Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 21 Reasoning: Am I still a player?
"Hey! Let's make it simple, how about we compare sizes?" the gambler asked with a sly grin.

"Great! Simple is best, I like it!" Chen Xiuxian smiled very happily!

The two squatted under the eaves of a shop on the street and started rolling dice with a chipped, broken bowl.

The gambler brought out the die; it was larger than the dice we usually see, bigger than a thumb, a white, six-sided die, and there was only one.

"I'll go first, I'll be the banker!" The gambler's addiction was kicking in, his head was practically steaming, and his eyes were bulging outwards, looking quite eerie.

Then he tossed his hand onto the broken bowl and shouted, "Let go and get a six!"

The dice clattered and spun in the broken bowl, finally settling on a "five".

If it's a "six", then there's no need to chase it; the dealer wins directly.

"That's fine!"

The gambler looked at Chen Xiuxian smugly and said, "It's not easy to chase someone around five o'clock~"

Chen Xiuxian didn't mind, "There's still a chance to catch up, isn't there? I've always been very lucky!"

These words made the gambler curl his lip in disgust—Damn it! He'd always hated people with such good luck.

Chen Xiuxian picked up the dice and began to examine them.

This thing was actually carved from an unknown bone, and it felt quite heavy in my hand.

Seeing that Chen Xiuxian was looking at it carefully, the gambler became impatient.

"Hey? What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!"

Chen Xiuxian glared at him: "What are you rushing me for? Don't you know that rushing is the worst thing you can do when gambling? I'm praying to the City God for a good score."

The gambler's mouth twitched even more, the corners of his mouth stretching all the way to his ears—this isn't just a figure of speech, his mouth really did twitch to the sides of his ears!

As expected of a demon, so casual!
Gambler: This Wadang Fortress doesn't even have a City God! Otherwise, how could I gamble so freely with living people?

In reality, the number of City Gods in Liaodong is limited; only a few large cities have them.

The City God needs to be officially appointed by the imperial court, or recognized after years of spontaneous worship by the people. There are also City Gods who were appointed by the underworld or the Taishan Prefecture under the Eastern Peak Emperor hundreds of years ago, before the Great Shun Dynasty.

Both are difficult.

Liaodong has only been developed for less than two hundred years, and it doesn't yet have that kind of foundation.

Chen Xiuxian muttered incantations, shaking the dice up and down, forward and backward in his hand, until the gambler's face turned pale, before finally throwing them into the broken bowl with a "clatter".

It spun around for a while, then finally stopped. Hey! Five o'clock!

"Thank you for the favor!" Chen Xiuxian took the string of copper coins in front of the gambler.

If the bets placed by the player match the bets placed by the banker, the player wins.

Yes! Having high fortune definitely has its advantages!

Chen Xiuxian lowered his head, a golden light flashing in his eyes, and used his spiritual eye technique to investigate:
【Ghost Money (White)】

First-order miscellaneous items
The copper coins that ghosts conjure from paper money will revert to their original form as soon as dawn breaks.

Comment: Are you kidding me, or are you kidding me?

Chen Xiuxian laughed, a very happy laugh: Good, good, you have found a way to die!
That gambler was furious!

I was unlucky in life, and now I'm dead and I've run into someone so lucky? Didn't I die for nothing?

Although that string of coins was fake, transformed from paper money, it was still very painful for a gambler to lose.

He pointed and said, "Don't be too happy yet! No one can be lucky forever!"

He was telling the truth, because he was a gambler, while Chen Xiuxian was a living person.

When the two gamble together for a long time, Chen Xiuxian will become tainted with bad luck, his yang energy will weaken, and his fortune will temporarily decrease, which means he will have bad luck!

This is only a small part of the so-called "humans and ghosts are on different paths".

Besides, even excluding luck, can a gambler really gamble fairly?
You should know that nine out of ten gambling games are scams!

Not to mention the ghosts who died from gambling—they were all cunning schemes.

For example, these dice!

These dice must have been carved from the gambler's own bones, and filled with lead.

Chen Xiuxian sensed something was wrong as soon as he started working on it.

That gambler can control the numbers rolled on the dice.

However, when his gambling addiction kicks in, he still wants to actually gamble a few rounds. He only resorts to drastic measures when he's desperate to lose.

Another technique is "deception," where he uses tricks to mislead those gambling with him, making them misread the numbers and think he has lost.

Another way is to control the dice to throw them out of the broken bowl—if they fall outside, you lose.

In short, there are many methods. Otherwise, how could there be seven or eight unlucky guys who have lost all their money and slept naked on the street these days?
However, Chen Xiuxian's 15 points of luck were truly exceptional. Despite the ups and downs and the fierce battle that lasted for more than half an hour, he managed to preserve his capital.

It was these wins and losses that fueled the gambling addict's gambling instincts. Every time he or Chen Xiu rolled a bet, they would tear open their shirts and excitedly shout, "Six six six!" "Points, points, points!"
But he got so caught up in the fun that he never thought to use any real methods.

After becoming a ghost, this was the first time he had encountered someone who could "fight" with him for more than half an hour!
However, that's all there is to it. Chen Xiuxian looked at his attributes and found that his fortune was 15 (-5), which had already dropped to the level of a normal person. It would drop even faster in the future.

Sure enough, I gradually started losing more than I won.

Chen Xiuxian lost several taels of silver in succession. Seeing that Chen Xiuxian was wealthy, the gambler started to use tricks and even suggested increasing the stakes.

