He had no idea if there was an actual God of Gambling in the Firmament, but the fact that the young man was able to guess the number correctly consecutively despite the odds was more than enough to show that the young man was not too far such an existence.
He was tempted to continue, but his rationality told him that he could lose it all if he did. So, he forced himself to take a step back.
Even if he wanted to continue betting with the young man, he should at least wait a few more turns to see if the young man actually had the ability to guess the numbers accurately.
Paying close heed to the spinning needle, Yao Shan deduced that the winning number would be in the fifties. Then, he secretly glanced at the young man and saw the latter instructing the young lady beside him.
“Wang Ying, buy number twenty-seven.”
“Yes!” the young lady replied.
Some time later, the result was announced, and the winning number was indeed twenty-seven!
Cold sweat dripped down Yao Shan’s back.
It was fortunate he did not continue gambling, or else he would have lost his kitchen too!
He gave up all thoughts of getting his four Divine Coins back from the young man in that instant, but he could not help but wonder… how in the world did the young man manage to predict the winning numbers so accurately?
It was a one in a hundred chance, but he was still able to get it right three times consecutively…
The first time might have been luck, and the second one could have been a great coincidence, but three consecutive times… It would really be pushing the boundaries to think that it was luck again!
Yao Shan was not the only one who found the situation baffling. Zhao Ya and the others were equally baffled, but their eyes were glowing with admiration and respect.
As expected of their teacher!
He was outstanding even in the Firmament, where the most powerful experts in the universe roamed!
…
Fu Yuan was one of the Three Grand Elders of Twilight City, making him one of the most influential and respected figures here. He was only second in position to City Lord Wu Fangqing, and he was in charge of managing the administrative affairs regarding Netherworld Palace.
The slot roulette was also under his jurisdiction.
After having a sumptuous lunch, he stretched his back lazily before making his way over to the opera house to watch a play.
He knew that despite his high-ranking position, he was neither the most influential nor powerful person in Twilight City, but he was content with his current life. As a high-tier God and a grand elder, he saw no need to climb any further up.
It was not that he never harbored such thoughts, but he knew that given the limitations of his talent, there was no way he would be able to become a Celestial God. Since that was the case, there was no reason for him to waste the little time he had left pursuing something that was futile to him.
It would be much better for him to take life easy and enjoy the fruits of the hard work he had put in his entire life!
“Luo Sheng, check if Little Lotus of the Red Jadeite Pavilion is free or not. If she’s free, inform her that I’ll be heading over to look for her after I’m done watching my play!” Elder Fu Yuan instructed.
Little Lotus of the Red Jadeite Pavilion was one of his close companions, and he visited her often.
The subordinate named Luo Sheng nodded before quickly heading out. However, not too long later, he returned with an anxious look on his face.
Seeing the flustered state of his subordinate, Elder Fu Yuan rose to his feet and tidied up his robe before asking, “What’s wrong?”
“Old Master, we have just received a report that someone has managed to buy the correct number on the slot roulette wheel eleven times consecutively!” Luo Sheng replied in astonishment.
“Wait a moment, you are saying that he won the slot roulette eleven times straight?” Elder Fu Yuan was stunned. “What do you mean by that? Did he purchase a hundred slots in one go, or… What happened?”
There were indeed cases where the ultra-rich would buy all one hundred slots in a single go, thus ensuring that they would acquire a slot no matter what the result was.
“No, that’s not it. That person only bought a single slot every time, but he would get the winning number each time. It’s almost as if the roulette wheel formation is bowing to his demands,” Luo Sheng said with an incredulous look on his face.
“He only bought a single number, but he was still able to hit the mark each and every time?” Elder Fu Yuan widened his eyes in disbelief. “You aren’t lying to me?”
“It’s real! It’s already a complete mess out there!” Luo Sheng exclaimed.
“This… Have you checked on the formation to see if there are any problems?”
“We have already done a thorough check, and everything is working as normal!”
“Let’s go take a look!” Fu Yuan said as he quickly headed over to Netherworld Palace.
It did not take him long to arrive at his destination.
At that moment, a huge crowd had already gathered around the slot roulette wheel.
“He got it again! This is the thirteenth time, right?”
