Chapter 44 I Anticipated Your Anticipation

She took a long moment to regain her composure, then spat out the remaining blood with a sinister look in her eyes. "Bah... You should've said so earlier. Turns out you're in the same line of work... What, have you set your sights on my meal ticket?"

Chen Xuan did not reply. He raised his leg and kicked straight at her face—thanks to the enhancement of his mental technique, those gymnastics moves that were normally impossible for him could now be executed with ease.

"I call a coin toss!" Fei Wu Niang shouted at the same time.

Click.

Chen Xuan felt the surrounding light dim instantly. His kick also felt like it had struck a clump of cotton; even though it made contact with her face, there was no feedback of force whatsoever.

Fei Wu Niang wore the smile of someone whose trick had succeeded. She slowly stood up. "It's useless. From this moment on, you won't be able to touch me by even a fraction anymore. Come, gamble with me!"

Chen Xuan pulled back his leg and tried to grab her, but no matter what movement he made, his body felt as if it had been nailed down, unable to move even an inch from the spot beneath his feet.

He could still control his body, but his contact with the world had been severed by some mysterious force. Chen Xuan realized that the dimming light was the same; it wasn't that day was turning to dusk, but rather that new light from the outside could no longer reflect back into his eyes.

At the same time, three giant hands and a single eye materialized between them, each easily half a person in height. They were entirely light blue, appearing as solid objects formed from gas.

"What is the wager?" a voice asked from the void.

"The loser stakes all their abilities! Best two out of three!" Fei Wu Niang shouted excitedly.

"Then... let the pact be sealed." The eye turned toward Chen Xuan, and a bolt of lightning stabbed into his forehead.

In an instant, Chen Xuan understood all the rules of this ability: The giant hands would toss three coins, with heads representing a snake's head and tails representing a snake's tail. When one side appeared more than twice, that round would be decided by that majority. For example, heads-heads-tails counted as heads, and vice versa. The three hands would open one by one; participants could either shout out their guess in advance or wait until they were certain, but in any case, they could only guess once. The first to shout the correct answer was the winner.

Once the gambling started, it could not be ended prematurely, nor could it be interfered with by external factors; it possessed an unshakable, mandatory power.

"She used that trick," Chen Xuan muttered softly.

"You two have already crossed paths?" Lin Qing let out a sigh of relief. "That's good... In Fei Wu Niang's eyes, the moment this ability is used, her victory is absolute."

"What are you muttering about?" Fei Wu Niang narrowed her eyes and asked.

"What kind of ability is this anyway?" Even though he already knew, Chen Xuan still had to go through the motions and feign slight astonishment.

"Didn't it just tell you?" She pointed at the eye. "Anyone I touch cannot refuse a wager I initiate. Your biggest mistake was striking my face, you bastard! It's too late for regrets now. Once I strip away your abilities, I'm going to crush your bones to pieces, bit by bit!"

Her confidence was not without reason.

Because Chen Xuan not only knew of this ability's existence long beforehand, but he also knew that its rules were not as "fair" as they appeared. The coins held by the giant hands were actually four in number, one of which was a rigged coin whose heads or tails could be decided by the dealer. In other words, as long as she activated that rigged coin, the outcome between them would no longer be determined by probability.

Therefore, even though Fei Wu Niang herself possessed virtually no combat power, the Limiting Bureau had rated her threat level as six stars.

According to Lin Qing's deductions, more than one enforcement team member responsible for her capture back then had likely fallen at her hands.

As they spoke, the first round of coins had already been tossed—

The surface area of those coins was about the size of an entire palm, and the sight of them tumbling and flipping through the air was striking.

Clap!

The three giant hands struck out simultaneously, firmly clutching the coins in their palms before they could land.

"Well now, are they heads or tails?" Fei Wu Niang parted her blood-stained lips in a grin. "Don't rush. I'll let you guess first."

"Heads." Yet before the first hand even opened, Chen Xuan made his judgment directly.

"You..." She froze for a moment, then let out a cold laugh. "Making your play without even thinking? What, is your luck really that good?"

"I've always trusted myself."

"Fine, then I'll guess tails."

The first hand flipped open, and it was tails.

However, when the second and third hands opened in succession, both were heads.

"Not bad. It seems my luck really isn't bad today," Chen Xuan said, feigning delight.

A trace of mockery flashed in Fei Wu Niang's eyes. "Kid, this is only the first round. I'm guessing... your eyes must be exceptionally sharp, right? You were even able to clearly see my sneak attack just now."

"..." Chen Xuan remained silent.

Because he had indeed activated the Divine Eye Technique the moment the coins fell; until the giant hands clenched them tight, he could see the faces of all three coins with absolute clarity.

"Just as I thought... I've run into one or two people like you before." She raised a finger. "Then what about this?"

