Chapter 120 Killing the Grand Duke (Part 8) Let's have a game at the Monster Gambling House...

Song Qiling moved to the table and poured herself a glass of cold tea.

After drinking the tea, the burning sensation in her throat eased slightly. Clutching the empty cup, she lowered her eyes, looking at the few tea leaves at the bottom, her thoughts drifting away.

The sun was shining brightly outside the window, and the white light shone into the room through the window paper. She rubbed her throbbing temples, and no matter how groggy her mind was, she dared not sleep.

The explosion was so real that it still makes me uneasy.

She stood up, supporting herself on the table, and glanced around the room.

The porcelain vases on the wooden shelf, the teacups on the table, and even the ceramic basin on the windowsill were still standing perfectly intact, just as they had been before bedtime.

No equipment was broken.

But the unease still lingered in her heart, so she grabbed the coat draped over the back of the chair, slung it haphazardly over her shoulders, and pushed open the window.

A breeze carrying the dampness of grass and trees rushed in, and the open space behind the window instantly came into view.

The patch of land was about ten feet square, overgrown with weeds that were half a person tall. Recently, as the weather has warmed up, the weeds have sprouted like crazy, their leaves shining green, and their wildly growing stems intertwined, almost completely obscuring the soil on the ground.

Song Qiling narrowed her eyes and suddenly caught sight of a figure crouching in the haystack.

Hearing the noise, the man slowly turned his head. The wisps of hair on his forehead were brushed aside by the wind. The dark, unyielding ink in his eyes faded away the moment he met her gaze, leaving only clarity.

"Junior brother?" Song Qiling's breath hitched.

The man who had appeared in her dream just moments before was now vividly reflected in the sunlight.

She dug her fingertips into her palm, and a sharp pain shot through her, finally confirming that this was not a continuation of a dream.

The warmth of the dream still seemed to linger on her skin, and those tender images flashed through her mind, causing her ears to involuntarily burn.

She forced herself to remain calm, her gaze falling on his meticulously buttoned shirt, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tension: "What are you doing squatting here?"

Gu Lianzhou paused for a moment, then slowly opened his palm, revealing the dice underneath: "I just sensed a demonic aura lingering in front of Senior Brother's door, so I thought I'd come and take a look. I never imagined it was a die causing trouble."

She could see clearly that the edges of the dice were still covered with dirt and grass clippings, as if they had just been picked up from the grass.

But she clearly crushed that die earlier, so how could she...?

Looking at the intact dice in his junior brother's palm, Song Qiling's brow twitched.

The ghost lingers.

These four words suddenly popped into my mind.

"This thing is unclean, you should throw it away..." Before she could finish speaking, Song Qiling suddenly stopped and turned to look around.

Gu Lianzhou stood up, puzzled, and walked towards the window. "What happened?"

Song Qiling didn't reply, but her ears suddenly tensed up.

The faint "tap-tap" sound, like water droplets falling on a porcelain plate, drifted in from outside the courtyard wall. In an instant, the sound became clear, turning into the crisp clinking of dice rolling in a bone china bowl.

"Splash, splash..."

One sound followed another, one wave after another.

As it drew nearer, it sounded like countless hands shaking dice simultaneously, the cacophony penetrating the cracks in the door and reaching right to one's ears.

Song Qiling felt a ringing in her ears, as if she had suddenly been thrown into a noisy gambling den, surrounded by the crisp sound of dice clashing, the frenzied shouts of gamblers, and the loud voice of the dealer announcing the numbers.

"Open! Open! Open!"

"Big! Big! Big!"

"Hahaha, I've got them all!"

The various sounds mingled together, making one dizzy.

She looked up at Gu Lianzhou and saw that his brows were furrowed, clearly indicating that he had also heard the strange sound.

The clamor surged like a tidal wave, only to abruptly cease upon reaching its peak.

All sounds seemed to be instantly silenced by an invisible hand, and a deathly silence descended, even more suffocating than the previous noise.

Suddenly, a crystal-clear voice rang in Song Qiling's ears, as cold as the winter wind.

"It's your turn to place your bet."

The image suddenly distorted.

