Seven stone-cutters were working in the black market. The woman seemed to know one of them well. With an easy familiarity, she called out, "Zhao Bin, help me cut these stones open. If the results are good, drinks are on me next time."
Zhao Bin gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Can you not call me by name in the black market?"
"You're part of the black market. What are you afraid of? Hurry up and cut them already," the woman urged, barely able to contain her excitement.
"Sigh… You've already lost fifty thousand spirit stones this month. Even if you're…" He paused, then added, "Even if your family's wealthy, at this rate, you'll burn through it all eventually."
Hearing this, Song Changsheng was startled. No wonder she's so generous with her spending, someone who can lose fifty thousand spirit stones in a month and still be eager to keep going? She had to be the daughter of some powerful clan.
As soon as Zhao Bin spoke, the woman's expression turned a little awkward. She had been bragging up a storm in front of Song Changsheng just moments ago, and this guy had just blown up her spot with a few words. Her pride wounded, she snapped in frustration, "Enough chatter, just cut! If this doesn't turn out well, I'm not letting you off easy!"
Zhao Bin raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, we'll do it your way. Not like I'm the one losing money."
He picked one of the stones at random, then pulled a black dagger from a box beside him.
With swift, practiced movements, the dagger sliced across the stone's surface, sending thin layers of gray dust falling to the ground. He was fast, but careful; each cut removed only a thin layer.
Very soon, the watermelon-sized stone was whittled down to the size of a fist. Zhao Bin's movements became even more cautious at that point.
This was the stone the woman had the most confidence in. It had cost her nearly a thousand lower-grade spirit stones, so her expectations were sky-high.
But Song Changsheng had already taken a peek with his Eye of Insight; it was just a rock, plain and simple. Not even a flicker of spiritual light inside.
Sure enough, by the time Zhao Bin was done, there wasn't even a hair inside.
The woman stumbled slightly and nearly lost her balance. "What kind of garbage is this? And it had the nerve to cost a thousand spirit stones?!"
Zhao Bin, clearly used to this, ignored her grumbling and picked up the next stone. Unfortunately, that one was also a dud.
Two misses in a row hit the woman hard. She looked deflated like an eggplant hit by frost.
Muttering under her breath, she said, "No way… That doesn't make sense. I spent ten thousand spirit stones on that stone-gambling manual. How could this happen?"
Song Changsheng suddenly had a realization. So she bought that "manual" from someone else? Looks like she got scammed pretty badly.
Luckily, the third stone finally yielded something: a bronze-colored bell. It looked old and worn, with several deep scratches across its surface.
With a single glance, Song Changsheng could tell it was a magical artifact from the ancient era. Based on its quality, it was equivalent to a current top-tier first-grade artifact worth about 300 spirit stones at most. A small loss, but not a disaster.
Still, it was enough to lift the woman's spirits. A glimmer of hope returned to her lively eyes.
As the saying goes, in gambling, nine out of ten lose. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
Under Zhao Bin's expert hands, the remaining stones were quickly cut open.
Out of the sixteen stones, only six had spiritual light. Of those, five were losses. The only decent find was the root of a third-grade low-tier spiritual plant that was still alive. That one was a small profit.
What amazed Song Changsheng most was that, despite originating from ancient battlefields and surviving countless years, the spiritual plant inside had managed to retain its vitality. It was truly strange and remarkable.
This gave him a bold idea: If living beings can be preserved inside these stones for so long, could it work for people too?
Just then, Zhao Bin's voice pulled him out of his daydream.
"Are you taking these with you, or selling them to the market?"
The woman waved her hand impatiently. "What do I want with this junk? Sell it all, I'm heading to the second floor."
"Three thousand lower-grade spirit stones," Zhao Bin reported without delay.
Song Changsheng secretly clicked his tongue. In less than an hour, over seven thousand spirit stones had evaporated, four thousand gone just like that. The word "gamble" really wasn't to be taken lightly.
And from the look of it, the woman had no plans of stopping.
She took the pouch Zhao Bin handed over and weighed it in her hand. "Three thousand is barely enough for one round upstairs."
She winked at Song Changsheng. "The first floor is just for rookies like you to have a bit of fun. The stones are cheap, and the stuff inside is equally low-grade.
"But the second floor? That's where the real treasures are. I got that Jade Linglong Pagoda there last time. The black market offered ten thousand for it, and I still didn't sell."
