Chen Daozai, the Gambling Fiend, and His Short-Tempered Senior Sister

White Lotus Sect.

Sword-Wielding Pavilion.

At the center of an enormous lotus-shaped platform stood a nine-story sandalwood tower.

Ninth floor.

Moonlight streamed through the scarlet pavilion like gauze.

On all four walls hung rows of tiny characters carved with a sword. Their delicate strokes were graceful and refined.

At the center of the pavilion, a long table held more than a dozen celadon teapots of various sizes, a pot of ice water, and a porcelain dish piled with dark green lotus hearts.

On a mat before the table sat a white-robed woman, legs crossed.

Her long hair was twisted into a cloud-shaped bun, and a pale pink lotus mark rested between her brows.

She looked like a mature immortal beauty, with a slender, graceful figure and delicate features. Her eyes were serene, and her temperament appeared elegant and gentle as jade, giving the impression of a virtuous young lady...

If she didn't open her mouth.

"White Lotus Sect is making some grand move?"

"A grand move even White Lotus Sect itself doesn't know about?"

"Does he take my White Lotus Sect for a pawn?"

"What the hell is Fan Ni up to?"

Her voice sounded cool and calm, yet she gave off the feeling that she might fly into a rage at any moment.

Like a still pool atop a volcano, ready to boil, erupt, and destroy the world.

"I'll bring him back."

The woman said it quietly, then abruptly rose. Her figure trembled slightly as she prepared to head east.

Just then—

A man's ethereal voice drifted into the pavilion, calm and distant, imbued with Zen.

"The world is so beautiful, yet you're so irritable. That's no good, no good."

The woman cut her clear eyes sideways, and the moonlight seemed to retreat.

"Which of your eyes saw me being irritable? If you're blind, I can pluck them out for you."

The ethereal voice let out a quiet sigh.

"You see, this is why I'm the sect master, while you can only be an elder."

The woman froze.

"Didn't you win the sect master position by cheating?"

The man countered:

"Senior Brother Yun was such a steady person. He was afraid you'd be so irritable you'd destroy the sect, so he deliberately lost to me and let me take over. Think about it: with Senior Brother's skill, could I have cheated him?"

Actually, yes!

At the highest point of White Lotus Sect, facing the peak of Sword-Wielding Pavilion [Lotus Heart Palace], stood a square pavilion.

The square pavilion balanced on a single corner atop a gigantic rock.

It was not large, only three zhang wide. Its entire surface was snowy white, with lotus emblems carved into every wall.

But the number of lotuses on each wall was completely different.

One wall had a single lotus.

Another had two.

Another had three...

Four, five, six!

In other words, it was actually a die—a gigantic one, balanced on a single point, with no set number showing.

It was the residence of Chen Daozai, the sect master of White Lotus Sect—

Suspended Dice Palace.

This place had once been Yun Zhonghe's Suspended Cloud Palace. Now, it was Suspended Dice Palace.

The current sect master, Chen Daozai, was a handsome, fair-skinned man.

He loved gambling and was especially skilled at cheating, relying purely on technique without using spiritual power.

He was known as the Gambling Fiend.

Other gamblers often lost a finger or two. Chen Daozai, on the other hand, had eleven.

According to rumor, his master, the White Lotus Ancestor, had forcibly added the extra digit back then to ensure he couldn't cheat unnoticed and to break his gambling habit so he'd focus on cultivation.

In truth, that was just an excuse.

He had been born with twelve fingers, and his gambling skills were unrivaled beneath the heavens. The two extra fingers were his secret weapons, allowing him to cheat with an unfair advantage.

Later, finding it too dull to be invincible, he had cut off one finger himself, hoping to find a worthy opponent.

Unfortunately, there was no such opponent. He remained invincible.

Being invincible meant no one dared to gamble with him.

He planned to cut off another finger when he had some free time in the sect, becoming a normal person at last before climbing to the peak of gambling again as an ordinary man.

His most glorious moment had been winning the sect master position from Yun Zhonghe in a wager.

At the time, Yun Zhonghe had been forced to step down as sect master because the Kunpeng Brothers were causing harm wherever they went.

Before entering seclusion, he had planned to pass the position on to Zhang Lianxin, the strongest person in the sect.

Zhang Lianxin was White Lotus Sect's Sword-Wielding Elder and a three-star Immortal Venerable. Her succeeding as sect master would have been only natural.

But that senior sister of his... was simply too irritable!

