One Side of the Chasm

Zhang Manqian's figure vanished into the darkness.

By the faint glow of the electronic equipment, Zhang Xuezhou felt as though the darkness had swallowed her whole.

In their family, there were Zhang Weimeng's books, Song Fengying's livestream network, and Zhang Manqian's open path to the Gene Armory Secret Key. Zhang Xuezhou felt that none of them were ventures that could be pursued openly and aboveboard.

It wasn't that they didn't want to take the sunlit road, but as Song Fengying had said, breaking into a higher stratum was simply too difficult.

For one person to enter, someone already in that stratum had to be squeezed out.

As Zou Bugui had said, the higher one climbed in cultivation, the more likely one was to devour people.

The times were different, and the worlds were different, but their essence was no different.

Whenever someone benefited, there was inevitably a group that suffered losses.

The thought flashed through Zhang Xuezhou's mind and vanished. In the center of the ring, the fierce fight between two young people was growing more intense.

As blow after blow landed on flesh, both fighters' striking scores continued to climb.

Every increase in valid points brought a chorus of ghostly howls and curses. A middle-aged man was even squatting beside a card reader a meter away from Zhang Xuezhou, cursing nonstop.

"Damn you, 20765, my money!"

For ring matches, the simplest bets were on a win, a loss, or a draw. These were bets against the house, freely placed before the match began.

Once the match began, betting switched to real-time comparisons of the fighters' scores. The house merely provided a platform and collected fees, while spectators supplied the funds. The enormous pool of money kept growing, and was constantly paid out as points were scored.

Zhang Xuezhou thought