Nightfall

The people who really saw through the vanity of the mortal world were totally different from those who pretended to see through it but still wanted to take a shortcut to fame and fortune. The former nearly lived a solitary life in those secluded places, or waited to die in some remote and dilapidated temples. Thus it was impossible for them to come to the casino, the most popular place in Chang’an, for the sake of money, and even stare at the dicebox as if it was their enemy who had killed their fathers.

Upon thinking of this sentence, it was obvious that Ning Que did not ponder it over. In fact, the situation on the gambling table did not leave much time for him to think deeply or introspect. With the sound of rolling dice continuing and the big heavy black dicebox being lowered and raised, his casino tokens in front of him kept growing. Though the female dealer had exchanged several big tokens for him, it still could not stop the momentum. Gradually, the tokens had become a small mountain.

Ning Que, who bet his entire stake each game, had a seven-game winning streak playing the dicebox. Up to the seventh one, his stake was over 1,000 taels of silver. Even at Yin’gou Casino, where many large-scale and horrific gamblings had been witnessed, such type of incredible and fabulous behavior based on extreme luck was still rarely seen.

People around Ning Que and Sangsang became fewer and fewer, while more and more people surrounded the brown gambling table. A fever of enthusiasm erupted from these gamblers’ expressions, but they would not like to get closer to the lad in case the casino would be unsatisfied.

The female dealer was still beautiful and elegant, but the smile on her face had become very reluctant. The dealer, claiming that she was tired, quit dealing after apologizing to the gamblers. Then the casino delegated a middle-aged dealer. The gamblers around the table knew that the casino sent an experienced and skillful dealer due to the lad’s good luck or his formidable gambling trick. After recognizing her, some frequent visitors even surprisingly exclaimed that the middle-aged dealer was actually the top gambler at Yin’gou Casino.

The gamblers had not long dared to compete with Ning Que in comparing the number of dice. From the fourth game, many gamblers with all kinds of thoughts bet on their stake by following Ning Que, and also won a good few. However, after noticing the middle-aged dealer and hearing the discussion around them, most of them decided to wait and see for the time being.

These years, Ning Que, who was known as the top gambler in the City of Wei, had accumulated lots of experience and approaches of gambling in the frontier fortress. However, there was not any possibility for him to beat those excellent dealers in Chang’an with a gambling trick. However, what he counted on now was not the gambling trick. Instead, he relied on cheating with the Qi of Heaven and Earth as a cultivator. If the casino did not cheat, no one could compete with him, no matter how excellent his opponents were in gambling tricks.

Could a casino cheat? Of course. However, Yin’gou Casino was one of the top three famous casinos registered in the Chang’an Local Government. Unlike other small and illegal casinos in the alley, it would not resort to those cheating ways unless it was cornered, so they… had no other choice but to watch Ning Que continue winning.

After the middle-aged dealer was on the stage, Ning Que had a three-game winning streak. Later, the crowds of gamblers behind him at some distance could not keep waiting and then began following Ning Que again with their stake. In such a circumstance, the casino lost more of their taels of silver at a faster speed. The middle-aged dealer still showed peace on his slightly black cheeks, but it was hard to tell whether his face was blacker or not.

The sound made from the dice striking against the dicebox wall gradually disappeared. The dealer slowly moved his hand away from the dicebox, and then had a look at the hourglass that was just overturned. Without looking at the other gamblers around the table, he smiled directly at Ning Que.

“My guest, please make your decision.”

Holding the thin bamboo ruler in his hand, he slowly frowned. After a long silence, he stood up from the chair and then put his bamboo ruler to the smallest region closest to the middle-aged dealer.

The casino tokens in front of Ning Que had been piled up like a small mountain. Due to the difficulty of pushing these tokens to specific areas each game, Ning Que, after the communication between him and the casino, was allowed to use the bamboo ruler if he wanted to bet his entire stake. Now, he put the bamboo ruler on it, meaning that he bet all of his stake on this game.

The crowds of people around the gambling table abruptly made exclamations. These gamblers in Chang’an, who usually paid much attention to their demeanor and bearing, could not suppress their astonishment any longer, looking no different than those shouting and yelling soldier gamblers in the City of Wei.

“Leopard!” (The numbers of three dice were the same according to the casino rules.)

“Leopard! Why would he bet on Leopard!”

“Lower your voice… Does he purposefully lose some stake back to the casino considering his safety after winning too much just now?”

“Nonsense! Even if he wanted to lose on purpose, it makes no sense that he bets the whole stake.”

