CLS-Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Silver coins.

Money made of silver.

Unlike gold coins, if one works diligently, obtaining them once isn’t particularly difficult.

That’s why no one is surprised to see silver coins.

Usually, that is.

But Gang Cheon-lip was now staring at silver coins in amazement.

In front of Wei Yan-ho, a tower of silver coins was stacked higher than his head.

“Isn’t that… going too far?”

Of course, when working a mark, it’s common sense to let them win some money moderately. To take a lot of money, it’s common sense to let them win a lot of money proportionally.

But even so, wasn’t that too much money?

With that many silver coins stacked up, how much would it be in gold?

Gang Cheon-lip, who had lived his entire life in gambling halls, couldn’t calculate for a moment and had to blink his eyes repeatedly—the amount of silver coins stacked in front of Wei Yan-ho was staggering.

“Master, I’ve finished laying out all the salt!”

As Jang-gu ran toward him, Gang Cheon-lip asked with a trembling voice.

“Jang-gu.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Now that I think about it, you sound more like a master than me.”

“Pardon?”

Gang Cheon-lip silently frowned.

That bastard—I’ve told him countless times to change his name, so why won’t he change it!

“Isn’t that letting him win a bit too excessively? That looks like it’s worth at least three gold coins?”

“Huh? I never gave instructions to work him?”

“What?”

Gang Cheon-lip’s eyes trembled violently.

“Didn’t you tell me to lay out the salt first, Master? I thought if I started working him before finishing with the salt, bad luck might interfere, so I didn’t say anything for now.”

“Bad luck interfering?”

“Yes. Since you said so…”

Gang Cheon-lip laughed helplessly.

“Right, you’re correct. Since we started working him before finishing laying out the salt, bad luck interfering is only natural.”

“Huh?”

“…Don’t you see that?”

Jang-gu’s mouth fell open as he looked where Gang Cheon-lip was pointing while tilting his head.

“Good… heavens.”

Gang Cheon-lip chuckled dryly, then gritted his teeth and muttered.

“Go… call Poison Rain! Hurry!”

“Yes, Master!”

Without looking back at Jang-gu running away hastily, Gang Cheon-lip glared at the back of Wei Yan-ho’s head.

“How dare you look down on Golden Flower Hall…”

It would have been a very unfair comment if Wei Yan-ho had heard it.

“My ears are itching.”

Wei Yan-ho scratched his ear with his finger and blew on it.

“I’m getting sleepy too.”

This chair was very comfortable.

If possible, he wanted to buy it with the silver coins in front of him—it was that comfortable.

Comfort is always a good thing.

Especially for a lazy person like Wei Yan-ho, comfort was like a life goal.

But the unfortunate thing was that this chair wasn’t just comfortable—it was too comfortable.

When comfort becomes excessive, one tends to get sleepy. Wei Yan-ho forcibly lifted his drooping eyelids.

“Yaaawn!”

After chasing away sleep with a big yawn, Wei Yan-ho looked with drowsy eyes at the container shaking violently in front of him.

The container in the dealer’s hands swirled chaotically through the air before finally settling on the ground.

Thunk!

With a somewhat sharp sound, the dealer slowly lifted his head while keeping his hand on the container.

“Place your bets!”

Behind Wei Yan-ho, other gamblers had already formed a crowd.

Since the gambling house had blocked other gamblers from participating after realizing the situation was becoming serious, they couldn’t place bets, but they were all watching the game with the sole intention of seeing a proper expert who had appeared after a long time.

“Hmm…”

“…Your bet?”

“All of it.”

Suddenly, exclamations burst out from here and there.

“Incredible!”

“Amazing.”

“All of it again!”

Those watching from behind all started shouting “Wow!” in unison.

And rightfully so—the silk-clad youth before them had been betting everything from the start. The stakes that began with one silver coin had gradually increased, and now nearly five hundred silver coins were stacked up.

“If he wins this time too, how much will it be?”

“A thousand coins!”

“A thousand coins! Heavens! A thousand coins! That’s ten gold coins!”

“The stakes are enormous.”

“I think this is the biggest game I’ve seen here?”

Cold sweat began trickling down the dealer’s forehead.

‘What the hell is this guy?’

Yin-Yang was a gambling game where there could be no tricks involved. Unlike dice, which might allow for skill, since it used very small iron balls to guess the count, it was difficult to manipulate artificially unless one knew exactly what was inside.

That’s why it was easy to win but also easy to lose.

The more rounds repeated, the probability of losing increased exponentially, and those who easily made money would easily move to the next round, eventually losing all their initial stakes and walking away empty-handed.

‘Nine straight rounds.’

But this silk-clad youth had been winning nine consecutive rounds as if possessed by a ghost.

If it were another gambling game, one might suspect cheating, but this Yin-Yang was absolutely impossible to cheat at.

‘Not this time.’

The dealer’s back was already soaked with sweat. If he lost this time too, ten gold coins’ worth of money would vanish in less than an hour.

The dealer reassured himself that this absolutely wouldn’t happen as he slowly lifted the container.

‘It has to be yang!’

Since that bastard bet everything on yin, if yang came out, he could recover all the losses up to now in a single moment. So…

‘Yang! It has to be yang! Yang!’

The dealer put strength into his hand gripping the container and lifted it vigorously. At the same time, his eyes quickly moved downward to start counting the iron balls.

