Schemes Exhausted

The four Pavilion Lords at the gambling table were all stunned. None of them had expected Shen Yuan to propose such terms for the contest.

After a long while, the entire Gambling Pavilion erupted in thunderous laughter.

The Treasure Pavilion Lord's flesh rippled across his body as his wild laughter boomed loud enough to deafen. The cold expression on the Arts Pavilion Lord's face utterly transformed into pity, his shrill laughter seeming capable of piercing eardrums.

The Divination Pavilion Lord laughed as he coughed. His skeletal, withered body shook so violently that it seemed liable to fall apart at any moment.

As for the Gambling Pavilion Lord, she was already swaying back and forth with laughter, trembling like a flower in the wind. Even as the flesh beneath her exquisite makeup tore open, she remained unaware.

The ghostly, wailing laughter finally began to fade. The Treasure Pavilion Lord rubbed his slightly stiff face and said without hesitation, "I'll take that bet."

"My Arts Pavilion will take it as well."

"Under heaven, there is nothing this old man cannot calculate. I'd like to see just who gave you such confidence. This old man will bet with you!"

The Gambling Pavilion Lord no longer cared about the torn wound on her face. Smiling sweetly, she said, "Since that is the case, I hereby declare the wager begun."

"For the first round, who will go first?"

The Treasure Pavilion Lord was about to speak, but the Arts Pavilion Lord beside him rose to his feet first.

"I will!"

As he spoke, the Arts Pavilion Lord swept out a hand. Rows upon rows of bookshelves began rising from the open ground around the gambling table. Ancient-looking bamboo slips and jade slips appeared throughout the hall, nearly filling the entire Gambling Pavilion.

As far as the eye could see, countless words filled Shen Yuan's vision, while the Arts Pavilion Lord stood proudly in the air, bamboo slips in hand.

With a flick of his right finger, great quantities of bamboo slips and jade slips rose into the air. Among them were several dozen exquisitely crafted jade plaques, gleaming with dazzling treasure light.

"The Ghost Market has existed for thousands of years. My Arts Pavilion oversees the trade of divine abilities and spells within the Ghost Market. Over these millennia, how could the techniques and wondrous arts that have passed through our hands number any less than a million?

"Upon these shelves, there are ninety-seven thousand lower-grade techniques and their derivative or improved spells, fourteen thousand middle-grade techniques, and eight hundred ninety-two upper-grade techniques.

"There are also three hundred and twenty recorded seeds of transcendent divine abilities, seventeen seeds of profound divine abilities, and eight lesser divine abilities derived from Earthly Baleful divine abilities."

As he spoke, a trace of pride appeared on the Arts Pavilion Lord's face.

Even sects and sacred lands passed down for thousands or tens of thousands of years might not possess so many inheritances of divine abilities and techniques. This was precisely the capital he relied on.

During the previous era of spiritual energy tides, even a major figure at the True Lord realm had come to the Arts Pavilion seeking a divine ability technique. That alone showed how extraordinary the Arts Pavilion was.

In just a few words, a massive golden balance appeared in the Gambling Pavilion. The many projected divine abilities and cultivation arts of the Arts Pavilion Lord weighed heavily upon it.

The hundreds of thousands of divine abilities and techniques directly forced the entire balance down.

The sight made Shen Yuan pause in surprise. He had not expected the Arts Pavilion Lord to bring out his entire fortune at once.

The Arts Pavilion Lord merely sneered. "Do you truly take me for a fool?

"Since you dared to ask about Heavenly Gang divine abilities and even took the initiative to challenge me, how could I possibly fail to make preparations?

"You only said we would compete with divine abilities and techniques. You never specified whether it would be one technique or many.

"All techniques within the Arts Pavilion belong to me. It is only natural for me to bring out the techniques of the entire Arts Pavilion."

The Arts Pavilion Lord's gaze gradually turned greedy.

"Let me see exactly which lesser divine ability derived from an Earthly Baleful divine ability you rely upon—or perhaps, a complete Earthly Baleful divine ability?

"Even if you truly possess an Earthly Baleful divine ability, it would still be difficult for it to contend against the Ghost Market's accumulation of thousands of years. This is the qualitative gap brought about by a quantitative change.

"Once this contest is over, that divine ability you rely on will no longer belong to you."

The Arts Pavilion Lord's attempt to overwhelm him with sheer quantity plunged Shen Yuan into silence.

After a long while, beneath the gazes of the four Pavilion Lords, Shen Yuan flicked his right finger. A strand of Sword Qi landed upon the golden balance.

Though the Sword Qi had no tangible form, it was like a mountain. The heavily lopsided golden balance began to shift, its enormous tilt gradually moving toward equilibrium.

That invisible, formless strand of Sword Qi nearly stood alone against more than a hundred thousand divine abilities and techniques.

"The thirty-eighth Earthly Baleful divine ability: Swordsmanship!"

The Arts Pavilion Lord was utterly shocked, but his expression immediately turned greedy again.

"Earthly Baleful Swordsmanship is one of the Earthly Baleful divine abilities with the highest potential, but because it requires the support of heaven and earth's qi, its ranking is not high. It cannot contend against the many techniques in my Arts Pavilion.

"Excellent! Excellent! From this day onward, this Earthly Baleful Swordsmanship shall be part of my Arts Pavilion's collection. I will remember your contribution well."

Just as the Arts Pavilion Lord had said, Earthly Baleful Swordsmanship could only barely contend against it. The golden balance still tilted toward the Arts Pavilion Lord.

Facing the Arts Pavilion Lord's expression of certain victory, Shen Yuan suddenly spoke.

"You said there was no limit to the number of divine abilities and techniques, correct?"

"I never said I possessed only one Earthly Baleful divine ability!"

As his words fell, Shen Yuan casually removed the storage ring hanging before the Maine Coon and tossed it onto the golden balance.

The golden balance, which had maintained a slight advantage, suddenly tilted. As the storage ring fell, Shen Yuan's side of the balance crashed down with an utterly overwhelming advantage.

This sight completely stunned the Arts Pavilion Lord. He stared blankly at the crude storage ring, and only after a long time did a hoarse voice emerge from his throat.

"The sixteenth Earthly Baleful divine ability: Pot Heaven—the storage space it opens?"

The Arts Pavilion Lord looked as though he had gone mad, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"This is a fundamental supreme art that points directly toward the path of the Earthly Immortal. How could it possibly be in your possession?"

"Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"

Yet everything had already been decided. The projections of bookshelves piled atop the golden balance shattered with a crash in an instant, while the bamboo slips in the Arts Pavilion Lord's hand were nearly crushed to pieces by his grip.

The atmosphere around the gambling table instantly froze.

Though the Arts Pavilion Lord had outwardly looked down on Shen Yuan, exploiting the loophole in the contest to place the entire foundation of the Arts Pavilion upon the golden balance meant he had already used his greatest trump card.

Yet even so, he had failed to defeat Shen Yuan. Instead, they had witnessed the two great Earthly Baleful divine abilities in Shen Yuan's possession.

The Pavilion Lords began to realize that the young man before them, who had taken the initiative to propose this wager, was even more difficult to handle than they had imagined.

The Pavilion Lords who had previously believed victory was assured now found their thoughts surging and churning.

Seated in his chair, Shen Yuan leisurely retrieved the storage ring and handed it back to the Maine Coon.

There was not the slightest joy on his face at having defeated the Arts Pavilion Lord. He merely asked casually, "Who is next?"