A Legend of a Heavenly Cultivator

8 Wrong Bets

Before Liang Jiushan could open his mouth to respond to Chu Jianqiu's question, another voice cut in from the direction of the side corridor.

"A strength-enhancing talisman that claims it can double the wearer's strength. What an arrogant and exaggerated claim. Even if your talisman is genuine and truly functions, announcing it in such a manner is still misleading to buyers. And that kind of deceptive behavior will never be tolerated in my pavilion."

The voice was cold and measured, the voice of someone long accustomed to speaking as a person who never needed to raise his voice to be heard.

Liu Gaoyang, who had been lying there with a broken arm, immediately called out with undisguised relief. "Master!"

Chang Gaochen, Liu Gaoyang's master and one of the elders of Lingfu Pavilion, stepped in with immaculate robes and an unfriendly expression. The moment he heard the report from his subordinates about the situation at the stall, he immediately rushed over, partly because he was worried Liang Jiushan would make a decision that harmed his beloved disciple, and partly because he truly wanted to see for himself.

What he found made his anger rise several levels.

Liu Gaoyang was sprawled on the ground with a broken arm. And the one responsible stood there perfectly calm, as though there was nothing for him to worry about in this situation.

Chang Gaochen stared at Chu Jianqiu with eyes that made no attempt to hide his desire to end this matter as quickly as possible. "Young man, you truly have no sense of shame. Not only are you selling fake talismans inside Lingfu Pavilion, you even dare to injure someone here. Do you think there is no one in this pavilion who can punish you?"

"Elder Chang keeps using the word fake," Chu Jianqiu replied calmly, his gaze not shifting in the slightest from the elder's face. "On what basis does Elder conclude that my talisman cannot achieve the effect I claim?"

"A doubling effect?" Chang Gaochen snorted. "You do not know the limits of your own abilities."

To Chang Gaochen, this was not merely about defending his disciple. This was about a very simple logic. Chu Jianqiu had never been known to study the art of talismans from anyone. No master, no sect, no known lineage. Even if he had talent, mastering the basics of drawing talismans alone required no small amount of time. Claiming to be able to produce a talisman with a full doubling effect was something even senior talisman experts in this prefecture would not dare to do.

"In that case," Chu Jianqiu said, and the corner of his lips lifted slightly, "is Elder Chang willing to make a bet with me?"

Chang Gaochen paused for a moment. The expression on his face shifted into something more interested than he had intended. "What kind of bet?"

"If my talisman is proven unable to produce a doubling effect, I surrender myself completely to Elder Chang to be dealt with as he pleases." Chu Jianqiu spoke in a tone that did not waver in the slightest. "But if my talisman is proven effective, Elder Chang gives me compensation of three hundred Body Strengthening Pills."

The crowd that heard that number immediately erupted into noise.

Three hundred Body Strengthening Pills was not an amount that could be taken lightly. Even for a cultivator who had already reached the True Qi Realm, such an expenditure would feel significant.

Chang Gaochen stared at the young man for several seconds, then he smiled thinly in a way that did not reach his eyes.

'He has no way out and he is still trying to bargain.'

A promise to someone who would not survive had no real value, no matter the amount.

"Three hundred?" Chang Gaochen repeated casually. "If your talisman truly can produce a doubling effect, I will give you five hundred Body Strengthening Pills."

"Fine. We have a deal."

'This is like fortune walking right up to me.'

Chu Jianqiu accepted the offer without hesitation. Body Strengthening Pills in that quantity were exactly what he needed to push his cultivation as quickly as possible before the clan competition in ten days. And now there was someone willingly offering them.

Liang Jiushan, standing at the side, did not stop them. There was something in the way Chu Jianqiu spoke that made the law enforcement elder choose to wait and observe first. The young man did not look like someone recklessly gambling. He looked like someone who already knew the final result.

'Can he really do it?'

Even Liang Jiushan himself found it very difficult to believe. Yang Zhenhai, the official head of Lingfu Pavilion, was the best talisman expert in this entire prefecture, and even he could not produce a strength-enhancing talisman with a full doubling effect.

News of the bet spread through the pavilion faster than one could walk. Before Chu Jianqiu and Chang Gaochen had even stepped into the talisman testing device area in the center of the first floor lobby, people were already arriving from various corners of the pavilion, crowding the corridors and the balconies above.

The name Chu Jianqiu and the name Chang Gaochen were both far from unfamiliar. This was no ordinary spectacle.

The talisman testing device stood in the center of the room, a construct that had long been standard in every Wanwu pavilion, designed to read and display the effects of a talisman accurately and could not be manipulated.

Chang Gaochen stood with his hands folded behind his back, his smile cold but controlled. Beside him, Liu Gaoyang, whose arm had already been given emergency bandaging, stood with an expression that could not decide between curiosity and certainty that he would soon witness retribution for the humiliation he had received.

Chu Jianqiu reached into his pouch and pulled out a talisman.

Yellowish paper with rune strokes that appeared from the outside like the work of a beginner, slightly uneven in a few places, evidence of a hand not yet fully trained. To anyone looking at it from a technical standpoint, there was reason to doubt.

But Chu Jianqiu did not hesitate.

He tossed the talisman onto the testing device.

A small light flickered briefly as the talisman touched the surface of the device, then characters began appearing one by one on the surface of the clear crystal.

Talisman Name: Strength Enhancement Talisman

Talisman Rank: Tier One

Quality: Superior

Effect: Doubles strength

The lobby suddenly fell silent.

Not the kind of silence when people are waiting for something. But the kind of silence when an entire room simultaneously holds its breath because it cannot believe what it has just seen.

A man in the corner of the room made a sound that was unclear between a groan and a small laugh, which he immediately suppressed himself.

Zhao Cheng, the stern-faced man who had almost left earlier due to doubt, stared at those characters with his mouth not quite closed.

Chang Gaochen stood with an expression that did not move. His eyes did not blink. His fingers, which had been folded behind his back, slowly loosened.

'Impossible.'

But the characters were right there in front of him. Unchanging. Indisputable.

Liu Gaoyang stared at the testing device with the gaze of someone who had just witnessed something that should not exist in the real world. His lips moved, uttering words that were barely audible.

"Impossible. This cannot be real."

But reality did not care about what a person considered possible or not.

The young man who three years ago had stood at the peak of his generation, then fallen to a point that seemed impossible to return from, now stood in the center of a room full of people with a talisman in his hand that even the best talisman expert in this prefecture could not match.

Something that had once existed seemed to be returning.

And this time, it was different from before.