Chapter 120: The God of Gambling (3)

“Hey there, my boy! Do you like this pack of sweets your uncle got for you?” Village Chief Tian took out a big bunch of candies and handed them to Liu Dashao.

“I love them! Hehe, you’re the best, Village Chief Tian!” Liu Dashao laughed joyfully. At that moment, Zhang Enpu also came out to greet them.

With a beaming smile, Village Chief Tian said, “Daozhang Zhang has arrived, hehe!”

With a smile across his face, Zhang Enpu asked, “Have you taken care of that matter I entrusted to you?”

With a mysterious grin, Village Chief Tian replied, “Oh, Master Zhang, rest assured! Would I dare neglect anything you’ve asked me to do? Everything has been prepared exactly as you instructed. You can rest easy, one hundredfold!”

Liu Dashao listened in confusion, not knowing what task Zhang Enpu had given Village Chief Tian, so he asked Zhang Enpu about it.

Zhang Enpu patted Liu Dashao’s head and said, “You’re such a curious kid. Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Then he looked at everyone and said, “Today, let the young master have a gamble with this young man.” Having said that, he invited them all to go outside.

When they arrived at the village entrance, villagers were still gambling as usual. Upon seeing Zhang Enpu, everyone quickly made way for him. Suddenly, Zhang Enpu briskly stepped forward and pinched Ke Jiang’s left hand. Before anyone could react, he sat back down on his chair and said, “Young man, I’m here to gamble!”

Ke Jiang was about to get angry, but upon hearing that Zhang Enpu wanted to gamble, he smirked and said, “Didn’t expect you, old man, to also enjoy gambling. Please, show us your skills!”

Zhang Enpu calmly replied, “No need to talk about showing skills. I don’t know how to gamble. I’m just an old man with a worthless life!”

Having said that, he stared fiercely at Ke Jiang.

Zhang’s words made Ke Jiang shift uncomfortably and he chuckled dryly twice before asking, “Hehe, old man, what do you want to gamble on?”

Zhang Enpu slapped the table, startling the onlookers. He clearly and deliberately uttered each word:

“I bet on that ring on your left hand!”

Upon hearing this, Ke Jiang shuddered, appearing somewhat hesitant. After a long pause, he finally said, “Old man… this… this ring is a family heirloom of the Ke family. Perhaps it’s inappropriate to use it as a gambling stake?”

Zhang Enpu snorted and said, “In our village, the eldest son of the Zhang family gambled with his family treasure against you. And in the back of the village, Yan Yanxiaoliu gambled his life with you and lost his life. If you’re afraid to gamble with just a ring, then you must be afraid to gamble with me, old man.”

Liu Dashao knew that Zhang Enpu was trying to provoke Ke Jiang. Seeing that he didn’t move, Zhang turned around and pretended to leave.

“Wait!” At this point, Ke Jiang spoke up, looking as if he had made a big decision.

“I… I’ll gamble with you!”

Zhang Enpu smiled slightly and sat back down, saying, “Great! The stake is my worthless life, just like Yan Yanxiaoliu who lost his life to you!”

“Old man, you’d better think carefully. Are you really going to gamble?” Ke Jiang asked.

“Haha, perhaps I should be the one asking you? Are you afraid?”

Ke Jiang laughed a few times and said, “Fine then. Old man, what shall we gamble on?”

“You decide!” Zhang Enpu waved his hand dismissively.

“Then we’ll gamble on dice, predicting big or small!” Saying this, he took out the jar from the last time, placed it on the stopper, and shook it.

Ke Jiang shook it a few times and then placed the jar on the table.

“Old man, you guess whether it’s big or small?”

“I guess small. Open it up a bit!”

“Ha ha ha! Old man, you lose! It’s six points! It’s big! Ha ha ha!” Ke Jiang burst into laughter as he lifted the jar.

But he quickly stopped laughing, his upturned lips frozen at the corner of his mouth, quite comically. It turned out that the dice showed a big red dot, meaning Zhang Enpu had won. Liu Dashao also let out a sigh of relief.

Zhang Enpu stood up and said, “Young man, you lost.”

At this moment, Ke Jiang slowly raised his left hand, looked at the ring, and was about to take it off.

But he put his hand back down and said indifferently, “I can’t give it to you.”

Zhang Enpu seemed to have expected this. Suddenly, he darted in front of Ke Jiang before he and his henchmen could react.

Before anyone could react, Zhang Enpu grabbed Ke Jiang’s left wrist with his left hand and seized the ring with his right hand, yanking it off. The henchmen beside them snapped back to their senses and reached out to grab Zhang Enpu.

At that moment, Village Chief Tian roared loudly, leading the team to rush forward and engage in a melee with those men.

Zhang Enpu then took out a black cloth with red characters written on it and wrapped the ring inside.

Looking at Ke Jiang now, he was seen clutching his left hand and writhing on the ground in pain. His left hand had turned into bare white bones, with meat threads hanging and dripping blood.

Zhang Enpu simply grabbed Liu Dashao and quickly ran home.

Upon arriving home, Liu Dashao hurried to the study to fetch several prepared Five Thunder Talismans as instructed by Zhang Enpu beforehand, pasting them on every door and window. Meanwhile, Zhang Enpu quickly carried out a small table from the study, about one chi in size, which was where he usually kept his talismans.

Zhang Enpu placed the ring wrapped in the red-character black cloth on the table.

He took a bowl, poured half of it with water, threw a handful of rice into the water, and inserted three sticks of incense.

Muttering, he said, “Drink when thirsty, eat rice when hungry. Invite the Grand Duke, and all evil shall be kept away!”

Then he took out a yellow cloth the size of a curtain and hung it on the wall.

On the yellow cloth was painted the Grand Duke talisman.

Then Zhang Enpu took out a compass, the needle on which kept jumping. There were words about directions and gates written all over the compass.

Zhang Enpu walked back and forth in the courtyard, chanting while holding the compass. The compass pointed steadily in one direction.

Putting down the compass, Zhang Enpu made a hand sign with his left hand and placed his right hand on his forehead, chanting, “Inviting the Grand Duke from the northwest, there is evil behind. Burn paper and light incense, Grand Duke, please don’t mind. Remove evil and impurity, we invite the Grand Duke.”

Suddenly, Zhang leaped into the air and landed in front of the Grand Duke talisman, bit his middle finger, and dripped his blood into the bowl of water, turning the water red.

Then Zhang picked up a writing brush, dipped it in cinnabar and then into the blood, and quickly wrote the Nine Sacred Words on the Grand Duke talisman: “Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Zai, Qian.” As soon as Zhang Enpu finished writing, the ring covered by the black cloth on the table started to shake violently. Outside, there was suddenly a knocking sound at the door. It was already dusk, but the knocking was eerie, coming one after another.

Liu Dashao was about to open the door when he heard Zhang Enpu shout, “Don’t open! This is ghost knocking!”

Upon hearing this, Liu Dashao quickly stepped back a few paces, covered his eyes with a willow leaf, and as soon as he looked through it, he saw the monster behind Yan Xiaoliu from yesterday, standing behind the door, sticking out a long tongue, with messy hair and a pale green face, knocking on the door again and again.

Liu Dashao was so terrified that he cried out, stumbled back a few steps, and fell to the ground.

However, Zhang Enpu remained calm and quickly walked to the table, chanting, “Evil spirits cannot see the Grand Duke’s arrival. Quickly invite the Grand Duke to sweep away the evil spirits!”

As he spoke, he pointed his right hand at the ring on the table. Suddenly, the black cloth opened by itself as if blown by the wind, and the ring immediately stopped shaking.