Chapter 41: Class Game (Part 7)

Yun Xueqing fell silent for a moment. “What do you plan to do?”

Fu Wuxuan’s composed face changed like the weather, shifting from a sudden shower to clear skies in an instant. He grinned broadly at him. “I’m counting on you.”

He said it quite naturally, without any psychological burden.

Yun Xueqing glanced faintly at him. “You want me to help you cheat?”

Fu Wuxuan raised an eyebrow, his smile carrying a hint of mischief. “Not willing?”

“. . . I’ll do it.”

A skill he’d learned had to be put to use eventually.

Fu Wuxuan was stunned. His intention had only been to tease Yun Xueqing, but he hadn’t expected the other to actually agree—and to execute it so flawlessly.

After watching a few rounds of poker blackjack to understand the rules, Yun Xueqing stepped right up and won seven games in a row.

Fu Wuxuan hugged the gold coins they’d won, still somewhat dazed. “Is your luck really that good, or do you have some special ability?”

The words were amusing coming from him, an Oracle.

Yun Xueqing replied calmly, “My luck isn’t good, and I have no special abilities. Just technique.”

Top-tier card-switching technique.

With a hundred years of sword practice, his hand speed was beyond what the ordinary eye could follow. Switching cards was a piece of cake.

Fu Wuxuan nodded gravely. “At this rate, we’ll make 10,000 gold coins today.”

Yun Xueqing looked up. “This speed isn’t enough.”

They only had a few short days. Time was far too tight; they couldn’t really stay here for over a month.

Moreover, even if his technique was superb, using the same method a hundred times carried the risk of being exposed.

If they ran into an expert, they’d be in real trouble.

Fu Wuxuan wore a profound, enigmatic smile. “You just need to gamble for today to secure our starting capital. I’ll handle the rest.”

Yun Xueqing looked at him in some surprise. “What do you plan to do?”

Fu Wuxuan curved his lips. “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

Yun Xueqing wasn’t particularly curious and didn’t press further, adopting a nonchalant attitude of “do whatever you want.”

They mingled in every corner of the Three Branches Casino, earning enough gold coins before returning to the Livestock Yard.

Fu Wuxuan casually scanned the area twice but didn’t see the Livestock Yard owner’s figure. Instead, he spotted a young man clutching a chicken, heading toward the stone slab where cattle and sheep were slaughtered.

Fu Wuxuan glanced at the chicken in the young man’s hand and smiled impassively. “Where’s the Livestock Yard owner?”

The young man’s face was full of malice. He gave them a sinister smile. “The current Livestock Yard owner is me.”

Fu Wuxuan smoothly changed his wording. “Then we’re looking for the previous Livestock Yard owner.”

“You’re looking for my dad,” the young man said with a strange smile, lifting the chicken in his hand. “He’s right here.”

Fu Wuxuan: “This is your dad?”

“Yeah,” the young man replied. The smile faded quickly from his face, his tone neutral yet biting. “Some damn bastard tricked my dad into gambling at the Blue Castle. He lost even his underwear and racked up a pile of debt, so he was demoted to the lowest slave.”

His tone dripped with sarcasm. “He was always the type to exploit others. How could he handle honest rough labor? Better to whip him into livestock and slaughter him for meat to make it worthwhile . . . Just didn’t expect that even as livestock, he wouldn’t turn into something valuable like an ox or horse, but the most useless, cheapest chicken. He’s truly worthless trash.”

The limp, listless chicken in his hand, which had completely lost its human nature, suddenly thrashed violently upon hearing the young man’s words.

The chicken flapped wildly in his grip, but the young man didn’t care that this was once his father. He pinched its neck hard, and the chicken quieted down from the pain.

Yun Xueqing listened to the former Livestock Yard owner’s fate without much emotion, only to hear the young man suddenly say to them, “If I remember right, you two were slaves under my father before. You redeemed yourselves a couple days ago but are still freeloading in the Wooden Cabin at my Livestock Yard. Planning to live for free?”

Yun Xueqing didn’t know how to respond for a moment, because that was exactly what they’d been thinking.

Fu Wuxuan, however, replied smoothly. “Actually, we came to find the former Livestock Yard owner to pay rent for the Wooden Cabin.”

In truth, they’d come to watch the spectacle.

But he hadn’t expected that with just one mention, the Livestock Yard owner’s efficiency was so high—he’d gone from owner to the slaughter slab in a single day.

“Pay rent?” The young man scoffed disdainfully. “You two, who were once slaves and barely scraped together enough to redeem yourselves, must be penniless now . . . Just the lowest commoners, yet you have the gall to say you’ll pay me rent? Ridiculous.”

He didn’t know the details of their redemption, only that his father had mentioned it in passing, so he assumed they were ordinary slaves who’d bought their freedom.

Since they hadn’t moved out, they probably couldn’t afford rent elsewhere.

He looked at them with contempt, like they were ants. “A couple days ago, I let it slide as a favor, but today you need to get out and—”

Before he could finish, a round object smashed hard into his nose bridge.

Fu Wuxuan had used full force. The young man felt intense pain, a bruise blooming on his nose. As he was about to flare up, the object fell from his nose—it was unmistakably a gold coin.

