70: Chapter 70 A Bet on Life and Death

At the end of the street stood a pitch-black building, resembling a primeval beast that had been dormant for eons, quietly crouching at the end of the alleyway, heavily suppressing the surrounding Yin Qi.

The building was constructed from black stone, its texture exuding a chilling dead silence, and even the surrounding wind swirled around it as if avoiding it.

Hanging above the main entrance was a massive iron plaque, devoid of extra ornamentation, engraved only with four scarlet characters: "A Bet on Life and Death."

The night wind swept through the streets, causing the iron plaque to emit a creaking, straining muffled sound, like spirits grinding their teeth, or perhaps coldly mocking the greed, obsession, and stupidity of all living beings in the world.

Wu Xi gazed at the plaque, his eyes as deep and still as a cold pool.

"Let's go."

Wu Xi uttered these two words and stepped toward the black building. The others did not dare to hesitate, following closely behind as they stepped, one by one, into this eerie structure.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, a wave of stifling heat mixed with the stench of sweat, alcohol, and malevolence rushed toward them, and a deafening roar of clamor instantly filled their eardrums.

The gambling den was packed with people, crowded beyond measure.

Greasy gambling tables were surrounded by gamblers, everyone with bloodshot eyes, locked onto the dice cups on the tables, repeatedly roaring "Big! Big! Big!" or "Small! Small! Small!", the waves of sound surging, bordering on madness.

Greed was written all over every face, and bead-sized drops of sweat rolled down their foreheads, soaking their clothes, yet everyone remained completely unaware.

Some who were lucky enough to win danced with wild joy on the spot, shouting loudly; others who lost everything instantly turned ashen, standing frozen in place, utterly dejected and soul-lost.

Yet from beginning to end, not a single person left.

Winners were greedy for more windfall, their desire an insatiable abyss; losers were obsessed with turning the tables, unwilling to accept their defeat.

Everyone was like a moth to a flame; knowing full well that an abyss lay ahead, they were still led by their desires, plunging into destruction without a second thought.

Wu Xi and his group entered the gambling den, and they did not attract any attention. Everyone's focus had long been completely hooked by the wins and losses at the tables, deeply mired in the quagmire of desire, indifferent to anything happening in the outside world.

Tentacle Lady was full of excitement and agitation, "So many... so many... greed... so delicious... happy!"

"Warning: High-intensity greed detected, concentration overflowing, beginning to consume..."

"Warning: Extreme greed detected, concentration saturated, continuing to consume..."

The cold mechanical voice rang out continuously, and Tentacle Lady, like a child who had wandered into a candy store, unscrupulously devoured the desires drifting throughout the gambling den.

With every wisp she consumed, the Yin Qi swirling around her became more solid, and her aura grew correspondingly stronger.

Wu Xi's gaze passed over the noisy crowd and landed directly on the specially made gambling table in the very center of the gambling den.

This gambling table was far superior in design to the other tables; its material was dark and archaic, and it was vaguely shrouded in a layer of invisible Yin Qi, which no one dared to approach.

Sitting at the table was a young man in white, with delicate features; he should have looked refined and gentle, but his face was as pale as paper, devoid of any color.

The chips piled in front of him were like a mountain; clearly, he had won several rounds in a row, winning a massive amount of wealth.

Yet there was no joy on his face; his eyes were empty and unfocused, leaving only endless exhaustion and despair. His hands rested on the edge of the table, trembling uncontrollably, and his mind was already on the verge of collapse.

"Betting Big."

The young man's voice was hoarse and dry as he raised his hand and pushed all the chips in front of him into the "Big" area.

The dealer picked up the dice cup with an expressionless face, flicking his wrist, and the dice collided inside the cup with a crisp sound.

"Place your bets."

The dealer set the dice cup down. As his words fell, the entire room instantly held its breath. Countless blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the dice cup, and the air seemed to stagnate.

When everyone's emotions were stretched to the breaking point, the dealer slowly lifted the dice cup.

The three dice all showed six, clearly a winning-all triple.