‘One, two, three, four…’

But Wei Yan-ho’s mouth was faster than his eyes.

“Yin. Twenty-four pieces. It’s yin.”

A moment of silence flowed.

Everyone began counting the iron balls to confirm if Wei Yan-ho was right.

“Twenty-four is correct!”

“It’s yin! It’s yin!”

“A thousand coins!”

“Waaaaaaah!”

Cheers erupted. Usually, when others make a lot of money, people tend to be jealous, but when big gambling occurs in a gambling house, gamblers enjoy the gambling itself.

The sense of futility comes later, but right now they just enjoyed and shouted as if the winnings had become their own.

“A thousand coins!”

“A gambling god! A gambling god has appeared!”

“Hahahaha! To think I’d see such a match!”

The entire Golden Flower Hall was in an uproar.

“Waaaah! Young Master! You won! You won!”

Even Jin So-ah forgot the situation and danced about like mad.

Wei Yan-ho watched this scene and smiled slightly.

‘Let’s see you dare try this in front of me.’

Even before learning martial arts, Wei Yan-ho could distinguish who was entering just by listening to footsteps. Regarding hearing, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had reached mastery.

That mastery-level hearing had fully bloomed under Baek Mu-han’s torment.

Wei Yan-ho had to roll his body to survive, waking from sleep upon hearing the sound of stones in Baek Mu-han’s fists cutting through air—sounds that should never be heard nor should be heard.

Initially, Baek Mu-han beat people to the degree of “it hurts enough to kill when hit,” but as Wei Yan-ho’s martial arts improved, he began beating people to the point where “even grazing means death.”

What was it he said?

At first he said “you need to build stamina,” but later he spouted crazy talk like “you’ll die anyway if hit by a blade, so not getting hit is best” and “if you can improve evasion to the point of half-death, that’s profit.”

Moreover, saying that blades in the martial world don’t distinguish between day and night, he constantly struck the sleeping Wei Yan-ho with those “stone fists,” beating, hitting, pummeling, and thrashing him.

Thanks to this, Wei Yan-ho became convinced that humans have six senses, and learned that people can indeed hear the sound of air moving, just as Baek Mu-han had said.

‘I didn’t want to know that!’

Still, Baek Mu-han’s theory that everything learned has its use wasn’t wrong—the super-sense that Baek Mu-han had taught Wei Yan-ho to master precise swordwork and improve evasion was now being put to very useful application in a new place.

What others absolutely couldn’t see inside the container, Wei Yan-ho could feel almost vividly.

Not just whether the iron balls were odd or even, but he could tell exactly how many were inside.

So how could he lose?

‘This is perfect for making money, isn’t it?’

Wei Yan-ho thought he might have a talent for gambling.

Since leaving the cave, Wei Yan-ho had boasted a ninety percent win rate in almost every type of competition.

Of course, if Baek Mu-han had heard this, he would have spouted the obvious line that in martial world competitions, you can win ninety-nine times, but if you lose the last one, your head flies off.

Wei Yan-ho leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

This activity seemed to drain mental energy too, as fatigue was washing over him.

Come to think of it, today was a day he’d suffered unusually much compared to usual. Opening his eyes and washing right away had been extremely difficult work, and he’d even spent money to buy and wear clothes!

Moreover, he’d even walked all the way here—how much suffering had he endured?

‘I should rest soon…’

Since he’d filled half his target amount, wouldn’t today be enough?

‘Just one more round.’

If he won just one more round here, he could fill his entire target amount. Doubling was such a wonderful thing. Plus, Wei Yan-ho was thoroughly absorbed in the fun of stakes doubling in gambling where he absolutely couldn’t lose.

Moreover, didn’t he have the advantage of gambling while sitting without lifting a finger?

When Wei Yan-ho was deciding to do just one more round before getting up, the atmosphere of the gambling house began to change.

“It’s Gang Cheon-lip!”

“The Golden Flower Hall master!”

“Hm?”

Wei Yan-ho began pondering the murmuring heard from behind.

‘Should I turn my head to look?’

Since there was commotion behind him, it would be proper to turn and check, but it was bothersome.

If he just waited like this, those with business would come forward, and if they had no business, it would be unrelated to him and could be ignored.

Wei Yan-ho’s prediction was exactly right.

A middle-aged man in splendid silk clothes appeared before him, bowed with cupped hands.

“An honored guest has visited us. I failed to recognize you, honored one.”

“I’m not really that sort of person.”

“Haha, in gambling houses, anyone who provides entertaining matches and spectacles is an honored guest.”

“Really? I wasn’t particularly entertained.”

Twitch.

Gang Cheon-lip’s facial muscles began contorting on their own.

‘Sitting there winning a thousand silver coins and saying it wasn’t entertaining?’

This was a provocation against Golden Flower Hall.

The thought of fleecing this mark had already disappeared from Gang Cheon-lip’s mind.

“Honored guests have their own dignity. How about it? Would you like to play at a bigger table?”

“A bigger table?”

When Wei Yan-ho asked with interest, Gang Cheon-lip couldn’t help but smile brightly.

“Haha, that’s right. Not a small table like this, but a proper one! You’ll be able to feel several times more enjoyment.”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Gang Cheon-lip’s face with a somewhat excited expression, then spoke.

“I don’t want to.”

The strength drained from Gang Cheon-lip’s legs.