Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1215 592: Thousand Tael House (Part 4)

An expansive courtyard, a row of bungalows, at a cursory glance, there are about a dozen rooms.

From about a hundred meters away from the courtyard, Li Banfeng could already hear the noise inside the house.

"Is this the gambling house?"

Dou Jiyan nodded and said, "It looks simple on the outside, but quite exquisite inside."

In front of the gambling house, people were coming and going continuously, which puzzled Li Banfeng: "What's the difference between coming here to gamble and setting up a private gambling game?"

Dou Jiyan said, "The chips are small here, and there's a rule that you won't lose more than one Ocean Dollar in a day, so they don't end up losing everything and still have some money left to survive."

"Do people come to the Thousand Tael House just to survive?"

Dou Jiyan nodded and said, "People love to gamble, and countless people want to get rich overnight by gambling into the Taoist Sect, but peddlers rarely sell gambling cultivation medicinal powder, so those who want to enter the gambling sect have to find another way."

Li Banfeng remembered Shui Yongquan's words, the flesh and blood of gambling cultivators are living gold and silver: "The way you're talking about, is it eating the flesh of gambling cultivators?"

Dou Jiyan nodded, "Most people can't get a complete piece of flesh. A pound of a gambling cultivator's flesh is much more expensive than a pound of gold,

when they entered the Path Gateway, they might have only eaten a small piece and then began cultivation according to the rules of the gambling sect, becoming incomplete gambling cultivators."

Li Banfeng said, "Can incomplete gambling cultivators also improve their level and learn techniques?"

"They can, but they'll be limited at a certain point. Even so, countless people enter through this method."

Li Banfeng frowned, "Is gambling cultivation really that enticing?"

"It indeed is, let's go in and take a look!" Dou Jiyan led Li Banfeng into the gambling house.

The gambling house was originally very noisy, which caused Li Banfeng to experience bouts of tinnitus. But once Dou Jiyan entered, many people saw her, and the gambling house gradually quieted down, everyone respectfully saluted her.

Dou Jiyan smiled and said, "You all carry on playing, don't mind me."

The crowd returned to their tables, no one called out, no one shouted, each playing their own game.

Inside, there were over a dozen tables, all playing Pai Jiu, and a woman tossed the dice, and everyone grabbed their cards, playing a small game of Pai Jiu, each person with just two cards.

Before revealing the cards, they placed their bets. Two people didn't even look, just discarded their cards.

Li Banfeng asked Dou Jiyan, "Is this blind guessing?"

Dou Jiyan shook her head and said, "This is a gamble cultivation technique. Just as a flower blooms when it's time, and closes tight when it's not time to bloom,

those two cultivators sensed the timing was off, so they simply didn't look at their cards to spare themselves the agony, they'd only lose the minimum bet, which is a small loss."

Li Banfeng still didn't understand, "But even if they looked at their cards and didn't bet, wouldn't they only lose the minimum bet?"

"It's not the same. Knowing it's not the right time to bloom yet moving the petals regardless breaks one's spirits and luck."

"Is there a connection between spirit and luck?"

"Of course there is. Gambling cultivators depend on luck to survive. When one's spirits are high, luck naturally follows. See that man at that table, his betting is strong, and his card handling steady. In the next dozen rounds, no one will be his match."

Dou Jiyan was referring to the table next to the window.

Li Banfeng watched from a distance for a while. Dou Jiyan was right; the man's momentum remained strong. He won several rounds in a row, but Li Banfeng also noticed something.

The man drew two eight-point cards, known in Pai Jiu as the Double Person Card, which is a very high hand.

By using this Double Person Card, the man won this round. While shuffling for the next round, Li Banfeng focused on those two human cards.

With Li Banfeng's eyesight, even though the cards were flipped over, he could see very clearly that the two human cards were taken by two women.

But when the cards were shown, the man again revealed a Double Person Card.

Was this man cheating?

Strangely, those two women didn't have any human cards when they revealed theirs.

Were those two women accomplices?

Dou Jiyan explained, "The stakes here aren't worth cheating for. A gambling cultivator cheating would lose their cultivation level. What this man uses is a gambling cultivation technique, Shifting Flower and Wood, replacing the cards with indescribable power."

"How is this different from cheating?"

"The difference is he didn't break the gambling rules. He didn't deliberately set the cards while shuffling, didn't tamper when throwing the dice, didn't swap cards after drawing but used techniques to keep a pair of human cards on him. As long as it's true skill, it can't be considered cheating."

That makes sense indeed. Cultivation level is unseen; in outside gambling houses, what he did indeed can't be considered cheating.

The man won a few more rounds, and the eyes of those around him were full of envy.

Dou Jiyan said, "This is called All Stars Surrounding the Moon. The more others praise them, the better luck gambling cultivators have, but this praise must be genuinely earned!"

The crowd was indeed envious, but after the man won, there wasn't much chatter in the gambling house.

The man wasn't very excited either, because the stakes were too small. From so many rounds, he only won a few dozen dollars.

Li Banfeng asked, "Is this person a complete gambling cultivator?"

Dou Jiyan shook her head, "Incomplete, and the level isn't high, but he's in good spirits today, winning a hundred dollars shouldn't be a problem,

If he were in an outside gambling game, betting against a group of White Lambs, earning a few hundred Ocean Dollars overnight wouldn't be difficult,

As long as someone is a gambling cultivator, they are sure to gain a huge advantage in the casino, but once a gambling cultivator earns some money and gains a reputation, they will be targeted for their flesh."