Chapter 37

  Betting & Competing (II)

  "Hoh? Elder Yao, did you break through?"

  "I've had a bit of luck recently."

  "Congratulations, congratulations!"

  "Ha ha, many thanks, fellow Daoists! But it's a small matter; us old folk breaking through is nothing compared to seeing the young shine."

  "You must be confident in your disciples if you're steering a conversation from yourself onto them."

  "Ha ha ha."

  So, a lot of chatter went sort of like that: the humble brags, fake humility, annoying laughter, stroking of the beard—you get the gist. Old men doing old men things. And I really do mean old men. There wasn't a woman in sight among the Elders.

  There actually were female Elders, seven of them in fact, but they got their own special tower to hang out in.

  I tried to catch as many conversations as I could since I seldom had a chance to interact with these wrinkled skins, but most of them were so inane that my head started to hurt. Until I was yanked to reality by the mention of my name.

  "Elder Lu, I've heard a strange thing recently."

  "H-huh?" The speaker was... well, honestly, they all kind of looked alike to be honest with you. Fifty to sixty in appearance, white-haired and bearded, slightly different colors of eyes... one of these days I'll actually have to remember them. Not today.

  "That you've made a bet with Daoist Mu."

  "Ah," here it is. Tsk. Look at those greedy eyes; it's a wonder they held back for so long. But... why are they going out of their way to instigate a bet with me? For all intents and purposes, and as far as they knew, I pissed dust bunnies with how broke I was. "Yes, indeed. A small bet, a small bet."

  "Really? From what I've heard, it is not that small," it was another one who spoke up.

  "You must really be confident in your disciples if you agreed."

  "..." Look at them, staring, waiting, like circling wolves waiting for their prey to bleed out. Haah.

  Okay, fine, maybe Lu Qi deserved some of it; but this was just putrid humanity at its most base.

  "Hm, they are good seeds, indeed."

  "Oh? So, you think one of them can win?"

  "Ah, I just hope they don't embarrass themselves." I, too, have some experience saying a whole lotta nothing using words with triple meanings. These geezers have never engaged in the wars of wits in the 2000s on the WoW forums about whether certain characters had horns in all the places or not. Those days... they change a man.

  "Ho ho, indeed, indeed," come on, just get to the point; even the birds are rolling their eyes impatiently. "I wonder if fellow Elder Lu is willing to prove his belief in his disciples to us, too."

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  "Hm? What do you mean, Elder?" I would have called him by his name, too... except I didn't know it! Honestly, Lu Qi's memories were so vague I would have been better off just reading a diary he wrote or something...

  "A bet. With me, too."

  "Ah, Elder. I... I'm rather... poor..." Look, I hate to be acting like this too, okay? But I have to! To reel in the big fish, you gotta be a worm... or something. I went fishing once, and it was with my father-in-law-to-be, and he spent the entire trip bitching about how his daughter knew more about fishing than a grown-ass man...

  "I'll cover all Elder Lu's bets," hm? That voice is familiar--hey, Elder Qin, you bastard! What are you doing?!

  "Oh? Is Elder Qin also confident in Elder Lu's disciples?"

  "No," the old bastard shrugged it off. "But I'm well aware that he is as empty-pursed as you old ones are in love with gambling. So, in the spirit of keeping jubilance high, I'll play the purse."

  ...hey.

  Isn't this... good? Can't I just shit out exuberant numbers and eventually have every single Elder in the Sect owe me not just their lives but their bodies?

  ... Hey, would you look at that? A bit of evil slipped right in there.

  Khm.

  "If Elder Qin is willing, indeed, it would be most beautiful, ha ha," tsk. Look at how happy they are. They must be thinking they'll be drinking and fine dining for months just off of me. Tough thorns, bastards! "There you go, Elder Lu. What say you?"

  "Ah... if, if Elder Qin says so... then... f-five..."

  "Five?" someone frowned. "Hmm, yes, five mid-grade Stones for Elder Lu might indeed be a lot."

  "N-no," from the corner, I actually spotted Elder Qin's body strobe for a moment when they said 'five stones'. "I, I meant... five... hundred..." I squeezed out, peeping under my eyelids, judging their reactions.

  Well, they were as you'd expect--horror, shock, anger, rage, constipation(maybe?), but as they distilled my words, all of that turned into... joy. Because, I reiterate again, there had never been a singular thought in their heads that my disciples might win. Not one. Whatever else swims in those old heads, the picture of either Long Tao or Dai Xiu winning? Ain't in there.

  "Elder Qin--"

  "--I said what I said," the old man waved it off.

  "Ho ho, five hundred it is! Elder Lu, my disciple Huang is..."

  "Me too, me too..."

  "My disciples will..."

  So, in total, by the end of the slathering, drooling, gamble-addled conversation, the number we've arrived at was a bit staggering, honestly: 10,000 stones, all mid-grade. Towards the end, they had to haggle off some of their possessions to make up the number, but they really seemed desperate to bleed me dry. Well, to bleed Elder Qin dry.

  The good news is that Elder Qin's satchel was safe.

  The bad news is that he didn't know that.

  Even if the man was wealthy, the evidence of anxiety was the fingernails digging into his palms and the occasional twitching of the eyebrows every time that number was raised.

  Long Tao did tell me to bleed them dry--and, honestly, I'm pretty sure that if 10,000 mid-grade Spirit Stones isn't a total sum of all their wealth, it's at least half.

  Well, maybe less. Old people hide money everywhere. Even I, by the time I was in my mid-thirties, just started stashing away random bundles of cash... for 'when it rains'.

  By the time I came over yonder, I had something like $4,000 lying around the house in various action figures, cabinets, drawers, pillows... sometimes I'd forget and accidentally wash something without checking for money, losing a couple hund in the process. Very painful.

  They quickly moved on from me, not-so-silently discussing all the shit they were going to buy with their newfound wealth. As they ignored me, I ignored them, looking down over the shoddy railing at the massive set of arenas--there were six in total, each about half the size of a basketball court.

  These were kids, after all, only capable of mostly human feats; while they could punch hard and move somewhat quickly, there wasn't much of a difference between them and kids on Earth who practiced martial arts at this age.

  Well, there was Long Tao and even Dai Xiu. I'm not quite sure of the extent of their strength; I'd watched them spar a few times, and it honestly kind of scared me.

  I mean, they were beating the shit out of each other--Dai Xiu had at least four teeth loosened from taking a knee straight to her jaw, and even Long Tao suffered a bit because he kicked too hard once with his shin into the girl's knee and got a bone bruise.

  I really wanted to step in, but... neither complained, especially Dai Xiu. Rather, it felt to be the opposite: she was far more desperate and hungry.

  This world is hell, indeed. And, apparently, even I've now become a devil...