Though the gamblers began discussing and exclaiming in shock, the middle-aged dealer behind the table was not influenced by the noise. He just peacefully looked at Ning Que and gently said, “My guest, are you sure?”

Ning Que, who was absent-minded while staring at the mountain-like stake, reacted and nodded after being warned by Sangsang.

You might win more if betting on Leopard, but the probability was too small. Therefore, no one, even the boldest gambler, dared to follow Ning Que. Upon watching the crowds, the middle-aged dealer, whose palm was on the dicebox, did not uncover the result, as if the dicebox was as heavy as a mountain. Suddenly, he raised his head and smilingly said to Ning Que, “Make a friend?”

Having no intention of urging him to uncover the dicebox, Ning Que naturally understood what the casino meant from the talk. Then he also smilingly nodded and left the gambling table after saying a few words to Sangsang in a low voice.

That beautiful female dealer, who had unknowingly reappeared beside the table, respectfully extended her right hand to lead the way for Ning Que.

Ning Que and Sangsang were led to a decorative and luxurious room behind the casino counter. After the room was closed, all noises outside the room suddenly disappeared.

Later, a slightly obese, middle-aged rich man walked out from behind the curtain. He greeted with a bow with his hands folded in front and sincerely said to Ning Que, “I’m the manager of Yin’gou Casino. I’d be very appreciative if you made friends with us.”

Ning Que knew that he had already won enough money, and that was why he decided to leave the gambling table without urging the middle-aged dealer to uncover the dicebox. In addition, he ought to save the host some face. Before entering the casino, he had thought about how to leave after reaping enough stake. Now, since the casino first offered a way of reconciliation, he, of course, accepted it without hesitation.

“My distinguished guest, you had won 4,400 taels of silver before the last game, and the result of the last one was, indeed, a Leopard. According to the rule, we should pay…”

Ning Que said with a smile, “I know the rule, the payment should be doubled.”

This sentence was equivalent to giving tens of thousands of taels of silver to Yin’gou Casino. Therefore, the expression on the manager’s face suddenly became more gentle as he praised. “You’re really a generous friend! In such a circumstance, I decided to give you a round number of taels of silver at my own responsibility to show our appreciation to you, on behalf of the casino and the boss,”

the manager said in a very polite and friendly way. If his enemies who had witnessed his cattiness and cruelty before saw that he was so courteous to a gambler who had just won 10,000 taels of silver from him, they would definitely be shocked.

After a while, the casino had changed all of Ning Que’s stake to notes. He, with his stern eyes, immediately stopped Sangsang’s shining eyes from her prepared movements of counting the notes. However, his glance at the number 1,000 on the pile of notes also automatically made him feel that his lips were a little dry.

The manager smiled and said, “You are welcome to play here anytime.”

“That’s nice of you.”

Ning Que clearly knew what the manager actually meant, though the manager did not directly say it: They would not gamble since they were friends, so “welcome anytime” meant the opposite, which suggested that they would not be welcomed at Yin’gou Casino.

When Ning Que was ready to leave Yin’gou Casino with Sangsang, the manager seemed to just think of one thing. He said smiling, “If you still want to enjoy gambling today, I have a good suggestion. A new casino, which was transformed from a pawnshop of Lord Junjie, was opened in Western City recently. That’ll be a great destination.”

The hidden meaning behind the words was very obscure. The manager presumed that the lad must have a strong background and could figure out what he meant. However, he failed to realize that Ning Que, who actually did not have any strong background, instantly understood his meaning when the name “Junjie” reminded him of Chao Xiaoshu’s introduction at the Spring Breeze Pavilion that night.

At present, the Fish-dragon Gang has dominated the gang world of Chang’an. Lord Junjie is finished, and his pawnshop was transformed into a casino. Like the current Yin’gou Casino, there isn’t a strong backer behind it. Since you, Ning Que, dare win so much silver at Yin’gou Casino, why don’t you get another victory in Western City?

Standing by the window, the manager was looking at the young master and handmaiden walking toward the direction of Western City, gradually disappearing into the night’s darkness. He could not help frowning and shaking his head, full of unwillingness and anger in his heart.

The middle-aged dealer opened the door and came in with that big heavy dicebox. Looking at the back of the manager, he sighed after a short silence. “That lad was, indeed, a cultivator.”

The middle-aged dealer was an excellent gambling master from the Great River Kingdom hired by Lord Meng before. He was mainly responsible for controlling the whole operation and seldom showed his strength. Today, he was forced to play in person, but still totally lost. Usually, the banker in the gambling game held a big advantage in playing dice. He believed that no one in the world could beat him if he was the banker, and no tricks would escape his eyes. Therefore, it was clear how the lad succeeded in beating him.