"Triple, house wins all."

The dealer's tone was flat, without a hint of fluctuation.

The young man in white shuddered violently, as if struck by lightning. His eyes widened, staring fixedly at the dice inside the cup, his lips trembling incessantly.

"No... impossible..." he murmured, his expression dazed and desperate, "I clearly calculated everything properly, how could it possibly turn out to be a triple..."

The dealer looked at him indifferently: "This guest, you have lost all your chips; do you wish to continue?"

The young man raised his head abruptly, his eyes filled with fine bloodshot lines, madness surging: "Continue! Of course, I must continue!"

He stood up abruptly, his fingertips pointing directly at his Dantian, roaring aloud: "I bet thirty years of hard-earned cultivation!"

"Very well."

The dealer nodded slightly, and as he raised his hand, a black ray shot out, piercing directly into the young man's Dantian.

The young man's whole body convulsed violently; the cultivation he had accumulated over many years in his Dantian flowed away rapidly along his Meridians, and his Physical Body shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Intense pain swept through his entire body, the veins on his forehead bulging, yet he forcibly held back a scream, a sickly, crazed smile instead tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Again! This time I bet Small!"

The dealer shook the cup again and set it down; when he lifted it, it was still a triple with three identical numbers.

"Triple, house wins all."

The young man swayed, nearly collapsing to the ground, his face even paler, like withered paper.

Thirty years of cultivation had gone down the drain; that was the Foundation of his half-lifetime of hard work, now gone in an instant.

"Guest, do you wish to continue?" the dealer repeated the question, his tone remaining cold and emotionless.

"Continue!" The young man gritted his teeth, pointing his finger at his left arm, "I bet my left arm!"

The black light flashed again; his left arm instantly shriveled and withered, the skin and flesh sagging and hanging limp, completely losing all strength.

After that, the young man completely descended into madness.

"I bet my right arm!" "I bet my legs!" "I bet my eyes!" "I bet my heart!"

He bet his own organs and Physical Body time and time again; every time he lost a round, a part of his body was stripped away.

His limbs shriveled, his eyes blinded, his heart extracted; in a short moment, he had transformed into an incomplete monster, with only his head remaining, barely hanging onto life.

Yet he still had not awakened; his mouth kept moving, only his obsession remaining: "Again... I still want to gamble..."

The dealer spoke indifferently: "Guest, you have nothing left to bet."

"No! I still have!" the young man roared crazily, his voice like a ghost wailing, "I bet my soul! I bet my Three Ethereal Souls and Seven Corporeal Spirits!"

"Very well."

The last wisp of black light shot out and entered the center of the young man's forehead.

In an instant, all the madness, unwillingness, and despair in his eyes vanished, leaving only a dead, empty silence.

His head rolled onto the gambling table with a thud, spinning several times on the surface before stopping, a trace of an eerie, crazed smile still frozen on his face.

The dealer gestured, and two black-robed ghost attendants walked out from the shadows, expressionlessly dragging away the young man's incomplete body and head, and cleaning up the bloodstains on the floor. Then they wiped the gambling table, their expressions remaining indifferent: "Next."

No sooner had the words fallen than a gambler immediately and impatiently stepped forward to take a seat, pushing out chips to continue the game. The soul-shaking tragedy that had just occurred was instantly cast to the back of everyone's minds, and the gambling den returned to its clamor, as if nothing had ever happened.

The group witnessed the whole process, all of them trembling in their hearts.

Niu Fei clenched his fists until they cracked, his knuckles turning white, anger surging in his eyes: "Too cruel! This is not a gambling game at all; it's wanton devouring of living people!"

Jiang Jiye's face was deathly pale, and she covered her lips to suppress her nausea, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Jiang Yuehong hid behind Jiang Jiye, her nails digging deeply into her palms, unaware even as blood began to seep out.

Qiu Chuanxing gripped the short blade at his waist, its blade gleaming with a cold light, his eyes as deep as ice: "How is this a gambling den? It is clearly a living Hell that devours people without spitting out the bones."

