Shoe-Tossing Pathfinding Method

Xu Qing often passed by Shuimen Bridge. There really were several unorthodox fortune-tellers and medicine sellers there, but could those fortune-tellers truly be that accurate?

If that was really the case, then from now on he might have to avoid Shuimen Bridge. After all, what if one day the other party looked at him a few extra times, made a calculation with his fingers, and discovered that he was a dead man? That would be troublesome, no matter how he looked at it.

In the mortuary, the Duren Sutra continued turning its pages. After receiving guidance from the fortune-teller, the gambler hurried straight to Cuiyun Tower.

Big Teapot welcomed him with a grin and led him to a quiet attic. After announcing their arrival, the two heard a shrill voice from inside.

"If you want to buy our treasure, it's not impossible. It's just that the price—"

"The price is negotiable. How about one hundred and twenty taels?"

After receiving enlightenment from the fortune-telling master, the gambler was determined to obtain the treasure that would make him win money. He immediately named a figure.

That was money he had scraped together by selling everything he owned—even his wife. Apart from holding back a few taels of silver to use as capital for winning it back, he had rounded up the rest and blurted out the total.

Afraid that the nobleman in the attic would look down on such a small sum, the gambler hurriedly added, "Once I win a few rounds, let alone one hundred and twenty taels—even one thousand two hundred taels, I'll gladly give them to you, noble sir!"

"You've misunderstood. Not only will we not ask you for money, we'll even give you money to spend."

As he spoke, an attendant emerged from the attic. In his hands was a tray, and on it lay the Pixiu Jade Pendant.

"This jade pendant is Yin Spirit Jade. Inside it is a Gambling Beast we raised. With that little beast secretly helping you, you'll win every gamble."

At the words "Yin Spirit Jade," Xu Qing's heart stirred.

Yin Spirit Jade, commonly known as Yin Ghost Jade, was one of the key materials for cultivating Silverclad Wandering Corpses according to the Corpse Nurturing Scripture.

He had never expected that an object he had searched for until his feet were worn bloody would actually appear here!

Outside the attic, the attendant gave the Pixiu Jade Pendant and one hundred and twenty taels of silver on the tray to the gambler. Then he took out a bundle of Spirit Incense and carefully instructed him, "The Gambling Beast has to consume one stick of incense every day. There are seven sticks here in total. You must make offerings to it daily, and you absolutely must not let the jade pendant leave your person. Otherwise, it won't work."

The gambler asked impatiently, "Then when will this Gambling Beast be able to help me win money?"

"Offer it one stick of Spirit Incense every day, and naturally it will let you gamble to your heart's content."

Having received the jade pendant and the benefit of one hundred and twenty taels, the gambler left Cuiyun Tower with a delighted smile.

This man was truly broad-minded. The people in the attic were complete strangers to him, yet he did not question why they wanted to help him. They had even gone so far as to give him money for free.

Had he never heard that cheap goods were no good? How could a pie fall from the sky for no reason?

What was more, these things had been thrust upon him. Who knew what treachery might be hidden inside?

The gambler was blinded by greed, thinking only of winning money. As for everything else, he paid no attention at all!

Clutching the silver and jade pendant, he jogged all the way back to his room. He then hurriedly lit a stick of Spirit Incense, pressed his palms together, and held the jade pendant in them like a devout believer. He even muttered auspicious phrases about his luck turning and his fortune flourishing.

When the Spirit Incense began to burn, Xu Qing once again smelled that familiar scent of incense he had noticed the previous time he went to Cuiyun Tower.

Once the fragrance had spread completely, the gambler in the room suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Then he began continuously letting out indistinct mutters in his dreams.

At that moment, smoke swirled through the room. That single stick of Spirit Incense seemed to possess some special magic, and in a daze, it transformed the entire room into the bustling scene of a gambling den.

Next, the gambler rose stiffly as if sleepwalking. He reverently held the jade pendant in both hands and kept circling around the incense table.

In the gambler's eyes, he was weaving through a casino, as though the God of Gambling himself had possessed him. Whenever he gambled, he won; whenever he played cards, he was sure to triumph.

Seeing this, Xu Qing fell into thought.

The dream created by the rosemary before him had an effect strikingly similar to his Dream Weaving Technique.

However, the dream the gambler experienced was not nearly as lifelike as the Dream Weaving Technique.