Gu Lianzhou's astonished expression was still frozen on his face, but the wooden window between the two of them had silently disappeared, replaced by a gambling table covered with dark red velvet.

The intense, almost overwhelming, fishy-sweet smell, mixed with the acrid odor of aged tobacco, suddenly filled Song Qiling's nostrils, making her almost gag.

But her hearing seized her before anything else.

The clatter of the dice shaking wildly in the porcelain bowl, the crisp sound of the chips colliding, and countless hoarse, excited shouts merged into a deafening wave of sound that almost lifted the roof off.

She instinctively gripped the edge of the table, but the touch from her fingertips was sticky and slippery. The dark red velvet seemed to be soaked in some kind of mixture of oil and sweat, carrying an unpleasant warmth.

Only then did she see her surroundings clearly.

Where was her quiet little courtyard anymore? It was clearly a noisy, bustling gambling den where the sun never shone.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the "gamblers" gathered around the table were of various shapes and sizes, yet none of them could be described as human.

Standing diagonally opposite the gambling table was a huge toad head, its dark green skin covered with pustules. With its excited breathing, murky mucus seeped from its skin and dripped onto the velvet cloth, making a soft "sizzling" sound.

It clumsily pushed the chips with its webbed paws, making muffled gurgling sounds in its throat, yet clearly proclaiming, "Small! This time it must be small!"

The gambler beside her had a pale fish head, with bulging eyeballs that almost popped out of their sockets. The moment it roared "Open!", a round eyeball actually "poof" fell out, only held together by a thin, flesh-colored ligament, dangling precariously beside its cheek.

It casually flicked its fin-like hand at the dangling eyeball, its gaze still fixed fervently on the dice cup in the dealer's hand.

Further away, a centipede draped in a brocade robe stood upright, its dozens of pairs of legs rustling and rubbing against the floor beneath the table.

It seemed to be in good luck, with a small mountain of chips piled up in front of it. It emitted a "crackling" laugh, like the grinding of broken bones, and urged in a strange, human-speaking tone: "Hurry! Open it!"

All sorts of monsters, dressed in human clothes but with hideous heads, are engrossed in a frenzied gambling game in this murky air.

Song Qiling stood frozen in place, feeling a chill rise from the soles of her feet and rush to the top of her head.

"The arrival of distinguished guests brings honor to our humble abode."

A thick, chubby finger adorned with a jade thumb ring emerged from the dense darkness and gently touched the red velvet cloth.

As soon as he finished speaking, the bustling noise in the gambling den was cut off as if by a sharp blade, and it instantly fell into dead silence.

Following the sound, Song Qiling saw that above the gambling table, the space rippled like water, and a person quietly appeared from behind the gambling table.

She was dressed in a dark purple satin robe with floral patterns. She was slightly plump, with a rosy face as if she had been rouged. Her slender eyes were narrowed into two curves, and the corners of her mouth were turned up to reveal a warm smile.

Looking at his upper body alone, he really does resemble a kind-faced, wealthy old man.

However, when her gaze moved downwards, she couldn't help but catch her breath.

From the waist down, the old man was a huge and ferocious spider body. His dark purple carapace was the same color as his clothes, and his eight long legs covered with bristles were deeply embedded in the ground, firmly supporting his fat upper body.

Song Qiling frowned and asked, "Are you the die?"

"That's just one of my many manifestations. Don't be fixated on appearances. You can call me... Elder Zhuang." The man smiled slightly, and with a flick of his free hand on the table, a set of bone-white dice cups and three dice appeared on the table.

"Since you've taken my dice, you're destined to be with me." Before he finished speaking, he casually waved his hand, which was adorned with a thumb ring.

Like an emperor dismissing his servants, none of the strange and monstrous gamblers who had been crowding around the gambling table dared to hesitate for a moment. They all dragged their various bodies and retreated silently to several feet away like a tide.

Old Zhuang looked up at Song Qiling, then glanced at Gu Lianzhou beside him, his smile deepening: "Young friend, why don't you sit down and play a game?"

Before the two could refuse, he seemed to have been prepared, and gently pushed the dice cup in front of them, saying, "This bet of mine is not about money or land."

