The Thousand Games Den was a small gambling house.
It was on the second floor of the second-to-last shop on the north side of Azure Phoenix City, and it only admitted rogue immortal gamblers.
There was no sexy proprietress or serving girls to keep gamblers company. It offered only the simplest Thousand Arts Game.
Business wasn't especially brisk, but the games were pure and, though experts sometimes dropped by, the place was never short of patrons.
At that moment, the usually lively gambling hall was as quiet as a tomb.
Eighteen of the nineteen tables on the entire second floor had stopped their games.
Every gambler had crowded around a table in the corner.
They held their breath.
All eyes were on the two people facing each other across the table.
One was a blind old man leaning on a long sword. He was a three-star Immortal Monarch, with a scraggly beard, a vicious face marked by several scars, and six fingers on his left hand.
Across from him sat a woman, a four-star Immortal Sect Master. Her body was wrapped tightly in strips of cloth, which accentuated her petite yet voluptuous figure.
It was none other than Wine Fox Immortal!
Her clothes—a set of Bamboo Spring Sect's bamboo-fiber robes—had been folded neatly and placed in front of the blind man.
She kept pouring one pot of wine after another into her little mouth, her drunken, bewitching music enveloping the entire room.
Even so, she still couldn't beat the blind old man before her.
Her spirit sword, Giant Gourd, pills, and Immortal Crystals—she had lost everything she could wager... and in the end, even her clothes.
If the proprietress, Nine-Fingered Divine Crone, hadn't gone out of her way to find some strips of cloth to cover her, she wouldn't just have disgraced Bamboo Spring Sect and Azure Phoenix City today—she would have shamed the East Floating Immortal Court as well.
Back in the day, she had been known as the little gambling goddess of East Floating City. While studying at the Immortal Academy, she'd dabbled in all three vices—gambling, drinking, and drugs—and mastered them all. Until today, she had been the undefeated champion of this gambling house.
Who would have thought she'd lose to a penniless rogue immortal today!
Did that blind man have the Heaven's Eye?
She couldn't even beat him by cheating?
Wine Fox Immortal trembled with rage, her fox eyes fixed on the blind old man as she prepared for another round. She was ready to flip the table and throw a tantrum if she lost again.
"Again!"
The Blind Elder remained calm.
"Wine Deacon, you don't have anything left to lose."
The watching gamblers frantically tried to give her a hint: what about those strips of cloth? But the old man was blind, so he couldn't see them.
"But you're still here, aren't you? Tell me, what do you want?"
Wine Fox Immortal downed a pot of Immortal Beer in one go. The pale golden liquor ran from the corner of her mouth, down her jaw and slender neck, and disappeared beneath the strips of cloth wrapped tightly around her.
The old man considered this for a moment, then asked without any pretense:
"This junior heard from the Immortal Commoners here that Elder Fan of the White Lotus Sect didn't kill the Void Kun. It was Elder Lu of the Bamboo Spring Sect who killed it from inside its belly. Is that true?"
"You're blind, not deaf. Everyone's saying it. How could it be false?"
"True or not, this junior doesn't trust mortal eyes. I only trust the account of an Immortal Sect Master like you."
"Unfortunately, I was swallowed by the Kun too. I only heard about it from others."
"Then would Wine Deacon be willing to cast a Truth-Revealing Curse?"
A Truth-Revealing Curse?
Wine Fox Immortal's eyes sharpened. She grew guarded at once and suddenly barked in a bold voice:
"You're investigating Elder Lu? Tell me, who sent you?"
The gamblers watching erupted into an uproar, all turning to look at the old man.
You're an Immortal Monarch, and you want an Immortal Sect Master to cast a Truth-Revealing Curse on herself?
Shouldn't you be wagering those strips of cloth?
You're not even lusting after her? What are you, a eunuch?
Do you know how much we've lost in drinks trying to get a glimpse of her?
It was bad enough that this old man had divine gambling skills. He was a eunuch too?
Ignoring the crowd's indignation, the old man remained composed and simply said:
"Cooking inside the Kun's belly was simply too baffling. This junior was only curious."
Wine Fox Immortal didn't really mind. Even Lu Ya couldn't be bothered to keep such a thing secret, let alone her.
"No problem. If you beat me, I'll cast the Truth-Revealing Curse and tell you the truth. But if you lose, you have to give back everything you won from me earlier, and lose me a pot of fine Immortal brew on top of that."
"That's not a fair wager."
"Gambling has never been fair."
"Very well."
A moment later.
With the dice shaker presiding, a new game began.
The Thousand Gambles Pavilion offered only one game, called Thousand Arts Game.
The dice used in Thousand Arts Game were specially made and extremely sensitive to spiritual power. Interfering with them using spiritual pressure or probing them with divine sense was forbidden. Otherwise, the dice would shatter—even if an Immortal Emperor or Immortal Sovereign tried.
The rules were simple. A neutral dice shaker presided over the game, and the players guessed whether a single die would land high or low. One, two, and three counted as low; four, five, and six counted as high.
