Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Battlesage, Helen, Liz, and Ronron registered for the gambling opportunity in that particular order. There were a few people already in the queue, so they had to wait and watch the event continue.

Alex scratched his chin, mulling over the reason why this could be a yellow spot.

’Are all yellow spots for single-person challenges perhaps?’ he thought.

The last one had been a solo fight against a stone guardian too, so it made some sense, but not a whole lot.

’Then what? Are red spots for many people competing at once?’

In a way, they were, and it did completely match with what he knew about the red spots, but it didn’t matter since the green spot they had been to had been similar too.

Any number of people could take part in that, and they could get multiple stars from it as well. If what he had thought was the truth, then it was because he was missing something else.

’Let’s wait a few days before I think I know what these colors mean,’ he thought and focused his attention on the bowl-moving puppet.

Alex couldn’t help but wonder if the purpose of such an incredible puppet was only this. Or had it been repurposed for this situation?

That seemed a lot more likely than the former.

A few people went up to the puppet and bet anywhere from a single star to 15 stars in one go. And each time, they all failed. All of these cultivators had to give up their hard-earned stars to the puppet as they couldn’t figure out which bowl the red crystal was in.

Battlesage’s turn was next, so Alex whispered into his ear.

”Don’t bet more than 10, senior. Everyone keeps failing, so I fear the puppet is doing something we can’t tell from outside. Don’t let it swindle all your stars at once.”

Battlesage nodded and walked on ahead.

”Welcome. What is your bet?” the puppet asked.

”Ten stars!” Battlesage said.

He bet exactly 10 stars against the puppet, so if he won, he would get 100 stars in return. A tenfold amount of the stars he placed into the bet made it tempting to put more than that, but he didn’t fall for the trap.

He was fine with the current situation.

The puppet picked up the red crystal and placed it into a bowl before flipping the bowl upside down. The dozens of hands from around the puppet reached down for the other bowls, and slowly, it started moving them.

Battlesage watched with rapt attention, making sure he didn’t miss anything significant. His eyebrows stayed raised, and he didn’t even blink as his eyes followed each movement the bowls took.

The bowls were not only nondescript, but also completely identical to each other, which made using any method other than paying attention nearly impossible.

The puppet shuffled through the dozens of bowls, its movements starting slow but slowly picking up speed.

At its peak, the puppet’s movements were a blur, with the arms seemingly passing through each other to make the system faster and harder for a regular person to notice.

Finally, after what felt like a long time, the bowls came to a stop. The puppet pulled back its arms and looked toward Battlesage.

”Which bowl do you choose?” it asked.

Battlesage took a deep breath and pointed toward one of the bowls. He had been paying attention the entire time, so he was not going to waste any time second-guessing his decision.

”It’s this bowl,” the old man said and waited.

The puppet’s limb slowly extended down to the bowl and flipped it.

It was empty.

”Huh?” the old man said in surprise. ”I could swear I...”

”Unfortunate,” the puppet’s voice came, as it revealed the bowl under which the red crystal lay. ”You have lost.”

Battlesage couldn’t understand how he had made the mistake of not following the bowl correctly, but since he had failed, he handed over the stars and walked away.

Helen walked up next, sitting down before the puppet.

”How many?” the puppet asked.

”One.”

She wasn’t going to waste more than that on this. Especially since she didn’t know if they could even pass.

The puppet started again, flipping the bowls over as its arms moved around in strange, almost enchanting ways. Helen focused on just the bowl, using her Demon Eyes to keep track of it despite its impossibly quick movement.

The Demon Eyes’ kinetic vision made it possible for her to see the bowls move at a speed where it was easy for her to follow along.

She focused until it was all over and finally took a breath she had been holding the entire time.

”This!” she said, pointing at the bowl where the red crystal should have been.

The puppet reached for the bowl and flipped it.

It was empty.

”Huh?” Helen’s expression changed a little. ”No, that’s not right. I followed it perfectly. It has to be this bowl.”

”Unfortunate,” the puppet said, clearly preprogrammed to say that. It revealed a different bowl that was nowhere close to where the crystal could have been.

”You have lost.”

Helen was frustrated at being wrong. She gave the star and walked away.

”I think it’s cheating,” Helen said as she returned. ”I can’t prove it, but I’m sure of it.”

”Well, let me see,” Liz said and walked up to the puppet.

She sat down and bet a single star. The puppet began moving the bowls around.

Liz used Demon Eyes as well to watch the bowls, but on top of that, she used the Dao of Temporal Swiftness upon herself so that the world around her slowed down.

Within moments, the puppet began moving at a very normal speed, the bowls shifting so very slowly before her eyes.

It was a simple task to follow the bowl at this point, but just as she was beginning to relax, she sensed something.

Her eyes widened slowly as she realized that Helen was indeed correct.

The puppet was cheating.

And she had just sensed how.