Song Changsheng raised an eyebrow. With her luck, managing to pull something worth ten thousand spirit stones must've been a miracle. He couldn't help asking, "And how many spirit stones did you spend to get it?"
As she heard the question, the woman's expression beneath her mask stiffened. Without saying another word, she turned and silently made her way upstairs.
Zhao Bin, standing nearby, couldn't help but chuckle. "Friend, you struck a nerve there. That Jade Linglong Pagoda? She got it after a spat with someone and blew more than 130,000 spirit stones on stones before finally getting that one."
"So even that was a net loss…" Song Changsheng was stunned for a moment. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A true gambling addict, through and through.
"Wonder if her luck will be any better today. Want to head up and take a look, friend?"
"I was thinking the same. After you, Daoist Zhao." Song Changsheng was also curious to see what the second floor had to offer.
The two ascended the stairs together. Upon reaching the second floor, they immediately noticed that there were far fewer stones than below. Still, even Song Changsheng, an amateur in this game, could tell that the quality of these stones was superior.
The prices were staggering. Even the cheapest ones were priced at over a thousand lower-grade spirit stones, and he even spotted some marked above ten thousand.
For a moment, Song Changsheng felt dazed. Are these spirit stones we're talking about, not cabbages?
If there were some guarantee of getting a treasure, the high prices might make sense. But here, there were no assurances at all; you could easily end up with nothing.
That said, to be fair, most of the stones on the second floor did show some signs of spiritual light. Only a few were empty.
The woman was much more cautious now. She circled the room for quite a while before finally selecting a stone about the size of a basketball.
Song Changsheng took a glance at the price tag and was stunned. Three thousand lower-grade spirit stones?
Just as she was about to have the stone cut, Song Changsheng hesitated for a moment, then spoke up, "That one over there might be a better pick."
The woman gave him a contemptuous look, but still explained patiently, "Stone gambling isn't about size. Trust my judgment, I know what I'm doing."
With that, she handed the stone off for cutting.
As expected, the result was exactly what Song Changsheng had predicted: the entire stone was ground into powder, and there was absolutely nothing inside. Three thousand spirit stones, gone in an instant. Even just watching made one's heart ache.
Staring at the pile of stone dust, the woman let out a long wail of despair.
To say her luck was terrible would be an understatement. Out of all the stones in that area, only two had no spiritual light, and she had somehow managed to pick one of them, using her "stone gambling manual," no less. In a twisted way, that was impressive.
Just as Song Changsheng and Zhao Bin were about to offer a few words of comfort, a particularly grating voice sounded from behind them.
"Well, if it isn't the lady who spent thirteen thousand spirit stones just to get a ten-thousand-spirit-stone treasure. Slipping backwards, aren't we?"
The woman, already in a foul mood, suddenly seemed to radiate cold fury beneath her mask.
They turned to see two figures in black robes standing by the staircase, one tall, one short. The one who'd spoken was the tall man, wearing a very distinct mask shaped like a blue-faced demon with fangs.
"Chen Menglong, what's your problem? You lost the last stone gamble, remember?" the woman shot back coldly, her beautiful eyes flashing with anger.
Song Changsheng found this odd. Weren't identities supposed to be hidden in the black market? How did these people seem to recognize each other so easily?
Before he could make sense of it, Chen Menglong sneered, "That time, I was just going easy on you. You took it seriously?"
The woman was so furious she laughed. Hands on her hips, she snapped, "What did you say? Fine, let's see if you dare to gamble again!"
Unfazed, Chen Menglong crossed his arms and raised his chin. "Why not? If I lose, I'll let you name one condition anything you want. But if I win… I want that Jade Linglong Pagoda in your possession."
"So that's what this is about, you're after the Pagoda. Fine, let's gamble. Who's afraid of whom?"
"Si Ying, calm down. He's baiting you." Zhao Bin quickly tried to dissuade her, seeing her acting on impulse.
But Chen Menglong interrupted arrogantly, "Zhao, you'd best stay out of this. You're the black market's dog now, act like it. No one asked for your opinion."
His blatant disrespect made Song Changsheng frown slightly.
Zhao Bin's eyes flickered with suppressed anger, but considering Chen Menglong's influential background, he forced himself to hold back and stepped aside in silence.
