It was simply too easy to place the right bet with fights that Li Tianfu participated in.
In truth, a great many of the people in the hall were there specifically to bet on Li Tianfu. Some of them wouldn’t bet on any other fights, but they would definitely bet on battles with Li Tianfu in them.
While the rewards for betting on Li Tianfu were usually very low, his fights were nonetheless considered almost sure-win bets, and no one would give up an opportunity like that.
Anyone who didn’t grab the pile of money laid out right before them would have been deemed an idiot.
“Quick, look!”
“The profile of Li Tianfu’s opponent has been released.”
Yet another red banner was unfurled in the hall, with information regarding Li Tianfu’s opponent on it.
“Jing Yan?”
“Which city’s association is he from again?”
“Huh? Dong Lin City?”
“Something isn’t right! Doesn’t our association only have two in-house Ninth Heaven warriors? Li Tianfu and Long San, right?”
“You idiot. Can’t you read? It says… Seventh… Seventh Heaven?”
When the speaker saw the words “Seventh Heaven,” his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
What the hell was going on here?
Had the association made a mistake or something?
A Seventh Heaven warrior was about to fight Li Tianfu, who was at the Ninth Heaven?
“Woah, wait. Am I seeing things here? The name on the banner is ‘Jing Yan,’ right? That’s the guy from the Jing Clan, no? Hold on, isn’t Jing Yan only at the Third Heaven right now? Why does it say ‘Seventh Heaven’ on the banner?”
A stout-looking, bearded man slapped his thigh hard as he voiced his confusion.
A staff member of the association emerged at that moment, standing on a suspended platform at the top of the hall. The staff member brought their Vital Qi up and made an announcement with a booming voice.
“Ladies and gentlemen!”
The thousands of warriors and common folk in the hall quickly quieted down.
Very few of them had placed their bets yet, since no one was sure what was actually going on. That was understandable, since the battle advertised by the banners didn’t seem to make any sense. Many were thinking that the association must have made a mistake.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a high-ranking battle will soon commence.”
“Your eyes are not fooling you. This battle will be between a contestant of the Extreme Combat Association, Li Tianfu, and a warrior from the Jing Clan of Dong Lin City, Mr. Jing Yan. Mr. Jing Yan is currently ranked at the Seventh Heaven.”
“This will be an extremely rare battle. Truth be told, despite having worked for the association for a very long time, I have never seen a fight between a Seventh Heaven warrior and a Ninth Heaven warrior. However, the battle has already been agreed upon. Our manager, Ran Qi, made the arrangements personally, and the fight will take place two hours from now.”
“In other words, you will have two hours to place your bets. The battle will have floating odds. Ladies and gentlemen, you may begin betting,” the staffer explained quickly.
Brroooom!
The crowd rushed to the betting counters like a tsunami.
There was no way they would miss their chance to bet on that battle, now that they were sure that such a battle was indeed going to take place.
“One hundred Spiritual Stones on Li Tianfu!”
“Two hundred Spiritual Stones!”
“Hurry up, I’m betting 50 Spiritual Stones. Here are all of them, on Li Tianfu.”
“Hmph, does a pauper with only 50 stones need to be in such a hurry? Here, 500 Spiritual Stones.”
Chaos ensued.
It was fortunate that there were plenty of counters open, enough to make sure that every single gambler present would be able to place their bet within the allotted time of two hours.
The initial odds between Li Tianfu and Jing Yan were one to one.
“One to one!”
“One to two for Li Tianfu now!”
“Sh*t, one to three already in the blink of an eye.”
The odds of both Li Tianfu and Jing Yan were constantly changing on the crystal wall that tracked and calculated the incoming bets. Li Tianfu’s odds had gotten increasingly low while Jing Yan’s had gotten increasingly high.
“Jing Yan’s odds are at five to one now. Betting 100 Spiritual Stones would yield 500 in return if Jing Yan won. Sh*t, that is so tempting. Too bad there’s no way Jing Yan could win. He’ll lose regardless of the odds. If Jing Yan were at the Ninth Heaven, I would have been willing to bet on him though.”
Wagers were still coming in like a storm.
Jing Yan was in a room on the second floor, watching as the numbers on the crystal wall depicting the odds changed constantly. He grinned widely.
“Good. Very good.” Jing Yan nodded slightly.
Jing Yan’s odds had quickly risen to ten to one. At that moment, the changes in the odds began to slow. It was obvious that the number of people placing bets had dwindled.
“Looks like now is the time to place a bet to stimulate this further.” Jing Yan turned his eyes around and looked outside the room.
“Excuse me!” Jing Yan shouted.
Jing Yan hadn’t placed a bet at the beginning because it was very likely that he might lower his odds greatly. If he made his total wager of 5000 Spiritual Stones as soon as the betting began, it might have caused quite a number of people to hesitate.
After all, most of the gamblers thought that the end result of the battle was very obvious. Surely no one would be stupid enough to place such a huge bet on Jing Yan. If such a huge bet had shown up immediately, many of the gamblers would have suspected that something was off.
Because of such concerns, Jing Yan refrained from placing his bet right from the start.
However, placing the bet now would incite the reaction that Jing Yan wanted. Doing so now would cause a sharp drop in his odds, and raise Li Tianfu’s odds at the same time.
The bettors would definitely grow even more excited when they saw Li Tianfu’s odds being raised, which might cause them to raise their bets.
“Mr. Yan, how can I be of service?” asked a female warrior as she entered Jing Yan’s preparation room.
“Here are 5000 Spiritual Stones. Please place a bet for me,” Jing Yan said with a grin. He took out the 5000 Spiritual Stones that he had prepared in advance and extended the bag toward the female warrior.
Once he parted with that pile of Spiritual Stones, Jing Yan would only have 20 Spiritual Stones left on his person.
“Huh?” The female warrior frowned.
“Mr. Jing Yan, I’m sorry to notify you that as a contestant of the battle, you won’t be allowed to place a bet on Li Tianfu,” the female warrior said apologetically.
However, her thoughts were less kind.
“This Jing Yan doesn’t seem to be in the right mind, eh? How could he be ignorant of such a basic rule?” she wondered.
It was clearly stated in the rules of an association that contestants were absolutely not allowed to place bets on their opponents. Otherwise, they could place hefty bets on their opponents and then lose the fight on purpose. Because of that risk, betting on one’s opponent was absolutely forbidden by the association.
The female warrior was grumbling deep down, yet none of that showed on her face. She kept her smile in place and refused Jing Yan’s request in a polite and roundabout manner.
“Did I say anything about betting on Li Tianfu?” Jing Yan thought that her assumption was rather ridiculous.
Bet on Li Tianfu, eh? Even if the rules allowed him to do so, there was no way he would have done so. Li Tianfu’s odds had fallen to one to a dozen. Even if Li Tianfu won, betting 5000 Spiritual Stones would only yield peanuts—several hundred Spiritual Stones at most in return. Furthermore, he still had time to spare before the battle began. The odds would continue to change, and there was really no telling how much one would eventually be able to earn.