Bao Zhi and Hao Meng left the Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda behind as they flew quietly above the sand dunes.
In the distance they could see immortals flying towards the same location, embarked to the Tian Qucheng banquet.
The rank six gu immortal at the entrance welcomed the guests warmly, giving a serving of top quality wine to each attendee.
The organizer's magnanimity could be seen right from the start.
"This Che clan is really something."
"Offering a cup of Soul Mirror Wine? I would attend just to lick the dishes clean!"
"Indeed. It is a top quality wine after all, the best wine for us, soul path gu immortals."
"I heard this great wine is a truthful imitation of the Bewitching Lake's water, the Bewitching Soup."
"Bewitching Soup was praised by Ren Zu's first son, Verdant Great Sun, as the best wine in the world. It is no small matter to imitate that."
"When souls drink it, they become content and lose the desire to leave. This shows Che clan's attitude clearly."
"But isn't it a waste to offer it?"
"What do you know! Che clan gathered the four top tier wines and refined Divine Travel immortal gu. This is just the leftovers used to garner goodwill."
"Oh. If Divine Travel gu is already refined, then all top tier wines are worth way less."
The guest talked among themselves.
"Esteemed guests, how may I address you?"
"Lord Hao and his attendant." Hao Meng replied curtly.
The guard looked at the two of them and welcomed them accordingly.
Hao Meng had his appearance changed. His skin became old and his back hunched.
While Bao Zhi looked the same as before, but he made sure to temporarily change the aura of Hao Meng with Perception Warp immortal gu.
"Mmm, fine wine. Reminds me of my youth." Hao Meng took a sip, his face becoming rosy from its strength.
In the meanwhile he transmitted to Bao Zhi. "Master, where to?"
"First we drink, then play." Bao Zhi replied via voice transmission.
The two situated themselves at the vintner. A fountain of exquisite liquors and drinks were displayed behind the bar.
"I haven't had the fortune. Are you two passing through?" The vintner from Che clan greeted them.
"Mhmm." Hao Meng nodded. "Catching the soul beast tide. Got to be there early."
"Oh, so that's your trade. You're beast hunters?" The vintner poured a drink for them. "It's a lifetime experience to participate. I remember my fist time gathering soul cores, haha."
"I'm just supervising." Hao Meng shook his head and downed the shot. "He is going to be doing the real business." He glanced at Bao Zhi. "Well, he sold five hundred soul cores worth of materials last month. Fastest boy in the region."
"Yeah, fastest and the bestest." The bartender's smile widened, internally shocked at such an amount.
In this era, due to the ubiquity of soul path, the soul cores of soul beast were precious materials with soul path dao marks. Outside of Central Continent, they became a currency in everyday transactions, an alternative to immortal essence stones.
"Hey, give us another round, will you?" Bao Zhi put his elbows on the bar. "One for him and one for yourself too."
"Thanks!" The vintner reached behind and a jar landed in his hand. "Sure is a bad day for traveling." He poured another round. "The next day is better. You two have plenty of time till the soul beast tide. You can make it in two, maybe three days."
Bao Zhi perked up, turning to Hao Meng. "Hey, his right!" He looked over where people were gambling and playing star skipping. "What do you say, Lord Hao?" He nudged him. "Play a little star skipping while waiting for the beast tide?"
"It will cost you dearly." Hao Meng chuckled. "It always does when you play me."
"Lord Hao, stop stalling." Bao Zhi downed his drink in one gulp and got up. "Oh, keep them coming, will you friend? Soul Mirror Wine!"
The bartender was about to explain, how different from the regular fine drinks, extra servings of the Soul Mirror Wine would not be on the house.
But Hao Meng raised his hand. "Good thing he can afford it." He produced a whole immortal essence stone and placed in on the bar. "Keep the change, I'll just deduct it from the boy's earnings."
The bartender's eyes opened wide for a split second. He kept staring at the leaving figure of Hao Meng as he headed after Bao Zhi.
A single immortal essence stone was very precious by rank six gu immortal standards!
"Who are these people, what background do they have?" He didn't hesitate to report the events to the rest of Che clan.
* * * * *
"Master, I don't know how this game is played." Hao Meng transmitted as he arrived at the edge of a round pond.
