Chapter 79: The Gambler's Song

When the strong remain silent, the weak are bound to follow suit.

After silencing the still-living Dongfang Lian and the onlookers, I picked up the fan that Ping Jun had dropped on the ground.

When I unfolded it, I saw that the white fan was stained with blood in several places.

I slowly waved the fan and looked around.

I said to everyone present,

"You miserable bastards."

Somehow, the words I uttered echoed around the arena and pierced my own heart.

"I was miserable too."

I suddenly looked at Dongfang Lian, who was trying to stop the bleeding from his left arm, having been hit by my attack a moment ago.

I cleared my throat and began to recite the first line of a song that all the gamblers here knew, in a monotonous tone.

"I spent thirty years in the gambling den."

"......"

This song, which Ping Jun often sang, and which gamblers, those who had run out of money, debtors, onlookers, and everyone who worked nearby often sang, flowed out of my mouth.

"I held the cards with black hair and laid them down with white hair."

The gamblers in the audience sang the next line in response.

"I offered up the hard-earned money I had made."

I nodded and repeated the line.

"I offered up the hard-earned money I had made."

I pointed at one person after another with the fan and continued the song.

"Was it only my money?"

The gamblers chimed in.

"There's no way."

"How could you have so easily squandered your friends' and relatives' money? When you finally returned home, no one welcomed you. You took out the money you had hidden in the closet and headed back to the gambling den. Everyone in the neighborhood looked at you with disdain."

The gamblers sang the last line in unison.

"Everyone you met looked at you with disdain."

Holding the fan, I stood still and continued the song.

"If I don't show up again, tell them I died gambling. The cards are already dancing before my eyes before I even arrive."

I made eye contact with the still-living lackeys of the Narakai and repeated the chorus.

"Today, my luck will be good. Today, my luck will be good."

The gamblers followed my lead.

"Today, my luck will be good. Today, my luck will be good."

After the song ended, I spoke to the gamblers in my normal voice.

"But today, my luck won't be good."

"......"

"From today, this place will be closed. You miserable bastards, go home now. Business is over."

I shouted at the audience and the Narakai lackeys who were watching me in silence.

"Get lost, you bastards!"

Suddenly, I ran to one of the Narakai martial artists, hit him on the head, and kicked him in the ass.

"Get lost, you bastard. Didn't you hear that the place is closed? You miserable bastards."

As I beat up two or three of them and cursed, the addicts finally scattered.

"You bastards, if you have a home, go home. If you don't, beg for food. I'll cut off the fingers of the last one to leave."

I ran to the stragglers and kicked them in the ass again.

Thud!

The one who rolled on the ground got up and ran, and the remaining Narakai members disbanded.

I waved the fan and looked around. There were almost no one left. They must be the gambling den staff who couldn't leave because of the valuables they had stored here.

I looked at the gambling king, Ouyang Bo, who was sitting alone in the audience.

"Looks like you're done for, huh?"

Ouyang Bo glared at me without saying a word.

"Did you think that if all your subordinates attacked me, I would lose? Did I say it was a rigged game, or didn't I? Dongfang Lian, what do you think? Doesn't it feel different to fight me after beating up the weaklings who were weakened by aphrodisiacs?"

Ouyang Bo, sitting in the audience, spoke.

"Hey, young man. Before coming here, I sent a letter directly to the Nanminghui (South Bright Society)."

"Oh, the Nanminghui."

"I said that it would be difficult to pay tribute in the future because of the interference. It's a simple letter, but the Nanminghui will investigate what happened because of the large amount of money I've given them over the years."

I nodded.

"That's right."

"If you thought that by making a mess here, all the money would flow to you, you're mistaken. The world isn't that simple. No matter how wildly you act, you'll eventually be stopped by the underworld. That's why I was content with just this gambling den."

Ouyang Bo put a pipe in his mouth and puffed out gray smoke.

"You don't know the ways of the world."

I hit the fan on my palm, folded it, and threw it at Dongfang Lian.

Swoosh!

Just as Dongfang Lian, who had just finished stopping the bleeding, blocked the fan with his crossed swords, I drew a knife and flames from Heimiao and slashed forward.

The flaming blade cut diagonally through Dongfang Lian's upper body and extended outward.

Thud!

Three Narakai officers, who had been standing there with some confidence, scattered to the north, east, and south to escape.

What confidence had they had to stay until now? They probably believed in Ouyang Bo, who hadn't moved from the audience.

I put Heimiao away, picked up Dongfang Lian's twin swords, and threw them to the east, then to the south.

The two swords pierced through the bodies of the fleeing men and stuck in the wall.

The one who fled to the north leaped into the audience and said to Ouyang Bo,

"Boss, let's go!"

Ouyang Bo, who suddenly stood up, grabbed the officer who advised him to flee and slammed his head into the chair.

Thud! Thud! Thud! After three hits, the officer's body collapsed under the chair.

Ouyang Bo, kicking his already dead subordinate, raised his voice.

"Who said to run?"

I lightly jumped into the air and was behind him when he shouted.

Ouyang Bo, who was beating the corpse, slowed down as soon as he realized I was behind him.

Ouyang Bo turned around and said,

"Zixia Kezhan, right?"

As he asked, Ouyang Bo's twin palms came at me. I didn't deflect his palm force but extended my hands to meet it.