“Holy cow! He has gotten the right number thirteen times in a row! How is he doing this?”
“It looks like the rest of us don’t stand a chance at all…”
…
The faces in the room were filled with disbelief.
Elder Fu Yuan walked over and examined the formation, but he was unable to find anything wrong with it. The young man that everyone in the room was encircling was not making any suspicious actions either. In fact, his hands had been behind his back the whole time.
Was it really possible for one to guess the right number thirteen times in a row without doing anything?
Seeing that the needle on the roulette wheel was about to be spun for the fourteenth time, Elder Fu Yuan quickly walked up to the platform and said, “Allow me!”
Then, with a flick of his finger, the needle on the roulette wheel immediately began spinning.
A while later, the formation flickered a little before shrouding the roulette wheel in mist.
Elder Fu Yuan made sure to check every nook and cranny of the roulette wheel, but he could not find anything wrong with it.
“Buy number thirteen,” the young man in the limelight instructed.
A moment later, when the formation was released, the needle on the roulette wheel was indeed pointing at number thirteen.
This marked the young man’s fourteenth consecutive victory.
Elder Fu Yuan knew that the young man was definitely doing something—there was no way a person could guess the correct number fourteen times in a row—but he was unable to figure out just what it was, and this left him incredibly frustrated.
Eventually, he lost his patience and marched right up to Zhang Xuan. “Who the hell are you? What are you trying to achieve?”
“I am just a nameless nobody. I am buying some slots here so that I’m able to scale the Celestial Mountain,” Zhang Xuan replied with a smile.
“Yet, you were able to select the winning number fourteen times in a row?” Elder Fu Yuan scoffed in skepticism. “Men, escort this esteemed guest to the room. I think there’s a need to ask him a few questions!”
“You want to take me into custody? Netherworld Palace is the one that placed those slots on sale, and yet, you want to arrest me just because I’ve been lucky enough to guess the winning number each time?” Zhang Xuan looked at Elder Fu Yuan mockingly.
This system basically worked the same as a lottery. One could not possibly arrest a lottery winner just because he won each and every single time, right?
He was not doing anything that broke the rules, and he had never approached the roulette wheel or the formation.
“The reason Netherworld Palace has taken out two hundred slots to be sold in such a fashion is to ensure that everyone has an equitable chance of scaling the Celestial Mountain. If you acquire all the slots by yourself, what will become of the other cultivators? It’ll be unfair to them!” Elder Fu Yuan said.
“You are talking about fairness? Those people over there have been trying to calculate the trend of the roulette wheel to make predictions. Do you think that it’s fair to the others for them to do so? There are also a lot of people who devote their lives to studying the roulette wheel and even make a living out of it. Just how do you define something as fair or not?”
With an irritated wave of his hand, Zhang Xuan said, “Forget it. Since you don’t welcome me here, I’ll just take my leave. Farewell.”
He needed slots for his parents, eleven direct disciples, and Sun Qiang, and he had already managed to acquire the fourteen that he needed. There was no need for him to continue.
After all, his goal was to acquire the Aura of Divinity on the Celestial Mountain, not to cause a huge ruckus.
Since it was his first time in the Firmament, maintaining a low profile should take precedence over everything else.
“Hold it there for a moment!” Before Elder Fu Yuan could even speak, an old man amid the crowd stepped forward and blocked Zhang Xuan’s way.
It was none other than the old man who had lost two bets to him earlier, Yao Shan.
“Don’t you think that it’s too convenient that you are able to leave so easily after monopolizing so many of the slots?”
“Indeed!”
“We are here to acquire a slot, too, but you ended up taking nearly all of them, depriving us of our chances. You can’t leave just like that!”
“You should at least take seven slots and share with the rest of us. It isn’t too big a request, is it?”
Such complaints could be heard here and there as cold smiles formed on the lips of the crowd.
They had no idea whether the young man was really cheating or not, but since someone was taking the lead, they might be able to get something out of it if they joined in.
The frowning Zhang Xuan looked at Elder Fu Yuan and asked, “Is this the rule of Netherworld Palace? You put the slots on sale and yet don’t allow anyone from to walk away with them.”
“Of course not! However, how you managed to identify the winning number fourteen times consecutively is rather sketchy, so we can’t help but suspect that you are cheating.”
