"Where are those little brats?"
Fei Kui was naturally short, fat, and unimpressive-looking. The custom-tailored robe he wore before could just about pass muster, but now, dressed in a loose green robe with his swollen cheeks, his appearance looked rather comical. He lifted his head and scanned the main hall of the gambling house, then pointed at the most lively table not far away.
That was a group of young people, or at least they appeared to be. Each was dressed in fine clothes, either wearing purple silk treasure robes or holding white-gold jade fans, with violet-green jade pendants hanging from their waists. This was the standard three-piece set for wealthy young masters: treasure robes for protection, jade fans for adornment, and jade pendants as exquisite storage treasures. Bracelets on their wrists and rings on their fingers were all luxury items without exception.
There were more than ten of these young masters. Three were sitting at the gambling table, while the rest stood nearby, watching and laughing.
According to Fei Kui, they were all members of the Wolf Fang Gang. The Wolf Fang Gang wasn't an ordinary gang in the usual sense; its members were almost all wealthy young masters from the surrounding regions, either scions of great families or inner disciples of major sects. They usually gathered together to eat, drink, and have fun, living a life of pleasure and indulgence.
The young man currently sitting at the gambling table, who looked dashing and elegant, was an inner disciple of the Spirit Capital Sect named Bai Yuanrui, known as Young Master Bai. He himself was a tri-color prodigy, having opened three colors, though they were only ordinary colors. Yet, no one dared to look down on him, not even those tri-golden-color prodigies within the Spirit Capital Sect.
Because his father and his uncle were both important figures in the Spirit Capital Sect, and his grandfather was even a council elder of the sect.
Beside Bai Yuanrui sat another dashing young man. At the moment, while gambling lavishly, he had a delicate beauty sitting on his lap.
His name was Jin Jun. He wasn't a color prodigy but was a well-known second-generation scion in the Liujin Region, born into the region's top great family, the Illusory Sea Jin Clan. The clan was filled with experts, and the highly respected Great Qian Zhenren was an elder of the Jin family.
In this world, not many truly enjoyed cultivation, as it was an extremely tedious affair. Whether absorbing spiritual energy, refining magical treasures, or arduously practicing Immortal Arts, it was all incredibly dull.
Compared to cultivation, many preferred pleasure, especially some young masters from privileged backgrounds. They lacked neither Spirit Stones nor the need to risk their lives striving. As for cultivation level?
In this era, with the assistance of Formations and elixirs, there was no need for arduous training. As long as one had enough money, reaching the Golden Core stage was just a matter of time, and living for several hundred years wasn't difficult either.
As for strength?
They didn't consider that question at all. Relying on the prestige of their family elders, ordinary people wouldn't dare to touch them.
In this world, there were many such people, a great many.
Gu Qingfeng walked over but did not take action.
He might have free time, but he wasn't so idle as to directly teach a few little rabbits a lesson.
Moreover, there were many ways to teach someone a lesson; using force was just one of the most direct, violent methods.
Besides using force, there were many other ways to teach a lesson, such as gambling.
Gu Qingfeng stood to the side, watching these second-generation scions sitting at the gambling table with great interest.
He could tell that the game these people were playing was called Taiji Transformation, also known as Gambling Heaven and Earth, or referred to as Profound Mystery Transformation.
This game was passed down from ancient times. No one knew exactly who created it. Gu Qingfeng only knew that this game was very popular, not just in this world, but even in the Three Thousand Great Worlds and the Heavenly Realm.
Because this game was fundamentally based on the basic Profound Mystery Laws.
What were the basic Profound Mystery Laws?
They meant: One Origin, Two Polarities, Three Talents, Four Symbols, Five Phases, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Eight Trigrams, Nine Palaces...
It was no exaggeration to say that any Immortal Art in the world, whether martial arts or spells, even great divine abilities, were all derived from various Spiritual Arts. And various Spiritual Arts were derived on the basis of Profound Mystery Laws.
If Immortal Arts were compared to a sentence, then Spiritual Arts were the words that composed the language, and Profound Mystery Laws were the strokes that composed the words.
There were only so many strokes, which could form various different words, and different words could combine into different sentences.
Similarly, the basic Profound Mystery Laws were nothing more than One Origin giving birth to Two Polarities, Two Polarities giving birth to Four Symbols.
