Hearing him say this, I wanted to argue back but my hand was suddenly pulled by Uncle Li who said that it was time to go and I couldn't agree more with him, after all I was only acting strong and thanks to him unable to see that I'm holding back myself from losing conscious, we were able to return from the Alchemy Sacred Hall unharmed .
Followed by none other than the dozen Martial Artists who were acting as guards in the Alchemy Hall that were following us due to me promising to heal them, but before I go, I still looked at Yang Mo in the face and said :
" Since you are revering that useless guy's talent for alchemy so much and you seemed to resent me even more, how about we solve all the greaviances that we have through the only method that will let both of us satisfied, a competition, what do you say ? .
" Umm and before you argue that I wanted to just bully him with my strength, even though that Fire Source he had on his body should now be more than enough to give him confidence in challenging me, I will compete with him in what you all are revering him for, Alchemy Attainments, so it's an Alchemy competition, would you two dare to accept .
The two Yang Mo and Gu Xing exchanged a look and the two seemed shocked at first, most likely because I had already figured out that Fire Source he had someone help him refine, a fire source is a fire that had naturally attained a bit of spirituality after existing for area with rich and suitable filled with the same attribute kind of area .
It would prosper and soon will form a weak conscious that will allow it to even improve its strength more quickly, the fire source is graded according to the properties of the fire and how powerful it was into a whole 9 grades .
The Fire Source can also be refined using the cores in the Monsters, but this completely random and unless the Monster had a high attainments and affinity with fire, the Fire Source made from it will be much weaker than the one formed naturally and nourished by Heaven-Earth .
That Fire Source in the hands of Gu Xing was a naturally formed one and even though the blue spark in his body didn't seem to have hit maturity yet, its fluctuations made one heart start having palpitations, that's how dangerous it was .
It can be used to attack, since it was in the end of the day, a Fire, but for Alchemy using it to fight seem quite wasteful, using it in alchemy, it can increase the success rate of pill making and not only that, some Fire Sources were said to have the ability to enhance the grade of the pill and its quality .
Some even were said to have the effect of enhancing the talent of those who refine it, how exactly was Gu Xing able to put his hands on one was completely baffling to me, not to mention how rare to find one normally in these barren lands .
But even if you find one, you might end up being devoured by it, instead of getting a blessing by refining it, you might end up being turned to crisps, this was the reason for many people going out of their way to seek it, but they might end up letting it go in the end because they have no way to refine it .
Could it be possible for Gu Xing to have asked someone for help, this was even more unlikely, due to how precious that Fire Source was, if he were to have asked someone for help, he might end up with pretty much nothing, he might even get killed as a consequences .
So how did he acquired such an item, I truly wonder, but one thing for certain, if one were to indeed manage to refine a Fire Source and infuse it with his body, his talent in both Martial Arts and Alchemy will directly skyrocket, but something like this need to be always kept a secret, otherwise there was no telling who might start target him for such a precious thing .
So Yang Mo and Gu Xing aghast reactions were very much reasonable, but even though they were stunned, after a few seconds Yang Mo regained his composure and said with a hint of ridicule written all over his face :
You know that and is still willing to challenge him in a competition, fine we will accompany you to the end, what are you thinking ?.
Uncle Li was trying to dissuade me from entertaining these kind of thoughts any longer, but ignoring his pulling and pushing, I looked at these guys straight in the eyes and started to make my demands if were to win clear, I said :
" Well, I don't like your Alchemy Hall and the way it conducted business, so I'm going to take it off your hand, if I win, not only that but your Alchemy Sacred Hall would no longer had a footing in this city, Gu Xing will let me kill me, if he were to lose, I believe that these terms are acceptable .
The look on the two faces in front of me and the faces of everyone currently present only screamed of one thing, disbelief, complete disbelief at what exactly was I saying, Elder Wang and Elder Shu were looking me as if I had gone mad .
Numerous auras, killing intents began to be released at me from all kinds of direction, I was completely in the center of attention and even after I finished saying what I have to say, it took them more than 5 minutes to realize and comprehend what I was asking them to do and how ruthless my demands were .
