Close to a day passed by in a flash.

The door of the stone chamber across from Scarface's slowly swung open, and Scarface immediately sprang to his feet as he rushed out of his own room.

The sound of footsteps rang out as a tall and imposing figure emerged from the stone chamber.

It was a one-eyed giant of a man who was significantly taller than even Scarface, and he was also extremely muscular, resembling a bipedal bear.

There was a large azure bear head tattooed onto the man's chest, giving him an even more fearsome appearance, and his entire body was giving off a mountainous aura.

"Boss, you have to stand up for me!" Scarface immediately yelled as he fell to his knees in front of the giant man.

The man was none other than Toxic Dragon, and his expression instantly darkened slightly at the sight of Scarface's arm.

"What happened to your arm, Scarface?"

"My arm was snapped by a newbie!"

Scarface immediately gave Toxic Dragon a heavily embellished recount of his run-in with Han Li, placing extra emphasis on how Han Li refused to hand over his profound points, even after hearing about how Scarface was going to pass them onto Toxic Dragon.

"Is Scarface telling the truth?" Toxic Dragon asked as he turned to another gladiator of the ninth area who just so happened to be passing by.

"That's pretty much what happened. That newbie really was quite arrogant," the gladiator corroborated.

"Looks like someone needs to be taught a lesson!" Toxic Dragon harrumphed coldly as he began making his way toward Han Li's stone chamber.

However, right at this moment, a burst of black light suddenly flashed over a badge that was hanging from his waist.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Toxic Dragon stopped in his tracks, then took a glance down at the badge with slightly furrowed brows.

"Lucky bastard," he harrumphed coldly as he began making his way back to his own stone chamber.

Before Scarface had a chance to raise a question, Toxic Dragon said, "I have a battle to fight. Rest assured, I'll make sure to teach that newbie a good lesson once I'm back."

Scarface hurriedly nodded in response, and Toxic Dragon took one final glance at Han Li's stone chamber before departing.

"Looks like you'll get to live a little longer," Scarface spat in a resentful manner before also departing.

……

Han Li was naturally completely oblivious to what had just happened outside.

At this moment, he was seated with his legs crossed in his room, holding the final Tarot Beast Core in his hand, and after a brief hesitation, he swallowed the beast core before channeling his Wingform Ascension Arts.

Moments later, the second profound acupoint on his leg lit up, and as time passed, it became brighter and brighter.

Some time later, the light emanating from the profound acupoint abruptly brightened significantly, then immediately dimmed again.

An ecstatic look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

Thanks to the three Tarot Beast Cores, he was finally able to open a second profound acupoint.

He pushed off against the ground with one hand to launch himself up into the air, then began to walk around in his room at a far faster speed than before, and the heavy sensation that he felt in his body was also significantly alleviated.

The more progress he made in the Wingform Ascension Arts, the higher the regard that he held it in, particularly in this environment, where flight was impossible.

However, he only had one profound point left, so he had to earn some more.

Right at this moment, the badge that was sitting on his badge suddenly began to glow and buzz.

Han Li picked up the badge to find that a line of small text had appeared upon it.

A pleased smile appeared on his face upon seeing this, and he made his way out of his room.

At this moment, there were around a dozen gladiators gathered in the ninth area, and all of them turned to look at Han Li with peculiar expressions.

Han Li paid no heed to them as he made his way out of the lobby to arrive in the exchange hall, then continued down another passageway without pause.

Inside the passageway was a staircase that led downward, and upon arriving at the foot of the staircase, Han Li found himself in another hall that was similar in size to the exchange hall above, but this place was rather dimly lit.

At the front of the hall was a giant stone gate that was tightly shut, and at this moment, there was no one else in the hall with the exception of a man with a single horn on his head.

"You're Li Feiyu?" the horned man asked with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"That's right," Han Li replied.

"You're here right on time. You have a battle coming up soon," the horned man said, then strode over to the stone gate before slapping it with the palm of his hand.

