I run a casino in the immortal realm.

After comforting his mother, Zheng Yifei lay back down on the bed.

He needed to sort out his current living environment, but his memory was interrupted by Steward Zhao.

In the original owner's memories, this place belonged to the Southern Wilderness Region of the Tianlan Continent.

The original owner of this body did not know how big the Tianlan Continent was, after all, he was only sixteen years old and had never left the Black Mountain Market since birth.

Black Mountain Market is nothing more than a small market town located in a remote mountain valley at the southern end of the Southern Wilderness, in the Qingyun Mountains.

There is no concept of a nation here. The major sects and some powerful families are the ruling class, holding the power of life and death over the lower-level cultivators.

Everyone here can cultivate, but over 90% are low-level cultivators, belonging to the lowest rungs of society, supplying resources to sects or families. Cultivation resources are monopolized by sects and large families, making it harder for low-level cultivators to rise above their station than to climb to heaven.

The family consists of five people. The father, Zheng Dashan, is thirty-five years old and has reached the third level of Qi Refining.

My mother, Lin Wan, is thirty-three years old and at the second level of Qi Refining.

The original owner was sixteen years old and at the first level of Qi Refining.

The younger sister, Zheng Ermei, is nine years old, and the younger brother, Zheng Chongtian, is seven years old. Neither of them has started cultivating and they attend school in the shantytown.

Yifei and Chongtian are somewhat ridiculous names. It seems that the original owner's parents hoped that their two sons could change their social class and soar to great heights.

His family were tenants of the Zhao family, renting three mu of spiritual rice fields from the Zhao family. The spiritual rice was planted twice a year, with each season lasting six months, and they had to hand over 1,500 jin of spiritual rice every year.

The Zheng family has been growing spirit rice for generations and has rich experience. One mu of spirit field can produce 800 jin of spirit rice per season, and three mu of land can produce 4,800 jin per year.

After deducting the 1,500 jin that are handed over to the state, there is an annual income of 3,300 jin.

According to the market price, one spirit coin equals one pound of spirit rice.

One hundred spirit coins are needed to exchange for one low-grade spirit stone, and their family's annual income is only thirty-three low-grade spirit stones.

But we can't sell all of this spirit rice. We need to keep about 1,000 jin for our family of five to live on, and 200 jin for seeds.

The annual income is about twenty-three or twenty-four spirit stones, but the rent for the house is two spirit stones a month. The annual income, after deducting food expenses, is just enough to cover the rent.

The Zhao family tightly controlled the cultivators at the bottom, ensuring that the tenant farmers below them were neither full nor starving, and without resources to improve their cultivation, they were forced to work for the Zhao family for their entire lives.

This resulted in Zheng Dashan only reaching the third level of Qi Refining after more than twenty years of cultivation, and he would basically never be able to break through to the fourth level of Qi Refining in his lifetime.

So he placed his hopes on his son, but the original owner was also a good-for-nothing, and after six years of cultivation, he could only barely reach the first level of Qi Refining.

So Zheng Dashan thought of having his son learn the craft of drawing talismans, hoping it would bring some income to the family.

In order to improve his family's life and provide his son with materials to learn a trade, he went up the mountain to collect medicinal herbs during the off-season. Unexpectedly, he was attacked by a monster.

Now that his father has fallen ill, this family will have to rely on him, the son, to support it.

"Mother, I'm going out for a walk."

With only three days to process the original owner's memories, Zheng Yifei immediately got up.

"Fei'er, where are you going? You can't do anything foolish again. If all else fails, I'll go ask your grandfather and uncle for some spirit coins."

Lin Wan was worried that her son would resort to crooked means to earn the rent of three spirit stones, or risk going into the mountains to find spiritual herbs.

"No, I'll be back in a bit."

Zheng Yifei didn't want to say much. He hadn't fully immersed himself in the role yet, and the change in his personality would arouse his parents' suspicions.

Once outside the shantytown, there were vast fields of rice paddies, not yet heading, a beautiful, lush green landscape, but Zheng Yifei had no mood to appreciate it.

