Zhao Suo Xiang

Zhong Shan ordered the best dishes available. He did not even look at the menu, simply ordering several items. The waiter immediately knew that the two people before him were either rich or noble, and hurriedly recorded the order with great enthusiasm.

Before long, the food and wine were served.

Tian Ling'er casually ate a couple of bites before fixing her eyes below. Every shout from the gamblers downstairs seemed to tell Tian Ling'er again and again that they were playing an incredibly, incredibly fun game.

Looking at Tian Ling'er, Zhong Shan shook his head with a smile. Everyone was like this the first time they visited a gambling house. Yet they did not know that a gambling house was the deadliest place of all.

"Eat faster!" Tian Ling'er urged him at once.

Just as Zhong Shan was about to say something, his brows furrowed, and he looked toward a dining table not far away. He had sensed that the people there had been staring at him.

Staring at him?

The food and wine on that table were no worse than theirs. Seated at it was a white-robed man who looked about thirty, with an air of heroic spirit about him. A spear rested on the table—a long, silvery-white spear?

A magical treasure?

At a glance, Zhong Shan recognized it. It was a magical treasure made from the Void Spirit Pearl?

The man was holding a cup of wine and looking toward Zhong Shan, his brows slightly furrowed. Suddenly, he spoke hesitantly. "Zhong Shan?"

He had called out his name in one go? Zhong Shan looked only thirty-something. Even his adopted sons could not possibly have recognized him if it had been a year earlier.

Zhong Shan looked at the man solemnly. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.

Fifty-one years ago.

After enduring countless hardships and dangers, Zhong Shan had finally reached the gates of an Immortal Sect. He had begged to become a disciple and knelt outside those gates for three days and three nights. Yet no one had been willing to accept him.

That happened to be the year of the Dragon Gate Meet, held once every fifty years.

People from the Immortal Sect kept returning with newly accepted disciples, but they had treated Zhong Shan with utter disdain.

At that time, the man before him had also been dressed in white. He had been selected by luck at the Dragon Gate Meet and had just followed his master back to the Immortal Sect when he happened to see Zhong Shan kneeling at the mountain gate.

"Master, you said he has been kneeling here for three days and three nights?" the man had asked.

"This man called Zhong Shan lacks Root Bone. He will find it difficult to achieve anything in his lifetime," his master had replied.

"But his willpower is pretty good. Besides, he has already knelt for three days. Master, why don't you accept him as a disciple too? Whether he succeeds or not will depend on him," the White Robed Man had said.

"Silence, Zhao Suo Xiang! This is an Immortal Sect, not a battlefield in the mortal world. Having good willpower is not enough," his master had shouted angrily.

"Yes." Zhao Suo Xiang had nodded, shaken his head, and sighed as he followed his master into the Immortal Sect.

It was on that very day that Zhong Shan suddenly remembered that he had visited many Immortal Sects in the past, and only this man had once urged the people of an Immortal Sect to help him. Though he had failed, Zhong Shan had never been able to forget him.

"Zhao Suo Xiang?" Zhong Shan immediately rose and looked at him.

"Haha, it really is you, Zhong Shan." Zhao Suo Xiang promptly picked up the spear and walked over. Without the slightest ceremony, he sat down beside Zhong Shan.

"Zhong Shan, who is he?" Tian Ling'er asked at once.

"Iron Spear Sect, Zhao Suo Xiang." Zhao Suo Xiang immediately introduced himself to Tian Ling'er.

"Kaiyang Sect, Tian Ling'er." Tian Ling'er replied in kind. After all, both of them had announced their sects. This was a necessary greeting ritual when disciples of Immortal Sects met.

"Kaiyang Sect?" Zhao Suo Xiang looked at Zhong Shan in surprise.

He could not understand how Zhong Shan, who had once been unable even to join a lower Immortal Sect, had now become a disciple of the upper Immortal Sect, Kaiyang Sect.

"Brother Zhong Shan, congratulations," Zhao Suo Xiang said at once.

"Likewise," Zhong Shan replied.

"Zhong Shan, take your time eating. I am going downstairs to have a look." Tian Ling'er finally could not hold back any longer. She said this to Zhong Shan before rushing down the stairs.

