"Li—"
The guild master was about to greet Li Lanxiu when a hand pressed down on his shoulder. The fingers were slender yet strong, with veins faintly visible.
Several rings carved into fierce ghost heads adorned the knuckles. The ghost heads were lifelike, and red gemstones were set into their eye sockets, casting a dim red glow.
The guild master caught sight of the rings and, for reasons he could not explain, felt a chill run through him. He said instinctively, "Alright, you go ahead and talk to Young Master Li."
Gu Zhengxing removed his hand and walked over to a place diagonally across from Li Lanxiu. Several cultivators were seated there, tossing spiritual stones onto the gambling table, each with a red face, caught in the passion of gambling.
He swept a glance over the crowd and, in passing, gave an inconspicuous tap to the back of one cultivator’s head. The cultivator's eyes snapped open. His entire body stiffened before he collapsed face-first onto the gambling table.
"Big!"
"Small!"
Everyone else at the table kept their eyes locked onto the dealer’s dice cup, eyes gleaming faintly, not one of them noticing someone had just been hit with a soul-seizing spell.
Gu Zhengxing sat down and placed his red umbrella on the gambling table. Beneath the black veil of his hat, he studied Li Lanxiu.
Perhaps the breath Li Lanxiu had blown earlier had truly taken effect. The young woman won round after round, raking in a mountain of spirit stones.
A man wearing a jeweled crown and fancy robes had lost quite a lot. He stood up and challenged Li Lanxiu. "Young Master, why don’t you have a match with me?"
Li Lanxiu shot him a sidelong glance. He lifted the young woman's chin with a flick of his fingers. "Sure. She’ll shake the dice for me."
The young woman flushed bright red and nodded, flustered by the attention.
The man in fine clothes looked the girl up and down, realized she was a courtesan and flashed a leering smile. "Let's not bet spirit stones. How about this? Whoever loses takes off a piece of clothing."
Laughter full of unspoken meaning burst from the crowd.
The young woman's face turned deathly pale with rage. She tugged urgently at Li Lanxiu’s sleeve. "No—"
"Alright." Li Lanxiu nodded cheerfully. He looked at the richly dressed man and lightly patted the back of the girl's hand. "I'll be the one to strip."
The man gave him a once-over and grinned even wider. "Even better!"
He picked up the dice cup and gave it a confident shake before slamming it down on the table. Lifting the cup, he revealed four fours and two doubles, a near-perfect champion's roll.
"Impressive!" The onlookers roared. The young woman’s expression turned anxious. After shaking the dice, she lifted the cup and paled further.
The dice inside fell far short of the man in fine clothes.
Li Lanxiu said nothing. He undid his outer robe and slid it off, revealing a fine white underlayer. The crimson robe hung loosely off his arms like a draped scarf. He glanced at the young woman. "This is nothing. Keep going."
The man in fine clothes chuckled lazily. He picked up the dice cup and shook it again. With a loud bang, he slammed it onto the table. When he lifted it, he had once again rolled a champion’s hand.
The cultivators in the gambling house burst into cheers, the atmosphere growing more heated.
The young woman hesitated, clutching the dice cup. She whispered, "Young Master, how about we go back to betting spirit stones?"
Li Lanxiu loosely grasped her hand resting on the dice cup and chuckled. "That’s no fun. Don’t you want to see him take off his clothes?"
The young woman’s eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously.
The man in fine clothes looked sour. He forced out a few laughs to cover his discomfort.
Li Lanxiu lifted the young woman’s hand along with the dice cup high into the air. His wide sleeve slid inward, revealing a section of his arm, white and lustrous as polished jade, with sleek and beautiful lines.
He did not spare the man a single glance. His wrist turned skillfully as he shook the dice. The clatter of the dice against the cup was crisp and rhythmic.
At first, the cultivators around the table had only gathered to watch the excitement, but before long, their eyes unconsciously fixed on him.
Bright chandeliers lit the space around the gambling table. He lounged lazily by the edge, his raised arm forming a striking sight.
When others shook the dice, their wrists and arms both trembled, but when the dice cup fell into Li Lanxiu’s hands, only his wrist slowly turned while his arm remained perfectly still.