Different derivations could form various Spiritual Arts, and various Spiritual Arts combined together formed different Immortal Arts, such as martial arts, spells, Formations, and so on.
This kind of Taiji Transformation gameplay was a Profound Mystery Immortal Art created on the basis of Profound Mystery Laws. It was not fundamentally different from martial arts or spells. The difference was that martial arts were used for fighting, while this Profound Mystery was used for play, just like the difference between musical arts and Formations. Formations could change in myriad ways, and musical arts could cause spiritual resonance.
At this moment, Bai Yuanrui, Jin Jun, and the others were playing with great enthusiasm. The two seemed to have won quite a bit, as both Bai Yuanrui and Jin Jun wore satisfied smiles on their faces, especially Jin Jun, who had just finished a round and was now passionately kissing the little beauty in his arms.
Another round began anew.
The Taiji Array on the gambling table started operating again. To play Taiji Transformation, the Taiji Array was essential. Once the Formation operated, it would reassign array positions to the gamblers within the Formation: One Origin position, Two Polarities position, Three Talents position, Nine Palaces position, and so on...
The array position was very important because it concerned one's luck for that round.
After the array positions were assigned, the array eye would randomly present the Central Profound Mystery.
Such as One Origin Profound Mystery, Two Polarities Profound Mystery, etc...
After the Central Profound Mystery was presented, the array eye would begin to derive the Profound Mystery Manifestation. Whatever the Central Profound Mystery was, it would derive that corresponding Profound Mystery.
Those located at the array positions needed to form hand seals and condense the Profound Mystery that the Profound Mystery Manifestation would derive before it actually manifested. Whoever condensed the most layers within the Profound Mystery Manifestation would naturally be the king.
This gameplay relied three parts on fortune, three parts on deduction, three parts on technique, and one part on comprehension.
The three parts of fortune referred to the Profound Mystery array position.
If the Central Profound Mystery presented by the array eye matched the array position you were in, you naturally occupied favorable timing and terrain. If the presented Central Profound Mystery was Two Polarities Profound Mystery, and the derived Profound Mystery Manifestation would inevitably be a Two Polarities manifestation, then the person at the Two Polarities array position possessed uniquely advantageous innate conditions. The next best position would be the One Origin position, since One Origin gives birth to Two Polarities. If you were at the Two Polarities or One Origin position, it was a favorable situation. If you were at the Three Talents, Four Symbols, or Five Phases positions, it was an unfavorable situation.
According to Profound Mystery Laws, One Origin was the beginning, then giving birth to Two Polarities, deriving Three Talents, transforming into Four Symbols...
This was favorable. Deduction of the Profound Mystery would also be relatively favorable. If the Profound Mystery Manifestation was a Two Polarities manifestation, and you were at the Five Phases position, you would have to deduce unfavorable, which was relatively more difficult. If you were at the Nine Palaces position, the difficulty was even greater, and the chance of losing was naturally higher.
At the gambling table, Bai Yuanrui and Jin Jun seemed to have good luck, each time finding themselves in favorable situations. Moreover, both appeared to be old hands at this, quite highly proficient at deducing the Profound Mystery. In just this short while, Bai Yuanrui had won over a hundred thousand Spirit Stones, and Jin Jun had also won tens of thousands. Most of the other gamblers at the table had lost more than they won, with one Elder losing ninety thousand over three rounds.
Perhaps having lost his entire family wealth, the Elder couldn't quite accept it, his expression becoming somewhat dazed.
"Old Man Xu, if you can't afford to play, then don't play."
Bai Yuanrui played with the chips in his hand, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth as he looked at the Elder disdainfully. "If you've lost everything, vacate the seat for me."
"Old Man Xu, what?
Didn't you hear Young Master Bai's words?"
Beside him, Jin Jun, holding the beauty in his arms and sipping wine, didn't even glance at the Elder. He snorted coldly and said, "I'll count to three...
If you don't scram...
Heh, you know the consequences."
"You..." The Elder pointed at the two, wanting to curse them but not daring to, and could only sigh and stand up to leave.
"The seat is empty. Who wants to play?"
Bai Yuanrui snapped his fingers, and a maid beside him immediately poured him a cup of fine wine.
The onlookers glanced at each other, none daring to step forward, because the stakes were too high for ordinary people to afford. Just then, a man walked over and sat down in the vacated seat, smiling, "Come on, this master will play a couple of rounds with you."