"Auntie, want to win back twice what you lost, and while we're at it... teach the people who swindled you a lesson they'll never forget?" Luo Yue suddenly asked.
"Little Yue, what do you have in mind?"
Luo Qingluan's eyes lit up. Looking at her little niece's young yet unusually composed face and listening to those calm but tantalizing words, she instantly grew excited.
"Bring your source. We'll go to the Gambling Stone Workshop first thing tomorrow morning. But this time, you have to listen to me." An almost imperceptible smile curled Luo Yue's lips.
With that, she took a jade scroll from the bookshelf in her room and began reading it.
The original owner of this body had been gifted and intelligent, reading widely since childhood. This [Qi Gazing Art] was a source arts method she had collected, but she had never gotten around to studying it. Now Luo Yue reaped the benefit.
Seeing the little girl bury herself in the [Qi Gazing Art], studying intently as though plotting trouble, Luo Qingluan could not help growing excited too.
She knew that although her little niece seemed well-behaved, she had been full of schemes since childhood. Beneath the surface, she was wickedly mischievous and thoroughly devious.
In fact, many members of the Luo Family were still in the dark about this. Only Luo Qingluan, the aunt who had been close to Luo Yue since she was little, knew anything of that devious streak.
As for how she had first discovered it...
That brought them to the incident in which a certain unscrupulous fat Daoist had entered a Gambling Stone Workshop in Luo City, only for a five-year-old girl to swindle him out of everything, right down to his underwear.
Early the next morning.
Luo Qingluan changed into a fiery-red outfit that allowed her to move freely. Bristling with aggression, she led her little niece out of the Luo Residence, looking for all the world like a pretty fighting cock heading into battle.
"Auntie, did you bring enough source?"
Luo Yue glanced at her and could not help asking.
"This time, your aunt brought even the source she'd tucked away at the bottom of her chest-a whole two thousand jin of pure source! Well? Is that enough?" Luo Qingluan asked.
"Enough!"
Luo Yue nodded.
Back in the day, Heavenly Emperor Ye had used a single Source Heaven Book to win vast quantities of resources for his Sacred Body through stone gambling. Now, with two thousand jin of source in hand, multiplying it eighty or a hundred times would be no problem for Luo Yue.
The two had not alerted anyone else in the Luo Residence to their plans.
As for Luo Qingluan, that went without saying. She did not even dare tell anyone she had returned, and had made do in Luo Yue's courtyard the previous night.
As the principal city of a vast province, Luo City was large and extremely prosperous, its broad streets filled with endless streams of people.
With the appearance of the Divine Source Ancient Mine, many cultivators from elsewhere had also arrived in the city.
The discovery of the Divine Source Ancient Mine had caused quite a stir in the Northern Region. Holy lands and Desolate Ancient Families from all Five Great Regions of the Eastern Wasteland had sent people over.
The influx of cultivators into Qingyun Province had also allowed some people to spot business opportunities.
For instance, a newly opened Gambling Stone Workshop run by a holy land in central Luo City was already bustling with customers. Its imposing signboard bore four large gilded characters reading [Great Evolution Stone Pavilion], written in sweeping strokes like flying dragons and dancing phoenixes.
"I asked around yesterday. This Gambling Stone Workshop was set up by a personal disciple of a supreme elder from the Great Evolution Sacred Land. He's supposedly one of their ten great personal disciples, so he's got quite a background."
"But Qingyun Province is our Luo Family's territory. Little Yue, don't worry about offending anyone. Just fleece him good!"
"Better yet, win this whole stone-gambling house!"
Luo Qingluan spoke loudly, without the slightest intention of concealing her words. She had come to wreck the place's reputation, after all, and everyone around them heard her.
Luo Yue gave her a somewhat helpless look. This aunt of hers seemed a little too confident in her seven-year-old niece.
"Well, well~ Isn't this the Luo Family's young lady? What, didn't lose enough yesterday, so you came back today?"
There were many people outside the Great Evolution Stone Workshop. Someone recognized Luo Qingluan, and a grating laugh immediately rang out from the crowd.
The speaker was a flashy young man in a red-cloud robe, waving an ornate fire fan.
He came from Fire Cloud Province, ten thousand li from Qingyun Province, and was a descendant of a supreme elder of the Fire Cloud Palace. His name was Li Huan.
