bookbashuk Chapter 144 The Dice Demon
Chapter 144 The Dice Demon
Chapter 144 The Dice Demon
Going all in means it's either win or lose! The loser is eliminated!
Chen Jincheng smiled, a composed, even somewhat lazy smile. He slowly pulled a cigar from his suit pocket, lit it with a pure gold lighter, took a deep drag, and amidst the swirling smoke, his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.
"Fine." He exhaled a smoke ring. "Since you've brought the money to my door, it would be disrespectful of me to refuse."
As Chen Jincheng finished speaking, he calmly pushed all of his remaining nearly forty million chips into the center of the jackpot.
Broken Tooth Koi licked his lips, his eyes filled with greed and excitement: "Damn, forty million for a hand of Pai Gow, that's awesome! More outrageous than a movie!"
"Third round, both sides go all in, pot locked." The dealer's voice was dry. "Please confirm."
Nie Wanlong, his eyes bloodshot, stared intently at Chen Jincheng and forced out two words through gritted teeth: "Confirmed!"
Chen Jincheng leisurely exhaled a smoke ring and nodded slightly: "Shuffle the cards!"
The dealer repeatedly interweaves and mixes thirty-two dominoes on a specially made felt.
It took a full minute for the dealer to shuffle the cards before neatly stacking them in the center of the betting table.
"Please cut the cards." The dealer stepped back, indicating.
Nie Wanlong made the first move, his five fingers spread wide like eagle claws, suddenly plunging into the middle of the deck. With a flick of his wrist, he actually grabbed half of the entire deck in mid-air.
"Whoosh!" The dominoes scattered in the air like a dancing dragon, but they didn't fall or get messy. However, his other hand caught them with lightning speed, and the two dominoes fell precisely into his left and right hands as if they were attracted by a magnet.
"Bravo!" someone in the audience couldn't help but cheer.
Nie Wanlong made the first move, letting out a low roar as if unveiling the curtain of fate, and abruptly flipped over his first card, the Heavenly Card! (12 points)
It's another Heavenly Card; this highest single card seems to be especially favoring him.
The second card is a land card! (2 points)
The Heaven and Earth pair, commonly known as "Heaven and Earth," is one of the largest miscellaneous hand combinations in Pai Gow, totaling 14 points (12+2)! Although it's not a pair, the points are already very high!
"Heaven and Earth, 14 PM!"
"Good cards! Nie Wanlong has a good chance to turn things around this time!"
"Chen Jincheng is under a lot of pressure."
A suppressed gasp rippled through the audience.
Nie Wanlong stared at his hand of Heaven and Earth tiles, his chest heaving violently. A sliver of color returned to his face, and a sinister smile even appeared. He looked at Chen Jincheng: "Old ghost Chen, with these Heaven and Earth tiles, let's see how you win this round!"
The pressure instantly shifted entirely onto Chen Jincheng.
He needs to at least touch the Supreme Treasure to win.
Chen Jincheng still had a cigar in his mouth, the smoke rising slowly. He looked at Nie Wanlong's confident yet nervous expression, then glanced at the two face-down cards in front of him, and suddenly smiled.
The smile sent a chill down Nie Wanlong's spine.
Chen Jincheng slammed his hand down, causing the dominoes on the table to vibrate and the tabletop to seem to sink slightly, producing a dull resonance. Even more astonishingly, the remaining dominoes, neatly arranged by the dealer, and the scattered chips on the table all rose more than an inch upward with his slam.
Dominoes and chips hovered briefly in the air, as if being lifted by an invisible force.
In that instant, Chen Jincheng's other hand shot out with ghostly speed, its five fingers like hooks, not to grab the cards, but to dart and manipulate them with lightning speed among the vibrating dominoes.
His movements were so fast that only a blur could be seen; each tap, flick, flick, and lift of his fingers precisely touched the specific angle of a domino. Those hard, heavy dominoes seemed to transform into light butterflies at his fingertips, tracing dazzling trajectories in the air with the rhythm of his fingers.
Even more strangely, although all the dominoes were being tossed about and scattered, not a single one fell onto the table, nor did any of them collide and make any noise. They seemed to be pulled together by invisible threads, performing a silent and precise collective dance within the limited space.
"What...what kind of technique is this?!"
"My God! What is he doing?!"
"Controlling the cards?! He's controlling the cards in mid-air?!"
The audience erupted in commotion! Nie Wanlong's skill in grabbing cards with his bare hands was impressive enough, but compared to Chen Jincheng's ability to manipulate and control an entire deck of cards in mid-air, it was nothing short of a dwarf's magic! This wasn't just gambling skill; it was magic!
Song Zhaowen also narrowed his eyes slightly. The enhanced dynamic vision brought about by the cockroach mutation allowed him to barely keep up with the movement of Chen Jincheng's fingers. He could see that every move Chen Jincheng made was highly purposeful, not just random showing off, but rather using extremely subtle force and angle to adjust the arrangement and orientation of the dominoes in the air.
In just two or three seconds, the trajectory of the dominoes flying through the air suddenly changed.
The thirty-two dominoes, as if soldiers had received orders, suddenly split into two distinct groups. One group of about twenty dominoes, like weary birds returning to their nests, fell back into the pile in a neat and orderly fashion, as if they had never been touched!
