Wu Qi was still standing in the tent, while Meng Xiaobai and a few other men were still busy helping him put on the heavy armor. He cast a cold gaze over at the drill ground, and his heart sank. Yan Dan actually hosted a gamble out of the duel between his subordinates? This sounded absurd enough, but what made things look even absurd was that all the ministers of Great Yan Dynasty actually placed their bet and stacked up an astronomical stake!

And there was one thing that shocked Wu Qi the most. It was certain that Jing Ke, Gao Jianli, and Tian Guang were having a very solid relations.h.i.+p, but why did Qin Wuyang choose to stand on the opposite side? Obviously, what Qin Wuyang did showed that he was in the camp represented by Yue Xu. Meanwhile, those who supported Yue Xu included Hanying Clan, who was the rising influential clan, and Prince of Ren, Yan Xianchen, one of the members of Imperial Clan.

If not for Mo Di and Su Qin standing out mightily, Jing Ke, Gao Jianli, and Tian Guang, the group of old men who had been following Yan Dan since the beginning would definitely have been suppressed by the power behind Yue Xu. Although on the surface, the gamble looked like a fun little game between the ministers, but it actually represented the fight between powers in the Imperial Court of Great Yan Dynasty.

Wu Qi turned his head and looked towards Yan Dan.

Sitting loftily on the throne, Yan Dan did not seem to have any changes in his expression. "Mister Su Qin is willing to top up his bet, matching thirty percent to the total stake, and he bet that Duke of Tianyun, Wu Qi would win the duel! Are there any brave souls that want to take on Mister Su Qin"s bet?" cried Yan Dan.

Then came a heavy clatter of footsteps, as Fan Yuqi, clad in a full heavy armor, stood tall and burly like a muscular giant behind Yan Dan. As he appeared, he narrowed his eyes and ran his glance over at all the influential members present at the drill ground, sending forth an intense killing intent which made many ministers bow their heads.

After a long moment of silence, Yan Dan laughed, shook his head and sighed, then said, "Don"t tell me that none of you have the courage to win over Mister Su Qin"s private pocket money? Yue Xu possesses the cultivation base of peak-stage Gold Core realm, while Wu Qi is only a Xiantian Daoist. An inevitable death is in his face. If not because I am the host of the gamble, I"d also place my bet!"

Yan Dan"s voice echoed throughout the entire drill ground. The cold wind blew the snowflakes everywhere while bringing his voice to a very far distance.

Suddenly, from the reviewing platform where Prince of Ren, Yan Xianchen was sitting, a slightly hoa.r.s.e, but powerful voice came. It was filled with charm, yet those who heard it could sense an unspeakable evil hiding in the voice, "If that is the case, Lao Ai will take over the thirty percent of stake. Crown Prince Dan, it has been a long while since we last met! It seems things are going well for you!"

Then, from behind Yan Xianchen, an Imperial Eunuch came out walking slowly, short in stature. But with every step he took, he would grow taller. His outfit of Imperial Eunuch was tearing from the expansion of his muscles, and finally, the tall and burly Lao Ai made his debut before everybody. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked at Yan Dan from afar, smiling as he said, "Your Majesty, the Great Qin has come knocking on your door. It seems that Your Majesty can no longer retain your composure, and thus began to clean up your Imperial Court. Lao Ai can hardly retain my composure as well, and I must find ways to deal with my son-in-custom!"

He sighed deeply, shook his head and said, "My son-in-custom is vicious by nature, treacherous and ruthless. Although Lao Ai is his father-in-custom, yet he still wants to kill me. He is a man that I can"t afford to offend alone. If you and I don"t join hands together, hehe, I am afraid none of us can withstand his powerful strike."

Yan Dan narrowed his eyes, smiled and said, "Lao Ai, so you had been hiding in Great Yan all this time. What a surprise! This is totally out of my expectation. So, you can"t contain yourself anymore?"

Lao Ai narrowed his eyes and smiled as well. "Yes, I can"t contain myself anymore, I hardly could! Initially, I thought of taking over the control of Great Yan"s state affairs in the dark, so I can seek more profits for myself. But when I saw that Zhang Yi, I could no longer keep hiding in the dark anymore. How about this, I"ll take over the thirty percent bet of old mister Su Qin? On top of that, I"ll top up with one more condition: If Wu Qi wins, when we are at war with Ying Zheng, Lao Ai will obey every single order from Your Majesty. What do you think?"

Yan Dan remained in silence for a while, then he gazed at Yan Xianchen, who stood reverently and respectfully beside Lao Ai. He suddenly laughed and said, "Xianchen, do you have anything to say?"

