32 - Bets
As Xu Xin sat there, he continued to peacefully cultivate, while people eventually got used to his presence.
That night, Xu Xin realized that his body had gotten strong enough through the use of his newly made technique that, if he was to fight against someone, he could probably directly block the attacks of people at the same strength as him without using anything but his body.
This was incredible, and he was quite happy with his body strengthening technique and how it had turned out.
Eventually, it turned to night, and he decided to sell the pelt before everyone went to sleep.
As such, he sold it and used the money for some new clothes.
After all, being on such a long journey that contained lots of danger, his clothes had been damaged, making him look the part of a street rat, and though he didn't care much, he preferred to have actual intact clothes.
As it was nighttime, he decided to go to the arena, a place where there were people all the time.
The arena was so popular that it would be filled all the time, but only at night could you get into the real fights, because betting was allowed at night, and there were some truly vicious people there during the nighttime.
It was set up this way for several reasons, one of them being that the visitors of the kingdom would usually only look during the day, which would mean that they would see the tamer fights and have a better overall opinion of the kingdom.
But Xu Xin was anything but normal, so he decided to go to the arena just to get some vicious fights.
As he entered, he realized something odd: he could see in the dark quite well despite it being almost completely unlit in here. He hadn't noticed this earlier on his journey because he had always been in the carriage, which had its own lights.
However, seeing the unlit area before the arena, he could actually see quite well, with him being able to see at night about 75% as well as the day, whereas normal people could only see about 20% as well as the day.
The actual arena wasn't lit super well, but it was well enough that all the spectators could see the fight and tell what was happening, and they could see about 80% as good as the day.
This meant that he would have an advantage in these fights, which was good for him, though it wasn't that much of a difference.
As he stepped into the arena, he quickly saw that there were two people fighting right now, both of them being at the sixth stage of the martial arts path, and a brilliant red glow surrounded the fists of one while a heavy muddy glow surrounded the fists and arms of the other.
It was clear that the person with the fiery inner energy had the upper hand in these exchanges, but the person using the element of earth wasn't necessarily losing either. After all, the element of earth was defense oriented, whereas fire was offense oriented.
As Xu Xin calmly walked over to the challenger area, he was paying close attention to this fight, and he quickly figured out who would win.
Around him everyone was placing bets on the fiery man, but Xu Xin suddenly went up to one of the bet officiators and bet all the money he currently had on him on the earth element man winning.
Though it wasn't much money, he would get back almost double the amount of money he put in if he won, which he was almost certain he would. It wasn't quite double due to the arena tax that took a certain amount of money whether you won or lost.
After fighting another couple minutes, Xu Xin suddenly saw the earth element man change his stance as he caught the fist of the fiery man and held it in place.
The fiery man tried to pull his fist away, but he found that the earth elemental man was just too strong, and before he was able to react, a heavy fist slammed into his stomach, after which his fist was pulled towards the earth elemental man, who then punched out again, his fist slamming into the temple of the fiery man, knocking him out.
Xu Xin had seen that the earth elemental man's inner energy was much stronger than the fiery man's and his body was also much stronger.
It was just that the fiery man was too fast, pushing the earth elemental man on his back foot, and he was just waiting for an opportunity to strike and end the fight.
People had misjudged the fight and thought that the earth elemental man was defending because he was losing, but it was actually the opposite. He was winning because he was smart enough to defend until there was an opening.
Xu Xin laughed a little bit, because he found it funny that he could double his money so easily.
The fiery man's unconscious body was then taken out of the arena. He was thrown into the challenger area with a small pile of coins on top of him. Even the losers of a fight would be paid a bit of money, though it wasn't nearly as much as the winner.
The way that the fighters get paid was that a small portion of every bet's money would go towards paying the fighters, and the amount that got bet with would directly correlate to the amount they got paid, so the better the fight, the more they got paid.
Xu Xin then went up to the person directing who would fight and asked when he could fight next, and the person said that there were three other fights arranged for before him, so he would just sign up and wait for now.
After winning the fight, the earth element man signaled that he would fight again. This was also another rule of the arena: one could make continuous challenges to earn more money, and people would constantly try to do this to the best of their abilities in order to make as much money as possible.
After making ten challenges, someone could earn twice as much money as compared to the start, and from then on, it would only get more absurd.
