North Street

North Street.

Noon had passed, and while the sky had not yet darkened, this area was already beginning to bustle.

"Osmanthus cake, sweet osmanthus cake!"

"Selling mung bean cakes!"

Unlike the clamorous market, the streets and alleys of North Street sold almost entirely various snacks and meals, prepared for those customers heading to the casinos and pleasure houses for amusement.

Though food could also be ordered in the casinos and pleasure houses, the prices were rather steep. Generally, only wealthy people, or those who had won money and gotten carried away, would directly order wine and pastries inside.

Wu Ming wore a plain short jacket and blended into the crowd without drawing the slightest notice.

This was the most chaotic and mixed place in Jingye City's northern district. Gang thugs, Blood Forging martial artists, scions of wealthy families, and impoverished people working all manner of service trades all came and went here.

Wu Ming proceeded deeper along the street and soon reached the central main road. It was quite broad. Since it was still early, there were not many people about, but the pleasure houses and casinos on both sides had long since opened their doors.

"Sir, come up and have some fun."

From the second floor of the pleasure house on the far left, a young girl called sweetly to Wu Ming.

Wu Ming glanced over instinctively and saw that she appeared to be only sixteen or so. Though she could not be called especially pretty, her skin was quite fair. With her youthful tenderness and the revealing clothes that concealed and exposed in turns, she was enough to make a young man's blood surge and stir desires that were hard to suppress.

Though Wu Ming's heart was calm, his blood and qi were abundant, and his young body instinctively produced faint agitation in his blood and qi. Naturally, this was his body's instinct and had nothing to do with his own will.

"Young people truly are not suited to places like this. No matter how resolute one's will, resisting the body's instincts is not easy—especially at this stage, when blood and qi most need to be accumulated. Once the body is harmed, the loss will be tremendous."

Wu Ming pondered this.

He silently circulated the True Word of "Lin." In an instant, all thoughts fell silent, the Inner Demon did not arise, and the girls before his eyes—plump or slender, each with her own charms, chirping and fluttering like swallows and orioles—became no more than painted skeletons in his sight. Even the lustful urges born of his body's instincts were quietly smoothed away, and the demon of desire was subdued at once.

With a calm expression, Wu Ming walked forward for a stretch, then turned and entered a casino on the right.

On this main street, the pleasure houses lay to the left and the casinos to the right. From what he knew, both businesses had gang forces behind them, and those gang forces were themselves tangled together like roots and branches. This place also paid taxes to the imperial court and was thus protected by the Cautious Punishment Division. But according to Chen Gui, its most direct backing seemed to be one of the two sects—the Black Fiend Sect.

Among Jingye City's major powers, the Seven Martial Alliance managed all sorts of work for martial artists, while the Black Fiend Sect and Profound Jade Sect each had their own businesses. The imperial court's Two Divisions sat in the highest seats, drawing taxes from the businesses of every faction.

Inside Four Joys Casino.

The moment Wu Ming stepped inside, an attendant hurried over with a broad smile, bobbing and bowing as he said, "Sir, this way, please. What would you like to play? We have odd or even, dice games, flower-card betting... If you find it boring, I can even call a girl over from across the street to serve you. Whatever kind you want, just say the word."

Ignoring the attendant, Wu Ming remained composed, like a regular customer, and said:

"I'll look around first."

"Certainly."

Seeing this, the attendant did not pester him. Still smiling obsequiously, he immediately stepped aside.

Wu Ming leisurely made a circuit of the casino. It was not yet very late, and the casino was considerably livelier than the pleasure houses. There were seven or eight tables in this casino, and nearly every one was surrounded by more than a dozen customers.

He had come here before but had never entered a casino. This was his first time inside, so naturally he first observed the situation. He quickly learned several things. First, the casino was not as he had imagined, with silver constantly flowing in and out in great amounts.

On the outermost tables, piles of copper coins were set out, while silver was comparatively rare.

Only the two tables farther inside used silver as stakes, but even there it was merely loose silver in amounts of a few taels, with hardly any whole silver ingots.

