Open up and break into another world

“That's right! We're not convinced!”

“Not convinced? Don't even mention Tian Dali and Yue Jian; even if I, Zhao Yicheng, stand here, would you dare to fight me!?”

“I, Yan Junxia, am also not convinced!”

Xu Ming glanced playfully at these clamoring old disciples and laughed, “You're not convinced? What's that got to do with me?”

The clamoring old disciples clearly hadn't expected Xu Ming to give such a rogue-like answer; they collectively froze, stiffening in place.

“My being ranked first was said by the Martial Manor, not by myself! I've never said I was number one—seek out the one responsible for your grievance! If you're not convinced, go talk to the Martial Manor; what are you doing talking to me!?”

As Xu Ming spoke, he walked outwards on his own, as if Yue Jian, Tian Dali, and these other old disciples were mere air.

“Is there any point in fighting them?” Xu Ming shook his head inwardly.

Xu Ming's current cultivation is at the mid-stage of Inner Refinement. He has used thirty attribute stones each for Strength, Agility, and Wisdom. Coupled with his Insightful Realm—without using any cheats, Xu Ming's overall combat strength is roughly at the weaker end of the Inner Refinement Completion stage.

And Tian Dali and Yue Jian's overall combat strength already faintly exceeds Inner Refinement Completion; even the likes of Zhao Yicheng and Yan Junxia are strong existences within Inner Refinement Completion.

In other words, Xu Ming really can't beat them without using cheats!

Of course, if he were to use even a little bit of a cheat, it would be as easy as flipping his hand for Xu Ming to deal with them.

“Although using a cheat wouldn't cost many Cheat Points, wasting those few points just to compete with this group of people who are destined to have little interaction with me seems pointless!”

Which is more important, a few hundred Cheat Points or saving face in front of this group of people? Xu Ming weighed it for a moment and chose the former.

“Xu Ming, you don't dare to fight, huh?”

“That's right, are you afraid or not!?”

“If you're afraid, then give up the number one spot and stop shamelessly occupying a ranking that doesn't belong to you!”

“I've been in the Desolate Martial Manor for over three years, and this is the first time I've seen a top-ranked disciple actually avoid battle!”

Xu Ming's dismissive attitude immediately stirred up the collective anger of these top-ranked old disciples. Tian Dali and Yue Jian even stepped forward, blocking Xu Ming's path, looking as if he wouldn't be allowed to leave today unless he fought.

The balding elder didn't say a word to stop all of this.

In fact, the balding elder also had some reservations about ranking Xu Ming in first place, but this was personally arranged by Manor Lord Gu, and he had no choice but to comply.

What frustrated the balding elder even more was that, although he had quite a few objections in his heart, as an elder of the Martial Manor, he had to maintain a fair and dignified image in public and couldn't express his dissatisfaction in front of everyone.

However, the balding elder still played a little trick, tacitly approving the other old disciples' challenge to Xu Ming. He wanted to see just how much Xu Ming was worth.

Being blocked by Tian Dali and Yue Jian, Xu Ming helplessly stopped: “You really want to fight me?”

“That's right!” Yue Jian couldn't help but caress the long sword in his hand, his fighting spirit ablaze.

“But…” Xu Ming stroked his chin, “What benefit would I get from defeating you?”

“If you can defeat us, we'll acknowledge you as the number one of the Desolate Martial Manor!” Tian Dali said.

“But even if I don't fight you, I'm still the number one of the Desolate Martial Manor!” Xu Ming laughed. “In other words, there's no benefit to defeating you at all. If I make a mistake and lose, I'll also lose my number one ranking—I won't fight this kind of harmful and pointless fight!”

As he spoke, a trace of an evil smile gradually appeared in Xu Ming's eyes.

The old disciples, filled with anger, naturally didn't notice the evil smile deep in Xu Ming's eyes. Only Sun Ji, who understood Xu Ming the most, noticed Xu Ming's ulterior motives from afar.

“Boss is really too shameless!” Sun Ji had already begun to mourn for this group of provoking old disciples, “They say a rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow, but how could Boss not even spare his own fellow disciples! But that's fine too…”

Sun Ji's smile also gradually became evil: “I'll get some soup if Boss eats meat! When Boss makes money later, he'll definitely share some soup with me!”

Like last time, Xu Ming made a fortune of over two million in the gambling battle and threw Sun Ji tens of thousands of taels of small change, and also got Sun Ji a top-grade hammer—that hammer was naturally bought from the Artifact Shop; although it wasn't as good as a Treasure Artifact, it was definitely top-grade among ordinary iron.

“Then what will it take for you to fight!” Yue Jian asked the words Xu Ming most wanted to hear.

“Ahem!” Xu Ming cleared his throat, looking dignified and imposing, “Someone with my status naturally has to be cautious when making a move! Because if I win, everyone will think it's only natural and there's nothing to say; but if I lose, my reputation will plummet—so I don't make a move easily! The last time I made a move was at the Nine Cauldrons Trading Company's gambling battle, that gambling battle was truly a grand gamble…”

Xu Ming spoke with high spirits.

The balding elder, being an experienced old fox, was naturally the first to understand Xu Ming's words: “This kid, is he indirectly asking to have a gambling battle with Yue Jian or Tian Dali?”

