025 Betting Games

  Fan Shi moved like a shadow, her sleeves fluttering as s shot from them in a blur. The metalliks twisted and coiled, f an uable barrage that surged toward Jia Yun.

  Jia Yun, in trast, moved with a practionce. She withdreair of ornate fans from beh her arms, flig them open with an air of effortless grace. With a zy wave, a burst of wind surged forth, repelling the ining s. The gust sent dust swirling, f Fan Shi to shift her stance.

  This wasn’t just a match of brute force. It eed versus trol.

  I leaned forward slightly. This was the kind of fight I eeical, full of tricks, and not just a test of who had the biggest moves.

  Long Xieren’s voice broke my tration. “How about a friendly bet? Who is up for this?”

  Pan Xia barely spared him a gnce before answering, “It is obvious. Jia Yun will win.”

  Long Xieren chuckled, rubbing his . “Surely, this isn’t favoritism?”

  Pan Xia sighed, fanning himself zily. “Jia Yun is in the Sed Realm, Seventh Star… and Fan Shi is what?” His gaze slid to g Fan.

  The young Isotion Path Sect disciple cleared his throat. “Sed Realm, Fourth Star… she pursues a different path i of sciousness—”

  Pan Xia ignored him ht, tinuing, “Even that kid, Lu Gao, has better cultivation than her. And the Seven Grand s have rather short histories pared to our illustrious Sects.” He shook his head with exaggerated disappoi. “What is the Isotion Path Sect thinking?”

  I g g Fan, noting the subtle tension in his jaw. He wasly in a position to defend his Sect without stepping on some toes, especially with Lei Fen’s absehat seemed to be the real issue here—Pan Xia wasn’t just doubting Fan Shi’s ces; he was taking the opportunity to subtly jab at Lei Fen’s decision to skip out.

  Cultivator politics were exhausting.

  “Well,” I said, deg to step in, “I wouldn’t be so quick to t Fan Shi out.”

  Pan Xia’s fan paused mid-motion. “Oh?”

  “She’s clearly trained in unventional bat,” I mused, watg as Fan Shi adjusted her position, shifting her footing like she reparing something. “She wouldn’t be in the quarterfinals if she didn’t have a few tricks up her sleeve.”

  Long Xieren grinned. “Are you saying you’d put your bet on the Isotion Path Sect’s disciple, Daoist Da Wei?”

  I shrugged. “I’m saying uimating her might make for a bad bet.”

  Pan Xia chuckled. “How diplomatic.”

  I wasn’t being diplomatic. I just liked upsets.

  Fan Shi’s s shot forward in a deadly arc, but her oppo was already gone. Or rather, she appeared to be gone.

  Illusions of Jia Yun flickered ience, surrounding Fan Shi from all ahey moved with a ghostly elegaheir fluttering robes barely rustling as they circled their prey. It reminded me of the Doppelganger ability from the Ninja-css lega Lost Legends Online—annoying to fight against and even worse to predict.

  Not to be outdone, Fan Shi shifted tactics. She unlinked her s with a flick of her wrists, ung them in all dires in a wide-area attack. The flying links passed through most of the illusions, causing them to waver and vanish like mist, but for every ohat disappeared, two more seemed to take its pce.

  Jia Yun’s strategy was clear. She ying the long game, whittling down Fan Shi’s energy while maintaining an untouchable presence. If Fan Shi couldn’t adapt, she’d get overwhelmed.

  “Tsk, tsk…” clicked Pan Xia’s tongue. “If she tinues like this…” Pan Xia stopped, leaving the meaning unclear, but clearly implying something.

  I g g Fan. He looked like he was in silent agony, his polite expression hiding his iurmoil.

  Okay, clusion reached. Pan Xia was a jerk.

  Leaning toward him, I whispered, “This is the quarterfinals, right? But from what I heard, there are only four tenders left. Isn’t this already the semi-finals?”

  g Fan shook his head slightly before replying, “Ah, the quarterfinals require each teo duel against all the others to gauge their strength. The semi-finals will be a two-on-two match between the said four tenders.” He brightened a bit for being helpful. Good for you, man.

  I’d expected something more straightforward, but this wasn’t too plicated either. More of a round-robin with a twist.

  Long Xieren, who had clearly been eavesdropping, chimed in, “Are there tours where you e from, Daoist Da Wei?”

  Tours?

  From Earth? Nada. Unless you ted sports or esports.

  From LLO? Lots. PvP tour setups were practically a daily ritual. There were even unofficial underground tours where pyers fought for real-world money or rare in-game items.

  I shrugged. “There are… Most often, it’s to win equipment, sometimes to gain fame, or—” I hesitated, shuddering slightly as an old memory surfaced. “—to prove a point.”

