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Sky Pride Vol. 3 Chapter 43- A Few Friendly Wagers
🕑 Added 2025-08-20 14:00:08 +0000 UTC“Big Bro Wang, is it really okay to operate a gambling table?”
“It will only be a problem if I lose, Little Mei. Besides, I’m backing my sectmates to the limit. What could be wrong with that?”
“At ten to one though?” She looked concerned. Tian, who was observing from the corner of his eye, had to admit “concerned” looked adorable on Daoist Mei. Why she didn’t give him the itchy feeling that the other woman from the Five Elements Sect had, he didn’t know.
“You two are pretty cocky!” Another young man stepped forward angrily. “Fighting without martial honor, yet acting as though you are the ones wronged!”
Tian and Hong shared a look of naked confusion. “Sorry, fellow daoist, but what are you talking about? We were both challenged, we both let the other party make the first move, and both stopped when they weren’t able to keep on fighting.” Tian explained. He was very reasonable.
“Yeah, and it’s not like we are winning and running off either. We are giving you a chance to fight back. So… really, what are you talking about? Are you stupid, or just dumb?” Hong’s voice was equally reasonable.
“Don’t be so quick to judge, Sister. It could be brain damage. I have a treatment for that which I have been eager to practice.” Tian smiled as he rubbed his hands together.
“You two! Just how far do you intend to take your bullying?!” The young man cried.
“Shut up or square up.” Hong was quite done with extending the benefit of the doubt.
“Big Bro Wang, do you always carry canvas and paint with you?”
“Oh yes, you never know when you need to make some signs or banners, and I have yet to meet anyone else who thinks of carrying such basic supplies. Four hundred gallons of spirit wine, sure. Nine hundred and ninety nine magic arrows, each dipped in a different venom? These days, who would even leave their cell without them? A small selection of paint, a few dozen yards of canvass and a variety of sturdy poles of different lengths? Not a single soul thinks of it. And yet, see how useful it is?”
“Oooh! Now everyone knows where to place their bets!” Mei clapped and bounced on her toes. She was, Tian noticed, a bouncy sort of person.
“Very well then! I, Mao-”
“No, sorry, I know what I said earlier, and I was wrong.” Hong cut him off, shaking her head. “Just pick who you want to fight. This will be endless if you all introduce yourselves.”
“Wench, there won’t be any more, because I alone am enough to crush both of you! Come at me together, so people can’t say I bullied you with my cultivation level!” His robes fluttered with the sudden release of his vital energy. The might of a furious level eight circulated around him, and the pointed stars on his robe seemed to blaze with authority.
Hong and Tian shared a look and shrugged.
“When you are ready, Fellow Daoist.” Tian cupped his hands and bowed.
“Ooh, it’s not solo. How are you going to take bets now, Big Bro Wang?”
“Easy. TWENTY TO ONE ANCIENT CRANE WINS WITHIN TEN MOVES! TEN TO ONE WITHIN FIVE!”
“What? You fool, I’ll gladly take your stones! Fifty spirit stones on Brother Mao, if you dare take the bet!”
“Why wouldn’t I? Hell, double it, Daddy Wang will play with you to the end. Within ten moves, or five?”
“Hmf! Double it is. And ten moves, who knows how many life saving tricks the two of them have?”
“Heh, I want to bet too, but I don’t know if you have the stones for a truly heavy wager?” This from a nasal voiced young woman. Brother Wang laughed arrogantly and slapped a heavy hand on his table, then wiped it from right to left. Where his hand passed, stacks of spirit stones were left behind.
“I dare you to try and empty my purse! This Daddy heard you lot had some sort of dogshit luck and picked up some money. But all he sees are third rate losers with short arms that can’t even reach into their barren pockets! Weak skills, weak hearts, no guts at the gambling table, has this Daddy wasted his time!?”
The fighters had paused, turning to watch the scene at Brother Wang’s booth.
“I knew I should have gone into logistics. They make all the money. Even if I sold myself I couldn’t cover one bet.” Tian touched the near void in his purse.
“Brother Zihao, you would be eaten alive in logistics. There wouldn’t even be bones left of you. I thought we were nasty enough in the disciplinary squad, but we have nothing on the quartermasters. Those monsters could squeeze a spirit stone out of empty air, and then hand it a bill for a hundred more for the extra labor.”
