Honkai Impact: Grandma Pine Sparrow is still chasing me!

Chapter 281 Cherish life, stay away from gambling!

Receiving the jade token was effortless; all Qiong did was sign a waiver, similar to a "life or death" waiver, and then left.

"Won't this battle of ten arts be life-threatening?"

"Don't worry, the competition is perfectly safe! Last time, our Langqiu's little Zhang, although he didn't beat his opponent, surrendered as soon as the knife was in front of him. Guess what? That Lord Lithost appeared in front of him in a flash. He knocked back his opponent who was trying to kill him with a single palm strike! Even if Qiong loses, as long as you surrender quickly, it's perfectly safe!"

Qiong thought about it and agreed. How could something go wrong at such an important Martian event?

Qiong felt no urgency in connecting with Lithost, the curly-haired uncle who cosplayed Erlang Shen. His lack of understanding of Lithost, coupled with the jade pendant and the unfamiliar Mars, forced Qiong to focus on the immediate tasks at hand—most directly, he needed to find a way to make money and acquire some pioneering supplies, pens, and paper; otherwise, not only would he be unable to write his pioneering log, but he and Song Que would starve!

"Songque, Nian Gao, what do you think we should do next?"

Holding the precious jade pendant that was said to give people the power of "techniques", Qiong fell into deep thought. He wasn't thinking about how to make money, but mainly because he didn't feel like he had become stronger while holding the jade pendant.

Could Scudder have made a mistake?

"If you ask me, the fastest way to make money is nothing more than—"

"Master predicts that Chu Yi's bet has a 90% success rate! Come on, brother, let's try our luck?"

Although Amber Street wasn't very crowded, it was still quite lively. As the two people and the snake left the registration point and entered the bustling downtown area, the surrounding noise became increasingly loud.

"Want to try your luck?"

As "Nian Gao" spoke, she burrowed deeper into Qiong's body. She didn't like being stared at by the passing crowds. But people have a natural curiosity; they're afraid to get close, yet they still want to see.

Only Qiong's body temperature can heal him!

"Don't listen to him, get out of here! Rice cake, this is a bottomless abyss, don't touch it!"

Seeing that "Nian Gao" had become curious about gambling, Song Que, fearing that she would get involved, pushed Qiong away from this place of trouble.

Not only is it easy to run into your enemies in this place, but more importantly, you must stay away from gambling, prostitution, and drugs!

"So, what is that?"

"During the Ten Arts War, there will be plenty of fools betting on the winners and losers, and if they bet right, they can make a fortune... Don't think this is a quick way to make money! Last time, we believed that bullshit of following the crowd and put some money on the favorite to win, Seraphem—"

"A favorite to win?"

"Serapem!"

Qiong and "Nian Gao" exchanged a glance, both seeing doubt in each other's eyes: Serapem, in terms of both size and mind, is just a half-grown child! Yes, he uses the "Combination" technique, but he is still a child after all. There are so many seven-foot or even nine-foot men on Mars, can't even beat a child?

"Yes, it's a little girl named Serapem! Everyone says she's a favorite to win the championship, and after watching two of her matches, we believed it too."

The pine bird's voice was clearly tinged with melancholy.

"As a result, she was eliminated in the preliminaries! You have no idea, but later statistics showed that at least thirty bloodshed incidents occurred in Langqiu on the afternoon she lost..."

"Jumping off a building?"

"Jump off a cliff."

Qiong: ...

If we translate this into a more human way, it's roughly like betting a huge sum of money on the Pampas Eagles to win the World Cup match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia, but the desert tycoon won, while some unlucky speculators ended up on the rooftop...

Gambling is a truly harmful thing.

"So, what we need to do next is... set up a fortune-telling stall to cleanse ourselves of impurities!"

Pushing Qiong along, Song Que found a not-so-inconspicuous spot to set up her stall—she had no choice; she didn't want to pay the stall fee. Besides, her enemies…

Soon, as if by magic, Song Que erected a sign with a line of large characters: "Master Song Que who sees through the secrets of heaven, master of exorcising demons and protecting the righteous path, one divination yields ten treasures."

"Um, will this even work?"

Qiong was somewhat suspicious. Clearing out the shadow monsters wasn't a problem for him, but why would someone come to this remote place to return ten dollars to Song Que?

The sparrow patted its chest, which wasn't very full due to long periods of irregular eating habits.

