Chapter 287

The tile master opened his bone tiles first.

Five, seven, six.

A total of eighteen points.

The middle-aged man also flipped his bone tiles.

“The tile master won.”

Seven, five, seven.

A total of nineteen points.

The woman smiled and showed her bone tiles.

Ten, ten, nine.

A total of twenty-nine points!

It was an extremely high score.

This game uses five sets of bone tiles from one to ten points each. That is, there are five tiles worth ten points.

Unless Jin Ja-gang had all three remaining ten-point tiles, he couldn’t win.

People’s eyes turned to Jin Ja-gang. It wouldn’t be easy for Jin Ja-gang’s tiles to beat the woman’s score. But since he had come out so confidently, he must have had something worth trying.

Jin Ja-gang slowly flipped his bone tiles.

But then.

Crack!

The moment he turned it, he crushed the bone tile.

It was a completely unexpected action.

“What, what!”

Jin Ja-gang flipped the next bone tile again. But at that moment, the bone tile turned to powder in Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

“What points were they that you’re breaking them!”

Some people were more curious about the score than the breaking.

Crack crack! Crack crack!

Jin Ja-gang turned all three bone tiles he had into powder, making them unrecognizable.

The tile master’s eyes contorted.

“What kind of behavior is this? Are you causing trouble in someone else’s business?”

Jin Ja-gang crossed his arms and said nothing.

The woman protested.

“H-hey! I won! Do you think it’ll be forgotten if you say you lost? Hurry up and hand over the promissory note!”

The spectators stirred uneasily at the bad atmosphere.

They had thought there would be something amazing when Poison Dragon came out waving ten thousand taels, but there was nothing!

In the end, it only looked like he was being stubborn after losing from showing off.

The tile master hardened his face.

“Since you damaged the bone tiles, the stakes are forfeited. This is your defeat, great hero.”

Jin Ja-gang looked up at Oh Tae on the upper floor with an expressionless face, not at the tile master.

Seeing Jin Ja-gang looking at him, Oh Tae chuckled.

“I knew this would happen.”

Oh Tae turned and headed toward the inner room, saying.

“Bring him. Politely.”

Finally, those running the gambling den stepped forward to take Jin Ja-gang away, and the commotion subsided. Jin Ja-gang obediently followed the men.

People who didn’t understand the situation cursed Jin Ja-gang for ruining the gambling den’s atmosphere.

* * *

Oh Tae met with Jin Ja-gang privately in the outer inner quarters of the gambling den.

He brought out premium snacks and expensive liquor. Despite seeing Jin Ja-gang cause trouble, he was actually treating him properly.

“An interesting fellow. You even know to preserve the honor of a mere gambling den owner. This is my gratitude, so drink plenty.”

Oh Tae added.

“There’s no poison or anything.”

Jin Ja-gang poured the liquor and drank it in one gulp. After drinking, he lightly touched his tongue to his teeth and smacked his lips.

“Oh my, there is some.”

But for saying there was poison, Jin Ja-gang’s face was very calm.

“Kekeke, damn it. No matter how I mix the most colorless and odorless extreme poison, you detect it instantly.”

Jin Ja-gang poured and drank the liquor containing extreme poison again, as if it was useless to him.

Oh Tae got irritated.

“Since you know, stop drinking! That poison is ten times harder to obtain than Aged Well Wine!”

Aged Well Wine was high-quality liquor brewed with old well water, excellent in taste and aroma.

Oh Tae took away the poisoned liquor and brought out proper Aged Well Wine. Oh Tae personally poured liquor for Jin Ja-gang and asked.

“How did you know?”

The middle-aged man and woman were gambling technicians sent by Oh Tae to test Jin Ja-gang. The tile master was also on Oh Tae’s side.

“Among the five ten-point bone tiles, one was in the gentleman’s hand, and the remaining three were in the lady’s hand. But the gentleman didn’t flip his ten-point tile, and the lady only flipped two out of three.”

The woman had twenty-nine points.

Even if Jin Ja-gang had gotten ten, nine, nine, with twenty-eight points he couldn’t have won. So she deliberately flipped only two out of three ten-point tiles to make twenty-nine points. That is, the three people had conspired from the beginning for the woman to win.

“Hmm. So how did you figure that out?”

Jin Ja-gang dipped his pinky finger in the liquor and drew a line on the table.

Soon a sour smell arose, making Oh Tae frown. Not knowing what the smell was, he had to raise his internal energy.

“It’s juice from poison parsley-type plants. When touched with fingertips, it gives a slight burning and hot sensation. When touched, you unconsciously rub your fingers.”

Jin Ja-gang dipped in the liquor again and drew another line.

This time it smelled rotten.

“It’s Paederia scandens. When touched, it’s slippery and makes the tongue tingle, producing saliva. You smack your lips and swallow saliva.”

“Chicken urine smell.”

“I applied two types of poison alternately to the five ten-point bone tiles.”

If poison was applied very lightly to avoid harm to the body, then whenever someone touched the poisoned bone tiles, all the expressions and actions he just mentioned would be revealed.

That’s how Jin Ja-gang could know where all the ten-point bone tiles moved.

“Our tile master was the most skilled fellow…”

Since it wasn’t marking the tiles or applying visible poison, even the tile master would have found it difficult to notice.

“Tsk. A fellow who claims to know nothing about gambling was well-versed in gambling.”

Oh Tae laughed.

“I never thought you’d threaten me by breaking the tiles.”

“Is that so?”

Jin Ja-gang broke the tiles because he already knew where the ten-point tiles were.

There were only fifty tiles total. If they flipped all the remaining tiles to check Jin Ja-gang’s tiles, they would quickly find out.

