With the second cycle of fights over, Lin Mu and his companions gathered once more to discuss as well as to rest.
They had earned quite a lot in this round, especially due to the reversal in Chang Fa's fight. Lin Mu had gotten Luo Liqin to bet on Chang Fa and since the odds were supposed to favor Miu Ran, the return had been nearly 10 times the amount that they had bet.
"We'll have to wait till the participants of the next cycle are decided, Brother Mu Lin." Luo Liqin spoke.
"That is true." Lin Mu nodded his head.
With the rise in their funds again, they discussed what would be the best way to use them again.
"Till then though, I suppose we can prepare for the other fights. There's still Lu Xu and Ming Aolian left to fight." Luo Liqin added.
"Yes, you should do that. Brother Mu Lin's tactics were very helpful for me." Ming Dandan chimed in. "I don't think I would have been able to last otherwise." She added.
"I'm pleased that it was helpful. I guess we can do a more broad lesson this time. To cover all possible foes." Lin Mu replied.
Since they didn't know who would be participating next, it was a lot better to just do an overall study. They had done this before too, but now that the targets had narrowed down, Lin Mu could be a lot more specific.
And while they did this, the Temple of the Four Guardian beasts was also busy at work.
They had a lot of things to deal with now.
From the injury of Miu Ran to the flaw in the array that had left him in that state.
The Clan behind Miu Ran had already sent an official inquiry to the Temple asking for an explanation. This was completely valid on their part and the Temple was obliged to answer as well. His clan knew that they couldn't really complain about Miu Ran's injury, but they could very well ask about a flaw in the Temple's arrays.
After the Miu Clan's inquiry was sent, a few other powers also expressed their concerns with their arrays. After all, now that people knew there was a flaw, there were bound to be some people that might attempt to exploit the flaw.
They didn't wish for their people to get affected by this, thus they also asked the temple to take care of this.
As such, the people of the temple were busy getting solutions for it while their Formation masters were already working on the array.
Considering all this, the temple sent out a notice that the next cycle of four matches would be delayed for at least a day.
For some, this was the last bit of time they could squeeze in for training, while for some it was just a delay in progress. Regardless of what they felt, the day passed quickly and the Temple quickly sent out a new notice telling everyone that the flaw had been rectified.
The identity tokens of all participants signaled them about the next cycle of matches.
Lin Mu and his companions also saw them finding a few familiar faces among them.
"Seems like we can sit this cycle out." Lu Xu said, seeing that the four matches didn't include him or Ming Aolian.
"Let's see…" Lin Mu looked at the list of participants for the next cycle.
Other than a few minor contestants that Lin Mu had seen in the earlier fights, there was a big name.
"Dugu Shanhe… now that's a fight that I certainly want to watch." Lin Mu spoke.
The man's skills were an enigma even now and no one had been able to figure them out. His earlier fights had all ended very fast, with some ending in the blink of an eye, thus it left many people confused. Even Lin Mu was at a loss as he was unable to understand what his technique was from what he had heard so far.
"This is a good chance to make higher earning bets." Luo Liqin could already see the betting pavilion sending out information about the odds through the plate. "Other than Dugu Shanhe, the other three fights are all similarly matched. It will give you a good chance to manipulate it." He explained.
"Mmhmmm, we'll do it." Lin Mu replied.
The matches weren't that far, being only six hours from now, thus Lin Mu and the rest quickly got to work. Luo Liqin set some initial bets, excluding Dugu Shanhe's fight, as he knew that it was basically decided already.
Even the betting pavilion knew that and had set the odds accordingly. Betting on Dugu Shanhe would simply net the person nothing.
With only three matches to focus on, Lin Mu and Luo Liqin would have an easier time.
Qian Wen also returned during this time, albeit still not fully healed. Though he assured that it wouldn't take him more than a couple more days to recover.
Time passed and eventually, it was time for the fights.
Everyone was watching the formation screens intently as the contestants were all teleported into the Spatial Planes.
Lin Mu was only watching on person though and even had his Immortal sense present in the arrays, tunneling towards a particular spatial plane.
He was watching none other than Dugu Shanhe as he wished to know more about his skill.
~SHUA~
Dugu Shanhe and his opponent arrived in the Spatial plane, standing two hundred meters from each other.
"Dugu Shanhe, you will—" The man's opponent tried to speak, but suddenly stopped.
His expression became still while his eyes went blank. Then a moment later something astonishing happened.
~THUD~
~SHUA~
The man collapsed on the gourd, before being teleported away.
"What was that?" Ming Dandan said in surprise. "He just fell like that?"
Lin Mu who had been watching it, furrowed his brows though. The way Dugu Shanhe's opponent was defeated felt familiar to him. After all, several of Lin Mu's opponents had been defeated in the same way before.
'It almost… seems like the sutras…' Lin Mu thought.