Under the shifting lights, the shadow cast by his arm resembled an elegant dragon, gliding and circling over the crowd, as if a swimming dragon was bestowing their rain equally upon all.
The young woman lifted her eyes and stared at him intently, her cheeks reddened, holding a smile.
With a loud bang, Li Lanxiu slammed the cup onto the table. He lifted the cup while still holding her hand, revealing a clean sweep of red sixes that completely crushed the man in fine clothes.
In a remote corner of the gambling house, an inconspicuous lark perched on a crossbeam. Its beady black eyes gleamed as it stared at Li Lanxiu.
Bai Ying sat in meditation within Conundrum Sect, eyes closed and mind focused, seeing every detail of the gambling house through the lark’s eyes.
They lay in the running water of a cold pool like a lone leaf drifting. The bone-chilling water flowed around their body, and should have cooled them, yet their scalding heat dissolved the cold, heating up the water instead.
"......" He was irritated.
The man in fine clothes reluctantly shrugged off his outer robe and tossed it onto the table, shouting, "Again!"
Gu Zhengxing sat up and looked thoughtfully at this Young Master Li.
Conundrum Sect had a secret internal art called the true essence listening method, which guided spiritual energy to cleanse the ears and clear the mind, doubling a cultivator’s already sharp hearing to catch the tiniest of sounds.
This listening method was originally meant to track yao and ambush the fiends of demonic sects, yet Young Master Li used it to listen to how the dice landed in the cup.
He was a small-time cheat with some real skill.
Under his pitch-black veil, Gu Zhengxing curled his lips into a cold smile.
A little cheat deserved to be taught a lesson.
The man in fine clothes was no match for Li Lanxiu. In no time, he was stripped down to his bare chest, wearing only a pair of underpants to cover himself.
He stood in front of the gambling table, his face flushed bright red, humiliated in front of the crowd and unable to maintain his composure.
Forcing himself to carry on, he had just picked up the dice cup when a calm voice suddenly rang out behind him.
"Step aside."
Everyone looked over, feeling a bit strange. All present were cultivators, and with a glance they could usually remember everyone in the gambling house, yet none had any impression of this man.
Wearing such a conspicuous veiled hat and holding a red umbrella under the bright sun, he should have left a strong impression.
But no one remembered when he had arrived or where he had been sitting.
The man in fine clothes gladly yielded his spot. Gu Zhengxing swept his gaze over the people sitting around and lightly tapped the table with his red umbrella.
A chill suddenly burst forth, carrying a suffocating aura of death. The surrounding crowd quickly stood up and scattered far away. Gu Zhengxing took a seat, placed the red umbrella horizontally across the table and stared at Li Lanxiu, speaking each word clearly. "I will gamble with you."
The surrounding cultivators automatically made room. Li Lanxiu picked a chair, sat down and lazily hooked his arm over the armrest, grabbing the crimson robe hanging from his arm. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Gu Zhengxing. "No fun. I won’t gamble."
Gu Zhengxing was slightly stunned, realizing that his timing had been too conspicuous. After a moment of silence, he calmly said, "I’m not gambling for your clothes. I’m gambling for the yao core in your hand."
Li Lanxiu of course understood. He sneered and shook his head lazily. "No fun. I’m not gambling."
"Why not?" Gu Zhengxing frowned.
Li Lanxiu looked him over and lifted his chin. "You have nothing of value. What can you wager against me?"
Gu Zhengxing nodded slightly and rubbed a skull-shaped ring on his finger. "Do you want spirit stones?"
"I have plenty of spirit stones." Li Lanxiu rested his arm on the table, casually tapping a finger at him. "I only want to gamble for something interesting."
Gu Zhengxing lowered his gaze thoughtfully and, after a pause, spoke with unusual seriousness. "You want to gamble for something interesting. I have nothing of value. Therefore, you must have seen something interesting about me. You know who I am. Or—you want to gamble for my life." He immediately dismissed the first possibility and firmly said again, "You want to gamble for my life."
Li Lanxiu raised an eyebrow. This man was clever enough, saving him the trouble of leading him along. Li Lanxiu slowly leaned forward. "So, do you dare to gamble with me?"
