The Unseen Hand

1,434 words

"Not betting! I'm absolutely not gambling again," the ancestral master Li declared, shaking his head like a rattle-drum. "Do you think I'd fall for the same trick twice?"

"Not betting? Could it be that Fellow Daoist Li's standards have risen so high that even the inner core of a Bloodline Wyrm doesn't catch his eye?" The Taoist put on a look of shock and disbelief, but Han Li could tell it was all an act.

"A Bloodline Wyrm's inner core!" The ancestral master Li, who had resolved never to get tangled up with the Taoist again, blanched at the mention of the item. His voice trembled slightly.

"Indeed! I heard that Fellow Daoist Li once spent over thirty years dwelling by the perilous rapids of Panlong River in Yuanwu Kingdom just to obtain this very thing, only to leave disappointed. That's why this poor priest went to great expense to acquire it specially for you!"

The Taoist spoke unhurriedly, his demeanor now relaxed, looking as though he had already won.

"Impossible! A Bloodline Wyrm is no easy catch, let alone preserving its inner core. Are you spinning tales to mock me?" The ancestral master Li snapped out of his excitement, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"This poor priest is a man of the cloth; I do not tell falsehoods. Fellow Daoist may see for himself."

Unwilling to waste more words, the Taoist flipped his hand, revealing a round, white orb shot through with blood-red veins. The ancestral master Li's eyes gleamed at the sight, his hand itching to snatch it away.

"If your Silver-Scaled Horned Python consumes this core, after a decade or two of secluded cultivation, it should surely leap from mid Foundation Establishment to late stage. With another century of bitter practice, even entering Core Formation would not be impossible." The Taoist's words dripped with temptation.

The ancestral master Li snorted coldly at this, his face stiff, seemingly unmoved. But the flickering uncertainty in his eyes betrayed his inner turmoil.

"Such a rare wager, and Fellow Daoist still hesitates? Could it be that you have so little faith in your own valley's disciples?" The Taoist curled his lip, deploying a taunt.

"The disciples of our Yellow Maple Valley are not for Pure Void Sect to评判," the ancestral master Li said, his expression sour.

He swept his gaze over the group behind the Taoist, quickly assessing the strength of Pure Void Sect's disciples. They seemed roughly on par with Yellow Maple Valley's.

"Fine, I'll take the bet! But what treasure of mine have you set your sights on?"

After a moment's deliberation, the ancestral master Li calculated the odds of victory at roughly fifty-fifty. Coupled with his intense desire for the inner core, he finally nodded his agreement. Out of caution, he asked casually.

"Ha! This poor priest has no interest in your other treasures. I only ask that, should I win this wager, you will refine two more pieces of iron essence of the same size for me within the next twenty years. Fellow Daoist Li's true fire is famed for its purity among the Seven Great Sects; this should be a trivial matter!" The Taoist squinted, smiling, though a hint of slyness crept into his words.

"Two more pieces of the same iron essence?" The ancestral master Li's face darkened, and he nearly leaped to his feet.

"Ox-nose, are you trying to make a laborer out of me!"

"How could that be? If you win, you won't have to do it. That's a fifth-grade demon beast's inner core—equivalent to our early Core Formation stage. It's absolutely worth the price!" The Taoist wagged his head.

The ancestral master Li's face flickered through a spectrum of emotions. Finally, he slowly extended a single palm and asked coldly.

"Still the same rules as last time? First, whoever gathers the most spiritual herbs wins; second, quality over quantity; third, the number of disciples who walk out of the forbidden land alive."

"Of course! Everything as before!"

Overjoyed, the Taoist hurriedly stretched out his palm to strike the other's, sealing the wager.

A sharp smack rang out.

The Taoist had indeed struck a palm, but his expression held not a hint of joy—only dismay.

The hand he had struck was not the ancestral master Li's extended palm, but a grimy, unwashed hand that had appeared out of thin air between them. This hand materialized eerily in mid-space, coated in grease and filth, as though it had not been washed in an uncountable span of time.

