However, these mountain lords had no idea that every one of them had been approached by various factions, and that the outcome seemed to have already been laid out in full. Of course, if everything could be controlled, everyone's losses could be kept within an acceptable range. But the wager between Zhu Lan and me was actually the key factor determining the direction of the betting.
Once all seventy-two mountain lords had received their number plates, the matches began in pairs.
The City Lord of Sky City had not attended. The ones presiding over the overall proceedings were the Supreme Elders of the Supreme Council, so three imposing elderly men and women sat in the seats of honor, looking down upon the matches in the nine arenas.
On the surface, the proceedings looked perfectly natural, without the slightest blemish. But only we manipulators knew that, in the dark corners beneath it all, the struggle between competing interests had already been fought to the point of flesh being torn apart.
The nine betting pools were clearly divided. They were being handled by Zhu Lan's shopkeeper team and my Heaven Pavilion's shopkeeper team. I had not participated much, because I still had something to discuss with Xue Qingcheng. Besides, with the Supreme Council's support, I was not worried about Heaven Pavilion's ability to control the odds. This was practically an open-book exam. If we could still copy the wrong answers, then I would truly be letting down the million heavenly crystals I had bribed the Supreme Council with.
But manipulating the odds was not about winning. Sometimes, in preparing for victory, one had to sacrifice the profits at the beginning. If Zhu Lan could probe out the fact that we had inside information during the initial tests, it would be tantamount to