I run a casino in the immortal realm.

Two days later, the spirit stones were exhausted.

Zheng Yifei got up before dawn, practiced Taizu Changquan several times, ate breakfast, sent his younger siblings to school, and then took a long detour from the south of the shantytown, walking along the quiet field path into the market.

Upon arriving at the rented room in East Alley, I closed and locked the door.

He squatted in front of the bed and rummaged through a hidden compartment to find a mask and clothes.

Today, I'm wearing that magic-grade mask belonging to a gaunt, fifty-something-year-old man, paired with a black fitted outfit and leather boots. My hair is tied into a high ponytail with a hemp rope, with a few stray strands deliberately left to fall across my forehead, making me look like an old, wandering cultivator who has been a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) for years, with a weathered face and the kind of person you don't want to mess with.

He glanced at his reflection in the water tank and nodded in satisfaction.

After leaving the alley, we headed straight for Zhao's gambling den.

The second floor.

Zheng Yifei tiptoed up the steps and stood in front of the gambling table where people guessed whether to bet big or small.

Today he set a strict rule for himself: he would not stay in any gambling den for more than half an hour, and he would leave immediately after winning more than thirty spirit stones.

Winning too much is eye-catching, but holding on too long is dangerous.

The dealer shakes the cup.

"Clang, clang."

The left die bounces twice against the wall, rolls once, and stops. Five points.

The right die bounces against the wall three times, flips half a circle, stops, four points, the two dice add up to nine points, big.

Zheng Yifei took out five spirit stones and placed them on the character "大" (big).

"Banker win! Five and four, a big win!"

Five dollars become ten dollars.

Next round, bet three spirit stones on "small". Win.

In the next round, I bet two spirit stones on the big one. I intentionally lost.

A quarter of an hour later, he had twenty-eight spirit stones in his hands. He then placed a small bet and won five more.

Thirty-three pieces.

enough.

Zheng Yifei patted his clothes, his face grim as he stepped back from the gambling table, muttering something under his breath as if he was unhappy with his luck that day, before turning and leaving downstairs.

After leaving Zhao's gambling den, we quickly crossed two streets and entered Wang's gambling den.

Same process, same rhythm.

He won thirty-six spirit stones in less than a quarter of an hour at the gambling table. As he left, he deliberately struck up a conversation with a fat man next to him: "Brother, you're lucky. I'll bet with you next time."

The fat man chuckled and didn't take it to heart.

The last stop was Liu's Gambling House.

There were more people on the second floor today than before, and both gambling tables were crowded with people. Zheng Yifei squeezed in, found a seat in the middle, and silently played a few rounds.

He won thirty-one spirit stones and got up to leave.

After visiting three gambling dens, I had ninety-eight low-grade spirit stones in my pocket.

Stop.

When Zheng Yifei came out of the gambling den, his steps were half a beat faster than when he went in.

It wasn't because he was nervous, but because he noticed a detail.

On the second floor of Liu's gambling den, when he placed his bet, the dealer's gaze lingered on his hand for a moment longer.

It was only for a moment.

Ordinary people wouldn't notice it at all, but Zheng Yifei had been to countless casinos on Earth in his previous life, and he knew all too well what that kind of gaze meant—it meant the dealer was starting to pay attention to you.

It's not that I suspect you're cheating, but I've noticed that you're winning money quite frequently.

In the casinos of Blue Star, this is called being "on the surveillance list." In the gambling dens of this cultivation world, although there are no cameras, the dealers' eyes are even sharper than cameras.

He needs to change his mask.

The gaunt old man's mask was used twice today; the square-faced middle-aged man used it yesterday at Zhao's gambling den; and the scarred young man appeared at three gambling dens the day before yesterday.

All three magic-grade masks are no longer usable, at least not in the short term.

Zheng Yifei walked straight into Wanbaolou.

Behind the counter was the same young woman, greeting customers with a smile.

Of course, what she saw was a gaunt old man in his fifties.

"Buy two magic-grade imitation human skin masks."

Zheng Yifei lowered his voice, his tone rough, as if there was sand stuck in his throat.

"Okay, what kind of face do you want?"

"Take out whatever you have and let us see."

The young woman took a wooden box from the cabinet behind the shelf. Inside were seven or eight masks, each with a different face.

Zheng Yifei picked two photos. One was of a round-faced young man in his early twenties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, who looked honest and simple.

The other picture shows a man in his mid-thirties with a long face, high cheekbones, and deep-set eyes, resembling a merchant from a foreign land.

The two masks cost four hundred spirit coins, which was converted into four low-grade spirit stones.

After putting away his mask, Zheng Yifei left Wanbaolou and turned into the East Alley back to his rented room.

Close the door and store the new mask and the old mask separately.

The three old ones were stuffed into the bottom of the hidden compartment, covered with bricks, and not to be used for a while.

The two new ones are placed under the pillow for easy access.

He sat on the edge of the bed, took the spirit-gathering array plate out of his bundle, and placed it in the center of the ground.

