"Auntie, how did you dare come back?"
Luo Yue asked, somewhat speechless.
"What's there to be afraid of? I wasn't the only one who egged me on to take you to the Jiang Family. They're all fine, so of course I can come back."
Despite her words, Luo Qingluan still glanced around guiltily.
She was terrified that the old man might suddenly appear behind her.
Seeing how furtive she looked, Luo Yue inwardly rolled her eyes, but her tone remained icy as she asked bluntly, "Well? What is it? Don't tell me you want me to help you gamble on Source Stones again."
Source Stone gambling was one of the Northern Region's defining specialties.
Much like gambling on rough jadeite in her previous life, one cut could leave you poor, another could make you rich, and another could leave you wearing sackcloth. This craze was rampant across the blood-soaked, lawless Northern Region.
It could be said that every cultivator born and raised in the Northern Region gambled.
And the aunt standing before Luo Yue was an outright gambling addict. Yes, a genuine addict-and one with atrocious luck at that.
"Take a look at this Source Stone for me."
As she spoke, Luo Qingluan produced a battered stone the size of a watermelon from who knew where.
Then she looked at Luo Yue, her face full of hope.
Luo Yue's Divine Body was extremely unusual, often forming a mysterious resonance with certain Source Stones. With that natural advantage, aunt and niece had swept through the major Gambling Stone Workshops in Luo City more than a few times.
"An ordinary Cloud-Pattern Rough Stone. It isn't worth much. At most, you'll get a few grains of variant source out of it." A single glance was enough for Luo Yue to sentence the stone to death.
Children in the Northern Region all knew a little about identifying source. The original owner of her body had been gifted and intelligent from childhood, widely read, and had studied some Source Arts as well. Though she was hardly an expert, she was at least a little better than a certain busty, gullible woman standing before her.
"Auntie, why has your face turned green?"
Luo Yue asked.
Her aunt's face alternated between red and pale before finally settling into an ugly shade of green.
"This stone cost me eight hundred jin of pure source!" Only after holding it in for a long time did Luo Qingluan squeeze out those words. That was almost half her savings.
Only eight hundred jin of source... Luo Yue thought.
She had just refined a large chunk of divine source worth hundreds of thousands of jin of pure source.
But she did not dare say that aloud, for fear of getting hit.
"Maybe a miracle will happen. Why don't you cut it open first?" Luo Yue consoled her.
Luo Qingluan readily took her advice, but after cutting it open, her face turned even greener.
There was nothing inside-not even a grain of source the size of a kernel of rice.
"Auntie, where did you buy this Source Stone?"
Seeing her aunt take such a blow, Luo Yue could not bring herself to rub salt in the wound and hurriedly changed the subject.
"A newly opened Gambling Stone Workshop in Luo City. The Great Evolution Sacred Land runs it." Luo Qingluan's expression darkened.
Eight hundred jin of pure source, spent on a worthless rock.
Still, that was how Source Stone gambling worked. Losing nine times out of ten was commonplace. It was not that Luo Qingluan could not afford to lose; she was simply furious.
Luo Yue, however, looked thoughtful. She picked up a fragment of the freshly cut Source Stone and examined it. An idea suddenly struck her: could the [Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu] help her deduce what source lay hidden inside a stone?
"Auntie, you've been swindled."
"Even if this stone were of the poorest quality, it should still contain at least some source. Most likely, it was opened before. Someone used a sophisticated method to extract the source inside, then fitted the stone shell back together without a seam."
Luo Yue picked up a fragment as she analyzed it.
Although this fragment appeared to be made of the same material as the rest, close inspection revealed a tiny difference. It was probably part of the filling.
[Counterfeit filled stone] was a common scam in stone gambling, and one that drew particular hatred.
Luo Qingluan's eyes immediately widened. She snatched up the discarded fragment, gripping it until her knuckles turned white, and demanded furiously:
"This really is counterfeit filled stone? Those outsider bastards from the Great Evolution Sacred Land!"
"They actually dared swindle me!"
Her chest heaved with anger, and she clenched her teeth. The humiliation and fury of a noble young lady who had been made a fool of were laid bare.
Although eight hundred jin of pure source was no small sum to her, she was not someone who could not stomach a loss.
But the real issue was her pride!
Outsiders had slaughtered her like a fat sheep on her own turf. How could she swallow that insult?
"Come on, little Yue!"
Luo Qingluan seized Luo Yue's cool little hand and furiously started dragging her outside.
"We're going to smash that rotten place! Do they really think the Luo Family is a soft persimmon anyone can squash now?! If I don't make them spit out everything they swallowed, principal and interest included, then my surname isn't Luo!"
Luo Yue stumbled under her pull and hurriedly steadied herself. Her little face remained expressionless, but a trace of helplessness flashed deep within her icy-blue eyes.
