Peng Yaolong casually said, “Tang Jie truly was able to get this far because of that deception of his, but, Young Master Long, you come from a great clan, your father being a True Person, and you have consumed resources far in excess of one hundred thousand coins, yes? You’ve cultivated for much longer than him, but didn’t you lose to him all the same?”
“Peng Yaolong, what are you trying to say?” Long Dao angrily said.
“It’s nothing. I’m just saying that there are some people that will only look at the good things a person gets, ignoring the effort they put in behind the scenes. If Tang Jie had only had the resources the school gave him at the start, how could he have gotten this far? Moreover, he paid all one hundred thousand coins back, plus interest. And don’t tell me that you would be able to return all that just by relying on yourself.”
“Peng Yaolong, he’s shackling you and you’re speaking up for him?”
Peng Yaolong snorted, “A hero respecting another hero is all. Of course, a coward would never be able to understand such a thing.”
“‘Hero’, my ass!” Long Dao sneered. “Tang Jie is already at the end of his rope. He’s going to be defeated eventually, and when that time comes, not only will he not be able to help Wei Tianchong win, he’ll instead have helped some latecomer take the spot! I’ll see then how composed you can be, Great Brother Peng.”
Peng Yaolong instantly scowled at these words.
Long Dao was right.
Tang Jie was no longer as fierce as before.
The multiple intense battles had left him completely worn out, and even the powerful constitution granted to him by the Parting Classic was starting to show strain.
After sending Qin Liang into the formation, he had gone to rest, but no matter how well he used his time, the little bit of energy he recovered couldn’t possibly keep up with his consumption.
As he looked at Tang Jie, Peng Yaolong couldn’t help but shout, “Tang Jie, there’s no telling when Wei Tianchong will arrive. There’s no way you can last alone. If you really manage to hold out until the end, then you’ll truly win my admiration. But if you can’t hold out that long, then rather than giving it to some useless fellow, you might as well give it to one of us!”
As Tang Jie recovered, he coldly replied, “I will hold out… If I really can’t hold out, I’ll let all of you go so that you can fight among yourselves.”
“You can’t hold out.” Su Xinyue shook her head. “Tang Jie, you probably know that as time passes, more and more students will be entering at one time.”
Su Xinyue’s words instantly exposed Tang Jie’s weakness.
If strength had a value, then as one’s strength grew, the relative value would shrink while the absolute value rose. For the weak, it was the opposite. They had better relative value and small absolute values.
Compare two weaklings as an example, one with combat power 5 and one with combat power 10. The latter had twice the combat power, but there was only an absolute difference of five.
But what if two strong people were compared, one with combat power 3000 and one with combat power 5000? The latter’s relative advantage wasn’t so large, but they had an absolute advantage of two thousand.
In a duel, relative advantage was more important.
But this wasn’t a fighting competition. Absolute value was more important.
This was embodied in the students. Peng Yaolong and the other students had mostly come in one by one, giving Tang Jie a chance to individually defeat them. But as time passed, more people would be arriving in groups.
Tang Jie had already gone through three people entering together, and this would become more and more frequent.
After thinking it over, Tang Jie replied, “But they will only get weaker.”
“That’s not for certain. Have you forgotten about two others?” Meng Shixue coldly replied. She had entered after Long Dao and had also been defeated and captured.
Tang Jie frowned and said nothing. Qin Liang butted in and said, “Is it Qi Shaoming and An Rumeng?”
“Idiot!” Peng Yaolong and Long Dao roared at the same time.
Su Xinyue explained, ” Qi Shaoming has no desire for the True Inheritance and An Rumeng has no right to it. These two have both come to the Nine Palace Illusion Formation for Azulwind Jades, so they would never come in that quickly. Shixue is talking about Ye Tianshang and Cai Junyang.”
“Ye Tianshang? Cai Junyang?” Qin Liang was startled, and then he understood. He truly did not see these two among the prisoners of the formation. This meant that they had yet to reach the Devil Crushing Path. There was no need to elaborate on Ye Tianshang’s strength, and Cai Junyang had also advanced by leaps and bounds after receiving the legacy of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic. There was no reason for them to not be here yet. For a moment, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.
Tang Jie inwardly sighed. He knew that these two hadn’t come in simply because they didn’t want to. Nan Baicheng, Peng Yaolong, and the others were able to realize that he was going to block the path, so how could Ye Tianshang not think of it? And Cai Junyang understood what sort of person he was, so he was even more likely to realize what he was going to do.
They hadn’t appeared because they were waiting for a chance.
They were waiting until he was tired from fighting with everyone else.
From a certain perspective, they were making a gamble!
They were gambling that he could beat Peng Yaolong!
That he could hold out until now!
The others also realized this, and Peng Yaolong snorted, “These two bastards seem to believe in you a lot.”
He had also known that Tang Jie would block the path if he got there first, but he had still chosen to come in, as he had been confident in his strength.
Su Xinyue chuckled. “Interesting. I just wonder which of these two will be more patient. Why don’t we all take bets?”
“I think Cai Junyang will show up first,” Peng Yaolong said. “He has a slightly hasty personality and probably won’t be able to hold himself for too long.”
Meng Shixue immediately said, “I wager that it will be Ye Tianshang.”
Long Dao said, “I bet on Cai Junyang.”
