novelraw Chapter 5 : chapter 5
Chapter 5 : chapter 5
Chapter 5
Anger, unwillingness… and also, relief.
Luo Mi looked at the demons around him—some wailing, some no longer able to wail—and felt even more shame and irritation at the tangled taste in his heart.
His gaze halted abruptly when he noticed a particular demon corpse.
Specks of abnormal aura were dissipating from it.
“What is that?” he asked.
A little furball struggled out from the back of his collar and complained, “Next time you transform, say something first. I almost got crushed flat by your iron armor.”
It glanced at the strange aura on the corpse and said, “A system fragment.”
Across all of Cuoya City and the surrounding territory under its influence, demons were falling with that same abnormal aura—whether or not they had been directly caught by the might of that sword.
Shuang Wenlü’s strike had not only collapsed half of his city; it had also, in passing, cut down every nearby demon who carried foreign fragments of rules.
Luo Mi reached behind his head and plucked the furball into his palm.
The furball nuzzled against the jagged iron gauntlet, found a comfortable position, and lay down, showing not the slightest trace of grieving for its own kind.
“Do you think he noticed you?” Luo Mi asked. With the recent upheaval in heaven and earth, he too had obtained a golden finger.
He had not yet decided whether to cooperate with it, but he kept it on him all the same.
“Of course. He even took a special look at me!” the furball said in a dreamy tone. “So handsome!”
Luo Mi: “...Aren’t you afraid he will cut you down?”
“Afraid of what? I am a proper system,” the furball said, utterly unconcerned.
It looked at the fragments of rules that were fading away and spoke with a faint hint of disdain.
“Look at the trash you were seeing break apart. Hypnosis, drugging, slaughter… They fit your world pretty well, but they are all crooked little tricks—narrow and one-sided.”
Luo Mi fell silent for a moment, his eyes darkening.
“You said you could help me grow stronger.”
The furball nodded. “Yes. Even though I am an infrastructure system, the feedback from completing goals will still benefit you quite a bit.”
“How strong can you make me? Can I become like the Sword Sovereign?” Luo Mi asked, a stormy sea seeming to churn in his eyes.
“Do not even think about it,” the furball said faintly.
“If I had that kind of ability, would I have come looking for you?”
Luo Mi: ...
“There is no system in this world that can meet your requirement,” the furball continued.
“We are only fragments of rules still in the process of growing. Qiankun is a Dao that can support a complete great world. A Guardian of the Dao is an existence that comprehends the Dao of an entire realm, walking from a mortal body toward the rules themselves. To reach that level, you can only rely on yourselves. At most, I can tie you an extra safety rope on the Dao.”
After speaking, it stared in the direction Shuang Wenlü had left and added, still savoring the thought, “That is a Guardian of the Dao. I really want to work with him… Does he have a three-thousand-li Sword Pavilion?”
It would be perfect for an infrastructure system to show its strengths.
Luo Mi: ...What was he supposed to do when the Golden Finger he had just obtained wanted to run off with someone else? Help. Urgent.
He clenched the furball in his fist.
“Do not even think about it! Half my Cuoya City just collapsed. Stay and help me rebuild the city!”
The furball lazily struggled, shifted into another posture, and said, “Fine. We can make do together.”
Luo Mi was not satisfied with its attitude, but staring at the half-collapsed Cuoya City and recalling the Sword Sovereign standing in the street earlier, he swallowed his anger.
Shuang Wenlü had indeed spoken, but he had not come to negotiate. He had come to give notice.
He had already said he was “very tired of it.”
This time, the sword had cleaved into Luo Mi’s Cuoya City. Next time, that sword would cleave into Luo Mi himself.
So, although he was deeply unwilling, Luo Mi still had to guard this pass properly and make sure those demons who had picked up Golden Fingers and grown arrogant did not run over to make an eyesore.
“Do you have blueprints that can stop those unreliable Golden Fingers?” Luo Mi asked the furball.
The furball went blank for a moment. “...No, but I can force out something similar.”
“I have blueprints for a Heart-Refining Path. I can modify it,” the furball explained in a certain way.
