Gambling Battle

While Chen Nan watched Li Huaming, the onlookers were also carrying on their fine tradition. All sorts of little bets had already begun in secret.

How could Li Yu and Xun Xin miss anything involving money? They had long since started working out what kind of wager to make.

The wager was this: how long would it take Chen Nan to be knocked down?

They were quite sensible not to make a bet on who would win between Chen Nan and Li Huaming. There was simply no comparison. No one would believe that Li Huaming, who had studied for three years, would lose to Chen Nan, who had only just enrolled.

Even if Chen Nan had killed dozens of people outside.

The reason that did not carry much intimidation was naturally very clear. For example, if someone could kill dozens of mice, would that make you afraid of him?

Of course not. After all, mice were too weak.

Anyone who had studied at the Preparatory Academy for a while knew that in individual combat, ordinary people and Transcendents simply could not be mentioned in the same breath.

Therefore, to these children, Chen Nan's affairs were not all that significant.

Aside from their lack of far-reaching vision, it also had to do with their own jealousy.

The moment Li Yu and Xun Xin finalized their wager, Lu Fangliang came over and said with a smile, "Why make such a dull bet? I'll put up ten thousand yuan and bet that Chen Nan wins."

Li Yu said in surprise, "Junior Brother Lu, have you gone mad? Or are you deliberately trying to give us some money?"

Lu Fangliang sneered. "Just tell me whether you dare to bet or not."

Xun Xin jabbed Li Yu from behind, thinking, Since he was asking to die like this, why stop him? Were they afraid money would bite their hands?

Li Yu thought that made sense. Their wager immediately grew larger, because almost everyone felt this was a sure-win, no-loss bet. It was easier than picking up money.

Thus, many upperclassmen who were on good terms with Li Yu and Xun Xin began putting down money as well. Naturally, they bet on Li Huaming to win.

Faced with such an opportunity to make money, they might have initially considered the teachers' dignity. But once someone took the lead, the rest flocked after them like ducks. For a time, everyone eagerly placed their bets.

But nearly all of them stood on Li Huaming's side. Looking at the scene, Li Yu and Xun Xin's side was packed shoulder to shoulder with people. On Lu Fangliang's side, apart from himself, there were only Lu Butong and Shen Congyun.

Lu Butong was driven by indignation. He did not believe Chen Nan could win, but when living between heaven and earth, one could not rush forward whenever profit appeared and retreat whenever losses loomed.

As for Shen Congyun, he had been completely dragged into this by Lu Butong.

Seeing such an overwhelmingly favorable situation, Li Yu and Xun Xin could hardly contain their delight.

Wang Bodan bet heavily as well, shouting, "Li Huaming, beat Chen Nan senseless! If you make him feel good today, all the money I win will be yours!"

Hearing that, Li Huaming became even more fired up.

Li Yu and Xun Xin also said with smiles, "Considering the imbalance in the battle between Chen Nan and Li Huaming, we won't take advantage of others for nothing. How about this? The payout odds for Chen Nan versus Li Huaming will be one to three."

Lu Fangliang said, "One to three? Such low odds? What, you don't trust Classmate Li Huaming? You think he might not be able to beat Chen Nan? For a battle like this, even one to ten would be no problem, right?"

Li Yu looked at Xun Xin. The latter nodded, then shook his head, and Li Yu understood. He said, "Junior Brother Lu, we're doing this for your sake too. We're afraid you'll lose everything.

Your Nature Masters aren't exactly wealthy to begin with, are you?"

Lu Fangliang gave him a cold look. "More than not wealthy. We don't even have any status."

That was right. So many students had placed their bets without the slightest concern for Lu Fangliang. Wasn't it because even if they offended him now, there would be no consequences afterward?

What could a Nature Master do, in the end?

The upperclassmen coughed a few times and avoided looking at Lu Fangliang. Li Yu smiled and said, "Still, in order not to undermine Classmate Li Huaming's confidence, I'll raise the odds. Chen Nan versus Li Huaming, one to five. How about it?"

Lu Fangliang nodded.

Chen Nan saw all of this, but he said nothing. Though he ought to thank Lu Fangliang for backing him here, it was unnecessary from his own perspective.

Besides, whether he would lose was still uncertain. When the time came, Lu Fangliang might be the one taking advantage of him.

With the wager settled, there was no more nonsense. The battle resumed.

Li Huaming launched a new and even fiercer round of attacks. He suddenly leaped up, clasped his fists together, and smashed them down at Chen Nan.

Chen Nan had naturally calculated this strike with AI in advance and immediately dodged aside.

His fists slammed into the stone ground with a boom, instantly spreading countless cracks.

If that blow had landed on a person, broken bones and torn tendons would be the least of it. Even if it took a life, it would not have been strange.

