I run a casino in the immortal realm.

A tearing pain shot through Zheng Fei's throat, and he abruptly opened his eyes, gasping for breath.

The first thing you see is a drafty thatched roof, and the air is filled with a strong smell of herbs and mildew.

He looked down, touched the rough marks on his neck, and then looked at his calloused, bony hands.

It wasn't his hands, which were insured for three million US dollars on Earth.

"Mother, my eldest brother is awake!"

A thin, pale little girl, holding a chipped, broken bowl, cried out in surprise.

Immediately afterward, a middle-aged woman dressed in tattered gray linen clothes rushed to the bedside, her eyes red and swollen, her voice hoarse: "Fei'er, you silly child, we can earn money again, how could you try to take your own life!"

A flood of memories rushed into my mind.

Tianlan Continent, the shantytown on the outskirts of Heishan City.

The original owner's name was Zheng Yifei, sixteen years old, a useless person with five spiritual roots, who barely managed to cultivate to the first level of Qi Refining.

My father, Zheng Dashan, was at the third level of Qi Refining. Three days ago, he went to Black Mountain outside the market to collect herbs and was bitten by a first-level demon beast, the Rift Wind Wolf. He has been lying in bed for four or five days.

In order to buy the life-saving "Rejuvenation Powder," the family sold everything they owned to scrape together their last two hundred spirit coins.

As a result, on his way to the pharmacy, the original owner was dragged into the Chang Le gambling den by "Rat," who was usually on friendly terms with him.

"Let's take a gamble. If we win, we can not only buy medicine, but also pay next month's rent."

The original owner believed it.

Then, unsurprisingly, they lost everything.

In despair, the original owner found a hemp rope and hung himself from the roof beam. He, Zheng Fei from Earth, had transmigrated.

Zheng Fei rubbed his temples. From now on, he would be Zheng Yifei.

He is the top cheater on Earth. Because of his bizarre methods, even the most advanced high-definition cameras cannot detect any evidence of his cheating. Major casinos around the world have listed him as an unwelcome person and banned him from entering.

Having amassed a fortune of hundreds of billions, he not only had a massive investment and financial management team but also world-class bodyguards. Yet, he was still not satisfied. On his last occasion, he disguised himself and entered a casino in Las Vegas. Artificial intelligence identified his true identity, and he was kidnapped and drowned by the casino owner.

Unexpectedly, his soul transmigrated to this world of cultivation, becoming a miserable rogue cultivator at the very bottom of the Tianlan Continent, starting with a catastrophic collapse.

"system?"

He shouted in his heart. As a fan of online novels, he naturally knew that time travel was accompanied by a cheat code.

Dead silence.

"Grandpa?"

"panel?"

There has still been no response.

Zheng Yifei twitched the corner of his mouth.

No cheat codes, no hacks.

There was only a dilapidated home, a father lying in the inner room whose life or death was unknown, a mother who could only cry, and a nine-year-old sister and a seven-year-old brother.

Isn't this just the formula for online novels?

But the protagonists in online novels all have cheat codes, and I have nothing, so how can I play this game?

"Bang!"

The rickety wooden door was kicked open, sending splinters flying that slammed onto the water vat with a dull thud, interrupting his process of sorting through the original owner's memories.

Two men dressed in light blue outfits strode in, their chests embroidered with the character "Zhao," indicating they were market managers.

The Black Mountain Market was jointly run by the Zhao, Wang, and Liu families. Each of the three families had a patriarch who had reached the peak of Qi Refining, and they jointly managed the market.

Zheng Yifei's home was located in a shantytown within the Zhao family's sphere of influence. All the houses in the shantytown belonged to the Zhao family, and the independent cultivators living there had to pay rent to the Zhao family.

The leading man had a fierce face and tossed a low-grade spirit stone in his hand. His gaze swept around the room and finally landed on Zheng Yifei's mother.

"Mrs. Zheng, today is the deadline for the rent payment."

The burly man was Zhao Hu, the manager in charge of the shantytown.

Zheng Linshi trembled with fright, stepped in front of Zheng Yifei's bed, and knelt down with a thud: "Manager Zhao, Dashan is seriously injured, and the spirit fields are not yet ready for harvest. The family really cannot afford the money. Please grant us a few more days. I have taken on a job at the Zhao family's cloth shop and am spinning cloud-patterned cloth day and night. I will definitely make up for it next month!"

"Grace period?"

Manager Zhao kicked over a broken wooden table beside him: "The Zhao family rule is, if you can't pay the rent, get out of the shantytown! Outside is the Black Wind Forest; at night, monsters can devour your entire family of five, leaving not even bones!"

The little girl was so frightened that she cried loudly and hid behind Zheng Linshi.

Manager Zhao turned his gaze to the little girl and stroked his chin: "However, rules are rigid, but people are flexible. Although your daughter is thin, she can still serve customers at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion after a few years."

"Give her to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion in exchange for two spirit stones, and your family can survive here for another month. How about that?"

Madam Zheng Lin clung tightly to her daughter, crying, "No! Absolutely not! I'd rather die than sell my girl!"

"Then you might as well all die together."

Manager Zhao snorted coldly and turned to order his men to drive the people away.

"Three days."

A hoarse yet unusually calm voice rang out from inside the room.

Manager Zhao paused, turning back to look at Zheng Yifei on the bed.

This notoriously spineless coward was slowly sitting up in bed.

"Three days later, I will pay back three low-grade spirit stones, including principal and interest."

Zheng Yifei stood up, and although he swayed slightly due to weakness, he managed to stay upright.

Manager Zhao was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter: "Three low-grade spirit stones? With your level one Qi Refining trash like you, you wouldn't even have enough to collect enough for monster dung!"

"Sir, please be lenient. If I don't pay the money by noon three days from now, my family and I will get out of the shantytown on our own."

Zheng Yifei bent down, pleading obsequiously; when you're under someone's roof, you have no choice but to bow your head.

"Fine, I'll give you three days. If you can't come up with the money after three days, it won't be as easy as just kicking you out of the shantytown. I'll personally send you to the mountains to mine."

Manager Zhao stared at him and said that their Zhao family had a red gold mine in Black Mountain, which was the main material for making magical artifacts. Because the casualties in mining were very high, they needed to constantly replenish the miners.

"Alright, if I can't hand over three low-grade spirit stones, I'll go mining."

"Kid, if you're looking for death, I won't stop you."

Manager Zhao patted his face and turned to leave.

The room fell into a deathly silence.

"Fei'er, are you crazy! Three spirit stones, that's three hundred spirit coins! Where are we going to get that?!"

Zheng Linshi collapsed to the ground in despair.

The family's only two hundred spirit coins were gambled away by their son; where are they going to find three spirit stones?

Zheng Yifei did not answer. He walked to the water vat and looked at the pale, childlike face reflected in it.

Raise your right hand.

He closed his eyes and tried to mobilize the faint spiritual power within his body, which belonged to the first level of Qi Refining.

The wisp of spiritual energy in the dantian, thinner than a strand of hair, slowly flowed along the meridians to the fingertips.

A few soybeans were scattered on the table.

Zheng Yifei's fingers twitched slightly.

"Whoosh—"

A soybean rolls and leaps on your fingertip, moving so fast that it leaves only a blur.

Then, the soybeans suddenly disappeared, and the next second, they slid from his sleeve into his palm.

Zheng Yifei opened his eyes, a slight smile curving his lips.

Although it was a soul transmigration, he did not lose his gambling skills, which is why he dared to promise to pay three spirit stones in three days.