As an old-brand system, even if it was an infrastructure type with no combat power, it was still more than capable of building special structures and the like.
When the modified Heart-Refining Path was done, they could simply place it across the exit.
Luo Mi: ...
Making demons undergo Dao-heart screening. Impressive.
“Then are you going to use it or not?”
“Use it!” Luo Mi ground out through clenched teeth, feeling utterly humiliated.
...
After that ethereal sword light left the Demon Abyss, it drifted calmly in a flash and arrived within Sitting-Forgetting Island.
Sitting-Forgetting Island was an immortal, secluded isle.
It was not located in any single place in the world, yet it existed in every place in the world. Thus, if an unrelated person attempted to seek Sitting-Forgetting Island, they could traverse every inch of the world and still never reach it.
As for those who could enter Sitting-Forgetting Island, aside from certain special places, they could enter from anywhere in Qiankun.
On Sitting-Forgetting Island, an old man with white hair and a youthful face sat beside a mountain stream in a pine forest with a small child.
The child squatted on a tree root.
Before him sat a small red-clay stove, where he brewed pine-needle tea.
The old man sat on a stone stool.
Upon the stone table lay a chessboard and two boxes of pieces.
Holding black and white, he played against himself, perfectly content.
The child’s eyes were round and bright, yet his mind was restless.
From time to time, he would roll his eyes toward the pine forest’s edge.
Whenever he drifted, the old man did not even look up—he simply tapped him with a finger.
The child clutched his head and yelped.
“The fire is too strong. Are you not watching carefully?” the old man said as he finished a line of play and slowly gathered the pieces.
“If you ruin the tea, do you think our guest will not be able to taste it?”
The child pouted, pulled himself together, and watched the tea.
Not long after, the water boiled and the tea roiled.
The child counted under his breath and extinguished the fire.
Unable to restrain himself any longer, he heard movement beyond the pine forest.
His eyes brightened; he craned his neck to look—and received another knock on the head.
When Shuang Wenlü walked in, he saw a child covering his head with a wronged expression, his glossy black eyes turned toward Ning Xianmian.
Behind him, a fluffy long tail with black-and-white stripes had slipped out, swishing irritably.
“What happened here?” Shuang Wenlü asked with a smile, taking a seat opposite Ning Xianmian.
When the child saw him, his eyes lit up at once, and the tip of his tail continued to sway lazily behind him.
Ning Xianmian and Shuang Wenlü were old acquaintances.
Ning Xianmian poured him a cup of tea, then reached out and pointed at the child.
“Have some decorum!”
The child was not afraid of him.
After being lightly pointed at twice, he smiled a little, embarrassed.
“Go fetch that divination slip,” Ning Xianmian said with a wave.
He had invited Shuang Wenlü here precisely because of a divination slip Shuang Wenlü had once left on Sitting-Forgetting Island.
The child performed a salute, hugged the tail he had not managed to hide, and toddled off.
The moment he left the pine forest, he ran into two people.
One wore short working clothes, carried an axe, and had a bundle of firewood on his back.
The other wore a straw raincoat and hat and carried an empty fish basket.
The child obediently stopped and saluted with his tail hugged close.
“Greetings, Senior Brother Youqiao. Greetings, Senior Brother Wuyu.”
Nan Youqiao paused and looked at him with a smile, his gaze falling on the tail. “Hello, Zou child. What is this?”
The Zouyu had already mastered transformation quite well. Only when his emotions surged would he occasionally reveal his tail.
Zou child pouted and complained as he looked toward the other senior brother.
“Senior Brother Wuyu lied to me!”
Hai Wuyu looped the fishing line in his hand and laughed as well.
“Zou child, how did I lie to you?”
“You told me the Sword Sovereign would wear all white, with eyes like cold stars and Sword Qi as sharp as ice. You said when he appeared, it would be like a sword—whoosh, and he would drop right in front of me!” Zou child said.
Hai Wuyu burst into laughter, and Zou child grew even angrier.
Nan Youqiao edged Hai Wuyu aside, soothed the wide-eyed Zou child, and asked, “You have met the Sword Sovereign?”