The balding elder was not without doubt—if you want a gambling battle, just say it directly, would others not gamble with you?

Suddenly, a terrible thought flashed through the balding elder's mind: “Damn, this kid wants to have a grand gamble? He's worried that Yue Jian and the others won't agree, so he deliberately went around in a big circle, playing the game of 'feigned disinterest'?”

The disciples in the Martial Manor were naturally not as shrewd as the balding elder.

After listening to Xu Ming's long string of nonsense, Yue Jian was stunned for a long time before asking: “You want to have a gambling battle with us?”

Seeing that the other party had finally understood his meaning, Xu Ming smiled modestly: “You have to understand, after all, someone with my status doesn't make a move easily!”

“Alright, a gambling battle it is!” Yue Jian said heroically, “I'll bet 100,000 taels of gold against you, do you dare to accept?”

“One hundred thousand taels? Brother Yue, I think there's something you haven't figured out. One hundred thousand taels isn't a question of whether I dare to accept, but… um… let's put it this way, the last time I had a gambling battle at the Nine Cauldrons Trading Company, it was over two million taels of gold in one battle…” As he spoke, Xu Ming gave Yue Jian a look that said, “You get my meaning, right?”

“Then how much do you have?” Xu Ming's fox tail was finally completely revealed.

“I only have over two hundred thousand taels, and that's including the cultivation resources I just received!” Yue Jian wasn't from a wealthy family, so he naturally wouldn't have much money on him. These two hundred thousand were all he had saved up in the Desolate Martial Manor over the years, and he was saving them to buy Profound Stones when he tried to break through to the Acquired Realm later.

Profound Stones contained Acquired Profound Qi; after an Inner Refinement Completion martial artist used them, there was a chance to break through to the Acquired Realm. Yue Jian was waiting until everything was ready before trying to find a way to get two low-grade Profound Stones to break through to the Acquired Realm.

“Over two hundred thousand taels…” Xu Ming's interest suddenly waned, “Sorry, my appearance fee isn't that low!”

“Appearance fee?” Yue Jian was furious, “Do you think you can win against me?”

“I should be able to, right!” Xu Ming had a face that deserved a beating.

“Good… good! You want to have a grand gamble, right? Am I afraid you won't succeed?” Yue Jian raised his arms and shouted, “Everyone, fellow disciples, if you're interested in making a fortune, pool together the money you have!”

Tian Dali was the first to throw out 200,000: “Hehe, there are still people who insist on giving us money! My 200,000 will be 400,000 later!”

Zhao Yicheng also threw out 100,000.

Then, those self-righteous old disciples all took out their savings one after another.

As for the young new disciples, because their strength was still weak, they couldn't accurately judge whether Xu Ming or Yue Jian was stronger; in addition, they didn't have much savings themselves, so they didn't participate.

In the blink of an eye, Yue Jian had already collected two million taels of gold!

“Yue Jian, you take this battle!” Tian Dali believed that he was slightly inferior to Yue Jian; because their strengths were extremely close, the two of them usually sparred and had wins and losses, depending on who performed better.

Since this concerned a huge gamble of two million, Tian Dali decided to let Yue Jian do it.

“Two million taels of gold, I'll fight you, do you have any objections?” Yue Jian said.

“Um? Weren't you saying to let me choose one of you two?” Xu Ming said with a smile; seeing that Tian Dali seemed to be humiliated by his words and was about to explode, he added, “But you're fine, there's no difference to me anyway.”

“My bet is already placed here, what about your bet?” Yue Jian said.

My bet?

Xu Ming suddenly remembered, oh shit, the gold on his body was running low, leaving him with only a few hundred thousand taels.

However, Xu Ming calmly grabbed a large handful of Illusion Sea Demon Worms from his storage ring: “Fifty Illusion Sea Demon Worms, valued at two million taels of gold, should be more than enough, right?”

“Damn…” The corners of Yue Jian's mouth twitched—did this guy raise Illusion Sea Demon Worms at home? “Alright, let's bet like that!”

Xu Ming handed the Illusion Sea Demon Worms to the balding elder, “Please, Elder, be our witness!”

The balding elder looked at the worms in his hand, then looked at Xu Ming, muttering in his heart: “Is this kid really confident, or does he just have too many worms at home and wants to give some away?”

Yue Jian also handed over the gold: “Please witness, Elder.”

“Um… good!” The balding elder really wanted to see this fight. Or rather, he really wanted to see Xu Ming lose or even be abused, “Then you guys should quickly prepare and then begin…”

Suddenly, a shout came from afar: “Begin? Begin what!?”

“This voice…”

The balding elder, holding a large handful of gold notes in one hand and a large handful of Illusion Sea Demon Worms in the other, looked in the direction the voice came from: “Why is Manor Lord Gu here? And… Manor Lord Gu seems a little unhappy.”

Gu Hanmo seemed to be walking slowly, but his speed was extremely fast.

“Manor Lord Gu!”

“Manor Lord Gu.”

Both the balding elder and the Martial Manor instructors greeted him.

Gu Hanmo went straight to Xu Ming, with a hint of blame: “They say a rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow, why are you swindling their money?”