Back then.

While teaching at East Floating Immortal Academy, Zhang Lianxin had refused to tolerate the overbearing airs of a half-step Immortal Venerable instructor parachuted in by the Immortal Court. She had rolled up her sleeves, drawn the Lotus Heart Sword, and used the strength of a Nine Star Immortal Sect to fight a half-step Immortal Venerable head-on!

After half an hour of fighting, she was drenched in blood and on the verge of defeat. Then her heart stirred, and she advanced to half-step Immortal Venerable in the middle of the battle. She quickly suppressed her opponent and nearly crippled him, if not for the principal's intervention.

Zhang Lianxin was consequently dismissed from her teaching post at the Immortal Academy and imprisoned by Xingtian Pavilion.

In the end, Yun Zhonghe had to call in favors from all sides to bring her back to White Lotus Sect, where she became a Sword-Wielding Elder. Even so, she had yet to join the ranks of the Immortal Court, losing her chance to reach a higher stage.

Her exploits were widely known at the Immortal Academy, and for a time, she had been Wine Fox Immortal's idol!

Influenced by her, after Liu Xuanye was expelled from the academy because of her constitution, Wine Fox Immortal had also caused a ruckus at the school. In the middle of the fight, she had grown a third tail, advanced to Immortal Sect, and beaten the instructor who'd expelled Liu Xuanye into a cripple.

These were dark chapters in the Immortal Academy's history, as well as popular talking points over tea in East Floating District.

One thing worth mentioning was that...

Back then, to get Zhang Lianxin out of prison, Yun Zhonghe had no choice but to host a banquet for high-ranking members of the Immortal Court and pull strings.

One high-ranking Immortal Saint from Caiyun City had specifically asked to eat Yun Zhonghe's mount—

Void Kun.

That was what led to the Kunpeng Brothers fleeing White Lotus Sect.

And that, in turn, changed the course of East Floating District's history for a thousand years.

Yun Zhonghe, Yunzhongzi, the Kunpeng Brothers, Fan Ni, Wine Fox Immortal, Li Wuxie, every small sect destroyed in White Cloud District, and countless innocent Immortal Commoners...

It could be said that Zhang Lianxin's temper had changed the history of East Floating District!

She had unwittingly changed countless people's fates.

And Chen Daozai's, too.

When Yun Zhonghe was choosing a successor, Chen Daozai had been only a one-star Immortal Venerable and a Discipline Elder. He had neither the standing nor the strength to compete with Zhang Lianxin.

But at the time, Chen Daozai had been deeply enamored with his pretty, short-tempered senior sister.

So he had volunteered himself to Senior Brother Yun Zhonghe.

Then he set up a wager and beat Yun Zhonghe, winning the sect master position.

It was for the public good, and for his own private reasons.

For the public good, he wanted to use the authority of the sect master to keep Zhang Lianxin in check, lest she do anything outrageous again, ruin her reputation, and bring the sect down with her.

For his own sake, he wanted to use the status and prestige of the sect master to pursue Zhang Lianxin.

He said as much, and Zhang Lianxin beat him until even his mother wouldn't recognize him. His handsome face was left covered in scars, and he ended up staying cooped up in his Suspended Dice Pavilion, studying mortal gambling techniques.

Of course, that was also his chance to slack off.

Zhang Lianxin handled all the sect's affairs, while he merely advised her from the sidelines.

At the same time, he still had the Lotus Lock Yun Zhonghe had left behind, which was specially made to subdue his senior sister when she went berserk.

He spent his days holed up in Suspended Dice Palace, enjoying a quiet life.

But now...

All the signs pointed to one thing: East Floating District was about to be turned upside down!

Setting down the fragments of a broken die in his hand, Chen Daozai suddenly asked,

"Don't you think it's suspicious?"

"What is?"

"In the half-month after Senior Brother Yun gave up on seclusion and left Colored Cloud Immortal Domain, don't you think too many strange things happened in East Floating District?"

"Too many strange things?"

"Black Lotus capsized, Yunzhongzi—who was as steady as Senior Brother Yun—was killed, Liu Xuanye took a Dao Companion, Bamboo Spring Sect built a city against the odds, your fangirl Wine Fox Immortal went to Bamboo Spring Sect as a Sect Resident Envoy despite being only an Immortal Sect, then the Beast Tide went out of control, and after a thousand years of pursuit, Fan Ni finally killed the Kunpeng Brothers..."

