CH 8

Seeing that the wheel stopped on the red space, the person who was happiest was Fang Youde. He didn’t know why he was afraid of these two disciples of the Heavenly Sword Sect. Logically, he shouldn’t get caught, but Yi Xichen’s confident attitude made him feel uneasy.

Fang Youde smiled: “Hey, this Shixiong’s luck is really good. When he bet, the wheel landed on the red space. You said that I was cheating but if I was cheating, wouldn’t you just get white all the time?”

Yi Xichen was very determined: “Don’t worry, I will still play.”

Zhangsun Zijun stood by and looked at Yi Xichen thoughtfully. The Yi Xichen in front of him was not the same as Yi Xichen in his memory. This one was bright and cheerful but had some evil little tricks up his sleeve. The Yi Xichen in his memory was weak and confused. He was the type of person who looked at his own shadow and felt dejected. In his memory, Zhangsun Zijun loved Yi Xichen but that kind of love was the brainless sort that was imposed by external forces. He had never wondered why he felt this way or questioned his attitude.

Now that he looked back at the eight years in his memory, his face was fuzzy and blurred, an unfathomable mystery.

He remembered the past when he was young. He and Yi Xichen grew up in the Medicine Hall. They were very poor. The disciples of the Sword Refining Hall were the lucky ones, all they had to do was to cultivate and train every day. Whatever they needed was given to them so they didn’t need to worry about anything. On the other hand, the disciples of the Medicine Hall needed to do a lot of chores like sweeping the courtyard, copying the scriptures, and sometimes they were even insulted and bullied by disciples from the other halls.

Despite all that, those were very happy days. Yi Xichen has always been the type who wouldn’t collapse if the sky were to fall down on him. In fact, he was slyer than anyone else. Whenever someone dared to bully them Yi Xichen had many clever ways of dealing with them.

Even if they worked hard all day long, even if he was injured by the demon beasts and couldn’t gather any useful herbs, Yi Xichen was always full of vitality. They liked to sit back to back on the top of the mountain to watch the sunset. Yi Xichen would wipe the blood from his face and says in a cheerful, assertive tone: “Zijun, we will become very strong.”

“Ok.”

“So strong that no one can fight us.”

“Ok.”

“At that time will we still be together?”

“Yes.”

“Ha ha ha ha, let’s go, let’s go back and train!”

When Zhangsun Zijun finished reminiscing, his eyes once again fell on Yi Xichen’s face and he smiled. The boy of that year should have grown up like this, rather than the fuzzy appearance in his memory. If that was the case, the fact that Zhangsun Zijun loved him so much is something inevitable and right.

Yi Xichen continued to bet spirit stones. These spirit stones were his precious belongings. Ordinarily, if he lost one he would feel depressed for a long time but at the moment his eyes showed no concern as he lost one after the other. There were wins and loses. He lost more than he won and the spirit stones in his bag were getting fewer and fewer. Soon, all of his primary spirit stones were lost, leaving only a few intermediate spirit stones.

That Fang Youde watched. He had never seen such a customer who didn’t care about winning or losing at all, as if his sole purpose was to throw all the spirit stones into the gambling wheel.

Yi Xichen soon lost his spiritual stones and a crowd was forming around him. They wanted to see what he was going to do.

Yi Xichen shrugged and said to Zhangsun Zijun: “Hey, do you have spirit stones? Give them to me.”

Zhangsun Zijun didn’t need money and handed his wallet over – the handing over of property to his wife was a basic quality of a gong.

The more he lost, the more the smile on Yi Xichen’s face grew brighter and the more Fang Youde’s head was drenched in cold sweat.

Finally, Xi Xichen dropped the last spirit stone into the groove, and the gambling stopped and fell on the white space. There were only two empty moneybags left. There were no more spirit stones left.

Fang Youde wiped the sweat on his face and smiled awkwardly: “This Shixiong, do you still want to play?”

“I don’t want play. But I found an interesting thing. Does Fang Shixiong want to know what it is?” He said: “Does everyone here want to know?”

Fang Youde began staring at him again.

“The odds are as follows: the blue space has a 1 in 5 chance while the red space has a 1 in 10 chance. Isn’t that right?”

Fang Youde straightened his neck and said, “Yes, that’s right.”

“If this gambling wheel is legitimate, then every 20 turns it should land on the blue space four times and on the red space two times. It should land on the white space 14 times. However, I was observing people play for one hour and played 166 games myself. There were 632 plays but only 64 landed on the blue space and only six on the red. In other words, the probability of landing on blue is only 1 in 10 while the red is 1 in 100.” Yi Xichen smiled. “Fang Shixiong, one person losing is just bad luck. There were more than 100 people who played more than 600 times. All of them were unlucky. Is it because all of them had bad luck or is it because the odds are extremely favorable towards you?”