Walk two miles along the ridges of the fields to enter the market town.

The market town is very large, with a permanent population of over 100,000. It is lined with shops and bustling with people, much like a market town on Earth.

Even lower-level cultivators have basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and sanitation, so they naturally have their own needs in terms of daily life.

Carpenters, bricklayers, farmers, fishermen, weavers, tailors, restaurant owners, and transporters—every profession is no different from that on Earth.

In addition, cultivators also need a lot of resources, such as spiritual herbs, spirit stones, talismans, pills, formations, cultivation techniques, weapons, etc., which also gave rise to corresponding professions.

Similarly, cultivators are also human beings, with emotions and desires, so entertainment industries such as brothels and gambling dens naturally exist.

Zheng Yifei arrived at Chang Le Gambling House in the center of the market with ease. This gambling house was run by the Zhao family. In Heishan Market, there were two other gambling houses like this, run by the Wang family and the Liu family respectively, which could be considered competitors.

"Xiao Fei, you're here again. How many spirit coins did you bring this time?"

As soon as he stepped into the gambling den, a young man in his early twenties with a pointed face and monkey-like features stopped him.

Zheng Yifei recognized the man as Haozi, the "good friend" who had dragged the original owner to gamble. He was unaware that the original owner had hanged himself at home.

"Brother Mouse, my family is out of money, but I still want to take a gamble, otherwise my dad won't have money to buy medicine."

"How will you gamble if you have no money?"

"I would like to borrow some interest money. Could you please tell the manager on my behalf?"

The gambling den had loan sharks who specialized in lending money at exorbitant interest rates. Since Zheng Yifei had no capital, he could only borrow money from loan sharks.

Mouse was surprised: "Xiao Fei, the interest on interest-bearing money is very high. If you can't pay it back, the consequences will be dire."

"I have no choice. My dad is still in bed. If I don't buy medicine soon, he'll be beyond saving. I have to take a gamble."

"Then come with me."

Mouse stopped trying to persuade him; he was originally a henchman hired by the gambling den, specifically to bring people to gamble, and he received a commission.

"Second Master Zhao, this is Lingnong from the same shantytown as me. He wants to borrow some interest money to play around with."

The two arrived at the counter in the middle of the gambling den, where Haozi introduced Zheng Yifei to Zhao Long, the manager in charge of distributing the loan sharks.

Master Zhao sized up Zheng Yifei: "Lingnong? Do you have any collateral?"

Zheng Yifei shook his head: "No, I lost a few hundred coins here this morning and I want to borrow some money to win it back."

"Since you have no collateral, I can only lend you one hundred spirit coins."

"Okay, I'll lend you a hundred."

"Let me tell you the rules: if you borrow 100, you'll only get 90. To repay the loan tomorrow, you'll need to pay back 130 spirit coins. If you can't pay it back, you'll have a three-day grace period. You'll just need to pay 10 spirit coins in interest each day. If you still can't pay it back in three days, you'll have to go to the mines to earn money until you pay it off."

"Okay, I'll borrow it."

Nine out, thirteen back – unexpectedly, the cultivation world also follows this pattern. Zheng Yifei accepted it without hesitation.

Master Zhao first took out a loan agreement, had Zheng Yifei sign it and put his fingerprint on it, and then gave him ninety spirit coins, thus completing the loan.

Zheng Yifei examined the spirit coin. The so-called spirit coin was made from the scraps of spirit stones. It was grayish-white, round, with a hole in the middle, and slightly larger than the coins of Blue Star. It was very hard and would not break if dropped.

Ten spirit coins were strung together with a thin string, which made them easy to count.

These ninety spirit coins were his only chance to turn his life around, but he had no idea what to expect.

Since this is a world of cultivation, will his gambling skills be able to be put to good use in this world?

If that doesn't work, then there's no hope of redemption; the only option left is to mine, eventually dying from exhaustion in the mines, becoming the shortest-lived and most miserable transmigrator.