Zou child nodded. “Master said the Sword Sovereign would come as a guest after the time of one cup of tea, and he dragged me to the pine forest to brew tea. After one cup of tea, the Sword Sovereign really arrived!”
Hai Wuyu asked curiously, “Zou child, what was the Sword Sovereign like when you saw him?”
Zou child pouted and ignored him.
Hai Wuyu coaxed him.
“I did not mean to deceive you. I have never seen the Sword Sovereign either. You kept pestering me, so I could only tell you what I had heard.”
Zou child did not stay angry long.
He was soon soothed, and when he spoke of the Sword Sovereign, his eyes became glossy and bright again.
“He wore white, and over it he had a dark teal robe. There was a sword at his waist, and the sheath was bamboo. He did not fly in with a whoosh. He just walked in normally. He did not look fierce at all, and he was not cold. He even smiled at me!”
Nan Youqiao and Hai Wuyu exchanged a look and asked, intrigued, “That does not sound like the rumors. Were you not disappointed when you saw him?”
“No!” Zou child shook his head hard.
Hai Wuyu continued teasing him.
“How can you be sure he was the Sword Sovereign? What if another guest arrived first?”
“Because,” Zou child said, eyes shining, “when you see him, you just know!”
That only made one even more curious.
The Zouyu was a spirit beast naturally gentle and benevolent.
It could not bear to eat living creatures, nor could it bear to tread upon living grass and trees.
The Sword Sovereign was famed for the sword, and the sword was a weapon of slaughter. What Shuang Wenlü had cut down beneath his blade was certainly not limited to demons.
If Zou child’s previous goodwill toward the Sword Sovereign had merely come from curiosity and longing for a legendary figure, then now he had seen the Sword Sovereign with his own eyes—why would he, with the Zouyu’s innate sensitivity as a spirit beast, recognize him at a glance as the Sword Sovereign, and still feel such closeness and affection toward him?
What kind of person was the Sword Sovereign, truly?
Beneath the pines, Shuang Wenlü cradled his tea and drank slowly, giving not the slightest hint that he had just gone to the Demon Abyss, cleaved apart half a city with one sword, and slain countless demons.
A sword unstained with blood, a heart untainted by dust.
Yet if it were only that, it would not have made Zou child feel close to him.
When he set down his tea, Ning Xianmian stroked his beard and said, “You once asked my Martial Uncle to cast a divination for you.”
Shuang Wenlü nodded.
“Does that divination have an answer now?”
That had been a matter from many lifetimes ago.
The opportunity by which he had entered the Dao and begun cultivating had been somewhat unusual, and so he had asked the previous master of Sitting-Forgetting Island to calculate a divination for him. Yet at the time, there had been no result.
The former island master had calculated that the time had not yet come, but did not know when it would.
He only said there was no need to seek it; when the time arrived, the result would come of itself.
Shuang Wenlü’s divination slip had thus remained in the island’s divination chamber all this time.
Sitting-Forgetting Island excelled at divination, yet the secrets of heaven were hard to measure.
There were often divinations without results or too difficult to interpret, all piled within the divination chamber. Because such matters involved privacy, these divinations without results could only be retrieved from the chamber when the one who had cast them came to the island and gave permission.
“A while ago, when I inspected the divination chamber, I found your divination slip had changed,” Ning Xianmian said.
“Tracing it back, it seems the change occurred when Qiankun opened its barrier.”
Ning Xianmian had already put away the chess pieces.
He pushed the black-piece jar toward Shuang Wenlü.
Staring at the jar, Shuang Wenlü sighed.
People all had their strengths and weaknesses.
Chess was what he was worst at.
If he were playing against a mortal chess player, he could still rely on strong divine sense to calculate and deduce, but unfortunately, his opponent was Ning Xianmian—the person in this world most skilled in deduction and inference.
Shuang Wenlü pinched a piece and set it down casually.
“How is the omen?”
Zou child had gone to fetch the divination slip, but Ning Xianmian had already seen its contents.
“You want to conclude this karmic entanglement, so you must take a trip to the mortal world,” Ning Xianmian said, stroking his beard.
