Thousand Gold Pavilion

Though Zeyun Town was neither as grand as Iron Wall City nor as bustling as Pebble Town, its position at the crossroads of the north-south trade routes lent it a bustling, motley charm all its own.

The liveliest spot in town was undoubtedly the market street, lined with wine-shop banners and filled with hawkers' cries and all sorts of smells.

After settling the carriage, Chen Qing took A Ning to buy supplies. Lan Tianye, unable to contain his curiosity, declared that he wanted to see "the true hustle and bustle of the Central Plains," then darted into the crowd in a flash.

Deep in the market street, a gambling house with a sign reading "Thousand Gold Pavilion" above its doorway was packed with people.

Lan Tianye squeezed his way inside. The roar of voices, shouts, and clinking coins rushed toward him. He had grown up in a family of the Western Regions where household rules were strict. He had never seen such a spectacle, and everything dazzled him with its novelty.

Before long, a dice table in the corner caught his eye. Not because the game was exciting, but because the banker was an old man in a filthy gray Daoist robe, with messy hair tied into a crooked bun. His face was ruddy, and his tiny eyes gleamed shrewdly, making him look especially slick.

The old man's gambling seemed ordinary enough. His dice-throwing was clumsy, and now and then he even "accidentally" knocked a die onto the floor, drawing laughter from the gamblers around him. The few chips in front of him soon dwindled to almost nothing.

"Hey, this old Daoist is kind of interesting." Amused and confident in his own cleverness, Lan Tianye pushed forward and pulled out a few pieces of silver to bet. After being frustrated by Chen Qing for days, he was eager to let off some steam. "This young master's going to play, too!"

At first, luck was on his side. He won bet after bet, and a small pile of silver quickly grew in front of him. The gray-robed old Daoist could only gnash his teeth and sigh, yet he kept "refusing to give up" and starting new rounds.

Lan Tianye grew smug, his youthful nature showing through, and his bets grew larger and larger.

But little by little, the tide of the game began to turn.

Old Daoist Wu's seemingly clumsy technique quietly became impossible to read. The dice cup swirled in his hands, scattering dazzling afterimages, yet when it settled, it seemed to have landed without the slightest force. Lan Tianye's "good luck" seemed to run out in an instant, and he began losing round after round.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his temper grew frayed. The more he lost, the more he wanted to win it back. After losing all the money he had won, he took out his travel funds as well. The silver flowed away like water.

"Your luck's run out, kid. Still playing?" Old Daoist Wu chuckled, his tiny eyes glinting with slyness.

"Of course I am!" Lan Tianye gritted his teeth and slapped the last of the silver from his purse onto the table. "High!"

The dice cup was lifted—three, three, five. Eleven points. Low!

Lan Tianye's face went pale.

"Tsk, gone again." Old Daoist Wu shook his head and made as if to pack up.

"Wait!" Lan Tianye's mind went blank. Suddenly remembering that he still had the silver Chen Qing had entrusted to him for supplies, he pulled it out in one swift motion. "I'll bet again!"

The result was inevitable. He lost every last coin.

A wave of regret and panic swallowed Lan Tianye. His face turned ashen, and cold sweat poured down him. Only now did he realize the enormity of the disaster he had caused. He had lost not only his own travel funds, but also the money Chen had entrusted to him for an important task...

"Out of money, kid? Much obliged!" Old Daoist Wu grinned as he began sweeping the silver on the table into his purse.

"I... I've still got more!" Lan Tianye blurted out, barely thinking. Shame and impulse made him say anything that came to mind. "There's... there's a carriage at the alley entrance outside the gambling house! I'll bet that, too!"

"Oh?" Old Daoist Wu narrowed his eyes further. "A carriage? That works! Put it in writing!"

The agreement was written, and the dice cup was raised once more.

When the lid lifted again, Lan Tianye's vision went dark, and all the strength drained from his body—he had lost again.

"Hahaha! Thanks for the generous gift, young brother!" Old Daoist Wu crowed. Waving the written agreement, he was about to call for the gambling house's attendants. "Two of you, go fetch that carriage from the alley!"

"Hold it."

The calm voice was not loud amid the gambling house's din, yet it rang clearly in every person's ears, strangely drowning out all the noise.

Everyone turned toward the sound. A young man in a blue-green robe stood at the gambling house entrance, holding a little girl's hand. No one knew when he had arrived. His expression was cool. His gaze passed over Lan Tianye, who was ashen and nearly collapsed, before settling on the triumphant Old Daoist Wu.

It was Chen Qing, who had finished shopping and followed the trail of his spiritual sense to find them.

Old Daoist Wu sized Chen Qing up. Sensing the unusual calm about him, a gleam flashed in his tiny eyes. Far from being afraid, he seemed even more interested. "Oh? Another one? What is it, kid? You here to stand up for him?"

Chen Qing ignored the provocation and walked to the gambling table. He glanced at Lan Tianye, who looked utterly lost, then said calmly, "The game is over. The silver and carriage are yours. I have nothing to say about it."

Old Daoist Wu froze, not expecting him to be so straightforward.

"But," Chen Qing continued, his gaze resting calmly on Old Daoist Wu, "you're quite skilled. Tricking a green young fellow like him must not have been much of a challenge. Why don't you and I have a game?"

"Oh? What are we playing for?" Old Daoist Wu's interest grew.

"The stakes are these: if I win, all the silver and the written agreement from before are canceled, and we're even," Chen Qing said. "If I lose, I'll grant you one favor. As long as it doesn't go against what's right and is within my power, I'll do it."

Old Daoist Wu's eyes lit up. He clapped his hands and laughed. "Good! Now that's interesting! What shall we play? Are you going to bet on the dice, too?"

"The guest follows the host. You decide the game."

