"Brother Li, let me ask you something. Who is that little girl beside Luo Qingluan?"
Kong Yuan asked.
He could not have been mistaken. Divine radiance had just blossomed in the eyes of the little girl they had been ignoring all along. She had definitely been using the Qi Gazing Art.
And judging by her unruffled composure, her mastery was clearly considerable!
"Her? Luo Qingluan's little niece, the Luo Family's little princess. Everyone in the Luo Family dotes on her, but I heard she was born with a deficiency and can't cultivate. She rarely leaves home, either. Her aunt only takes her out to play occasionally. There's nothing particularly special about her."
"Brother Kong, why are you suddenly asking about her? Don't tell me you're..." Li Huan gave the young man in white a strange look.
"What are you thinking? Would I take a fancy to a little girl who still reeks of mother's milk?" The young man in white darkened and snapped without any courtesy.
Li Huan hastily changed the subject to salvage the situation. "Calm down, Brother Kong, calm down. I meant to ask whether you'd noticed something."
"We all misjudged them. Luo Qingluan clearly knows nothing about Source Arts. The one guiding her behind the scenes is that little girl," Kong Yuan said grimly.
"That can't be possible, can it? She's just a seven-year-old brat. If she's really that capable, she'd be an absolute freak!" Li Huan found it hard to believe.
"Hmph, what do you know?"
"Age doesn't mean everything. Some monstrous geniuses in this world are far stranger than you can imagine. You simply haven't encountered them."
The young man in white looked decidedly unhappy as he spoke.
Luo Yue had reminded him of an equally monstrous individual in his own family.
"Brother Kong, aren't you overthinking this?"
Li Huan could not help frowning.
They had momentum on their side right now. Kong Yuan's seemingly groundless suspicions were undermining their own confidence, which displeased him.
"Let's hope I'm overthinking it..."
The young man in white murmured.
In the distance, Luo Qingluan curled her lips when she saw their huge gain and muttered to Yao Li beside her:
"That brat Li Huan really stepped in dog shit this time. He actually cut out essence of Geng metal. He must have burned through eighteen generations of his ancestors' luck."
Fairy Yao Li ignored her. Instead, she asked Luo Yue curiously, "Little Yue, which one will you open next?"
Luo Yue was slightly surprised by her question.
After all, she had deliberately concealed herself from beginning to end to avoid attracting attention. She had even used voice transmission to speak with Luo Qingluan. She had not expected the other woman to notice.
Something seemed to occur to her.
Luo Yue turned her gaze toward little Yao Xi beside Fairy Yao Li.
"Hmph!"
Little Yao Xi gave her a soft snort, then mischievously made a face at her.
Luo Yue understood. The girl's older sister had noticed when she used the Qi Gazing Art to examine the "Vast Cold Moon Palace" inside Yao Xi's body.
She did not care, though. So what if she had been exposed? It would not cost her a piece of flesh. She gestured to the stone cutter from her family's stone shop.
"Master, cut open the largest one."
She pointed to the most expensive of her three stones. Half a person's height and shaped like a reclining ox, it cost fifteen hundred jin of pure Source.
In her earlier perception, this stone's icy silver hue had been the coldest, like a frigid moon.
"Shhk... shhk..."
The stone cutter worked quickly. His jade blade swept lightly, sending stone chips flying, until the final layer of stone skin was peeled away.
"Crack!"
An aura far purer than that of the earlier greenwood Source crystal suddenly erupted!
The temperature in the stone garden seemed to drop more than ten degrees in an instant, and tiny ice crystals formed on the ground.
What appeared before everyone was not ordinary variant Source, but a perfectly translucent piece of icy jade, with what looked like icy silver clouds flowing within it. It was about the size of a thumb pad.
"It's ice soul jade marrow!"
"It really is ice soul jade marrow! Top-grade variant Source containing the essence of the Great Yin."
"Ah, what a pity it's only the size of a thumb pad."
"That's plenty! Even a thumb-pad-sized piece of that icy marrow is worth at least seven or eight thousand jin of pure Source!"
"Hiss... seven or eight thousand jin of Source! Is the Luo Family's young lady trying to defy heaven? Two enormous gains in a row!"
Luo Qingluan had narrowly won again!
The crowd erupted.
Ice soul jade marrow not only contained vast quantities of pure Source Power, but its Taiyin Cold Qi was also a priceless treasure for cultivators practicing yin and cold cultivation methods. It was a rare marvel that money alone could not buy.
For the first time, Kong Yuan's expression turned utterly ugly, and he could no longer maintain his arrogance.
Li Huan and the others looked no better. Although they had not lost yet, every one of them had grown solemn.
