Chapter 314 – Blue Flame

This group of young Slave Masters conducted betting in a unique way – the losers cannot take back what they staked, while the winners can recover what they themselves bet as well as the “trophy” – that was the losers’ bets.

However, the winners aren’t allowed to choose their “trophies” at will.

Shao Xuan followed Su Gu and arrived at the location where the bet had been placed. There were rows of wooden boxes, of the same size, and the stakes were inside these boxes. The order in which winners were sent to collect the trophy of their choosing depended on the value of the item they staked themselves – the winner with highest stake value is sent in first.

With all the wooden boxes being closed and having the same size, the winners can hardly predict what they would get, as lots of young Slave Masters would put something less valuable in their bets.

They didn’t come to Beast Battle City to make money, all they wanted was simply excitement and fun.

“I can’t wait to know what I will get, anyway, I hope it will be something more valuable than mine.” said Su Gu, while looking at his ranking – the seventeenth – neither forward nor backward.

After taking back his bet, Su Gu stared at the people ahead of him. Although they were not very interested in money, they would still feel elated if they could obtain a more valuable item and show off.

As Su Gu had been away from Beast Battle City for so many years, he had little reputation in the circle of the young Slave Masters; besides, he was not from the three big cities, so his “presence” was much lower. This time, if he could pick the best out of the losers’ stakes, he might probably gain considerable repute.

The young Slave Master Yan Hui came from Rock Hill City, he had just won the beast fight and was in a good mood. He was sitting on one side, smiling and nodding at the men who came to pick their trophy. If the value of the object in the chosen box was not high, he would say something to comfort them.

Young Slave Master Di Sheng, the loser in the fight, sat on the other side with a cold face and looked quite irritated.

All these boxes were placed by the two of them personally, so others didn’t know what was contained in each box.

Shao Xuan saw a small Slave Master, who was in his early teens, picking a box with another smaller box inside it. And after opening the smaller box, something that looked like sand emerged. In fact, they were eggs of a kind of shrimp that lived in the desert around Red Star City.

This kind of shrimp lived a short life, it hatched and grew only when there was enough rain. When there was less rain and the spring dries up, it would lay sand-like eggs and die.

Those shrimp eggs were the stake offered by a Slave Master of Red Star City. Others might not have been happy if they got a trophy like that, but for a 10-year-old kid, it was quite a satisfactory trophy.

Su Gu didn’t pay much attention there because he was a little bit nervous.

“Shao Xuan, what do you think I’ll pick out?” asked Su Gu.

“How would I know? But what kind of trophy do you want?” asked Shao Xuan.

“The best, of course!” said Su Gu, with a nervousness mixed excitement.

Shao Xuan took a look at those boxes and said, “I don’t know what is best.”

“If you were in my position, which one would you choose?” Su Gu asked.

“The third in the first row.” Shao Xuan replied.

Su Gu looked at the boxes over there and found that the people ahead of him often chose from the second row, rather than the first row which was nearer to them. Maybe everyone subconsciously thought that things far away were better.

“Why?” Su Gu was curious.

“Out of intuition.” Actually, Shao Xuan observed those boxes with his special vision and though he couldn’t see what was inside clearly, he saw that the box he pointed out emitted the brightest light.

Shao Xuan didn’t explain much, and Su Gu also had no time to ask further – someone called him over there.

“Su Gu of Fallen Leaves City!”

“I’m here!” Su Gu walked towards those boxes quickly.

Su Gu was not known to these young Slave Masters who belonged to the two out of the three big cities, and Fallen Leaves City was not very powerful in the vast desert, so they didn’t care much about his identity. The (in)famous story of the Fallen Leaves Lord was well known among many people and was a topic of chat after dinner. As for the rest of Fallen Leaves City, nobody cared.

Su Gu walked over to the trophy selection area under the sight of the whole crowd and casually pointed at the third wooden box in the first row, which Shao Xuan just told him about.

Yan Hui sat up straight immediately, while the cold-faced Di Sheng’s spirit rose up a little, because for him, it was a lot better to see people from the Fallen Leaves City pick up his stake instead of the Rock Hill City.

Seeing Di Sheng get up and open the box in person, Su Gu’s heart started pounding faster, and he thought: *could it be…*

Everyone else around him also guessed the same, and they lowered their voice, staring at that box.

What was in that box was exactly Di Sheng’s bet.

Di Sheng opened the box and everyone saw a red flash in front of them.

Inside the box, there was a red and shiny fist-sized gemstone. As Di Sheng picked it up, the red light became brighter, and all the people around felt like a heatwave swept by.

“This is the famous Flame Mound Stone of Flame Mound City?!” Someone exclaimed.

Flame Mound Stone was produced in the desert around Flame Mound City, and people are drawn to it due to its shiny appearance. At the same time, if someone injected their inner energy into it, the stone would heat up. The more energy one injects, the hotter the stone becomes, sometimes it could even ignite wood easily.

In Flame Mound City, Flame Mound Stone was the symbol of power, beauty and nobility. Many people in other cities have tried to purchase Flame Mound Stone but failed, now a simple Slave Master from Fallen Leaves City clinched such a large one so easily!

Shao Xuan looked at Su Gu, who became the talk of the audience of that fighting pit, while thinking: it really made his day.

What is the practical value of that gemstone? For the Flaming Horns tribesmen, it was nearly useless. If the stone was bigger, they could make a weapon with it. The one which Su Gu held was just fist-sized, they could only use it as an ornament, maybe they could also use it to warm up in winter and light a fire?

But what Su Gu valued was its symbolic meaning and its influence among the Slave Masters.

From that moment on, the name of Su Gu from Fallen Leaves City became engraved into the hearts and minds of more people, and they began to talk about him in private.

When Su Gu came back, he proudly laughed. Someone proposed a beast fight with Su Gu, however, Su Gu held the gemstone carefully and said that even if he fought, he would not place the precious stone as the stake, only then did the challenger leave resentfully.

The carcasses in the pit was moved away, leaving only the bloodstains.

Soon, the second battle began.

This time there were no giant beasts, just two slaves. For these Slave Masters, slaves were not much different from beasts. To some extent, slaves were not as good as beasts. When giant beasts came onto the field, the battle becomes more exciting and fun, while the fight between slaves looked much more subdued and less entertaining.

Some of the people standing around the pit started dispersing, as they planned to visit other pits, but Su Gu stayed as he planned to watch one more fight here.

In the fighting pit, those two slaves were attacking each other in a flurry of movements, with their fists and shadows intersecting. Suddenly, people heard the sound of fracture.

One of the slaves got blown away, and his body rolled in the air and hit the stone wall of the pit. After the collision, he spat out much blood.

Shao Xuan could see that several chest bones of that slave had broken, and these broken bones had stabbed into his internal organs and injured his heart and lungs.

Sure enough, the slave who fell to the ground tilted his head to one side and died.

The stake of this fight was an ownerless female slave, the winner could claim his ownership over her.

The winning Slave Master was so happy that he used his ability to enslave the woman, on the spot.

This was the second time Shao Xuan got a chance to witness a Slave Master actually enslaving a slave and not simply practicing the enslavement technique.

That young Slave Master was a little nervous, although it was not his first time enslaving people, there were always times when he failed. And now that he started this in public, if he failed, people from other cities would definitely laugh at him – thinking about it stressed him out. However, he easily succeeded in enslaving today. Looking at the enchanting eyes of his new slave, he felt both stirred and proud, thinking that things really played out extraordinarily well.