"But where to get the money, that's the problem."
"Ah..." Chu Liang sighed.
If he went back to Yun Zhaoxian, it was certain that he wouldn't get any money. This smart guy even borrowed money to buy clothes for himself.
To be honest, if the information that Gu Erniang gave was true, then it wouldn't be difficult to get gold and silver. For those underground non-mainstream cultivators, making money was indeed an easy thing.
For those who were more direct, they would go and rob.
For those who were more subtle, they would deceive, cheat, and steal.
For example, the type of criminal activity that the Yu Dynasty had been heavily cracking down on in recent years... cultivators would release their own evil spirits to cause chaos in wealthy households, then charge a fee to drive away the spirits, gaining both fame and fortune.
There were always many ways to make money.
It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".
If it weren't for the fact that the government had recently sealed the city and the wind was tight, Gu Erniang wouldn't even need to use someone else's hand for such a small matter.
But it was easy for those non-mainstream cultivators, while Chu Liang couldn't do such things.
Even if he wanted to do bad things, he had to find some evil people to do it with. But in this big city, where could he find bad people with money?
He touched the plump little beetle in his pocket and could feel its mouth nibbling on his fingers, seeming to be hungry.
Chu Liang's eyes wandered around the street, thinking for a moment in his mind. Suddenly, his eyes flashed, as if he had thought of something.
He looked around and found the biggest gambling house in the city among the passers-by. He went up and asked, "Excuse me, where is the biggest gambling house in the city?"
"The gambling house?" The big guy looked him up and down. Chu Liang had already taken off his black robe and was just a handsome young man in a brocade robe. So the big guy asked, "Do you want to gamble?"
Chu Liang blinked, "I...just want to see and learn."
"Hehe." The big guy laughed, "I want to play a few rounds too. I'll take you there. Little brother, with your clothes and appearance, you look like a rich young master."
"Not really, not really..." Chu Liang said with a smile while clutching his pocket.
The big guy led him around and arrived at a small storefront with just two cloth curtains in front of the door, with the inconspicuous word "gambling" written on them.
There were two guards in front of the door. When they saw the big guy, it seemed that they knew him and didn't ask any questions, just nodded and let him pass.
The big guy led Chu Liang inside. When he saw it, it was indeed a hidden paradise.
In this small storefront, there was a huge gambling house hidden inside, with a bustling crowd of about 1,800 people gathered here, each with a red face, immersed in various gambling tables, feeling isolated from the world.
"Brother, what do you want to play?" The big guy asked enthusiastically."I...I'll take a look." Chu Liang looked timidly around the various gambling tables, wrinkling his brow and muttering under his breath, "I don't know how to play any of these."
"What do you know how to play then?" the big guy asked.
"I know...how to play mahjong," Chu Liang replied. "I played a few times with my elders during Chinese New Year."
"Heh heh, alright, there's a mahjong room here too. But...if you play for small stakes, no one will play with you. You need to have enough money," the big guy said.
"I...I didn't bring much money, but I brought this. I don't know if it's enough," Chu Liang seemed nervous as he revealed the gold brick from his sleeve and showed it to the big guy.
"Wow!" The big guy's eyes widened in surprise, then he grinned widely. "Looks like I've run into the God of Wealth today. Alright, come with me and I'll ask around for you."
With that, he led Chu Liang to a private room upstairs.
He found a middle-aged man in the gambling den and said something to him before turning back to Chu Liang and waving him over. "Brother, go on in and have some fun."
Chu Liang nodded gratefully at the big guy. The middle-aged man then led him into the private room, where a game of mahjong was indeed being played. Someone stood up and offered Chu Liang a seat.
"This young master is here for the first time. Take good care of him," the middle-aged man patted Chu Liang's shoulder, smiled at the others at the table, and then left.
Outside the room, the big guy was waiting for him with a sycophantic smile. "So, how was it? Ninth Master, I should get a cut of what this kid makes, right? I convinced him to come here, after all."
"You wish," the middle-aged man glared at him. "If you had any sense, you'd pay off your gambling debts first."
"Okay, okay, I'll definitely keep that gold brick of his. It should be enough to cover my debts, right?" the big guy chuckled. "It's not easy to find such a fat sheep, you know. I had to work hard to convince him to come."
"Fine, I'll give you credit for that," the middle-aged man chuckled as well.
...
"Huh? Did I just win?" In the private room, Chu Liang looked bewildered as he pushed his winning tiles forward and asked in surprise.
"Yes, yes, yes!" The skinny man across from him nodded repeatedly and laughed. "This young master has some luck. He won big on his very first hand."
The tattooed shirtless man next to him grinned. "It's beginner's luck. Take advantage of it and play a few more rounds, huh?"
"Absolutely!" The old woman at the table laughed like a blooming chrysanthemum.
"You guys are so nice..." Chu Liang smiled as he collected his winnings and stuffed the silver coins into the purse provided by the gambling den. "I won, and you're all happy for me.""Hey, everyone here who plays mahjong is like this, the more we see others win big, the happier we are," the skinny man laughed.
