Chapter 123 (1/2)

A+

A-

Chapter 123: Perception

The Star-Picking Casino in Southern City used to be the most profitable industry of Lord Meng, a big shot in the Jianghu world. After that b.l.o.o.d.y battle at Spring Breeze Pavilion, his power collapsed and the casino was smashed into a range of ruins, which was just rebuilt and reopened two months later when the situation restored its stability. But now, n.o.body knew who the Big Owner of the casino was.

Although the casino was rebuilt out of ruins, it showed no hint of decline from its former time-honored brand that was decorated at a high cost, where there were polished wooden tables, high-hung lanterns, and exquisite furnis.h.i.+ngs.

Along the way, Ning Que and Sangsang looked at the gauze curtains around and listened to the deliberately m.u.f.fled screams from the hall afar, and could not help but feel it was strange and questionable. At the frontier fortress, they used to visit casinos in the City of Wei and the bazaar of Kaiping County, yet compared with those wager shops full of the stink of sweat and wine and dirty words, the casinos here were a totally different world.

No matter how luxuriously and n.o.bly it was decorated, a casino was still a casino, where b.l.o.o.d.y battles occurred with one's life as the stake. People in various trades lingered around. Although the young master Ning Que and his handmaiden Sangsang looked quite strange here, the stewards just randomly took some glimpses at them without showing any special attention, for they had been accustomed to weird gamblers.

And those gamblers in the s.p.a.cious hall of the Star-Picking Casino paid even less attention to them. These people, old or young, men or women, all stood or sat there despite the differences in their social status, no matter if they wore silk or linen. They were so densely crowded around more than 10 big tables all covered with brown blankets, nervously staring at the dicebox of playing cards or the black triangle chips.

It was quite hot in the midst of summer, thus seven or eight servant women were waving fans with long handles at the corridors on three sides of the hall to blow some wind into the hall. However, the hall was so crowded with gamblers that it was still suffocatingly hot inside, which, mingled with the fragrance of face powder and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol, gradually produced a flavor with exciting ambitions. But for the basins of ice which were so luxuriously put under each table in the casino, this flavor might have been stronger.

A casino was not a place for charity and the purpose of investing money here was to earn back more. The more that prodigal gamblers invested, the more they wanted to earn back. Ning Que sized up the details inside the hall and, looking at the dealers in indigo uniforms, he became increasingly more nervous, having no idea of the lowest limit to bet here and not knowing whether their silver was enough or not.

He

went to the counter to change for chips and inquired about the lowest limit to bet and the rules of the game, which made him relieved to some extent. When strolling at will in the hall with Sangsang, he saw somebody leaving a table where a dicebox was used to bet the number of points. Thus without any hesitation, he squeezed into the table before others could and looked directly at the table, disregarding the annoyed eyesight from those behind him.

Throwing a dicebox to bet on whose point was bigger was perhaps the quickest and simplest method of showdown in casinos, which was exactly Ning Que's favorite method—simplest and quickest—no matter if in killing or in gambling. Moreover, he was clear that he could cheat in only this kind of game, which therefore nailed him to the ground, showing no intention to leave.

There were three dice with nine points as the boundary line, above which it was called ”big” and below which ”small”. If the three dice all showed six points, it would make a ”leopard” which meant a win for sure. If gamblers had the courage or were really unoccupied, they could bet on ”leopard”. If they got it, they won over all the other gamblers of the table and, moreover, the dealer also needed to pay them on behalf of the banker of the casino, which seldom occurred.

Gazing at the big dicebox on the brown blanket which was at least twice as large as an ordinary one, and the delicate-looking dealer waving her naked snow-white forearm and rolling the big dicebox like performing magic; listening to the clear and intense clashes of the three dice inside the dicebox, and the final heavy knock of the dicebox against the table...

Ning Que seemed to be hesitating and pondering with his gaze lowered, and had yet already begun his meditation. The Psyche Power in his brain pa.s.sed through the Ocean of Qi and Mountain of Snow in his body and was perceiving the Breath of Nature around him slowly and softly, by which it would continue to perceive all of his surroundings.

The perception was fantastic: The fluctuation of intangible Psyche Power diffused the Breath of Nature and rested on objects, which was transformed to a light sense of perception. This perception was reflected back to the fluctuation of his Psyche Power through the Breath of Nature and returned to his brain to form a not-so-clear picture with some as-of-yet invisible details.

On the brown surface of the table was put a plump hand, which was from a boss of a cloth shop. After the dicebox settled on the table, he threw 50 taels of silver as chips to the ”big”, pressing the rest under his palm. 50 taels of silver was not a small amount of chips yet the boss did not bat an eye, but his palm pressing the chip was somewhat trembling.

Ning Que did not care about the mental state of gamblers. Although he used to help Sangsang to support the family by gambling in the City of Wei, he understood even the most excellent gambler could not win forever. Today, he just wanted to make a big fortune in the Star-Picking Casino with that magical power, so what he cared about was how to perceive things that others could not see.

Only the smallest chip of two taels of silver was left, yet he still pretended to be calm!

Through subtle reflection from the Breath of Nature, he saw the number of chips under the trembling palm of the boss, and could not help smiling and talk to himself.

”Saw” was not the exact word to use here. He just faintly felt the edge and the prominences of the chip, touching nothing mild and smooth, nor did he have a pictorial effect that he personally experienced.

It could be imagined that if such an effect could be achieved by mobilizing the Breath of Nature, many cultivators in history would have suffered from constant nosebleeds, continuous tiredness and fatigue, or even being exhausted and disoriented to death because of their everyday peeping at girls' b.r.e.a.s.t.s and psychos.e.xuality.

The fine-looking dealer gently looked at the surroundings and opened the dicebox. The three dice lay silently on the bottom of the dicebox and showed ”Two, three, three” respectively, which turned out to be ”small”. The palm of the cloth shop boss slightly stiffened, with all five of his fingers grasping downward, tightly holding his last chip. He then forced a smile to the people around him, nodded his head and went out.