“The mortal world.”
Shuang Wenlü was unconcerned.
“I entered the Dao from the mortal world. Naturally, I should conclude it among mortals as well.”
The words had barely fallen when he sensed movement beyond the pine forest. He added, “Heaven and earth are changing. Your Sitting-Forgetting Island barrier should be revised too.”
Outside the pine forest.
Qiu Shufeng leaned against an old pine to rest.
Behind him followed a bookboy of seventeen or eighteen.
Though Qiu Shufeng was a scholar, his endurance was not poor.
In his youth, he had practiced martial arts and trained his body; he could even handle bow and horse. Yet now his age had grown, gray showed in his hair, and travel weariness weighed on him. He could not help but falter.
The bookboy, Feng Fei, unfastened a waterskin and stepped forward.
“Sir, have some water.”
Qiu Shufeng took the waterskin, drank two mouthfuls, and caught his breath.
Looking at the pine forest around them, he said, “How strange. How did we end up here?”
A moment ago, the sky had changed abruptly—clouds gathering, wind rising sharply—and he had been separated from his attendants.
Only this bookboy, newly taken into his service, remained beside him. Yet in a daze, he had wandered into this pine forest.
Ancient trees towered on all sides.
Sunlight fell like shattered gold.
The wind in the forest was clean, the vegetation moist and sweet.
A thick carpet of pine needles covered the ground, soft beneath their feet.
Birds called faintly. Pinecones cracked open by squirrels lay scattered.
The sudden fierce wind and rain from before had vanished without reason.
In such a peaceful place, even though he was lost, Qiu Shufeng did not feel much fear.
“Do you remember how we walked here?” Qiu Shufeng asked Feng Fei.
Feng Fei shook his head, ashamed.
“It was too chaotic earlier. I only remember holding on tightly to you. I did not notice anything else. I do not know how to go back.”
Qiu Shufeng smiled to reassure him.
“Luckily you remembered to hold on to me. Otherwise, this old man might have wandered who knows where with no familiar face beside me—how could I not panic? This place does not seem dangerous. Since we cannot find our way back, let us walk ahead and see.”
They heard the clear sound of running water in the forest and followed it.
They had not gone far before the pines grew sparser.
A stream ran over pale stone; the ground leveled, the flow gentle and murmuring, the water so clear it seemed empty.
Pine shadows and the gleam of water rippled over the rocks.
Following the stream, they rounded a bend, and the view opened suddenly.
It was a clearing within the woods.
In the center stood a stone table and stools.
Tea simmered on a red-clay stove. A chessboard sat upon the table.
Two people of uncommon bearing were playing chess.
No sound accompanied the falling pieces.
Only the stream’s murmur and the pine leaves’ fine rustle remained.
Small, soft, downy flowers pushed up through the pine needles, swaying lightly in the wind. Sunlight spilled gently through the air.
Qiu Shufeng’s exhaustion vanished without a trace, as though wind from open plains had swept across his face.
All the subtle thoughts in his heart, noticed and unnoticed, scattered with that wind, leaving only a mind at ease, empty and serene.
The players did not look up.
Qiu Shufeng did not dare disturb them. He stood silently beside the table and watched the game.
Not long after, the game ended.
Shuang Wenlü tossed the black piece in his hand into the jar and sighed.
“Playing one game with you costs me three months of spirit.”
“Then I must be deeply sinful,” Ning Xianmian laughed, then turned to look at the two standing beside them.
On the other side, Qiu Shufeng seemed to wake from a trance.
Seeing their gaze, he first apologized for intruding, then introduced himself and his origins.
He was the current Prefect of Suizhou, and because—
Qiu Shufeng was about to explain why he had come here, but he suddenly stopped.
He had… how had he come?
He thought for a long time and only vaguely remembered being caught on the road by sudden wind and rain, then getting lost while seeking shelter.
If he tried to think further, he could scarcely remember even who he was.
Yet there was no distress in his heart.
It was as if, along the way while following the sound of water, he had not only forgotten matters about himself, but had also forgotten his worries.