The other force, consisting of two dominoes, seemed to be drawn by an invisible hand, tracing a beautiful arc as they landed in front of Chen Jincheng.
Chen Jincheng gently lifted the first card with two fingers.
Card face up—
Ding San! (3 o'clock)
A small, unassuming Ding San card.
"Ding San? Only 3 o'clock?"
"Even if the other card is the highest Heaven card with 12 points, it only adds up to 15 points, which is only slightly higher than the Heaven and Earth cards' 14 points!"
"Was Chen Jincheng's victory really just a narrow one?"
The audience was buzzing with discussion, but Nie Wanlong's heart leaped into his throat! Ding San—in Pai Gow, Ding San can only form the supreme hand, Supreme Treasure (Monkey King Pair), when paired with 2 and 4, which can defeat all other hand types except pairs, including mixed hands!
Could it be that...?
Nie Wanlong stared intently at Chen Jincheng's remaining card, his breath almost stopping.
But as the saying goes, what you fear most is what happens.
Seeing Nie Wanlong's extremely nervous expression, Chen Jincheng's smile grew even wider.
The card is flipped over and clearly visible under the light.
Two four! (6 o'clock)
Ding San paired with Er Si, truly the Supreme Treasure! The Monkey King is right!
"Supreme Treasure!!!"
"My God! It really is the Monkey King!"
"He touched the Supreme Treasure! He's got it all!"
"Nie Wanlong's Heaven and Earth Card was instantly defeated!"
As if struck in the chest by an invisible, heavy punch, Nie Wanlong staggered backward, crashing into the back of his chair. His face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.
The Heaven and Earth Tokens were no match for Supreme Treasure; they were as worthless as clay chickens and earthenware dogs.
"You flatter me, Mr. Nie." Chen Jincheng stood up, straightened his spotless white suit, and bowed slightly to Nie Wanlong, whose face was ashen. His movements were elegant, and his tone was calm, yet it was more grating than any mockery.
The dealer took a deep breath and announced in a trembling voice: "In the third round, Mr. Chen Jincheng, Supreme Treasure, has won all the chips in the pot."
"Mr. Chen Jincheng wins the second match! He advances to the final round!" DoDo announced loudly.
At another betting table, Jiang Zhen was playing against Sun Yifeng, and the two were playing dice.
Jiang Zhen's bet against Sun Yifeng was the simplest one—guessing whether it's big or small.
Jiang Zhen and Sun Yifeng sat facing each other on either side of a round ebony table, on which were only two dice cups and nothing else.
The referee announced the rules: "In the first round, each player shakes their cup once and guesses the total number of points in the opponent's cup. The player with the closest guess wins. In case of a tie, a tiebreaker will be played. The stakes are ten million. Mr. Sun, you may go first."
Sun Yifeng slowly opened his eyes, which had been slightly closed.
His eyes were unusually bright. He picked up the dice cup, without any fancy movements, simply gripping the base with his fingers, and with a flick of his wrist, "Clatter!"
The five dice landed precisely in the cup with a clear, continuous sound.
Then, he moved.
It wasn't shaking, but rather a peculiar, rhythmic, minute vibration of his wrist at high speed! The dice cup made a soft "humming" sound in his hand, the clinking of the dice inside so densely packed like a downpour hitting banana leaves that no discernible numbers could be heard!
Even more astonishingly, his left index finger was lightly tapping the outer wall of the dice cup at a frequency almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
Each flick is extremely slight, but the sound of the dice rolling inside the cup will change slightly, almost imperceptibly.
"The Ghost Hand Knocking the Cup—it really is the Ghost Hand Knocking the Cup!" an elderly man with white hair whispered excitedly in the audience. "I never thought I'd see this amazing skill in my lifetime! By listening to the sound and making subtle adjustments to the cup, he can get exactly how many points he wants!"
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Sun Yifeng's forehead, clearly indicating that this "ghostly hand knocking on the cup" was extremely mentally taxing.
He shook the dice for almost a minute before slamming the dice cup down on the gambling table with a loud "bang!" The sound wasn't loud, but it had a strange penetrating power that made everyone nearby jump.
He exhaled a long breath, wiped his sweat, and looked at Jiang Zhen opposite him with sharp eyes: "Old Jiang, please guess."
""
Jiang Zhen remained seated in his wheelchair, looking as if he hadn't slept. He didn't even watch Sun Yifeng roll the dice, his eyes half-closed as if he were dozing off. Only when Sun Yifeng spoke did he slowly lift his eyelids, scratch his graying hair, and look troubled on his face: "Mr. Sun rolled the dice so vigorously, my ears are numb from listening, how could I possibly guess?"
Sun Yifeng laughed and said, "Can't guess? Then you admit defeat."
"Let me think about it." Jiang Zhen closed her eyes, tapped her temples lightly with her fingers, and muttered to herself, as if she were calculating something, or just muttering to herself.
A hint of impatience and contempt flashed in Sun Yifeng's eyes. Playing tricks!
The former gambling king is old and should have been retired long ago.
After waiting for about seven or eight seconds, just as the referee was about to give a reminder, Jiang Zhen opened his eyes, still looking dazed, and casually said a number: "I guess it's 18 o'clock."
Eighteen points? Five dice, the highest is thirty points and the lowest is five points. Eighteen points is a very average number, neither high nor low.
It sounds like they're really just making things up.
But Sun Yifeng's expression changed drastically!