Chapter 9 - The Golden Bet

"Two light spots...really an intermediate tempering body!"

"This Su Lang is clumsy, he can break through to the Intermediate Tempering Body long ago."

"By the stars! Then why did he come to receive the primary body tempering allowance now?"

"Who could bear the thought of missing out on that allowance? He is merely playing it safe!"

"The fluctuations he exuded earlier, that was the unmistakable aura of a true breakthrough. I've seen it many times; there's no mistaking it."

"So, he did indeed just achieve Intermediate Body Tempering! Yang Shi is in for a rude awakening!"

"Indeed, Yang Shi truly has had a stroke of misfortune."

"But, if only he had not provoked others, this could have been avoided."

"Haha, you have a point."

"..."

The crowd discussed in disbelief, with all eyes focused on Yang Shi.

"Young Martial Artist Yang, are you going back on your word and trying to weasel out?"

Su Lang smiled coldly at Yang Shi. "Please hand over the 50 gold coins we agreed upon and proceed with the second part of the wager!"

"Damn it! How could you have achieved Intermediate Body Tempering so quickly?"

"I'm already twenty and only reaching Intermediate Body Tempering; that's just mediocre!"

"Against me, Young Martial Artist Yang, Su Lang is nothing more than trash. Hmph! No need to look for me!"

Fueled by frustration and shame, Yang Shi pulled out a spirit stone from his pocket and thrust it at Su Lang, leaving without looking back.

As for stripping down and running three laps around the Martial Arts Alliance Building, while shouting 'I'm a genius' during the run, he had no intention of following through. He couldn't bear to imagine the mockery and ridicule he would endure, not only damaging his own reputation but also bringing disgrace to his entire Yang family.

So, he'd rather part with a low-grade spirit stone worth 100 gold coins than uphold the second part of their wager.

"Thanks to this spirit stone, I'll let you off easy for now. Just make sure to stay out of my way in the future."

Su Lang watched Yang Shi's departing figure with a sneer, then turned to the heavily made-up woman at the window. "Hey, old crone, hand over the Intermediate Body Tempering allowance and my ID card!"

While Su Lang had earned 100 gold coins, he still felt annoyed by the woman's conduct.

"Humph!"

The heavily made-up woman tossed 20 gold coins and Su Lang's ID card at him with disdain. "You're just a mortal qualification, but you dared to provoke Young Martial Artist Yang. If not for that, you'd be in big trouble. Get out of the way and stop holding up the line!"

"Tsk tsk, your attitude in dealing with matters will eventually lead to your downfall!"

Su Lang sneered, gathered his spirit stones, gold coins, and ID card, and quickly left the Martial Arts Alliance hall.

"It appears that Young Martial Artist Yang has some social standing."

Walking down the street, Su Lang examined the spirit stone in his hand.

Spirit stones were special energy crystals produced after the revival of aura and were a valuable natural resource for martial artists' cultivation. They could also be freely cut and processed, eventually shaped into standard-sized currency.

The exchange rate for spirit stones was 100 gold coins per low-grade stone, and the ratio increased by 100 for each higher grade.

The spirit stone in Su Lang's hand was of low grade.

"When I convert this half spirit stone into gold coins, I'll have 161 gold coins. That should be sufficient to upgrade the one-key training function to level 2. Haha!"

The thought of doubling his cultivation speed, making him twice as fast as a genius without such advantages, filled Su Lang with elation. He almost felt like roaring in triumph.

All of a sudden:

"Host, the system offers free currency storage, exchange, and withdrawal services."

"What!?"

Su Lang's eyes widened in surprise.

This development would save him considerable time and transaction fees.

"System, please immediately exchange this spirit stone into gold coins!"

Su Lang thought, and the spirit stone in his hand vanished.

A currency symbol appeared in the upper left corner of the mysterious black space, indicating a total of 100 gold coins.

"Ding! Exchange successful. Would you like to deposit the remaining gold coins into the system?"

"Deposit!"

Su Lang nodded, and the gold coins on his person disappeared. The number behind the currency symbol changed to 161.