Yan Xianchen"s body trembled. He raised his head up, bowed deeply at Yan Dan and said, "Xianchen is not in accordance with filialness. But, Xianchen does not want my t.i.tle of Prince and all my power to be taken away one day, just because of some mistakes committed by me, and be forced to retire and continue cultivating in Cloud Swallow Pavilion. Power and wealth, Xianchen loathes to part with them. The Imperial Clan Rules are too strict for us, the members of Imperial Clan, and Yanchen is merely trying to fight against it."

Yan Dan nodded his head slowly, then said in a deep voice, "The Imperial Clan Rules only serves one purpose… Only a true elite can continue staying in the Imperial Court of Great Yan. For those who are weeded out by the rules, they have to retire in secluded cultivation. This is to guarantee our survival in this world. If we did not impose such rules, Great Yan would have had long been eliminated by those barbarians. Xianchen, I think it must have been many years that you took Lao Ai as your Master, and were in collusion with Wei Clan?"

Yan Xianchen"s body trembled again.

Lao Ai stared astonis.h.i.+ngly at Yan Dan, shook his head and said, "So Your Majesty has learned all this? I thought you were still in the dark about what we did. But, those are only trifling matters, as they will never disturb our goal. So, Your Majesty, do you have the courage to accept my bet?"

Yan Dan frowned and remained in silence. At last, he laughed coldly and said, "Lao Ai, why should I bet with you?"

Lao Ai raised one of his fingers up, smiled and said, "Because thirty percent of the captains in your army are now the disciples of my Great Sun Sect, and thirty percent of your elite soldiers are under my control. What I want is just a t.i.tle of Prince, which I don"t think is an excessive demand? Oh, don"t waste your time thinking about what t.i.tle should you give to me, just make it Prince of Changxin [1]. I like this t.i.tle, as it reminds me of Ying Zheng"s birth mother. After all, she had helped me give birth to two children."

Wu Qi had finished putting on his heavy armor. He slapped on his chest plate, sprung and mounted on a three-headed cow that was given to him by Jing Ke. Its body was fully covered with a thick layer of green scales, and its hooves were enshrouded in flames. It had a very strong defensive strength, and could travel several tens of thousands of miles in a single day. On top of that, the combative strength of this three-headed cow was comparable to a demon beast who had formed its Demon Core, a supreme beast that was used as a mount in Great Yan Dynasty.

He patted on the aggressive looking beast"s body, then rested his eyes on Lao Ai. Lao Ai"s words were as nasty as those hooligans on the street, and from them, it wasn"t tough to judge his true character. However, he did build himself a very powerful underground force. After hiding and plotting for over two thousand years in Great Yan Dynasty, Lao Ai actually had enough confidence to stand openly before Yan Dan.

Yan Dan gazed deeply at Lao Ai and said lightly, "I"m sure everybody knows the huge gap between Wu Qi and Yue Xu"s overall strength."

Lao Ai impatiently interrupted Yan Dan and said, "If Wu Qi had already formed his Gold Core, Lao Ai would never show up and have a bet with you. You should know my temper very well… I will never do something that I have no certainty in the success of, and I will never do something that gains me nothing. If Wu Qi can defeat Yue Xu today, Lao Ai swears that when we are at war with Ying Zheng, I"ll devote myself wholly to your military orders."

He paused for a brief moment, then continued saying, "Of course, after we have killed Ying Zheng, all his women and daughters will belong to me. As I"ve fu*ked his mother many years ago, I want to fu*k all his women and daughters!" He opened his mouth and gave Yan Dan a weird smile, then proudly struck his erected little brother forward, pointing exultingly right at Yan Dan"s direction. Suddenly, an insanely evil and frivolous expression emerged on his rather handsome looking face.

Yan Dan gave Jing Ke a gaze.

Jing Ke nodded his head heavily, and then waved his right fist in the air.

Yan Dan then said indifferently, "Fine, Yan Dan will take an oath with my Prime Soul that if Yue Xu defeats Wu Qi, when we are battling Great Qin Dynasty, Yan Dan will obey all reasonable and logical orders of Lao Ai." After finished saying that, Yan Dan raised his right arm up in the air, as the skin on his right wrist suddenly broke and shot out a stream of blood, forming into a blood bead that flashed with runes, before violently exploding.

Lao Ai smiled evilly. He gave Wu Qi a glance, who had already concealed all his aura, then complacently said, "If I lose, I"ll cut my pen*s and become a real eunuch in the Imperial Palace! Hehe, as long as you, Yan Dan, have the courage to accept me, I"ll cut myself and be your eunuch! Ha, haha, hahaha!"

