Chapter 60- Rocks Rocks Rocks

After a relaxing and peaceful moment of silence between the two budding cultivators, their order soon arrived in a luxurious setting, though, only up to normal standards.

Long Ren and Yun Ning ate their orders and they quite enjoyed them. They tasted decently made with expensive ingredients but still incomparable to those Diona provided. It's a fulfilling brunch snack, at the very least.

The waiters soon cleaned the table, leaving Long Ren and Yun Ning with but a cup and pot of premium chrysanthemum tea. They sipped the warm tea, relishing them as the morning cold breeze blew on their body.

"I love this place, maybe we could visit here another time," Yun Ning said. The ends of her hair rustled as the surrounding winds enhanced her serene figure.

She felt extremely relaxed here, maybe it's only due to her relief of the previous mess or because the place is designed to her taste, either way, she came to enjoy this restaurant.

Long Ren nodded, "I like this place too, we don't get to see this view every day," He said, looking down through the window as he observed the busy street. Although the view isn't positioned perfectly, it still encompasses a good amount of the bustling city.

As he looked down, something interesting caught his eyes. A magnificent-looking building, way bigger than everything in its surroundings, stood at the corner of his view, having more activity than any other spot.

A certain segment of the building was busier than others yet Long Ren could not see why, making him interested. Something interesting, or at least fun, should be happening in it.

Yun Ning saw his gaze locked onto the building and explained, "That's the auction building we'll be visiting. It's still so busy even though the event starts in two hours."

Long Ren nodded in understanding. An auction house capable of doing decade-special auctions should at least be this grand.

"What's in there?" Long Ren asked, pointing at the particularly busy segment of the building.

"That's the gambling den, rocks, talismans, rings, everything that plays in their favor is sold there." Yun Ning answered, "Although the chances of you making it back is extremely small, it's still quite fun."

Long Ren's mouth made an "O" in response. A gambling den, one leap to turn to a dragon, one shot to rise, or at least that's what their marketing strategy probably sounds like.

And it proved to be effective, seeing all those poor souls gathering. Giving them self off to be robbed in broad daylight.

"Do you want to try?" Yun Ning asked

"Let's visit it right before the auction, I still wanna enjoy it here." Long Ren answered, squeezing their hands once more as his eyes turned to hers, prompting Yun Ning to smile even wider.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Thank you for your patronage! Please visit us again next time!" Several rows of waiters and waitresses wearing high-end clothing bowed as they shouted their goodbyes.

Long Ren and Yun Ning waved them off as they start their small journey towards the gambling den, hand in hand.

They enjoyed the serene atmosphere of the restaurant for about two hours, talking about little mundane things or just relishing this little time they spent together.

When the bill arrived, Long Ren felt cheated. The private room "rent" added an exorbitant amount, enough to make anyone else cough up their inner blood.

But, they both are basically second-generation rich kids. It's nothing to them, but it still scratches their fragile plump wallets.

No wonder their farewell showed such extravagance. They probably already know of their status anyway, hence the reason Yun Ning and Long Ren were allowed to book a private high-rise room.

Anyway!

Not ten minutes later, Long Ren and Yun Ning arrived at the gambling den. It still bustles with activity, but much less.

They walked through the staring crowd, hand in hand, as they went in through the entrance drapes.

Inside, they saw several sections, each with its own unique takes. A rock gambling den, decorated with more than lavish decorations took half of the entire insides. They sold several kinds of gambling rocks there from normal looking street rocks to dark sharp crystals.

Situated on its right lay a talisman gambling den, occupying 1/4th of the room, as words of wisdom and jumbled-up runes carved themselves on its pillars, radiating off a mystifying feeling.

Other different small types of gambling games occupied the last 1/4th of the room. Rock gambling seemed to be the most popular out of all.

They both approached the nearest type of rock for sale, a jet-black round rock, each around the size of a baseball.

An attendant quickly took notice of them, it's hard not to when the whispers of the crowd kept directing themselves toward them

Though most of them are about Yun Ning, occasionally, Long Ren. It's easy to tell who of the two garnered more attention.

Yun Ning, is, after all, more outgoing, challenging every strong disciple of her rank right after being Diona's disciple, while Long Ren, only stayed sleeping in his comfy room.

Sometimes, Yun Ning and Long Ren wonder whether these whisperers are stupid enough to forget that they can hear them. They are cultivators for fucks sake! Have some subtlety people!

The whispers ranged from why they're here, why they're together, simple everyday gossip really. These gossipers really have nothing else going on in their mundane pathetic life it seems.

The attendant greets them and introduces herself as Li Han.

"Have young master or young miss ever tried rock gambling before?" She asked politely.

They both shook their heads since her explanation makes it easier for both of them.

"Okay! Please let Li Han explain it to young master and young miss, thank you." She said with an enthusiastic tone and smile.

They both nodded while wondering how she could possibly maintain this energy for the whole day.

"First of all, Rock gambling became popular a few hundred thousand years ago when an immortal spread its methods to impart items into rocks. Back then, spatial rings didn't exist, becoming the most popular method of storage.

After that, multiple iterations of such methods were made and used, filling an exorbitant amount of types of rocks in the world with ancient cultivators items, hence, the attraction towards rock gambling.

This Grey-Obsidian rock is one of those common rocks they stored with. The best find one has opened is a living 100 thousand-year-old Prime Scuttlebug, something cultivator would kill for!

Its price went so high that even the treasures of a peak sky level cultivator won't be able to afford it!" She excitedly rambled on, explaining each and every detail that she knew while answering questions Long Ren and Yun Ning threw out.

After a while, they both asked for privacy and the attendant nodded, leaving them to their own actions, though, she still stood near to assist them whenever.

Long Ren and Yun Ning picked up several of those Grey-Obsidian rocks, weighing them up and down. What was stored inside didn't affect the stone's weight, it's just a subconscious thing they tried to do.

Like when Long Ren pull from his gacha system, he always did some ritual, even if he knows it won't ever affect the result at all. Though, he stopped doing that after the first year, it's just too much work really.

Thousands of those rocks lay in its enclosure, each of them costing between 1 to 50 gold coins. It had to be noted that 100 bronze coins could feed a human's life for one day. One gold coin is 1000 silver coins, and one silver coin is 1000 bronze coins.

Of course, those are non-cultivator standards, usually, cultivators eat about 50 silvers worth of food each meal. Non-cultivators are really cheap, after all.

A normal cultivator would need to give up 20 meals worth to buy one of the cheaper stones. Quite an extravagant bet, really. As expected from the biggest gambling den in the city.

"How much do you have right now?" Long Ren asked Yun Ning. He himself only had about pure 12 diamond coins, and if he sold all his expandables, it could reach twenty or thirty diamonds.

Yun Ning examined her storage ring and answered, "About pure 49 diamonds,"

"You're pretty rich, maybe you should buy me some," Long Ren joked, he knew Yun Ning would at the very least be richer than him, considering Diona and all.

"Maybe this young Miss will do so, but it won't be free," Yun Ning said as her smile turned mischievous, pulling Long Ren's arms closer to hers.

"Pfft, I'm not that cheap, Miss," Long Ren laughed and said.

"Tch, I'll get you someday," Yun Ning said and laughed. She turned her attention back towards the rocks and picked a few to gamble on, they were already here, might as well have some fun.

Long Ren smiled and thought to himself, 'Maybe you will…maybe you have…,' and followed her, picking a few rocks for himself.

~~~~~

(A/N: Visited my first casino today. Not fun, not reccomended. Mostly slots and they're boring af lmao.)