Chapter 961: Getting Off the Hook

The second purpose of the challenge was to identify what trump cards Li Zongming possessed.

The first purpose was obvious; Li Zongming would have caught on almost immediately if he weren't stupid. In trying to deal with the first purpose, he would end up revealing his trump cards.

The other superior kings looked down on Li Zongming, but they were still a little wary.

After all, Li Zongming had taken down the xuluo world. Although Feitian wasn't as strong as the king of keys or king of chaos, he was certainly on the stronger side of the superior kings—and yet the Zongming world had crushed the xuluo world.

Although both the king of keys and king of chaos suggested that Feitian had been destined to fall, the fact that Feitian had fallen to Li Zongming was still worthy of consideration. After all, before that point, the xuluo world had operated in a stable fashion for millennia.

The ancient superior kings believed that Li Zongming had some ace up his sleeve. One of their intentions was to use this challenge to get a sense of that ace—and they succeeded. The root cause of the downfall of the xuluo world had appeared before everyone's eyes: Zhang Lie.

The destruction of the xuluo world finally made sense to the superior kings.

One fundamental cause was the karmic backlash that the xuluo race had accrued, but the direct cause of the downfall of the xuluo was Zhang Lie. The combination of these two causes had led to the extinction of the xuluo.

This wasn't unacceptable—the superior kings just had to figure out what to do next.

Li Zongming requested, "King of keys, please announce the result of the challenge."

The king of keys nodded. "It was a very interesting challenge, and it's been a long time since I saw such an unexpected upset. Accepting a newcomer every so often isn't a bad thing. I declare that the Zongming king has passed our challenge."

Li Zongming rubbed his hands gleefully. "In that case, I've also won the bet."

The king of chaos sent half a superior world's worth of energy rolling toward Li Zongming with a wave of his hand, as though it were nothing more than a casual gift.

Li Zongming grinned as he accepted the world's energy, going into a state of euphoric bliss as he sensed how concentrated it was.

As a newly evolved superior world, the Zongming world desperately needed a world's energy for advancement, and the king of chaos had given him just what he needed.

"You have my gratitude, king of chaos."

The other superior kings gnashed their teeth, their faces filled with envy, jealousy, and anger. This was supposed to be their opportunity to obtain this prize—but Li Zongming had snatched it away from under their noses!

There were no rules against choosing an overwhelmingly strong unit for the challenge, but none of the other kings could have anticipated that Li Zongming had such a subordinate.

By now, there was nothing they could do to contest Li Zongming's victory.

Li Zongming collected all the orbs of world's energy on the table. These were all his spoils: half a superior world's worth of energy, which he had bet himself; half a large world's worth of energy, which Zhang Lie had bet; and three large worlds' worth of energy from the other kings combined.

The other kings who had participated in the challenge stared balefully at Li Zongming, who smiled happily as he inspected the orbs of energy.

This was an overwhelming prize that he had won.

He had been rather annoyed before the meeting that the other superior kings had forced him to attend, but he was now very glad that he had made such a decision. He couldn't have been more pleased by his son-in-law, Zhang Lie, who had brought him this fortune.

Li Zongming kept the world's energy and asked, "Kings, I trust you won't forget the odds that were promised to me at the start of the bet."

The decaying king, who had been intending to scam Li Zongming of his world's energy, glared at him.

"King of Zongming, I'm warning you—take what you're offered and no more."

The solar king nodded. "You've already amassed quite a fortune today. Shut your mouth and don't force us to become enemies."

Li Zongming ignored the decaying king and solar king's words as he continued, "If I remember correctly, you promised me fifty-to-one odds on my victory."

The decaying king squirmed. The black flesh that made up its body seemed to froth. "Enough, king of Zongming! Don't think that you're all that just because you have a subordinate as strong as a superior king. We all have such subordinates—you're not special."

"Surely you won't deny me my just rewards? It would damage your reputations as superior kings of antiquity. My son-in-law and I didn't bet much energy—just half a superior world's worth of energy, and half a large world's as well.

According to the deal we made at the start of the bet, you won't have to give me too much: just twenty-five superior ?and large worlds' worth of energy."

Twenty-five superior worlds' worth of energy?! None but the king of keys and king of chaos had so much energy on hand.

Li Zongming's face was calm, as though he hadn't heard any of the other kings' threats. "I'll even discount them and lump them together. Let's call it thirty superior worlds' worth of energy, shall we? Given your abundant resources, seniors, I'm sure you'll be able to give me that quantity easily."

Thirty superior worlds' worth of energy—when there were only ten superior worlds among the three thousand!

In the past, there had been more superior worlds that had failed to withstand the test of time, but except for the king of keys and king of chaos, no other king had such luxurious stockpiles of energy.

The superior kings represented in the challenge would each be able to pay their fair share, but none of them were going to do so. If they did, their worlds would surely regress and their powers diminish.

The solar king gritted his teeth. "You've passed the challenge. Don't try to ask for what you don't deserve. It might take us some time to destroy the Zongming world, but if we work together, we'd be able to manage it quite easily."

The decaying king added, "Let's try to maintain some semblance of civility, shall we?"

The solar king narrowed his eyes. "Or do you intend to make all of us your enemies?"

The superior kings' intentions were obvious: to back out of the bet and renege on the terms they had promised.