If you could win a hundred challenges in a row, you would earn special privileges and the chance to meet the King and Queen for being someone of immense battle talent, who could raise up the future of the kingdom.
Only a couple people had ever managed to complete the hundred battles in a row, and every single one off them was now a captain of the army at the very least, with the king and the arrogant old man being a couple of them.
Xia Yue hadn't done it, but that was because she was an assassin that didn't specialize in head-on fighting, hence why nobody thought of her as less for not completing the challenge.
Of course, Xu Xin obviously wouldn't try for that challenge since he was far too weak right now to be able to endure a hundred battles, but he would certainly try in the future. That is, if he had the chance and the inclination to do so.
He would maybe do it, not to meet the King and Queen, since he could do that anyway, but to get the money that comes with it.
As time passed, he bet on every single fight, and he won every bet. He was far better at assessing people's strength than others, and he bet usually only right before the fight would end, making some people take notice of him.
The earth elemental man ended up fighting seven fights before losing, and the person after him came up, this time being a person who was at the peak of the martial arts path, someone at the peak of the ninth stage.
Xu Xin then watched the fights with little interest. He would always win his bets, and though he hadn't had much money at the start, he was starting to get more and more money with each consecutive win.
Most people wouldn't be able to get money as fast as him with this method, but he was going all-in with every bet, so he was making money very quickly.
Most people would only win a bit more than half of the bets they made, so it was quite inefficient to make money this way unless they were like Xu Xin who could get it right every time and always went all-in.
Time passed by slowly, and by the time it was finally time for Xu Xin to fight, two hours had passed.
He then walked up to the middle of the arena, and seeing that he was only at the third stage of the martial arts path, everyone was instantly somewhat bored.
After all, he was one of the weakest that could participate in the arena, and it was anyone that was within the bounds of the martial arts path that was allowed to participate.
This meant that spirit realm cultivators weren't allowed, meaning that the peak of the ninth stage of the martial arts path was the absolute maximum allowed in this arena, making Xu Xin one of the weakest of the weak here.
Instantly, another challenger was found, and he went up to the middle of the arena with a bored expression.
He was at the peak of the third stage; it was clear that they were trying to get rid of the boring fights right away.
Without a word, Xu Xin prepared to fight, taking this very seriously despite obviously not needing to.
His icy inner energy circulated around his body, and he even put a little bit into his eyes to see what would happen. After all, as it was his own power, it wouldn't harm him, but he was curious as to what it would do since he could already see quite well in the dark.
He realized that absolutely nothing happened at first, but suddenly, a bit of the aquamarine blood that was in his eyes absorbed the inner energy and converted it into its own power, and he suddenly felt that his vision got more sensitive.
It wasn't more sensitive in the sense that he could see better, but he felt as if he could see 'faster' somehow, as if the world had slowed down without really slowing at all.
Doing this, he hadn't realized it, but his eyes had started to glow aquamarine, and in the dark lighting of the arena, people with good eyes could see the glow of his eyes as aquamarine color spread over his fists and arms, creating a cold mist around them.
The boy he was fighting against suddenly felt a chill in his spine as he realized that this boy he was fighting against wasn't simple in the slightest, and he was far more dangerous than his stage would suggest.
Xu Xin made it clear that he wasn't going to make the first move, so the boy instantly punched out with all his strength and all the power he possibly could, because he knew that this boy in front of him was extremely dangerous.
However, things didn't go to plan as Xu Xin caught his fist without even thinking about it, and his arm continued forward despite already catching the boy's fist, pushing him and throwing him off balance.
Xu Xin's body was far stronger than the boy's, and his inner energy was on the same level, making it impossible for the boy to be able to resist when he pushed his palm forwards.
As the boy was pushed off balance, the moment that he started to correct himself, Xu Xin pulled his arm towards him, pulling him off balance once again and slamming his fist straight into the boy's face, knocking him out in a single hit.
Xu Xin had so completely won the fight that it only took a single move and less than two seconds for the fight to be over. People didn't even have the time to bet on the fight before it was over.
But Xu Xin didn't end it there. Instead, he grabbed the boy's hair, lifted him up, and swung his hand towards the boy's chest, throwing him backwards, tumbling on the ground.
These were gambling matches, and in order to get the most money, he wanted people to bet more money on him, and in order to do that, he had to show his ruthlessness.