263 For The Glory of the Team

"Humph!"

Liu Shanshan coldly snorted and walked past Mo Wen with large steps, her head held high. She seemed to imply to others that she wasn't the defeated one, leaving instead with the airs of a victor.

When Wang Xiaoyuan passed by Mo Wen, she glared at him fiercely. Before, when she had asked him to leave, he intentionally hadn't. Now, he had made Liu Shanshan very mad.

He was so disobedient, yet Mo Qingtian still asked them to look out for him. They would not do so. In the future, if they saw Mo Wen getting bullied, she would feign ignorance, or stand at the side and watch the fun coldly!

Wang Xiaoyuan began to imagine the scene of Mo Wen getting bullied, herself intentionally feigning ignorance, even though she obviously had the ability to rescue him. It brought a secretive smile to her face.

"Ugh, women…"

Mo Wen exclaimed, as he shook his head. He was looking at the challenge ring that Liu Shanshan had just left, after being defeated. His eyes flashed a glint of interest.

Before this, someone had mentioned that Liu Shanshan had endured six matches, accumulating a reward of 8,000 Contribution Credits. If he could get into the ring and defeat Zheng Fangyu, that reward could be his!

Even though this seemed like he was gaining benefits without hard work, this was an accepted rule of challenging the ring, and was one that attracted many people, each of whom had the same thought as Mo Wen! 

However, whether they could successfully gain benefits without hard work depended on their own ability. Being able to defeat the opponent was the key.

All of those who challenged the Main Hall's second level were the Huatian Palace Four stars Executors. That meant that no Embryonic Breathing realm experts would appear. For Mo Wen, this naturally wasn't a bad thing. After all, it was probably hard to find someone who could defeat him amongst the people of the same Qi Nucleation realm cultivation. 

Mo Wen naturally understood the ability of the woman who defeated Liu Shanshan in the ring, especially after observing her battle. She had a cultivation at the pinnacle of the Qi Nucleation realm, but when it came to combat ability, she would probably be weaker than the Qin clan eldest great grandfather. At most, she would be slightly stronger than Liu Shanshan. 

Every time a challenge was won, the system would give a contender the choice to continue the challenge. If the challenger chose not to continue, then the challenge would end, with them collecting the reward and leaving.

It was only when the person in the challenge ring decided to continue the challenge, that the people outside the ring would have an opportunity to snatch it away. When Liu Shanshan was defeated, almost everyone looked to Zheng Fangyu. This was because her decision would decide whether this ring's challenge would continue. Otherwise, everyone could just eye the rich rewards, but have no chance to obtain them.

"Zheng Fangyu, keep battling. With your ability, you can certainly win the seventh match. That's double the reward." 

"There doesn't seem to be any experts here today. Let's continue. Who knows, maybe I can get a ten win streak and become today's King of the Ring."

"That's right, we all believe in you."

...

Outside the ring, many people began to incite Zheng Fangyu, who was already in the ring to continue the challenge. Their enthusiasm was growing, and then they all began to jeer together. This was because, for challenge ring battles, the higher the challenge, the more thrilling and entertaining it was.

If nothing else, the rule of the rewards crazily multiplying was enough to make people's eyes sparkle. Although they could not get the reward for themselves, just seeing it accomplished could satisfy an inner urge. Also, once the number of challenge matches rose higher, the stakes would be bigger, drawing more and more experts to the scene.

Many times, experts would intercept the rewards halfway. As such, they did not need to work hard and participate in the beginning challenges. They boastfully figured that, if they could directly snatch the fruits of other people's labors, there was no reason not to!

Mo Wen stood outside the ring, also hoping that Zheng Fangyu would choose to continue the challenge. However, looking at the people who were causing such a ruckus, he was still somewhat speechless.

"Humph, stop calling out to me. Even if I continue the challenge, so what? Which one of you would dare come up and challenge me?"

Zheng Fangyu coldly snorted. She had not chosen to continue to battle just because the people wanted her to. She had never had the intention of giving up in the first place.

If she could win one more match, her Contribution Credits would double. So, she took a risk to fight in another match simply because the benefits outweighed the risk. 

After all, today there were not many experts in the Challenge Hall. Hanging around in the Challenge Hall throughout the years, she had honed sharp eyes. Whenever there were very strong and very famous people around, she could almost always discover them with a single glance.

Today, she seemed to have luck on her side, as there were very few people who could win against her. As for those who could win against her, of course there were a few. The Huatian Palace was a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, so any sort of expert could appear. But, they would probably not come out.

That was because, those who were too strong would not consider the reward for the sixth match as being great enough. After all, winning against her was only worth 8,000 Contribution Credits. Many of the strong would not bother with it.

If she could win one more match, her reward would double to 16,000 Contribution Credits. If she won another on top of that, the reward would double again to 32,000. Only then would these people maybe reveal themselves and find the reward worthy enough to fight for.

Zheng Fangyu naturally understood this. If she won the seventh match, she would absolutely not challenge again. Otherwise, she would be handing over her reward to others of greater skill.

Of course, nothing was absolute. There was still a possibility that these strong folks would come into the ring to challenge her in the sixth match. So, when she chose to continue the challenge, she was faced with the risk of losing everything if she failed.

