Chapter 234

When Xuan Yuan San Guang woke up, he glared at Jiang Sishui with bloodshot eyes, his teeth clenched in deep hatred: "Brat, you… you…"

"That's right, I'm indeed doing very well, I know that." Jiang Sishui agreed wholeheartedly.

Xuan Yuan San Guang spat out another mouthful of blood: "Shameless! Absolutely shameless!"

Jiang Sishui pressed a finger to his lips, confirming that his opponent had lost so badly he'd gone mad and started talking nonsense.

"We still have a third round we haven't gambled on, and if you dig out your lungs you won't survive — that puts me in a difficult spot."

"How about this — we bet four hundred on the third round first."

"If you win, the punishment from the second round is cancelled; if you lose, you dig out your heart too. How about it?"

A considerate, understanding smile hung on Jiang Sishui's face.

Things having come to this, Xuan Yuan San Guang had no retreat and could only agree: "Fine! But let's get the terms clear first this time."

"First, whoever rolls the higher total across the three dice wins!"

"Second, the winner gets the reward, the loser takes the punishment!"

"Third, no cheating or sophistry of any kind is allowed; anything not stated in advance shall be handled according to the established rules of the gambling trade."

Listening to Xuan Yuan San Guang's watertight conditions, Jiang Sishui couldn't help but smile.

It seemed this fellow had been scared into shape and truly gotten smarter.

Jiang Sishui had no objection either and agreed on the spot.

But Xuan Yuan San Guang wouldn't let it rest — he wanted Jiang Sishui to repeat the terms aloud himself.

Jiang Sishui did as asked.

The two began shaking the dice again, then revealed their results one after the other.

Jiang Sishui had three-three-six, twelve points.

Xuan Yuan San Guang had four-six-six, sixteen points!

Xuan Yuan San Guang wins!

But with the lesson of what had happened before, Xuan Yuan San Guang didn't get carried away; instead he stared fixedly at Jiang Sishui, afraid he might pull some trick again.

"This round, my total is bigger than yours."

"Correct."

"So this round, I won."

"That's right."

"According to what we agreed in advance, I won and get the reward, so the punishment of digging out lungs from the second round is cancelled, isn't that right?"

"That should be the case."

Xuan Yuan San Guang stared fixedly at Jiang Sishui for a while longer, and seeing he had no intention of sophistry or going back on his word, finally let out a long breath of relief.

The great stone in his heart lifted, and Xuan Yuan San Guang could not contain his joy, nearly dancing with excitement, laughing out loud: "I won! I finally won! I finally won!"

The watching crowd exchanged glances and sighed, all feeling a sense of sympathy for how hard he'd had it.

Jiang Sishui watched this scene with a smile, and just as Xuan Yuan San Guang's mood had calmed slightly and he was about to leave, he called out: "Hold on."

Xuan Yuan San Guang stopped abruptly, turning stiffly: "What do you want now?"

Jiang Sishui said calmly: "You think you can just walk away without digging out your heart and lungs?"

Xuan Yuan San Guang's eyes went wide, his face full of disbelief, his voice trembling: "You said it yourself, I won. According to what we agreed in advance, I…"

"Do you know why you lost so miserably?" Jiang Sishui cut him off?

Why do I lose so miserably?

Isn't it just because you're too shameless!

Xuan Yuan San Guang cursed furiously in his heart.

But Jiang Sishui answered his own question: "Because I've grasped the highest realm of 'gambling,' that's how I can forever remain undefeated — I said that long ago."

Ignoring Xuan Yuan San Guang's contemptuous gaze, Jiang Sishui rose from his seat, casually picked up the blade on the table, walked up to him, and pressed the blade into his left hand.

Xuan Yuan San Guang gripped it instinctively, but his eyes were fixed intently on Jiang Sishui as his five fingers slowly tightened.

Their gazes met, and Jiang Sishui smiled faintly: "And the highest realm of 'gambling' is… being able to flip the table at any moment."

Whoosh!

The instant Jiang Sishui finished speaking, Xuan Yuan San Guang brought the blade down on him with one slash.

Jiang Sishui met it with a single hand, flicking the cold blade with exquisite precision, and the long sword shattered directly into pieces of iron.

Xuan Yuan San Guang's pupils contracted sharply; he hurled the hilt with all his might, turned to flee, but Jiang Sishui seized the acupoint on his upper back and he couldn't move.

Looking at the panic in Xuan Yuan San Guang's eyes, Jiang Sishui said: "Someone hired me to kill you."