His facial expression became paler and more terrible as he recalled that he, though he made a Leopard in the last game, did not dare to uncover the dicebox for the sake of the casino’s reputation. Then he shook his head and said, “Even if he’s a cultivator, we’re too generous to him.”

“Lord Meng is dead. The reason why our casino could reopen was that Mr. Chen from the palace pitied the orphans and widow left by Lord Meng as well as other fellows living. Now we have to live with a low profile, so how could we dare to create a disturbance? What’s more, what else can we do when, as you know, the lad is a cultivator?”

After reprimanding the dealer in a deep and low voice, he suddenly grabbed the black dicebox on the table and then directly smashed it to pieces. In the broken dicebox, a golden interlayer, on which some pattern was vaguely carved, could be seen.

“There’s a golden interlayer with Fu characters engraved in the dicebox,” the manager sullenly said. “Since the lad can see through the dicebox, he, at least, is a cultivator in a real state. Do we have a better solution besides offering him the taels of silver?”

The middle-aged dealer was stunned. He operated the casino all year round and had made many friends. Though he was a common person, he also knew the hierarchy of cultivators. He could not help thinking, was it possible that the so-young lad had entered into the No Doubts State?

“Why does such a figure come to a casino?” he said angrily. “Now I really wonder whether he dares to be so unbridled or not in Western City. Though Lord Junjie is dead, yet some ordinary cultivators still haven’t enough guts to provoke the backer of the new casino.”

The manager did not reply to the dealer’s words. He was just staring the dicebox pieces on the table, the golden interlayer, and the Fu characters. The sight of these things gradually made him more and more indignant, and then he murmured, “I’ve seldom heard that a cultivator made money by cheating a casino since the Tang dynasty has been built, because it’s really a shame for a cultivator.

“As a cultivator in a real state, instead of meditating in his sect, communicating with his fellows, traveling around grand mountains and great waters, and sensing the Breath of Nature, he, unbelievably, goes gambling at the casino! What does he want to do?”

The manager whispered as he raised his head and looked at the night’s darkness through the window. “He’s just bullying others.”

…

…

Before entering Yin’gou Casino, there was only a paper star folded by a note of 200 taels of silver in Sangsang’s old waistband. But now, it had become a thick pile of notes. Though her waist looked ugly with the notes bulging, she did not care at all, even innocently uttering some laughter every now and then.

“Young master, are we really going to the casino in Western City now?”

“Of course. This method of making money can only be used once, so we just make enough fortune one time.”

Usually, a person like Ning Que, who had experienced many life-or-death situations before, was supposed to know when to stop. However, he had been poor for a long time. Thus, when he found such a good method to make money today, he could not help continuing to use it—just like those poor villagers, who were too impecunious to eat mutton though they had been herding sheep in the west of Yuelun Kingdom their whole lives and then suddenly found a treasure vase from which sheep could keep jumping out one after another.

Even though in the prosperous Chang’an, 10,000 taels of silver was, without doubt, a huge fund, but on the grassland, this amount of money was great enough to make the Horse Gang around Shubi Lake kill themselves without Ning Que attacking. And if in the City of Wei, the property would prompt those middle-aged women who wanted Sangsang to be their daughter-in-law to ignore Ning Que’s mood and directly swarm into Ning Que’s house to grab Sangsang.

That thick pile of notes directly dizzied Ning Que’s mind. Even Sangsang, whose chest was thin and flat, was full of passion and enthusiasm now and could not wait to sweep away all the casinos in Chang’an.

As expected, there was a new casino in Western City, whose brand and decorations were obviously newer and bigger than Yin’gou Casino’s. Knowing that this casino was transformed from Lord Junjie’s pawnshop, Ning Que, without any fear, directly went into it with Sangsang.

Unsurprisingly, Ning Que kept the tendency of winning. Further, with more experience and stake, he resolutely won at a faster speed. Soon, the facial expressions of the dealers in the new casino quickly turned red. After a discussion, the casino invited Ning Que in a polite but a little threatening way to play a new game in the inner chamber.

Anytime, anywhere, if the casino did not cheat, Ning Que would keep winning all the time.

When he almost squeezed the new casino into a weak one, the backer of the casino, finally, was unable to bear it.

A strong man in a turquoise robe, turquoise boots, and turquoise hat coldly looked at Ning Que beside the table and then said in a deep voice, “My friend, Mr. Qi appreciates you and would like to invite you to have some tea.”