Seeing Tian Ling'er like that, Zhong Shan shook his head with a smile and let her go. He was sitting upstairs, so nothing should happen.

"Brother Zhao, what brings you here?" Zhong Shan turned to Zhao Suo Xiang.

"I was a general of the Great Song Kingdom. Fifty-one years ago, I was fortunate enough to enter an Immortal Sect. Now I have come out to gain experience. I happened to pass through this city, and after running into some matters, I decided to stay. I came out for a stroll today and never expected to see Brother Zhong here." Zhao Suo Xiang laughed heartily.

"Indeed, I never would have expected it. I still remember how Brother Zhao urged your seniors at the Iron Spear Sect on my behalf. Though I failed to enter an Immortal Sect back then, I must still thank Brother Zhao for your help that day." Zhong Shan spoke solemnly.

Zhong Shan was a man who clearly distinguished gratitude from grudges. Though nothing had come of that past incident, Zhao Suo Xiang had sincerely tried to help him, and Zhong Shan had kept it in his heart.

"Haha, it never succeeded, so it hardly counts as something to thank me for. Besides, if it had succeeded back then, Brother Zhong would not have had the fortune to enter Kaiyang Sect," Zhao Suo Xiang said with a laugh.

"There is no need for us to stand on ceremony. Just call me Zhong Shan," Zhong Shan said with a smile.

"All right. You can call me Suo Xiang or Zhao Suo Xiang. Either is fine," Zhao Suo Xiang replied.

"Suo Xiang, please." Zhong Shan nodded, raised a cup of wine, and toasted Zhao Suo Xiang.

Zhao Suo Xiang also lifted his wine. With great gusto, the two of them drained their cups in one gulp.

"This time, your Kaiyang Sect's expedition is also for that person called 'Hao San,' isn't it?" Zhao Suo Xiang suddenly asked.

At Zhao Suo Xiang's words, Zhong Shan's brows furrowed. His tone made it sound as if everyone was searching for Hao San. He had originally thought that only Kaiyang Sect was looking for him, but now he realized that was not the case.

"That's right. What sort of person is this Hao San?" Zhong Shan asked.

"I do not know. However, I heard my master say that on that day, every sect learned of this person called Hao San, and all of them began searching for him. Dead or alive, whoever captured him would receive a heavy reward from an Immortal Sect. Now, it seems that every cultivator knows of him," Zhao Suo Xiang said, shaking his head.

As the two of them chatted with one another,

downstairs, in the first-floor hall by the entrance, a black-robed man with a sword on his back slowly walked in under the respectful guidance of several escorts.

The man at the entrance had been preparing to go forward and welcome him, but when he saw those escorts, he froze. One of them was the owner of Gold Brick Building, the former owner who had always been filled with domineering might. Yet today, he was acting obsequiously toward a black-robed man?

"Where is Zhao Suo Xiang?" the black-robed man asked indifferently.

"On the second floor, eating on the second floor," the owner of Gold Brick Building immediately answered.

"Hm." The black-robed man nodded and was about to follow the owner of Gold Brick Building upstairs.

When they reached the middle of the staircase, the black-robed man suddenly furrowed his brows and looked toward a gambling table not far away in the first-floor hall.

A crowd surrounded the gambling table. A young woman in red sat there, extraordinarily beautiful, her smooth skin making her look like a porcelain doll. A stack of banknotes and a large amount of silver ingots lay before her as she gambled heavily against the person across from her.

That stack contained at least a hundred banknotes. Each was worth one thousand taels—ten thousand taels of silver. A hundred notes made a million taels?

What a tremendous stake.

What surprised everyone, however, was that the young woman in red kept losing money. The more she lost, the more anxious she became; the more anxious she became, the more she lost.

But she had money to burn. When she took out a stack of banknotes and placed it on the table, everyone around them stopped gambling. One by one, they stared greedily at the stack as the croupier across from her won the notes one by one.

The gamblers all around had stopped playing. A once-in-a-thousand-years sight—someone bringing a million taels of silver here to lose?