But if they had done that, it would have revealed that the middle-aged man and woman had more ten-point tiles in the process.

So Jin Ja-gang sent a signal to Oh Tae.

What would he do? Would he continue and watch the gambling den be humiliated, or would he stop here?

Oh Tae had no choice but to accept Jin Ja-gang’s proposal. Gamblers know that cheating happens routinely in gambling dens, but they don’t believe it until they see it with their own eyes. If Jin Ja-gang had exposed the cheating, the gambling den would have completely lost trust.

Oh Tae asked.

“What were you going to do if I hadn’t sent technicians? What if you really lost to luck without using tricks?”

“Wouldn’t Old Master Oh have paid that ten thousand taels for me?”

“I would have.”

“So…”

Jin Ja-gang brought up the topic.

“What do you want to propose to me?”

When Jin Ja-gang came saying he would sell himself, the scholar had set a price of ten thousand taels as if prepared. Jin Ja-gang already knew then that Oh Tae was ready to deal with him.

Oh Tae seemed surprised that conversation would go this smoothly, looked Jin Ja-gang up and down once, then immediately stated his business.

“Poison.”

“What kind of poison?”

“The poison that destroyed the Zhuge family’s Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, killed Demonic Nun Myowol, and brought Indestructible Heavenly Sword Baek Li-jung to his knees.”

“I did poison Demonic Nun, but she immediately performed energy circulation breathing at the time and didn’t die.”

“It’s fine. Everyone else thinks you killed her anyway.”

Oh Tae wanted the poison Jin Ja-gang possessed.

“The Tang family is too proud to sell their poisons to people like us even if we offer a thousand gold. Thanks to you sweeping away all of Yunnan’s Poison Sects, it’s now hard to obtain poison of that caliber.”

“Hmm.”

Jin Ja-gang briefly pondered since he had never thought about selling his poison.

“Of course you’ll use it to kill someone?”

“What nonsense are you spouting? If not for killing, would I use poison to save someone? People in my line of work need life-saving measures. Your poison would be worth ten thousand taels.”

However, on the other hand, they might be trying to analyze and study Jin Ja-gang’s poison to create antidotes.

Of course, that was impossible. Jin Ja-gang used poison through two paths: one was poison consumed by chewing and accumulated in the dantian. Poisons like the Paederia scandens he just used were such. The other was turbid energy poison accumulated as byproducts of various poisons, starting with Five Colors Five Energies and Transforming Essence Penetrating Heart Pills.

It was very powerful, but because various poisons were mixed, antidotes were impossible, and even Jin Ja-gang couldn’t predict when or how the effects would manifest.

“What’s the price?”

“The ten thousand taels from earlier.”

“I don’t particularly need money. What I want is…”

“I know. Finding Iron Umbrella Sect’s stolen goods. I’ll just help with that.”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Oh Tae.

Oh Tae’s eyes held killing intent.

“You’re looking for those who swept away the corpses and remaining assets from Stone Forest Gang and Poison Valley in broad daylight, right? Many of our people got hurt trying to reveal their identity.”

“Are you saying you’ll take revenge?”

“If you do that for me, I couldn’t ask for more. Even bottom-dwellers have something called loyalty.”

“Good.”

Oh Tae immediately brought a small vial about the size of a finger. Jin Ja-gang bit his pinky and put it in the vial.

“I’ll check if it’s real later.”

Drip, drip.

After squeezing out a few drops of poison, he handed it to Oh Tae. Oh Tae carefully corked and stored it.

“What’s the poison’s name?”

“There isn’t one.”

“None?”

Oh Tae looked incredulous and frowned.

“Look. It seems like a poison you created, but that’s not right no matter what. For example, the poison used by the Tang family’s Soul Seizing Room is Maga Blood Corruption Powder, one of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons. Just hearing the name Soul Seizing Room makes ordinary people tremble. Do you understand what I mean?”

Oh Tae was right. Naming was a good means of psychologically pressuring opponents.

“I understand. I’ll think about it.”

“Think carefully and attach a nice name. If I say ‘This is the poison that killed Demonic Nun!’ and others ask what poison it is, what would I say? If I can’t answer and just stammer, what kind of dog-like situation would that be? So having a name is very important.”

Oh Tae grabbed a handful of bone tiles, laid them out on the table, then picked one up. He spun it between his fingers.

Rattle.

Amazingly, each time the bone tile spun between his fingers, the number of dots on the tile changed. Oh Tae raised his hand and moved his fingers to show. Five bone tiles spun frantically between his fingers. But the numbers on those tiles kept changing completely.

Rattle rattle rattle.

It was technique close to miraculous. Having such skills, it was no wonder Jin Ja-gang had been defeated.

“Even this has a name: Heaven and Earth Dealing.”

Oh Tae looked at Jin Ja-gang’s expression and asked as if he expected this.

“What. Do you want to learn this too?”

“Should I learn it?”

“You’ll have to learn. If you want to find the stolen goods.”

Jin Ja-gang looked at him as if asking what he meant.

“The stolen goods were sold in all directions through our gambling den, making tracking difficult. It would go against the rules of this business for us to tell you or find the person who disposed of the stolen goods. But it’s not like there’s no method. When gambling hooks gamblers, they’ll try to obtain whatever they need.”

“You mean I have to find them through gambling.”

“Right. So starting tomorrow, come learn the Eight Great Masters for a while.”

The Eight Great Masters referred to eight famous writers from the Tang and Song dynasties. But he probably didn’t mean learning literature.

Oh Tae grinned.

“Judging by your expression, you don’t know. Eight Great Masters is underworld slang meaning gambling.”