Above the Great Dao
Chapter 436 - 211: Being Cautious All One’s Life

Chapter 436: Chapter 211: Being Cautious All One’s Life

Many dealers in the gambling house looked human on the outside, but their souls were all manner of strange beings.

Chen Shi saw the next table’s dealer, who had the head of a chicken and the body of a human, dressed in turquoise with peony flowers of intermingling red and yellow embroidered on it. Behind the chicken-headed dealer, a rooster’s long feathers hung down, nearly dragging along the ground.

He walked toward another table where the dealer resembled a sky moth, with grey, hairy fan-shaped antennae on a small, fluffy head, wearing a grey-black Daoist robe with gold edges, embroidered with the pattern of the five poisons in red threads.

They had two pairs of white wings on their back, appearing human yet inhuman.

"Could the Chicken Demon lose control and be manipulated by instinct to eat the Sky Moth Demon?" Chen Shi suddenly had such a thought cross his mind.

There was also a dealer at another table with a serpent’s head and human body, wearing a festive robe adorned with large patterns.

The dealers in the gambling house were mostly like that.

The gamblers surrounding the tables seemed oblivious to the abnormal appearance of the dealers as they placed their bets in a heated atmosphere.

And threading through the crowd in Joy Forest, besides the gamblers, were scantily clad girls, wearing so little as if they could not afford clothes, with only silken fabric covering their modesty. Sometimes they too would place bets to liven up the atmosphere or they would watch others bet, yelling to help, as if to boost the gamblers’ luck.

When the gamblers won, some would throw them bits of silver, and some, overwhelmed by desire, would take the girls to small rooms in Joy Forest.

When they emerged, the girls would have money in hand to continue betting, even more fervently than the gamblers.

Some gamblers who lost would be taken away to have fingers or hands chopped off; Chen Shi saw many bettors with fingers missing from their hands, and some with completely bare wrists.

In the darker corners of Joy Forest, there were also those selling their wives, pushing the wife onto a guard, cheerfully taking the silver and entering the gambling house, shouting, "Wife, wait for me to win and come back to redeem you!"

In Joy Forest were also special small rooms, similar to pawnshops. If someone lost a bet and had no more money, they could mortgage houses, land, jewelry, and other valuables, and as a last resort, even bring their sons or daughters, as the pawnshops would accept them.

These things, there was always a way to sell them.

At night, desire here was magnified to the extreme, each person seemed a slave to desire, controlled and enslaved by it.

Chen Shi moved through the crowd with a tiny wooden Mechanician in his ear, only the size of an ant, but fully complete. It spoke to Chen Shi, "True King, have you noticed the person in purple over there?"

Chen Shi glanced over and indeed saw a person in purple in the corner.

"In every main hall, there is such a person in purple called a Qi Fortune Master."

The wooden Mechanician was actually Situ Wen. He had already rushed off to Gongzhou, but using the Mechanician and his spells, he could communicate with Chen Shi from hundreds of miles away.

The spells of the Lu Ban Sect were exceptionally unique. Situ Wen could control three hundred and sixty wooden Mechanicians at the same time, possessing three hundred and sixty distinct perspectives without any confusion. Therefore, he was the first person in Yudou to find Chen Shi.

"The Qi Fortune Masters are there to shave off the fortune of the gamblers. Some gamblers have particularly good luck, bathed in purple qi, they need to be cut down a peg to prevent them from winning too much money from the gambling house. Some gamblers enter the gambling house with spirits and gods, hoping to win money, and also need the Qi Fortune Masters to quietly expel or destroy the gods or spirits on them."

Situ Wen was clearly a regular here, reciting all this by rote, "There are also groups of gamblers who join forces, hoping to borrow each other’s luck to win big by cheating, but they will also be completely dismantled by the Qi Fortune Masters."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shi said, "With so many experts in the gambling house and such a comprehensive setup, how could the gamblers possibly win?"

Speaking through the wooden Mechanician, Situ Wen said, "It’s all about fooling fools, betting on fools. There are so many people in the world; there will always be those who believe gambling can change their fate... Du Shenshou is here!"

As Chen Shi was about to turn around, Situ Wen’s voice tensed, "Don’t look around. Right now, the whole of Yudou City is looking for you, you’ll be attacked if you show yourself! Move to the gambling table on the left and pretend to be placing a bet, glance to the right side, and you will see Du Shenshou and his eight Elite Guardians! Those eight guardians are all Nascent Soul Realm experts!"

Following the instruction, Chen Shi approached the table on the left, taking out a few taels of silver ready to bet, and glanced to the right. He indeed saw a carriage stopped outside the main hall of Joy Forest, pulled by two white rhinoceroses, with a carriage that was resplendently luxurious.

Eight sturdy men in black guarded the four sides of the carriage. One of them stepped forward to lift the curtain, and a dignified man came down from it.

The man was in his forties or fifties, wearing clothes that shone brilliantly with gold, actually woven from gold wire!

"This garment made of gold threads is a talismanic weapon, not only expensive but also extremely strong in defense, with many tiny talismans imprinted on each gold thread," Situ Wen whispered, "His clothes can withstand a hit from a Divinity Transformation Realm powerhouse! Du Shenshou himself is also extremely powerful, his cultivation strength is not weaker than mine, but he is also extremely cautious and afraid of death. Despite his high cultivation, he still has the eight Elite Guardians to protect him from stealth attacks and assassination. The strength of the Elite Guardians is not to be underestimated either."

Chen Shi just glimpsed this scene briefly before he averted his gaze. Those eight sturdy men in black were identical in appearance, taller than average, dwarfing ordinary people by more than a head, their bodies muscular and powerful, with well-defined muscles and not an ounce of extra fat.

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