Chapter 827


    cing Bets


    Due to the core seeds, gemstones and crystals were rare. That was why both aristocrats and tribesmen living far from cities loved gemstones. Rare items tend to be considered precious. That was why the people with high living standards and not struggling to feed themselves loved rare beautiful rocks.


    A long time ago, King City did not have any betting houses. The term gambling was only for bored people to y a few games to kill time. Sometimes they would ce bets during fights but that was it. However, as the poption grew, some people saw betting houses as a business opportunity and partnered up to open a gambling house primarily for profit.


    Thergest betting house in King City was known as House of Fortune. House of Fortune was the most famous betting house on the entire maind since its headquarters were in King City. Other businesses also expanded to a simr scale but since they were foundedter than House of Fortune, they never became as famous.


    More and more betting houses wanted to enter King City too since it was the richest ce on the maind. Huge fortunes could be made from the clients there but due to House of Fortune, they still could not prate this market.


    Since its establishment, House of Fortune would organise all kinds of bets, using various methods to determine the winning and losing sides and rewards. If it was arge game, the news would spread all over the city.


    It was the same this time- the beating drums meant that arge game was avable for bets now!


    Although they were mentally prepared, no one expected this. Most people stared at the crystal as thick as an arm, their eyes zed over.


    This-this-this... this is ridiculous! A crystal this size must be very expensive, how could you ce a bet with it? My heart would ache for the rest of my life if I lost it on a gamble!


    They only gambled to kill time, making small bets. Everyone had different intentions, some were here to pass time, others to join the conversation, some to gain some information or make connections in themunity. Of course, there were also addicts that spent more. The betting house had seen nobles bet using all sorts of expensive items but they had never seen such arge crystal in their lives.


    Sunlight refracted through the clear crystal, forming a seven-coloured ray on the table. Thye almost forgot to breathe.


    “This...”


    Forget about the crowd, even the dealers were stunned. Some wanted to touch the crystal but their hands trembled, terrified of breaking it.


    “Abuli, you don’t even know what the bet is about, how could you ce a bet like this?” The Drumming and Pu tribesmen crowded around while other tribesmen also came over.


    They did not follow Shao Xuan into the pce, for the ones who did were either ming Horns or tribes with missing tribesmen. They were arranged to stay outside the pce and since they had nothing to do, they decided to explore King City. Perhaps buy some souvenirs if they saw something they liked, it was a rare opportunity toe here after all.


    They had just started to shop when they heard about the betting house. There were sometimes bets within ming River Trading Point too so they had seen bets before. There were diagrams drawn on the betting table, one of them being the ming Horn’s double horn totem. Before they could enquire, Abuli had rushed forward.


    Ever since he arrived, Abuli had turned into a prodigal rich man. The feeling of buying arge number of goods with the wave of an arm was such a rush. Now that he had the ming River Alliance and the other tribes behind him, Abuli became increasingly eager to show off his wealth. However, he had just overdone it by mming his crystal on impulse. When he met the looks of contempt from the entire room, he was suddenly snapped back to his senses.


    This was not ming River Trading Point, the rules and game were probably different. He did not even know what a Heaven and Earth Agreement was. He started to regret his actions. He had lost hisposure and was not behaving like a chief at all.


    “What is a Heaven and Earth Agreement?” asked a Longboat tribesman.


    The dealer did not mind that these people did not know anything. They profited most from people like that after all.


    “A Heaven and Earth Agreement is when a party in agreement with King City leaves a mark in the Heaven and Earth Agreement Book. Different people leave marks of different sizes on the book. See this on the betting table? This is the current ranking of all the six aristocratic ns based on the size of their marks.” It was the same as the earliest ranking of the six ns.


    The dealer did not borate that this list was made during King City’s early days. It used to be an indicator of their strengths but there had been many changes since- for example in this list, the Yi family ranked second with the secondrgest mark in the book. Yet they were a half-crippled n now.


    “Simply put, the more powerful the person, therger the mark made on the Heaven and Earth Agreement Book.”


    This exnation was easy to understand. When Abuli saw the seven sections on the table, he understood the system.


    The dealer continued to exin the bet. The table was divided into seven sections, six of them filled with the characters ‘Ji, Yi, Mu, Feng, Chao, An’, also the surnames of the six great aristocratic ns. An empty space was allocated next to these characters. The seventh section was left empty. On the other side, there was a spacebelled as ‘ming Horn’.


    They would be betting on where ming Horn would rank, which ns their mark would surpass. That section was where they could put their chips. If they thought ming Horn’s mark would be smaller than all six ns, then they could put their bet in the empty section. If they thought ming Horn’s mark would surpass all the ns, they could put their bet on ‘ming Horn’.


    The spot where Abuli ced his crystal meant he believed that ming Horn would surpass all six ns. That was something nobody would bet on, hence why everyone looked at Abuli like he was dumb.


    How could he think the ming Horns could surpass the Ji family? That was the funniest joke in the world!


    Although in reality, the mark made on the book was not directly corrted with strength, till this day no one could surpass the Ji family. In fact, no one had ever surpassed the Yi family either!


    The dealer spoke very quickly and Abuli did not really understand all of it. However, Abuli had studied thenguage intensely during his journey here and could figure out the dealer’s general intent.


    “Oh, that was just because he did not understand the rules? Would you like to ce a new bet?” advised someone else from King City. Their intent was not kind but rather they wanted to see the dealer disappointed. If the crystal remained in this position, it basically meant it would belong to the dealer soon. They would not get it back. It was impossible for Abuli to win this bet!