After a while, Yang Mo was once again the one to first come out of his shocked state, his eyes and face wore a solemn expression in both of them, he stared at me up and down then at Gu Xing as if sizing him as well and before long, he started to say :
Your demands are quite usless, but I'm curious to what are you willing to bet, if you are already trying to devour our alchemy sacred hall without being afraid to choke on it and die, what exactly are you putting on the line here .
Seeing that he was still interested in fishing for gains, I already realized that there was really a chance to pull this off, I cleared my throat out of embarrassment, as I realized that nothing in my hand can be put on the table and be of equivalent value to such a place, but even though I realized this a bit late, I still said :
" Well, since I put Gu Xing's life as part of the deal, I'm more than willing to bet with my life, if I were to lose you can take my life and use it as you liked and I wouldn't dare to say or do anything, I swear on my heart of Martial Arts .
The oath was reckless, but it was needed for the sake of showing how serious I was, not to mention that this kind of oath was completely meaningless to me, if I were to break it, the Panel would remove any negative effects on me .
What if I was called a liar, names and even curses don't stick in for long in this world, only strength and what you do with it does and this all depended on whether he can actually win against me in the competition .
After I finished talking, Gu Xing finally seemed to have regained some clarity and was thrilled to know that he might have a chance to torture me as much as he liked .
But unlike the already enthusiastic about the idea Gu Xing, Yang Mo didn't for a second lose his suspicion of something being wrong, so he took some time to think things through then after a while, he shook his head and said :
Your head for his head that's a bet I can't dare to take, much less to dare and bet the entire fortune of the city with you just because you said so .
But, Hall Master Yang ... .
Without even leaving him any chance to say anything more than these few words, Yang Mo continued to say as if he was suddenly had an inspiration :
You are the future Pill Saint, so why would you risk throwing that away over a meaningless competition, not to mention that your soon-to-be Master wouldn't have liked you doing such meaningless things .
As Yang Mo mentioned his soon-to-be Master, Gu Xing was directly unable to refute him and just stared blankly into the distance and murmured a few words that forced even Yang Mo to shudder slightly, he said :
Even if it was for the sake of overcoming the shadow he left on my heart, then I might not live to the senior's expectations of me just like Heng Wu said .
As Gu Xing said this, Yang Mo directly said with a bit difficulty and quite the thick skin :
We might agree to have a friendly competition, but as for the life-death bet, that's something we can't accept, you also don't have anything to bargain for against our Sacred Hall, so you should already be content about getting your a match .
Yang Mo said this and I couldn't help but exchange glances with Uncle Li who was already trying to pull me away from this place, he too stopped what he was doing and instead whispered something in my ears, asking me about how much confident I was in beating Gu Xing .
I answered truthfully that till recently, I had no clue about what alchemy was even, he frowned slightly, then I started to tell him about that Spiritual Master that took me in, he was already informed by Master Chen Fan about this .
But what I whispered to his ears next made him dumbstruck like never before, I told him that this Master of mine had heard about Gu Xing and the Alchemy Sacred Hall and have decided to lend a hand, wanting to be the new exclusive alchemist in our Dojo, even with its current circumstances .
I also told him that he is skilled in the art of alchemy and wanted to impart some of his knowledge regarding alchemy to me and few talented individuals selected by him .
That's where my confidence to persuade Uncle Li came from, the mysterious Spiritualist that took as his pupil and disciple, those guys are well inversed in what powerful things the Spiritualist are capable of achieving, so he didn't even doubted me for a second .
And going back to his question, after all that was said and done, I told him the truth, that the current me in front of him had 10 percent chance to win against Gu Xing and even with how composed and unwavering he was, he still let a few curses and almost lashed out at me, but I don't soon calmed him down by saying :
" But if you gave me 10 or more days, I'm certain to raise my chances by at least 4 or 5 times .
I wanted to tell him that I was actually 100 percent certain of being able to win, but considering the fact that I had never concoct a pill before, not to mention that I was even going to use forbidden methods to win this competition, also there was the possibility of them also not playing by the rules .
All these reasons plus the main reason of not wanting to shock him or make him suspect that I was lying, so in the end I settled for 40 or 50% chance of success and even with that, it was enough to shake him .