"Excellent!" Old Daoist Wu roared with laughter and snatched up the dice cup. "Then we'll stick with dice! Keep it simple: guess the result. Three dice—you have to guess the exact points. How about that? I won't take advantage of you. Guess correctly and you win; guess wrong and you lose!"

The gamblers around them burst into an uproar. Guessing the exact result of three dice was incredibly unlikely. It was a game you were bound to lose!

Chen Qing merely nodded. "Fine."

Old Daoist Wu chuckled and whipped his wrist into motion. The dice cup became a blur in his hands, dazzling the eye. The clatter of the dice was as dense as falling rain, shifting left and right, up and down. His technique was mysterious and unfathomable, several times more precise than when he had played against Lan Tianye.

The dice cup seemed to come alive in his hands, trailing afterimages. A faint ripple of inner force even coiled around it, disrupting any sense of the sounds and vibrations within.

Clearly, facing Chen Qing, he was showing his true skill.

"Watch closely!" He slammed the dice cup down on the table. The clatter ceased, and every strange sensation vanished at once, as if it had all been an illusion.

Every eye focused on Chen Qing as the crowd held its breath.

Chen Qing lowered his eyes slightly, seeming to concentrate on sensing the dice. Though Old Daoist Wu had used inner force to disrupt most of the clues he might have heard, the extraordinary spiritual perception granted by the Ancient Star Ruins Scripture did not rely on sound alone.

He could catch the final instant before the dice cup landed. Slowly, he opened his eyes and spoke calmly. "Three, five, six. Fourteen points."

Old Daoist Wu's smile froze. A flicker of astonishment crossed his tiny eyes, but it was quickly replaced by deeper slyness and a hint of amusement.

He was secretly startled. Good lad! His hearing is so sharp that he nearly saw right through me! Too bad... he's still a little green!

At the instant Chen Qing called out the result—even before his words had fully left his mouth—Old Daoist Wu's right little finger gave an almost imperceptible tap against the corner of the table.

A subtle, yielding force traveled through the cup and struck the last die with perfect precision! The die, which had originally shown six, was nudged by the inner force and turned over with the slightest movement—

It became a one!

The entire process was silent and invisible. Unless one were a peerless expert, it would have been almost impossible to detect. Old Daoist Wu gave a smug, cold laugh inside. No matter how sharp your hearing, you could never have guessed I had the hidden force of the Wind Listening Finger Technique! Three, five, one—nine points! You're done for, kid!

He once again wore a smile of absolute confidence, with a hint of mockery. Looking at Chen Qing, he drew out his words. "You sure about that, kid? Don't come crying afterward!"

Chen Qing had already noticed the tiny trick. He smiled faintly in return. "I won't regret it. Open it."

"Good. You've got guts, kid. Then let this old man teach you a lesson! Open!"

But just as the word "open" left his mouth, in the instant before his fingers lifted the lid—

Chen Qing's right hand, hanging at his side, gave an almost imperceptible twitch of the index finger.

A thread-thin strand of Starlight Finger Force shot out silently through the air! It gently nudged the die that Old Daoist Wu had just turned.

Guided by the force, the die rolled once more, ever so slightly—

Back to its original six! It even came to rest in precisely the same position as before!

It all happened in the brief instant when the echo of Old Daoist Wu's "open" had not yet faded and the lid had only just begun to rise!

Old Daoist Wu did not notice a thing. He had already sensed that his inner force had successfully changed the result and was utterly sure of himself. Laughing, he lifted the cup. "Hahaha! Let's see what you got... what... what is this?!"

His laughter and words cut off as if an invisible hand had suddenly clamped around his throat!

Beneath the dice cup, three dice lay still.

The result was unmistakably three, five, six! Fourteen points! Exactly the same as the result he had first sensed and Chen Qing had called out!

"N-no... impossible!!!" Old Daoist Wu's smile froze. His eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets! He rubbed them furiously, almost certain he was seeing things! He had clearly changed the six into a one with his hidden force! How could it... how could it have made no difference at all?!

He jerked his head up and stared at Chen Qing's utterly calm face. A chill shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head!

This kid... he had not only seen through his trick, but after Old Daoist Wu had changed the result with his inner force, he had silently changed it back in a way Old Daoist Wu could not detect at all?!

What kind of terrifying inner force and control over it did that take?! It was beyond anything he understood about either "gambling tricks" or "martial arts"!

The room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in an even louder uproar than before!

"Miraculous! Truly miraculous!"

"Not a single point off! Is this young master the god of gamblers come down to earth?!"

"Old Daoist Wu finally met his match!"

Lan Tianye's mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg. He stared at Chen Qing with overwhelming shock and admiration. He had no idea what had happened, but Old Daoist Wu's sudden change of expression and ghost-struck look said enough!

Old Daoist Wu's expression shifted again and again. He stared at Chen Qing, his eyes filled with shock, disbelief, and curiosity.

He drew several deep breaths, only barely calming the storm inside him. Then he suddenly burst into laughter that sounded like it could have been either bitter or admiring. "Good! Good! Good! What a masterful trick!"

Without another moment's hesitation, he pushed all the silver he had won back in front of Lan Tianye, then tore the written agreement for the carriage to pieces in front of Chen Qing. His movements even seemed a little hurried.

"Young man... no, young hero," Old Daoist Wu said, giving Chen Qing a long look, his expression deeply complicated. "The world is wide, and I failed to recognize Mount Tai. We'll... meet again!"

With that, he darted into the crowd, slippery as a loach, and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye—several times faster than he had arrived.

All that remained in the gambling house was a crowd of stunned gamblers and Lan Tianye, who still had yet to fully recover.

Chen Qing remained calm, as if he had done nothing more than a trivial task. He gathered up the silver and glanced at the dazed Lan Tianye.

"Let's go."