Song of Adolescence

Chapter 184 Vast Heaven Gambling Den

Ningzhe City.

Vast Heaven Gambling Den.

"No more bets, no more bets. To have the heart to win, you must have the courage to lose. Buy big and if I open big, you walked here but get to go home in a carriage. Buy big and if I open small, you came in finery but go home in your underpants." An elegant and gorgeous lady with a lithe figure, dressed in plain clothes and a blue robe, sat cross-legged on top of the gaming table. She was shaking a treasure box in her hand as she called out a common casino saying, "Place your bets? Place your bets?"

The gamblers whose drool had nearly reached the ground nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes."

However, these gamblers had long lost their heart to gamble. They swallowed as they ogled the lady’s plump breasts, their eyes not even on the treasure box. But, they could only dare to look and lust, because right next to the lady was a young man. The young man didn’t look terribly scary, but the scary thing was, he’s fully equipped with seven swords!

And the most conspicuous thing about this man and this lady was that on the back of their clothes was written a large word ‘gamble’!

"Shifu, Third Citymaster specifically reminded me not to enter a gambling den…" Luo Mingxuan said with despair.

"Am I your shifu, or is Sikong Changfeng your shifu?" Yin Luoxia glared at him.

"But…" Luo Mingxuan scratched his head. "Shifu, you’re a guest from outside. How did you become the dealer?"

"Nonsense. I, Yin Luoxia, have been gambling for more than 20 years. The house always wins!" With a "pah", Yin Luoxia slammed the treasure box onto the table, and her eyes, full of charm, made one round around the table. "I’ll ask one last time. Have you placed your bets!"

"Yes!" Everyone placed their bets.

"Okay." Yin Luoxia lifted the lid of the treasure box.

The whole hall was in an uproar.

Three sixes. A triple.

"House wins all." Yin Luoxia flung the treasure box aside and patted Luo Mingxuan on the head. "My dear disciple, collect the money."

Luo Mingxuan sighed, picked up the cloth bag and gathered the silver pieces. "Shifu, we’ve won enough already. If you win any more, the bag will overflow. It’s also getting late. We must hurry and continue on our way."

"What\'s the hurry? The Heroes Banquet is long over. Are you rushing there to eat their leftovers?" Yin Luoxia said disdainfully.

"Then shifu is thinking of…" Luo Mingxuan was puzzled.

"The gambling den is full of dragons and fishes jumbled together. All kinds of news can be found here, those that people can know and those that people cannot know." Yin Luoxia put down the treasure box in her hand and sat on the gaming table with her long legs dangling as she spoke mildly, "See, the news has come on its own."

The group of gamblers who’d been surrounding the gambling table immediately scattered like the wind. A middle-aged man with a big belly and fine clothes came over escorted by a whole entourage of attendants. He squinted his eyes and stared at Yin Luoxia. "Is that her?"

One of the attendants came up. "With respect to Huang-laoban, that’s her. She’s been winning for the whole afternoon in the gambling den."

Huang nodded his head. "Check the box in her hand."

"Yes." The attendant nodded and turned to Yin Luoxia. "This lady, please let this one have the box in your hand to take a look."

"No." Yin Luoxia smashed the box against the ground, shattering it to pieces.

The attendant started, turned his head to look at Huang. But, Huang wasn’t angry at all. He simply stared at Yin Luoxia in a daze, his eyes drooling covetously. "You don’t have to give us the box if you don’t want to, but you, I want you." The attendant immediately knew what the boss meant, and waved his hand. "How audacious. How dare you come to our Vast Heaven Gambling Den and cheat. Take her." Five or six other attendants immediately drew their blades and rushed forward.

Yin Luoxia stretched her back lazily and rubbed Luo Mingxuan\'s head. "My dear disciple, do me a favour and take them all down. Then, grab that fattest one over. I have questions for him."

"This disciple obeys!" Luo Mingxuan waved his hand, and a long sword was already in his hand. He flicked the long sword lightly. The attendants who were about to run over with their raised blades yelled out loud and stopped in their tracks. They stared blankly at the empty hilts in their hands while a handful of blades fell onto the ground.

"What the hell!" A person exclaimed, and after they’d reacted one after another and were about to run, Luo Mingxuan swung another sword. Those people saw a flash in front of their eyes. They looked at each other, checked themselves from top to bottom, realized they were safe and sound, and joyously proclaimed, "I think we’re okay."

Huang also came back to his senses. "What are you standing there for? Take them!"

