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Chapter 67: Tried to Steal the Chicken but Lost the Rice, making the protagonist’s mother suffer for nothing

Upon hearing this, All eyes turned to Ning Bei in startled unison.

“Has the chief disciple of Heavenly Martial Academy still not gone up?”

“Strange, he’s universally acknowledged as the tournament’s number 1, why hasn’t he tried?”

“This lock can’t be forced open, so what does strength matter? He probably knows he can’t solve it and simply chose not to take part.”

Murmurs filled the hall.

Yu Xuan glanced at Ning Bei, half-smiling as he asked, “You don’t seem interested in the Xuanmai Grass?”

“Indeed, I’m not.”

Under their heated gazes, Ning Bei replied calmly, “It’s useless to me, so I’d rather leave the chance to someone else.”

“?”

The crowd’s expressions shifted at once.

Ning Bei’s words sounded as if he could definitely open the golden lock yet disdained to compete for the Xuanmai Grass.

Leaving aside the herb’s value… no one would dismiss it… the key point was that everyone here had already tried and failed.

The golden lock was no trivial matter, and Ning Bei hadn’t even attempted it.

So to anyone’s ears his claim sounded boastful, yet because of his performance in the tournament they dared not press him.

“Heh~”

Yu Xuan, however, had no such scruples and let out an undisguised sneer.

“Oh?”

Qin Yu’s eyes lit up.

Wasn’t this exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for?

Ning Bei, oh Ning Bei, you really know how to dig your own grave!

The next moment he followed up, “So you’re confident you can open the golden lock?”

“Yeah!”

Facing Qin Yu’s ploy, Ning Bei decided to play along.

“Haha!”

At those words, Qin Yu almost burst with excitement.

Heaven above had finally handed him a chance.

And since Ning Bei had dug the hole himself, Qin Yu felt divinely favored.

To cut off Ning Bei’s retreat, Qin Yu promptly said, “In that case get up there and unlock it; it has already driven everyone crazy and no one can open it… if you succeed, you’ll broaden all our horizons, right?”

His words immediately drew many echoes.

“That’s a good idea!”

“If Ning Bei really unlocks it, we can put our doubts to rest.”

“Exactly, I’m starting to think the lock can’t be opened at all.”

“…..”

Facing their expectant looks, Ning Bei still shook his head, “No, I said the Xuanmai Grass is useless to me; I’ll leave the chance to others.”

“Leave it to others?”

Qin Yu immediately snorted with laughter.

By now he was certain Ning Bei had no idea how to open the lock; otherwise he’d never act like this.

Since Qin Yu knew the method himself, he was convinced no one else could do it.

“Ning Bei still refuses to go up?”

“I suspect he can’t open it either… he’s just saving face.”

“What? Then he’s playing us, pretending to be generous by giving us the chance?”

After Ning Bei declined again, doubts unsurprisingly poured in.

Qin Yu was almost moved to tears.

It was the first time he had seen anyone question Ning Bei.

Usually everyone sided with Ning Bei and endlessly targeted him; he never thought he would one day savor this joy.

It felt blissful.

Suppressing his excitement, Qin Yu no longer spoke politely, “Ning Bei, can you do it or not? If you can, go open the lock; if you can’t, admit it… why be so stubborn?”

Before Ning Bei could speak;

Wang Teng and the others lost patience first.

“You damned Crap King, who are you to talk to Senior Brother Ning like that?”

“Yeah, Senior Brother Ning just isn’t interested in the Xuanmai Grass… if you’re so great, you try!”

“…..”

Hearing this, Qin Yu did not get angry; he actually smiled.

Yes, this was exactly the effect he wanted; the greater their mockery now, the harder he could slap them later.

“I…”

Just as Qin Yu was about to show off, Ning Bei, prompted by a system message that the time was right, stopped playing and said directly, “Very well, since everyone doubts me, I’ll go open the golden lock.”

Whoosh!

With that, Ning Bei leapt onto the platform in an instant.

“?”

Qin Yu was momentarily stunned.

He hadn’t expected Ning Bei’s stubbornness to this extent… would he really go up just to embarrass himself?

Forget it; this fit perfectly with his plan anyway.

Trampling the chief disciple felt best.

“Go ahead!”

Watching Ning Bei arrive, Yu Xuan’s lips curved slightly.

Clearly, like Qin Yu, he thought Ning Bei was a spent arrow.

“Thank your royal father for the surprise for me.”

“Heh, save that line until you actually open the lock…”

Yu Xuan’s cold laugh had yet to finish…

Crack!

Suddenly a crisp click rang out, like a boulder dropped into a placid lake.

Yu Xuan: “???”

“Whoah!”

In an instant the whole venue erupted in exclamation.

“Whoa, the lock opened?”

“How could it be so fast… I didn’t even see what happened!”

“Damn, who told him to go up… do we have no chance now?”

The hall boiled over.

All the doubt from a moment ago vanished without a trace.

“Senior Brother Ning, awesome!”

Wang Teng and the others were overjoyed and screamed until their voices cracked.

“What?”

Meanwhile the experts of the Prince’s estate all stood up simultaneously.

How could anyone open the golden lock?

They had produced this thousand-year spirit herb merely to make Qin Yu famous, win Heavenly Martial Academy’s favor and then rope the academy in…

It was never meant to be a real gift!

“Ah?”

Yet the one hit hardest was Qin Yu.

His mind buzzed and his body went numb.

“No!!”

“This is impossible…”

To open the lock you had to arrange the runes, operate multiple mechanisms, and deal with 3 hidden chambers… miss one step and it wouldn’t open.

How did Ning Bei nail it in one go?

He couldn’t comprehend the outcome… it wasn’t supposed to be like this.

His mother had… cough… had worked herself to the bone to win him this opportunity.

This was supposed to be his chance!

“Was that necessary?”

Several breaths later Ning Bei met their stunned gazes and said, “I originally wanted to leave the Xuanmai Grass to everyone, but your doubts forced my hand… it seems I have no choice but to accept this spirit herb.”

“…..”

At his words everyone looked at each other, feeling a mixture of emotions.

They had originally had a shot at the thousand-year Xuanmai Grass, but now they had all but forced Ning Bei to take it.

“Damn it, who first doubted Ning Bei?”

“I remember it was that Crap King… right, the guy who insisted Ning Bei go up.”

“…..”

The crowd flew into a rage and hurled abuse at Qin Yu.

He had cost them such a chance.

But compared with their curses, what mattered to Qin Yu was the Xuanmai Grass; he knew he couldn’t let things end like this.

He had to get the Xuanmai Grass!

“It’s a misunderstanding, Ning Bei; we always trusted you… we just feared the lock might be defective… now you’ve shown it works… I beg you, since you’re not interested, let me try, let me have a go, okay?”

Qin Yu was truly panicking.

After all, his mother had gone through so much to secure this herb for him; he couldn’t watch it get taken away.

If only he had gone up earlier, the herb might already be his.

But he had delayed just to step on Ning Bei a bit more, never imagining things would turn out like this.

If he missed the herb… wouldn’t his mother’s efforts be for nothing?

Seeing Qin Yu’s humbled face, Ning Bei laughed, “You want to try unlocking it too?”

“Y-yes, yes.”

Qin Yu nodded repeatedly, utterly meek.

“Sure!”

Ning Bei agreed readily.

He slipped the Xuanmai Grass into his robe, closed the freshly opened golden lock with a flip of his hand, and said, “Go ahead, try as many times as you like.”

Qin Yu: “???”

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