novelraw Chapter 304: The Shameless God of Gambling
Chapter 304: The Shameless God of Gambling
Upon hearing this, Long Xuan's expression turned serious.
As expected, there’s no such thing as a foolproof gamble.
He’d only just realized how little he understood about the Dark Night Mantis Gu. If it weren’t for Di Xin’s warning, he might really have lost this bet.
After all, with the Earth Master's heavy metallic armor, its defense is practically invincible. If the Dark Night Mantis got close, his first thought would probably be to rely on his strong defense for a blood trade with his opponent, rather than immediately setting up a barrier.
The world is vast, and it's full of surprises. Before this, he never imagined that a creature could possess the ability to kill any low-grade Gu insect.
And this is only the opponent’s main technique. What about his underhanded tricks?
If even his main techniques are this difficult to counter, how lethal would his underhanded ones be?
At this moment, Long Xuan was fully alert.
“Have you already marked the range? Then let’s begin. Release your Gu insects and show me what they are—whatever they are, they seem to make you so confident.”
As the God of Gambling finished speaking, he led twenty Gu insects he had just pulled out from a rock and slowly approached the circle. Long Xuan glanced at those twenty Gu insects and, as he suspected, he didn’t recognize any of them.
Among them were ten mantises, clearly the Dark Night Mantises that Di Xin had mentioned, so he took a few extra looks at them.
Even though he didn’t recognize the other Gu insects, regardless of their unknown abilities, he had only one choice: to send twenty Earth Masters into the fight.
Long Xuan finally took out all twenty Earth Masters from his Gu insect bag, placed them on the ground, and arranged them in a four-by-five formation to create a Great Mountain Protection Formation. They slowly advanced toward the Gu pit.
At the forefront was Long Xuan’s own Earth Master, the largest of the twenty, radiating an oppressive presence as it stood.
The Gu cultivators around began to murmur, causing a small commotion.
Forget any other abilities; just the fact that he could control borrowed Gu insects without a blood contract was impressive enough to draw admiration.
Unsurprisingly, when the God of Gambling saw these unfamiliar Gu insects, he froze on the spot.
What… are these things? Such hulking masses?
And why are they armored in heavy metallic plating?
Since when did Gu insects need armor? Have I fallen so far behind the times?
Wait a minute, what’s carved on this armor?
Those look like formation patterns.
The God of Gambling’s eyes suddenly widened as he inwardly cursed. These insects are actually carrying a Great Mountain Protection Formation—how is he supposed to fight this?
Who brings a whole Mountain Protection Formation into a Gu battle? He had never seen anyone play this dirty!
The God of Gambling’s expression stiffened completely, and his confident smile vanished.
He began frantically searching for a way to break this formation.
There were indeed many ways to dismantle the Grand Mountain Protection Formation, but the game rules stated that only low-grade Gu insects could be sent into battle.
How could a low-grade Gu insect possibly break a Mountain Protection Formation? This was a joke!
This was a lost cause!
The God of Gambling’s mind was in utter disarray.
“Senior, shall we begin now?”
“The rules for Gu battles are different from chess; delaying time isn’t allowed.”
“If you don’t release your Gu insects soon, this bet will be considered my win,” Long Xuan urged.
“What’s the rush? I haven’t even chosen my Gu insects yet. Give me some time to think it over.”
The God of Gambling glanced at him, hastily retrieving all Gu insects except for the Dark Night Mantises.
Then, he took out ten stones from his storage ring and began dissolving them in front of everyone.
Seeing this, Long Xuan twitched slightly at the corner of his mouth.
This was just shameless! He’d clearly already chosen his Gu insects, but after seeing Long Xuan’s, he immediately switched his choice.
Obviously, he was planning to bring out Gu insects that could counter the Earth Masters.
In front of all these juniors, he had absolutely no shame.
Watching this shameless act, Long Xuan’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly, but he ultimately held his tongue.
Because he knew that saying anything was pointless; the God of Gambling had certainly prepared an excuse.
He would just say something like, “Did I say I had already chosen my Gu insects? Those were just for fun; the ones I’m about to choose are my real choices for this Gu battle.”
Dealing with this shameless trickster was pointless; he was absolutely without scruples.
Finally, after selecting another ten unfamiliar Gu insects, the God of Gambling sent all twenty Gu insects into the Gu pit.
Without waiting for the Gu insects to line up, Long Xuan, acting as the referee, shouted, “Start!” and immediately sent his Earth Masters charging forward.
In fact, he’d started their charge before he even yelled “start,” shamelessly jumping the gun.
A swift offense beats a delayed one—when better to strike than while the opponent is still organizing?
The God of Gambling was caught completely off guard; he hadn’t expected this young man to be so shameless, leaving him in a bit of a scramble.
“You shameless brat! If you’re going to be so ruthless, then don’t blame me for being ruthless in return!”
As he spoke, the God of Gambling’s twenty Gu insects in the pit began to surge with power. In Long Xuan’s view, the lifespans of these Gu insects were skyrocketing, and in the blink of an eye, they had all become mid-grade Gu insects.
Long Xuan was furious. That shameless scoundrel! He had agreed to only send low-grade Gu insects into the arena, but instead, he sent a whole swarm of mid-grade Gu insects.