He whispered something in my ear and I couldn't help but feel my eyes go brighter than ever, after we finished discussing everything among us, I looked at Yang Mo and flashed him a wide grin, then said :
" Seeing how eager Gu Xing is, it seem that Heng Wu affected the heart of the so-called genius of yours more severely than I thought, I can't say that this bother me much, I'm even feeling slightly happy for his misfortune and if his competition with me going to let my happiness go away .
" Then I guess, I have no interest in this competition anymore, he can keep getting torment like this for all care, let's go uncle Li .
I took a few weak steps and the guards who were still unable to use their strength, but can already move followed right after, but all of a sudden Gu Xing let out a muffled groan and directly spat a mouthful of blood .
Yang Mo directly infused his Blood Qi into his body to help him regulate his breath and gave him a healing pill to swallow, after this happened and even though he was still unwilling, Yang Mo still said :
I can agree to you holding a competition, but I can't agree to your terms as even if the slightest mistake or even with fate intervention in the competition between you two and it resulted in your win, we would be suffering a great loss for nothing .
" It's a bit hurtful to hear you say for nothing, I don't know why are you sticking with this Hall this much and neither do I want to, but this for nothing you are daring to agitate will one day remove this hall of yours sooner or later, but since a chance to do it sooner arose, I would remain angry at myself for letting it go .
" So let's do it like this, how about we also add the Dojo as a bargaining chip, what do you say ? .
He squinted his eyes at me and wondered what about could I possibly be on here, seeing that his interest was pretty much hooked, I start to explain that if he were to win, we would support the Sacred Hall with all its need from medicine ingredients .
He was aware of the existence of the Garden in the dojo and might even know its important more than we do, since the second I put the Garden on the table after Uncle Li allowed me to, the greedy look in Yang Mo's eyes can no longer be concealed .
Not only we would make him profit a lot, but he won't even need to pay much for transportation and farmers, since the Dojo's Disciples would do that for him, the deal could be called perfect for him .
The only issue was whether he could actually win or not, if he won, prosperity will be guaranteed for the Alchemy Sacred Hall in the next hundreds years or so, but if they lost, well, he will have to bear with some serious consequences .
After he spent some time to think and the rest of time he spent ogling me trying to grasp where my confidence came to be from, he finally sighed deeply and said :
Well, I can agree to that, but I will make everything clear, this competition is completely legal and will be overseen by officials for the sake of making the judgment legitimate, as to prevent someone from going back on his words, I believe that you have no problem with that .
I looked at him and thought, what a clever idea, if there was no one to oversee the compilation, there would have been indeed a chance for somone to try and go back on his words, but with an official there, no one could dare to argue with the imperial family .
There was one other thing, Gu Xing isn't someone who I can use his life as a bet of any kind, your own personal arrangements with him, are completely up to him to decide, there is no need to force it, or else this competition would be nulled .
I accept his terms as they are .
Right after Yang Mo finish saying this, Gu Xing acting all heroic and all, directly stepped forward and said this, his eyes were filled with brilliance and the Fire Source inside him seemed to be apparently influenced by him as blue flames appeared on his eyes and parts of his body .
He seemed to be quite excited for the competition even without still knowing anything about when it was going to be held or where, seeing those weird blue flames, it wasn't my first time seeing something supernatural in my few past days, I already come to terms with the fact that this world was a magical and supernatural one .
And I very much liked almost everything it and longed for the day when I can go ahead and fully explore it, after discussing for a while, a suitable time was appointed for this competition, it could be both suitable and not much so at the same time .
Suitable since it will be held here in the open one week before the competition of the City Young Masters, this was the time picked by Yang Mo, both me and Gu Xing wanted for it to be held sooner than later, but only after 3 months from now will this competition be held .
Me and Uncle Li together moved away from that wretched place, the reason why I believed this would be unsuitable, it was because the competition will be held for all people to come and witness, it will be indeed unsuitable for them to lose this much face at once like this .
All I need to do now, is to try and find a way that could allow me to impersonate my mysterious and completely made up Spiritual Master, as to convince Uncle Li and let his heart calm down a little, how challenging can this be .