The disciples from both sects, who had been intently watching their ancestral masters' exchange, stared at this ghostly scene, dumbfounded.

"Senior Qiong!"

Both the Taoist and the ancestral master Li cried out, their faces turning green.

"Senior? I wouldn't dare claim that title. I'm at the same Core Formation stage as you, just a few years ahead!" A lazy voice sounded between them, and a strangely dressed figure gradually materialized.

The man wore a blue robe patched in several places, his hair cropped short at a few inches, and tucked under his arm was a faded blue cloth bag—he seemed a man who valued cleanliness. Yet his face was completely slick with grease, a large, blackened mess that concealed his true features.

"A few years? It's a few hundred years!"

Recognizing the newcomer, the ancestral master Li and the Taoist exchanged bitter smiles. After sighing with the thought, "So it's him," they dared show no disrespect.

This eccentric was not only terrifyingly old, with one foot already in the Nascent Soul stage, but his self-created Invisible Evasion Art had made him famous throughout the cultivation world. Even the various sects in neighboring kingdoms had long heard of his name.

Perhaps because his great limit was approaching, and he had been unable to fully enter the Nascent Soul stage, his temperament over the past century had grown increasingly strange. He took great delight in teasing Core Formation cultivators, and nearly all of the few dozen senior cultivators among the Seven Great Sects had been made miserable by his antics.

Yet these cultivators, usually treated as founding patriarchs within their own sects, could do nothing about him.

In terms of magical power, this man was second to none among Core Formation cultivators. In terms of backing, he was a member of the most powerful sect among the Seven Great Sects—Moon Embracing Sect. If they sought out their own Nascent Soul "eminent figures" to teach him a lesson, these "eminent figures" mostly knew him already, and even those who didn't weren't willing to trouble themselves over a trivial matter.

Thus, this man had become a veritable "tyrant" and "rogue" among the upper echelons of the cultivation world. Basically, when anyone saw him, they prayed he was in a good mood that day—otherwise, a bit of teasing and hardship was unavoidable!

The sudden arrival of such a "senior" naturally startled the ancestral master Li and the Taoist, filling them with unease! Both had suffered under him!

"If we're gambling, it would be too dull with just the two of you. Count this old wretch in as well!" This Senior Qiong seemed to be in good spirits, but his words made the two men groan inwardly.

"The senior jokes. How could our disciples compare to the elite of Moon Embracing Sect? We would surely lose without a doubt. No need to gamble; we concede defeat!" The Taoist forced a smile.

The ancestral master Li pressed his lips tight, but his expression showed complete agreement.

Old Man Qiong snickered coldly at this, rolled his eyes, and spoke with a strange tone.

"Do you think I'd do something so cheap and bullying? Rest assured, as long as your two sects' combined results surpass my own sect's, then I lose. Then the two of you can settle your own bet."

"Really?"

The Taoist breathed a sigh of relief. Though this man was unpredictable in mood and said whatever came to mind, when he spoke, his word was as solid as iron. He had never broken a promise. With this, the wager was quite fair—the two of them even had a slight advantage.

"These three Formless Needle Talisman Treasures were something I refined for fun during idle times. Since I have no descendants, I'll use them as this round's wager!" The old man raised his hand, revealing three talismans painted with seven-colored needles, then flicked them away and withdrew them.

The ancestral master Li and the Taoist could not hide the shock on their faces. They glanced at each other, each seeing a flicker of greed in the other's eyes.