Chen Xiuxian readily agreed.

The two fought fiercely for another half hour, and Chen Xiuxian lost nearly twenty taels of silver!
The gambler grinned slyly.
"I see you don't have much money left. How about this, I'll give you a chance to win it all back. Let's settle this in one go!"

"If you win, you can take all this money back, and mine will be yours too."

"But if you lose, all of this stuff on you is mine!"

Chen Xiu smiled. During the day, he went to see those unlucky guys who had been hit by the gambler. He didn't know their fortune yet, but judging from their ashen faces, they were probably having bad luck. Their physical attributes were marked with -1 or -2.

In the end, this gambler will win away some of the life force of the living.

They won only a small amount, not enough to cause death or permanent damage.

It seems that time has been long—I had heard the watchman announce the fourth watch before, so the gambler wanted to finish his job in one fell swoop.

That's fine too; Chen Xiuxian also felt that it had dragged on long enough.

Ever since his adventure at Jianqiu, he had been meditating and practicing his internal energy every night without fail, yet this gambling addict broke his rule. He would make him pay tenfold in the future.

"Alright! No child cries every night, no gambler loses every day! Let's make one last gamble!" Chen Xiuxian shouted with great momentum, while the gambler laughed cunningly and eerily.

The gambler said, "I'll be the banker again this time."

He didn't use any tricks, since as long as he didn't throw any ball, he was guaranteed to win.

Even if he rolled a two, he could still control the dice in Chen Xiuxian's hand to roll a one.

One shot—five points!
"Hahahaha!" The gambler sat cross-legged on the ground, looked up at the sky and laughed, showing his back teeth and slapping his thigh!

We'll start at five and end at five.

You managed to catch up with the first five points, but you can forget about catching up with the last five!

This handsome young man is very lucky; I can benefit from his good fortune!

Cool~
Chen Xiuxian and the gambler had similar expressions, both exuding extraordinary confidence.

To show respect, he even changed his posture from sitting to squatting!

Chen Xiuxian grabbed the dice and began to shake them up, down, left, and right as if praying before each throw, thus stalling for time.

The gambler wasn't in a hurry at all; he watched Chen Xiuxian perform.

Chen Xiuxian shook it for a while, then shouted, "Watch closely!"

Just as he was about to let go, his expression changed, and he shouted behind the gambler, "Who are you?!"

The gambler, who had been staring intently at Chen Xiuxian's hand and the broken bowl, was startled by this sudden turn of events and abruptly turned around!

...A hazy darkness. Nothing there at all!
When he turned around again, Chen Xiuxian had already run almost thirty meters!

The gambler was taken aback at first, "Huh? Wait... where are you going?"

At this point, the gambler realized what was happening: "You cheated! You...you have no sense of reason at all?!"

Chen Xiuxian: What's the point of reasoning with ghosts? I don't even reason with people!
The gambler yelled, "Stop right there! Give me back my dice!" After he realized what was happening, he stood up and chased after the gambler.

Chen Xiuxian: Damn it, I hate gambling the most. I'm mortal enemies with gambling and drugs!
Since everyone knows that a gambler will resort to tricks, who would play seriously with him?
From the beginning, Chen Xiuxian's intention was to stall for time and steal the dice, thus playing tricks on him.

Chen Xiuxian: No rush, let's play around with him a bit.
These dice are now considered the remains of a gambling addict. Now that Chen Xiuxian has taken them, at best he will become a wandering ghost and suffer endless torment.

In the worst-case scenario, he won't be able to return to the dice before dawn, and his soul will be scattered after the rooster crows three times!
Chen Xiuxian: To actually treat vital organs as weapons and toss them around in the hands of the enemy... I have never seen such a request before.

It's said that gamblers are ghosts, and their speed is several times that of humans.

But Chen Xiuxian isn't exactly a normal person either!
His speed is not slow at all; it is twice the agility of an ordinary person. With the added boost of the Rainbow True Qi, his speed is like a gust of wind.

The gambler put in all his effort, chasing after the gambler for what felt like an incense stick's time, almost circling the main street of Wadang Fort.

They managed to catch up a little bit.

Then I heard him cursing loudly behind me, using incredibly foul language, and threatening to kill Chen Xiuxian if he didn't return the dice.

As a result, Chen Xiuxian flicked his wrist and poured a bamboo tube of boy's urine!
This can has been sitting for too long, and the smell is awful! I need to get rid of it while I can.

The gambler was chasing closely when, caught off guard, he splashed water all over the gambler's face, nearly causing the gambler to roll on the ground in agony.

It took almost an incense stick's time to catch up with Chen Xiuxian again.

"You, you give me back the dice right now, and I won't hold anything back. Otherwise..." At this point, the gambler didn't dare to make any more threats, because there simply wasn't enough time.

As a result, Chen Xiuxian got tired of running around, and with a flick of his hand, a red rope bound the gambler like a lasso.

Then he let out a scream and started kicking his legs on the ground.

It was the same red rope that was used to deal with the old zombie; I never expected it could be used again.

In Chen Xiuxian's other hand, a long whip made of willow branches appeared.

Willow trees are considered yin, but when yin reaches its extreme, yang arises, and thus they can ward off evil spirits.

The saying goes: "A willow branch can be used to strike a ghost; one strike and the ghost will shrink three inches."

This willow whip can disperse ghostly energy, making the ghost smaller and smaller.
(End of this chapter)