He thought he would definitely win.
He thought that as long as he won, he could reclaim the face he had lost to Gu Qingfeng tenfold, a hundredfold, and even recover the face he had lost to Mu Lingyao.
But all of this was merely his own wishful thinking.
Witnessing Gu Qingfeng ascend to the Twenty-Seventh Layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold with his own eyes, he realized he had lost—completely and utterly lost, and lost miserably.
He couldn't believe it, couldn't accept it, and couldn't even imagine the severe consequences of losing this bet.
A full ten million kowtows—how could he, who was proud and valued face more than life itself, bear such a thing?
He couldn't bear it. Bai Yufei and Liu Feng couldn't bear it either. The expressions on the three of them grew increasingly ugly, their panicked demeanor like they had fallen into a bottomless abyss.
Within the arena, the crowd buzzed with discussion.
Common Immortals, Elegant Immortals, and even those senior experts from the various Secret Realms were more astonished than amazed.
Although the Twenty-Seventh Layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold was an unreachable height for most, in the eyes of those senior experts, it wasn't anything particularly rare. Over the years, those who had ascended to the Twenty-Seventh Layer were not many, but certainly not few.
For instance, before this, Flower Butterfly Immortal had also smoothly ascended to the Twenty-Seventh Layer.
The reason the crowd was so astonished by Gu Qingfeng reaching the Twenty-Seventh Layer wasn't because he lacked cultivation, nor because it was his first time challenging the tower, but because he gave the impression of having ascended to the Twenty-Seventh Layer with effortless ease.
This inevitably made everyone secretly marvel.
Especially for the Grand Steward Elder Luo, who was in charge of the Tower of Stolen Gold. He understood the tower's profound mysteries better than anyone. Over so many years, he had seen people who ascended to the Twenty-Seventh Layer with ease, but if one were to speak of someone as relaxed as Gu Qingfeng—smoking Spiritual Tobacco, eating Spirit Fruit, and drinking wine while doing so—this was absolutely the first time he had witnessed it.
In his view, this could no longer be called ease; it was practically like playing around, ascending so casually.
If it were just reaching the Twenty-Seventh Layer, that would be one thing, but now it wasn't just the Twenty-Seventh Layer. Under the watchful eyes of the entire crowd, Gu Qingfeng smoothly ascended to the Twenty-Eighth Layer.
Everyone knew that the odds of the Tower of Stolen Gold doubled every nine layers.
The odds for the Ninth Layer were one in ten, for the Eighteenth Layer one in a hundred, for the Twenty-Seventh Layer one in a thousand, and for the Twenty-Eighth Layer one in two thousand. In other words, after reaching the Twenty-Eighth Layer, this layer would have two thousand Formations alternating and changing, with only one Formation leading to the next layer.
Divining the correct Formation from two thousand was already extremely difficult. What was even more terrifying was that these two thousand Formations were constantly alternating and changing, and with each change, the Teleportation Array would weaken slightly until it completely dissipated. If one hadn't made a choice before the Formation dissipated, they would also be eliminated.
Some talented Immortal prodigies with good Comprehension might be able to divine the Formation leading to the next layer during the first change when facing nine Formations.
But if facing dozens, they would need to spend some time divining, perhaps during the second, third, or even more changes of the Formations.
Like Flower Butterfly Immortal—when she was on the Ninth Layer, she had divined it as soon as the Formations changed for the first time.
But the higher she went, with the increase in Formations, her Comprehension and Divine Sense could no longer accurately divine during the first change.
By the time she reached the twenties layers, there were hundreds of Formations alternating. Although Flower Butterfly Immortal finally ascended to the Twenty-Seventh Layer, each time she only divined the correct Formation after the Formations had changed repeatedly, until they were nearly dissipating, and even then, half of it relied on luck.
Many in the arena saw clearly: when Gu Qingfeng challenged the Tower of Stolen Gold, as soon as the Formations manifested, he would step onto them without even waiting for the first alternation.
This was true on the First Layer, the Ninth Layer, the Eighteenth Layer, and the Twenty-Seventh Layer. He never hesitated, never wavered, not even once.
Such an unbelievable thing—not only had others never seen it, even the Grand Steward Elder Luo of the Tower of Stolen Gold had never heard of it.
Could it be that the moment the Formations manifested, he had already divined the Formation leading to the next layer?
Was that possible?
No one knew.
No one understood.
They only knew that Gu Qingfeng continued advancing up the Tower of Stolen Gold, ascending to the Twenty-Ninth Layer, the Thirtieth Layer, the Thirty-First Layer...
The Thirty-Sixth Layer.
Was it over?
No.
The Thirty-Seventh Layer, the Thirty-Eighth Layer...
The Fortieth Layer.
Under the incredulous gaze of everyone present, Gu Qingfeng just kept challenging the tower layer by layer. By the time he ascended to the Forty-Fifth Layer, the entire arena had long fallen into dead silence.
Even those well-traveled, experienced old seniors, including the Grand Steward Elder Luo responsible for the Tower of Stolen Gold, were no longer calm this time.
One must know that in the eyes of most, the Twenty-Seventh Layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold was already an unreachable height, and the Thirty-Sixth Layer wasn't even something they dared to dream of. Yet Gu Qingfeng had ascended to the Forty-Fifth Layer.
This was the Forty-Fifth Layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold! The odds for the Thirty-Sixth Layer were one in ten thousand, while the odds for the Forty-Fifth Layer were one in a hundred thousand!
Divining the Formation leading to the next layer from a thousand Formations was already extremely difficult. But divining it from a hundred thousand Formations—this was no longer a question of difficulty. For everyone, this was an impossible task.
Divination?
How could one divine?
With a hundred thousand Formations, one couldn't even see them all, let alone divine them?
How could one possibly divine them?
All cultivators knew that the premise of divination required powerful Divine Sense to support it.
The strength of one's Divine Sense directly related to how many Formations one could simultaneously probe.
Those ordinary Common Immortals had ordinary Divine Sense. When they released their Divine Sense, they could only probe the Profound Mysteries of a few Formations at once. They could probe more, but whether they could perceive the Profound Mysteries of the Formations was another matter.
This was like using eyes to look at things. If you only look at one thing, you can see it very carefully and clearly observe its details. But if you look at four or five things at once, you can't see them as carefully or observe the details; perhaps you can only see a rough outline.
The principle of probing with Divine Sense was the same.
The difference from eyes was that eyes only saw the surface, while Divine Sense could probe the interior.
Some talented Elegant Immortals had slightly stronger Divine Sense, but they could only probe the Profound Mysteries of a few dozen Formations.
The stronger the Divine Sense, the greater the probing ability.
However, it was only the probing ability that was strong. Divination not only required using Divine Sense to probe but also using one's mind to comprehend. Merely probing the Profound Mysteries wasn't enough; one had to be able to comprehend the Profound Mysteries probed. Only by comprehending the mysterious changes between these Formations could one accurately divine the Formation leading to the next layer.
And the Forty-Fifth Layer of the Tower of Stolen Gold had a hundred thousand Formations. In other words, if one wanted to divine one Formation leading to the next layer from these hundred thousand Formations, one would need Divine Sense to first probe the Profound Mysteries within the hundred thousand Formations, and then, in a short time, fully comprehend all the Profound Mysteries contained within the hundred thousand Formations.
What kind of Divine Sense could probe a hundred thousand Formations in a short time?
What kind of Comprehension could comprehend the Profound Mysteries of a hundred thousand Formations?
Who knew?
No one knew.
They couldn't even imagine it.