  Long Xieren raised an eyebrooint?”

  I sighed. “Let’s just say I knew a fellow Daoist who took things way too seriously.”

  I could still remember the guy, standing atop a burning battlefield, dramatically deg his quest over the mortal realm. He insisted on rolepying as a Demon Lord a so far as to form a cult-like following in-game.

  A Mage pyer who just had too muime, I guessed.

  The st I heard of him, he got permaly banned for ‘disturbing the game’s bance.’ I hoped he was in a better paybe terrorizing NP some other virtual world.

  Shaking off the memory, I returned my focus to the match.

  Fan Shi flicked her wrist, and bolts of grayish starlight streaked toward Jia Yun. They cut through the air like silent arrows, their muted glow eerie against the bright arena.

  I leaned forward slightly. That magic looked suspiciously like a spell from the Psymancer Path in Lost Legends Online.

  Jia Yued fast. With a flick of her fans, she summoned wind bdes, sharp crests of air that shot forward ahe ining projectiles head-on. The resulting impact sent out gusts of dispced air… but the bolts of starlight remained ued.

  Oh no.

  I hoped I was imagining things, but Fan Shi proved me wrong by following through with a very familiar bo from LLO.

  The psychic bolts struck Jia Yun directly.

  Nothing happened.

  Or at least, it looked that way to the uninformed.

  While Jia Yun was likely fused by the harmless impact, Fan Shi used that moment to close the distance. She unched her s again—only this time, they shimmered with a familiar grayish hue.

  I felt my eye twitch.

  That was Mind Over Matter.

  A signature skill that verted physical on damage into psychid magical damage. It was a favorite trick of hybrid spellbde builds, or in other words—Magiights.

  And psychic damage? It had a 20% to 30% ce to stun depending on stats and mastery level. With the debuffs of the barrage of Psychic Bolt, the ce of stun would rise by 10% and the worse part was the damage would theoretically reach her foe’s mana reserves… or in this case, qi reserves.

  Gosh… I was such a nerd.

  It helped that I had a personal vea against pyers who built Magiights.

  The ones who thought they were clever by min-maxing magid melee to bee unstoppable tanks or DPS. Annoying to fight. Smug about their builds. And worst of all, they always acted like they ied the cept.

  I didn’t know whether to be impressed or irritated that Fan Shi had pulled this off.

  Jia Yun, however, wasn’t out of the fight yet. Just when it looked like the s would around her, she tered in a sudden turn of events.

  Her eyes glowed an icy blue.

  The air froze.

  With a single wave of her fan, walls of frost materialized in an instant, blog the ining s. The moment they struck the ice, Jia Yun transformed the walls into giant ice spires—deadly, jagged, and aiming straight for Fan Shi.

  Fan Shi barely dodged, her movement teique barely flickering her out of harm’s way.

  Pan Xia all too proudly ented, “See? That’s the differen realms.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Yeah, sure, buddy. Keep flexing.

  But I wasirely vihis match was over yet.

  I was shocked by the skills Fan Shi dispyed.

  The way she executed that bo… The way she weaved psychid physical attacks together… It was too familiar.

  Was she like me?

  A transmigrator?

  Did she e from the game?

  A trickle of unease crept down my spine. If she was a fellow pyer, she would’ve at least tried firming it directly by talking to me. We were all too used to cheg for allies in unfamiliar settings. Yet, she had never approached me in that way.

  I knew for a fact that she had been me for a while.

  And I wasly hiding my Padin skills.

  She was there when I used Divine Word: Life on Gu Jie, before I left her in Lei Fen’s care. Any experienced pyer from Lost Legends Online should have reized the skill at a gnce.

  Yet… nothing.

  No signs nition.

  I frowned. Maybe she C?

  No.

  That didn’t expin anything.

  I sighed, running through the possibilities. If she was a fellow pyer, there was only one way to know for sure.

  A test.

  I ried this before, but I was dying of curiosity.

  I focused my thoughts and reached out—not with Qi, not with magic, but with something else.

  In Lost Legends Ohere was a game meic that let you send messages across distances, simir to a Voice Chat feature. It wasn’t like mental transmission teiques in this world, but it funed simirly within the game.

  I imagihe e f.

  And then, I spoke.

  "Fan Shi."

  To my plete and utter shock, she reacted.

  "Huh?"

  Oh. Oh crap. It worked.

  I swallowed my surprise, keeping my thoughts measured. If she really was a transmigrator, then I needed her to expose herself first.

  I spoke again, maintaining the illusion of normalcy.

  "This is me, David."

  A pause.

  I couldn’t tell if she was surprised or just unimpressed.