The two players took turns guessing. The first to guess chose high or low, and the second could only guess the opposite.
If they guessed at the same time and chose the same result, the round was a tie, and they continued to the next one.
Thousand Arts Game looked simple, but it demanded extremely sharp hearing, rapid calculations, and the finest physical manipulation.
The game began.
The dice cup shook.
Wine Fox Immortal closed her eyes.
A pair of fluffy fox ears stealthily poked out.
Asking her to use fine manipulation to cheat was too much. She relied on her hearing. As long as she could hear the result of her opponent's manipulation as quickly as possible, she could still win!
After all—the hearing of a fox was far better than a human's!
At that moment, some of the rogue immortals in the crowd who were partial to beast-eared girls stared, transfixed.
A body wrapped in strips of cloth, soft and adorable fox ears... Who could withstand that?
Her personality was so bold, so why was she blessed with such a cute face and figure?
The Blind Elder remained composed.
Though he wasn't actually blind, he didn't call Wine Fox Immortal out. Even if she cheated, he had ten thousand ways to beat her.
The dice cup landed.
The die settled.
The dice shaker said:
"Make your guesses—"
Wine Fox Immortal's ears twitched. In an instant, she blurted out:
"High!"
She had barely finished the word when someone suddenly shouted from behind her:
"High my ass—"
Lu Ya suddenly appeared behind Wine Fox Immortal, grabbed her soft, fluffy fox ears, and lifted her up as if she were a little kitten.
"What kind of getup is this?"
Wine Fox Immortal was petite, barely five-foot-three at most. When Lu Ya lifted her like that, both her feet left the ground, leaving one fox ear to bear her entire weight.
"Ow, ow, ow—"
The watching gamblers looked on, green with envy.
They hadn't seen Lu Ya before and assumed he was some penniless drifter.
Ning Zhongzi and Muyu Feifei were still on their way.
Lu Ya had teleported here.
"So you do feel pain? Go change into your clothes!"
"I have to win them back!"
"Then call low."
Wine Fox Immortal was a little dazed and instinctively called out, "Low."
"Low."
The dice shaker lifted the cup. The die showed three, so he announced:
"Low wins!"
Wine Fox Immortal instantly gaped, like a little white cat dangling in the air.
You even knew how to gamble?
The Blind Elder's face darkened. He looked somewhat displeased.
Perhaps he'd been too focused on the dice cup. He hadn't noticed where this mortal had come from, nor expected him to lift the Immortal Sect Master Wine Fox Immortal off the ground with one hand.
Though Wine Fox Immortal had won by unfair means, the rules were the rules. The old man generously returned her clothes and everything else he'd won, then gave her an extra pot of Immortal brew.
Wine Fox Immortal's feet touched the ground. Her bold expression returned at once. She tossed her clothes, spirit sword, and everything else into her spatial ring, then stayed wrapped in the strips of cloth. After opening the pot, she brought her dainty nose close to the mouth and sniffed.
"Wow, what a fine wine!"
But the old man's attention had already shifted away from Wine Fox Immortal.
He had a new target.
"Who might you be?"
"Lu Ya."
Lu Ya answered curtly.
The gamblers erupted in realization and hurriedly clasped their hands in greeting.
"Greetings, Elder Lu!"
The old man, however, didn't get up.
"So you're Elder Lu. My apologies for the discourtesy. This old man is—"
"I didn't ask who you were."
Lu Ya's words left the old man flustered, and a dull ache stirred in his Immortal Platform.
Though Lu Ya didn't know the old man's precise identity, he understood his strength—and what he truly was.
He could even tell that the old man had suffered a grave injury several days ago. It was a miracle he'd survived.
Injured like that, and he still came to gamble?
A gambling addict was beyond saving!
Even if he wanted to investigate something, gambling wasn't the only way to go about it. Honestly, he'd just gotten the itch.
"If you want to know the truth, I'll tell you. I killed the Kun. Fan Ni merely worked with our sect to draw people to Azure Phoenix City, obtain Kun meat, and restore his reputation. That's all."
"So it was his personal choice?"
The Blind Elder thought that this was indeed something Fan Ni might do, but the process might not have been so simple.
As the White Lotus Sect's Beast Taming Elder, there were fewer than five people in the East Floating District stronger than him. He had no need to bend over backward like this.
With a wave of his hand, the dice on the table abruptly flipped and danced, glimmering in the light.
"A mortal's words can't be trusted. Beat me, and then what you say will carry weight."
What the hell do you mean, mortal?!
I teleported here and even you, an Immortal Venerable, didn't notice. And you still think I'm a mortal?
Or had you just lost and refused to accept it, so you wanted to play me for a round?
Lu Ya figured it was the latter.
Though he had no interest in gambling, he still asked curiously:
"What do I get if I win?"
"If you win, I'll tell you a secret too—a big secret about Sect Master Liu."
Before you continue