Chapter 155: Don't Be Impulsive, Young Man

All the monsters in the tavern hid beneath the tables, too terrified to even draw a breath.

Li Changluo felt all the more fortunate that he had run fast enough to enjoy an Eight Immortals table all to himself...

Because, as Heiwazi hid inside a table, several burly men had already hoisted the entire Eight Immortals table up into the air...

Heiwazi was carrying the table, and several burly men were carrying Heiwazi...

Like performing acrobatic feats, the burly men and Heiwazi stood rock-solid in the middle of the tavern without changing their expressions or missing a heartbeat...

As if waiting for enthusiastic applause.

...

The monsters in the tavern finally understood that this old man was essentially just a moody senior who happened to have the exact same temper, doing things with zero regard for rules and entirely on a whim...

And, to make matters worse, he was stubborn.

"What a real shame. We agreed on two chances..."

The old man looked with a trace of regret at the computer monster, which had already burned down into a smoking pile of debris, and clicked his tongue in sighs.

Li Changluo was utterly speechless. This old man was simply unbelievable...

"Well now, little buddy, why didn't you go hide with the others?"

It was only then that the old man noticed there was still a monster in the tavern sitting calmly on a stool, completely unfazed by the recent explosion.

Truly commendable courage.

"Hmph, a bunch of cowardly wretches. I wouldn't stoop to doing anything so shameful."

The monster sitting motionless on the stool was a rat monster. He cast a disdainful glance around the tavern, which was already packed to the brim with hiders, while a profound sense of despair welled up in his heart...

He couldn't stop lamenting inwardly...
I damn well wanted to hide too, but there wasn't any space left...
What else could I possibly do?

"Then come over here, let's keep playing..."

The old man gazed at the rat monster before him with an admiring look and beckoned to him.

Yet...

The old man never imagined that this rat monster would have such a fiery temper, refusing to bow to authority and firmly sitting on the stool without showing the slightest intention of moving.

"Monsters with such backbone are truly rare these days. All of you should learn from him..."

The old man pointed at the backbone-filled rat monster with deep emotion, using him to lecture his subordinates.

"Ah, it has truly been many years since I last met a monster with such backbone. How about..."

"How about we just chop off his legs."

The old man instructed his Silver-Box Guard Unit.

The rat monster had originally thought that since the old man admired him so much, he might be planning to let him off the hook. Just as his heart was pounding with excitement...

He never expected that the old man's way of showing admiration was quite like this...

"Wait..."

Seeing the Dark-Colgate-toothpaste monster approaching him with a machete, the rat monster cried out, still maintaining a straight face.

"It's not that I wouldn't come over, it's just that my legs are numb. Please spare my pair of legs, master..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the rat monster mustered every ounce of strength he had left, dragged his backside off the stool, and fell heavily to his knees on the floor, begging the old man for mercy...

...

Hiding under the table, Li Changluo watched as the rat monster was dragged by the Dark-Colgate monster right in front of the old man. Taking advantage of the old man's distraction, Li Changluo actually managed to scoop up the Ace of Spades that the computer monster had dropped on the floor...

With speed like that, no wonder people say a thief has the eyes of a rat...

"Come on, same old rules as before. But don't you worry this time—my heart has calmed down, and I won't do anything impulsive like I did just now."

At this moment, the old man looked exactly like a little kid who got flak for cheating while playing a game, swearing on his life that he would never cheat again...

Please come play with me already.

This time, the old man genuinely seemed to be following the rules. Instead of dealing out 53 cards like he did a moment ago, he dealt one card to the rat monster and one card to himself...

Preparing for an upright, fair gambling match.

"Haha, if I lose this time, I'll eat shit on a livestream..."

Seeing that the old man genuinely intended to have a fair round with him, the rat monster patted his chest and laughed at the old man without even looking at the card in his hand.

Naturally, he had every reason to be confident, because he had just swapped the Ace of Spades he had picked up earlier with the card the old man had dealt him...

"Young man, confidence is a good thing, but do not be blindly confident. In this life, there are three things to learn: keep a low profile, know when to make sacrifices, and exercise forbearance..."

"Ahem, the old man is acting like an elder preaching again. Said too much, enough of that, let's reveal our cards..."

The old man stopped midway through his sentence and signaled the rat monster to reveal his card to compare values.

"Haha, I won..."

The rat monster eagerly flipped open the card in his hand, and sure enough, it was the Ace of Spades.

However, right as the rat monster revealed his card, Li Changluo suddenly heard a joyful shriek coming from beneath an adjacent table...

Li Changluo had initially felt a bit touched, thinking that even at such a life-or-death moment, there were still monsters who cared about the safety of their peers and felt anxious for their survival...

Yet, when Li Changluo caught a clear look at the monster letting out that joyful shriek, his previous thought vanished instantly...

A cow-dung monster was patting its chest while hiding under the table, continuously whispering to itself: "I'm safe..."

"Ah, that is simply how life goes. You see, it is always full of variables, and good luck does not last forever. Much like a spring, when your luck reaches its absolute peak, it is also the beginning of bad luck..."

Holding a Three of Clubs in his hand, the old man sighed with emotion as he expounded on the philosophy of life...

"Can I leave now? I won."

The rat monster excitedly raised the Ace of Spades in his hand to show the old man.

Yet...

As they watched, everyone noticed something was terribly wrong. The fur on the rat monster suddenly burst into flames, followed by a charred scent, and the rat monster's entire body caught fire in an instant...

Once the rat monster was set ablaze, his very first reaction was to dart frantically around the tavern like a madman...

The monsters hiding under the tables were also frightened into scrambling out, dodging the burning, frenzied rat...

Seeing this scene, Heiwazi felt an involuntary pang of heartache and burst into tears.

He was far too familiar with such a scene, and he could empathize with this agony more than anyone else. The harrowing memory of his own miserable death flashed through his mind once again...

"Well, did you all see that? This is what we call extremes meeting their opposites—misfortune depends on blessing, blessing depends on misfortune. People in this world never seem to understand this truth..."

The old man blew lightly on the flame at his fingertips while continuing to sigh with deep emotion...

As if the disaster befalling the rat monster had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

In the tavern, several monsters attempted to use their own abilities to help extinguish the fire on the rat monster...

However, the flames on the rat monster burned like Amaterasu, growing increasingly intense until the rat was burned completely down to a pile of dust before finally stopping.

"You truly are a fickle old monster, give me ten sons..."

However, just as everyone was gripped by panic and anxiety over the death of the rat monster, Heiwazi suddenly leaped out, pointed right at the old man's nose, and cursed in broken Chinese.