Chapter 541: Casino Jin
Bai Yunfei read the nameplate of the building to reveal two words.
Casino Jin
It was a casino of all places?!
Jin….was most likely referring to the house of Jin, to which Jin Manlou was a member of. Zheng Kai had said earlier that Jin Manlou was probably here, so did that mean the casino was being overseen by him?
In Bai Yunfei’s mind, a casino was a place where commoners usually found fun in. Did Zheng Kai and the others really enjoy spending their time here?
But even while he was debating that question, Bai Yunfei saw something strange--the people that were walking into the building were all soul cultivators!!
Was this….was this place where soul cultivators gambled?!
Noticing the gobsmacked expression on Bai Yunfei’s face, Zheng Kai chuckled. “Brother Bai, this is the biggest casino in the Capital. As you can tell, the clientele here are all soul cultivators. Many of them enjoy themselves here.”
“Do soul cultivators really enjoy gambling for gold and valuables here?” Bai Yunfei asked.
“Gold and valuables? Haha, that’s not it, brother Bai. Who said anything about gambling for money or whatnot? Soul cultivators have another type of ‘currency’ they can use.”
Bai Yunfei quirked an eyebrow, “Primal stones?”
“Primal stones.” Zheng Kai confirmed. “We use stuff like that here. Primal stones are the most common choice, but stuff like soulgems, soul skills, soul armaments, and even precious materials and herbs….whatever a soul cultivator might need or use can be gambled away here.
“There’s no need to fight to the death for them, and neither do they need to spend time looking for it. All you need is a bit of luck and you can find yourself landing the jackpot of things needed for your training, so why not? That’s why so many soul cultivators visit this place.”
So it was that way….
As surprised as Bai Yunfei was about it, Zheng Kai’s words did make some measure of sense.
“But….do you gamble normally with stuff like dice or something?” Bai Yunfei asked. For people like soul cultivators, would gambling with stuff like dices to see which number was what make any sense at all? All they had to do was use their soulsense and they’d be able to tell right away.
Seeing where Bai Yunfei was getting, Zheng Kai shook his head. “There’s not much difference in the way gambling works in normal casinos, but the chances for ‘cheating’ is a lot harder….come on, I’ll show you.”
Bai Yunfei nodded and followed Zheng Kai up the stairs to enter the casino.
The two soul cultivators guarding the gates were clearly well acquainted with Zheng Kai, as they spoke out their greetings to him when they neared and allowed them entry. But they did, however, give the three soulbeasts with Bai Yunfei a strange look. It wasn’t that soulbeasts were a strange sight to see in the casino, but three of them following one soul cultivator was a first….
……
When they entered the casino, Bai Yunfei felt himself grow surprised.
It wasn’t that the casino had something special. It was just that it was….too ordinary.
Just from the looks alone, Bai Yunfei couldn’t see anything different to this casino than any other! He had seen his fair share of casinos before, and from what he could remember from the times he was in them, this one looked no different.
They were in a very spacious place with people as scattered as the stars in the skies. Tables for gambling were everywhere, and every so often, the people around them would either cry in happiness or in disappointment.
The only noticeable difference Bai Yunfei could note so far was the fact that rather than coins being traded, it was….primal stones.
Most of them were just low quality primal stones, though there were a few that took out other objects for the casino staff members to accept and convert into primal stones. Of course, if there was a previous agreement between the gambler and the casino, other things could be betted with.
If not for the strong aura coming from them that marked them as soul cultivators, Bai Yunfei would’ve thought that they were ordinary commoners instead.
And their aura were strong. They weren’t Soul Apprentices or even Soul Personages. Only a rare few Soul Warriors were here. Soul Sprites took the majority with a few Soul Ancestors, but there were also a good few Soul Exalts!
This….was a rare sight to see. Bai Yunfei was finding it hard to believe what he was seeing in front of him.
But the more he looked with his two eyes, the more he realized the difference in this place.
He had noticed that whenever there were soul cultivators, none of them were revealing their soulsense. Aside from the fluctuations in the air that marked their presence with soulforce, everyone had suppressed their soulsense so they couldn’t see with anything but their eyes.
“I get it now….” Bai Yunfei realized, the gamblers of this casino were forbidden from using their soulsense.
