### Chapter 77: The First Heroic Spirit Gets This Exciting?
Not just the Duke, even Elia was taken aback by Xu Xiaofeng’s bold move.
Five hundred thousand is no small sum… Wait a minute, isn’t the mine I wanted supposed to produce a few hundred thousand a year?
Well, it’s the Duke’s family; with their greedy nature, this amount should be chump change!
Even if they didn’t have enough cash on hand, they could always throw in some random stuff as collateral.
So, she quickly jabbed, “Oh, does Duke Kreimans really want to play house with me? That’s a real pity; I’m not as free as you are.”
First, she got mocked by a little kid for playing house, and now she got a jab from a princess with too much free time? How could Duke Kreimans take this?
“Heh, since Her Highness the Princess says so, I’ll take this bet! But where would a little child even get that many gold coins?”
“I’ll vouch for her, if she can’t pay, I’ll cover it.”
“Good, then it’s settled!”
Duke Kreimans shrugged dismissively.
Wasn’t this just giving him free money?
Looking at the well-drafted contract, clearly outlining everything, both parties signed and left their marks.
The bet was officially on.
Duke Kreimans slowly returned to his seat and patted his son on the shoulder, “Do your best, relax, don’t feel pressured. Your opponent is just a little girl; just show your usual skills.”
Wright nodded earnestly, “Yes, Father!”
The other nobles rushed forward to inquire about the terms of the bet, but Duke Kreimans only gave vague responses.
Just that little bit made everyone gasp.
That’s five hundred thousand gold coins! Some small territories barely earn that much in a year.
Larger territories, after taxes and expenses, probably don’t have much left either; it might take them years to amass that amount. Of course, that doesn’t count the corrupt practices.
And they were just gambling it away so casually.
Xu Xiaofeng noticed the commotion and tilted her head in confusion.
Are these locals really that poor? They’re nobles, for goodness’ sake; they can’t possibly not have five hundred thousand gold coins, right? No way!
The rich outsider big brother casually tosses around tens of thousands without batting an eye.
Well, it’s not that straightforward; it’s just my charm, I guess.
Looks like making money from these local NPCs might be harder than climbing Mount Everest; I’ll still have to rely on the outsider players!
But upon further reflection, she realized something was off.
The outsiders are spending RMDB, and the exchange rate to gold coins is 100:1.
But is 100 RMDB really worth a gold coin? Gold’s gone up to over 600 per gram! Weighing even one gold coin should reveal it’s at least 10 grams, and factoring in processing costs? That’s quite a loss in translation!
It’s not that NPCs are poor and outsiders are rich; it’s that someone in the middle is snagging the difference… or rather, losing it!
But who’s the one losing out?
“Um… Sister Tong, you’re not… already broke, are you?”
System: …
Think about it, who do you think I’m doing this for?
Just when Xu Xiaofeng thought she wouldn’t get a response from the system, two words popped into her mind: Rate Adjustment.
Rate adjustment? So, the next big update might change the exchange rate! This is classified information!
Xu Xiaofeng seemed to stumble upon a new business opportunity!
As she was mulling over her prospects for money-making, everyone had already moved to the base of the Heroic Spirit Trial Tower.
Standing at the front, Elia raised her voice, “Well then, the last event of this celebration, the Heroic Spirit Trial, is about to begin! I hope all the young elites can achieve good results, and the Qingyu Royal Family will reward those who perform excellently.”
“At the same time, this is also a small game between myself and a few others, so please enjoy.”
With that, Elia placed her hand on the runic阵法 on the tower door.
With a mysterious swirl of light, the tower door swung open.
Elia gave Xu Xiaofeng a nod, signaling her to be the first to enter.
Wright followed closely behind, and the other newly adult young people quickly followed suit.
Once they all entered, the tower door closed behind them.
At the same time, a formation activated, projecting a simplified map on the opposite wall.
It was a very basic map. A rectangle represented the whole tower, divided into layers by several horizontal lines. Starting from 1, it indicated the order in which people entered the tower; the number’s layer corresponded to the person’s location.
In short, this map would give them a clear visual of how everyone was progressing through the trial tower.
The trial tower had a maximum of twenty floors, and as you ascended, the opponents would get significantly tougher. Even if they were all Bronze Level, the floor master of level twenty could take on ten from level one.
Elia had already informed Xu Xiaofeng about all this in advance.
In fact, Xu Xiaofeng, even without knowing all of this, could handle it with ease. After all, her strongest opponent was just that young Master Wright.
Well, we all know spoilt brats like him don’t have any real skills; they just like to yap and are super fragile emotionally.
Even if she couldn’t clear it in one shot, dealing with a pampered kid? Piece of cake!
With a flash of white light, Xu Xiaofeng found herself on the first floor.
The moment she appeared, she sensed something was off.
She looked at her hands, which were inexplicably shifting in size, and her view seemed to rise and fall.
After waiting a moment, she finally stabilized.
Little hands, low perspective, still that little loli.
But she felt something was still off and closely inspected her hands.
“Ah, I see… is this a spirit form? That makes sense; after all, it’s the Heroic Spirit Tower, and the opponents are heroic spirits, so I should naturally be in a spirit form myself.”
But even so, what on earth is happening with this inexplicable situation as a spirit?
“Sister Tong? Anyone home?”
“Synchronization rate is low, strength is unstable.”
A succinct explanation, cutting to the core—typical of Sister Tong.
And Xu Xiaofeng instantly understood.
This trial shouldn’t be happening right now; once her level was higher and synchronization rate improved, it would feel more normal then.
Translated into player terms, this is like being at level 30 for a dungeon that’s supposed to unlock, but here she is at level 11 jumping in.
Of course, this was just Xu Xiaofeng’s interpretation; whether it was entirely accurate, Sister Tong didn’t confirm.
“Alright, let’s start the tower challenge.” Xu Xiaofeng took a step forward into the battle area, “I wonder who the floor master of the first level will be?”
“Who cares who it is; I don’t know them anyway, nor would they know me. After all, these are heroic spirits, figures who made their mark in history.”
Soon enough, the floor master for the first level appeared; he was a soldier clad in armor, with his entire face covered by his helmet.
From the many wear-and-tear marks on his armor, it was evident that he was a battle-hardened warrior.
“Is there truly someone who can summon me here? How rare. Challenger, you are…”
But halfway through, he suddenly froze.
Then, in the next moment, he knelt on one knee and bowed deeply, “I, Aslan, pay my respects to Her Highness the Princess!”