"Chen, whatever issues we have, keep others out of it. Tell me the terms, I'll accept whatever bet you name," the woman said, her voice laced with fury.
"Heh, it's simple. We each pick three stones in the next half-hour. After cutting, the black market will appraise the value of what we find. Whoever opens the higher total value wins."
"Fine! Let's do it!"
With that, the woman immediately began carefully selecting her stones.
Chen Menglong, on the other hand, didn't move. Instead, he gave a discreet signal to the shorter man beside him, who stepped forward to choose for him.
That only deepened Song Changsheng's suspicion that Chen Menglong had come prepared.
To be honest, Song Changsheng had only met this woman by chance. There was no need for him to get involved; he could've stayed on the sidelines and watched them fight it out, just like Zhao Bin, who, despite having some connection to her, was still keeping his distance.
However, Song Changsheng found himself somewhat fond of the young woman.
She was warm, sincere, and lacked the arrogance so often seen in the scions of powerful clans.
Aside from her tendency to gamble, her vanity, and her love of bragging, he hadn't noticed any real flaws.
So naturally, Song Changsheng was hoping she would come out on top.
The problem was, her awful luck made it hard to see any hope of victory. Unless she got absurdly lucky, she was bound to lose today.
After pondering for a moment, he moved to her side and spoke to her through a voice transmission:
"That Chen Menglong came prepared. Are you confident you can win?"
The woman glanced at him and replied irritably,
"So what if I'm not confident? The Chen clan and my family have always been at odds. Now he's come to my face to provoke me. Do you expect me to back down?
This has nothing to do with you. You'd best leave before you get dragged into this."
Song Changsheng smiled and said confidently,
"I may not know much about stone gambling, but I do have a unique pair of eyes. If you're willing to trust me, why not let me choose for you?"
Her eyes widened in surprise.
"You can…" she began, then quickly composed herself and replied via voice transmission,
"You can see through the stones?"
"Not entirely, but I can roughly judge the value of what's inside," Song Changsheng said calmly.
He wasn't exaggerating. He had been observing for a while and discovered that the stronger the spiritual glow of a stone, the more valuable the item inside tended to be, and vice versa.
It wasn't perfectly accurate, but it was certainly better than leaving things to blind chance.
"If you've got that kind of ability, why didn't you say so earlier? You just sat there watching me lose all those spirit stones!" she grumbled.
To his surprise, she didn't question whether he was telling the truth. Instead, she immediately started blaming him for not speaking up sooner.
"I did try to warn you twice. You just wouldn't listen," Song Changsheng replied with a wry smile.
"That's because you weren't being clear enough!" she retorted, sticking her chest out proudly, as if she were completely in the right.
"Fine, you pick this time. If we win, the treasures we get are all yours."
Song Changsheng raised an eyebrow, amused.
"That confident in me? Aren't you worried I might be an undercover agent working for the other side?"
"Oh, right!" she suddenly exclaimed, realizing for the first time that she barely knew him at all.
But she quickly smiled and said,
"You can't be. What kind of spy would be dumb enough to give his real name? But tell me why you are helping me? Aren't you worried about offending the Chen clan?"
"Once we leave this place, who'll know who I am? As for my reasons... I just don't like that guy's face. Since you trust me, I'll do my best to make sure you win."
With that, Song Changsheng smiled, activated his [Eye of True Sight], and began scanning the surrounding stones. Instantly, a dazzling array of colored lights flooded his vision.
Each color represented a different type of treasure.
Turning to her, he asked,
"What kind of treasure is the most valuable in this stone gambling game?"
"Spirit plants with intact root systems," she replied.
"These stones come from ancient battlefields and sometimes contain plant species that no longer exist in the outside world. If one of those is revealed, buyers will pay top dollar."
That clarified things for Song Changsheng. He began focusing on the stones that emitted green spiritual light; those were most likely to contain spirit plants.
After a careful comparison, he selected two stones with the richest green glow, and a third with only average brightness. The total cost came to 40,000 lower-grade spirit stones.
Looking at the fairly ordinary-looking stones in front of her, Siying didn't hesitate. She paid without blinking.
It wasn't that she fully trusted Song Changsheng; she had simply reached the point of What do I have to lose. She had no better option.
Before long, the agreed-upon time had passed.
Both sides brought their three chosen stones to the cutting table.
A sharp, competitive tension filled the air.
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