Chapter 461 A Small Bet Several young men and girls were sitting together. “Quite the turnout at today’s finals. I cannot believe the stadium is full thirty minutes after it opened!” “Tell me about it... Ticket prices skyrocketed yesterday, and still they were sold out in seconds. Luckily, I’m quite agile with my hands after twenty-seven years of practice as a single man. Otherwise, we would have missed out.” “Brother Feng, you are freaking awesome!” It was Lin Feng and his friends who had traveled a long distance to take their tests in the Holy Light Base City. All of them were in high spirits thanks to having finished their tests with satisfactory scores. As such, they decided to stay and watch the trainers’ competition that was held every three years. The participants of the competition were young people whose age could not go beyond thirty! Lin Feng and his friends were qualified to participate but got there too late and missed the registration time. That being said, they didn’t feel sorry. Lin Feng and Yue Yingying had outstanding abilities given the fact that the two were at the sixth rank. The two would stand out even when compared to other young people from the Holy Light Base City. However, having watched videos of past competitions, the two realized that they would be eliminated soon even if they took part in it. Trainers would have to be equipped with abilities approaching the seventh rank if they wanted a spot among the top ten! Anyone who aimed to win the championship would have to have seventh-rank abilities! All the past winners of the competition had been seventh-rank trainers. Even in years where talents gathered, the third-place would sometimes go to a seventh-rank trainer! Seventh-rank trainers were advanced trainers, one step away from becoming master trainers! If they were lucky enough to have a master trainer as a mentor, advanced trainers could become master trainers themselves with ease. On the other hand, to reach the top trainer tier would have to be up to fate and one’s natural endowments. Most of the past first-place winners had become master trainers. Only a few that were too young and aggressive had wasted their talents and ended up tarnishing their own reputations. “Look over there. Those seats are for top trainers!” “The top trainers are gonna come?” “Of course! The most important thing today is not the final game to determine who the champion is, but when the top trainers come to pick people to become their students!” “So I’ve heard. I am told that the champions would become hot items and several top trainers would fight for them.” “Really? Would the top trainers fight like that?” “What do you know? That is called cherishing talent!” All of a sudden, Lin Feng shushed his friends and pointed in a direction. “Look! They’re here!” His friends looked over. There were some journalists and reporters by the guarded corridor, next to the top trainers’ seats. They suddenly got excited—just like sharks able to catch the scent of blood-and readied their equipment as they waited by the entrance. Then, two people, one aged and one young came out of the entrance, talking cheerfully and humorously. The aged man wore a robe that was unique to top trainers with his medal pinned on the robe. The kind old man took great care of his looks. On the other hand, the young man was dressed casually. His face was certainly handsome, but other than that, nothing stood out about the young man. Snap, snap The reporters hurried to take photos. “Is that...” Lin Feng and his friends noticed something. They stared with astonishment, as if they had seen a ghost. The aged top trainer was the center of attention and yet those young people’s focus was on the young one next to him. They could not help but keep on rubbing their eyes, wondering if something had blurred their sights. Isn’t the young one the person we met before? Why is he talking happily to a top trainer?! Lin Feng and his friends were puzzled. They couldn’t figure it out. What is going on? They were surprised enough when they saw Su Ping holding a master trainer medal. Lin Feng apologized to Su Ping with a very good attitude. They would have never guessed they were going to witness something even more outrageous, once they saw Su Ping was walking alongside a top trainer. Many people noticed when Su Ping and the Vice Chairman entered the stadium. Quite a number of people cried out in surprise. The spotlight made Su Ping very uncomfortable. The Vice Chairman, on the other hand, was used to it. He was always smiling and he would politely nod to reporters from the mainstream media in the Holy Light Base City. “I think we got here early,” the Vice Chairman said, gazing at the row of empty seats. Su Ping said nothing in reply. Early or not, it didn’t matter. They walked to their seats. The Vice Chairman sat on one of the seats in the middle. The seat was usually reserved for the Chairman but he rarely went to such events. If the Vice Chairman didn’t sit there, no one else would. Su Ping sat down next to him. The people who were paying attention to them were stunned after seeing the seats they had chosen. The reporters also stared at them blankly. Everyone was thinking the same thing—that Su Ping was a student who came with the Vice Chairman. No one expected that he would choose one of those seats! Those seats were reserved for top trainers! Not even