“Alright, you first, please.”
The young man smiled slightly, took the deck of playing cards, shuffled them one-handed, and then placed them on the table between the two of them.
He was actually showing off!
His action made Shui Miao realize how arrogant he really was.
Since the words were already out, Shui Miao couldn’t take them back. He casually picked up the top card and flipped it over—it was an eight, the eight of spades.
The young man smiled again, reached out, and took the second card. When he flipped it over, it was a nine—the nine of hearts.
Shui Miao smiled faintly and shrugged nonchalantly.
“Wait!”
Unexpectedly, Zhou Cai suddenly shouted. He rushed over, grabbed the young man’s hand, and pulled out a five of hearts from his sleeve. “You little punk, finally caught you cheating here! Today, you’re going to return every penny you’ve won from my place.”
Zhou Cai yanked the young man up and tore open his clothes, revealing many hidden compartments filled with playing cards.
“Slap!”
Zhou Cai slapped the young man across the face, knocking him straight to the ground. Two burly men standing nearby immediately rushed forward and started beating him mercilessly. Shui Miao never expected that this young man surnamed Gongsun would actually cheat, but what surprised him even more was that the purple aura surrounding the young man instantly dissipated when he was hit. Shui Miao was astonished—so even the purple aura could be dispelled this way? That was a big discovery for him today. He had learned another attribute of the purple aura. Yet, upon further reflection, he thought, once a person was beaten, how could their good luck possibly continue? It confused him. The young man had so much purple aura around him, which should have meant extremely good fortune. So why was he caught cheating? That didn’t make sense. Shui Miao looked at Zhou Cai again and suddenly noticed that Zhou had unknowingly accumulated a heavy dose of water-based malevolent energy—it had already entered his seven orifices!
Could it be that the malevolent energy overwhelmed his luck?
“It turns out he’s a cheat. I thought he was a master. Gongsun, today, you won’t be leaving here without leaving something behind. According to the casino rules, cheaters lose their hands.”
“Yeah! Pay us back and lose a hand, or else we’ll kill you and throw your body into the river to feed the fish!”
“Damn it, he made me lose several million. You cheating bastard, I’ll beat you to death…”
Upon learning that the young man was a fraud, over a dozen gamblers turned hostile.
The young man was no longer arrogant. Beaten pitifully, he knelt on the ground, repeatedly kowtowing and begging for mercy. He even took out a bank card, offering to compensate everyone.
Zhou Cai waved his hand, letting his woman handle the matter, and then sat down in the seat the young man had just vacated.
The female boss had the young man dragged into a room, and the businessmen who had lost money to him eagerly followed.
However, the big boss, Dai Rong, remained seated, lighting a cigar with a smile.
Zhou Cai looked up at Shui Miao, then at Dai Rong, and suddenly said, “How about the three of us play a round?”
“No problem,” Dai Rong smiled at Shui Miao. “Young brother, you’ve got chips worth over 3 million. I’ll also put in 3 million, and Zhou Boss can match that. Let’s play a round of big or small, one game decides the winner.”
“Sure! But I need to keep my principal.”
Since Zhou Cai was heavily tainted with malevolent energy, Shui Miao thought his own purple aura might not be enough to counter it. He didn’t want to end up penniless, so he immediately picked up five chips worth 10,000 each and handed them to a waiter, asking him to exchange them for cash.
Typical child’s mentality, Zhou Cai and Dai Rong exchanged knowing smiles.
Zhou Cai gestured to the red-clad beauty who had been at the entrance earlier, asking her to come and deal the cards. She went back and changed clothes, but it was still the same red outfit as before.
Dai Rong shook his head, saying, “Boss Zhou, I don’t trust your people. I only trust this young brother here. Let him shuffle and deal the cards.”
“Fine, whatever,” Zhou Cai replied coldly with a slight frown.
As Shui Miao shuffled the cards, Zhou Cai pointed at the blood-drawn talisman on his hand and asked suspiciously, “Young brother, what’s that? Your luck is so good—could it be some kind of witchcraft?”
“Witchcraft?”
Shui Miao threw the deck of cards aside. “If you say that, I’m not even going to dare to touch these cards anymore. And what kind of witchcraft brings good luck? Boss Zhou, maybe you should teach me?”
“Uh… hehe, just kidding, just kidding…”
Zhou Cai felt embarrassed and quickly raised his hand to apologize.
Due to the water element’s influence, the talisman on Shui Miao’s hand looked like random scribbles.
“Ignorance can be deadly!” Dai Rong shook his head seriously. “Boss Zhou, you’re a feng shui practitioner, setting up this casino to benefit only yourself. Don’t assume others are as ignorant as you. You’re an outsider, unfamiliar with the arts of curses and witchcraft, which is understandable. Around here, the youngest witch doctors are at least forty years old. This young brother here can’t be more than twenty. You say he practices witchcraft? That’s quite the joke.”
“Of course not… I was just kidding, just a little joke…” Zhou Cai was very embarrassed. In fact, he had only scratched the surface of feng shui. True masters of feng shui would never run a casino for profit, because gambling is mostly deceitful. Genuine feng shui practitioners despise such cheating tricks and would never stoop to them.
