Man dies for wealth, birds die for food!
As long as the benefits promised by Xiao Tianci were enticing enough, there would definitely be top-tier gamblers willing to risk their lives to step forward and bet this life-and-death match for him!
In truth, I really wanted to refuse, even to ignore Xiao Tianci's proposed life-and-death gamble. But I knew very well in my heart.
This was Xiao Tianci's greatest concession after failing to deal with me on multiple occasions.
As long as I could successfully win the life-and-death gamble, all previous grievances would vanish like smoke, dissipating completely.
At least on the surface, Xiao Tianci wouldn't be able to touch me. As long as I was careful to guard against his hidden moves and quickly evacuated Longxi, I would have escaped a disaster.
But the problem was that I didn't even know who my opponent was in this life-and-death gamble, what their strength was, or what we were gambling on...
How was I supposed to win? And how would I win in the end?
Uncle Tuo once said that in truly high-level gambling matches, victory never relied on so-called gambling skills or sleight of hand, but on a gambler's ability to understand human nature!
To give a simple example.
If a gambler goes up against a professional cheat, believe it or not, that professional cheat wouldn't even need to cheat. By simply observing the gambler's facial expressions and subtle micro-movements from the shadows, they could completely dominate the person.
No matter how good the gambler's luck was, once caught by the cheat, the gambler's luck would plummet until they lost all their capital.
Everyone, please remember, to win money in gambling, it relies more on personal skill and the ability to read people's expressions, not on good or bad luck.
Lacking personal skill isn't too much of a problem. By observing a person's actions, subtle facial micro-expressions, and various small details at the table, one can roughly analyze the size of the opponent's hand.
Mediocre cheats can analyze and determine the approximate range of their opponent's hole cards.
As for highly skilled cheats, they can even deduce the possible sequences of their opponent's hole cards, controlling the range of sizes with extreme precision.
And truly first-class cheats can accurately analyze the size of the opponent's hole cards, as if they were reading the card values openly.
The accuracy of reading cards can determine a cheat's level of skill; the higher the skill, the fewer errors.
I have no doubt that to keep me, body and soul, in Longxi, Xiao Tianci would find a first-class cheat to deal with me.
This unavoidable tough battle... would definitely not be easy!
...
After leaving the restaurant, the cold wind of early spring blew against my face, chilling me to the bone and making my eyes twitch, giving me a vague sense of unease.
If I could, I wouldn't want to personally participate in this life-and-death gamble.
But I had reasons why I had to gamble.
The word "gamble" causes immense harm. Everyone understands the principle of winning by not gambling, but if even we gamblers can't achieve that, how many ordinary people can truly adhere to it?
Those who gamble until they are bankrupt and heavily indebted at least still have their lives.
But if I lose, I will truly have nothing left.
The saying "practice makes perfect" doesn't apply to gambling. At the gambling table, all experience is useless because the process of each game is completely different.
To achieve victory in every battle, one must know oneself and the enemy.
But Xiao Tianci only gave me less than a day, and half of that day has already passed. Where could I possibly go to know myself and the enemy in the remaining half-day?
In my helplessness, I could only do my best to have Yu Shuang and Jiang Xiaowan mobilize their people to investigate, hoping to gain some insights before the gamble began tonight...
That evening, I appeared at Tianci Tower as scheduled.
Leaving was impossible, because it was simply impossible to escape.
Since Xiao Tianci dared to use this life-and-death gamble as the final showdown to settle his grievances with me, he must have already made all the arrangements.
If nothing unexpected happened, from the moment I left the detention center, every move I made was within his surveillance range.
...
Entering the lobby of Tianci Tower, the hall that should have been packed with guests and buzzing with noise was now sparsely populated, with only a few staff members and people from the blue-robed sect.
A temporary folding canopy had been erected in the center of the hall, covered with black cloth. Beneath the black cloth was a gambling table painted white.
It was both eerie and terrifying!
Clearly, Xiao Tianci was very confident about this life-and-death gamble and intended to sacrifice me directly here to appease the spirit of his deceased brother, Xiao Tianyu.
As the time for the gamble approached, the main character, Xiao Tianci, finally appeared.
He was completely different from when we met at Xingyuan Village. Xiao Tianci was now wearing a black suit and trousers, and a string of black beads on his hand.
After Xiao Tianci made his appearance on stage, people began to enter the hall one after another to watch this life-and-death gamble.
It was only at this moment that Xiao Tianci's heavily hired helper... appeared!
As the man walked to the side of the gambling table in the center of the hall and sat down, to be honest, if the position hadn't been so eye-catching, I would never have associated him with being the opponent in this life-and-death gamble.
Because he was too ordinary!
Average height, average build, average looks, the kind of person you couldn't find if you threw him into a crowd.
It was precisely such an ordinary person who sat in the position for the life-and-death gamble, forcing me to treat him with the utmost seriousness, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Perhaps, this was the so-called "greatest hermits dwell in the city, while lesser hermits dwell in the wilds" – a folk master.
Without a doubt, tonight, between this master and me, only one of us would walk away from the gambling table unscathed.
While Xiao Tianci was boasting and explaining the rules of the gamble, I began to observe the environment in the hall intently, not missing any suspicious details.
I knew very well that this life-and-death gamble, which could not be openly discussed, would absolutely not be fair or just for me.
Therefore, before the gamble began, I had to use my meticulous observation skills to preemptively eliminate any potential risks.
For example: whether anyone in the crowd on my side was using equipment to secretly photograph or record, and whether there were any high-definition surveillance cameras hidden in the large potted plants placed along the surrounding walls...
After I confirmed that there were no such risks at the moment, Xiao Tianci happened to have finished explaining all the rules of the gamble.
It was a "showdown" game, with one hundred million chips per person, a starting bet of one million, and the winner being the one with more chips before midnight.
Just like in "God of Gamblers 2," as soon as midnight struck, even if one party had only lost the chips from one round, the party with fewer total chips would be considered to have lost the entire match!