The Emperor Above, Slaanesh Below

Zhou Yun stared at the gambling table, but what he saw was not the present scene.

He saw the near future. He saw the cards Cicero would deal him.

A 10 and a Q, adding up to 20.

If he chose to hit...

Zhou Yun's gaze shifted slightly, and the scene before him changed.

It was a 2... He would bust immediately...

Then his gaze shifted again, and he saw the future where he stood.

Cicero's hole card was a 10. He hit.

9, 10, 2—exactly 21.

So that was it.

Zhou Yun naturally did not think it was a coincidence. Without changing his expression, he began to exert his psychic power.

First... Telepathy School psychic ability... Mind Trick: Induce Action.

Zhou Yun confidently pushed his chips onto the table and gave Cicero a confident smile.

"All in! That is wisdom!"

Then he gently wiggled his fingers, silently using his psychic powers to disrupt Cicero's mind and stuff nervousness into Cicero's consciousness.

Cicero's fingers visibly began to tremble, yet he seemed not to notice as he started shuffling. His normally practiced movements went wrong, and the card order he had under control was thrown into disarray.

Macragge's Veil ultimately limited Zhou Yun's abilities. It would take him a little more time to completely control Cicero's actions without leaving any trace. This round could only be left to luck.

But... luck could also be controlled.

Zhou Yun activated a lesser psychic technique: Strange Luck.

It was a very common and practical psychic art.

Many psychics could instinctively use this technique before they even realized they possessed the talent, causing their luck to become strangely better.

Zhou Yun had now crossed the Realm. With the psychic power of two lifetimes stacked together, and as someone skilled in the precognition school that toyed with probability and fate, this psychic technique would have an exceptionally good effect.

If it were a game of pure luck, Zhou Yun believed he was nearly guaranteed to win.

Of course, Zhou Yun still had another card up his sleeve.

His psychic power was still interfering with Cicero's thoughts. On one hand, he wanted to completely control Cicero's actions; on the other, he could use it to weave illusions within Cicero's mind at any time...

Zhou Yun flipped over his two cards.

The first was a Q...

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Zhou Yun's lips. He noticed Cicero staring nervously at the other card in his hand.

Seeing Cicero's expression, Zhou Yun was no longer in a hurry. He gently lowered the hand that was flipping the card.

Then he formed the shape of an Aquila with both hands and held them before his chest.

"The Emperor above, Slaanesh below. A fine day meets a fine man, peach blossoms reflect crimson. Yellow Skin and Slaanesh do some gender reversal..."

Cicero and Tull looked at Zhou Yun blankly, having no idea what he was muttering about.

"Oh, I recently converted. Just praying for the God-Emperor's blessing." Zhou Yun giggled, then reached out and flipped over the card.

The second card was... an A.

An A?!

That Ace of Diamonds seemed to enlarge before Cicero's eyes like a sharp knife, stabbing into his eyeballs like a blade.

His body jolted violently. The heart pounding furiously in his chest felt as though it would break free from the prison of his ribs. His blood surged backward, and dizziness assaulted his brain.

An A could be counted as either 1 or 11, while a Q counted as 10. Zhou Yun had directly reached 21.

Moreover, an A+J/Q/K hand was a blackjack. Not only was it the best hand, its payout was also higher than normal, reaching odds of 1:1.5...

Zhou Yun had bet thirty chips...

In other words, as the dealer, Cicero had to pay Zhou Yun forty-five chips—4,500 Denar.

Besides the 3,000 Denar he had just borrowed, he would have to borrow another 1,500 Denar.

Cicero's face turned ashen.

He did not understand!

How had this happened? Had he dealt the wrong cards?

How could he have made such a low-level mistake? Why had he been so nervous today?

Cicero stared at Zhou Yun and inexplicably felt that Zhou Yun possessed an oppressive aura. Zhou Yun's figure seemed unusually tall, his lips curved in a teasing, mocking smile that made Cicero intensely uncomfortable.

"Your turn." Zhou Yun gestured toward Cicero. He was using the same method Cicero and the others had used to toy with the original owner of this body, freely manipulating Cicero's emotions.

At the same time, Zhou Yun's psychic power began to silently penetrate past those emotions and enter deeper levels of Cicero's consciousness.

He began to see Cicero's recent memories. He saw Cicero delivering a speech to Semuneta's followers in the Semuneta Temple, his voice impassioned and seductive.

He saw an old man in one corner of the temple glaring at Cicero with disgust. That old man was... Tatius, the high priest of the Semuneta Temple... A little deeper into his memories...

Zhou Yun saw roasted meat...