Tian and Liren sighed together. Tian looked over at the bewildered and increasingly furious Daoist from the Five Elements Courtyard. “I apologize. It’s not that we don’t take you seriously. It’s just that we don’t want to spoil our Brother’s good business. I promise we will wrap this up in just a few moments once all bets are in.”
“Yes, Brother Mao, let us get our bets in! Then you just have to last more than ten moves for us to empty this fatty’s pockets!” One of the daoists from The Five Elements Courtyard shouted from outside the sparring ground.
Tian hadn’t bothered moving off the Wood symbol painted on the flagstones. If they hadn’t figured out his little trick yet, good. If they had, then it wouldn’t matter where he was standing. Either way, he had complete confidence in winning. There was something off about this daoist. Not cursed, just… incorrect. Not itchy like the others, but still off.
He wracked his brains for what it could be, and couldn’t figure it out.
“Sister Liren, does he feel…” He murmured.
“Yeah. I’m having a hard time putting my finger on what it is, though. When things kick off, I’ll rush him. Can you do whatever it is you did to the last guy?”
“If he tries more or less the same thing as the other guy, sure. If not, I’ll back you up if you need it. I don’t think you will, though.”
Brother Wang waved up from his booth. Nobody else was placing bets.
“Thank you for your patience, Daoist Mao. I implore those watching to remember that DAOIST MAO, THIS GUY RIGHT HERE, is your good brother, and is definitely not working with us to scam your spirit stones.” Hong’s voice was strong and carrying. “Are you ready?”
“What? WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Daoist Mao’s eyebrows seemed to try and fly away with the force of his rage. He ripped a long, yellow talisman from his sleeve. The black brushstrokes on it seemed to writhe in the illusion light, like they were trying to escape their paper prison.
“Here I come!” Sister Hong charged in, not bothering to draw her spear.
“Arrogant fool!” The talisman smashed towards Hong, transforming into a translucent gold sword. Tian was watching Daoist Mao carefully- as soon as the talisman was thrown, his hands came together holding a wide triangular bit of wood several inches thick. He kept the device by his waist, his eyes flicking up and down from watching Hong and doing whatever he was doing. Tian watched Daoist Mao’s thumbs flicker over the top of it, even as his fingertips slid around the bottom.
No immediate spike of energy- either what he was doing took more time to set up, or the wood elemental energy wasn’t needed. Metal talisman… Tian looked around and activated his light body art. By the time he reached the earth elemental node, Hong had smashed aside the talisman with her fist and reached Daoist Mao. Her second fist was stopped by a floating shield that seemed to leap up from inside the array master’s robe.
“HAH! There it is- Brother Mao’s famous Thrice Refined Iron Tortoise Shell! Let’s see how their little tricks can manage against that!”
Tian stiffened, the hovering shield looked like nothing he had ever seen an Earthly Realm person use. He wracked his brains, trying to think how it was possible. A bare second later, Tian had to restrain himself from smacking his forehead. Ancient Crane Monastery didn’t have many enchanted weapons, but that doesn’t mean others don’t have them.
“Hah! Now pay for your arrogance in daring to fight an array master!” Daoist Mao’s eyes were wide and fixated on Hong. Spittle was flying out of his mouth as boasted. His body language didn’t look quite so proud. Tian felt the pulse of energy reach for the Metal node. It was quite strong compared to the previous cultivator.
Tian repeated his trick of overloading the energy. It was harder with earth qi, but not much harder. He could feel the energy turn chaotic. The little bit of extra oomph was enough to send the energy tumbling back into the array, building in speed and crashing into the metal node with uncontrolled force. Earth generates metal.
The resulting explosion nearly tore Daoist Mao in half.
“It’s the metal qi. All that piercing and tearing. Should I administer first aid? But what the hell would first aid be for something like this?”
An elder appeared next to the gutted array master. His hands flashed with green light as spinning disks hovered around the bleeding man. Potions were poured over and into the wounds, even as a pill was lightly crushed and forced into the young man’s mouth.
“How vicious! Is this how Ancient Crane Monastery treats its allies?” Tian didn’t recognize the elder, it wasn’t the one who escorted them earlier.