Ouyang Bo's palm force, which he had practiced for quite some time, pushed into my palm.

While competing with his palm force, I called him as I used to.

"Uncle Ouyang, I thought you were a kind person. I didn't know that a gambling den needs a kind owner to do well."

Ouyang Bo, who was still emitting palm force, widened his eyes and looked at me with a puzzled expression. It's natural that he couldn't understand why a stranger was calling him as if he knew him.

"Who are you?"

But I had no intention of resolving the doubts of a man who was about to die.

"Bar attendant."

Ouyang Bo would understand that I was the bar attendant who had been here.

I burned Ouyang Bo's palm force with the fire of the Yan technique and then switched to the Absorption Technique to extract his inner energy from his dantian. Ouyang Bo's agonizing screams filled the arena.

As soon as I saw Ouyang Bo's face turn lifeless, I quickly withdrew my hand.

Ouyang Bo, who collapsed to the ground, looked up at me with a tired expression, as if he was about to die.

"The Nanminghui..."

"The Nanminghui and all that, I'll take care of it. Our kind Uncle Ouyang, do you have any last words?"

Ouyang Bo, facing death, suddenly asked me like a madman.

"Is there no Kai Ping?"

"No. You bastard."

I lifted my right foot and stomped on Ouyang Bo's throat.

Thud!

"Kai Ping, bullshit."

I looked at the empty audience and announced the result of today's match.

"Listen up. The victory goes to the owner of Zixia Kezhan."

I walked past the audience, clapping alone, and pulled out a torch to set fire to the pile of paper the men had left behind. It was a pile of paper with the names and amounts of the gamblers written on it.

Whoosh!

I looked around and threw the torch into a place where the fire would spread easily, then pulled out another torch and set fire to Ouyang Bo's corpse. The burning clothes wrapped around Ouyang Bo's body.

I, the man who set fire wherever I went, was me.

As I threw the torch and walked around, flames quickly spread throughout the arena. Since the audience was made of wood, it soon turned into a giant furnace.

I walked through the roaring flames and sang the gambler's song alone.

I spent thirty years in the gambling den.

I held the cards with black hair and laid them down with white hair.

I offered up the hard-earned money I had made.

Was it only my money?

How could you have so easily squandered your friends' and relatives' money?

When you finally returned home, no one welcomed you.

You took out the money you had hidden in the closet and headed back to the gambling den.

Everyone you met looked at you with disdain.

If I don't show up again, tell them I died gambling.

The cards are already dancing before my eyes before I even arrive.

Today, my luck will be good.

Today, my luck will be good.

After burning down the gambling den, singing the song, and feeling satisfied, I let out a long laugh.

Excited, I leaped into the arena, burned the bodies, and spread the flames as if I were urinating in a dream.

I drew Heimiao and danced with the flames. I wrapped the Threefold Flame around Heimiao and sprayed it, making the flames even more intense. As the flames devoured the fire, the area burned like the arrival of the Immovable King.

I stared at the flames, lost in thought for a moment.

If this powerful, beautiful, and merciless fire were mine, how wonderful it would be.

I lay on the still warm ground where the flames had not yet reached and looked up at the night sky.

"I want to sweep the stars from the night sky and rain fire on the heads of the guards chasing me. A man who silences the sound of horses wherever he goes, who stands above those who split mountains with swords, and who slaps the faces of the so-called Three Disasters. That man is me. Not yet, though. Ah, it's hot."

When I suddenly got up, the surroundings were a sea of fire.

"......"

A man who returns and dies in a fire is not me.

I drew Heimiao vertically and released a gust of wind forward.

Swoosh!

The flames split to the left and right and then slowly crept back. I swung the sword in place and, after a while, infused it with the power of the Rooster and released the long-unused Yidao Liangduan (One Cut, Two Slices) forward.

The flames split into two and scattered, and the audience beyond them split in half, creating a path made by the sword cut.

I cut the fire hell created by the gamblers burning their own bodies in half with my sword and escaped.

I looked at the burned arena and the chaotic village of gamblers.

"What a beautiful night."

People were making a fuss and someone was shouting.

"Fire!"

I replied in a monotonous tone.

"Fireworks."

"Fire!"

"Fireworks. Huh?"

I suddenly remembered something and used my lightness technique to run to the Phoenix VIP room and shouted.

"Miss Bai! Miss Hei! Are you there?"

I chuckled and looked around. People were shouting "Fire!" everywhere, so the women marked with acupuncture points must be feeling like they were in hell. I heard a mumble from inside the Phoenix VIP room.

I pushed aside the curtain and entered, asking the bedding.

"Are you there? Not there? Not there, I see."

"Y...Y...Y...es..."

A desperate scream came from the bed, where the acupuncture points were still not fully released. I danced over to the bedding.

"When the evening glow fades and the moonlight flows... Are you there?"

I lifted the foot of the bed and looked down at Bai Xiao and Hei Xiaoling. They had been crying for a long time, and their eyes were bloodshot as they looked at me.

"......!"

Someone outside the tent shouted and moved.

"Fire!"

I glared at Bai Xiao and Hei Xiaoling with a hard expression and said in a low voice.

"......Fireworks."

Immediately, Bai Xiao and Hei Xiaoling rolled their eyes and fainted simultaneously.