the Chairman’s son would have the right to sit there! The Vice Chairman could feel the glances of confusion and questions darted their way. He explained to Su Ping with a smile, “Only some people working at the headquarters know about you. No one else knows that we have a new top trainer yet.” Su Ping nodded. He didn’t mind. He was just there to pick a student. He would directly go back home after he found someone he was happy about and left some parting words to the Vice Chairman. The Holy Light Base City was not a familiar place and the people there were strangers. He didn’t care about the place nor the people. Other top trainers showed up moments after their arrival. The Vice Chairman had introduced Su Ping to some of those top trainers the day prior. The latter were surprised and interested that Su Ping would be there to find a student for himself. They were eager to get to know this new top trainer. All of them greeted Su Ping and seated themselves. Several top trainers didn’t see Su Ping the other day; several of them were stunned upon seeing his unfamiliar face. The Vice Chairman did the honors and explained Su Ping’s status as a new top trainer. They exchanged some pleasantries with Su Ping with a friendly attitude. The group started to chatter gaily as more and more top trainers arrived. All of them knew each other. They would usually be busy with their own work, so it was easy for them to find something to discuss whenever they got together. “So, guys, wanna bet?” an old man sitting by Su Ping proposed with a smile. The old man was named Hu Jiutong; he was among the top trainers that Su Ping had met the previous day. Su Ping later found out that he was Hu Rongrong’s grandfather, whom Su Ping had met once before; he was also one of the senior top trainers working at the headquarters. Hu Jiutong was skilled in training dragons and was one of the most outstanding top trainers. Still, everyone knew about his weakness, which was gambling. The others burst into laughter, knowing Hu Jiutong’s eagerness to dip his fingers in gambling again. “What are we betting on?” Lv Renwei asked with a smile of his own. “To guess today’s champion!” Hu Jiutong was enraptured, seeing that his old friend was helping out. He stroked his mustache as he went on, “Let’s find out who has the best eyes today. We have but a few participants. Who do you think will be the champion?” Lv Renwei knew this was coming. He chuckled. “You never change... I’ve already looked at their videos. I have my money on Muliu Tusu!” “Muliu Tusu? The genius from the Muliu family? Man, you have good eyes!” Hu Jiutong acted surprised at first but then asked others with a smile, “What about you?” “Let’s talk about stakes first,” one of them answered. “Right,” the others seconded that proposal. They were going to make some fun out of it. An old man in a black robe stated, “I think we can add a bit more fun to it. There’s no fun in guessing who the champion is. How about we guess who will be the Top Three? That’ll make things more interesting, don’t you think?” Hu Jiutong’s eyes glowed. “Old Cao, you’re good!” “I think Cao’s idea is good. Brother Su, you wanna play?” Lv Renwei asked Su Ping. He didn’t want to rain on their parade, seeing that everyone was thrilled. He nodded and said, “Sure, I’ll play.” “Nice!” Hu Jiutong got even more excited. “Let’s all make a list of the Top 3. As for the stakes, how about a ninth-rank dragon?” “Get lost. Everyone knows you have more than enough dragons. We’re not battle pet warriors. What do we need dragons for? Sell them?” one top trainer said grumpily. The others nodded in agreement. Dragons were precious but they focused on different areas of study and not all of them worked on that kind of beast. They would have to give away the dragons which would not benefit them at all. “How about a training skill book?” Lv Renwei answered after some thought. The others were happy about that. A training skill book was something they all wanted. “That we can do. But it must be a middle-rank training skill book. I don’t think any of you will have the guts to offer a low-rank training skill book.” “Of course. I can accept the terms.” Some nodded. No one else had opposing views. That was just a fun bet. They weren’t in want of middle-rank training skill books, either; however, there was a great diversity. When it came to trainers, they could never have enough training skill books and they could always teach their students new skills. Compared to dragons, training skill books were more appealing. “You guys...” Hu Jiutong didn’t know what to say. What is wrong with dragons? I have a lot of dragons. I can afford the stakes! Besides, dragons were more expensive than middle-rank training skill books. A ninth-rank dragon should be at least as valuable as an advanced training skill book! Hu Jiutong heaved a sigh. He didn’t have many middle-rank training skill books left. He turned to Su Ping, “Brother Su, are you ok with that?” The other top trainers remembered Su Ping. They were all senior trainers and could take out a training skill book easily. However, Su Ping was from another base city. In their opinion, there was only one word that could be used to describe base cities that were not the Holy Light Base City: poverty. A small bet was set for them to have fun. If the stakes were too high for one of them, where would be the fun of it?