His wrist then broke open, and an arrow of blood shot right out, as Lao Ai repeated the same oath that Yan Dan had taken just now: if Wu Qi defeated Yue Xu, once the army of Great Qin came attacking Great Yan, Lao Ai would join hands with Yan Dan in battling Great Qin. As long as Yan Dan did not give out an irresponsible order such as asking Lao Ai to kill himself or go for a suicidal mission, Lao Ai would obey all military orders. The blood then formed into a blood bead of the oath, and disintegrated amidst the flas.h.i.+ng runes.

Upon seeing that, Yan Dan let out a strange laugh. He nodded his head slowly and said, "Excellent, I never expect such a splendid result. Lao Ai, before I can think of a way to deal with you, you actually jump out yourself..."

He took a deep breath and cried out loudly, "Wu Qi, if you win today, I"ll confer you as the Purple-Gold Duke!"

Wu Qi answered in a low spirit and rode the cow beast slowly out from the tent. Clad in the heavy armor and carrying an iron-headed spear made from white wax plant, he strode slowly towards Yue Xu.

Yue Xu sneered, raised his golden spear up and let out a long cry into the sky. "Wu Qi, for the grudge between you and me, today I will..."

Wu Qi fiercely used his spear and slapped on the head of his mount, roaring out loudly as he interrupted Yue Xu, "Cut that bullsh*t! Do you really think that I don"t know why you want to kill me? It is because Yan Xianchen had promised to marry Princess Zhang Le to your son, and he also promised that he can regrow your little brother! Lao Ai, Yan Xianchen, what ill feelings did I, Wu Qi, brought to you, that made you keep picking on me like this?"

Yue Xu was struck dumb, and so was Yan Xianchen, while Lao Ai simply had his face fallen.

Wu Qi was not supposed to know this! But why did he know this? How was it possible that he knew everything?

When Princess Zhang Le heard Wu Qi"s words, her eyebrows shot up, and her eyes went round with rage. She kept jumping up and down, pointing her finger at Yue Xu and scolding, "Yue Xu, from today onwards, don"t ever let me see your son! If I see him, I"ll definitely cut him into pieces myself! Who do you think you are? How dare you make me, the Princess of Great Yan Dynasty, as one of your tokens? Rascal! Are you aware that you"re one of my subordinates? Y-yo-you! I want to kill every single member of your..."

Before she could finish her words, Bai Zhu"er, Bai Zu"er, and a few Ghost Immortals standing near her quickly rushed up and covered her mouth.

She could never say something like that to Yue Xu, as Yue Yi was a great contributor who had helped Yan Dan in establis.h.i.+ng Great Yan Dynasty. He could never be kill because of his son"s mistake.

Wu Qi never had the intention to fight a fair battle. He looked at the speechless Yue Xu, then the Gold Core in his dantian twitched, shooting out a huge stream of energies, pus.h.i.+ng two Acquired Pearls of Earth and Wood Element out from his mouth like two blinding beams.

A loud boom rang out, as two Acquired Spirit Pearls slammed forcefully onto Yue Xu"s chest, cracking and shattering his heavy armor. Blood spilled and sprayed from his mouth while he kept letting out miserable shrieks and flew nearly a mile back. The strong wind that came together with two pearls smashed onto his qilin horse and made it explode in an instant.

"Gold Core cultivation base!" Both Lao Ai and Yan Xianchen cried out at the same time, as if they had just seen a ghost!

Meanwhile, Yan Dan was chuckling like a little chick who had just eaten some delicious rice. "Lao Ai, oh Lao Ai, Wu Qi had risked his life using a mystic technique to form his Gold Core within a month, and he is now able to attack his opponent using Acquired Spirit Pearls! Do you really think that I, Yan Dan, is someone you can easily scheme against?"

Lao Ai was s.h.i.+vering from head to toe with anger, then he shrieked hysterically, "Yue Xu, get up right now and kill this little rascal! If you fail, you will never learn my Great Sun Technique, and your cut-away little brother will never be regrown!"

Everyone in the drilling group was visibly moved, each staring at Lao Ai with a strange vision. Great Sun Technique? Could it really make a missing pen*s grow again?

Angered and ashamed, Yue Xu roared. While coughing blood, he picked up the spear and charged towards Wu Qi.

When he was still about one thousand feet away from Wu Qi, a large sheet of flame suddenly burst out from behind his back. A red tiger was seen slowly emerging from within the flame. Before the falling snowflakes could touch the ground, they were already dispersed into water vapor by the threatening high temperature.

[1] Prince of Changxin - Lao Ai was enfeoffed as Marquis of Changxin, when he was the lover of Queen Dowager Zhao, the mother of Qin s.h.i.+ Huang. (Source: