Emperor’s Domination

The other young ones began to think about the situation. In the end, they chose against joining the bet.

They could see that Li Qiye was close to the two girls so there was no point in antagonizing the valley. It was still the current leader and the girls wouldn’t like it.

Moreover, they were love rivals with Zhang Yan and Qingniu. Why would they team up with these two right now?

If they were to lose and be embarrassed, this would lower their standing in the beauties’ heart. The group would be too busy gloating at them, let alone lending any assistance in the first place.

“Brother Hu, the two of us is more than enough.” Zhang Yan was dissatisfied with the group and snorted.

“Let’s go then.” Qingniu said with an aggressive air: “If we lose, all of this will be yours. If you lose, it’s meal time!”

He wanted to see Li Qiye’s ugly moment. Winning would make him quite cool in front of the ladies.

Li Qiye looked at their betting items and smiled: “Wanting to bet with me using that crap? Not worth mentioning.” 

“You!” Though his two items weren’t considered supreme or anything, they were still very precious. Qingniu was infuriated to hear Li Qiye putting them down: “Bold words. My ginseng is from the Crescent Moon Cave, bathed in the moonlight and had absorbed its essence…”

“Just a piece of grass, no point in boasting.” Li Qiye interrupted him and said: “Yalan, I have a little ginseng root here, go make some ginseng tea for me.”

Having said that, he casually threw a wooden box on the table.

Yalan opened the box and it didn’t take long before an immortal energy billowed. There was a ginseng root around the size of a finger with a glorious glow just like a star.

“Divine Moon Ginseng!” Shaoyao was startled to see this: “A ginseng that only grows in Immortal Lineage, extremely rare.”

Qingniu blurted out the name of the ginseng as well. As a doctor, he naturally knew about its value. His own was indeed only a blade of grass in comparison, not worth mentioning.

Some members of the crowd were amazed as well, having recognized the root.

Yalan finished the tea at this point. Li Qiye blew on it and took a small sip before giving an assessment: “A bit too young, would be much better otherwise.”

People were astounded. Using this rare material to brew tea? This would drive people mad from the sheer wastefulness. Even their ancestors couldn’t enjoy such jealousy-inducing treatments.

Of course, this root was nothing to Li Qiye. The treasuries he got from Samsara Wild Ancestor and Insane Ancestor were enough to scare people to death.

Hu Qingniu finally stopped retorting this time around. Their bet did seem insignificant in comparison. Just this teacup in his hand right now was more precious than their bet. In fact, they could try to gather all of their wealth and that might still not be enough to match its value.

They stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Conceding or keep on going?

It was as if one person took out a gem to show off before someone, but the latter engraved a gem worth ten times more to his shoe. This humiliating psychological slap wasn’t easy to take.

“If we’re betting, I don’t want your ingredients or bully you too much.” Li Qiye chuckled: “Let’s do it like this, if I lose, I’ll eat the mud down there, if you lose, then go roll around in them, that’s not bad.”

The two glanced at each other and contemplated. Everyone else felt that this bet was very reasonable; Li Qiye didn’t make it hard on them at all.

“That’s doable.” A youth agreed.

“Yes or no? If you don’t dare, then run back to your home, stop being an eyesore here.” Li Qiye waved his sleeve as if he was swatting away a fly.

“Very well, if I lose, I will roll around in the mud!” The arrogant guy wasn’t a sore loser. He wanted to try and would accept defeat gracefully.

“How courageous. What about you?” Li Qiye clapped before looking over at Zhang Yan.

This guy was hesitant since he didn’t want to join in this bet in the first place. He also saw how confident Li Qiye was so he wanted to retreat.

“It’s just rolling down there, Brother Zhang, let’s go.” Qingniu egged him on.

Rolling in the mud wasn’t a real loss to Zhang Yan, but it was indeed a blow to his dignity and honor. He was the successor of Hundred-pills; losing this bet would leave a stain on his reputation.

Most importantly, rolling around in front of the beauties? How could he ever lift his head again?

“I’ll… do it.” He gritted his teeth and let caution to the wind. Giving up was also humiliating so he might as well go all out. Perhaps there was a chance of victory.

“We’ll start now.” Li Qiye chuckled.

All eyes were on the muddy beach now and the strange pits dug by Li Qiye.

Everyone thought that he would come down again for a second attempt, but he simply took out a golden gourd.

“Whoosh!” When he opened it, a tiny current of light flew out, resembling the reflection of a star in the ocean.

It split and went into the different pits. Next, the mud suddenly rose like a steamed bun being cooked, bigger and bigger. No one had a clue about what he was doing.

“Pop!” After reaching a certain size, the mounds of mud suddenly exploded and went flying.

The young cultivators quickly dodged the slinging piles of mud. It was like the explosion of beehives, Numerous little creatures came out and filled the sky like a locust swarm.

“What are they?” The crowd was shocked and looked over. 

These tiny insects looked like louse but were completely green. When they stopped on the water surface, they looked like tiny lamps.

“They’re Wood-eater Lice.” One youth recognized them: “They love nibbling on yin wood, especially the ones from Alchemy Hut. My master says that if we see them, no Alchemy Wood will be around since it would have already been eaten by them.”

“Right, that’s the type.” Qingniu heaved a sigh of relief and smiled: “Perhaps there were a lot of branches here, but not anymore.”

He looked over at Li Qiye. Everyone knew that there wouldn’t be a single piece of wood left here, let alone the best kind, Alchemy Wood. Anything here would have been eaten long ago since these lice can detect them much faster than cultivators.

This muddy beach was clearly their nest, so how could there be any Alchemy Wood here?

Zhang Yan felt the same way, feeling that victory was certain. Nevertheless, he came closer for a look and found that there was nothing else inside the exploded pits and mud mounds.