Chapter 156: Reduced to Ashes and Smoke
"Li, I wanted to describe him as being as unfathomable and slippery as water, and tell him not to go too far and stop what he was doing. Did I mess up another idiom?"
Hei Wa had thought that by stepping forward for everyone like this, he would reap a wave of adulatory gazes. But in reality, the tavern had suddenly fallen dead silent...
All the monsters were casting bizarre, sidelong glances at him...
Feeling perplexed, Hei Wa turned to Li Changluo for answers.
However...
Li Changluo awkwardly pretended to be searching for something on the floor, deliberately avoiding Hei Wa's gaze...
*I don't know him...*
*I swear on my life I don't know such a heavy-tasting dark-skinned guy...*
"Ah, it's you. Have you given it any thought? Would you like to join my Silver Box Vanguard?"
Seeing Hei Wa jump out, the old man looked him up and down with great interest, as if closely inspecting a fine piece of art...
Compared to the counterfeit toothpaste-monster Negroes around him, if a genuine, authentic, no-fake-about-it dark-skinned fellow like Hei Wa helped him carry the coffin, it would certainly give him immense prestige.
"Little Black, if you agree to serve me, whatever happens today won't concern you anymore. You can safely sit behind me and crack melon seeds."
The old man coaxed Hei Wa like a shady character trying to lure someone into a scam.
"No..."
Hei Wa turned his head away and rejected the old man's proposal.
Seeing Hei Wa stand his ground with such a firm stance and such upright, positive values, Li Changluo was deeply gratified. It seemed his recent efforts in mentoring Hei Wa had not been in vain...
It appeared that Hei Wa had finally grown into a big dark monster who understood the bigger picture and did not cower before tyranny...
Hei Wa had finally been spiritually elevated in our great nation...
Only...
Only, why the hell did your mouth say no...
While your body very honestly walked over and stood behind the old man?
You must be under his mental control, right?
Just like Zheng Qiguai, Lin Dandan, and Miss Ming Shan...
It has to be that...
However, just as Li Changluo was daydreaming that Hei Wa hadn't defected just to save his own skin, he discovered that Hei Wa was already cracking melon seeds, flashing a row of brilliant white teeth against his pitch-black face, and grinning directly at him...
"Young man, your friend told me you wanted a fair and square match with me, is that right?"
The old man looked at Li Changluo with a kind smile and beckoned him over...
...
...
However, after quite a while, the old man's smile began to falter. As an elder questioning a junior...
This junior actually ignored him and kept clutching a large garlic monster next to him instead...
"Hey, big brother, why do you keep pushing me?"
The garlic monster exhaled a breath, looking blankly at Li Changluo, who kept shoving him from behind.
"The elderly gentleman is talking to you, how can you just stay silent?"
"Go on, go fight, young man! For the tavern, for that unquenchable flame of justice burning in your heart, go bravely..."
Li Changluo pinched his nose and continuously shoved the garlic monster forward...
This act of burying one's head in the sand made the monsters in the tavern unable to help but curse Li Changluo as despicable and utterly shameless...
In the end, Li Changluo was still hoisted up by two toothpaste monsters and carried before the old man...
Hei Wa was sitting behind the old man, making funny faces and blinking frantically at him, as if trying to convey some sort of message. But Li Changluo...
Couldn't see Hei Wa's expression at all; he was just too dark...
"Young man, life is all about fate. How does that saying go..."
The old man scratched his head, looked at the toothpaste monsters standing on either side of him, suddenly remembered, and said, "A solitary shadow over the cold river, an old friend from the martial world; when meeting, what need is there to have known each other before..."
"Mister, just get straight to the point..."
Li Changluo sat squarely opposite the old man, watching his clumsy card-shuffling technique, and suddenly stopped feeling panicked...
Everything is easier when you know people...
The fact that the other party could quote such lines meant he still placed great importance on their midnight encounter back at the apartment complex.
Coupled with the connection through Hei Wa, this old man was probably going to deliberately go easy on him...
And deliberately let him win...
How boring...
He was about to get a victory without putting in any effort...
How he loved...
This effortless feeling of being carried to victory.
"Since we are old friends, I cannot let an old friend down. Let's play something simple..."
Looking at Li Changluo, the old man maintained his kind and benevolent expression...
As expected, Li Changluo had guessed correctly; this was the rhythm of going easy on him. He felt much more at ease...
After all, everything is easier when you know people.
"Let's play 'guess what card I am holding'."
As he spoke, the old man drew a card from the deck and placed it face down before him...
"............"
Li Changluo almost jumped up in rage to beat someone. This was truly a trap specifically laid for acquaintances...
What happened to playing something simple?
Was this really simple...
Simply sending me to my doom?
"I'm not playing."
Li Changluo stiffened his neck and stood up from the stool...
However, upon seeing the flames igniting at the tips of the old man's fingers, he obediently sat back down.
"Come on, make your guess..."
"You only get one chance. Guess wrong, and you'll vanish into thin air just like them..."
The old man tapped the playing card placed before him.
...
...
Time ticked away second by second...
The atmosphere in the tavern was so tense that even the sound of heartbeats could be clearly heard...
Even...
Exclamations of surprise occasionally drifted over...
At first, the monsters in the tavern were sweating bullets over this deadly gambling game, but as time slowly dragged on...
This group of monsters suddenly felt that the gamble was terribly boring, and they felt an urge to fall asleep...
Because Li Changluo had already slumped onto the table and fallen asleep...
The old man sitting opposite Li Changluo was furious by this point...
In a life-or-death gambling match like this, you actually managed to fall asleep...
And you even slept so deeply that you drooled...
Are you looking down on an old man like me?
"Wake up right now..."
At this, the old man, who had always advocated for peace and calm without losing his temper, suddenly slammed the table in a rage, his benevolent face twisted with anger.
"Ah, I'm so sorry."
"You see, you didn't even give me a time limit, so I just fell asleep while guessing..."
Startled awake, Li Changluo rubbed his sleep-heavy eyes and stretched lazily...
"............"
The old man's face turned green...
Are you toying with an old man for fun?
With a sudden *whoosh*, the flames in the white-haired old man's hands blared to life as he swept them toward Li Changluo...
He wanted to burn this shameless scoundrel to crisp, reducing him to a wisp of smoke and ash to vent the lingering hatred of being played for a fool...
However...
Things did not seem to go quite as he had anticipated...
According to the procedure, it should have been catching fire, a charred scent, frantic screaming, and complete annihilation—a one-stop service...
Yet...
The flames he controlled, the moment they touched Li Changluo...
Li Changluo's entire body suddenly burst into flames as well. It was as if gasoline had been splashed all over him, and the fire grew more and more ferocious...
Like the other monsters who had been burned, Li Changluo began to scream frantically and run around in a panic...
Only...
As he screamed, he suddenly stopped and ceased his wild running...
Did something seem a little off?