This was precisely the wondrous power of Sitting-Forgetting Island: within this place, one forgets, and one returns to one’s original truth.
Shuang Wenlü raised his head to look at them.
His gaze was transparent and indifferent, like a wind without emotion.
Qiu Shufeng’s expression was calm, but his bookboy was tense.
However, Shuang Wenlü’s gaze had already slid past.
He glanced toward the pine forest’s edge and casually flicked a fallen pine needle between his fingers.
“Since you came because of wind and rain, and the wind and rain have now stopped, you may return.”
Qiu Shufeng felt a trace of regret.
He was still curious about this place, but if the host wished to see them off, there was nothing to say.
Feng Fei’s expression tightened. He did not want to leave like this, yet why did he want to stay? He could not remember.
Ning Xianmian smiled.
“Let them rest here for the time of a cup of tea. They happened to arrive at this moment—who is to say it is not fate?”
He invited them to sit, poured each of them a cup of tea, and began chatting casually.
Cradling the tea to moisten his throat, Qiu Shufeng tasted pine fragrance, sweet and sharp.
His fatigue vanished; his mind steadied. Seeing that these two had a crane’s bone and pine’s bearing, wholly extraordinary, he could not help asking, “I see the two of you possess open, expansive bearing and uncommon speech. Why do you hide away only among mountains and forests?”
“If not hidden away among mountains and forests, then what?” Ning Xianmian said.
“Why not enter official service? With your abilities, high office and rich stipends would not be hard to obtain. This great world is precisely the place to fulfill ambitions. If you remain secluded here, is that not a waste of talent?”
Feng Fei nodded in agreement.
“A true man should build achievements and leave fragrance for a hundred generations!”
Ning Xianmian laughed softly.
“What use are fame and fortune to me? Emperors and ministers alike return to yellow earth. Has there ever been an undying dynasty in this world?”
Qiu Shufeng held the remaining half cup of tea and fell silent for a long time before saying, “Even if you do not crave fame and profit, do you not pity the suffering of the common people?”
Ning Xianmian shook his head with a smile.
“Wrong.”
Qiu Shufeng asked for instruction.
“Where am I wrong?”
“The direction is wrong,” Ning Xianmian said.
“You only think of saving the world and ferrying people across, yet you do not know that such a thing requires two sides to accomplish.”
He did not continue. Instead, he turned to an odd tale.
“South of the Southern Mountain, east of a great valley, there is a bird called the Liju. It loves to eat poisonous grass. The heavier the poison it consumes, the more brilliant its feathers become. Yet poison accumulates in its body and cannot be dissolved. The more poison it eats, the shorter its life. When its lifespan ends, all poisons surge together. The pain is unbearable, and it wails for seven days before it dies.”
Qiu Shufeng did not understand.
Ning Xianmian continued. “I have antidote medicine that can cure a hundred poisons, yet the Liju fears its colorful feathers will fade, so it will not take my medicine. I have pearl rice that can fill a starving belly, yet the Liju enjoys the taste of poisonous grass and will not follow me. What is to be done?”
Qiu Shufeng realised, then said, “I understand what you mean. To save the world and ferry people across, there is not only the one who ferries but also the one being ferried. Yet there are many who suffer in this world. How can you be sure the one being ferried is unwilling to be ferried?”
Ning Xianmian smiled. “You see many people suffer. I see that you, too, suffer with worry and distress. I wish to ferry you into the mountains and spare you many troubles—how about it?”
Qiu Shufeng gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
“I understand.”
Ning Xianmian smiled again.
“I have a little boat, a single leaf. If there are those who board, we share the journey and rejoice. If none board, then I still drift at ease.”
He pointed at Shuang Wenlü.
“You should not ask me. You should ask him.”
Qiu Shufeng was surprised.
Shuang Wenlü had appeared very cold all along. He had thought this one was the more detached of the two.
Shuang Wenlü was drinking tea when Ning Xianmian suddenly pointed at him.
He lifted his eyes.
“You speak as if I would stop those who insist on running headlong to their deaths.”
Ning Xianmian poured him another cup of tea.
