Qiānniǎo stared at the Firecloud Exquisite Bird worth thirty to forty million in her hand, then looked down at the Blue Moon Sword stabbed into the ground, valued at a staggering hundred million. She simply couldn't believe what was happening right now; it felt more unreal than a dream.
She didn't know and couldn't imagine how Little Drunkard—a guy with no cultivation to speak of and not a single Immortal Stone to his name—had managed to entrust this Great Old Master with delivering such incredibly expensive gifts to her.
A long time passed before Qiānniǎo snapped out of her daze and asked, "Senior, do you know where… where Little Drunkard is right now?" Qiānniǎo was now burning with impatience to see Little Drunkard and ask the many questions and curiosities swirling in her heart.
"Little Drunkard? Isn't he already here?"
Here?
Where?
Qiānniǎo glanced around but didn't see any trace of Little Drunkard. She asked, "Senior, where exactly is Little Drunkard? Why… why can't I see him?"
"Far as the horizon, yet right before your eyes."
As these words fell, the Great Old Master sitting inside the Grand Carriage stepped out.
Just as everyone had speculated earlier, this Great Old Master was clad in the Greatsun Radiant Jade Robe, his feet shod in Swiftwind Cloudpiercer Boots. A string of one hundred and eight Purple-Gold Jade-Eyed Beads hung around his neck. In his left hand, he gently waved a Starry Sky Black Jade Fan, while his right hand toyed with two Earthly Fiend Mystic Spheres. A Purple-Gold White Jade Smoking Pipe was clenched between his teeth. On his hands, all ten fingers astonishingly bore a Starwhorl Storage Ring, each one a massive thumb-ring.
Earlier, the interior of the Grand Carriage had been dim and shrouded in misty smoke, so no one had gotten a clear look at the Great Old Master's appearance. But as the Great Old Master emerged, everyone finally saw him clearly.
He was a young man who didn't look very old.
His features were utterly ordinary, the kind you'd lose in a crowd and never find again.
Yet, it was precisely this ordinary face that struck Qiānlíng, Qiānniǎo, Xuan Yun, Liu Li, and the dozen or so others from the Xiaoluo Secret Realm like a thunderbolt. They stood there dumbfounded, eyes wide as if they'd seen a ghost.
Because never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that the Great Old Master sitting inside the Grand Carriage would turn out to be the Little Drunkard who had vanished from the garden.
"What's the matter?" Gu Qingfeng pulled the Purple-Gold White Jade Smoking Pipe from his lips, exhaled a thick plume of spiritual smoke, and looked at the group with a grin. "Don't recognize the Great Old Master anymore?"
"You! I… How did you… Why…" Qiānniǎo doubted her own eyes. She quickly closed them, then opened them again, then closed them once more, only to reopen them. Then she pinched herself hard—she could feel the pain.
She knew she wasn't seeing things, and she knew this wasn't a dream.
The one sitting in the Grand Carriage really was Little Drunkard!
Heavens!
"Wow! Little Drunkard! It's really you!" Perhaps this scene was too shocking, too delightfully surprising for Qiānniǎo. She leaped up, jumped onto the Grand Carriage, threw her arms around Gu Qingfeng, and burst into tears. "Wah! Little Drunkard, it's really you… Sob sob… I thought you'd fallen off and died! Sob sob… I was so worried, sob sob…"
"Fallen off? You've got quite the imagination. Your lord here isn't a child, how could I just fall off?" Gu Qingfeng patted Qiānniǎo's shoulder reassuringly. "Besides, with this iron-hard body of mine, even if I did fall, I wouldn't die."
"But… but you…" Qiānniǎo wiped her tears, her eyes red as she looked Gu Qingfeng up and down, immediately voicing the doubt in her heart. "This whole outfit of yours, and that Blue Moon Sword, the Firecloud Exquisite Bird… and this Firecloud Grand Carriage… where did you steal them from?"
"What do you mean 'steal'? Go steal one like this for me and see."
"But if you didn't steal them, where did you get them?"
"Bought them, of course. Where else would I get them?"
"Bought? You bought all of this?"
"What else?"
"This must cost several hundred million! Where did you get so many Immortal Stones?"
"After you all left, I got bored by myself, so I went to the Gambling City and played a few rounds of dice. Turns out my luck wasn't bad—won a little pocket change."
"You went to the Gambling City to play dice too? And you won?"
"What's wrong?" Gu Qingfeng asked. "Don't tell me you went too? I didn't see you."
"I didn't go!" As she spoke, Qiānniǎo suddenly seemed to realize something. Her eyes widened as she stared at Gu Qingfeng, her mouth agape. "Don't tell me… don't tell me the one who won one billion eight hundred million in a single dice game… is… is you?"
"Oh, you know about that? Pretty well-informed."
"Heavens!" Qiānniǎo immediately felt dizzy, the sky spinning and the earth turning.
She wasn't the only one. Xuan Yun, Qiānlíng, Liu Li, and the others had never imagined that the one who, in the Gambling City, drank four hundred pots of Bitao wine, scattered tens of millions in wealth, and won one billion eight hundred million in a single throw… would be… would be the Little Drunkard from their own secret realm!
This was utterly insane!
And utterly thrilling.
So much so that even Xuan Yun, Liu Li, and even the normally aloof Qiānlíng felt a sense of unreality.
"Come on, let's head into the garden. I'm treating everyone to drinks."
Gu Qingfeng hopped down from the Grand Carriage and was just about to enter the garden when a stern shout came from behind.
"Halt!"
The one who shouted was none other than Jin Lie of the Jinwu Li Family. He had been wondering just who the esteemed figure inside the Grand Carriage might be, but never in a thousand years had he expected it to be the very person who had caused his family's Li Fengyan to lose tens of millions in the Gambling City.
"You're the one who won one billion eight hundred million in a single dice game in the Gambling City?" Jin Lie narrowed his eyes, glaring intently at Gu Qingfeng.
"What of it?"
Horse King stepped forward and reminded him, "Great Old Master, these are all people from the Jinwu Li Family."
"Which Jinwu Li Family?"
"Great Old Master, Li Fengyan. Don't you remember?"
Hearing the name Li Fengyan, Gu Qingfeng finally recalled. He asked, "So, what business do you all have with me?"
Li Jingya shouted defiantly, "Give us back our money!"
"Do I owe you money?"
"If it weren't for my younger brother Fengyan, how could a backwoods little immortal like you have won one billion eight hundred million?"
"I've lived for most of my life, and only today have I finally tasted what living is all about." Gu Qingfeng laughed. "It's true, live long enough and you'll see all sorts of rare sights. Can this really be connected? By your logic, if there were no Gambling City, I wouldn't have won one billion eight hundred million. If there were no dice, I wouldn't have won one billion eight hundred million. If little Qiānniǎo hadn't brought me here, I wouldn't have won one billion eight hundred million. So, by winning one billion eight hundred million, I owe what… over ten trillion?"
Li Jingya was about to retort when Jin Lie beside her stopped her.
"Youngster, what you say is correct. Winner takes all, loser accepts defeat—that's the eternal principle. This old man stopped you not for the sake of the wager."
"Go on, what is it?"
"Just now, you charged at this old man with this nine-headed Firecloud Crimsonflame Tiger Grand Carriage. How do we settle that?"
"Charged is charged. How do you want to settle it? Lay out your terms. Are you trying to extort me or swindle money out of me? How much for the extortion, how much for the swindle? Tell me, let your lord hear it. Don't hold back, don't worry I'm broke."