Chapter 371: Odds. Rumor

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

Zhang Che wasn’t the type of person who would sit around and wait.

Thinking of that, he immediately summoned the frisky monkey and had him use his skill, searching the surrounding five kilometer radius.

He was thinking to himself, -This is already deep into the beast world. Although I’m a little unlucky when hunting low-tier low-quality exotic beasts, my luck seems to be pretty good when looking for spiritual herbs, isn’t it?

-Then, perhaps I have a chance of finding some heavenly treasures, and the Vampiric Demon Carpet can rise to legend-quality in one go!

-With that, not only can I quickly advance to Tier Six beastmaster, I might even have a fighting chance if I encounter a mid-tier epic-quality exotic beast..?-

Alas, the results soon left Zhang Che disappointed.

Although the frisky monkey did discover spiritual herbs, judging from his reaction, it was no treasure at all, and was only one or two ordinary ones.

For a place as deep as he was in the beast world, a stalk or two of spiritual herbs growing in a ten kilometer radius area truly wasn’t anything strange. The reason why the people from Mercury did not obtain many was because the spiritual herbs weren’t easy to find.

The common masses couldn’t cheat like Zhang Che, who could have the frisky monkey pinpoint the herbs’ exact location. After all, wanting to find a stalk of spiritual herbs within such a large area was impossible without some luck.

” Ai, how can it be so easy for heavenly treasures to appear?”

Ordinary spiritual herbs weren’t worth much. Zhang Che couldn’t even be bothered to go harvest them. If he had the time, he’d rather hunt a few more stronger exotic beasts and earn everything back.

Regrettably, the frisky monkey’s skill had a cooldown time of one whole day. If he could use it multiple times a day, Zhang Che was absolutely confident of finding a heavenly treasure in a short time, and forcibly raising the Vampiric Demon Carpet’s quality.

For now, he could only hope the search range of the frisky monkey’s skill would expand greatly after he advanced to dark gold-quality.

After counting to himself with his fingers, Zhang Che realized it had already been about two months since the frisky monkey rose to gold-quality.

In other words, the frisky monkey would advance to dark gold-quality in another month’s time!

Regrettably, Zhang Che wouldn’t remain here for another month. He planned to hunt sufficient mid-tier exotic beasts as soon as possible to advance to Tier Six and return home.

If he spent too much time outside, his mother and the others would surely worry about him.

—-

Unbeknownst to Zhang Che, currently Sun Lan was already so worried about him that she couldn’t eat or sleep well.

News of the Zhen family applying for an arena deathmatch and specifically requesting the Huang family’s future son-in-law take part in the fight had spread in Bei Du for unknown reasons. Not only was the news spread among the upper echelon circle, many ordinary people learned of it.

As such, many lottery-like companies in Bei Du, legal and otherwise, had opened bets for this, both openly and in the dark.

With regards to the odds, since the Zhen family were the proposing party, and were most likely sending a Tier Six beastmaster for the battle, the ratio was pretty much towards their side.

For some larger betting places, betting on the Zhen family’s victory only gave a 0.7 times payout, and betting on the Huang family, or Zhang Che’s victory, had a payout of nearly 2 times.

The reason why the odds weren’t even more ridiculous was because as the Huang family’s prospective son-in-law, the Huang family wouldn’t watch by and do nothing as he died in the arena. They’d surely think of ways to increase his strength.

However, as the side that proposed the match, the Zhen family wouldn’t be so silly as to waste both their men and resources. They would surely select their strongest mid-tier beastmaster to take the stage. So, their odds of winning were naturally higher.

A Passerby A was saying to Passerby B, “Hey, have you heard? Someone from the Zhen family was killed by the Huang family’s son-in-law, but since they were the ones in the wrong, they didn’t dare to exact revenge directly, and thus applied for an arena deathmatch. Now, every lotto company have opened bets for the fight! Which side are you betting on winning?”

Passerby B showed a look of disdain, answering, “Nonsense! Of course I’m betting on the Zhen family!”

“Ugh, but the odds for the Zhen family is a little low! Betting on the Huang family would give around three times the prize!”

Passerby A wanted to maximize his investments, and seemed to want to make a gamble.

After all, one of them had less than one-to-one payout, while the other was about two-to-one. The difference was too big.

Passerby B looked at Passerby A and said in a low voice, “Brother, seeing as our relation is pretty good, I’ll give you a word of advice. Don’t even think of trying to win big, or you might find yourself with nothing in the end!”

Passerby A asked with uncertainty, “That might not necessarily be true, right? Although the Huang family is not as strong as the Zhen family, the difference is hardly there. Large clans like these shouldn’t have too large of a gap between them if they wanted to equip a mid-tier beastmaster with extreme combat strength, right?”

Passerby B laughed and rebuked, “Do you take the Zhen family for fools? Since they dared to suggest an arena deathmatch, surely they are very confident in themselves! Otherwise, if they lost, not only would they lose a mid-tier beastmaster and a few powerful subdued beasts, they will even have to compensate at least ten million purple crystal points to the Huang family, not to mention their loss in reputation. Would they do it if they weren’t confident?”