After Zheng Fangyu chose to continue the challenge, the red light above the challenge ring turned green. This implied that the challenge would continue.

Before this, those people were calling out fiercely, inciting Zheng Fangyu to continue the challenge. But, when she chose to continue the challenge, many people fell silent. They did not make a sound, crossing their arms to watch, waiting for a challenger to appear.

The people who dared to challenge Zheng Fangyu were almost all of the strong ones among the Four stars Executors. Within the second level of the Challenge Main Hall, people of that caliber were naturally few in number. If they rushed up to challenge Zheng Fangyu without caring about the difference in ability, then it was the equivalent to giving away their Contribution Credits.

So, when Zheng Fangyu chose to continue the challenge, many people stopped making noise. Some people had never even thought of going up to challenge, while some were just in a spectating mood. Of course, there were also some whose abilities weren't too far from Zheng Fangyu, who were somewhat hesitatly considering it.

So, when Zheng Fangyu chose to continue the challenge, for a while, no one actually stood up immediately. Instead, the ring fell into a dead silence.

Mo Wen was one of the people who would surely get into the ring when the opportunity arose. But when he planned to go up to challenge, to his surprise, he discovered that he was not eligible!

He wasn't eligible because, in order to participate in the sixth challenge match, he needed to pay a challenge fee of 4,000 Contribution Credits. And today, he only had one thousand Contribution Credits…

"Uh…I thought I just needed to pay 1,000 Contribution Credits to be eligible to challenge!"

Mo Wen was crushed and confused.

Could it be that I heard the rules wrong before?

At first, Mo Wen thought that the system had made a mistake. But, when he read till the end of the rules, the corner of his mouth twitched. He had the sudden urge to cuss.

That fee was only for the first four matches. But, once it reached the fifth match, one had to pay half of the Contribution Credits of the reward of the match in order to participate.

So, if Mo Wen wanted to enter the ring to challenge Zheng Fangyu, he had to pay half of 8,000 Contribution Credits, which was 4,000 Contribution Credits! No wonder so many people hesitated to go up. After all, once they lost the challenge, that meant that they would lose 4,000 Contribution Credits!

Mo Wen laughed bitterly. Without having the required Contribution Credits, the Huatian Palace was a difficult place to be. Now, even if he wanted to challenge Zheng Fangyu, he could not! 

Zheng Fangyu chose to continue the challenge, drawing many gazes. Many people, who had been spectating at other rings, also gathered around.

After all, the next battle held there was to be the seventh match! In the Challenge Main Hall, it was one of the higher numbered challenges!

Liu Shanshan and Wang Xiaoyuan were originally planning to leave, but upon seeing that Zheng Fangyu continued to challenge the seventh match, they immediately walked back. They gazed at Zheng Fangyu with hostile glares.

"Liu Shanshan, you can't be preparing to challenge, right?"

Wang Xiaoyuan looked at Liu Shanshan's gaze. She felt a bad premonition inside.

If Liu Shanshan challenged Zheng Fangyu again now, how was it different from her going up and giving away her Contribution Credits?

"That b*tch!" Liu Shanshan clenched her dainty fist, biting and grinding her teeth. Her body was ready to move, and her stance was as though she was getting ready to get into the ring and battle the woman. 

"Think twice! You are injured now. Aren't you asking to be bullied if you go up to challenge?"

Wang Xiaoyuan grabbed onto Liu Shanshan's arm, saying somewhat helplessly. Liu Shanshan was now injured, and the battle before had expended a lot of her Inner Qi. So, even if she was in tiptop condition, she would not necessarily be able to win against Zheng Fangyu. Compared to Zheng Fangyu, Liu Shanshan was indeed still lagging behind.

"Then, will you go up to challenge? You and I are not that far apart. Who knows, maybe you can beat her with a streak of luck."

Liu Shanshan had not completely lost all reasoning. After taking a deep breath, she calmed down quite a bit. With a twinkle in her eye, she began to incite Wang Xiaoyuan to go and battle Zheng Fangyu.

She knew that Wang Xiaoyuan was weaker than her, and under normal circumstances, would seemingly not be a match for Zheng Fangyu. However, before this Zheng Fangyu had a match with her, a lot of her Inner Qi would certainly have been expended. With this trade-off, Wang Xiaoyuan would not necessarily lose.

"Me?"

Wang Xiaoyuan pointed at herself, her eyes bewildered, wondering how in the world she could be a match for that woman?!

"Yes! You! You need to have confidence in yourself! If you entered the ring and won, you could bring glory to the Fengwu team, too. You would be the big hero of our Fengwu team. Go, go. If you lose your Contribution Credits, it's on me. If you win, the Contribution Credits will be yours. What do you think?"

Liu Shanshan started to egg her on, enticing Wang Xiaoyuan to challenge Zheng Fangyu in the ring.

"Liu Shanshan, what do you think? I will enter the ring and avenge you, fighting for the glory of our Fengwu team. You only need to lend me 3,000 Contribution Credits. I will return them to you after I win."

Mo Wen walked over, a smile on his face, enthusiastically standing before Liu Shanshan and Wang Xiaoyuan. He had overheard their conversation and taken the opportunity to pounce.

"You will go up there? Just you?" Liu Shanshan and Wang Xiaoyuan almost rolled their eyes at him at exactly the same time.