The young man’s eyes widened, his expression dazed and incredulous. “You . . . how do you have . . .”

Before he could finish asking, realization dawned, and his legs went weak. He dropped straight to his knees. “So you’re Gentry lords!”

His previously hostile, sinister expression instantly turned fawning. He rubbed his hands, his face comically obsequious. “I misspoke just now. Please, Gentry lords, don’t hold it against a nobody like me!”

Fu Wuxuan had no interest in slapping down small fries like this. His tone was indifferent. “Can we continue staying in the Wooden Cabin now?”

“Of course! Of course!” The young man groveled, his voice oily. “Gentry lords can stay as long as you like!”

One gold coin could buy ten Wooden Cabins!

He’d struck gold this time!

To think that just days ago they were mere slaves, and now they’d become Gentry—enough that he had to grovel at their feet!

As he flattered them verbally, his mind raced, pondering the secret to their sudden wealth: the only place for such easy class-jumping was the Blue Castle.

With sudden insight, he understood why his father had risked gambling at the Blue Castle.

Having figured it out, he couldn’t help sneering inwardly at his father’s stupidity.

People had their fates. The Blue Castle was never a paradise for realizing dreams—it offered a few a chance to rise while draining the life from most.

Such a simple truth, yet his father hadn’t grasped it.

The surroundings fell quiet. Snapping back, the kneeling young man looked up to find the two already walking away.

Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan rested in the Wooden Cabin for the night, sleeping dreamlessly.

Though they’d been exhausted lately, diving straight into Weird Domains without respite, this place was still somewhat humane—no Weirds creeping out at midnight to scare them. They could rest properly.

The Wooden Cabin had only one bed. The two lay together, rising simultaneously at dawn. Fu Wuxuan sat on the bed, propping his head lazily as he watched Yun Xueqing put his outer coat back on after removing it.

He suppressed the unclear emotions stirring in his heart and pointed at Yun Xueqing’s chest. “What happened there?”

His fingertip hovered very close to the chest. Yun Xueqing shrank back slightly and shook his head. “It’s nothing serious.”

Previously, Zhongse had carved a small hole in Yun Xueqing’s chest, but he was always tolerant of pain and hadn’t let Fu Wuxuan notice anything unusual.

In these past days, new flesh had gradually grown, itchy now rather than painful. But bloodstains lingered on his clothes, which Fu Wuxuan had spotted.

Fu Wuxuan didn’t need an answer to guess what had happened. His expression darkened for a moment before quickly returning to calm. “The wound will get infected like this.”

He pulled anti-inflammatory medicine and bandages from his Storage Ring. “Should I clean it for you, or do you want to do it yourself?”

Yun Xueqing glanced at the sky outside the window—it wasn’t fully bright yet. He couldn’t use “we’re in a hurry” as an excuse to refuse. “I’ll do it myself.”

Fu Wuxuan handed him the medicine without any intention of averting his gaze, watching openly.

Figuring they were both grown men with nothing to hide, Yun Xueqing removed his clothes just as openly.

But it was precisely this openness from the other that made Fu Wuxuan, who considered himself a bit roguish, feel an uncharacteristic twinge of embarrassment.

He pretended to look away, staring at an empty spot in the room.

Yun Xueqing was indeed highly tolerant of pain. Cleaning the wound required scraping away dead flesh and pus, touching raw, unhealed meat—the pain was beyond what most could endure—but he didn’t make a sound.

The room was silent, save for the rustle of clothing.

After a while, Fu Wuxuan heard him say somewhat helplessly, “Trouble you to help wrap the bandage.”

He could handle the cleaning, but wrapping a bandage alone was impossible.

“Sure.”

Having been a bandage monster in the first domain, Fu Wuxuan’s bandaging skills were masterful.

To live up to his expertise, he kept a straight face, ignoring Yun Xueqing’s pale skin, and focused entirely on wrapping the bandage aesthetically.

After debating “tie a bow at the end or tuck it in,” he realized he was face-to-face with Yun Xueqing, his arm virtually encircling the other in the air.

His mind blanked for an instant. His movements grew stiff as he withdrew his hand, his usual silver tongue turning dry. “Done.”

Yun Xueqing, unaware of his oddity, slowly put his clothes back on.

Out of basic human decency, since the other had helped with the bandage, he asked, “Do you have any injuries?”

Fu Wuxuan, still a bit dazed, shook his head. “No.”

Back then, he’d lost his reason. Zhongse had tried to control him with Spirit Energy, oppressing his mind, but it hadn’t worked.

Recalling it, Fu Wuxuan smiled, the mirth not reaching his peach-blossom eyes. “Once we’re out, we’ll make Zhongse pay.”

The two headed once more to the Gambling Town below the Blue Castle. Fu Wuxuan didn’t return to the Three Branches Casino but led Yun Xueqing in the opposite direction.

The path grew more remote, with fewer people and gambling dens. Yun Xueqing looked up. “Can you tell me your plan now?”

Fu Wuxuan smiled without speaking, leading him onward until they reached the end of the street, stopping before an extremely desolate gambling den. He spoke in a low voice:

“We’re going to open a casino.”