“You do not stop people from courting death, yet you removed the Heart-Eroding Grass.”
“I found it displeasing,” Shuang Wenlü said blandly.
“There are countless poisonous grasses. Who can remove them all? If the Liju runs to its death, what is it to me?”
“The Liju runs toward suffering, and you cannot save it. But if there were a Liju who had ties with you, and you could not bear to see it die, what then?” Ning Xianmian asked again.
“If it eats one poisonous grass and grows one colorful feather, then I will remove one colorful feather,” Shuang Wenlü said evenly.
“In time, it will naturally learn that poisonous grass cannot be eaten.”
Feng Fei shuddered and muttered, “Why not remove the poisonous grass instead of removing the colorful feathers?”
Qiu Shufeng said quietly, “If you remove the poisonous grass, the Liju will have no poisonous grass to eat, yet it will still long for it in its heart. The Liju’s trouble is not the poisonous grass, but the colorful feathers.”
He could tell Ning Xianmian was speaking deliberately for Shuang Wenlü to hear.
Liju, poisonous grass, and Heart-Eroding Grass were all metaphors. Though Qiu Shufeng did not know what they referred to, he understood the principle they were discussing.
If the Liju did not crave the colourful feathers, then even if poisonous grass existed, what could it do to the bird?
“So…” Ning Xianmian sighed with a smile.
“Why do such laborious things that earn resentment? Better to drift in a small boat. Whoever wishes to be ferried may come aboard; whoever does not—let them seek, cling, and sink on their own.”
Qiu Shufeng fell silent for a moment, then said, “I have failed your goodwill. I only seek to do what I can. If I can help one person, then I help one person. If I can help a hundred, then I help a hundred.”
“I drift at ease. How have you failed me?” Ning Xianmian smiled. “This is the road you have chosen. Go on, go on.”
When the time of a cup of tea ended, the road appeared. Wind rose in the forest, softly escorting guests away.
Qiu Shufeng rose, intending to bow farewell.
Feng Fei rose unwillingly behind him. A fierce voice in his heart urged him to stay, yet he did not know why, nor how to try.
Just as he set down his teacup, Feng Fei suddenly heard an urgent voice in his head. “Feng Fei, Feng Fei! Wake up! Do you remember why you came?”
Feng Fei froze. Forgotten memories surged in like a tide.
That was right! This chance to enter Sitting-Forgetting Island was something he had finally obtained with great difficulty.
The voice in his head was the system.
A few days ago, a system called “All Masters Are Big Shots” had found him.
It was a Golden Finger that could help him take a famous master and rise to the peak of life.
Even his connection to Qiu Shufeng had been part of the system’s strategy.
The system said Qiu Shufeng was a pillar of the state and a good candidate for a master.
Yet Feng Fei had wracked his brain, and in the end Qiu Shufeng had only taken him in as a bookboy.
Feng Fei was deeply dissatisfied. With the talent he had shown, Qiu Shufeng still only made him a bookboy. It was far too condescending!
But he did not care either.
His original plan was only to use Qiu Shufeng as a stepping stone.
There were immortals in Qiankun—what was there to learn from mortals? With a Golden Finger, his future was destined to be extraordinary.
He did not want to keep serving this old man as a bookboy. He wanted the system to find him another master—ideally, one who could bring him straight into cultivation in a single step.
Dealing with mortals was too much of a waste of time. His lifespan was limited, and every year delayed made his heart ache.
Fortunately, he had not used his beginner gift pack yet. After paying some additional cost, the system finally found him another chance to take a master!
He had struggled so hard to enter Sitting-Forgetting Island, yet once inside he forgot his purpose and nearly delayed his real business. Luckily, it was not too late to awaken now.
After finishing his communication with the system, Feng Fei stepped forward and bowed as he asked, “This junior has something he does not understand.”
Qiu Shufeng was surprised, but he stopped as well.
Shuang Wenlü lifted his eyes. This was the second time his gaze had fallen on Feng Fei.
Feng Fei grew even more nervous, yet he insisted.
“This junior has some slight skill in chess. Seeing your game, White won and Black lost. Yet I do not know why—this junior keeps feeling something strange, as though this game has not decided victory or defeat.”