Zhang Lianxin furrowed her delicate brows, realizing that things were more complicated than they seemed.

"You're saying all of this has something to do with Bamboo Spring Sect?"

"That's right."

Having devoted himself to the art of cheating for years, Chen Daozai had an exceptionally keen eye.

"Liu Xuanye's cultivation may be low, but she's no simple character. A major change may be unfolding around her, and it could very well plunge all of East Floating District into chaos."

"Are you rolling dice and making wild guesses again?"

Zhang Lianxin said coolly, sweeping her sleeve to open the window.

"I'll go bring Fan Ni back and question him. I'll be back before dawn."

"I'm afraid the Fan Junior Brother you bring back won't have a human shape anymore."

"Heh. He secretly colluded with an outside sect behind our backs. I'll leave him in human shape, but I'll castrate him. If I don't, he won't learn his lesson. He keeps causing trouble and disgracing the sect."

"No need to rush. Perhaps someone deceived or coerced Junior Brother Fan. We need to investigate this quietly; we mustn't alert the enemy... Besides, based on what we know, this may not be a bad thing. The reputations of both our sect and Junior Brother Fan have been preserved. Only Liu Xuanye has benefited."

Liu Xuanye?

A chillingly eerie smile appeared on Zhang Lianxin's placid, pretty face.

"I'm going to find Liu Xuanye right now. Back at East Floating Immortal Academy, I never taught her personally, but her name and beauty were already thunderously famous."

"No."

Chen Daozai flatly refused.

"The Beast Tide is out of control. Though our sect has a protective formation, I heard Senior Brother Yun say before he left that outsiders have recently been spotted in Beast Nest Forest. I suspect this Beast Tide may be controlled by a powerful expert. We can't predict how dangerous it'll be. As the strongest fighter in our sect, you absolutely cannot leave during this period."

"An expert? I thought that saucy fox was behind it?"

As Zhang Lianxin spoke, an image of a saucy fox chasing after girls everywhere surfaced in her mind.

Back then, that fox had clung to her, his teacher, for a while, wanting to learn this and that.

Then he met Liu Xuanye, and suddenly he wasn't interested in studying anymore...

Chen Daozai said,

"Wine Fox Immortal may have a complicated background and unclear motives, but for now, she doesn't have the ability to control a Beast Tide on this scale. The loss of control must be someone else's doing. I suspect their purpose must be connected to Bamboo Spring Sect."

"So?"

"Looks like I'll have to make a personal trip to Bamboo Spring Sect."

"You went through all that just to go look at a beauty? Be careful, or I'll kill you!"

As she said this, Zhang Lianxin's brows twitched. She suddenly felt as she had back when Wine Fox Immortal had abandoned her and started sparring with Liu Xuanye every day instead.

She had been relieved, too, but where had this faint sense of loss come from?

She was a dignified three-star Immortal Venerable, the strongest woman in East Floating District after Yun Zhonghe left Li Wuxie to herd sheep. Was she really no match for a newly promoted Immortal Sect like Liu Xuanye?

Even Chen Daozai, who had always secretly loved her, was drawn to Liu Xuanye?

Chen Daozai's pale face twitched, and the scars throbbed faintly.

He thought, Even a lovesick fool has his limits. Have you ever seen a lovesick fool get beaten up?

He'd rather fall for Junior Brother Fan than ever provoke his violent senior sister again!

Thinking this, Chen Daozai lowered his voice solemnly.

"Stop messing around. I have serious business to attend to."

"You don't have to go for serious business. You're the sect master of White Lotus Sect. If you personally visit a tiny place like Bamboo Spring Sect, won't it be beneath your dignity? Send your disciple Qi Ming instead."

"Since even Fan Ni met with trouble, I can only go myself. I'll disguise myself as a low-ranked rogue immortal and won't tarnish the sect's dignity. Besides, Liu Xuanye has never seen me."

"You have three days. If you haven't solved the problem by then, I won't let Fan Ni off."

"Ten days. I need to visit Beast Nest Forest first and get a better understanding of the Beast Tide."

"Don't die."

With that, Zhang Lianxin swept her sleeve and closed the window. She calmed herself, then slowly sat cross-legged.

Beneath the warm moonlight, her clear eyes were full of elegance and serenity, like those of a refined young lady. She picked up a cup from the table and took a delicate sip of Lotus Heart Tea.

Crack—

The cup shattered against the wall.

"It's so bitter!"