Others shared the same sentiment.
Xu Changzong appeared too upright; who would believe he was a gambler, let alone involved in betting?
Wei Congling said, "Jiaojiao thinks so too. Because junior brother Xu looks so honest, no one would believe his bets. In fact, others might even mock him. You guys can't do this; if you were mocked even a little, you'd probably start cursing."
"Oh, I see. Jiaojiao is indeed amazing, to be able to scheme this far."
The little black dog, woken by the noise, almost clawed Sheng Mo Bai.
Was this guy a reincarnated sycophant? He could spin anything like this?
Nice flattery, but don't do it again!
Xu Changzong, holding the spirit stones gathered by everyone, quietly walked to the betting area.
The crowd had already placed their bets and were about to watch Yan Jiaojiao's next match. Unexpectedly, someone entered, wearing the attire of Gunan Academy.
Curiosity piqued, they turned to look and saw Xu Changzong pile all the chips in his hand onto Gunan Academy winning and Yan Jiaojiao winning.
"Hey, aren't you from Gunan Academy? You trust your teammate that much? It's one thing to believe Yan Jiaojiao in this revolving battle arena, as she has strong individual capabilities. But you believe Gunan Academy will win the academy competition too? Are you a brainless fan of Gunan Academy?"
Xu Changzong scanned the crowd indifferently, without even a flicker of expression, and turned to leave.
"Hey! You Gunan Academy people think you're so great, and you ignore us when we talk to you."
"Alright, alright. They're from Gunan Academy, so they're naturally going to side with their academy. Do you expect them to side with you?"
That made sense. The crowd's anger subsided considerably, and those restraining people from other academies also increased instantly.
"Better to earn a little than nothing; we shouldn't gamble. Yan Jiaojiao will undoubtedly win this individual match, but there are still several other people, aren't there?"
The crowd felt they had grasped the knack for earning spirit stones and therefore increased their betting significantly.
Later, they further subdivided, creating a separate betting pool specifically for the first round and pulling others in to bet on how many matches Gunan Academy would win.
Seeing it was his turn again, Xu Changzong quietly stood up. While no one was paying attention, he bet everything on Gunan Academy losing.
However, because Yan Jiaojiao had gotten off to a good start, everyone was actually quite confident in Gunan Academy.
But to everyone's surprise, the remaining nine members of Gunan Academy all conceded.
The crowd erupted.
Some even shouted loudly about unfairness, claiming Gunan Academy was manipulating the bets and intentionally conceding. Yan Jiaojiao directly amplified her voice with spiritual energy, and it spread throughout the spectator area.
"Everyone, do you dare say that no one else interfered in our first round of matches?"
This statement, of course, questioned the fairness of the competition.
Those with nothing to hide would surely retort, but it was evident that this time, others were somewhat hesitant to do so.
Yan Jiaojiao snorted and continued, "I'm not surprised I'm the first one; everyone has bad luck sometimes. But of the remaining nine members of Gunan Academy, not a single one drew the final round?"
"Conversely, disciples from Sacred Cup Academy consistently draw after the last three rounds, only needing to defeat one or two people to win. Do you all think this is normal?"
"Since you've already tampered with it, don't talk about fairness anymore. Isn't it embarrassing?"
The crowd was rendered speechless by Yan Jiaojiao's words.
Some attempted to salvage their pride, saying, "If you think we've tampered, you need to provide evidence." But Yan Jiaojiao couldn't be bothered to respond.
"We choose to concede. If you're not satisfied, then kneel and beg us not to concede. If you kowtow sincerely enough, we might give you face and fight one or two matches."
As soon as Yan Jiaojiao finished speaking, others had nothing more to say.
Conceding was permitted within the rules of the match. Would they really kneel and beg them not to concede?
Several disciples who had been itching to teach Gunan Academy a lesson and bring glory to their own academies felt like they had punched into thin air, utterly speechless.
Especially seeing that Gunan Academy had profited handsomely from their bets this time, the crowd grew even more furious.
Those were their hard-earned spirit stones!
They had put in so much effort to keep those spirit stones!
And they had lost it all in one go!
Filled with both anger and helplessness, and not daring to confront Gunan Academy directly, they finally shifted their gaze to the person who had initially set up the betting.
The one who had originally set up the betting had done it for fun and hadn't expected to be the one to suffer the consequences. Their academy was weak and isolated, naturally unable to contend with those people, so they were forced to return the spirit stones that others had lost.
After this incident, everyone knew that disciples from the larger academies couldn't afford to lose, and from then on, no one bothered to approach them for any betting matters.
The people from the larger academies looked down on these individuals, so they weren't too upset. In fact, they felt quite pleased.
After all, their status was different from these people, and it was best not to get involved with them.
However, soon the people from the larger academies discovered that these individuals from smaller academies were indeed skillful, coming up with all sorts of tricks. This made the people from the larger academies seem rather rigid, causing them to feel both angry and dejected.
"These people are definitely doing it on purpose."
In the rest area for the larger academies, everyone was furious.
They had clearly banded together and were no longer afraid of others accusing them of targeting.
In their view, since the smaller academies had formed their own group and weren't including them, they could also form a group and exclude others.
"Alright, they're just a bunch of people from smaller academies. You're making such a fuss, as if they were some incredibly powerful figures. Let them play however they want; what does it have to do with us?"
"Instead of focusing on those matters now, you should be thinking about the second round. Gunan Academy has Yan Jiaojiao, who is at the Yellow Tier. Their complete abstention in the first round was clearly a strategy for this moment, intended to intimidate us through Yan Jiaojiao and make us fearful."
"Hmph, I bet their other disciples are definitely inferior to Yan Jiaojiao, perhaps even much lower in cultivation."
The Yellow Tier was the threshold for the academy competition. However, the disciples' cultivation speed had been declining year after year, so everyone had been somewhat lenient on this matter.
As long as one had sufficient cultivation and was willing to participate, no one would stop them.
After all, life and death were not considered here.
Therefore, Yan Jiaojiao at the Yellow Tier wasn't particularly rare. What was astonishing was her techniques.
She directly sent everyone flying with a single move. In the first round of the revolving battle arena, Yan Jiaojiao had even sent flying a Yellow Tier expert of the same level from Sacred Cup Academy.
Her cultivation was unfathomable, which became something others feared.
"What's there to fear? Just stick to the original plan. Can she, a Yellow Tier, fight against ten people?"