Gada...

"Four points..."

"Double pair."

"I've got a double pair too."

"Heh, what a coincidence. So do I."

"Seven points!"

"I've got nine."

"I've got nine too."

"Why do I always end up with the same as you guys?"

In the desert of the Bewildering Secret Realm, something utterly bizarre had appeared—perhaps the strangest event in a hundred years, or even since the Bewildering Secret Realm had first opened.

In the final circle, when the ancient Dragon Soul everyone had dreamed of was practically within reach, the last four people remaining had actually gathered on a flat patch of sand-covered stone to play Pai Gow?! And the glowing Dragon Soul was right in the center of the stone table, serving as a lamp...

Perhaps the Dragon Soul itself had never imagined that it could lose so much face...

But after playing three rounds, Jiang Lin began to regret it!

He was playing Pai Gow with the protagonist?!

Fuck!

Had his brain short-circuited?

Of the three people surrounding this stone, which one of them hadn't been the sort to fall into a cave and obtain an unparalleled martial arts manual, or enter an auction and acquire a peerless treasure rarely seen in a century?

How had he ended up thinking he could gamble his luck against them?! And the worst part was, he was the banker?!

Well, Jiang Lin had actually been harboring a sliver of wishful thinking. After all, he had a system, right? Weren't people with systems protagonists too? Weren't villainous protagonists still protagonists? Why should villainous protagonists be treated as less than human?

But when Jiang Lin saw that the spirit stones in his pocket had been cut in half, he rubbed his face deeply, wishing he could slap his naïve self from back then!

Heavens! What had he been thinking?!

Weren't villainous protagonists just there to send experience and equipment to the protagonists? How could he possibly compete with them? Hadn't he learned enough from all those novels and television dramas?!

"Um... why don't we stop playing..."

After ten rounds, Jiang Lin's eyes had grown moist and his heart was bleeding. He had been poor to begin with, and only after partnering with that fellow Fang Chaoqun to start a little business had he finally scraped together some assets...

And now... the night was still long. How had he already returned to the days before liberation?

"That won't do. I'm just getting into it. I never thought Pai Gow would be this fun."

Chen Jia said this happily. Jiang Lin had taught her the rules on the spot, and had even helped her identify some of the tiles.

Seeing Jiang Lin's pleading gaze, like that of a Demon Hound puppy (Demon Hound puppies were extremely adorable when young, selling cuteness to confuse their opponents in order to survive), Lin Qingwan couldn't help covering her mouth and giggling. With a hint of mischievousness, she said, "That won't do. Junior Brother Jiang said it himself: you can't leave the table until you've lost everything."

"My master taught me from childhood that no matter what I do, I must give it my all and never give up halfway!" Xiao Xueli said slowly. Then she glanced lightly at Jiang Lin, her pretty face faintly flushed. "If you're out of spirit stones, Jiang Lin, I... I can lend you some..."

Xiao Xueli had originally wanted to say that she could give them all to him, but Elder Sister Sword Spirit kept warning her inside the girl's body that doing so would be too forward. In the end, the girl could only say she would lend them to him.

"Oh... so the beast Jiang is broke. You should've said so earlier. Here, take mine. As long as you can keep playing with me, that's all that matters."

Chen Jia also pushed all the spirit stones in front of her toward Jiang Lin.

"Out of spirit stones?! How could I be out of spirit stones?! To be honest, aside from being handsome and standing six feet tall, my only other virtue is that I'm rich. Come on, let's keep playing! I'll still be the banker!"

Xiao Xueli's hesitant, slightly sympathetic tone deeply wounded Jiang Lin's tiny bit of self-respect.

Especially Chen Jia's foolishly innocent words.

A man could endure anything! But he absolutely couldn't be told he was incapable!

And so... ten rounds later...

Sitting on the sand, Jiang Lin trembled as he felt his tiles, then carefully flipped them over. In an instant, his expression blossomed into a grin like that of a Shiba Inu meme...

"Double Heaven!"

Jiang Lin slapped the tiles onto the stone. Double Heaven consisted of two Heaven tiles! It was the second-highest hand in Pai Gow.