Recalling the young man in white's words, even the dullest among them now realized that the person gambling against them seemed to be not Luo Qingluan, but the silver-haired little girl who had stood silently beside her all along.
This girl has cultivated the Qi Gazing Art to such a level at such a young age. She'll surely become a formidable enemy of my Source Arts family. Given time, she might even become another Source Heavenly Master...
Towering waves of shock surged through Kong Yuan's heart.
He looked toward Luo Yue in bewilderment and uncertainty. As it happened, the silver-haired little girl glanced at him as well.
One look from those icy eyes made Kong Yuan feel as though his very soul had been seen through. It was like plunging into an ice cellar. Every thought instantly vanished, leaving only a hair-raising chill!
A monster!
This was an unparalleled monster still in her infancy!
"Brother Li, I just remembered there's something I need to attend to at home. I'll take my leave!" The young man in white no longer wanted to stay.
Before Li Huan and the others could react, he turned and vanished from where he stood.
His headlong flight left Luo Yue rather baffled. She had not done anything just now. With nothing else to do, she had merely swept her gaze around using the Qi Gazing Art she had been studying.
Watching Kong Yuan slink away, Li Huan and the others stood as dumbstruck as wooden chickens.
An outstanding disciple of a prestigious Source Arts family had fled with his tail between his legs!
Kong Yuan's desertion dealt a considerable blow to their morale. Li Huan's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and veins throbbed on his forehead.
Tenfold compensation!
The greenwood Source crystal from Luo Qingluan's first round was worth three thousand jin, and the ice soul jade marrow from the second was worth around eight thousand jin or more. Together, that made eleven thousand jin of Source!
At tenfold compensation, his side would have to hand Luo Qingluan a hundred and ten thousand jin of pure Source!
This was no longer merely slicing off his flesh. It was tearing out his tendons and stripping his bones. The Fire Cloud Palace backing him was powerful, but this was still an astronomical sum. Killing Li Huan outright would not be enough to settle the debt.
Had he known, he would never have made such a huge wager. Li Huan now regretted it until his guts turned green!
The young masters beside him looked equally miserable. Although Li Huan had ostensibly initiated the gamble, all their families had participated. This had been a trap they laid together...
Some elders backing each of them had secretly instructed them to do this, intending to sound out the Luo Family.
But a staggering sum exceeding a hundred thousand was far beyond what juniors like them could bear.
Across from them, Luo Qingluan was so excited she nearly jumped. She gripped Luo Yue's icy little hand tightly, her voice almost changing pitch:
"Yue! My darling Yue! You're your aunt's lucky star! Hahaha!"
Her gaze toward Li Huan and his group brimmed with undisguised triumph and provocation. "Well, Li Huan? Still think a tenfold wager is petty? If it's not enough, we can raise it!"
Li Huan's lips trembled. He wanted to spit out a few threats, but his throat felt dry, and he could not utter a word.
He could only take a deep breath, force down his shock and a trace of humiliation, and say heavily, "Don't get smug, Luo Qingluan. The gamble isn't over. There's still a third stone. Victory and defeat remain undecided!"
"Oh, spare me!"
"That 'star disciple' from your Source Arts family has already deserted you. Look at him running like a homeless dog! What are you still putting on a brave face for?"
"If you ask me, you should surrender while you still can!" Luo Qingluan showered them with biting mockery.
"Exactly! Some Source Arts family. Looks like it's all show! Hahaha!"
The crowd of bootlickers behind Fairy Yao Li began jeering as well. The young man in white's insufferable posturing earlier had genuinely angered everyone.
Li Huan's face was livid, and sweat slid down his temples. Kong Yuan's desertion felt like a resounding slap across his face.
The crowd's laughter, the ridicule from Yao Li's followers, and Luo Qingluan's openly triumphant gaze all stabbed into him like needles.
"Brother Li, sh-should we still cut the third stone?"
One of his followers asked in a trembling voice. The wager of a hundred and ten thousand jin of Source weighed on their hearts like a mountain.
"Cut it!"
Li Huan practically forced the words through clenched teeth.
He had no choice. Refusing to cut it meant conceding on the spot, without even the slightest chance of a reversal!
He pointed to the final stone Kong Yuan had selected for him. It, too, came from the edge of the Primordial Ancient Mine, with a craggy shape and dark brown markings covering its surface. He roared at the Gambling Stone Workshop's cutter:
"Cut it open! I refuse to believe this!"
Priced at twelve hundred jin of Source, this stone had been Kong Yuan's grand finale, the one he had sworn "contained tremendous vitality, perhaps even a divine treasure."
