The bag for spirit stones was almost full.
Mo Qi took a brief look. Since there were no malevolent spirit stones, he picked out the individual ordinary stones and then put away his storage bag.
At this moment, Steward Yu's resonant voice rang out, "Time is up. Please exit the mountain gate within a quarter of an hour, or it will be considered invalid."
Mo Qi immediately unleashed his movement and sped towards the mountain gate.
Upon reaching the mountain entrance, only Wu Lei stood there with a dejected expression, seemingly having been out for a long time.
Wu Lei was actually still alive!
This was Mo Qi's first reaction. His second reaction was that this fellow had come out so early, and with such a gloomy look, as if he felt the tide had turned against him and had given up prematurely!
What a waste!
Seeing Mo Qi, Wu Lei's face immediately contorted with anger, "I was being chased, and I asked you for help. Why didn't you help?"
Mo Qi said indifferently, "I only help those who are worth helping!"
Wu Lei's eyes widened, "Are you saying I'm not as good as you?"
Mo Qi nodded, "That's exactly what I mean."
Wu Lei became furious, his fists clenching with a cracking sound.
Mo Qi ignored his outburst and turned to ask, "How many spirit stones did you collect?"
Wu Lei deflated like a leaky balloon, his eyes instantly dimming, "None at all. It's no use. Even if you had helped me, we wouldn't have won anyway."
He had also collected some, but they were snatched away by the Xin family.
"I didn't expect you to give up so easily!" Mo Qi said with disdain, "With someone like you, why would anyone help you?"
Wu Lei's chest flared with anger again, "Are you looking for a fight?"
Just then, the little fellow came out carrying a bag of spirit stones. Wagging its tail, it directly came to Mo Qi. Mo Qi squatted down, took the bag of spirit stones, and then presented all his storage bags filled with spirit stones to Steward Yu.
Wu Lei was stunned. One, two, three... He counted, a total of nine bags of spirit stones!
"This... did you find all of this yourself?" Wu Lei stammered.
Never mind the quality, the quantity of these nine bags was already astonishing!
Mo Qi pointed at the little fellow, "It's mainly his credit."
Pleased with the praise, the little fellow let out a joyful yelp and rubbed against Mo Qi's feet.
Mo Qi, however, looked meaningfully at Wu Lei, implying that he was not even as good as an animal!
Wu Lei lowered his head in shame!
Steward Yu, with so many spirit stones placed before him, maintained a placid expression. He kept his gaze fixed on the direction of the main gate.
He was very worried because he had agreed with Shui Han that she would emerge from the mountain before the deadline, meaning she would arrive at the mountain gate before all the contestants.
And now, she was clearly late!
Had something unfortunate happened to her inside?
But that shouldn't be the case!
Her cultivation was so high, who could possibly kill her?
Other participants gradually emerged from within.
When the agreed-upon quarter of an hour passed, Fu Chuande, Duan Ganxin, and Yuan Jiadong had not come out, nor had Shui Han.
Mo Qi knew that Fu Chuande, Duan Ganxin, and Yuan Jiadong were definitely dead. As for Shui Han, had she chased Lian Xin all the way to the demon realm?
Steward Yu did not care about the lives of the participants from the Four Great Immortal Divisions. He only cared about Shui Han. Seeing that Shui Han had still not emerged, he couldn't help but feel anxious. He scanned the crowd, "Has anyone seen Princess Shui Han?"
Just as Mo Qi was about to speak, Ge Xiang quickly interjected, "I saw her chasing after the demonic vixen. It's fine, perhaps she went back on her own after chasing the vixen."
Steward Yu was not satisfied with her explanation, as Shui Han would not return alone. The competition here had not ended, so how could she possibly return on her own?
At this moment, the Wang family also presented the spirit stones they had collected to Steward Yu. Coupled with some spirit stones snatched by the Xin family, after some shuffling, there were as many as twelve bags.
On the Zhou family's side, apart from Mo Qi, only Gu Dahu brought out one bag, which was placed with Mo Qi's spirit stones.
A total of ten bags, with some bags not even full!
In terms of quantity, the Wang family had won!
At this point, the Wang and Xin families could no longer suppress the joy of victory on their faces!
Ge Xiang stared at Mo Qi with much displeasure, "We could have won. It's all because you were petty and insisted on arguing with me. Now you've lost, haven't you? You've reaped what you sowed!"
Of course, whether they ultimately won still depended on the quality of the spirit stones. If they were all low-grade spirit stones, a large quantity wouldn't necessarily guarantee victory.
However, Ximen Tong felt that their side had definitely won and kept urging Steward Yu, "Steward Yu, please appraise them quickly and see which family has won."
Steward Yu was completely distracted. After sending a message to the Sky City, he finally turned his attention to the storage bags before him.
With so many eyes fixed on him, it was truly difficult for him to refuse. He solemnly asked, "These are from the Wang and Zhou families, right? Have the Ge and Xin families voluntarily forfeited?"
Ge Xiang and Qiang Senrui both nodded in unison, "We have forfeited."
Steward Yu glanced at their expressions and knew there was something fishy going on, but he didn't care about anything else. He was only responsible for appraising the spirit stones. He then began to examine the spirit stones collected by the Wang family, bag by bag.
As a result, many ordinary stones were taken out, as well as quite a few malevolent spirit stones. After removing these items and deducting some spirit stones, only nine bags remained.
During the examination, Steward Yu sorted the spirit stones.
The result was that out of the nine bags of spirit stones, only three contained mid-grade spirit stones, one contained high-grade spirit stones, and the rest were all low-grade spirit stones.
Ximen Tong was bewildered and looked at Dongmen Butong, "How can there be malevolent spirit stones?"
Dongmen Butong looked back at him, "Don't look at me. It definitely wasn't me who collected them."
Qiang Senrui suddenly realized, this must have been Mo Qi's doing.
But at this point, they could only swallow the loss. This matter was not to be publicized. They hadn't helped much in their cooperation with the Wang family, and now they had caused more harm than good. Could this matter be publicized?
Mo Qi stared at him provocatively. Instead, he lowered his head, not daring to meet Mo Qi's eyes throughout the entire process.
Lu Feng and Tang Jiayan remained silent throughout. They believed that since the Zhou family's spirit stones totaled less than ten bags, after removing ordinary stones and deductions, they would surely have fewer than their side.
Ge Xiang also wore a gloomy expression, looking at Mo Qi and still calling him stingy.
At this moment, Steward Yu picked up the Zhou family's bags and examined them one by one.
Steward Yu was initially calm, but then his expression suddenly became solemn.
After examining the first nine bags, he did not take out a single stone from them.
The Wang family members showed mocking smiles. It seemed that all they had collected were malevolent spirit stones and ordinary stones. In that case, their side was surely destined to win.
However, Steward Yu then took out some spirit stones from the last bag, stating that they were ordinary stones!
Everyone's expression changed!
Does that mean that the first nine bags contained no ordinary stones or malevolent spirit stones at all?
This was too incredible!
Immediately after, Steward Yu deducted some more spirit stones. The tenth bag did not have much left. He took them out to fill the other two not-so-full bags, and it coincidentally made nine bags.
The Wang family members grew increasingly nervous, not daring to breathe a word.
They couldn't understand how the situation, which was clearly one-sided at the beginning, had suddenly turned into this.
Now it was a tie!
What was this?
Wu Lei was also utterly shocked. Mo Qi had almost single-handedly turned the tide!
If they could win!
But he still believed that their side had a very small chance of winning, because if he collected so many spirit stones alone, his speed must have been fast, and how could the quality be guaranteed?