The attendants immediately ran forward again, but as soon as they moved, one after another, their pants dropped to their ankles. They tripped over each other and fell to the ground, wailing.

The attendant in charge of the others was also dumbfounded and he turned to look at Huang. "This is…"

"Picked the wrong fight. Run!" Although Huang was fat, he was agile when he moved. He turned around and ran for the door.

Luo Mingxuan jumped into the air and landed right in front of Huang with a smile. "This laoban, my shifu invited you over." After speaking, he grabbed his collar and jumped back to Yin Luoxia’s side.

Huang was so frightened that he knelt onto the ground. "Fairy have mercy, fairy have mercy! This lowly one was blind and didn’t know! Don’t kill me, ah, fairy, don’t kill me!"

"I\'m not some big demon head. I won’t kill you. Good boy." Yin Luoxia smiled, supporting her chin with her hand, and leaned over to look. “But, I wouldn’t put it past me to dig out your eyes and break one of your arms to make up for the disrespect you showed earlier. It all depends on whether you can answer my questions."

"Fairy, please ask anything you like. This lowly one will tell you everything I know, and leave nothing out! As long as it is within a hundred miles of Ningzhe City, there is nothing this lowly one doesn’t know!" Huang continued to grovel with his forehead hitting the ground. There was no trace of that swaggering local boss left in his bearing.

"Very good. It just happens to be within a hundred miles." Yin Luoxia tapped her chin lightly. "Do you know about Lei Clan Fort’s Heroes Banquet?"

Huang hesitated. "This one… of course I know."

"This year\'s martial arts tournament, which sect came in first?" Yin Luoxia asked.

Huang shook his head. "There was no tournament this year."

"No?" Yin Luoxia raised her eyebrows.

Huang knelt down again. "Fairy, there really wasn’t one. They said that this time, during the Heroes Banquet, the underworld assassination organisation Hidden River somehow sneaked in and poisoned the guests from the martial world who were attending the banquet. It was Lei Clan Fort’s Clan Leader Lei Qianhu and Tang Clan’s Grandmaster Tang who stopped them in a desperate all out fight. But, Lei Clan Fort was also hit hard and this Heroes Banquet thus ended early."

"A desperate all out fight?" Yin Luoxia frowned slightly. "To make these two go all out in a fight, the Hidden River must have sent their Heads of Houses."

"Fairy, forgive me!" Huang suddenly exclaimed.

"Are you lying?" Luo Mingxuan said angrily, and swung his long sword until it stopped against the man’s neck.

Huang trembled in fright. "This lowly one dare not, this lowly one dare not. It\'s just that I used the wrong words just now, and I’m afraid the fairy misunderstood. The two clan leaders didn’t go all out in a fight to the death… they really died in battle.”

"What?" Yin Luoxia was startled, and her expression changed drastically. "Lei Qianhu and the Grandmaster are dead?"

"This one wouldn’t dare to deceive the fairy. Most of the martial sects coming back from Lei Clan Fort will pass through this Ningzhe City. Although there were some differences in their stories, these two clan leaders had truly died. It was the Lei Clan Fort people who made the announcement. Right now, the head of Lei Clan Fort has been replaced by Lei Qianhu\'s own brother, Lei Yunhe!" Huang explained hurriedly when he saw the fairy\'s expression change suddenly.

"What about Snow Moon City? Where were the disciples sent by Snow Moon City?" Luo Mingxuan hurriedly asked.

"They said those disciples were all injured and are now recuperating in Lei Clan Fort." Huang was internally shocked. He’d been in the gambling business for many years and didn’t know any martial arts, but his skills of observation and performance were top rate. He came to the realisation that the two people in front of him right now must be related to Snow Moon City, the number one city in the martial world.

"Shifu." Luo Mingxuan looked at Yin Luoxia.

Yin Luoxia frowned slightly, looking thoughtful, and murmured, "The Hidden River has only ever carried out a job for money. Who could have paid such a high price to hire them for such a ruthless deal?"

Huang overheard Yin Luoxia’s words to herself and voluntarily replied, "I heard people say that it may be Unrivaled City! This time, because Lei Clan Fort was the host, all the sects related to Unrivaled City did not attend the banquet. And there are only a handful of people in the martial world who can afford such a price!"

"Understood." Yin Luoxia kicked the boss, Huang, out of the room. Then, she jumped off the gaming table and patted Luo Mingxuan on the shoulder. "My dear disciple, let\'s go."

"We’re going to Lei Clan Fort?" Luo Mingxuan asked.

"No." Yin Luoxia\'s eyes lit up. "We’re going to Unrivaled City.”