Tian fought down the urge to answer “Yes,” as it probably wasn’t a question the elder really wanted answered.
“Well? Speak up!”
Oh. He was wrong. Talking was, once again, proven to be a treacherous, unrewarding activity.
“He lost control of his magical tool and it exploded, Elder, which makes me wonder just what he was going to do with all that metal qi.” Hong’s voice was quite polite. Mild, even.
“Evil girl, do you dare deny your companion deliberately interfered with the array formation?”
She looked over at Tian in mild surprise. “Is that what you did?”
“Yes. The nodes of elemental qi buried under the elemental symbols on the sparring ring are rather obvious tools to let earthly realm cultivators make use of qi in their arrays, instead of relying on their own vital energy. How they do it, I don’t know.” Tian shrugged.
“So you admit it!”
“Elder, respectfully, these are your sparring rings. They are designed to give array masters an unfair advantage. He still lost. Also, and forgive me if this is rude, but are your disciples so incompetent that none of them know how to prevent array formations from being disrupted? Is this truly something that they are not trained to deal with? Because that would be insanely irresponsible.”
“Oh. That was actually rude. Oh well.”
Tian didn’t know why he was in such a foul mood, but he had been pissy since they arrived. Everything just seemed so tiresome, these people were aggressively irritating, and it seemed like every other person he met had been kicked in the head. About the only person here who was kind-of okay was the spy they stuck onto Brother Wang.
“You have quite the tongue on you, boy. Careful I don’t rip it out!” Tian felt the pressure of the elder’s attention come crashing down on him. Unpleasant, but not unendurable.
“I will be careful, Elder. May we return to the feast, or will we have more challenges to face?” Tian cupped his hands and bowed. “I trust no one else will be so foolish as to rely on the hidden qi sources for their so-called strategy, so there is no chance my little trick will work again.”
He looked around the dueling square, making hard eye contact whenever he could. “I would hate for anyone to feel cheated of a chance to prove their abilities. And I dare to guarantee it will be a learning experience for all of us.”
Comments
Stephen (Dreadsong)
I like the way it's written. Basically, the long odds are on it taking more than 5 moves. Like saying, "It's way more likely that it'll be over in less than 5 moves, so I'll pay better odds if it somehow takes longer."
Colin Groh
Odds that Brother Wang offers are backwards. Should be 10:1 they win in 10 moves, and 20:1 that they win in 5. Longer odds on the more difficult win.
Conor Futro
Hmm, I think “Your Daddy Wang” would sound better as opposed to “this Daddy”.
Jumping Flounder
seems like the five element courtyard are focused on arrays, so maybe the elder doesn’t have the same killing intent
Jeryd Greer
Feckin reckem
Andrew Simpson
He's not really administering blows that could kill. He's just cause them to lose control over things they are are not strong enough to control, and choosing to use anyway. That's like throwing a grenade at someone, and then blaming them for "escalating to lethality" when they throw it back instead of letting themselves get blown up
Morog T Tiny
just a note in the beginning Tian has , one of his pinky fingers mostly there, "He had both his index fingers and thumbs and most of his right pinky and some of the stubs were around where the first knuckle should be, so that should be enough for a pokey-killy power."
Matt Creighton
Eh, it's a formation sect. Their whole premise is using advanced preparation to do stuff, and as elder feng said they are convinced that if they lose they just didn't prepare good enough, rather than their philosophy being flawed lol
Ed H
Disagree, it’s plenty effective
Edmund C.
Are non ACM Elders pushovers, or has Tian learned to deal with their intent by now?
Gardor
"And I dare to guarantee it will be a learning experience for all of us.”" Alright, brainstorm a better final line, this one feels off, crowd source powers go! Its not as inadvertently threatening as id expect.
Zordak
My guess is that the Courtyard elders have loaded up their disciples with so many extra items and advantages that the disciples themselves are feeling uncomfortable over it. After all, they're the young elites of the Five Elements Courtyard, why would they need so many "cheats" against anyone at their level? It's gotten to the point where it's having an impact on their Dao hearts, which is why Tian noticed something seemed off about Mao here.
Logrus
"Apologies, but I said I wanted to fight ALL of you, not EACH."