The students imprisoned in Tang Jie’s formation were so bored that they started to make bets.
Tang Jie chuckled and said, “I’m putting my bet on Ye Tianshang.”
“Oh?” Everyone looked at Tang Jie.
Su Xinyue’s eyes flashed as she looked at Tang Jie and said, “Junior Brother Tang is that confident? Then if you lose, why don’t you let us all go? What about it?”
“Then if I win?” Tang Jie countered.
Su Xinyue smiled. “We’re all your prisoners. What else is there to give up?”
“That’s not for certain,” Tang Jie replied. “For example, you can use that formation breaker Senior Brother Long gave you as the wager.”
Su Xinyue and Long Dao both paled.
While they had appeared to be arguing, they had actually been trying to distract Tang Jie. They had not expected Tang Jie to still be able to sense what they were doing.
Su Xinyue dryly laughed and turned her hand over, revealing the formation breaker. This was a square piece of black jade that had many formation lines carved into it. It was a valuable treasure that was ideal for breaking formations. If Su Xinyue hadn’t been restrained and found it difficult to use its power, she would have already broken this formation. She could only resentfully say, “Junior Brother Tang is quite the cautious one. But this isn’t mine, so I can’t decide how it is used.”
She looked at Long Dao, who snorted, “If you want a bet, we’ll bet. I bet that it’s Cai Junyang. If I win, you’ll let me go. If I lose, the formation breaker is yours.”
He didn’t say “let us go”, only “let me go”. It was clear that he wanted the True Inheritance all to himself.
“Alright, it’s a deal. I, Tang Jie, swear an oath on my Heart Demon that if Cai Junyang arrives first, I will let you go.”
He spoke so solemnly that everyone froze in surprise.
Peng Yaolong asked, “Tang Jie, why are you so sure that Ye Tianshang will be first?”
Tang Jie smiled. “Because Cai Junyang gets me and trusts me much more than Ye Tianshang. But most importantly… Ye Tianshang is already here.”
As he spoke, he turned to an empty corner and loudly said, “Brother Ye, when exactly do you plan to show yourself?”
With resounding laughter, the figure of Ye Tianshang emerged from empty space.
Everyone paled when they saw Ye Tianshang walk out from the shadow.
Long Dao paled because he had just lost his formation breaker, as Ye Tianshang’s appearance meant that he had lost the wager. Yiyi immediately took the treasure away, giggling as she played around with it in her hand.
Peng Yaolong and the others were stunned because they had no idea when Ye Tianshang had learned a concealment spell, and they were even more astonished that Tang Jie had noticed him.
Everyone was trying their best to hide themselves. The seemingly open and upright Peng Yaolong was secretly colluding with Meng Shixue, Ye Tianshang had privately learned a concealment spell, Su Xinyue had emerged as a new force to be reckoned with, and even the always-conspicuous Tang Jie had his own secret techniques that had the students secretly expressing their praise. There were even students who came to comprehend some things on this trip and would go back to work hard to become even stronger…
Ye Tianshang looked in surprise at Tang Jie. “You already found me out? Do you have some sort of detection spell?”
Tang Jie shook his head. “It has nothing to do with detection spells. While concealment spells are wondrous, it’s not just methods that specifically target them that can work. You have only the lowest level of concealment spell, so while your body is concealed, it’s still actually there.”
He pointed at Ye Tianshang’s feet. “When you step on the grass, the grass will bend. When I was fighting before, the winds stirred by our fists affected all of my surroundings, so you instinctively defended yourself. All the trees except for the one behind you were affected. Breathing, heartbeat, and footsteps all make very soft noises, and even your odor can be picked up by particularly sensitive fiend beasts.”
None of this was a lie, and he had truly not used the Eye of Heaven to discover Ye Tianshang. After all, he couldn’t just use the Eye of Heaven whenever he had the free time, as this wasted precious spiritual energy. It was just that when battling, the range of one’s intuition would expand, and Tang Jie vaguely sensed that someone was watching him. With slightly more focus, discovering the culprit was only a matter of time.
Upon hearing Tang Jie’s piece, Ye Tianshang sent out a beam of light from his sword, cutting down an unfortunate lower-grade fiend beast that had wanted to eat Ye Tianshang.
As Ye Tianshang proudly stood, a bitter smile appeared on his face. “I thought that I could fool the world with my concealment spell, but I was still so easily seen through. Right, how could you be so sure that it was me and not Cai Junyang?”
He had been standing here for a while, so he naturally knew about the wager.
“Because I understand him. He would not learn such a spell,” Tang Jie replied.
“It could have been someone else.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Tang Jie said, spreading apart his hands. “We were gambling about whether it was you or him who would arrive first, and so long as Junyang didn’t get here before you, I wouldn’t lose. And since it’s a bet, you have to take a little risk.”
He was actually lying here. At the start, he really hadn’t relied on the Eye of Heaven, but after discovering that someone was spying on him, he had used the Eye of Heaven to take a look. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken that bet with Long Dao. However, the Eye of Heaven was a secret skill of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, and unlike the Dao of Formations, it was impossible to learn on one’s own. It was better to hide it if possible.
Ye Tianshang was taken aback at first, but then he laughed. “Good! Very good, Tang Jie! With that said, let’s end this chat. Watch my sword!”