"Really? That's great, then I'll definitely come more often," Chu Liang nodded. "It seems my luck is really good today. You guys won't run away if I win a little, right?"
"Don't worry, little brother," the shirtless man pointed to a big box behind him. "We all have collateral in the gambling house. You can win as much as you want, and we'll make sure you're happy."
"That's great," Chu Liang said, suddenly his eyes lit up. "Hey, did I win again?"
"Huh?" "Huh?" "Huh?"
The three people at the table all felt something was off. They had just started the first round, what was he doing?
Is there a spring for playing mahjong?
"The beginner's luck is too good, ahaha," Chu Liang showed a warm and innocent smile.
Then they sorted the tiles, drew the tiles, played the tiles, and pushed the tiles.
The smiles of the three people in front of him froze.
Chu Liang had an innocent expression, "Wow! The Feng Shui here is so good..."
"..."
After a few rounds, the skinny man was the first to run away, shouting that he had to go pee.
The middle-aged man stood outside with a gloomy face. "You three can't beat one person?"
"Jiu Ye, this kid is too weird!" The skinny man exclaimed. "I've been playing cards for so many years, and I've never seen anything like this! Could it be that a cultivator is messing with us?"
"No," the middle-aged man shook his head.
All gambling houses have very strict formations and other things to detect any fluctuations of true energy on the gambling table. Once it is detected, it will be discovered immediately.
This is to prevent cultivators from using their divine abilities to cause trouble.
Unless it is a cultivator in the realm of asking the Dao who has come into contact with the laws of heaven and earth, it is possible to transcend this rule.
But when a powerful cultivator in the realm of asking the Dao needs money, countless forces will give him money without him having to come to a place like this to fool around.
"What's going on then? It's really strange. You said the three of us can communicate through secret signals, but we also need a chance. He won by self-drawing the winning tile after only a few tiles. How do we play this?"
After pondering for a moment, the middle-aged man said, "He should have an incredibly strong mental power to remember so many tiles to make this move...he's a master."
"What?" The skinny man asked, "Isn't he a fairy?"
"On the gambling table, he is a fairy," the middle-aged man snorted. "I was wrong about him today. I'll go meet him."
With that, he pushed open the door and sat down at the table.
"The game can't wait, I'll take his place," he stared at Chu Liang and said with a smile.
Chu Liang smiled back, "Okay."As soon as the middle-aged man sat down, the bare-chested man and the old woman became visibly nervous, their expressions very unnatural, their gaze fixed on the two pairs of hands on the table.
Chu Liang's hand bones were slender and shone with a jade-like luster due to years of cultivation.
The middle-aged man's hands were full of scars, as if he had been through a lot.
When he met Chu Liang's gaze, the air seemed to freeze, as if there were electric sparks shooting out.
That was the light of a clash between experts.
And then...
Half an hour passed.
"Huh? I did it again." Chu Liang still pushed down the cards with surprise.
The middle-aged man's expression was like that of a mourner.
What kind of expert showdown was this?
He was confident when he went up to compete with this young man who didn't know the height of the sky, but he lost hundreds of taels in just a few rounds.
The other three, including the thin man who was about to leave, had lost more than a thousand taels.
In their high-stakes game, where almost every hand was a win, Chu Liang had won so much that his big bag couldn't hold it anymore.
"Young man, that's enough!" The middle-aged man stood up in anger and slapped the table.
He now saw clearly that this young man wasn't just good at remembering cards, he could remember all the cards!
On the card table, he could get whatever he wanted.
He was just here to play around.
"What's wrong, can't I win money?" Chu Liang blinked.
"You've already won thousands of taels, it's better to leave now and never step into our gambling house again. You should know the principle of leaving a way out for yourself as a human being," the middle-aged man said in a deep voice.
"Hey, I just came to play with you guys, why are you getting angry?" Chu Liang smiled and put the bag on the table. "All this money is here, I'm not taking a penny, okay?"
With that, he smiled and left.
The middle-aged man's gaze flickered. As he watched him leave, he suddenly said, "Young man, why not leave a name? We'll meet again in the future, and we'll all be friends!"
Chu Liang didn't look back, he just waved his hand and left a name: "Gao Jin!"
As he watched him leave, everyone's eyes were filled with a shocked and inexplicable expression. At that moment, it seemed as if there were thumping sound effects accompanying him from behind.
Until his figure disappeared completely.
At this point, the thin man walked in, surprised and suspicious. "He left without taking the money? Hey, what happened to all this silver?"
He emptied the bag and found that the big ingots of gold and silver inside, although all the same shape, had turned into a material like gray, lifeless stones, as if they had lost their life.
"What is this..." The middle-aged man was experienced and immediately guessed what it was. He turned his head sharply and looked at the large box where the silver was stored. "Quick, look!"Having said that, everyone hurriedly opened the box to check, only to see a small hole drilled on the side of the box, and all the stored silver inside was just like that.
"Ah..." The middle-aged man slumped into the chair, cursing bitterly in his mouth: "Gao Jin, you little thief..."
RECENTLY UPDATES