Noroh
On the bright side, no one is going to think Mao threw the match now 😅
Abhi
They definetly loaded these challengers with the good stuff instead of what an Earthly Realm cultivator would normally use or be able to afford.
Tom
I’m betting the 5 elements courtyard elder is angrier about Tian exploding the compasses. they are probably expensive and Tian just being able to explode them could be costing them serious money
John Smith
I have my suspicions about Mei not feeling itchy like the others. I suspect she’s just a lot more proficient at the illusions and misdirection. Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a heavenly person observing what’s transpiring.
Tom
I think it is the ones that are lying or being insincere, and he can feel it because of all of the virtuous sutra refinement
Vainirion
Now I got to wonder what this itchy feeling is about. For all we know, the weak cultivators there are not real, like birds. Ooooor… somebody seems to be applying a taunt/rage debuff, since everybody is so irritating. Probably that cute, bouncy girl.
pierre boucheron
And we have no idea what Sister Su is currently doing. For all we know she's crushing their librarians under the superiority of her shelving/sorting skills which for an 'academic' sect could be the worst blow of all.
Codered999
Got to love Tian throwing shade on their teaching ability and the elder can't technically do shit about it without Tian's own elders getting involved. Also, Wang better share some of those profits.
kellanved
The Sect Crusher squad, good lord. Pride, Dignity, Money, everything.
Ryan Naquin
Admit I disrupted their array? Why wouldn't I use a tool they hand me.
Huruki
We already had the hint that they might be working with the heretics, so even odds that Tian is detecting some heretical cultivation from them
P.R. Bakker
Interesting is this the same irritation as the one which Tian experienced with the young master from the Li clan (chapter 37)?
Together_Comic
I think probably 5 elements is the one messing with them. Some elder making there temper short (well shorter than normal) so that they may be baited into fighting. They then set up the arena so that the formations users could have an advantage and were planning to beat them that way. Though Tien and Hong have sort of turned that one on its head.
Khanalas
Odds were favoring those who bet against the Monastery, not on them
Tom C
Fuck it Tian, ask them all to come at you at once and smack the shit outta them! TFTC
Mikołaj
Tian should be happy that they allow blows that could kill otherwise he could be in hot water.
pierre boucheron
I did not expect the interplay with Wang, this daddy showed he could be absolutely vicious. By the way he just won at strict minimum 20 thousand spirit stones (and probably much more), I hope he will remember to reward his virtuous little sister and little brother for the opportunity. (edit: missunderstood, he would lose the *20 or *10 if Hong/Tian lost, he 'just' kept their bets. thanks, Khanalas) Mei's character is interesting, I have a theory that the 'off' and 'itchy' feelings from the other FES 'kids' could be from cultivations recently boosted with pills or other reagents provided by elders who care more for a demonstration of force than not ruining the not yet immortal kids. Which would mean that Mei did not get to 'benefit'... Will Daddy Wang have to rescue a poor little sister who's bullied in her current sect? Lastly the elder showing up to and saving Mao was perfectly ok but protesting about Tian kicking down the arrays while they're being set up... There's cheating and there's whining that someone outsmarted your cheating.
WolfWithAGun
Nah, Tian just holds his hand out, but doesn't understand why people keep slamming their faces into it.
Frank
I’m wondering if there’s something about how they’ve been using elemental qi in earth realm that’s unbalancing them. That might explain the itchy feeling?
EvilLittleThing
Tian out there antagonizing Elders, then asking for lunch. I don't think the Elder expected him to brush off his aura-loom so easily.
Afrisan
This was so freken phenomenal. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Thank you so much for the best face slapping chapter yet!
JTP
Come on if you think you are hard enough!
William Johnson
Cranky Tian is a delight, I wonder if Steelshimmer did something sneaky to get all the Ancient Crane kids fired up or if Five Elements Courtyard is just that annoying.
Book Worm
“I WISH A DAOIST WOULD” - Tian, probably.
JTP
Let's go Wang , bringing the smack talk and financial ruin. Lirens brutality is hilarious. Tian is absolutely fucking vicious.
Diarmuid McGinnity
Heaven defying, dragon slaying, shade throwing art, first form: face slapping