“Cheating? Very well!” Zhang Xuan looked at the crowd imposingly. “Show me how I cheated! If you can show me how I managed to cheat despite all the security measures in place, I’ll hand over all fourteen slots to you!”
“Ah…”
The crowd fell silent.
If they knew how the young man did it, they would not still be here. They would have long struck it rich and retired!
“None of you are able to do it?” Zhang Xuan shook his head. “Farewell!”
Right after saying those words, Zhang Xuan beckoned his direct disciples to follow him out of Netherworld Palace.
“You can’t leave!”
The crowd quickly encircled him.
“You don’t want to allow me to leave? Fine by me as well. If I recall correctly, there are still sixteen slots remaining, right? I’ll stay here and win all the remaining slots!” Zhang Xuan crossed his arms before his chest as he spoke with a smile.
That statement shocked everyone there. Recalling the miracles that he had pulled off thus far, they began to doubt themselves.
If they allowed the young man to leave, they might still stand a chance at obtaining a slot. However, as long as the young man continued participating in the draws, they would simply be spending their money in vain on the slot roulette!
“Don’t listen to his words!” Yao Shan exclaimed. “He only has fourteen Semi-Divinities by his side. He won’t be able to draw any more than that!”
Due to the rule that a person could only buy a single number each day, Zhang Xuan would not be able to participate in the subsequent bets even if he wanted to.
“Wait a moment, you’re right!”
“Even if we keep him here, he won’t be able to do anything…”
Widening their eyes in realization, the crowd bucked up their determination and continued blocking Zhang Xuan’s way.
As long as they kept him there, it was only a matter of time before he spat out some of the slots that he had acquired.
They were in the majority anyway, and there were plenty of experts in their ranks. No matter how powerful the young man was, he did not stand a chance against them. Besides, given that they were in the city, the young man would not dare make a move on them recklessly, or else he might face trouble with the law.
“Is that what you think?” Zhang Xuan turned to Elder Fu Yuan and said, “Elder, if I’m not mistaken, the bets aren’t just limited to humans, right?”
After spending quite some time in there, he had already familiarized himself with the rules of the slot roulette.
“Of course,” Fu Yuan replied with a nod.
There were quite a few divine beasts in the Firmament who were able to transmogrify into the form of a human. If they were to limit the participation to just the humans, they would risk offending the divine beasts.
For this reason, there were no restrictions on who could participate in the bets.
“Very well.” Zhang Xuan nodded as he turned to Sun Qiang and passed down some instructions.
Sun Qiang’s lips twitched a little as he looked at Zhang Xuan with a bizarre expression on his face. Then, he walked out of the room before returning with the fourteen steeds a moment later.
“Since you aren’t allowing me to leave, it just so happens that these horses of mine are only at the Semi-Divinity realm and need some slots. It’s not too much if I get them to participate in the bets too, right?”
Zhang Xuan waved his hand lightly, and a horse immediately walked over and wrote down the number sixty-four with his hoof before passing a Divine Coin over.
The young man managing the roulette wheel was perplexed. He had no idea whether he should accept the Divine Coin or not.
However, when he thought more deeply into it, there were indeed no rules forbidding such an act. So, he hesitantly accepted the Divine Coin and passed a token with the number sixty-four on it.
Weng!
Some time later, the formation disappeared, and the number reflected on the roulette wheel was… 64!
“Even horses are able to buy numbers too?”
“There are indeed no rules that prohibit animals from buying numbers. If each of his horses buy a winning number… Hell, that will mean that there are none left for us!”
“What should we do?”
…
The crowd was really panicking at this point.
They had thought that the young man was cornered, but who could have known that the young man would still have such a hand?
More importantly, that horse actually had the ability to hand over money and choose the right number.
Just what is this world coming to?
Are we even less than a mere horse?
With twitching cheeks, Elder Fu Yuan eventually passed down an order. “Release him!”
If they did not allow the young man to leave, the latter might very well sweep away all their available slots.
This was the first time that he had felt so exasperated about this slot roulette system ever since it was implemented. Who could have known that it could be exploited in such a manner?
If not for the fact that those were the rules that he had come up with, he would have really rushed forward to beat up that darned rascal!
