I agree

The scent drifting through the room was pure pork lard.

Xu Da's stomach began to rumble.

Niu Er immediately ducked into the kitchen and came out carrying a large bowl filled to the brim with pork cracklings.

Fresh out of the wok, the cracklings were golden, still glistening with droplets of fat.

Niu Er offered them the bowl. "Have some if you don't mind, my lords, though they're a little greasy right now. They'll taste better once they've cooled and had some salt sprinkled over them. I can't add salt now, or it'll dissolve."

Xu Da's heart had already melted. "These are fine. I'm not picky."

Wang Qilin picked up a crackling and popped it into his mouth.

Delicious!

But buying the saber was their real business. His expression turned serious. "Brother Niu Er, I'm Wang Qilin, a Minor Seal of the Heaven-Listening Bureau. You already know why I've come. Would you be willing to part with your treasured ancestral saber?"

Niu Er pulled a long face. "What treasured saber..."

"Of course it's not a treasured saber. It's a rotten saber, a demonic saber!" a woman declared loudly as she came out. "At a time like this, you're still keeping it under wraps? I'm telling you, that saber is the reason for all this family's troubles! Now that the lords from the Heaven-Listening Bureau are here, I'm going to have my say no matter what!"

Secretly delighted, Wang Qilin hurriedly cupped his hands toward her. "You must be Sister-in-law? My respects, Sister-in-law."

The woman was fierce toward her husband, but she grew flustered before an official. "I wouldn't dare, my lord. You're too kind. I'm just a woman who only knows how to pluck pig bristles and render lard. How could I deserve to be called Sister-in-law by your lordship?"

Niu Er's eyes bulged like an ox's as he roared at her, "So you do know you're a woman who doesn't understand a thing? Get the hell back-"

"You get the hell out!" The woman's temper was even fiercer than his. "If I really left, would you spend your days with that rotten saber? When you're sick and old, will that rotten saber brew your medicine and clean up after you? When you've eaten too much pig cock and bull cock, are you going to fuck that saber?"

That left Niu Er speechless.

Wang Qilin was stunned. What kind of outrageous talk was this?

The woman told him, "I'll make the decision on this, Lord Wang. I heard what you said outside earlier. There's an expert among you who knows what's strange about that demonic saber. If you truly want it, just do me a favor, and I can give you the saber!"

"Please tell us!"

"I want you to destroy a gambling den in our township, arrest everyone gambling there, and rescue my youngest boy!"

It was a simple story. Niu Er had two sons and a daughter. His eldest daughter had married, and his eldest son had died young. Now only his precious youngest boy remained.

But that youngest boy had gone astray and taken to gambling!

The Niu family had been butchers for three generations. They weren't rich, but they were comfortably off, and their assets were substantial by the township's standards.

But ever since the youngest Niu boy had discovered pai gow and dice, their money had flowed into the gambling den like water.

By now, not only were their savings gone, but they also owed the gambling den considerable debts. The den's thugs had resorted to every vile trick to collect, forcing Niu Er to close his stall and even lock his front gates in broad daylight to keep trouble at bay.

Once the woman finished speaking, Wang Qilin walked around the courtyard with his hands behind his back, then returned and said, "Prepare a couple of sets of ordinary clothes for us."

On their way here, Xie Hama had already explained the stakes to him. The Niu family's saber was useless to ordinary people and could even harm them, but to someone who had to deal with demons and ghosts, it was a divine weapon.

So if they could obtain such a saber merely by destroying a gambling den, it would truly be a business with no investment and enormous returns.

Xu Da asked, "How do we do this? Change clothes, go there, and smash the place up?"

Xie Hama smiled. "We mustn't do that. It would cause trouble. Follow my arrangements. I happen to know the inside story of this gambling den..."

"You know the inside story?" Wang Qilin turned sharply toward him. "How do you know so much about Paifang Township?"

Xie Hama laughed heartily. "This old Daoist spent some time here. Naturally, I know it."

The New Han Dynasty prohibited gambling, but public security was lax in the countryside, and Paifang Township's gambling den operated openly inside a teahouse.

