"No, that's out of the question! Childe Xu, you saved me as a total stranger, which is more than kindness you know! I can hardly express my respect and admiration for your heroic conduct if I don't refer to you as Child Xu. Now it will be an offense to you if you wanna make me call you by your name." Zong Qi rejected Wandong's request steadfastly. He was a real cute diehard.
"I do appreciate your cordial admiration for Yaoting. Well, then you may as well call him big brother as I do, what do you say?" Wu Yang cut in with a smile, arm around Zong Qi's shoulder.
Zong Qi found it a good idea. "Fantastic! I'll go for that. Big brother!"
Wu Yang uttered a wave of laughter and turned back to Wandong. "Big brother, he is cool! I like him! Please apply yourself and defeat the old dog!"
Behind Wu Yang's cheerful façade, he already made up his mind. If Wandong lost to Wu Qiujun, he would smash his own crown without hesitation.
Wandong nodded in agreement and cast eyes on Wu Qiujun, "Get a move on?"
Wu Qiujun raised his grey eyebrows. "Now that you ask for death, I'll help you with it."
"The odds are indeed for you but don't get carried away with that. If I win, all the blood steel raw stones here will belong to me."
"You talk real big!" Wu Qiujun knitted his eyebrows.
Actually, there were over five thousand raw stones stored in the Tianbao Mansion. They could sell for five million kilos of gold in accordance with the previous price only. As well-off as Wu Qiujun was, he couldn't help but balk at this costly proposal.
Wandong smiled with composure. "I even make my own life part of the stake now. Why can't I ask for more? And, don't tell me you don't find my social status worth it."
Wu Qiujun responded with a hum, casting eyes on Duan Lengyan, signaling a request for instructions.
Wu Qiujun's reaction was pretty weird. Wandong felt confused. "They are martial master and disciple. How come a martial master is subject to his disciple? Does it mean their relationship is much more complicated than how it seems? Then, what's Duan Lengyan's real background on earth?"
"We'll do it! I'm pretty sure you'll end up defeated." Duan Lengyan nodded without any hesitation. Albeit a girl, she was marvelously decisive.
Her assertive manner was a clear manifestation that she hated Wandong to the core. Picking up on that, Wandong smiled wryly.
"Okay! Wu Yang, Zong Qi, Yuecui, come and give me a hand! Go and fetch the raw stones!" Wandong beckoned to his friends, who rushed up instantaneously.
"Xu Yaoting, you'd better off defeating the old dog! Otherwise, I would keep annoying you even if I became a ghost!" Leng Yuecui warned Wandong under her breath.
"What? Leng Yuecui, you will also…" Wu Yang stared at Leng Yuecui, astonished. However, he caught himself in midsentence and shaped out a suicide.
Leng Yuecui hummed. "What else am I supposed to do then? As everyone knows, I always hang out with you guys. If you all kill yourself, I don't have the impudence to live on alone. So, I'll have to die with you guys." She kept rolling her eyes, appearing rather ambivalent. It seemed that she was helplessly indignant. However, Wandong still sensed a lovely tenderness in her eyes and became anxious about her. "Silly girl, I do appreciate your affection for me. But, please don't indulge yourself in it. You know, I'll only let you down."
Wu Yang shaped out a thumbs-up to Leng Yuecui in spite of himself with wonder. "By no stretch of the imagination have I ever pictured you such a heroic and loyal friend! Well, I shall take you as my sister from now on!"
"Come on. Take back your clichés." Leng Yuecui turned away Wu Yang's compliment. However, she caught a couple of glimpses of Wandong in spite of herself.