“You all possess something more precious, perhaps an unfulfilled wish, a valuable memory, or even… a chance to save your life.”

Having said that, he tapped his knuckles lightly on the table, his gaze slowly sweeping over the two men's faces, his voice lowering even further: "Don't worry, I, Old Zhuang, never do a losing deal. If you win, I might be able to give you the answers you're looking for and what you're seeking. If you lose... it's just a matter of mutual consent, exchanging what you value for what you want. So, do you two dare to bet?"

"No gambling," Song Qiling refused without hesitation. "Let us out!"

She saw it clearly from the start; the bet was nothing more than a trap to lure her in.

The smile on Old Zhuang's face did not fade. Instead, he slowly straightened up and pointed his fingertip at the dice cup again.

At the same time, several spider legs rose up from all sides like a cage, trapping the two people in front of the table.

The bone-white cup trembled slightly, and the three dice began to spin on their own inside, making a soft, clattering sound.

"What's the rush?" His voice held a hint of nonchalance, yet carried an invisible pressure. "Do you think that once you're in my gambling den, the decision of whether or not to gamble is something you can make up?"

As soon as the words fell, several spider legs that were wrapped around the gambling table suddenly retracted, and a dark purple light shone from the tips of the legs, instantly weaving into an invisible cage that firmly imprisoned Song Qiling and Gu Lianzhou in their seats, unable to move an inch.

"For the first round, let's make something simple." Old Zhuang, seemingly oblivious to the anger in their eyes, tapped the bone-white dice cup with his jade thumb ring. "Let's bet..."

"You old fool, I said I don't gamble, are you deaf!" Song Qiling made a hand seal and chanted an incantation, condensing a point of purple lightning at his fingertips, and then threw it at the long spider legs.

With a crackling sound, amidst the swirling smoke, the dark carapace faintly turned red, indicating it was half-cooked.

Old Zhuang: "..."

He was stunned for a moment, then his whole body trembled as if he felt no pain, and he decisively and ruthlessly removed the spider's leg.

"...Such a fiery temper." The new spider leg grew rapidly at a visible speed, and in just a few breaths, a brand new spider leg emerged from the original gap.

“Then for the first round, I’ll bet on you,” he said slowly, “on your most frustrating memory, how about it?”

Song Qiling's pupils suddenly contracted.

What's your most frustrating memory?

Wasn't that the nightmare from midday...?

That secret that even he himself didn't want to look at was being laid bare in front of everyone.

Her gaze involuntarily swept over Gu Lianzhou, and her heart clenched suddenly.

I absolutely mustn't let my junior brother see this...

A belated sense of shame surged over her like a tidal wave. She felt her throat tighten, and the fear and embarrassment of having her secret exposed churned in her chest, burning her ears and making it difficult to breathe.

She was absolutely certain at that moment.

This was the monster's deliberate revenge against her.

She desperately wanted to tear that smiling mouth apart, but she couldn't move and could only let the embarrassment of being exposed spread through her limbs.

Before she could react, Elder Zhuang turned his gaze to Gu Lianzhou, a playful smile playing on his lips: "As for you, little one... I bet you the truth about why your master took you as his disciple when you were seven years old. It's a story you can't even remember yourself."

A crack finally appeared on Gu Lianzhou's cold and stern face.

"Damn it!" Song Qiling tried to struggle, but found that even her voice was suppressed by that invisible force, and she could only make a muffled sound in her throat.

She could only watch helplessly as the bone-white dice cup flew up on its own, the three dice inside spinning wildly with a teeth-grinding sound.

"The rules are simple." Old Zhuang watched the two struggling figures with a leisurely air, as if admiring insects caught in a spider's web. "Guess high or low. If you win, you can ask me one question, and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. If you're unlucky and lose..."

He smiled and said, "Then leave the bet I just mentioned. It's fair, isn't it?"

The dice cup traced a smooth arc in the air before slamming heavily onto the center of the gambling table!

"Splash splash splash—"

The sound of the dice clattering inside the cup now sounded like a death knell.

"Choose." Old Zhuang leaned forward slightly, looking at Song Qiling, his voice as cold as a demon from hell, "Big, or small?"