Master Wu didn't take the pebble Lin Yi offered him. Instead, he stared blankly for a long while, then suddenly burst into wild laughter.
It turned out that when people were speechless, they really did laugh.
"Hahahahaha! Good, good, good..."
"Interesting... very interesting!!"
Master Wu laughed so hard he could barely catch his breath, his body shaking.
It took quite a while for him to stop. Even the crinkles at the corners of his eyes were wet with tears from laughing.
How long had it been...
Master Wu had forgotten how long it had been since someone had made him laugh so heartily.
The young man before him was one hell of a talent.
Master Wu stood up, picked up three pebbles from the ground, then smiled and patted Lin Yi on the shoulder.
"All right! Boy, I'll take that bet."
"But if you win, you get my saber. What if you lose? You can't expect to get something for nothing."
Lin Yi replied, "Of course. You may take anything I own, Master."
Master Wu's eyes narrowed, a hint of coldness creeping into his expression. "In that case, I want your life!"
Lin Yi remained impassive. "That's perfectly fine. Life and death are in Heaven's hands!"
"Good lad!" A grim look crossed Master Wu's face. "As it happens, I want to try a method of refining a Treasure Artifact through a True Person's sacrifice. You may be a bit dim, but you've got a touch of spirit about you. Perhaps I can sacrifice you to my Treasure Artifact and give it an Artifact Spirit."
Lin Yi showed no fear, his expression calm.
Master Wu said no more. He turned and went back behind his stall, lightly weighing the three thumb-sized stones in his hand.
"All I have to do is toss the three stones into the circle you drew?"
Master Wu checked once more before starting.
Lin Yi nodded. "Just toss them onto the ground inside the circle."
"Heh..." Master Wu chuckled. "Then watch closely."
Master Wu casually raised his hand and suddenly tossed all three pebbles into the air at once!
It was clearly an overconfident move.
He could have tossed them one by one, but instead Master Wu chose the most difficult option—throwing them all at once.
And he wasn't throwing them, but lofting them.
It was the arrogance of the strong.
He didn't want a close contest. He wanted a crushing victory.
He meant to make Lin Yi accept his loss without a word.
Lin Yi remained impassive, but the sleeve he clenched tightly still betrayed his inner turmoil.
[Know Heavenly Fate]
[Destiny Talisman Coin: 20200]
Activate [Strong Luck]!
Lin Yi's gaze sharpened.
The next second, his Destiny Points began to drop at a speed visible to the naked eye.
[Destiny Points -100]
[Destiny Points -100]
Lin Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
This was the first time he had ever seen his Destiny Points drop at a rate of a hundred per second.
At the same time,
the three pebbles visibly rose toward their highest point.
A fierce eagle's cry rang out.
A sparrow hawk!
A bird of prey that hunted small songbirds.
The three pebbles must have looked a little like birds, catching the hawk's attention. It shot toward them like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Master Wu's gaze sharpened. He gave a soft snort. "Beast!"
True Qi gathered in his mouth. A bolt of True Qi, shaped like an arrow, shot straight toward the hawk!
Crack!
The True Qi took shape and pierced the hawk's body, killing it instantly.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted.
Seventh rank!
He was actually on the same level as Master Yuan, the martial arts school's head instructor!
"Heh, a mere parlor trick." Master Wu instinctively assumed this was Lin Yi's doing.
After dealing with the hawk, he turned to look at Lin Yi.
Still impassive.
Master Wu began to wonder. "Does he have another trick up his sleeve?"
At the same time, an overwhelming chain of cause and effect set countless coincidences quietly in motion around the three pebbles.
The hawk's body was pierced, and a broad spray of blood spilled through the air.
One splash landed inside the circle Lin Yi had drawn earlier.
The smell of blood drew the yellow dog that had been lurking nearby. It rushed over at full speed, then sat inside the circle and began licking it up.
Master Wu furrowed his brows and released his aura.
The yellow dog sensed his aura and immediately began trembling all over.
"Get lost!"
The dog fled in panic.
Just then, a little boy with his hair in a toddler's tuft appeared at the mouth of the alley. He wore silk clothes, held a slingshot in one hand and a candied hawthorn skewer in the other. His eyes lit up at once.
"Puppy!"
He promptly tossed aside his candied hawthorn skewer, grabbed his slingshot, and chased after the yellow dog.
At that moment, the three stones in the air finally reached their highest point and began to plummet.
Seeing the boy chase after the dog,
a young servant carrying a bundle hurried after him.
"Young Master! Don't run! We have to make the ancestral rites today. We need to hurry home!"
The servant failed to notice the candied hawthorn skewer the boy had dropped on the ground and stepped on it.
He fell heavily, and the bundle in his hands went flying.
Inside were incense and candles, along with firecrackers for the ancestral rites. They scattered through the air.
The boy didn't hear a thing. He had already set his slingshot, loaded a pellet, and aimed it at the yellow dog.
The boy was clearly from a prominent family. He had trained his body from a young age and was strong for his age. The pellet shot out with a series of sharp whistles.
At the same time, one of the firecrackers that had fallen came straight into the pellet's path.
In midair, one of the falling stones happened to line up with the pellet and the firecracker.
The instant the pellet scraped against the stone, a spark flashed.
A deafening boom rang out. The firecracker exploded, blasting the three stones in the air into seven pieces and sending them flying in every direction!
How was this possible!
Master Wu's pupils contracted, and his thoughts suddenly stalled.
It had all happened too fast.
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
Too fast for anyone to react.
Master Wu wasn't the only one stunned. Lin Yi was dumbstruck too.
Aside from the day he was born, this was the second time he had personally felt the heaven-defying power of [Strong Luck].
But Master Wu quickly recovered. It was strange and bizarre, but he didn't have time to think it over.
Master Wu raised a hand. Seven strands of True Qi emerged from beneath his skin.
The threads wrapped around the shattered stones at lightning speed, then suddenly drew them toward the circle Lin Yi had drawn.
As they pulled them in, Master Wu reassembled the shattered stones, restoring them to their original three.
Clack!
The three pebbles, battered by twists of fate, finally landed in the pit that was their destined resting place.
"Whew..." Master Wu let out a deep breath, a relieved smile appearing at the corner of his lips. He looked at Lin Yi and said, "Looks like I win..."
Before Master Wu could finish speaking—
Rumble!
The earth shook, and the ground lurched.
The surrounding houses trembled, and the alley outside erupted into a chaos of voices.
"An Earth Dragon Turns Over!!"
"Get away from the walls! Move back, quickly!"
The chaos lasted less than three breaths.
The once chaotic and noisy scene abruptly...
"Heh..." Lin Yi looked at Master Wu with a grin. "Master, looks like I won."
Master Wu's pupils contracted. He suddenly snapped out of his shock at the earthquake and hurriedly looked toward where the three stones had landed.
At that moment, not a trace of the stones remained inside the circle.
Only a jagged fissure remained, carved into the ground by the aftershocks.
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