“Oh?” Ning Xianmian asked.
“And what else do you see?”
Feng Fei stared at the board, screaming internally, 'System, system!' Hurry and scan it! What else is there?
He did not understand chess at all.
How could he tell who won or lost? He had no feeling, either. It was only with the system’s help that he could say a few words.
The system scanned for a long while.
Feng Fei could only pretend to study the board, staring at the chessboard while growing more and more anxious as he urged it on.
Hurry up, hurry up! Aren’t you supposed to help me take a master? I do not want to miss my immortal fate!
According to his “All Masters Are Big Shots” system, these two were the highest-tier masters he could possibly take.
If he missed this chance, there might never be another.
Yet he had paid such a steep price to enter Sitting-Forgetting Island, and these two did not seem interested in him at all.
Instead, they spoke far more with Qiu Shufeng.
At last, the system finished scanning, hesitated slightly, and said, “Just say… that looking at this board, it is like seeing a sharp sword and a skyful of stars. And when you go back, you should actually learn some chess too.”
Even for the system, the scan felt strenuous.
If it only analyzed the board, that White won and Black lost was easy to determine.
But if Feng Fei wanted to take a master, he needed to show some aptitude in cultivation.
The board decided victory and defeat. What had not decided victory and defeat was the Dao unconsciously carried in the players’ moves.
“Fine, fine. Isn’t that why I have you?” Feng Fei replied in his mind.
What was the point of learning chess? And those books the system made him memorize were exhausting and troublesome.
Everything was stored in the system anyway. When he needed something, he could just pull it up or scan it.
When he cultivated into an immortal who could move mountains and overturn seas, would fame and fortune not be his for the taking? After replying to the system, Feng Fei hurriedly repeated the answer.
Shuang Wenlü raised his hand and took a piece from the box.
The moment the piece fell onto the board, Sword Intent burst forth.
The system, still scanning, did not even have time to make a sound before it went offline.
“And this piece?” Shuang Wenlü asked.
Feng Fei remained unaware and began asking the system again.
After a long while with no response, he finally panicked.
Sweat beaded on his forehead.
His hands clenched tight. He stammered for a long time, unable to force out a word.
Ning Xianmian said gently, “It is fine if you cannot sense it. Then from the chessboard alone—what do you think?”
The chessboard… What chessboard did he understand?
Feng Fei seethed inwardly at the system’s silence, but with no answer no matter how long he waited, he could only grit his teeth.
Guessing that immortals must have profound meaning in their play, he launched into flattery, choosing words with as few holes as possible.
When he finished, he looked at their expressions nervously. This should be enough to muddle through, right? Shuang Wenlü’s face remained indifferent.
Ning Xianmian smiled without speaking.
He only lifted his arm and swept his sleeve.
In that motion, Qiu Shufeng and Feng Fei’s surroundings changed at once.
Green willow tassels drooped on both sides, elm branches bent overhead.
They had already returned from the pine forest to the road they had been on before.
Feng Fei stood there blankly, his face shifting again and again.
He could not believe he had lost his opportunity, yet the system gave no response no matter how he called or cursed.
Panicked by the system’s silence, he did not even notice Qiu Shufeng calling him.
Qiu Shufeng called twice more before Feng Fei finally reacted.
“You think that move was good?” Qiu Shufeng asked. Away from Sitting-Forgetting Island, he too recalled what he had forgotten.
Feng Fei stiffened and said, “Yes.”
“That was a useless move,” Qiu Shufeng said.
Feng Fei’s mind exploded with a roar.
When he came back to himself, he finally noticed that Qiu Shufeng’s expression and tone were frighteningly calm—a calm that pressed down on people.
“I… I…”
“Since you have the heart to seek immortals, then once we reach the next town, leave on your own. Mortal trifles should not disturb the mind,” Qiu Shufeng said.
When he had first met Feng Fei, Qiu Shufeng felt the young man was somewhat restless, yet he was a rare, keen talent.
Qiu Shufeng kept him but only made him a bookboy, intending to temper his impatience and wildness. In truth, he had treated him as a disciple.
