The Wager

"Anything here is yours to choose. Thirty-five coins apiece."

The stallkeeper's head drooped, and his tone was languid.

Lin Yi swept his gaze over the stall. The nearly hundred Nuo Masks were utterly ordinary, with nothing particularly remarkable among them.

[Know Heavenly Fate] activated!

A glint flashed through his eyes.

[Know Heavenly Fate] could also reveal the source of the day's fortune.

And so, among the many ordinary Nuo Masks, Lin Yi spotted two that shimmered with golden rays of fortune.

One glimmer was faint, pointing to a Town Sha Mask among the many masks. Its eyes glared, its fangs jutted out, and a single horn grew from its forehead. Red and black were its dominant colors.

The other glimmer was much brighter, and its target was right beside the stallkeeper.

Found it!

It seemed this was where today's fortune lay.

"Old sir, I'll buy this..."

With that, Lin Yi pointed straight at the odd-looking black longsword beside the stallkeeper. It was about a meter long and mottled with rust; without a close look, it could have passed for a fire poker.

Lin Yi didn't choose to buy both.

The divination said that he would obtain only one Treasure Artifact today.

Choosing more than one didn't necessarily mean more fortune. It could just as easily bring disaster.

The stallkeeper froze, then slowly raised his head, revealing a deeply wrinkled face with a hint of surprise.

"Are you sure?"

Lin Yi nodded.

The stallkeeper shook his head and flatly refused. "That one's not for sale. Pick something else."

Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you say just now that anything here was yours to choose, for thirty-five coins?"

"Changing your tune halfway through hardly seems fair."

"You have a point." The stallkeeper nodded with deep conviction. Then he reached out, swept the fire-poker-like longsword into his sleeve, and smiled with his wrinkled face. "Now it's no longer something here."

Lin Yi: "..."

Lin Yi smiled.

He was laughing because he was so annoyed.

He hadn't expected anyone to pull a stunt like that.

Lin Yi's smile faded, and he said helplessly, "Senior, since you came here to sell a Treasure Artifact to someone destined to find it, why not sell it to me?"

Lin Yi spoke plainly.

Seeing that he'd been found out, Master Wu dropped the act. "How did you recognize me?"

Lin Yi gestured toward the hundreds of Nuo Masks surrounding Master Wu.

People often said that no two people ever saw Master Wu the same way.

And weren't these dazzling masks the clearest hint of all? A hundred Nuo Masks, with his true face impossible to find.

Master Wu smiled and praised him. "You're quite perceptive..."

"Among all these Nuo Masks, there's bound to be a Treasure Artifact. Why fixate on that hunk of scrap metal?"

"If it's just a hunk of scrap metal, why won't you sell it?" Lin Yi asked.

"Master, I can see that hunk of scrap metal and I are destined to meet. If I fail to obtain what's fated for me, I'll have missed out on a stroke of fortune for nothing. In that case, I'll just have to make a quick fortune another way. I'm sure information revealing your whereabouts would fetch me a pretty penny."

"But if that delays you from finding the person destined to receive it, then I'll be the one at fault."

Lin Yi had found that the Buddhist monks' way of begging for alms worked wonders: just say, "It's destined for me," and suddenly you had a perfectly reasonable excuse to take something by force.

Would such a high-minded excuse make Lin Yi feel guilty?

The answer was obviously no.

He'd been in this world long enough to know that he'd been born poor. To seize resources, he had to use every means at his disposal—snatching, cheating, anything it took.

Master Wu narrowed his eyes, his voice turning a few degrees colder. "Are you threatening me?"

Lin Yi neither confirmed nor denied it.

Their gazes locked in a stalemate.

After a moment, Master Wu burst into hearty laughter. "Hahahaha! This is interesting. You've got quite a lot of nerve for such a young brat."

With that, Master Wu grabbed the nearby Town Sha Mask, its eyes glaring, fangs jutting, and single horn sprouting from its forehead, its colors predominantly red and black, and tossed it down in front of Lin Yi.

It was the very mask Lin Yi had seen glowing with golden rays of fortune through [Know Heavenly Fate].

"This is the Treasure Artifact I'm selling today. Pay thirty-five coins, and you can take it."

Lin Yi shook his head.

Master Wu's brows knitted together. "The Treasure Artifact is right here. Why don't you want it?"

"This Treasure Artifact isn't destined for me, so I wouldn't dare take it."

Master Wu frowned and waved a hand. "If that's the case, then leave. As for that sword..."

"Master, don't be so quick to refuse..."

"Master Wu, you've disguised yourself to sell weapons and Treasure Artifacts all this time. I imagine it's not for the money, but for fate. And fate is destiny."

"Since you believe in fate, and I believe in fate too, why not leave it to Heaven to decide whether I can obtain that sword?"

The corner of Lin Yi's mouth curled up, his gaze burning.

"Master, why don't we settle it with a wager!"

Master Wu froze, then seemed intrigued.

"What do you want to wager?"

Lin Yi picked up a brick from the ground. Five meters from the stall, he marked out a circle one foot in diameter.

Then he casually picked up three stones from the ground nearby and spoke softly.

"A pitch-pot game."

Pitch-pot was a simple throwing game. In short, you threw something into a pot.

Master Wu froze, an inexplicable expression crossing his face.

This childish game was utterly boring.

Even if Lin Yi were an expert at pitch-pot, Master Wu had a thousand ways to stop him from landing a throw.

"Not interested." Master Wu waved a hand dismissively.

Lin Yi smiled as he stepped forward and gently placed the stones in Master Wu's hand.

"Senior, you take the throws."

Master Wu was stunned.

Though he'd never revealed his cultivation, the fact that he could forge Treasure Artifacts meant his Martial Way cultivation couldn't be weak. Besides, he hadn't even devoted himself exclusively to the art of forging.

Even an ordinary child with no Martial Way training could toss a stone into a circle.

And this fellow was actually foolish enough to ask him to throw?

Master Wu admitted he was genuinely stunned.

He was genuinely stunned by the young man's foolishness.

Lin Yi didn't mind in the least. Instead, he smiled brightly.

"Master, just stand here. You can use any method you like. As long as you get all three stones into the area inside the circle, you win."

"If you fail, then fate is on my side, and that sword belongs to me!"

"That's only fitting, according to destiny."