Chapter 35 - 33.2

The poker game continued until the third and final round.

On the second round they didn't even get to win the pot as the second princess in the middle of the game, folded.

Currently, the game became fiercer as the pot kept growing of value. The pot was now over 4000 of value and both of them had a less value of chips on their side of the table.

Xiu Jia spoke in her gentle voice while playing on a black chip with white stripes on her hand.

"Let the final round begin. This determines who would win and who would suffer!" She excitedly declared.

The wheel arrow stopped at the black spectrum. As if finally deciding his mind, Zero stated with seriousness.

"All-in."

The second princess just shrugged while maintaining her smile as she put all of her chips, too.

Opening his two cards, it was a ten of spades and a king of spades.

'I would win if the community cards would be all in the suit or if fortune befalls me then I would get a royal flush.'

With the young man's indifferent face, he stared at the sweet smiling opponent that just widened her smile as Zero's sight landed on her.

The invisible dealer finished his shuffling and put down the flop. An ace of diamonds, a jack of spades and a queen of hearts.

He turned to look again at the second princess as he wanted to see if she would be troubled by the flop but still, Xiu Jia had her sweet smile like nothing was bothering her with the face up cards.

Zero with his indifferent face was truly cursing on his inner thoughts as it was hard to read the expression of the second princess, literally, he don't want to be a slave to this malicious princess. He had a chastity to preserve.

Because they were both all-in, the invisible dealer proceeded to put down another one, the fourth community card which was a queen of spades.

Zero cursed, wanting the game to be over because of his tense state right now. He wanted to order the invisible dealer to hurry up as he noticed that the movement of it was deliberately slowing the process of showing the community cards.

Finally, he noticed a different expression of the second princess, she had now a smirk.

'Is she going to win or is she bluffing?' The tense young man thought but he was indifferent on the outside.

And the final and last card was put down, the river was an ace of spades. As if he got ascended up to the ninth heaven from the deepest part of hell, Zero sighed.

'He won! He got a royal flush! The most highest ranking.'

"Show cards."

The second princess had a king of spades and ten of spades, the same cards as him.

'Oh she got a royal flush, too.'

As if backtracking to his ridiculous thought.

'Wait?! Ten of spades and king of spades?'

'Does cards duplicate or was she cheating?'

With a knowing smile, Xiu Jia stated at the glaring young man, "What's your two cards?"

"You got a pair of aces, an ace of hearts and an ace of clubs. Four of a kind, the third rank in power hand ranking. But I win, though."

Xiu Jia carelessly said as she stood up, not minding the pot, she looked at the bewildered young man.

"Now, you must satisfy me!"

Zero glared at her but didn't say anything as he looked around the simulation place, the isolated casino and the invisible dealer.

'How did she replaced my cards without me knowing?'

'It must be a trick. A deception!'

Without warning, the young man grabbed the shuffling cards as he felt that there was something on it, and he was right.

A very inconspicuous thread was connected to the deck of cards and its end was attached to the smiling Xiu Jia.

"You are cheating the whole time!"

The second princess chuckled and uttered, "You are not the same Zero in the past as he would easily saw through my deceptions but still you didn't let down my expectations."

"Zero of the past! You knew me?"

Xiu Jia ignored his inquiry and spoke, "You shuffle the cards and pick one from it and I'll answer which truth it is."

"Are you going to use tricks again?"

The second princess put up both her two hands in a surrendering manner, as Zero looked at her in confusion. He saw someone from her gesture as it overlapped her stature but instantly it vanished.

Zero started shuffling as he dismissed those thoughts he had. He was surprised that he had skillfully performed tricks which shuffling as if his hands had their own mind. After he finished, he picked at the very bottom of the card.

He then flipped it up.

'A queen of spades.'

"The Royal Family it is."

She snapped her hands and the simulation was deactivated, they were sent back to the pavilion that they were originally at.

"Sit down because we had a very long story-telling to do."

----

Zero was in deep thoughts as he accumulated a very shocking truth about the Xiu Royal Family. It confirmed the things that he had heard from the mouths of the maidservants. They would usually spoke about a forbidden palace.

There was another palace here which was forbidden to be intrude by anyone but the king. It was the Cold Palace, half of the elite shadow guards of the king were guarding this palace as it was a place where his most beloved was staying, the ice princess.

The ice princess was rumored to be an immortal fairy who descended from the deities's mountain which was the Qi Mountain. She was their messenger to the mortal world but befell at the hands of the wicked humans because she had fallen in love with the current king, King Xiuwei, it was known that the Greatworld King had already reached the Immortal realm Half a step because of the help of the ice princess so they could live for eternity.

But as a Human King, the life span of a martial practitioner in Immortal realm was thousand years and so but it was not guaranteed that they could be together because the king had responsibilities, too.

It was four hundred years ago when Xiuwei was still a prince and his father was the reigning monarch at that era. The ice princess was sent by a deity to pass a message for the Greatworld King which was Xiuwei's father.

"It was love at first sight at that time."

Zero remembered the genuine smile of the second princess displayed for a minute and suddenly replaced it with her sweet smile as she stated those words.

Then she continued with the tale.

The ice princess did not returned to the Qi Mountain and helped the prince to get the throne, and after succeeding on it. They lived happily for hundred of years but the advisors of the King Xiuwei kept of advising him to take a human wife as the ice princess couldn't give him an heir because an immortal couldn't get pregnant with a human even though Xiuwei was now in Immortal realm, he was still not an innate immortal who was birthed out from the World Tree where deities were born.

Generations after generations of advisors kept passing by, with the same proposition for the King to take up a wife.

They fought about Xiuwei taking in a wife until the ice princess conceded to his decision then she left to the cold palace, never seeing the King and never been found.

It was truly a sad story.

As Zero thought at what he found out of the very complicated family history of the Xiu Royal family.

Before he left, he asked Xiu Jia on how did she knew all about this as it was hundred years ago that it all happened but the second princess just winked and responded.

"It's part of our education from the King."

'Education?'

He just shrugged and proceeded his steps to his room.

----

The second princess looked at the retreating back of the young man as she sighed with heaviness on her ċhėst.

"Your highness, are you really sure about it?" A bowed shadow guard, asked the second princess.

"As part of my promise to him, I'll let him know this."

While emitting a misty blue aura from her hand, she looked at the shadow guard.

"But why didn't you tell him about his identity to make this easy for him."

The sweet smile was displayed again on her face as she replied, "I let him choose at that time, if ever someone gave him two options which between would he choose."

With a curious voice the shadow guard, inquired, "What did he choose, Your highness?"

"He chose the most difficult path, the right way."