The playful smile on Ling Muxue's face completely vanished, and for the first time, her eyes were tinged with gravity.

She had seen countless bloody slaughters and weird, tragic cases, but she had never seen such a sinister method that used desire as bait to slowly devour human hearts, Physical Bodies, and even souls.

"Hee hee... so delicious..." Tentacle Lady's voice echoed in everyone's minds with satisfaction, "The greed of that person just now was pure and thick; it's the best taste I've ever had!"

Wu Xi's gaze was as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice, his heart already clear.

There were no tortures of mountains of knives or cauldrons of oil here, yet it used greed and desire to weave an invisible cage.

Anyone who stepped into this place and got involved in the gambling would be swept up by their obsession, sinking step by step until finally, even their soul would become a sacrifice to the gambling den, never to be free again.

"Welcome, everyone, to A Bet on Life and Death."

A low, hoarse voice suddenly sounded from behind them, the tone as rough as sandpaper rubbing, carrying the cold Yin Qi from deep underground, making the hair on everyone's backs stand up.

Everyone turned around abruptly.

A man in a black robe stood behind them, his face covered by an all-black patterned mask, revealing only a pair of pure black eyes, without a trace of white, like two bottomless black holes, causing one's Divine Soul to tremble just by looking at them.

This person was none other than the owner of the A Bet on Life and Death gambling den — Black-Eyed Ghost.

Standing behind him were two fierce ghosts, one tall and one short, their auras intimidating.

On the left, Shusha Ghost was burly and tall, his face full of flabby flesh, carrying a giant machete on his shoulder, the blade surface congealed with old blood, his eyes fierce as a hungry tiger, specializing in slaughtering those who tried to renege on debts or escape in the gambling den;

On the right, Kouqia Ghost was small and thin, with a sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked appearance, his eyeballs rolling around; he was skilled at calculating accounts, and the gambling den would not let a single cent of debt go, even if the debtor escaped to the ends of the earth, they would be dragged back by him, squeezed dry of all value, including principal and interest.

Black-Eyed Ghost's pitch-black eyes slowly swept over everyone, finally fixing on Wu Xi, his gaze deep, as if it could pierce through the Divine Soul.

"I am Black-Eyed Ghost, the owner of this place." The hoarse voice slowly sounded, "Since you have come from afar, it truly makes my humble abode shine with brilliance."

Under the mask of Black-Eyed Ghost, a cold smile seemed to emerge, "Those who enter my A Bet on Life and Death are, without exception, all gamblers."

"People in the world, whether for wealth, cultivation, power, or grudges, as long as they step through the door, they will eventually become my guests."

His tone slowed down, carrying an invisible temptation: "In this gambling den of mine, everything can be bet. Money, cultivation, Physical Body, organs, soul, Luck, and even the lives of relatives and friends, past lives and present life—as long as you dare to bet, I dare to accept."

"And I can promise that whatever you bet, there is always a chance to win."

Upon hearing this, Niu Fei immediately sneered aloud, stepping forward with a face full of indignation: "Nonsense! That young man just now clearly lost until his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, where is the talk of a winning chance?"

Black-Eyed Ghost slowly shook his head, his tone indifferent: "He never lost."

"When he first arrived, he had nothing. Relying on the gambling game, he won wealth and cultivation, avenged his deep blood feud, and sat upon riches and honor; he had already won what he sought for half his life."

"It is a pity that human greed is endless; having won, they want to win more; having gained, they want to gain more, unwilling to be content and stop. In the end, they just bet back everything they won with their own hands, and even buried themselves along with it."

After saying this, Black-Eyed Ghost once again let his gaze fall back on Wu Xi, with a bit of probing and temptation: "I observe that Your Excellency has an extraordinary bearing and possesses strange power; you are certainly no ordinary Cultivator."

"Why not enter the game right now, and I will personally accompany you in a gamble. Whatever you want to bet, feel free to speak."

The clamor of the gambling den suddenly fell silent, and all the gamblers around turned their heads, pairs of blood-red eyes locking onto Wu Xi in unison.