Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 20 Old Niu and the Gambler

Zhao Ying, the clerk, revealed two things, one of which was about the gambler.

There are similar posts on the forum that have discussed this matter.

Back then, a few players encountered that gambler at night, gambled with him for several rounds, and almost had all their equipment stripped off!
As for the other thing, it is "bearded people", which means mountain bandits and outlaws.

After nearly two months in the game, bandits and outlaws began to appear on a large scale.

According to the game, the Great Shun Dynasty was extremely decadent, so it was not peaceful.

Moreover, this is Liaodong, where life is more difficult, the situation is more complicated, and there are especially many bandits and outlaws.

Later, some curious players tallied up the numbers: there were 16 large strongholds in the entire Liaodong region, requiring four teams of 20 people to conquer; 40+ medium-sized strongholds, requiring a team of five; and countless small strongholds, which could be taken down by a single person or a team of two or three.

That guy, during that period, players went up the mountain to fight bandits every day!

It is known as "Old Stories of Suppressing Bandits in Liaodong"!
“Alright! I’ll take this on. I’ll go and inquire about it in a bit.” Chen Xiuxian took the letter of authorization and went to Dongcheng.

"Ding~ You have obtained the quest card [Gambler (Green)]."

[Gambler (Green)]

Tier 2 Quest Card
He was a scoundrel and a spendthrift in life, and he remains so as a ghost. Can we just stand by and watch such a depraved spirit harm others?!
Reward: 250 experience points.

Comment: They stripped him naked, his underwear was completely exposed! This must be severely punished! Severely punished!
……

Wadang Fort isn't very big; it's only about three and a half li long from east to west and four li long from north to south.

The eastern part of the city is considered an "industrial zone," with blacksmith shops, leather shops, livestock markets, slaughterhouses, and the like all located there.

When Chen Xiuxian arrived there, he was wondering who he could ask about the situation when he spotted a familiar figure on the street!

"Old Niu?!"

"Hey, young Chen!"

It was Bi, the guest of the Lao Niu tribe, whom Chen Xiuxian had met in the wilderness of Jianqiu. Back then, Bi had generously helped him by killing a tree spirit and rescuing him from a predicament!

It's clear that Lao Niu has only recently settled here, working as a hanger-on in the craftsmen's area.

Both of them can be considered outsiders.

As the saying goes, "We meet by chance, all strangers in a foreign land; the mountains and passes are difficult to cross, who will mourn the lost traveler?" Two strangers who had met before and met again in this foreign land are bound to feel a sense of empathy.

Chen Xiuxian invited him to have a drink at a street stall.

There wasn't much good stuff: braised pork offal, fried peanuts, and multigrain pancakes rolled with scallions.

Yes, peanuts do exist in this world!
Actually, it has everything, like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

In Liaodong, potatoes are even considered one of the staple foods. This stuff was promoted more than 300 years ago when Emperor Shaoguang ascended the throne and revived the dynasty, and now it has long been widely known.

The stall also sells some liquor, a slightly cloudy homemade sweet potato liquor that's a bit spicy.

Chen Xiuxian took a sip and immediately started grimacing, no longer daring to touch it.

Old Niu chuckled, "In Jianzhou and Nurgan, this sweet potato shabu-shabu is a good thing too!"

"Oh, they don't brew wine over there?" Chen Xiuxian asked.

Old Niu rolled braised pork offal and scallions into a pancake, grinned, and said in a simple voice, "How could that be?"

"There are quite a few of your human race members who have joined the boar people. There must be hundreds of thousands of humans east and north of Liaodong. Surely they know how to brew wine?"

"But it's still too cold and too difficult over there. Grain production is low, not even enough to eat, let alone brew wine. Aside from a few people of high status who can drink wine, it's only used for worshipping gods."

He took a big bite of the tortilla, chewed it with relish, and mumbled, "Mmm~ Oh my, it's so delicious!"

The braised pork offal is perfectly seasoned, with scallions to cut through the richness, and then rolled up with chili oil—one bite and it's absolutely delicious!
He swallowed the pork offal and scallion pancake and continued, "Apart from the boar people, other tribes all suffer from hunger to some extent. Even among the boar people, there are different classes. The lowest class lives a life of hardship."

"In the far north, near the Heilong River, the wind is like a knife in winter, and the snow can be three feet deep! It's frozen for four months of the year! There are all sorts of mountain spirits and monsters, all of them drinking blood and eating flesh!"

"Some of them are worshipped as gods by the boar people, and even blood sacrifices are required to worship them!"

He lowered his voice and said, "No wonder the Boar People are always thinking about moving south! Not to mention anything else, just look at how fertile the Liaohe Plain is! As for the warm lands within the Great Wall, they're practically paradise!"

It's clear that Lao Niu hasn't been doing very well these past two weeks; he's barely making ends meet.

This street food meal consisted of six or seven pancakes that were as thick as an arm, rolled up with more than a dozen scallions and three large bowls of pork offal.

They've almost eaten all the chili oil! The spicier, the more you add!

Chen Xiuxian was worried that he would get so engrossed in eating that he would chew his chopsticks!
...I wonder if the Cow Clan ruminates~
The stall owner selling pancakes and pork offal kept staring at Chen Xiuxian and Lao Niu, afraid that the two unfamiliar, pot-bellied men would run away without paying.