"The principles of star skipping are simple. The goal is to produce a constellation. You do it by controlling the flat star stones and skipping them on the water surface." Bao Zhi transmitted, while calling out. "Ten stones, Southern Dipper."
Ten flat star stones appeared on the shore, ready for Bao Zhi to control them.
"I called my constellation, now my goal is to assemble it within ten shots." Bao Zhi continued to explain in secret as he tossed his first stone. "The Southern Dipper is also known as the Seven Sisters; Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang and Yaoguang."
Hao Meng observed Bao Zhi's play.
The strewn star stone streaked a straight stroke of starlight.
It bounced over twenty times, casting ripples on the mirror-like lake water.
Now it was Hao Meng's turn in the game.
Hao Meng, having grown up inside a small world, had no knowledge of the celestial constellations.
Bao Zhi advised him at each step of the game.
The two of them played round after round, game after game, putting up a show of a mediocre play.
Others also gathered around the pond, casting their own star stones in competition.
As the game progressed with more people, more and more star stones wobbled on the lake surface. It was becoming harder and harder to avoid dislodging a previous stone.
The wakes of a stone skipping also disturbed the other stones. It was not trivial to estimate their eventual location.
Bao Zhi's face showed intent concentration, but he tossed another stone with his divine sense casually.
The next immortal lined up his shot carefully and shot it.
Woossh-! Splash, splash, splash... Bang!
The stone was thrown off by a small ripple, smashing into a floating stone.
This wasn't the first time this happened.
The gu immortal cursed, he wasn't taking the loss lightly.
Hao Meng and Bao Zhi glanced at him from the corners of their eyes.
Bao Zhi shook his head and transmitted his thoughts.
"Many bad star skippers will never improve because they cannot face the truth about themselves. Ultimately, they can't accept that everything they do is driven by deeper motivations." He began, turning his gaze back to the field of star stones.
"A bad star skipper refuses to examine their thoughts that dictate their actions. Doing so might expose an unpleasant truth."
"This could be a desire to be dominated; like calling in just five stones for a five star constellation, a plan for failure." He glanced at one of the participants.
"Or fearing their unremarkable fate, a need for a validation of one's excellence; it would be hoping for a miracle skip to form the perfect constellation."
"Or it could be the need to challenge authority; by trying to disrupt an obvious winning path." Bao Zhi's gaze landed on a woman who joined mid-game.
"It's painful to confront these aspects of ourselves. Often, we'd rather continue suffering than address them. It's not easy to admit that we're not playing in spite of our losses, but because of them."
Bao Zhi sighed at the human heart's intricacies before continuing.
"Star skipping is a game where all players start on equal footing with their skills, no matter what your rank or social status. Each player invests their time in the game, and during that time, they can enjoy whatever experience their investment affords them."
Bao Zhi tossed his last stone, but it missed its mark.
"Losing can be a distraction, just as winning can be exhilarating. However, winning also feels lonesome since those you've bested and have taken their money are unlikely to sympathize with your success."
"It takes time to adjust to winning. Many of us, at different points, try to avoid confronting uncomfortable truths that clash with our self-perception. When we feel down, we tend to reshape our surroundings to justify our feelings, which can lead us to overlook or misinterpret good situations."
"In star skipping, this can be costly, for an opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags."
"This brings us to a harsh reality that some old players may struggle to accept: star skipping is fundamentally about money! The ability of a skipper is solely measured by the difference between their wealth at the beginning and their wealth at the end of the game."
"The goal isn't to achieve the most impressive skips or even to win the most rounds; the game's goal here is to earn the most money."
Speaking of which, an unexpected interference appeared. In Bao Zhi's evaluation, the woman who joined late played strange.
She was clearly an expert, as multiple times her tosses' wakes nudged the stones just enough to make some player's next toss very difficult.
Bao Zhi suspected Che clan deliberately sent her to influence the games' progress.
"Her obstruction didn't affect our play negatively. On the contrary... She is trying to rig the game in our favor. Che clan really wants to show some goodwill here, recruiting promising individuals into their force."
"Too bad, her efforts are wasted, as we cannot win yet."
His stone tumbled at its third bounce and flew out of the pond.
Bao Zhi slapped his thighs and laughed aloud. "Wine! Bring me more Soul Mirror Wine!" He shouted, disregarding the due decorum of a gu immortal.