Was he learning from Long Panpan, attempting to make a last-minute breakthrough?
At this point, it was clear to him—the mouths of these Gu insects concealed some sort of drug.
As soon as they entered the arena, the insects would crush the banned drug hidden in their mouths, instantly transforming them into mid-grade Gu insects.
That so-called "God of Gambling" had pulled a trick like this—utterly shameless.
Long Xuan sighed inwardly; no wonder the God of Gambling never lost a bet. Trying to defeat him was truly no easy task.
Now in the Gu Pit, aside from the ten Dark Night Mantises that had transformed into mid-grade Gu insects, his other ten Gu insects had somehow bypassed the barrier’s restrictions and entered the arena.
Long Xuan was stunned. He knew the ten selected Gu insects would have some way to counter his Earth Masters, but he hadn’t anticipated anything this outrageous.
These ten Gu insects could freely move through the formation’s barriers as if they didn’t exist.
“Be careful! That creature appears to be a Boundary-Breaking Gu from the Divine Realm. It can ignore the barrier’s restrictions and pass directly through it.”
“Moreover, it can even pass through the external layers of living organisms and enter their bodies directly.”
“This creature is highly effective against your Earth Masters. Don’t let it get close!”
Long Xuan’s scalp tingled. Were Gu insects from the Divine Realm all this absurd, with such strange and peculiar abilities?
He had thought his Earth Masters were already impressive, but there was always someone stronger.
There was no time for further thought; the Earth Master’s biggest weakness was its clumsiness and slow movement. Faced with the Boundary-Breaking Gu’s charge, dodging was simply not an option.
Fortunately, the God of Gambling was unaware of the Earth Master’s capabilities. His knowledge of this Gu insect was superficial, and what’s unknown often proves deadly.
Unaware, the God of Gambling directed the Boundary-Breaking Gu to attack the Earth Master’s head, making a grave mistake.
When Long Xuan had developed the Earth Master’s abilities, he’d given it a skill to trap enemy Gu insects.
Each Earth Master possessed an immense storage space within.
In desperate situations, the Earth Master could entirely swallow enemy Gu insects, trapping them inside its storage space.
And as luck would have it, these Boundary-Breaking Gu aimed straight for the Earth Master’s head, essentially diving right into its mouth.
Long Xuan wouldn’t waste such a perfect opportunity; he immediately commanded the Earth Master to open wide and swallow all the approaching Boundary-Breaking Gu in one gulp.
Ever cautious, he would never naively assume that the Earth Master’s storage pouch could contain every Gu insect indefinitely.
So, as soon as the ten Boundary-Breaking Gu entered the Earth Master’s mouth, Long Xuan decisively commanded these ten Earth Masters to rush out of the arena as fast as possible.
Whether or not the Boundary-Breaking Gu could escape the storage, as long as they were out of bounds, they would be deemed eliminated according to the rules of Gu combat.
Long Xuan was ruthless, willing to sacrifice his own to drag the ten Boundary-Breaking Gu out.
Seeing his Boundary-Breaking Gu forced out of bounds, the Gambling God’s face changed immediately as he muttered, “Damn it!”
With ten Gu insects from each side out of bounds, it was now a ten-on-ten match in the Gu Pit.
The ten Earth Masters rammed against the barrier, charging directly at the ten Dark Night Mantises.
Although the Earth Masters were low-grade Gu insects, and the Dark Night Mantises were mid-grade, the Earth Masters held their ground and even had the upper hand.
Each Earth Master carried an array of mobile formations—could mere mid-grade Gu insects withstand that?
Using the power of these formations, some Earth Masters could launch fire or lightning attacks, others could exert gravitational force, and some even had the surprising ability to cast illusions.
Under the relentless barrage of these formations, the ten Dark Night Mantises were suffering greatly.
Especially the largest among them, withstanding a wide variety of formation attacks and an assault strength far beyond what a Dark Night Mantis could defend against.
Yet, the Dark Night Mantises couldn’t break through the formation’s barrier to strike back; they could only endure the attacks passively.
How could they possibly win in such circumstances?
In a short time, the ten Dark Night Mantises were obliterated by the formations’ onslaught, and the battle was decisively over.
The God of Gambling stood in stunned silence, unable to speak for a long while.
He had lost. He actually lost.
Was it really possible for him to lose?
Was this only the second time he’d ever lost?
It had been so long since he’d tasted defeat.
The God of Gambling was filled with melancholy.
At that moment, the entire arena fell silent. Everyone stared, dumbfounded at the scene—he lost, the God of Gambling lost; was it possible for the God of Gambling to lose?
The God of Gambling’s undefeated legend had been shattered.
His defeat reignited hope in the crowd that they, too, could defeat him.
Though they didn’t have Earth Masters, the Insect Armor had already become widely popular around the world.
Many people possessed at least one Gu insect with Insect Armor, while the God of Gambling, out of touch with the outside world, had no access to Insect Armor.
This created a favorable scenario—those who played Gu Combat with him could exploit Insect Armor against those without non-Insect Armor, significantly boosting their chances of victory.
Long Xuan’s actions served as inspiration, sparking a renewed sense of determination in everyone present.