Having learned that the Spatial Planes would close upon the winners being decided, Lin Mu now had a solid method of verifying his plan.

'I just need to wait till all the Spatial Planes have closed. Once that is done, I'll be able to ask the other's to speed up their work.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Now that he knew exactly what to do, the things became a lot smoother.

"For now we just need to wait and passively defeat the opponents that come close." Lin Mu informed the others.

"How long do we do that?" Ming Aolian asked.

"For a while… I think it'll take a couple of weeks at least before the conclusion of this round is reached." Lin Mu replied. "We just need to stretch it out for now. I'll tell you when we are ready to go on an all-out offense." He explained. is the owner.

"Alright, Brother Mu Lin." Lu Xu replied as well.

The group was scattered around the hills and was only defeating the others if they got close to it. Other than that, they would hide and try to avoid any extra conflict. They needed to drag out this round after all.

And thus began their wait. It might have felt suspicious since there were many people in the audience watching but Lin Mu and the others were in luck.

Thankfully for them, the audience wasn't really focused on them either. Lin Mu and the other's passive actions had made them 'boring' thus the Audience simply didn't watch them. They were mostly focused on the more eye-catching contestants.

"I still can't believe Third Prince Feng Baxing managed to finish in just three days." 

"I know right? That must be a record."

"Nah… the shortest record was like a single day. But that is from a long time ago." 

The people sitting in the audience were discussing animatedly. To them, it was only the top contestants that were mostly interesting. The others were being sidelined and mostly the top were being shown.

Luo Liqin was also watching everything in the Spring Valley Restaurant. His screen was set to Lin Mu and the others, with him occasionally checking on other contestants.

But right now, he had a frown on his face. The screen changed to show a particular cultivator that was also among the top.

~WHOOSH~

A blazing field could now be seen on the screen, a single man standing in the center. The blaze was spreading at great speed, and all those that encountered it were burned before being teleported out of the Spatial Plane.

A name hovered above the screen showing who it was.

"Childe Wildfire… He actually ended up in the same Spatial Plane as Brother Mu Lin and the others." Luo Liqin furrowed his brows.

He was in charge of informing Lin Mu of who ended up where, but this ranker had only moved at the very last moment. This made it so that Luo Liqin couldn't tell Lin Mu in time. Or perhaps even if he had told him, there was no saying if it would work or not at that time.

There was a very slight margin of error, and losing focus would have been bad for Lin Mu.

'Thankfully he's still far from them.' Luo Liqin thought.

He had seen the areas and Childe Wildfire was at the other end of the Spatial Plane. The man wasn't moving around much either, simply staying in one place. From time to time, he would use his skills, creating a field of fire that burned all those that got close.

'Perhaps he intended to conserve his energy.' Luo Liqin thought.

Whatever the reason might be, it was at least allowing Lin Mu to be at an ease.

'Though Brother Mu Lin should be able to fight and defeat him when the time comes.' Luo Liqin had the confidence. 

~shua~

While he was watching, he felt the communication jade slip tremble. Holding it for a moment, Luo Liqin read the message.

"Finally… they are starting to take bets again." Luo Liqin muttered as a smile appeared on his face.

The betting pavilions had to reshuffle everything as the mode of the tournament had changed. Since they didn't wish to make a mistake and end up losing more than calculated, the Betting pavilions had spent quite some time preparing everything.

Even if it meant that they had to give up on the initial bet and that two of the winners had already been decided. 

Still to them, it wasn't the Third prince that would bring the most profits, but rather the smaller contestants. After all, everyone knew the prince would have a high chance of winning, thus his odds were set to high. 

The profit margin would not be there and thus it wasn't an issue for them to miss out on one Spatial Plane. 

It was the other Spatial Planes that would be turning most of their profits now. Plus now that people had gotten to see the cultivators fight for a few days, they knew which ones to pick.

'Time to place the bets…' Luo Liqin quickly left the Sparing Valley Restaurant and headed to the betting pavilion.

"They sure were waiting for this…" Luo Liqin could already see the people surrounding the place.

He had to wait for a few minutes before he was able to enter the betting pavilion as well.

"I'd like to place my bets." Luo Liqin went to one of the many counters that were set up.

~shua~

The clerk setting at the counter simply waved his hand, making a Formation screen materialize. On it, thousands upon thousands of names could be seen.

"Other than the ones picked out by the pavilion, the rest will all have triple returns." The clerk simply said.

On the screen, Luo Liqin could mostly see the big names of the top contenders along with others that were ranked around the fifties. These were the main contestants that most people were focusing on thus their odds were set with the most study.