Through the translucent illusory scene, Xu Qing shifted his gaze back to the room and discovered that the Pixiu Jade Pendant had somehow floated three inches above the gambler's head. At the point where the jade pendant connected with his crown chakra, spiritual light was continuously being stripped from the gambler's body.

For the next seven days, a different-colored mass of spiritual light was extracted from the gambler's body each day. Until, on the final day, the gambler, whose Spirit, Energy, and Mind had completely withered, could no longer enter the casino illusion.

Using all his remaining strength, he opened his eyes and looked toward the floating Pixiu Jade Pendant. He saw a familiar-looking Ghostly Shadow atop the pendant, reaching toward him for the last trace of his spirituality.

The gambler opened his lips in terror. There was no other reason—the Ghostly Shadow before him looked exactly like him, yet he himself had never left the room!

Only when he was on the brink of death did he suddenly realize that the so-called little Gambling Beast ghost inside the Pixiu Jade Pendant was none other than himself!

And the silver given to him had not been a gift at all. It was death money used to buy his life!

After viewing the gambler's life, Xu Qing formed a rough guess about the identity of the Yin Gate practitioner at Cuiyun Tower.

Besides serving as an evolutionary material for Silverclad Wandering Corpses, Yin Ghost Jade had another special function: raising ghosts.

The Corpse Drivers at the Corpse Nurturing Scripture's school raised and refined corpses, while the Yin Gate practitioner hidden in Cuiyun Tower was clearly an expert at raising and refining ghosts.

Yin Ghost Jade has already claimed two lives, yet that eunuch at Cuiyun Tower, who seems to have left the palace on an errand, still hasn't appeared. Xu Qing knitted his brows.

Could it be that it had not devoured enough people?

Xu Qing pondered for a moment before temporarily suppressing his thoughts. He still did not know whose hands the Yin Ghost Jade had fallen into, but as long as more people were victimized, sooner or later it would arrive here with a corpse.

After all, not everyone was as greedy as Wei Fang, allowing the Yin Ghost to exploit the opening.

After exorcising the gambler's corpse, the Duren Sutra gave the same evaluation as it had for Wei Fang: Human Grade Low.

The reward, however, was completely different. The gambler's exorcism reward clearly bore the traits of a gambling addict: the Shoe-Tossing Pathfinding Method.

As its name implied, whenever one became lost or did not know where to go, one only had to take off a shoe and toss it at random. The direction in which the toe pointed would indicate the path forward for the caster.

Xu Qing tilted his head and looked at his shoes.

Are you kidding me? Can this thing really be accurate?

In front of the corpses' beds, after Xu Qing finished examining both bodies, Wang Lingyuan asked with a smile, "What do you think? Did you discover anything?"

Xu Qing pondered briefly before replying, "The causes of death for these two corpses are basically identical. If there was a murderer, then it was very likely the work of one person."

"Also, according to the case records, the person who discovered the first corpse at the gambling den's inn was none other than Wei Fang."

"There may be some connection between those two matters, but we'll have to wait for further verification before we know the specifics."

Wang Lingyuan nodded and said, "This case is bizarre and difficult to judge. In the end, it will probably become an unsolved case. We'll have to see how the government decides it then. If it is related to demons or evil spirits, we may have to report it to the prefectural city."

Xu Qing's heart stirred at this. "Report it to the prefectural city? Does that mean the prefectural city has the ability to solve strange cases of this kind?"

"Of course. The prefectural city established a department specifically responsible for hunting demons. Not long ago, a Demon Hunter Captain even came here to investigate the whereabouts of the Tianxin Cult's demonic practitioners, but he found no trace of them."

Xu Qing then asked many more questions about the Demon Hunter Department. Wang Lingyuan knew little about it as well. He only knew that above the Demon Hunter Captain was the Divine Machine Battalion, all of whose members were extraordinary experts who appeared and vanished like divine dragons.

Seeing that it was getting late, Wang Lingyuan urged Xu Qing to return soon.

"Junior Brother, the examination for the child scholar qualification is the day after tomorrow. You should do more studying. Don't come running over to your Senior Brother's place these next two days, lest you become distracted."

Xu Qing repeatedly agreed. Once he left the government office, he saw no sign of the two Wu brothers. An idea struck him, and while no one was watching, he took off one shoe and tossed it onto the ground.