Chapter 64: Gambling Duel and Debate
Lu Genggeng had come to the library to look for a book on the fusion of toxins and Spirit Abilities.
Hate Douluo had originally owned this book, but he had lost it later. Since he could no longer clearly remember some of the details inside, he had sent Lu Genggeng to find it himself.
In truth, the knowledge recorded in this book was not especially profound, so neither Lu Genggeng nor Hate Douluo cared all that much about it. Finding it would be nice, but not finding it would not matter either.
But the moment Lu Genggeng saw Chen Ming, his mood instantly turned foul.
"I heard that a Spirit Master with an Abomination Martial Soul killed someone right in front of all the other Spirit Masters. Do you even know the rules of the Holy Spirit Cult? The moment your Spirit appeared, everyone started suspecting it was me who did it. Do you understand what crime you've committed?" Lu Genggeng scolded him with a sour expression.
In reality, he did not care about such a trivial matter at all. He was simply unhappy because Chen Ming and Zhang Peng had made his grandfather lose face.
At the same time, Lu Genggeng also knew that he could not use that incident as an excuse to target Chen Ming right now.
Leaving aside whether such an excuse would even stand, Lu Genggeng was certain that if he used that matter as a pretext to trouble Chen Ming, Zhang Peng would absolutely retaliate by using physical force against his grandfather.
So even if the excuse was flimsy, he still had to seize the so called moral high ground.
"Rules? I can ask my teacher about that when he gets back. Even if I deserve punishment, it will be my teacher's job to deal with me. Who do you think you are?" Chen Ming shot back without hesitation.
The so called rules of the Holy Spirit Cult were that one could not kill openly, nor kill innocents within the cult. But everyone knew those rules were never truly strict, and their enforcement depended entirely on who was involved.
Even when it came to rules, unless it was an especially serious incident, they were mostly used to suppress insignificant people with no background. As for anyone else, it usually ended with a shrug.
"Hmph. Ignoring the organization, ignoring discipline. Were you born without any sense of rules?" Lu Genggeng stepped forward with a sour face.
He did not dare strike, but he stared straight at Chen Ming.
"What, want to fight? Come on, hit me. Hit me right here." Chen Ming pointed at his own cheek and took on an openly provocative posture, though inwardly he remained on guard.
"Don't think I can't tell you're trying to bait me. Hmph. If you have the guts, then have a match with me."
"A match with you? What's your cultivation level?" Chen Ming did not reject him immediately. He simply asked first.
"Me? I'll scare you to death. I am currently a Rank 31 Spirit Elder." Lu Genggeng let out a foul breath as sinister spirit power surged all over his body.
It had only been half a year since Chen Ming last saw him. In that time, Lu Genggeng had jumped from Rank 24 Spirit Grandmaster to Rank 31 Spirit Elder, increasing by more than one rank per month on average.
Of course, that growth had been built on a massive number of profane secret techniques and a great deal of blood, and Hate Douluo had also provided him with a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Bone to make such terrifying progress possible. But even so, this still proved that Lu Genggeng's talent was among the top tier in the Holy Spirit Cult, with very few peers able to compare.
Spirit Masters with a background naturally improved faster than those without one, and Evil Soul Masters advanced faster than ordinary people in the early stages. Especially once they discarded all restraint, their speed became almost monstrous.
And an Evil Soul Master with a background and no bottom line advancing in the early stages... such a thing could barely be described using the common sense of ordinary Spirit Masters.
"Rank 31 Spirit Elder..." Chen Ming's expression grew more serious.
Although Lu Genggeng's progress was fast, he was definitely not the kind of person with an unstable foundation. In fact, among Evil Soul Masters, the concept of an unstable foundation hardly existed in the first place.
In ordinary cultivation worlds, a cultivator whose Origin was filled with Impurities would be beaten like a dog by a true genius of the same level. Unless they were a Demonic Path prodigy, they would be destined to lose against opponents below their level.
But in the Douluo world... sorry, that spirit power filled with Impurities actually had greater intensity than the spirit power of most Spirit Masters who cultivated normally.
The more evil and bloody the cultivation method, the more violent and mixed an Evil Soul Master's spirit power became. That mixture lowered their upper limit, contaminated their Spirit, and increased the difficulty of breaking through to Titled Douluo, but the power itself was still an extremely tyrannical force. That was precisely why Evil Soul Masters could so often fight across ranks, or even entire Realms.
Zhang Peng's standard for Chen Ming had always been Titled Douluo at minimum, with the ideal goal being at least Super Douluo. Because of that, Zhang Peng's requirements for Chen Ming's cultivation and purity were extremely strict.
But Hate Douluo's expectations for Lu Genggeng were only around Spirit Douluo. If he could break through to Titled Douluo, that would be even better, but he had never really expected Lu Genggeng to become a Super Douluo.
If Lu Genggeng were only Rank 29, Chen Ming was certain he could beat him to the ground.
But Rank 31 meant an additional thousand year Spirit Ring. Even if Chen Ming could defeat an ordinary Spirit Ancestor, he was not sure he could win against Lu Genggeng, whose abilities overlapped so much with his own.
Chen Ming had only cultivated for a little over half a year, while Lu Genggeng had cultivated for at least two and a half years. There was no reason for Chen Ming to casually agree to such a match.
"Hmph, scared?" Lu Genggeng's eyes shifted as he suddenly pulled a crystal clear bone from his spirit tool.
It was a Left Leg Spirit Bone. Though not perfectly complete, its rough structure was already very clear. Judging by its completeness and the spirit power fluctuations within it, it was likely a thousand year Spirit Bone from a mid to high level Spirit Beast, and its age was probably under two thousand years.
Chen Ming did not know what Spirit Beast it came from, but he would wager fifty cents that Lu Genggeng, or Hate Douluo, definitely had not obtained it from a Spirit Beast. It was far more likely that it had been stripped from the corpse of some Spirit Master.
"I will limit myself to the Spirit Grandmaster level and not use my third Spirit Ability. We will have a match. If you win, this Spirit Bone is yours."
"Don't worry. It is only a spar. There won't be any permanent damage." Lu Genggeng held the Spirit Bone and injected a small amount of spirit power into it, making it emit a faint glow without actually refining it.
Reason told Chen Ming that a mere thousand year Spirit Bone was nothing remarkable, and he should not care.
But the moment he sensed the aura of the Spirit Bone, his body began to stir restlessly.
The attraction of a Spirit Bone was no joke. Spirit Bones naturally possessed a special pull toward Spirit Masters, enough to stir instinctive desire in them. In ancient times, the very first Spirit Master to absorb a Spirit Bone had done so under the influence of that very attraction.
Looking at it, Chen Ming thought for a moment, then cast an inconspicuous glance at Zhao Sanjin, who remained indifferent on the side. In the end, he nodded.
"Since you dare to bet, then I'll accompany you."
"Elder Zhao, please act as witness. Lu Genggeng and I are going to find a place to have a match."
.....
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