Now, it had become Li Huan's last straw to cling to-and the last straw that would crush him.
The stone cutter picked up the Jade Knife with trembling hands.
The entire Earth-Ranked Stone Garden fell utterly silent. Every gaze focused on this final stone.
Luo Qingluan folded her arms, an openly mocking smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
Fairy Yao Li's lovely face betrayed no emotion, while little Yao Xi beside her rose onto her toes to watch curiously.
Luo Yue remained calm, watching impassively with her ice-blue eyes.
She even had the strange impression that her side looked more like a gang of villains.
Shhk... shhk... shhk...
The Jade Knife carefully shaved away the stone skin.
One cut, two cuts... stone chips flew.
Unlike the dazzling radiance that had shone when treasures emerged earlier, this stone remained a dull grayish white inside, without a single ripple of spiritual energy.
Li Huan's heart sank bit by bit into the abyss. His disreputable friends behind him grew increasingly pale, and some had already begun quietly edging backward.
"It's a bust... this doesn't feel right..."
"There's no reaction at all. Don't tell me it's a solid lump of worthless rock?"
"Tsk, tsk. Li Huan might lose even his trousers this time..."
The surrounding chatter grew louder, brimming with schadenfreude and the excitement of watching a spectacle.
Cold sweat appeared on the stone cutter's forehead as well. He worked faster and faster, trying to find even the slightest anomaly.
Yet when he finally split the entire stone apart, all that lay before the crowd was a pile of utterly worthless, dusty gray stone fragments!
There was nothing inside!
"Empty! It really was worthless rock!"
"Hahaha! I'm dying! That's the skill of the Kong Family's star disciple? He spent over a thousand jin of Source on a big, solid rock!"
"Young Master Li, your eye really is... tsk, tsk, one of a kind!"
"Could this be counterfeit filled stone from the Great Evolution Stone Workshop? The kind made to fleece suckers? Young Master Li just happened to step right into it! Hahaha!"
The crowd of bootlickers behind Yao Li also joined in with renewed vigor. A thunderous burst of laughter and chatter erupted, and mockery and ridicule surged like a tide toward the dumbstruck Li Huan and his companions.
The glory brought by the Crimson Rosy Source and essence of Geng metal shattered completely, leaving only naked ridicule. At that moment, Kong Yuan's reputation was nailed firmly to the pillar of shame as well.
Li Huan's face went from livid to white, then from white to red, before finally turning deathly gray.
He stared at the pile of worthless rubble on the ground and swayed, as though all his strength had been drained away. His companions behind him were utterly pale, their eyes evasive, wishing they could disappear immediately.
"Pfft!"
Luo Qingluan could no longer hold back. She shook with laughter like a flowering branch in the breeze, pointing at Li Huan. "Li Huan, Young Master Li! What a fine stone that star disciple of a Source Arts family so carefully chose for you! Well? Is this tenfold wager 'petty' enough for you?"
"Now, shouldn't we settle the bill?"
She stepped forward with an imposing air and pushed forward the jade boxes containing the greenwood Source crystal and ice soul jade marrow.
"Here, these are all the treasures I cut out. At tenfold compensation, that's a hundred and ten thousand jin of pure Source! I'll waive the odd few hundred. Hand over the Source! Or... does Young Master Li, with his wealthy and powerful family, intend to welsh on the debt?"
"I... I..."
Li Huan's lips trembled, his voice dry and hoarse as he said, on the verge of falling apart, "I... I don't have that much Source on me right now."
"No Source? Then have the head of your Fire Cloud Palace personally bring the money to ransom you!"
Just then,
a cold, stern voice came from behind them.
The newcomer was none other than Luo Yue's third uncle, the Luo Family's Third Master-Luo Qingying!
Jiang Wei was behind him as well.
The two had clearly arrived some time ago, but had remained well hidden, only revealing themselves now.
They had originally planned to wait until Luo Yue was fleeced so badly that she was forced to offer her token to settle the debt, then
jump out and use Luo Yue's current status as the Jiang Family's little princess to make an issue of it, killing a chicken to warn the monkeys.
They had even worked out the script before making their entrance!
Never in their wildest dreams had they expected things to turn out like this.
Before the two burly men, Jiang Wei and Luo Qingying, those pale-faced, trembling scions looked like a flock of little chicks!
The situation now
made the two of them look like the real villains instead...
While the other side looked like a group of hapless victims facing two underworld bosses demanding repayment.
Still, Luo Qingying and Jiang Wei could not simply let these scions run away. They stepped straight out to block them, surrounding the group and preventing anyone from leaving.