Her aunt really did have a fiery, tempestuous temper.
"Auntie, it's the middle of the night. Calm down."
"If we charge straight into the Gambling Stone Workshop and start fighting, we'll turn a justified grievance into wrongdoing. That Gambling Stone Workshop has the Great Evolution Sacred Land's support—a colossus stands behind it. Grandfather has only just awakened, and the Luo Family is still caught in the teeth of the storm. We shouldn't stir up more trouble and hand others something to use against us."
Luo Qingluan stopped. Her niece's bucket of cold water cooled her blazing anger a little, but she remained indignant. "So we just swallow this loss in silence? Those bastards are getting off far too lightly!"
In the past, if anyone had dared set such a trap for her in Qingyun Province, she would have raised the roof. Even a sacred land's heir would not have been able to stop her.
After all, although the Luo Family could hardly be called a titan in the Northern Region, within Qingyun Province's ten-thousand-li expanse, they were indisputably the local emperors. Their word was absolute.
"Of course we won't swallow the loss for nothing."
Luo Yue gently freed her hand, walked to the table, and picked up a few more fragments of stone shell that Luo Qingluan had casually discarded. Her fingertips brushed across the faint traces of adhesive.
"If they dare make fakes, they won't have done it just once. There must be other 'filled stones' in that Gambling Stone Workshop, perhaps even better-hidden traps."
She closed her eyes, seemingly trying to sense something, while in truth her consciousness sank into the depths of her sea of consciousness.
The Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu floating at its center glowed faintly in response to her will. Ancient tortoiseshell patterns and black-and-white star points slowly revolved, and invisible stellar power quietly spread outward.
This time, her target was not the deduction of cultivation techniques or scriptures, but the fragment before her, imbued with the distinctive aura of its stone material.
By now,
she had begun to grasp the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu's two major functions-[Deduction] and [Traceback].
These two functions
could defy the heavens!
Used properly, they could practically place Luo Yue in an unassailable position.
Soon, several blurred images and fragments of information flooded Luo Yue's mind:
A few seemingly ordinary Source Stones with auras matching the fragment in her hand had been deliberately placed in separate piles. One exceptionally fine-looking Source Stone drew a crowd, yet it was an "empty shell," its inner "vitality" cleverly extracted.
She even "saw" several cultivators in a secret chamber in the courtyard behind the Gambling Stone Workshop, using special solutions and tools to carefully glue a stone shell back together after removing its source crystal...
It worked!
Seeing the images revealed through Traceback, Luo Yue felt reassured.
Using the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu's Traceback to appraise gambling stones was like using a mighty timber for a trifling task, but the results were unexpectedly good. For a Northern Region gambler like Luo Qingluan, this ability was a divine skill she could only dream of.
But the [Lo Shu] can only trace back a very limited amount of time. Perhaps it's because of my own strength-it can only reveal events from the recent past. Source Stones take at least thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years to form...
I'll have to supplement it with the [Yellow River Chart]'s Deduction to detect what's inside. Luo Yue rubbed her chin, turning the matter over in her mind.
The Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu had long been known as the cosmic Rubik's Cube. Put plainly, their purpose was traceback and deduction.
But all things had to follow certain laws. The Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu could not operate out of nothing; every use came at a cost...
Just as a car needed fuel to run, and a computer needed electricity to calculate.
That energy could come from Luo Yue's own divine power, or, as before, from continually consuming energy mediums such as [divine source] to perform its calculations.
When she had used the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu to deduce a fusion of the "Dao Scripture: Sea of Bitterness Volume" and the "Divine King Scripture," they had consumed most of her divine source. Only a portion had gone toward opening her [Bitter Sea] and building her [Life Spring].
Divine source! I need enough divine source.
Luo Yue slowly turned her gaze beyond the Luo Residence.
Cultivating her Divine King Body already demanded enormous resources, and now she had the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu, that terrifying source-devouring beast, to feed as well.
Luo Yue knew perfectly well that, in the vast universe, her Divine Body alone amounted to nothing!
Ji Haoyue, for instance, also possessed a Divine Body. He was every bit as wretched later on as he had been arrogant in the beginning, eventually becoming little different from the crowd!
But she could not abandon such a major advantage, either!
After all, there were differences even between Divine Bodies. Take the Divine Race's monstrous prodigy, the Divine Venerable. He also possessed a Divine Body, yet beating Ji Haoyue was like beating his own son. He was said to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Heavenly Tyrant Body and the Supreme Immortal Body!
Thus, Luo Yue intended to forge an invincible Divine King Body!
At the very least, she had to be able to stand alongside that Divine Venerable of the Divine Race.
The Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu could tailor an invincible physique for her, but that would undoubtedly require a staggering quantity of resources!
Where can I get all those resources...
The corners of Luo Yue's mouth lifted. Why, underground, of course!