Xuan Yuan San Guang was stunned for a moment, then gritted his teeth: "Kill me? Who?"

No wonder!

He had felt Jiang Sishui had come for him — turns out he'd been hired to take his life.

Knowing he couldn't escape his fate, before his death Xuan Yuan San Guang only wanted to know who wanted him dead.

Jiang Sishui didn't answer, but said: "That person told me to cut open your chest and belly, to see what kind of wolfish heart and doglike lungs you must have, to have once staked your own parents, wife, and children on the gambling table and lost them."

Xuan Yuan San Guang's pupils trembled violently, his voice quavering: "That bitch isn't dead yet? She hired you to kill me?!"

Seeing he didn't deny it, Jiang Sishui murmured: "It seems I didn't wrong you."

Hearing Jiang Sishui's non-answer, Xuan Yuan San Guang was baffled for a moment, then asked again: "Was it her? I…"

His words cut off abruptly — because his eyes had met Jiang Sishui's.

Their gazes locked, and Xuan Yuan San Guang's eyes went hazy and lost for a moment; then he picked up a blade fragment from the ground and slowly drove it into his own bared chest, inch by inch into the flesh.

As blood spurted out, the watching crowd cried out in alarm, all frightened by this horrifying scene.

Many of my lord's people hastily covered children's eyes to keep them from seeing, and some were so scared they fled in disarray.

Zhu Qiqi hadn't expected this scene at all, and couldn't help but open her little mouth wide.

After hearing Ren Yingying's words, although she knew Jiang Sishui must have had his reasons for doing this,

seeing with her own eyes the scene of him cutting open heart and lungs still dealt a tremendous shock to her young heart.

After all, she was only a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old young miss, raised in comfort all her days — where had she ever seen such a bloody, cruel scene?

Immediately she felt wave after wave of discomfort, on the verge of vomiting.

Agony swept over his entire body. Xuan Yuan San Guang's single eye bulged wildly, blood vessels crawling across the eyeball, fine, vicious blue veins rising on his neck, his facial flesh twitching madly — clearly in the most extreme pain.

But even so, the movements of his hands never stopped.

Amid wave after wave of pained, low roars, the blade sliced open his chest at a steady pace, then pried hard, exposing the heart and lungs within.

Blood gushed out like a fountain. Even though Xuan Yuan San Guang had Grandmaster Realm internal energy protecting his body, he could hold on no longer and collapsed on the spot, dead.

When he swallowed his last breath, a trace of relief showed in his eyes.

When controlled by the "Soul-Snatching Great Art," his actions could not be autonomous, but his mind remained clear.

The ultimate agony of the blade tip slowly piercing into flesh, then slowly gouging out heart and lungs — he could feel every bit of it clearly.

So for him, death was a kind of release.

As a transmigrator, Jiang Sishui's environmental awareness had always been excellent — with a casual flick of the wrist, he poured down a bottle of "Corpse-Dissolving Water."

The surrounding onlookers, already scared far back, saw his fluid, practiced motions, and their hearts turned cold, scalps tingling — they immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

Jiang Sishui paid them no heed, walking straight up to the two women.

Organizing his words, he explained: "Xuan Yuan San Guang, nicknamed 'Evil Gambling Ghost,' was a lifelong gambling fanatic who loved forcing others to gamble with him."

"There's a saying: meet the Evil Gambling Ghost, and you must gamble whether you will or no — he won't stop until heaven is bare, men are bare, and money is bare."

"Once this man sat down at a gambling table, he cast aside everything, recognizing neither kin nor kith."

"One of his eyes was lost gambling, so he gouged it out himself."

"What's more, he once even staked his own parents, wife, and children on the table and lost them."

"As a son, he failed in filial duty; as a husband, he failed in devotion; as a father, he failed in kindness."

"For a wolf-hearted, dog-lunged wretch like him who has lost all conscience, I wanted to cut open his heart and lungs to see if they were already riddled with holes, blackened and stinking."

"Evil Gambling Ghost" Xuan Yuan San Guang is a character from *The Proud Twins*, one of the Ten Villains of the Villains' Valley.

What Jiang Sishui had just said was the character's setting from the book.

Still, he wasn't killing people at random.

Considering that reality and the story might differ, before acting he had specifically tested the man's reaction.

Only after confirming Xuan Yuan San Guang had a reason to die did he steel himself to the ruthless deed.

As for cutting off his right hand earlier, that was the price for his swindling the white-clad young miss right before their eyes.