Four spirit stones were embedded in the array's core.

"Buzz".

The array is activated, and spiritual energy gathers.

The space in the rental house is much larger than the rooms in the shantytown, and there is more than enough room for the array to cover.

Moreover, there is no noise from younger siblings or the sound of mother cooking here; it is quiet and peaceful, making it the ideal place for cultivation.

Previously, the array plate was kept at home, and I could only cultivate for a few hours each evening. During the day, I had to work and take my younger siblings to school.

But now all the weeds in the field have been cleared away, and the rice has been watered and fertilized, so there is no need to go to the field again in the short term.

He told his family that he was working at the Zhao family gambling den, and his mother wouldn't suspect anything. He would come over every day after dropping off his younger siblings and spend the whole day in the rented room practicing his cultivation.

Zheng Yifei sat cross-legged in front of the array plate, holding a spirit stone in one hand, and began to circulate the Five Elements Technique.

The spiritual energy surged into the five meridians like a tide.

From that day on, Zheng Yifei's life entered a highly efficient and regular cycle.

Every day before dawn, he would get up to fetch water and chop firewood, feed his father Huichun Dan (a traditional Chinese medicine), make breakfast, and send his younger siblings to school.

Then, he would take a small path from the south of the shantytown into the market, and then go to a rented room in the east alley to practice. He would practice until late afternoon, then change back into his original clothes and face and go home for dinner. In the evening, he would continue to practice at home until late at night.

He would only put on a mask and enter the gambling den once every seven days.

He alternated between the round-faced boy's mask and the long-faced merchant's mask, and each time he made a move, he would wait only half an hour before leaving as soon as he had won enough.

Don't be greedy, don't get carried away, and don't win more than five consecutive hands at the same table.

He would go to the three gambling dens in turn, and stop once he made a little over a hundred spirit stones.

The dealers didn't remember him, and neither did the gamblers.

There were too many independent cultivators coming and going on the second floor. The only ones who were remembered were those who spent lavishly or lost everything. Zheng Yifei was neither of those.

He was like a quiet loach, swimming leisurely between the three ponds, taking only a small bite each time, never stirring up the water.

The rats gradually quieted down too.

Zheng Yifei stopped going to Zhao's gambling den and stopped showing his face in the market. Every day, he would leave the shantytown looking disheveled, just like a normal farmer who would leave and return home on time.

The rat sent people to keep an eye on him for a few days, and found that the kid was indeed an honest farmer, so he gradually lost interest.

After all, Haozi has plenty of easy targets on his list of gamblers in the market, so there's no need for him to keep an eye on a poor kid from a shantytown.

Days passed by like this.

A month has passed in the blink of an eye.

After being continuously nourished with more than thirty Rejuvenation Pills, Zheng Dashan's body finally made a full recovery.

That morning, Zheng Yifei was about to leave when he heard a muffled "hey" sound coming from the yard.

He strode out of the room and saw his father standing in the middle of the yard, his feet firmly planted on the muddy ground, his hands slowly raised, palms facing the sky.

A faint ray of spiritual light rose from Zheng Dashan's palm and condensed in the air into a water sphere the size of a fist.

"Spirit Rain Technique!"

Zheng Dashan suddenly pushed the water ball into the sky. The water ball rose to a height of three zhang and exploded silently, turning into a dense mist that fell evenly, soaking the branches and leaves of the old locust tree in the yard.

"father!"

Zheng Yifei stood frozen at the doorway.

Zheng Dashan turned around, his face full of wrinkles and a smile.

"Xiaofei, Daddy's all better!"

His face was rosy, his eyes were bright, and he stood there with his back straight, looking even more energetic than before he was injured.

The Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator's Qi was restrained yet abundant, making him completely different from the previously bedridden, pale-faced, and dying patient.

Lin Wan, the mother, rushed out of the kitchen. Seeing her husband casting the Spirit Rain spell, her eyes immediately reddened, and she muttered, "Why did you have to waste your spiritual energy? Save it!"

Zheng Dashan chuckled and walked over to put his arm around his wife's shoulder: "It's nothing, I'm completely healed. I feel even better than before I was injured. Those Rejuvenation Pills have repaired most of my old injuries from years ago, and my blood and energy are much stronger than before."

He squatted down again and pressed his palm to the ground.

"Earth Split Technique!"

As spiritual energy surged into the ground, the hardened soil outside the courtyard gate cracked open with a "crack" sound, revealing several neat lines. The soil was loosened to a depth of more than a foot, as if it had been turned over by a plow.

Earth Splitting Technique is a basic earth-based spell that can only be used by cultivators at the third level of Qi Refining. When combined with Spirit Rain Technique, one turns the soil and the other irrigates, making it possible to grow spirit rice without the need for oxen or human labor to carry water. This method is several times more efficient than that used by cultivators at the first or second level of Qi Refining, and the yield is also much higher.

On the afternoon of the day Zheng Dashan recovered, he went to the fields with a hoe.