He had a considerable background too, but Luo Qingluan was not afraid of him. Pointing at his nose, she cursed:
"Li Huan, you blockhead! I haven't settled the score with you for egging me on to buy that rotten stone yesterday!"
On her own turf, Luo Qingluan had completely discarded the cautious facade she had worn at the Jiang Family. Her true colors showed now: a fiery-tempered young lady who pointed straight at someone's nose and cursed.
Remembering how she had spent eight hundred jin of source yesterday to make a fool of herself only made her angrier.
Li Huan paid no mind to Luo Qingluan's curses and merely taunted her:
"Luo Qingluan, did you bring enough source today? Want this young master to lend you some?"
"I have plenty of source, so don't trouble yourself over that. If you've got nothing better to do, come gamble a few rounds with me. Perfect timing—I'll settle all my grudges, old and new, today. I'll start by putting you under the knife, Li Huan! Then I'll win this Gambling Stone Workshop." Luo Qingluan sneered.
"Oh, such big talk!"
"Luo Qingluan, what medicine did you take today to make you so cocky?"
Quite a few young men stood beside Li Huan. Some were personal disciples of great sects, others descendants of powerful giants of the Northern Region. None had an ordinary background, and now they all began jeering.
Luo Qingluan grew impatient and could not be bothered with them. She challenged Li Huan directly. "Li Huan, do you dare gamble a few rounds with me?"
"Heh, heh. Since Miss Luo is in such a fine mood, this young master couldn't possibly spoil her fun, could he?"
"But this young master doesn't make small bets. If we're gambling, the stakes start at one thousand jin of pure source!"
The man in the fire-colored robe waved his fan with a showy flourish and looked at Luo Qingluan mockingly. Clearly, he already saw her as a fat sheep ripe for fleecing.
Hearing that, Luo Qingluan cursed inwardly. That bastard was certain she had more than a thousand jin of source on her, which was why he dared say it outright. He wanted to clean her out in a single round.
Luo Qingluan looked at Luo Yue beside her and visibly hesitated.
She had intended to let her little niece try her hand with one or two hundred jin of source first...
"Auntie, take his bet."
The silver-haired little girl's expression remained unchanged, but she had already sent those words through a voice transmission.
"Hm?"
Sensing that faintly icy fluctuation of divine sense, Luo Qingluan was a little surprised.
She had apparently not expected Luo Yue to have already begun cultivating, much less be capable of transmitting her voice with divine sense. Moreover, that divine sense seemed quite strong...
Although she was inwardly surprised, Luo Qingluan did not dwell on it too
much. Instead, she sneered directly at Li Huan and his companions in the distance:
"Fine! I'll take your bet!"
"We'll gamble on stones worth at least a thousand jin of source!"
The commotion between the two sides caused an uproar among the surrounding people.
A wager of a thousand jin of source was not something one could see here every day. In an instant, plenty of onlookers flocked to the stone-gambling house's entrance to watch the excitement.
Discussion broke out all around them:
"Good heavens, a thousand jin of source! Who's daring enough to bet that much?"
"Heh, you just arrived in Luo City, didn't you? You don't even know the name of the Luo Family's young lady, Luo Qingluan? Let me tell you, she's a famous 'great philanthropist' here in Luo City!"
"A great philanthropist?"
"Hahaha! She spends all day rushing to give source away to Gambling Stone Workshops. What else would you call her? There's an old saying in Luo City: 'Luo Qingluan loses every bet!' Hahaha!"
"They say she alone can keep more than half of Luo City's small stone-gambling houses in business."
Laughter rose all around them.
Even with her fiery young-lady temperament, Luo Yue's aunt could not help flushing crimson at those words. She fiercely glared at the people who had just egged the crowd on.
No matter how thick-skinned Luo Qingluan was, she could hardly keep her composure in front of her little niece.
Luo Yue was also left speechless.
It seemed this aunt of hers was quite famous around here.
"Little Yue, whether your aunt can shake off that 'loses every bet' label is all up to you," Luo Qingluan quietly transmitted.
Luo Yue gave her a knowing look that said, "Leave it to me. Don't worry."
Inwardly, however, she thought, It's not my source we're spending anyway. Even if we lose, it doesn't matter...