    “Yeah, ce a new bet. I suggest cing it behind the Chao n.”


    “I think behind the An family would be good.”


    “Don’t you remember the time a ming Horn guy pped the Lu patriarch out of the city? I think it’s best you ce your bet behind the Feng n. Maybe they’re stronger than the Chao and An ns?”


    Everyone started to discuss once more.


    The dealer’s face turned green, then white, so furious his veins started to bulge. He wished they would all shut their mouths.


    “What is going on?!”


    A low voice rang across the betting house. It was not loud but clear enough to be heard over the crowd.


    The crowd fell silent.


    Abuli looked over to see a middle-aged man with a long beard walk out. His silk robes did not hide his bull-like muscr physique. He had arge scar on one side of his face, making him look terrifying.


    The person who hit the drums was stunned for a moment, then retreated to make way for this man.


    “Sir, this is what happened...”


    A staff member stepped forward to exin the situation.


    The middle-aged man stared at the crystal on the betting table, his eyes glistening. He was the boss after all, so despite feeling excited, he maintained the solemn calmness on his face, regarding Abuli and his group. “I am head of the House of Fortune, Bo Yi. I believe they had already exined the Heaven and Earth Agreement Book betting rules before this.”


    Abuli was busy staring at Bo Yi’s beard, it fluttered in two directions when Bo Yi spoke. Abuli didn’t hear what he said so he merely asked “Huh?” in a daze.


    Stupid person with a lot to spend, very gullible. This was Bo Yi’s first impression of Abuli.


    Without waiting for Abuli to speak, Bo Yi continued. “What about this: since you’re all not from around here, I understand you aren’t familiar with our rules. We’re only human, even some youngsters in King City don’t know how to ce bets on the Heaven and Earth Agreement Book. But you understand the rules now, right? I’ll give you another chance to ce your bets again, what do you think?” He deliberately spoke very slowly, and loudly but emphasizing every word so everyone could hear him clearly.


    “Sir...” The staff member panicked and wanted to advise Bo Yi but Bo Yi stopped him.


    Bo Yi did not even look at the staff member scratching his head in panic, his eyes fixed on Abuli’s group. “What will you choose? Or will you choose to believe in ming Horn?” He changed his phrasing on purpose. Believing in ming Horn did not have to mean believing that they would surpass the six great ns, nor must they ce bets. But what would this group of foreign tribesmen choose?


    “I’ll choose to believe in ming Horn, of course!” Abuli did not seem to intend to take the crystal back.


    The corner of Bo Yi’s lips curved upwards. Just as he expected! That giant crystal was theirs now!


    Looking away from Abuli, Bo Yi turned to the people around him. “Would you all like to ce your bets too?”


    Drumming tribe’s Qing Yi and Pu tribe’s Yi looked at each other. They took out pouches of water moon stones they had nned to spend on a shopping spree.


    “Same as Abuli, I will bet on ming Horn.” Yu tossed a pouch over.


    m!


    The pouch of water moon stonesnded on the sectionbelled ming Horn. Everyone could see the water moon stones inside from the open mouth.


    Since both continents had already begun to trade and the Longboats were selling water moon stones at a high price here, these King City folk had seen water moon stones before. They even thought water moon stones were more valuable than crystals, never had they seen so many in their lives! There must be twenty stones inside!


    With trembling fingers, Bo Yi reached to shield the mouth of the pouch from light. He had only covered it partially but could already see the stones’ bright glow. These were good-quality stones, not those dull, poor-grade ones! Bo Yi’s heart raced.


    “Ssss—” The crowd inhaled sharply. Another big spender!


    “Same for me,” said Qing Yi.


    m! Arger pouch of water moon stonesnded on the ‘ming Horn’ section. Bo Yi checked its contents. It was another pouch of water moon stones of even better quality.


    “Woah—-”


    The crowd gasped even louder.


    Bo Gu of the Gu tribe did not even speak. He took out an animal skin pouch he carried with him and ced the pouch of ground eye stone on the table. Top grade stones rolled out of the open mouth and looked like eyeballs in the sunlight. They seemed to move in the light from different angles too.


    “Woah—”


    The crowd erupted in shock. All generous spenders!


    The Longboats and other tribesmen did not stand around either, all cing their bets on the same section.


    The crowd was stunned by the pouches of jades, crystals and gemstones, their eyeballs about to fall out of their heads. They gasped and gasped in surprise until they were numbed but the cheers never stopped. The ever-growing crowd remained excited as ever, and the increasing number of people made the cheers louder. They could only express their feelings by shouting now.


    Gulp–


    Someone swallowed his saliva, along with many in the crowd. Some even wiped the drool off their chins.


    They were all King City folk or traders who frequented King City. They thought they had seen it all but this was the first time they saw so many good-quality treasures in one ce!


    Even the Ji family would not pull out this many gemstones at a time!


    Insane! The tribesmen from the other side of the ocean were all insane!


    Bo Yi was so excited his face turned red.


    These stones were all theirs! All of it!


    The number of people banging the drums increased from one to five, even switching torger drums. They banged hard, as if about to break their drums. The crowd felt like their eardrums would explode.


    The entire King City could hear the rumbling drums, more and more people came to the betting house to watch. More people ced bets too but no one touched the sectionbelled ‘ming Horn’. Of course they must join a bet they already knew the ending to! They were here to profit.


    Bo Yi stared at the increasing pile of treasures on the table, starting to calcte the value of these goods, thinking of maximising his profit.