Several thugs gathered outside the teahouse blocked the entrance when they saw three unfamiliar faces.

Xu Da's face hardened. "A good dog doesn't block the road. Get the hell out of my way!"

The lead thug eyed them askance. "What brings you gentlemen to our teahouse?"

"To gamble," Wang Qilin said mildly.

The thug followed up, "Play a few hands?"

Xu Da abruptly reached out with his large hand, seized him by the throat, and dragged him close, then started punching him. "You've got some fucking nerve! How dare you insult my big brother? Huh? What did you tell my big brother to play with? Say it again if you've got the guts!"

They had come to make trouble in the first place, and Xu Da was an expert at that. He seized on the thug's verbal slip and beat him for it.

Xu Da struck viciously. The other thugs, who normally swaggered around the township, fled like cowards. Their leader screamed, "Get reinforcements!"

The gambling den employed enforcers. Unlike the thugs, these men could truly fight viciously!

A lean man appeared on the second floor. Seeing Xu Da working over the thug leader, he leaped down and slashed at him with a saber!

Wang Qilin had no saber in hand and couldn't use the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber, but he had ten years of cultivation, and his eyesight, speed, and strength far surpassed those of ordinary men. As the enforcer swooped down through the air, he twisted at the waist and blasted out a punch!

The enforcer was an expert. He slipped through the air like a swimming fish, his swift saber flashing as he slashed at Wang Qilin three times.

Xie Hama was just about to intervene when Xu Da swung the thug leader like a club at the death warrior, knocking him to the ground with two blows.

Seeing this, Xie Hama withdrew his hand. "This old Daoist underestimated Strongman Xu."

Wang Qilin went to snatch the saber instead.

With a swift saber in hand, the world is mine!

With his enforcer battered into a pig's trotter, the gambling den's owner could no longer stay hidden.

A smartly dressed middle-aged man emerged with a broad smile. "Spare him, brother. Spare this brat's worthless life. I'm Ma Qiu. The brothers in the business like to call me by my nickname, Maqiu. How have I offended you gentlemen?"

Xie Hama looked the middle-aged man over and smiled when he spotted a jade thumb ring on his hand.

"You haven't offended me," Wang Qilin said. "This brother of yours has. I wanted to go inside and play, but he insulted me."

"This blind bastard!" Grinding his teeth, Ma Qiu hauled the thug leader up from where he lay limp on the ground, slapped him twice, and sent him into the teahouse.

Wang Qilin paid him no further attention and strolled into the teahouse carrying the saber.

The thugs inside glared furiously, angry but not daring to speak.

A crowd of gamblers came over to watch the show, unafraid of death.

Ma Qiu smiled ingratiatingly. "Sir, what would you like to play? How would you like to make your fortune?"

"You can make a fortune gambling?" Wang Qilin asked.

"Of course," Ma Qiu said with a smile. "As the old saying goes, small bets feed the family, big bets build a fortune!"

Wang Qilin asked again, "I've never heard of anyone making a fortune gambling. I have heard of people losing everything they own."

"You're mistaken there, brother." Ma Qiu smiled again. "Whose child cries every night? Who loses every day? Isn't that right? Some lose, some win. Gambling has always been a business of give and take."

Someone shouted, "Exactly! Eating, drinking, and having fun all cost money. Only gambling offers a return."

The teahouse gambling den offered all sorts of games. Games with inanimate objects included coin guessing, guanpu, dice, and dominoes, while those with living things included grass contests, cricket fighting, and cockfighting.

Xie Hama nodded toward a table in the northwest corner, and Wang Qilin walked over.

"Would you like to play dice, my lord?" Ma Qiu asked with a smile. "Would that be throwing qiong or color battle?"

Qiong was an ancient term for dice. Throwing qiong meant rolling dice and then betting on high or low, or guessing the number.

The "color" in color battle came from the red and black markings on the dice, and its rules were considerably more complicated.

Wang Qilin smiled too. "I'm not playing that. I'm playing ghosts!"

Ma Qiu froze, then reflexively put on a smile.

Xu Da rolled up his sleeves and sat down. "I'll play!"