  Lying was bad and shameful, but again… I was dying of curiosity.

  I tinued, keeping my tone casual.

  "Elder Long Xieren suggested a bet betwees. What do you think?"

  Fan Shi’s response was immediate.

  "I don’t care."

  …Wow.

  Pretty brazen.

  If she was a fellow pyer, she either didn’t trust me or didn’t care to reveal herself. And if she wasn’t a pyer?

  Then I just firmed that somehow, some way, game meics worked on her.

  I turo Pan Xia, watg him idly wave his fan as if the match below was a mere formality.

  "How about we talk about that bet?" I suggested, keeping my tone casual. "I feel like betting on an underdog."

  More than just a casual wager, I o see more of Fan Shi’s abilities—to firm that what I’d witnessed wasn’t just a fluke.

  Did she know more Mage-reted skills?

  Mage-css legacy pyers in Lost Legends Online were infamous for having too many skill paths. Even at a low level, they’d have at least four to a dozen skills uheir belt. And if Fan Shi was anything like those pyers…

  I wao know.

  Pan Xia barely spared me a gnce.

  "It is a waste of time."

  I smirked. Typical.

  Without a word, I reached into my Item Box arieved a Phoenix Feather—an exquisite plume that shimmered with gold and red hues, pulsing faintly with tent energy.

  The moment I pulled it out, I knew I had their attention.

  Phoenix Feathers weren’t just rare—they were legendary. At least, here. And I had lots of them stacked in my Item Box, courtesy of my old habit of h high-value loot. I had po sell them before I suddenly found myself in this world.

  And they were only oype of treasure in my colle.

  Of course, I couldn’t afford to show more than this. If anyone caught on that I had a whole treasury in my Item Box, I’d be a walking target. I could feign ignorance about the feather’s ins, but fshing multiple treasures?

  That would be suspicious as fuck.

  I twirled the feather between my fingers, letting it catch the light.

  "What do you think about it?"

  Silence.

  Ren Jin and Long Xieren stiffeheir eyes locked on the feather as if they’d seen a dragon’s egg hatch before them.

  Pan Xia hid his rea well—masking his expressioh his fan—but his firembled for just a sed.

  Only g Fan looked nervous, shifting unfortably in his seat.

  Pan Xia finally spoke.

  "What’s the bet?"

  I leaned back, smirking. "I will bet that Fan Shi will win."

  A moment passed. Then, Pan Xia reached into his robes and pulled out a small, bck seed wreathed in eerie blue fmes.

  "This is a Qi Fire Seed called her Ghost Fmes—capable of refining and enting mysterious metals." His voice carried a hint of pride. "I am willing to bet this treasure in favor of Jia Yun’s victory."

  The blue fmes flickered, illuminating his pale fingers.

  Not bad.

  Long Xieren chuckled, pulling out a dark, metallic sb that pulsed with barely tained heat.

  "This is Molten Bck Steel, refined from the burning blood of a Spiritual Beast," he said smoothly. "Since I suggested this bet, you don’t mind me joining, do you?" He smirked. "I’ll wager this in favor of Jia Yun winning in the fifteen minutes."

  Pan Xia frowned, clearly displeased.

  "I am not willing to share the rewards," he said coolly. "I’ll bet that Jia Yun wins in the en minutes."

  He tapped his fan against his palm. "The one closest to their bet takes all."

  Before I could respond, Ren Jin took out a delicate purple flower with a faintly sweet st.

  "This is True Royal Divine," he announced, pg it oable that floated in front of us. "A spiritual flower that temporarily raise one's cultivation by aire realm. If refined properly into a pill, it could permaly raise a realm—below the Sixth Stage, of course. It is also a rare and crucial ingredient for specialized pills that restore cultivations or emp cultivators in a pinch."

  The air grew heavy with expectation.

  Then Ren Jin smirked.

  "I bet that this will all end in a tie."

  A tie?

  I narrowed my eyes.

  Did he know something I didn’t?

  Ah, he had the referee in his payroll.

  Ren Jin wouldn’t cheat, right?

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t.

  The battle between Fan Shi and Jia Yun raged on below, their movements a whirlwind of speed and precision.

  It was time for some deception.

  I reached out, fog on Fan Shi from a distance. I activated Voice Chat.

  "Fan Shi," I said, keeping my voice calm.

  She visibly flinched mid-dodge, still uo the Voice Chat.

  Now, I had to sell the fight to her.

  "The Sect has made a bet with the other Sects and City Governor Ren Jin," I tinued. "If you win this match, you get to pie treasure from the spoils."

  There ause.

  Then, ever so subtly, Fan Shi smiled.

  That ought to motivate her.