There was an uproar around them!

The talented wandering cultivator who had just gone away was now back. After listening to Yi Xichen’s remarks and making his way to the center of the crowd, he was extremely angry and shouted: “I said that he was cheating! It’s a fraud! Give my spirit stones back to me!”

A monk said: “You really counted more than 600 plays? Isn’t that your own invention?”

Yi Xichen lazily glanced at him: “This Taoist monk and Fang Shixiong are working together, right? Previously when the wandering cultivator questioned Fang Shixiong, you also spoke up. Although you left often, you always returned. Six times when someone suspected foul play, you spoke up and shamed the other person.”

The monk’s face immediately turned bright red: “You! You’re spouting nonsense! I don’t know anybody here!”

Fang Youde also scowled: “It seems that this little Shixiong is determined to find fault? This is empty talk. You say you counted the plays but no one else was counting so you can just come up with whatever number you want to. Where is the evidence? I am a disciple of the Mysterious Spirit Sect.1 You can’t slander me! If you dare to pester me endlessly then this is the same a provoking the Mysterious Spirit Sect! Which elder is your master?”

Yi Xichen shook a finger at him and said, “Don’t start threatening me. Isn’t it enough for me to give evidence?” He bent down and tore off the bag on the side of the wheel. The spirit stones that were thrown into the gambling wheel’s groove automatically entered this interspatial bag. If a player won then the spirit stones were returned with interest.

Fang Youde moved quickly, wanting to stop Yi Xichen but the latter swiftly opened the interspatial bag. The spirit stones inside fell on the gambling wheel and formed a large pile.

“If the chances of landing on blue is one in five and one in ten for the red, then based on the odds, the dealer should earn one for every ten spirit stones played. I reckon that you set up this stall when the day started. It’s been two and a half hours. If the gambling wheel never stopped turning then you could play a thousand games. You earned…” Yi Xichen swept his eyes over the large pile of spirit stones, “… Looks like six or seven hundred spirit stones here?”

Seeing the very large pile, the crowd’s anger was ignited. Some people shouted out that they wanted the elders of the Mysterious Spirit Sect to judge the case. The monk who had just spoken for Fang Youde desperately wanted to get out of the crowd but was blocked by a wall of people.

“These are the spirit stones that I brought with me! Not just the ones I got today!” Fang Youde was still lying. “You have any real evidence!”

“It’s very simple. Let me dismantle your gambling wheel and let me see if it’s actually powered by a real firestone.2 Won’t that make things clear?”

Fang Youde clung to the gambling wheel: “To make such a device you might have to spend ten high-grade spirit stones. If I let you open it up to take a look, won’t I be losing my ten high-grade spirit stones?”

“Then let’s see if I will need to pay you ten high-grade spirit stones, or if you will have to pay me 100 times my bets.”

In the face of the crowd’s suspicions, Fang Youde had to hand over the device. Yi Xichen’s eyes brightened as he rolled back his sleeves and dismantled the item quickly and neatly. He had always wanted to personally dismantle such a device. If he knew how to make one, he would go back and make devices for Yao Budu then he wouldn’t have to work to so hard to earn spirit stones in the future.

However, once the gambling wheel was disassembled, everyone saw that stuck in the center of the shaft was a red firestone that was glowing red!

Seeing the result, all the onlookers were stunned.

A sly grin flashed on Fang Youde’s face and he rushed over to grab Yi Xichen by his robe. However, he hadn’t even touched him when he was struck on his chin by a sheathed sword and fell on his back.

Zhangsun Zijun was expressionless: “My hand slipped.”

Fang Youde rubbed his reddened chin. His words could barely be understood: “You! I just lost ten high-grade spirit stones!”

Yi Xichen pulled out the firestone and squeezed it in his hand.

Fang Youde’s face immediately turned white: “Put down that firestone! That costs 20 high-grade spiritual stones, you can’t afford it!”

Yi Xichen smiled and said: “Since you said I already owed you ten, what’s 20 more?”

He squeezed the stone in the palm of his hand until it cracked. When he opened his hand the red glow had receded and the center of the stone was inlaid with a piece of black cloud iron.

The crowd immediately became noisy.

Fang Youde jumped up and tried to escape but Zhangsun Zijun’s hand slipped again lightly. Fang Youde was hit a heavy blow and fell down again.

Yi Xichen jumped on him and patted his face: “Don’t run. Didn’t you say that you were staking the reputation of the Mysterious Spirit Sect on this? I said earlier that the Mysterious Spirit Sect elders might not be willing to let you casually put their reputation on the line like this. Didn’t you want to go to the Heavenly Sword Sect to find our elders? Want me to guide you there?”

Fang Youde face was white as a sheet.3

At this moment, some people in the crowd cried: “People from the Mysterious Spirit Sect are coming!”