Outside the three giant hands, another three hands unexpectedly appeared. The moment the coins were tossed, the extra hands completely blocked their downward trajectory the entire way!

"Your little tricks are useless now!" Fei Wu Niang's excitement grew increasingly fervent. "Guess!"

This time, Chen Xuan did not place his bet immediately.

Both of them waited for the hands to open.

The first hand flipped open: snake's head.

Chen Xuan immediately called out "Heads."

Under normal circumstances, this was also the move with the highest chance of winning; as long as at least one of the remaining two coins was heads, he would win this round.

In an instant, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the eerie, twisted smile on her face, as if she were enjoying watching him walk step by step toward his doom.

The second hand slowly unfolded, revealing a snake's tail.

Only then did Fei Wu Niang screech, "I guess tails!"

The third one was indeed tails: tails-tails-heads, meaning tails won.

"Heeheeheehee, that makes it one-to-one!" She licked her lips. "I'm curious, when you lose all your abilities, will you cry and beg me for mercy? I've met quite a few fellows far stronger than me in the past; their abilities were like their spines—the more arrogant they were beforehand, the more pathetic they became after being ripped out! Even crawling and licking my toes just so they wouldn't die like wild dogs."

"Is that how you treat losers? That's too inhumane, isn't it?"

"Inhumane?" She reacted as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world. "Aren't people without abilities just livestock waiting to be slaughtered? What, are you some fledgling who just recently awakened your powers?"

Fei Wu Niang completely dropped all pretense at this moment, her eyes filled with anticipation for torturing him. "How about this? I'll let you have a handicap. This time I'll only use a single hand. You'd better open your eyes wide and watch carefully!"

With that, she withdrew the three extra hands.

The final round of coins was also tossed at that very moment.

Seeing it with absolute clarity through his Divine Eye Technique, the moment the palms closed to grab them, the coin orientations were tails, heads, tails.

He stopped pretending and placed his bet directly. "Tails."

"Then I'll choose heads." The way Fei Wu Niang looked at him now was already like looking at a dead man. "I'll take good care of you shortly."

The first two hands unfolded normally, exactly as he had seen. Just before the third hand was about to open, Chen Xuan suddenly spoke up, "This coin is the rigged one, isn't it?"

Fei Wu Niang's expression shifted. "What?"

"You've lost." He directly revealed the answer.

The palm unfolded accordingly. The coin was indeed tails; it trembled slightly, as if wanting to flip over, but it remained firmly stuck in place. Because right through the center of the coin was pinned a miniature Thought-Slaying Sword, acting like a nail to hold it immovably to the spot.

From the very beginning, Chen Xuan's choice to engage in hand-to-hand combat rather than immediately summoning the Thought-Slaying Sword was precisely to fulfill the conditions and force Fei Wu Niang to employ the coin toss as quickly as possible. This was a plan finalized after discussing it with Lin Qing—rather than beating her half to death and coercing her into handing over her ability, it was far better to let her willingly offer all her powers onto the gambling table. After all, the moment Fei Wu Niang had shown herself, the Limiting Bureau's capture squad was already speeding toward this location.

"This is..." She stepped forward in disbelief, wanting to pull out the sword, but unable to budge a single step due to the binding of the wager. "You actually cheated!"

"We're even," Chen Xuan spread his hands.

This plan wasn't one hundred percent foolproof, of course. If Fei Wu Niang had solely used regular coin tosses from the start, leaving her luck entirely to the heavens, things would have become quite troublesome. But Lin Qing analyzed that such a probability was less than one percent, because judging by recorded cases, what she was truly obsessed with wasn't the joy of gambling, but rather the desire to play with people in the palm of her hand and plunder everything they possessed.

The three hands vanished.

Only that solitary eye remained in the space. Through it, Chen Xuan seemed to see an unfathomable gloom. The next second, he felt a surging torrent of power rush violently into his body—it was precisely all of Fei Wu Niang's abilities!

The woman who had initiated the wager let out a miserable wail.

Her body withered away, her skin lost its luster, and her cheeks sunken inward, making her utterly unrecognizable from the alluring and charming Fei Wu Niang of moments before.

A mere transfer of abilities would not bring about such severe side effects.

Chen Xuan realized that there were other things attached to the abilities being stripped from her... Once those things were lost, her vitality could no longer sustain her life.

"No... That's mine... Give it... back to me..."

Struggling, Fei Wu Niang crawled forward a couple of steps, reaching a hand out toward him... This was also the last action she was capable of making.

"Hurry and leave. Don't let the Limiting Bureau discover your presence," Lin Qing reminded him through the earpiece.

Chen Xuan waited another two minutes, and only after confirming that the woman had breathed her last did he turn around and walk out of the abandoned room.