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Reading Guide Decoding

High-Stakes Gambling in the Cultivation World

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter is a beautiful illustration of several core xianxia tropes. First, the "Talisman Treasure" (符宝) is introduced here as a third-party wager. It's not a normal magic tool; it's a compressed, single-use or limited-use imprint of a true high-grade artifact's power. In the market, it's a high-cost, high-reward asset, often created by dying Core Formation elders as a way to pass on power they can no longer wield. It's the ideal "cheat code" for a lower-cultivator who needs overwhelming force but can't use the real thing. Second, Senior Qiong's character is a classic "eccentric senior" (怪老怪). He's powerful, unpredictable, and irritating—a walking rule-breaker who exists above the petty politics of normal cultivators. His "Invisible Evasion Art" is a sign of his mastery over a specialized technique that even the elders of other sects respect. His arrival and interference are a reminder that in the cultivation world, the true power sits above the game, laughing at the players. Finally, the structure of the bet itself is a perfect example of the "Zero-Sum Resource Economy." The sect that wins the most herbs from the forbidden land gets the biggest payoff, but Senior Qiong's clever twist forces the disciples of two sects to collaborate indirectly by beating a third, creating a fascinating strategic paradox: temporary alliance through hostile competition.

Chapter Overview

Alright, buckle up, fellow Daoists, because this chapter is a masterclass in how the real power games are played among the big shots. Forget the bloody scuffles of Qi Condensation juniors—this is where the actual adults sit down to play. We've got our beloved Ancestral Master Li being expertly baited by a slick-tongued Pure Void Taoist with a Bloodline Wyrm's inner core—a prize he's been chasing for over thirty years. But just when the wager is about to be sealed, a third player crashes the party: the notorious Senior Qiong, an eccentric, nearly-Nascent-Soul terror from the Moon Embracing Sect. He flips the whole script, turning a simple two-way bet into a three-way showdown that rewards the combined performance of the weaker sects. It's a brutal, cynical negotiation that perfectly captures the "Dark Forest" economy of the cultivation world: everything has a price, a counter-offer, and a hidden blade.

Key Plot Points

The chapter opens with Ancestral Master Li stubbornly refusing to gamble, only to have his resolve instantly shattered when the Taoist dangles the Bloodline Wyrm's inner core. This single rare item—a prize worth decades of fruitless searching—is enough to override his caution. The Taoist smoothly applies verbal pressure, framing the wager as fair and even a slight advantage for Li's side, sealing the deal with the task of refining more iron essence. This is a classic exposition of high-stakes bargaining: the bait is irresistible, the labor cost is deferred, and the immediate prize is tangible. Just as the pact is about to be sealed with a handclap, Senior Qiong materializes out of thin air, intercepting the handshake. His arrival redefines the game entirely. He proposes a three-way contest where his own sect's disciples are excluded from direct competition; instead, Li's and the Taoist's teams must combine their results to exceed Qiong's. This structure is crucial: it pits the two weaker sects against the strongest one, creating a perverse incentive where Li and the Taoist are now indirect allies rather than antagonists. The chapter ends with the revelation of the prize Qiong is willing to stake—three Formless Needle Talisman Treasures—a prize so valuable it reignites the greed in Li's and the Taoist's eyes.

Reading Guide

This is a fantastic chapter to pay close attention to the economics of power. The characters aren't fighting; they're calculating. Every line of dialogue is a bargaining chip. The Bloodline Wyrm's inner core isn't just a rare item; it's an investment in a senior cultivator's future cultivation. The iron essence isn't just labor; it's a future resource that the Taoist can leverage. Senior Qiong's Talisman Treasures are the most liquid asset of all: instant, high-impact firepower. For the reader, this chapter is a lens into how the "real" cultivation world works outside the battlefield. It's not about who has the best martial art, but who can afford the best resources and who can negotiate the most favorable terms. Watch how Li's initial stubborn refusal is overcome not by logic, but by a prize that speaks to his specific, decades-long weakness. That's the Mortal Stream's version of a perfect trap: not flashing a sword, but offering a key to a locked door. Also, keep an eye on the power dynamics. Senior Qiong doesn't threaten anyone; he doesn't need to. His mere existence and reputation do the work. He's a level of power that makes the scheming of Core Formation and Foundation Establishment cultivators look like a children's game.