Cicero panted heavily. He did not know why, but under Zhou Yun's gaze, it felt as though he were being illuminated by a shadowless lamp that pierced his mind. Everything within him seemed to be freely rifled through by Zhou Yun.

No, calm down. He had to stay calm... Cicero gritted his teeth. In the current situation, he had no chance of beating Zhou Yun.

The best choice should be to stand. That way, he could still beat Tull and at least win Tull's 1,000 Denar back, reducing his losses.

But... Cicero's face was bitter. According to the rules, the dealer had to hit when his total was 16 or below.

Cicero clenched his teeth. If he drew a 2 or even an A, he might still have a chance to limit his losses.

Cicero revealed his hole card, a 10, then drew another card.

"...3."

That made 22. More than 21. He had busted.

Not only had he lost the 3,000 Denar he had just borrowed, he had also lost another 1,500 Denar to Zhou Yun and still had to pay Tull 1,000 Denar.

No, he and Tull had an arrangement. Tull would not really...

Zhou Yun slightly raised a hand, signaling for the attendant to come over.

"Lend my brother Cicero another 1,500 Denar!"

"Wait!" Before the attendant could approach, the slave trader Tull suddenly shouted.

Cicero shot Tull a pleading look, hoping Tull would be generous and help him—

"Lend brother Cicero 2,500 Denar." As he spoke, Tull looked at Zhou Yun and complained, "Don't forget, he still owes me 1,000 Denar!"

Cicero could not help taking a deep breath. He looked at Tull, his face flushed red as he clenched his teeth tightly.

But there was nothing he could do. He could only sign the new loan contract.

Then it was Tull's turn to deal.

Tull fiddled with the remaining forty-five cards, already feeling dissatisfied with Cicero.

Cicero had clearly messed up the card order just now, making their method of cheating through the sequence unusable.

Wasn't this screwing over his own teammate? Those scholarly types really were useless.

But Tull had dominated gambling tables for years. He did not rely solely on cheating.

Tull calmed himself and brought his mathematical ability as a merchant into play.

Cicero's cards just now had been 9, 10, and 3.

Zhou Yun's cards had been A and Q.

Tull's cards had been J and 9.

In blackjack card counting, 2 through 6 were counted as 1, 7 through 9 as 0, and 10/J/Q/K/A as -1.

Adding up all the cards that had appeared, the result was -3, indicating that more high cards had appeared in the previous game.

In other words, it would be easier to draw low cards in the remaining rounds, which favored Tull as the dealer.

This time, Cicero hesitated for a moment before betting only one chip. He was truly frightened.

Zhou Yun also seemed to become more cautious, betting only twenty chips.

Without betraying any emotion, Tull dealt two cards to each person.

Tull's face-up card was a 5, a relatively safe card that made busting less likely.

Then Zhou Yun flipped over his cards.

Zhou Yun had a 4 and a 9, totaling 13.

Cicero had a 2 and a 4, totaling 6.

"Hit." Zhou Yun gestured for another card.

It was a 6. That brought Zhou Yun's hand to 19.

"Hit." Zhou Yun extended his hand again, his expression unchanged as he continued to ask for another card.

His precognition had already let him see what the next card would be.

Zhou Yun flipped over the card Tull dealt him.

"Two... twenty-one." Tull exclaimed, looking at Zhou Yun with a measure of awe.

"Hit," Cicero said to Tull.

Cicero hit twice in a row, drawing a 3 and a 6. His hand now totaled 15.

Cicero hesitated. He drew another card... a K. His total became 25, and he busted.

"Macragge profanity." Cicero cursed, then gloomily took a sip of wine.

Tull revealed his cards. His hole card was a 2.

"Hit." Tull reached out and dealt himself three more cards in succession: a 4, a 4, and a 5.

Tull pondered for a moment, then dealt himself another card. A J. He busted.

That made Cicero feel even worse, because the dealer busting meant all the players won. If he had bet more just now, he might have won back what he had lost.

Tull did not care. He casually pushed twenty chips toward Zhou Yun while silently beginning to count cards.

He had deliberately dealt himself cards consecutively just now in order to create an advantage in the next round...

The cards drawn so far were:

Cicero: 9, 10, 3, 2, 4, 3, 6, K.

Zhou Yun: A, Q, 4, 9, 6, 2.

Tull: J, 9, 4, 4, 5, J.

Using the counting method, the result was 5.

That meant most of the remaining thirty-two cards would be high cards, which was very unfavorable for Zhou Yun as the dealer.

"Your turn to deal." Tull smiled and handed the cards to Zhou Yun.