If it weren't for the fact that Chen Xiuxian's face had some value and didn't seem like a bad person, the shopkeeper would have already come up and asked the two guests to settle their bill first. Chen Xiuxian inquired about his situation from Old Niu.

Old Niu sighed, "It's tough being in this business!"

There's a sense that "rice is expensive in Liaodong, and it's not easy to live here."

Although the various passes and cities in Liaodong have not yet stopped these people (including humans and other races) coming from the east and north, Lao Niu is, after all, an outsider and a member of another race. Just looking at his face, it's hard to trust him.

If it weren't for the fact that there were quite a few alien races in this artisan district, who could at least lend a hand or do odd jobs, he probably would have been starving and eating grass!
Recently, Lao Niu has been thinking that if all else fails, he'll go on an adventure outside the city.

The main problem is that he really can't do most of the jobs in the city, and he doesn't want to do those physically demanding jobs.

Rather than doing that, it's better to go on an adventure outside the city!
Although Liaodong is harsh and cold, it also has many good things!
The caravans inside the pass traveled back and forth in dozens of carts, carrying everything from various mountain delicacies to medicinal herbs, from precious timber to treasures from spirits...

Even hunting or digging for ginseng are good options.

Of course, this requires skill, and most people can't do it.

There are many adventure NPCs like Old Cow in the game.

As for what happens to them, that depends on how the AI ​​brain sets their fate.

Some of them were blessed with good fortune and embarked on the path of cultivation, some even becoming powerful Golden Core cultivators.

Of course, many more simply die quietly, becoming part of the background of a player's adventure or a corpse that is discovered.

Since Lao Niu had been hanging around the craftsmen's district in the east of the city for more than half a month, Chen Xiuxian asked him about the gambling addict.

Old Niu slapped his thigh: "Hey, you've come to the right person! I ran into someone like that just a couple of days ago!"

"Hmm?" Chen Xiuxian looked the old ox up and down, thinking, what a sight it must be to see a giant over two meters tall, with horns on his head and a cow's tail on his rump, lying naked by the roadside!
The old ox could tell what Chen Xiuxian was thinking just by looking at his expression. It glared at him and said, "What are you thinking? Do you think I, the old ox, can be manipulated by you?"

"First they tried to tempt me into betting with them, ptooey! How could an honest guy like me possibly beat these old gamblers? Of course I'm not going to do it!"

"The last gambler was so slow that he actually showed his blue face and fangs, trying to fight me head-on! I went up and punched him, and he turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiuxian exclaimed: "Well, well! He's just a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong!"

But you know what, Lao Niu's actions really proved the experience summarized by players on the forum—don't try any tricks with those weirdos! Just do it!
Chen Xiuxian inquired about several recent cases of people "losing everything," learned the locations and victims, and then began preparations...

As evening approached, Old Niu became somewhat worried: "Brother Chen, are you sure you don't need me to accompany you? After all, it's a ghost, and it's a bit dangerous."

"Haha, don't worry, Brother Niu, I can handle it."

"Alright! I knew you were someone special when we met last time. I'll wait for your good news." Old Niu nodded.

……

As the sun sets, the shops on the street close and soon it gets dark.

Chen Xiuxian began to wander around the streets.

Although the curfew was lifted during the Great Shun Dynasty three or four hundred years ago, Liaodong is still a strategically important frontier area and is under military control.

So there is still a curfew.

If Chen Xiuxian didn't have a letter of authorization on him, it would be quite troublesome if he were to be spotted by a military patrol while wandering the streets late at night.

Time passed quickly, and Chen Xiuxian heard the night watchman striking a gong in the distance, saying it was the second watch of the night.

Chen Xiuxian was getting dizzy wandering around those streets, and thought to himself, "Shouldn't we be coming out by now?"

Just then, a voice called out faintly from behind, "Hey brother, wait a minute! It's so boring tonight, wanna have some fun?"

The voice, for some reason, had a magical power; it penetrated the ears, touched the heart, and ignited a gambling addiction.

Ordinary people lack the willpower to resist such an "invitation" and are easily fooled.

You think you can outsmart a ghost by gambling?
Besides, it was a gambler in its previous life, do you think it would be honest and gamble with you?

Chen Xiuxian turned around and laughed, "Alright! The night is long and I can't sleep, so let's try our luck with a couple of bets."

Five steps behind him, a middle-aged man in coarse cloth clothes, with shifty eyes and a pale face, was smiling and fiddling with a few dice in his hand.

Chen Xiuxian turned around, startling the gambler: "Hey, brother, you're one of a kind in all the surrounding villages! I think you're no less handsome than that Pan guy the storyteller talked about."

Chen Xiuxian was too lazy to argue with him about his appearance, and rolled up his sleeves: "Enough with the small talk, I'm itching to get started. Let's get right to it!"

The gambler licked his mustache and gave a thumbs-up: "Hey, I, Ma Si'er, have never met anyone with a gambling addiction bigger than mine in all these years! Let's get started!"

　Thank you "日月木风" for the 100-point reward!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)