A small opening that was only large enough to fit a single person appeared on the stone gate, and the horned man gestured for Han Li to wait, then stepped into the opening.

"We have a truly exciting match lined up for everyone today! On one side, we have a Tiger Scaled Beast that's over 3,500 years old. This will be its fourth battle, and prior to this, it's already defeated three gladiators and devoured two of them on the spot!" the horned man declared in an enthusiastic voice, and a chorus of excited cheers rang out from the spectator stands in response.

At this moment, there were no battles taking place on the other two platforms, perhaps to highlight Han Li's first battle.

"On the other side, we have an extremely rare human gladiator from the Immortal Realm, Li Feiyu!" the horned man continued.

The spectators in the stands instantly erupted into thunderous cheers upon hearing this.

"A human gladiator? I can't even remember the last time I saw one!"

"This really is a rare treat!"

"If I recall correctly, the last human gladiator that showed up was over a thousand years ago, and he was torn to shreds. Humans are just too weak."

The horned man was very pleased to see the reaction garnered by Han Li, and he declared, "The battle between the Tiger Scaled Beast and Li Feiyu is about to commence soon, so place your bets now, and no further bets will be taken once the battle begins."

The initial odds for the battle between Han Li and the Tiger Scaled Beast were listed as 5:1.

"I'll put a hundred profound coins on the Tiger Scaled Beast!"

"I'll put a hundred and fifty profound coins on the Tiger Scaled Beast!"

"I'll put three hundred profound coins on the Tiger Scaled Beast!"

"You only have three hundred profound coins left, are you going to bet it all on one battle?"

"Before I was cast into exile here, one of my good friends was killed by a human cultivator from the Immortal Realm, so I have to bet everything I have against this human bastard in honor of my friend!"

Han Li's identity as a human cultivator had completely riled up the crowd, and not only were there far more bets being placed than on average, most of them were against Han Li.

As more and more bets were placed, the odds gradually shifted from 5:1 to 12:1, which meant that if someone bet on Han Li and he came out on top, then their winnings would be twelve times their initial bet, whereas the winnings for a successful bet on the Tiger Scaled Beast would only be one twelfth of the initial bet.

Even so, the vast majority of bets were still placed on the Tiger Scaled Beast. After all, this was essentially free money.

"Time's up! Let the battle begin!" the horned man roared, and the stone gate that separated the arena from the hall that Han Li was in was slowly lifted.

The commotion ringing out within the arena instantly crescendoed to a peak, and the excitement in the air was almost palpable as Han Li was revealed.

Han Li slowly rose to his feet, then made his way into the massive arena.

As he did so, his head was slightly lowered, and he was carefully examining the ground, which was riddled with dark red stains from all of the blood that had seeped into it over the years.

"That's the human? He looks way too frail!"

"What a snoozefest! He won't even be able to withstand a single attack from the scaled beast."

"And he's not even equipped with any armor or weapons! Is he asking to be killed?"

"What's the point in a battle like this? It's nothing more than a gimmick. No wonder the odds are so skewed."

……

On the spectator stands, a muscular green-skinned man was pointing at a horned man sitting beside him as he chortled with derision, "You're betting on that human to win? You must be crazy! If he actually wins, I'll kneel down and call you my father!"

"Anything's possible! There could always be a miracle..." the horned man protested, but it was clear that he wasn't very confident at all.

He had bet on the human after being drawn in by the alluring odds, but as soon as he caught sight of Han Li, his heart was filled with despair.

"A miracle? How can you still be so naive after staying in this godforsaken place for so long?" the green-skinned man chortled with mirth.

The horned man offered no response as a grim look appeared on his face.

In his mind, it was already beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human was going to lose.

A wave of boos instantly rang out across the spectator stands, and no one believed that this frail-looking human would be able to oppose a fearsome 3,500-year-old scaled beast.

At this point, the only thing that they had to look forward to was seeing the human being torn to shreds.