Wu Ming also noticed a second floor above the casino. Without question, that was where the so-called private rooms were, meant to receive true distinguished guests who wagered heavily. In the first-floor hall, he could even see raggedly dressed people clutching several dozen scattered copper coins, shouting along with the crowd beside the tables.

Besides,

Blood Forging martial artists patrolled all around the casino, numbering no fewer than ten. Though they were all merely at First Blood Forging, there were certainly Second Blood Forging experts watching in secret, and there were surely even Third Blood Forging experts stationed somewhere on North Street.

There were only a few things Wu Ming truly needed to determine. First, whether his soul perception could really discern all the gambling tools on these tables. Second, after confirming the first point, what range of winnings would be suitable.

A casino that openly did business like this would basically never refuse to let a winner leave with his money. If it happened once or twice, no one would come to play anymore. Besides, as the house, they only won and never lost, so there was no need for such measures in the first place.

Even so, he could not make it too obvious or draw too much attention.

Wu Ming looked over several tables and carefully extended his perception. After first confirming his method, he judged a suitable range based on the scale of their wins and losses, then strolled over to a table at the very back.

The arrangement of this table was simple: a small wooden basin half-filled with beans, a servant standing behind the table with a gambling cup in hand, and a piece of coarse cloth spread over the tabletop. On the cloth were several markings: "Odd," "Even," and "Four-Four."

Wu Ming had already figured out the rules. They were very simple: the gambling cup was used to scoop up a random handful of beans, shaken a few times, and then people placed their bets. If the total could be divided evenly by four, it was "Four-Four"; if it could be divided evenly by two, it was "Even"; otherwise, it was "Odd."

Rattle!

The servant glanced at Wu Ming as he approached the table but paid him little attention. After settling the silver from the previous round, he picked up the gambling cup again, scooped up a handful of beans from the wooden basin, shook them with a rattling sound several times, then covered them on the table.

"Place your bets. No more wagers after this."

The servant called out.

Wu Ming looked at the gambling cup. The instant the other party had scooped up the beans, his spiritual perception had already clearly distinguished their number. There were forty-seven beans beneath the cup—an odd number.

Blending into the crowd, he pretended to deliberate, then took out a half-tael silver bean and tossed it onto Odd. The silver on this table was generally measured in qian; half a tael was five qian of silver, already a sizable wager.

Very soon.

The servant lifted the gambling cup and used a bamboo rod to separate the beans into groups of four. In the end, the number was indeed forty-seven.

Just as Wu Ming had expected, the few people playing at this table were basically all Blood Forging martial artists. Naturally, the casino's house would not easily cheat at this table. These martial artists might not possess powerful spiritual perception like his, allowing them to directly distinguish the number of beans beneath the gambling cup, but whether the house was cheating would still be difficult to hide from their eyes.

"Sir, fortune is smiling upon you today."

An attendant standing beside the table congratulated Wu Ming with a beaming smile as he counted out Wu Ming's winnings.

Like the other winners, Wu Ming revealed a smile and casually tossed out several copper coins.

"Thank you for the reward! Thank you for the reward! May you keep winning, sir—win big and make a fortune!"

The attendant caught the copper coins and immediately offered repeated congratulations. The smile on his face became much more genuine at once.

About an hour later.

Wu Ming quietly left the casino, with an additional six taels and seven qian of silver in his pocket.

By his judgment, this amount was neither too much nor too little. Mixed among the many customers, it would not attract attention. Next time, he could simply visit another casino and again take a moderate amount. Only by letting the stream flow long and thin could it last.

"Not bad, not bad."

After leaving the casino, Wu Ming finally revealed a trace of satisfaction.

Though North Street was a place where fish and dragons mingled, no good land, for him it was at least one more place where he could skim some profit. And the gains were quite considerable. What he lacked most now was silver.

"With my current condition, if I can eat demon meat, or even medicinal cuisine, my efficiency in accumulating blood and qi can rise another step. Perhaps I won't even need half a year to accumulate enough blood and qi to challenge Second Blood Forging!"