"You miss again, you lose again." Hao Meng said with schadenfreude, only taking a sip of his drink.
Hao Meng wondered in his mind. "Immortal wine is wine for immortals, after all. Would this kill a mortal if he drank it?" He already felt tipsy.
Looking at Bao Zhi, if he didn't keep instructing him, Hao Meng couldn't believe he could stay composed after drinking so much.
Bao Zhi groaned, as if he just realized the shot he reveled in going out of bounds, was actually his own.
Some spectators have also appeared.
"How much does the drunk one owe so far?" A spectator asked after coming back.
"About twenty or twenty-five to Lord Hao." Replied the game's host.
"Next game, ten immortal essence stones!" Bao Zhi declared.
"Nice looking man, clean-cut. Too bad he can't hold his liquor." Someone added.
...
Bao Zhi studied the pond intensely, his eyes narrowed.
The shot he needed to make was particularly difficult. His own stone blocked his way and he was on this game's last stone.
"Kaiyang hopping Yaoguang." He called out his next shot.
"He doesn't know when to give up..." Some of the onlookers shook their heads mentally.
Woossh-! Splash, splash, splash-!
The stone reached a small ripple and bounced over the other stone, 'Yaoguang'.
"!!!"
"Ha! I made it! I finally made it!" Bao Zhi didn't hide his joy. "Come on. Pay up. Pay up, you stingy crook. Hahaha." He said to 'Lord Hao'.
"You ought to take up rock gambling. Talk about luck!"
"Luck? What do you mean, luck?!" Bao Zhi grabbed Hao Meng by his robe.
"You know what I mean. You couldn't make that shot again! Not in a million years."
Bao Zhi narrowed his eyes and released Hao Meng.
"I couldn't, huh? Okay. Go ahead, set the stones up the way they were before."
"Why?"
"Go ahead. Set them up just the same. I bet you ten. No, I bet you twenty! I make this shot just the way I made it before."
"Nobody can make that shot again and you know it, not even Giant Sun!"
Bao Zhi didn't listen, he picked up the stones with his divine sense and started to rearrange them.
"How's that? Hmm? That's the way they were before?" He asked everyone, incensed.
"Yeah, that's it." Came a reply.
Bao Zhi stepped in front of Hao Meng again. "Come on, put up your wager."
Hao Meng reluctantly agreed to the bet.
Bao Zhi took his time, carefully calculating his shot.
Woossh-! Splash, splash, splash... Bang!
His stone didn't bounce high enough and knocked his other one out of its correct place.
The onlookers laughed briefly, but some sharp stares from Che clan quieted them right away.
"SET THEM UP AGAIN!" Bao Zhi roared.
Hao Meng didn't react. He continued to count his earnings from Bao Zhi.
But Bao Zhi demanded again.
"You're drunk. I'm not going to bet you anymore."
"What?"
"Let's get back on our route. We have to catch the soul beast tide."
"Curse your soul beast tide! Come on, here is my money!"
"I don't want it."
"I'll try you." An onlooker chimed in.
"Me too. I'll take your bet."
Bao Zhi smiled widely, turning on his heel. "Well, well, well..."
"Stop it! Don't be a sore loser. Don't bet anymore on that damned shot." 'Lord Hao' reprimanded with annoyance.
"Well, I think, you figure I'm a little drunk. I'm loaded on immortal essence stones, and you just want in, while the money is flowing, huh?" He pointed around him mischievously. "Okay. Go ahead, set them up."
The pond got restored to its previous state once again.
Hao Meng shook his head with a disappointed expression. "I'll meet you outside."
"Alright, you want some easy money?" Hicc! "Here is forty-five immortal essence stones. That's all my savings. You want to take the whole thing? Then you get a shot at your easy money!" Bao Zhi threw his wager on the ground indignantly.
People started murmuring.
"Such wealth!" Someone gulped, his eyes shining with unconcealed envy.
"I'll take a piece of that action!" A gu immortal took out his savings.
"Loan me some, I need to enter this bet too!"
People were clamoring hand over fist to place their bets.
In the end, over a dozen of them put up wagers against Bao Zhi.
Whoossh-! Splash, splash, splash-!
"The Southern Dipper, complete!" The host announced.
"..."
* * * * *