"Eh? What did I get? Jiang Lin, take a look for me."

As if ignoring Jiang Lin's excitement, Chen Jia spread her tiles across the stone.

"Eh? Chen Jia, we got the same hand."

"Me too."

When three pairs of Supreme Treasures—the highest hand in Pai Gow—appeared before Jiang Lin, he no longer wanted to speak...

Damn it! Wasn't there supposed to be only one Supreme Treasure in a deck?! Where had the other two come from... Could the bone tiles he had just bought be counterfeit?

Jiang Lin swore that he would never touch Pai Gow again for the rest of his life...

"I lose..."

Just as Jiang Lin was about to accept his loss and pull the last of his spirit stones from his underwear, a "ding" rang out in his mind.

[Ding... The system has detected that the host is together with three protagonists, and all three have lowered their guard against the host. The system has been triggered.]

[Choice: 1. Host, seize the Dragon Soul and enrage the three protagonists. 2. In this desolate place, beneath the moonless night, host, covet their bodies and put your desires into action.]

[Host, make your choice within three seconds... 3... 2... 1...]

"Fuck your choice! Is this really the time for this?! Besides, they already want to give me the Dragon Soul! What would happen even if I took it?! Why would they get angry?!"

Jiang Lin was utterly collapsing inside. Watching the countdown in his mind, he silently wiped away a tear at the very last second, then punched the stone to pieces and, taking advantage of the momentum, scooped up the spirit pearl containing the Dragon Soul.

For a moment, sand and gravel flew everywhere...

"Jiang Lin, what's wrong?"

"Beast Jiang, what the hell are you doing? Do you want to fight?"

"Junior Brother Jiang?"

The three girls rose swiftly, barely avoiding being caught in the dust storm.

"Senior Sister Lin! I may be a member of the Demon Sect, but I'll die a ghost of the Demon Sect! I absolutely will not go back to the Dragon Gate Sect with you! And Miss Xiao, I know what you're asking for (I know nothing about it!), but I don't want to agree! Also, the Mountains and Rivers State Diagram is still with you. Sooner or later, I'll go and take it myself, so you'd better keep it safe for me!"

"So, Beast Jiang, you chose me? You're going back with me?"

"Oh, right, and you, Chen Jia! Sorry, I forgot because your breasts are small. Although I'm from the Sun Moon Sect, I don't plan to take this Dragon Soul back to the Sun Moon Sect. I'm going to give it to a certain young lady in the south! That's right! A top courtesan from the Great Xia Dynasty, the flower queen of the Drunken Immortal Abode! As long as I give her the Dragon Soul, she'll agree to spend one night with me!"

Leaning on his sword, Jiang Lin shouted loudly, his expression solemn, as if spending one night with that flower queen mattered more than his own life.

In truth, Jiang Lin only knew that the Great Xia Dynasty was a flourishing dynasty.

Since it was a flourishing dynasty, it definitely had places of wine, beauty, and pleasure.

And if it had places of wine, beauty, and pleasure, then it definitely had flower queens.

As for who she was, who the hell cared? Was that important? All he needed was to make himself look like a lust-addled worm who had rejected their kindness and lost himself in women.

Sure enough, the moment Jiang Lin finished speaking, three waves of killing intent spread directly outward, and their Notoriety Points toward him began rising without pause...

"Junior Brother Jiang? What's a flower queen? What did you just say?"

"Jiang Lin, you saved me twice. I thought you were merely a lecher on the surface. I never imagined you'd actually... for the sake of one night of passion..."

"Jiang Lin! Explain yourself! What's wrong with my breasts?!"

The three women advanced step by step, like Cheng Ge back then, about to be hacked with a Vegetable Knife.

"Beast! Animal! Pervert! Jiang Lin! Go to hell!"

Chen Jia raised her fists, stepped forward, and sent her tiny fist—carrying the peak of fist intent—hammering toward Jiang Lin's chest.

Jiang Lin instinctively raised the spirit pearl to block...

"Gada..."

A sound like shattering eggs slowly emerged from Jiang Lin's chest.