Such ferocious power! Chen Nan clicked his tongue inwardly. Transcendents really were not to be trifled with.

Yet although Li Huaming was as fierce and lively as a little tiger, his one shortcoming was that his movements were too broad, making him seem clumsy and slow.

With the help of the AI System, Chen Nan had no problem evading the other party's attacks. If Li Huaming was only capable of this much, he truly would have a hard time defeating Chen Nan.

Chen Nan had a clear understanding of this. For the moment, his goal was merely observation.

Chen Nan was not very familiar with Transcendents like Li Huaming, who clearly belonged to the Basic Power User type. Fighting him would let Chen Nan glimpse at least a few clues.

As the ability of his eyes activated, he could see the heat within Li Huaming's body.

The fellow looked like a crab thrown into boiling water. The color reflected in Chen Nan's infrared vision grew redder and redder by the moment. But once that red reached a certain degree, it deepened no further, proving that the change in his temperature had its limits.

But aside from exertion, what else could cause Li Huaming's body temperature to rise so much?

As Chen Nan pondered, the answer appeared on his retina: nuclear radiation!

That was it. Chen Nan could see Li Huaming's body continuously absorbing that energy. Going one step further, Chen Nan could infer that Basic Power User Transcendents absorbed nuclear radiation energy from the environment and used it to fuel their movements.

That way, the force the body could produce became incomparably powerful.

At the same time, Chen Nan could see a thin layer resembling a light film over Li Huaming's body. Presumably, it was a shield formed from surging nuclear radiation energy.

However, it had yet to amount to anything. On Li Huaming, it did not provide much protection.

All of this had been discovered by Chen Nan's Eye of AI. Ordinary eyes would have found it difficult to detect such things.

From this, Chen Nan discovered a problem:

Could Li Huaming be like the Hulk, with his strength exploding more and more the longer he fought?

Because he was not using his own strength at all in battle; it all came from radiation energy in the environment!

It seemed that a war of attrition might not work on him.

This was somewhat troublesome.

And something even more troublesome happened at once.

Among the spectators, the anxious ones were instead Li Yu and Xun Xin, who had been brimming with confidence earlier.

When they saw how exceptionally skilled Chen Nan was at evading Li Huaming's attacks, their confidence in the bet began to waver. If they lost, the payout would be one to five!

Not making money would have been one thing, but having to fork over such a huge sum on top of that would hurt more than losing their own parents.

So Xun Xin came up with an idea, and Li Yu immediately shouted, "Dodging like this without end counts as passively avoiding battle! If Chen Nan still doesn't attack within thirty seconds, he'll be considered defeated."

Such a rule did exist, so it could not be said that Li Yu was using his seniority to bully others. Unfortunately, that rule applied to duels between evenly matched opponents. Right now, this was clearly an upperclassman bullying a freshman, so using it here seemed inappropriate.

The moment Li Yu finished speaking, Lu Fangliang frowned. Though he admired Chen Nan's footwork, it was impossible for Chen Nan to attack and defeat Li Huaming.

The reason he bet on Chen Nan was not for money, but simply because of Chen Nan himself.

But with Li Yu saying this, he feared that Chen Nan—

Thud!

"Ah!"

Just after Li Yu announced it, before his mouth had fully closed and while Lu Fangliang's worry still ran high, an extraordinarily dramatic scene unfolded.

Li Huaming somehow did a somersault and crashed to the ground, nearly smashing a human-shaped pit into the earth.

Li Yu's mouth would not close. His eyes widened, and he could not understand what had happened. Everyone else cried out in surprise, while Lu Fangliang covered his mouth with a shocked expression.

Li Huaming groaned as he climbed to his feet, let out a roar, and charged at Chen Nan again.

Chen Nan held his hands one before and one behind as if embracing a circle. His feet stood neither in a T-stance nor a figure-eight stance, and his entire bearing changed.

There was a casual, circling, curving harmony to it, like the movement of the cosmos itself, giving him an air of seamless wholeness.

Lu Fangliang's gaze narrowed. Xu Xiaojing, who had been observing in secret, also focused intently. Both knew deeply that Chen Nan was absolutely no simple person.

They both waited and watched, eager to see what unique method Chen Nan possessed.

Li Huaming charged over, and everyone around held their breath. Chen Nan suddenly slid his right foot, nearly performing a full split, perfectly timing it to pass beneath Li Huaming's crotch.

Then Chen Nan reached upward and performed a monkey plucking peaches, grabbing a full handful.

It was said that if an egg was merely gripped rather than pinched, an ordinary adult generally could not crush it.

Chen Nan truly refused to believe that. I'll squeeze two at once and see whether they break or not!