“Hmph!” Dai Rong snorted. “Haven’t you heard the saying ‘mentioning curses makes one pale’? Around here, talking recklessly about curses can have very serious consequences. If the local curse-wielders find out, even we could suffer because of you. You’ve brought me bad luck today—I’m not gambling anymore. I also advise you to prepare a sum of ten million for disaster relief, or else just wait and see.”
Dai Rong stood up and asked the staff to exchange his chips back into money and deposit it into his account.
He hadn’t expected a simple sentence to drive away the big boss. Zhou Cai quickly stood up to apologize.
Dai Rong spoke seriously with Zhou Cai, warning him that the curse-wielders were very powerful. There were formidable ones right in this town. Within dozens of miles, if anyone mentioned curses, the curse-wielders would know. If he didn’t immediately seek out a master to neutralize the situation, serious trouble would follow. Dai Rong also told Zhou Cai that a friend of his, a multimillionaire, had suffered family ruin this way. However, Dai Rong offered that if Zhou Cai was willing to spend ten million, he would help him find the most powerful curse master in the area to resolve the matter.
Shui Miao felt Dai Rong’s words were exaggerated and alarmist—he seemed like a very convincing charlatan.
Unable to figure out Dai Rong’s background and no longer wanting to gamble, Shui Miao also asked the staff to exchange his chips for cash.
However, the casino didn’t have that much cash on hand. Usually, people transferred money for chips. Shui Miao had arrived in Shuilonghe with nothing but his skin, no bank card. This was a small town without a bank. In this difficult situation, Dai Rong suggested, “Young brother, if you trust me, we can transfer the money to my account first, and then we can go to the county town to find a bank. I’ll transfer it back to you afterward. How does that sound?”
Dai Rong had a square face, a broad and kind appearance, and didn’t look like a despicable petty person.
Moreover, his words and actions were generous, and he was clearly a wealthy man.
Shui Miao nodded in agreement.
So, somewhat reluctantly, Zhou Cai had someone transfer 3.43 million to Dai Rong’s account. He had originally wanted to gamble a bit more to win Shui Miao’s money, but now, with the situation having developed this far, he could only feel helpless.
Shui Miao followed Dai Rong out the door, where a gust of foul wind immediately blew toward them. Shui Miao furrowed his brow and saw that the water-based malevolent energy was very strong in the wind, and the ground was already wet.
Seeing this, Zhou Cai, who had some knowledge of feng shui, was puzzled. “Why has the weather changed? The weather forecast didn’t mention rain or wind!”
“Could it be the curse-wielders acting?”
Dai Rong muttered softly and quickly turned to Shui Miao nervously, saying, “We must leave quickly. This place is no longer safe.”
Shui Miao inwardly chuckled. What curse-wielders? It was simply because he had disrupted Zhou Cai’s stone lion formation, and now the water-based malevolent energy was blowing over. This river channel was quite polluted, with many households nearby dumping feces and other messy things into it, making the water quality poor and the malevolent energy strong.
When Dai Rong reached the riverbank and looked back, he saw that the stone lions’ eyes had turned red. He was immediately startled and quickly turned to wave frantically at the old boatman, urging him to hurry.
Many businessmen believed in feng shui and supernatural phenomena. Dai Rong had had personal experiences in his youth, so he naturally believed in them wholeheartedly.
Red-eyed stone lions were an omen of great disaster.
Filled with fear, Dai Rong was eager to leave.
Zhou Cai followed him. He didn’t know about the stone lions. When he saw their eyes had turned red, he was also startled and immediately thought of the curse-wielders Dai Rong had just mentioned.
Shui Miao and Dai Rong boarded the boat heading to the opposite shore.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”
As the boat reached the middle of the river, a sudden gust of strong wind blew, causing a huge wave that made the boat sway violently. Dai Rong was frightened and quickly crouched down. It was rare for the river to have such large waves, and even the old boatman was startled. Shui Miao saw a large mass of dark, malevolent water energy rolling toward them from dozens of meters away. He quickly placed his hand, which bore the talisman enhancing water-element spiritual power, into the water, thinking that perhaps his immortal energy could help. Surprisingly, the incoming massive wave suddenly split into two, creating a clear path for the small boat!
“Who… who is he!?”
Seeing Shui Miao part the waves, Zhou Cai was shocked. He quickly looked closely at the stone lions, as if suddenly realizing something.
Dai Rong stared at Shui Miao like he was some kind of monster…
“You… how did you do that?”
Shui Miao looked up at Dai Rong, and suddenly caught sight of a large surge of water-based malevolent energy rising from the riverbed with his peripheral vision. He glanced at the direction the stone lions were facing and immediately furrowed his brow, muttering to himself, “Could there be something unclean hiding at the bottom of this river?”
As Shui Miao finished speaking, he suddenly saw a faint, massive black figure moving underwater. It slowly swam past the bottom of the small boat!
What was that?
Shui Miao knew there couldn’t possibly be a whale here.
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