With the superb chess skill Feng Fei had displayed before him, how could he not see that it was a useless move?
Qiu Shufeng calmly climbed into the carriage, ignoring Feng Fei behind him.
A man dressed like a guard followed closely into the carriage and asked, “My lord, where did you go earlier?”
This was the attendant cultivator, Huo Xiao.
Suizhou was also called Little Demon Prefecture, a place filled with demons, ghosts, and rampant evil.
Qiu Shufeng had been entrusted with an important appointment there, meant to change its chaos. He could not travel without cultivator protection at his side.
This group looked ordinary, yet many among them were cultivators.
Qiu Shufeng said, “I happened into an immortal realm cave abode.”
Seeing Huo Xiao’s worry, Qiu Shufeng waved a hand.
“This is not urgent. While I was gone, how were things?”
Huo Xiao suppressed his concern and reported first.
When the group had stopped to rest earlier, a murky yellow strange wind had suddenly risen and circled without dispersing.
The sky grew gloomy as if rain would fall, yet the rainwater remained trapped in the dark clouds and would not come down. The wind was a treasure refined by a Yao Creature . The cultivators in the group could not stop it in time, and could only gather the panicked people together, yet they could not find Qiu Shufeng or Feng Fei.
“I saw the Yao Creature hiding within the dark clouds, looking around as well, and I knew you had not fallen into its hands. But my search spell could not locate you either. Just as I was thinking of a solution, I suddenly heard a scream from within the clouds, and the Yao Creature fell.”
“After the wind stopped and the clouds dispersed, I found this on the ground.”
As Huo Xiao finished, he opened his palm, revealing a pine needle.
Qiu Shufeng pinched the pine needle between his fingers. Within three li, all the trees had flat leaves. There were no needle-leaf pines.
He recalled that immortal with a bamboo-sheathed sword resting on his knee.
When they had first entered the pine forest, he had pinched up a pine needle from the stone table and flicked it away.
...
On Sitting-Forgetting Island.
Shuang Wenlü held a piece of iridescent light between his fingers and tossed it to Ning Xianmian.
“Take it and play with it.”
Ning Xianmian caught the system, sealed by Shuang Wenlü’s Sword Qi, and studied it with interest.
“So this is a foreign fragment of rules? Relying on them to perfect Qiankun’s Dao…”
“They record the rules of other worlds and can serve as reference for Qiankun,” Shuang Wenlü said.
Three thousand worlds—worlds like flowers.
These rule fragments, drifting between worlds and growing, were like bees and butterflies carrying pollen.
But when too many things were let in, some were bound to be good and some bad.
Just as there were bees and butterflies that carried pollen, there were also flies that pestered, and worse still, mosquitoes that came to suck blood from Qiankun.
“Last night, when I observed the stars, there was one more star of fate,” Ning Xianmian said as he toyed with the system.
“The mortal world will likely fall into chaos first.”
The growth of stars was one sign of Qiankun’s growth.
These rule fragments often had strange functions.
The system in his hand could confuse the mind.
Qiu Shufeng had been affected, yet it could not easily shake his Dao heart.
Cultivators tempered the heart, so such influences would be weaker on them, but mortals might not be able to resist.
Ning Xianmian suddenly turned his head with a smile.
“Zou child is back.”
Zou child had already tucked away his tail.
He walked in holding a divination slip.
The divinations of Sitting-Forgetting Island possessed guiding power and could be regarded as a special kind of artefact.
However, Shuang Wenlü’s cultivation had already reached perfection; his spirit aligned with the Dao. Now that the time had come, he did not need the divination slip’s guidance.
He could sense the direction forward from the Dao itself.
Ning Xianmian took the divination slip and handed it to Shuang Wenlü, smiling teasingly. “Though with your cultivation you do not need it, it is rare for the divination chamber to clear out a bit of space. Much obliged.”
Shuang Wenlü laughed, took the divination slip, and glanced at the patterns on it. He drained the last of the tea in his cup and rose with his sword.
The mortal world would fall into chaos.
Go to the mortal world.