Although the prize money doubled with each ascending layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold, so did the difficulty.
When starting from the first layer, two teleportation arrays would manifest. One would teleport the challenger to the second layer, while the other would eject them directly from the tower.
If one was unlucky and got ejected from the first layer, then the ten thousand Immortal Stones paid as the entry fee would be wasted.
If lucky and teleported to the second layer, one could claim a prize of twenty thousand Immortal Stones. Of course, if one wished to continue ascending, they had to forfeit the second layer's prize.
Starting from the second layer, however, there weren't just two arrays, but three. Two of them led out of the tower, and only one led to the third layer.
The odds of success thus dropped from one-in-two to one-in-three.
By the third layer, four arrays appeared, making the odds one-in-four.
The fourth layer had five arrays, odds of one-in-five.
The ninth layer had ten formations, odds of one-in-ten.
With each ascended layer, the number of arrays multiplied, and the odds decreased accordingly.
Regarding the prize money, from the first to the ninth layer, it increased by ten thousand each time. However, from the ninth layer onward, the increase was by one hundred thousand per layer. By the eighteenth layer, it increased by one million per layer.
The odds followed the same pattern.
Reaching the ninth layer offered a prize of one hundred thousand, but with odds of one-in-ten.
The eighteenth layer's prize was one million, with odds of one-in-a-hundred.
The twenty-seventh layer's prize was ten million, with odds of one-in-a-thousand.
In other words, the twenty-seventh layer would present a thousand formations, and among them, only one led to the twenty-eighth layer.
One could imagine how astronomically low the odds were.
“Elder Sister Lingyao, what's the highest layer you've ever reached in the Tower of Stolen Gold?”
“Me?”
“I've played the Tower for many years, and the highest I've ever reached is the ninth layer.”
Qianniao said enviously, “Wow! The ninth layer's prize is one hundred thousand Immortal Stones! So you used ten thousand to win one hundred thousand?”
“Nonsense! That time I could have won the hundred thousand, but I gave it up, aiming for the tenth layer to win two hundred thousand. Unfortunately, my luck ran out, and I got ejected as soon as I reached the tenth layer.”
“Ah! That's such a shame.”
“So, you see, one shouldn't be too greedy. You have to know when to be content. This time, if I can reach the ninth layer again, I definitely won't try for the tenth.”
At this moment, Flower Butterfly Immortal, who had been silent beside them, spoke up. “Yaoyao, if I recall correctly, you say this every single time before going to the Tower.”
“You're so annoying!” Mu Lingyao rolled her eyes. “This time I'm serious.”
“Weren't you serious every other time? Yet after all these years playing the Tower, you've never once actually claimed a prize, have you? Not even once.”
“Who says I haven't? Once I reached the seventh layer, and following your advice, I did claim the prize, didn't I?”
Flower Butterfly Immortal said helplessly, “That time you did claim the seventh layer's prize. But the moment you stepped out of the Tower… you couldn't accept it and started challenging it again. You only stopped after getting ejected every single time. The seventy thousand you won was only enough for you to challenge the Tower seven times, but that day you challenged it over a hundred times in total.”
Qianniao exclaimed in surprise, “Ah! Over a hundred times in one day? Each challenge costs ten thousand Immortal Stones. So, Elder Sister Lingyao, you spent over a million Immortal Stones just on the Tower that day?”
Mu Lingyao gave Qianniao an awkward smile, then said to Flower Butterfly Immortal, “My dear Elder Sister, couldn't you save me some face in front of Qianniao?”
“If you want face, then stop playing the Tower of Stolen Gold from now on. Even if you do play, go only occasionally. Who else is like you, visiting without fail every time the Tower opens, challenging it at least several times, often dozens of times, and sometimes losing your head and challenging it over a hundred times?”
“I just want to win my capital back!”
“You won't win it back.”
“Who says I can't!”
Hearing that Mu Lingyao challenged the Tower dozens of times each visit, Qianniao was inwardly astonished. She asked, “Elder Sister Lingyao, over the years, how many Immortal Stones have you spent in total on the Tower?”
“It's not that much, just a few tens of millions.”
“What? Tens of millions? Heavens!”
“Far more than tens of millions. I think you've spent at least several hundred million Immortal Stones on the Tower over the years.”
Mu Lingyao glared at Flower Butterfly Immortal. “It's nowhere near that much!”
“My memory has always been excellent. Do you need me to calculate it for you, entry by entry? Moreover, that's only since I've known you. You weren't exactly a stranger to the Tower before I met you. If we count from childhood… I'm afraid it amounts to a billion Immortal Stones.”
Hearing that Mu Lingyao had spent over a billion Immortal Stones just on the Tower over the years, not only was Qianniao incredulous, but even Qianling was shocked.
“Don't believe her! If we count from childhood, I might have spent a fair amount, but it's definitely not a billion! Definitely not!”
Despite Mu Lingyao's vehement denial, everyone—Qianling, Qianniao, and the others from the Xiaoluo Secret Realm—could tell from her guilty expression that she had probably spent far more than a billion Immortal Stones on the Tower over the years.
One couldn't help but sigh. Mu Lingyao was simply too wealthy. To spend a billion Immortal Stones just on the Tower—how terrifying must the amount she spent on tempering her magical treasures and pursuing her Dao be?
Upon careful thought, however, it wasn't surprising.
A billion Immortal Stones might be a number that would suffocate ordinary mortal immortals from modest backgrounds just hearing it.
But for someone with Mu Lingyao's family background, a billion Immortal Stones was probably a mere drop in the ocean. After all, her Mu family was one of the clans of the Elder Council, and the Elder Council governed the entire Fengyue Small World. They could be said to be as rich as one could imagine.
“Don't look at how much I've spent on the Tower over the years! Hmph! This young lady will win it all back one day! It's just a billion Immortal Stones! As long as I can reach the forty-fifth layer of the Tower just once, I'll recover everything!”
“You make it sound easy.”
Flower Butterfly Immortal said, “In all these years, have you seen anyone reach the forty-fifth layer? Forget the forty-fifth, how many have even reached the thirty-sixth?”
“Elder Sister Huadie, don't crush my confidence, okay? Although no one has reached the forty-fifth layer in the last century, that doesn't mean I can't do it. Maybe this time I'll break into the forty-fifth layer?”
“Do you think it's as simple as saying it? The odds of reaching the ninth layer are one-in-ten. The eighteenth layer, one-in-a-hundred. The twenty-seventh layer, one-in-a-thousand. The thirty-sixth layer, one-in-ten-thousand. And the odds of reaching the forty-fifth layer are one-in-a-hundred-thousand. Do you know what that probability means?”