"Isn't this what you and Nian Gao are like? If we walk this way, how many people do you think will come because of Nian Gao? Besides, a bottle of drink costs thirty lang, but we'll only go for ten lang, just to make a name for ourselves! We'll have to trouble you with this..."

"Are you using me as a publicity stunt?"

The "rice cake" that had been curled up on Qiong flew to the front of Song Que, as if she would bite someone if she didn't give a satisfactory explanation!

But Song Que, without changing his expression, pulled out a pair of small sunglasses from his pocket and put them on Nian Gao's head—unsurprisingly, the small sunglasses were too big for the snake head and fell off.

"You can't say that! Rice Cake, you have a very special talent, we think you're perfect to be a mascot!"

“I voted against it. I think rice cakes are a good partner.”

"Sky!"

Kiana was secretly delighted, momentarily forgetting that she had just said "this young lady"—had Sora already accepted "Mochi"? Should she then try to sell Sora a contract of servitude? After doing all this, she wanted to recover quickly and take Sora home; she really didn't want to stay on Mars for even a day longer! (But she was worried about Sora's safety; given the current rate at which she was absorbing Honkai energy from Sora and the outside world, it would take at least a month or two for her to awaken without falling into a deep sleep and remain visible to the outside world.)

"It's also an emergency food."

Kiana: ?

Just as Song Que thought, the existence of the unheard-of flying serpent "Nian Gao" was the best advertisement. Many people came over to stop and watch. Seeing more and more coins in front of him, Song Que, who was greedy for money, couldn't stop smiling, but "Nian Gao" was extremely dissatisfied.

"Don't use me as a selling point, hey!"

"Mochi's" starry eyes fell on Sora, making Sora inexplicably sad—he felt that if he sided with Matsujaku, "Mochi" would compromise, but...

"Songque, if Nian Gao doesn't want to, then forget it."

Although the snake was clumsy and stupid, Qiong could sense that it had good intentions, and he was willing to treat this so-called "divine beast" as a friend—he didn't want to force his friend to do things against his will, as that would be squandering and trampling on friendship.

This path is blocked, so he'll just have to rummage through the trash cans instead.

Thinking of this, Qiong hugged "Nian Gao" into her arms—just consider him an emergency food source.

"Ah? But..."

"Master, can you really remove impurities?"

An elderly man dressed in fine clothes walked over. He looked Qiong and his group up and down at their stall, his eyes landing on the "rice cakes" with a curious expression.

"What on earth is this...?"

We have guests!

The old man pointed to the "rice cake" and asked. Song Que quickly stepped forward.

"Sir, this is our stall's prized possession, rice cake! With it, the effect of purifying impurities is even better! Have you been feeling uneasy lately? Come and have a divination done, it's only ten lang."

The old man hesitated for a moment, then handed over ten lang—after all, it wasn't much money.

"Lately, I've been feeling something strange around me, like I'm being watched by something unclean. Could it be a shadow monster?"

Song Que pretended to do some calculations with his fingers and started to convincingly deceive people.

"Oh dear, this is terrible! You've been tainted by evil spirits, but with us here, we guarantee you'll be cured. Um, Master Bai Shu, shall we go?"

Faced with Song Que's almost pleading attitude, and recalling how she shared the snacks with the hungry children, Qiong made her choice.

……

"That's amazing! That's amazing!"

"No, I didn't do anything!"

Upon arriving at the old man's house, Qiong wanted to investigate the situation inside, but there were no lights. So, he took out his baseball bat, poured destructive power into it, and turned the bat into a baseball bat-shaped light bulb—but open flames are risky, after all.

As they probed the storage room with their baseball bats, a shrill scream came from a corner. Upon closer inspection, they found a black scorpion-like creature hidden in the corner, now stained white and disintegrating…

"Truly amazing, thank you so much, Master! My back doesn't ache anymore, my legs don't hurt, and I feel at peace! Shi Lang is so kind; even Deng and his gang wouldn't come for 100,000 lang! Please do me the honor of having a meal before you leave!"

"Sir, have you ever considered that this might be a psychological construct—"

Qiong wanted to explain, but Song Que silenced him.

Are you stupid? Someone invited you to dinner and acknowledged your potential for fame, and you're still trying to explain yourself?

"Of course, of course! Remember to help us spread the word about Song Que and Master Baizhu... and of course, Nian Gao! Please help us promote them!"

Song Que was overjoyed; this first deal was a success.

"Definitely, definitely!"

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These five or six chapters are owed... sigh!

I'll have to find a time to pay it back...