"Miss, are you still betting small?" the croupier asked.

"Yes, I am still betting small. I am betting small!" Tian Ling'er said angrily, taking out another ten thousand taels and tossing it over.

"All bets are final. Four, five, six—fifteen points, big." The croupier opened the wooden cup, revealing the three dice in the wooden trough beneath.

"No! I want to inspect the dice!" Tian Ling'er shouted at once.

She then examined the dice carefully. There was nothing wrong with them. Each die had six faces, and all six faces were different! Why? Why did the result keep being big every time?

"Again." Unwilling to believe it, Tian Ling'er threw over another banknote.

On the stairs, the black-robed man with the sword on his back saw Tian Ling'er losing money. His eyes suddenly lit up—not because he had seen the banknotes, but because he had seen the bracelet on Tian Ling'er's wrist.

A Storage Bracelet?

The moment he saw that thing, the black-robed man leaned close to the owner of Gold Brick Building and whispered a few words.

"Yes, Young Master Tang. Leave it to me." The owner of Gold Brick Building immediately became excited.

"Hm." The black-robed man nodded and followed the owner downstairs.

Two sticks of incense later, Zhong Shan and Zhao Suo Xiang were still chatting happily upstairs. Zhong Shan felt that Zhao Suo Xiang was someone worth befriending. Drawing on his many years of experience wandering through the mortal world, Zhong Shan judged that Zhao Suo Xiang was a man who valued loyalty and kept his promises. Thus, the two of them talked with great enthusiasm.

Downstairs, Tian Ling'er was growing frantic. Zhong Shan had given her a million taels of silver earlier. Although he had not told her what a million taels represented, she knew that she had suffered a huge loss this time. She kept trying to win the money back, but she lost every single time. Was she really this unlucky?

As Tian Ling'er anxiously fretted, she suddenly caught sight of the expressions of a spectator beside her—pity, regret, and mockery.

Tian Ling'er might have been somewhat naive, but she was not stupid. She immediately saw that something strange was going on.

They are cheating me out of my money? There must be something wrong, but where? I did not see them cheat!

There were still two banknotes before her, worth twenty thousand taels, while the opponent across from her had a thick stack worth nine hundred and eighty thousand taels.

"Miss, do you want to continue?" the owner of Gold Brick Building suddenly asked with a smile. The croupier and the black-robed man with the sword on his back stood beside him.

Tian Ling'er looked at the group before her. They seemed like a bunch of villains, all of them cheating her out of her money. But she simply could not figure out what was happening. What was she supposed to do? The money Zhong Shan had given her was about to be lost completely.

Tian Ling'er was desperately anxious.

"How about this, Miss? If you have anything valuable, such as that bracelet of yours, then as long as the item is valuable enough, it can be used in place of cash," the owner of Gold Brick Building said.

"Used in place of cash?" Tian Ling'er asked, frowning. There were indeed some good things inside her Storage Bracelet, but did they recognize them?

"That is right. I suppose you are like me. I have a Void Spirit Pearl here, and with these nine hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver, if you have something good, we can gamble one more time." The black-robed man with the sword on his back suddenly spoke.

By speaking up, the black-robed man with the sword on his back was telling Tian Ling'er that he too was from an Immortal Sect, and that as long as she had something good, he would be able to recognize it.

Looking at that stack of banknotes, Tian Ling'er gritted her teeth. She did not care about the Void Spirit Pearl, but she cared about that stack of banknotes. She did not know its value, but in the end, it belonged to Zhong Shan. Zhong Shan had told her to spend it as she pleased, yet Tian Ling'er did not want it to disappear just like that.

She did not want that. She truly did not.

Should she gamble? She had won several times earlier. Perhaps, perhaps she could win the next round. Tian Ling'er wrestled with herself endlessly, her face troubled. She did not want to lose those few treasures of hers, but she also wanted to take back that stack of banknotes.

"A Void Spirit Pearl? What a huge stake. I will do it."

Just as Tian Ling'er was growing frantic, a cold laugh suddenly came from behind her.

PS: I had something to take care of today, so I uploaded this early. There will be another update tonight, so everyone, remember to vote!