actually caught his opponent off guard with a sudden thrust. At the last possible moment, he used his sword skills to knock his opponent off the platform. Even though he was breathing heavily and had a pale expression, it was clear that he had won the fight.

After deducting the entry fee of 200 Golden Essence Pills from his winnings of 2,800 Golden Essence Pills, Wu Yu had earned 2,600 Golden Essence Pills in total!

"What a ripoff!" For no good reason at all, he had lost 200 Golden Essence Pills. The Shangyuan Dao Sect sure knew how to make money!

"Big Brother Wu is so strong! You're certainly lucky today, so if I were you, I would continue to battle. Perhaps you'll even win another round! After that, you'll have much more money to your name." Feng Er was delicately pretty as she tugged on Wu Yu's arm.

She truly did not expect Wu Yu to win his first battle. However, as a working professional, she had to ensure that Wu Yu spat his winnings back out.

"My luck is good? Is that true? If so, then I'll go for another round!" Wu Yu gave a silly laugh and gave a shout that he was going all-in in before the crowd. He shoved all the Golden Essence Pills and spiritual immortal treasures back into the wager area, making the wager over 5,000 this time. Not many others were willing to risk such an amount.

"This young brat barely won a fight, so he's totally deluded now."

"The ladies from the Shangyuan Dao Sect sure are skilled. Once a young cultivator like him gets flattered by them, they’re sure to lose it all in the same day."

"The Blackrock Sect leader just now was probably an opponent that was planted by the Shangyuan Dao Sect. This is the only reason Wu Yu managed to win the Shangyuan Dao Sect's money. However, I heard that a lot of people bet on the Blackrock Sect leader up there, so the Shangyuan Dao Sect has earned a large sum from this battle platform."

"This Wu Yu sure is stupid. It was so difficult for him to attain his victory just now, yet he truly believes that it'll be easy for him to earn money here. He even went all in?"

"I'll go!"

Once Wu Yu had placed his wager, there were many who wanted to go up. However, they were all at the eighth or ninth tiers of Jindan Dao. As for those above the ninth tier, they knew that Wu Yu would definitely not agree to their challenge, so they declined to join in the fun on the platform.

This time, Wu Yu was even able to pick from different challengers. He picked one that looked like the weakest among them and prepared for battle. A smile bloomed on Feng Er's face as the bets on this battle platform immediately exceeded the 100,000 mark. Out of this, 50,000 was on Wu Yu losing, 40,000 was on a draw, and not even 7,000 was on Wu Yu winning.

As a matter of fact, the Shangyuan Dao Sect would always profit as long as the betting amount was large enough.

The battle began.

This battle was almost a spitting image of the last. Wu Yu was even able to control things to make it look even more dangerous for himself, and his entire body had even ended up covered with scars. However, he still acted as though he had demonstrated great tenacity and pushed himself to the brink of life and death in order to eventually defeat his opponent. With this victory, his assets amounted to over 10,000 Golden Essence Pills!

He did not even need additional egging on from Feng Er this time. Wu Yu let out an angry roar on the battle platform and shoved all his winnings into the wager area again as he announced to everyone, "Everyone present here is trash! Who else dares to challenge me, Wu Yu!?"

Feng Er was taken aback. She was rather frustrated at Wu Yu's mad behavior. What was wrong with this fellow that made him say such words...

Once the crowd heard that they had been called trash, they were clearly incensed. The crowd ballooned to thousands in an instant, and there were at least 30 or more people who were able to challenge Wu Yu among them.

"Who dares come up here?" Wu Yu bellowed.

"Go back to your mom's place! How dare you be so arrogant in Yan Huang Imperial City. Let Father here teach you a lesson!" All of a sudden, the 30 or so of them rushed up. Among them were even a couple of ninth tier Jindan Dao cultivators.

Under such circumstances, Wu Yu could indeed choose any opponent he wanted. Rejecting the others did not count towards his maximum number of rejections.

"Master here chooses you." Wu Yu pointed to the middle-aged cultivator who called had himself Wu Yu's father.

The middle-aged cultivator was stunned by this. The truth was that his total net worth was only around 10,000 Golden Essence Pills or so. He was so blinded with rage that he had rushed forward with the others just now without much thought. After all, there were so many people that had gone up with him, yet the one that was picked turned out to be him of all people. He felt very stupid now.

"Let's go, riches can only be attained by taking risks!"

With this, the crowd around Wu Yu started to become livelier.

There were even many others who took notice of him from the betting area. Seated in the best seats among them were two figures dressed in suits of black gold battle armor.