If no one could use their soulsense, then they would be able to gamble like normal people.
He also realized that some of the tables had items on them that seemed to hum and glow strangely. They were preventing the usage of soulsense!
When he first walked into the casino, completely ignorant of the ‘rules’ of the house, Bai Yunfei had sent out his soulsense at first, only to have plenty of people look strangely at him, prompting him to stop right away. If not for the fact that Zheng Kai was with him, the workers surely would’ve come up to him already.
……
“Haha, second brother!! You’re here!”
Not long after, a rather fatty person in golden robes came walking out to meet them. It was Jin Manlou.
As Bai Yunfei thought, Jin Manlou was actually here overseeing the place and even welcoming some people.
“Haha! Fourth brother, you’re here too!” Zheng Kai smiled, “I knew you’d be more than likely here, so I brought brother Bai here to come play a bit.”
It was then that Jin Manlou realized Bai Yunfei was there. Eyes sparkling, he boomed with laughter, “You’re here too, brother Bai? Welcome! Welcome! You’re a well-known person in the Capital now, you know?”
“Haha, it’s been a while, brother Jin.” Bai Yunfei smiled, “I’m nowhere as well known as you say I am, though.”
“Ah, the modesty of you, brother Bai. Who doesn’t know your name here in the Capital? Hehe, I feel quite honored to be one of people that knew you first!” Jin Manlou clapped his hands, “Tonight you can gamble as you want, brother Bai! It’ll be on me if you lose!”
“Er….” Bai Yunfei waved his hands, “Thank you for your kindness, brother Jin, but gambling isn’t something I’m interested in. I’ll be fine just watching.”
But Zheng Kai and Jin Manlou were already dragging Bai Yunfei over to a nearby table. “That won’t do, brother Bai, how can you not gamble when you come here? It’s a good time to relax. Besides, who cares if you win or lose? Gambling like commoners isn’t too bad of a thing, give it a try!”
Zheng Kai took out a few mid-grade primal stones and placed them onto the table, “I call Big!”
The casino usually used low-grade primal stones, but a single mid-grade primal stone could be converted to a hundred low-grade ones, which by itself wasn’t such a bad sum. The people here seemed to know Zheng Kai however, as several of them smiled and greeted him before placing a bet of their own.
“Do you not have any primal stones on you? I can have some people bring you some, brother Bai…”
“No no, that’s fine…..” Finding it slightly hard to refuse his kindness, Bai Yunfei still managed to bring out a mid-grade primal stone and placed it onto the table.
Zheng Kai and Jin Manlou were both surprised. Not at the fact that Bai Yunfei was betting, but rather what he was betting on. Rather than the usual ‘Big’ or ‘Small’ bets with the highest probabilities of winning, he had placed it on the Specific Triples number, the ‘All Five’ [1]....
“Ah, brother Jin, I heard from Zheng Kai say that you’re being ‘confined’? Are things not settled yet on why those people came after you?” Bai Yunfei asked. He wasn’t at all paying attention to the table as he spoke to Jin Manlou.
A bitter look crossed over Jin Manlou’s face, “Ugh! Actually, the three of us are being confined. Only second brother is able to go outside under the pretense of ‘helping’ you, brother Bai….Our houses haven’t found anything of worth yet, we don’t even know where they came from, who we might’ve angered, or who would even dare go against us four….”
He shook his head with a sigh, “Well let’s not talk about this….brother Bai, I heard you became an instructor at Tianhun Academy? Haha, you’re an amazing person!”
“Haha, it’s nothing really. I don’t even know if I’ll be a good instructor or not….”
The banker at the table unveiled the cup just then before calling out to the gamblers there, “All Fives! Leopard!!” [2]
[1] TL Note: The game being played is called Sic Bo. A game of chance where three dices are rolled and certain combinations can be betted upon. Big refers to when the three dices are added up to being 11 to 17, and Small being from 4 to 10. Big and Small have roughly 48.6% chance of winning. Any Triples, or Alls, can be betted on, but specific Alls have the smallest probability of winning at about .46% chance. See here for more info.
[2] TL Note: Leopard is actually a call from another gambling game, Cee-lo. It means an automatic win.