Gu Zhengxing’s gaze fell on him. If he knew who he was, he would never dare to wager his life.
Gambling on his life against him meant courting death.
He lifted the hand resting on the red umbrella and raised one finger. "One round. If you lose, I want your life and your yao core."
The surrounding cultivators all stared in disbelief. They had just been gambling clothes—wasn’t this a bit much?
Gambling lives—this was an extremely rare and high-stakes bet.
The girl reached out to tug at Li Lanxiu’s sleeve, trying to dissuade him. Li Lanxiu took a light breath and, unfazed, sent her a few words via sound transmission.
She widened her eyes and nodded. After a moment, she carefully walked over carrying a redwood tray and gently set it in front of Li Lanxiu.
Three finely carved silver cups sat upside-down in parallel on the tray, as if hiding something underneath.
Gu Zhengxing immediately noticed the missing bead from the girl's hair ornament. Then he looked at the silver cups on the tray. The game was too simple. His expression cooled. "Is your life worth so little?"
Li Lanxiu ran his fingertip over the silver cups and spoke unhurriedly. "One coral bead is under one of these three silver cups. If you guess right, you win."
"Guess wrong, I win."
He chuckled softly, spread his hands and lifted his chin. "Well?"
Gu Zhengxing’s gaze slowly swept over the three silver cups. Using divine sense to cheat would be beneath a gentleman. He could kill without mercy, but if he had to cheat at such a minor game, it would be an insult to his name.
Li Lanxiu regretted that Gu Zhengxing wore a veiled hat—he couldn’t see his expression. That would’ve made the game twice as fun. He didn’t mind if Gu Zhengxing saw through his surface motive, because the real objective had yet to be revealed.
He tapped the middle silver cup with his fingertip, traced a slow circle around it and smiled at him. "I’ll tell you the answer. The coral bead is under this cup."
Gu Zhengxing paused slightly, his eyes turning sharp and cold as he stared at him.
Li Lanxiu suddenly felt a chill seep through his entire body, but he remained calm. He knocked on the middle cup. "You don’t believe me?"
Gu Zhengxing had always been the one asking that question. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly gripped the red umbrella on the table, deeply suspecting that from the moment he first spoke, he had already stepped into this Young Master Li’s trap.
Out of the three cups, only one held a coral bead. The bet should have been one of luck. He had a one in three chance to win.
But the moment Young Master Li opened his mouth, the game stopped being about luck. It became a gamble on his judgment.
If he believed what Young Master Li said and chose the middle cup, and the bead was truly there, he would win—he could kill easily and take the yao core with him.
But if it wasn’t, and he had trusted another’s words so easily... believed someone else over his own instincts—wouldn’t such a person deserve to die?
If he didn’t believe Young Master Li, then he had to choose between the other two cups.
Unless Young Master Li didn’t know who he was, Gu Zhengxing felt almost certain this game had been tailored specifically for him.
He slowly closed his eyes, thought for a moment, then opened them to study Li Lanxiu.
Li Lanxiu tapped the middle cup with his finger, tilted his head and looked over. His clear, luminous eyes glowed unnaturally under the candlelight, giving the impression he saw through everything and held all the cards. With a smile in his voice, he asked, "Have you decided?"
Gu Zhengxing saw nothing in those eyes and no longer hesitated. In a low voice, he said, "The one on the left."
To him, the cups on the left and right were the same—in any case, he couldn’t believe in what this Young Master Li said.
After he spoke, he swiftly swept his spiritual sense over the three silver cups—then froze, frowning in confusion as he looked toward Li Lanxiu.
Li Lanxiu lifted the cup on the right. It was empty. Then he picked up the cup on the left—also empty.
Finally, he uncovered the one in the middle. Inside lay a vivid, gleaming coral bead.
He fixed his gaze on Gu Zhengxing, casually plucked up the bead between two fingers and played with it leisurely between his translucent fingertips. The blood-red bead gleamed with a soft luster as it slid from fingertip to knuckle, then spun into his palm, caught in a firm grasp.
The bead was being toyed with—utterly within his control.
Li Lanxiu stood, stretched out his arm and opened his palm to offer the bead to Gu Zhengxing, his tone calm and unhurried. “Your life belongs to me now.”
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