“But, weren’t they trying to get revenge for the Huang family’s prospective son-in-law killing their descendent? In that case, their representative might not necessarily be a match for that guy called Zhang Che, right?” Passerby A replied hesitantly. “I heard that the mid-tier beastmaster called Zhang Che is incredible! Not only did he kill the Zhen family’s grandson in the beast world, he even killed a few other groups of beastmaster who tried to snatch his prey at the same time. Such a person wouldn’t be easy to deal with, right?”

Passerby B shook his head. He sighed and said, “The key thing is, none of those beastmasters who were killed had an epic-quality subdued beast. Otherwise, how can that brat named Zhang Che who lives off of a woman win? You must be joking! Brother, listen to my advice: don’t go thinking about those useless things. Betting on the Zhen family won’t go wrong!”

After saying that, Passerby B slapped Passerby A’s shoulder heavily and left with quick steps.

Passerby A stood on the spot, his expression changed multiple times. In the end, he gritted his teeth and finally came to a decision. -Damn it, I’ll bet on the Huang family’s prospective son-in-law. Surely he has his trump cards for him to be able to kill so many powerful beastmasters.

-Moreover, the Huang family has his back! Even if the epic-quality beasts they gathered aren’t as good as the Zhen family’s, the difference shouldn’t be that much, right?

-If I want to get rich, I have to bet on the dark horse!-

Those who went with the favorites wouldn’t strike it rich even if they bet correctly. On the other hand, if they lost, it would be enough to bankrupt them!

Many would think that betting on the favorites would pretty much be a guaranteed win. As a result, it was very easy for them to neglect the risks, and directly dump most of their money into the bet. Not only that, some would even bet all their money, and even worse, many people would borrow money to bet!

“An arena deathmatch, especially one that involves mid-tier beastmasters from two large clans, will surely be held in the beast world. It’s basically impossible for commoners like me to watch it. I can only hope that Huang family’s son-in-law won’t drop the ball and help me earn a fortune!”

Passerby A couldn’t help but close his eyes, praying to all the gods in the heavens for Zhang Che.

——

Such matters didn’t only happen to these two people. In Bei Du, other than those who truly shut themselves in, basically everyone was talking about it over the past two days.

The Huang family, including Miss Tienan, chose to keep this matter from Sun Lan for the time being, to save her from worrying. Although they were confident in Zhang Che, nothing could be certain in this world.

It was better to inform Sun Lan about this just before the arena deathmatch happened. At that time, the Huang family’s preparations would be complete, and they could prove with facts that Zhang Che wouldn’t lose, allowing Sun Lan to be a little more assured.

Alas, they had neglected an element… Sun Shaoying’s family!

Although Sun Shaoying and her husband seldom helped out in the beast card shop, the siblings Xi Muyun and Xi Wenshan were almost always there. They would inevitably learn about this matter from the casual conversations between customers.

In the beginning, they didn’t show much reaction when they heard something about the Huang family’s prospective son-in-law.

However, when they heard the lucky kid that lived off of a woman was called Zhang Che, they grew unsettled and thought of something.

Wasn’t that girl who visited their cousin’s place surnamed Huang? And from the conversations between Sun Lan and her, that girl’s background didn’t seem simple.

Thus, everything connected.

The siblings were astonished. After a short conversation, they also chose to hide the matter from Sun Lan.

Regrettably, when Sun Lan saw the strange looks on their faces after returning home, she thought something had happened at the beast card shop.

When Sun Lan asked them about it, naturally they denied everything. However, their expressions betrayed them. Sun Lan felt suspicious and went to the shop personally the next day, wanting to see what troubles there were. If the situation was urgent, she would go find Huang Tielan and ask for help from her family to settle things.

After all, with Zhang Che not yet returned from the beast world, there really wasn’t any other paths they could take other than looking for the Huang family for help if there were troubles in the shop.

In the end, naturally nothing was wrong in the shop.

However, Sun Lan unintentionally overheard the huge trouble Zhang Che had gotten into from the conversation of two customers.

Her complexion changed greatly, and she nearly fainted on the spot.

From the conversations of the customers, it seemed that everyone thought it was impossible for Zhang Che to be a match for the Zhen family. Wouldn’t that mean he would die in that match in the end?

Xi Muyun and Xi Wenshan didn’t expect Sun Lan to come check in at the shop, either, and for her to coincidentally overhear the customers’ conversations of all things. Seeing their cousin nearly fainting from anxiety, they could only try to console her and tell her not to believe those people. How could someone as powerful as Zhang Che possibly lose?

Even so, when she thought of their strange looks last night, of course Sun Lan didn’t believe them. She directly phoned Huang Tielan to try and learn more about this matter.

Huang Tielan was shocked, too. She didn’t expect the rumors to be spreading so fiercely, so that even Sun Lan, who hardly left her house, would learn about it.

Other than choosing to assure Sun Lan, there was nothing she could do. After all, she too, had no idea if Zhang Che could get through this safely. Huang Tielan was similarly worried to death.

However, she couldn’t show her worries. She could only try her best to assure Sun Lan that her family was already searching high and low to prepare powerful subdued beasts for Zhang Che, and they wouldn’t let Zhang Che lose.

With Huang Tielan’s assurance, although Sun Lan was still worried, she wasn’t as flustered as before.

Seeing this, Xi Muyun and Xi Wenshan finally heaved a long sigh of relief.

If they were the reasons Sun Lan became sick from worrying too much, they would really have become sinners.