When Earth-Monkey saw that “Dragon Boat Festival” card, he felt the world spinning around him in an instant.

“Winter Solstice”—one, one, two, three.

“Beginning of Summer”—four, six.

“Dragon Boat Festival”—five, five.

The cards Zheng Yingxiong had revealed not only contained “one, two, three, four, five, six,” but also included “two ones” and “two fives.”

Compared to Earth-Monkey’s final hand of a “straight” plus “one pair,” Zheng Yingxiong’s hand was a “straight” plus “two pairs.”

“What…?”

Countless questions exploded in his mind, making him feel like he had been thoroughly toyed with from beginning to end.

“How could you possibly have the ‘Dragon Boat Festival’?!”

Qi Xia slowly straightened up in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. “Earth-Monkey, I think you’re right. You really didn’t do anything underhanded. There’s only one ‘Dragon Boat Festival’ card in this deck.”

Hearing this, Earth-Monkey suddenly whipped his head around to look at Qi Xia. “What kind of tactic is this? You deliberately made me think the card in your hand was the ‘Dragon Boat Festival’?”

Though Earth-Monkey had spent many years navigating the gambling world, he had rarely encountered such a situation.

He had seen people work together to cheat before, but he had never seen anyone coordinate a cheating scheme without any communication and immediately after just learning the game rules.

Moreover, the other party was just an eight-year-old child. How could he possibly get him to cooperate in performing an argument?

“Is there something wrong with that?” The corner of Qi Xia’s mouth curled up. “Who says that to win against you in gambling, we can only rely on ‘gambling techniques’?”

“Deception techniques…?”

“That’s right. I didn’t have time to introduce myself earlier.” Qi Xia reached up to wipe the blood from his face. “My name is Qi Xia, and I’m a con artist. You can only believe half of what I say.”

This brief self-introduction flooded into Earth-Monkey’s ears, giving him a shock no less than the “Dragon Boat Festival” card from moments ago.

“What the hell…? A con artist?” Earth-Monkey reached up to scratch his head, his eyes remaining wide open. “You’re saying you’re a con artist…?”

Seeing Earth-Monkey’s expression, Qi Xia became even more certain of one thing—he really hadn’t been a con artist before.

At least the people who had known him previously didn’t think he was a con artist, like Chen Junnan.

So this “con artist” identity had lasted at most seven years, and it was very likely related to becoming a “Zodiac.”

“So you… were lying to me the whole time just now…?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “Since we finally had a chance to win against you once, we were afraid the stakes wouldn’t be big enough, so this time we’re taking seven of your ‘Dao’ directly.”

“But how did you manage to do it…?” Earth-Monkey was truly puzzled. “You clearly didn’t know the rules beforehand when the game started. How could you coordinate with that child to put on an act?”

“What are you doing?” Qi Xia asked with a cold laugh. “The game has only progressed to the second round, and you’re already directly asking about my trump cards?”

Earth-Monkey’s expression changed. He removed the cigarette from the corner of his mouth and held it between his fingers, then sat down slowly with a contemplative look on his face.

“Earth-Monkey, I’m very disappointed in you.” Qi Xia picked up the cards on the table and tossed them out. “Did you really design this ‘game’?”

“What…?”

“Never mind.” Qi Xia’s expression remained cold. “I was planning to invite you into a certain ‘scheme,’ but now it seems you’re not quite qualified.”

Qi Xia’s words pierced Earth-Monkey’s heart like a sharp needle, making his expression shift through various changes.

“I’m not qualified…” He slowly lowered his head, his eyes somewhat dim. “So you’ve become this kind of person now…?”

“Oh?”

“Only people who can beat you… are qualified to enter this ‘scheme’?” Earth-Monkey asked.

“Not necessarily someone who truly beats me, but at least they need to let me see their ability.” Qi Xia tapped his hand on the table. “But your current performance is just that of an ordinary ‘Earth-level.’ Zodiacs like you are a dime a dozen. I don’t know if you’re naturally in this state, or if you’ve been a ‘casino owner’ for too long.”

Earth-Monkey’s yellowish eyes stared at Qi Xia. After pondering for a long while, he finally put the cigarette back in his mouth. “Qi Xia, if I win, you won’t have money to buy your life.”

“That’s not a good thing to say.” Qi Xia shook his head. “Those words make it seem like our victory just now was all a fluke, and you’ve been holding back the whole time.”

“What if that’s really the case?”

“Then I’d feel looked down upon.” Qi Xia said. “Only by constantly competing against formidable people can I become stronger. I expect every opponent I encounter to be exceptionally powerful, yet you’re claiming you’ll go easy on me. That’s really looking down on me too much.”

It seemed that every sentence Qi Xia spoke could plunge Earth-Monkey into deep thought.

He just kept blinking, pondering the meaning behind Qi Xia’s words.

“So all these years… you’ve been competing against even more formidable people?” Earth-Monkey asked again.

“What else?” Qi Xia said. “Should I open a casino too and sleep at the counter every day?”

Once again stabbed in the heart by Qi Xia’s words, Earth-Monkey lowered his head listlessly.

At this moment, Zheng Yingxiong felt something was wrong and reached out to tug at Tiantian beside him. “Big sister…”

Tiantian immediately became alert upon hearing this. She knew Zheng Yingxiong must have smelled that strange “stench” again. She quickly scanned the surroundings before finally locking her gaze on Earth-Monkey.

Earth-Monkey’s state was somewhat strange. He didn’t seem as carefree and indifferent as he had been at the beginning.

“Qi Xia, I really did underestimate you a bit.” Earth-Monkey said. “From now on, I’ll get serious and show you what kind of opponent I am.”

“Be my guest.”

Earth-Monkey tossed out the cards in his hand, and several people also handed their cards to Tiantian, as she was the next person responsible for shuffling and dealing.

After Qi Xia collected all the “chips” on the table, he also redistributed them.

In the first round, they won four “Dao” from Earth-Monkey, and seven in the second round, for a total of eleven.

Originally, the distribution of “Dao” among Qi Xia’s group of six had been uneven. Now, seeing that everyone had the ability to stand on their own, he first supplemented Tiantian’s, Zheng Yingxiong’s, and Chen Junnan’s “chips” to four each, then distributed one each of the remaining six.

Aside from Xiao Cheng, everyone now had capital of five “Dao,” enough for them to handle various situations. Naturally, Xiao Cheng didn’t refuse either.

From the current perspective, his contribution to this game had been very low, so naturally he shouldn’t be holding the same chips as everyone else.

However, the “straight” and “pairs” that Earth-Monkey had mentioned when revealing his cards suddenly opened up his line of thinking.

If he wasn’t mistaken, he had now completely grasped the winning method for this game. What came next would just depend on his own luck.

His ultimate goal was different from the others’. Besides surviving this game, he also needed to find a way to awaken his own “Echo.” But that leading man called Qi Xia was simply too clever—the group’s chips were already continuously increasing without him hardly needing to think at all.

“Everyone, the third round officially begins!”

Once again, Earth-Monkey spoke these words clearly and distinctly in a resounding and forceful tone.