Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 99: The Chess Saint of Da Kang

Outside the God-Burying Mound.

The towering burial mound rose from the earth like a mountain.

Above the Hundred Thousand Mountains, dark clouds massed and thunder rumbled.

The space within the God-Burying Mound operated independently from the outside world.

Though they hadn't been inside long, a full day and night had already passed.

An eerie ripple flickered into being.

Then, atop the mound, a colossal and stately figure materialized.

It was the Deity of Broad Sight.

The evil spirits Yi Qingzhou had ejected earlier had long since scattered to parts unknown.

The Deity of Broad Sight was the last to emerge.At that moment.

The Deity of Broad Sight frowned. "I should have remembered — one day in the heavens equals one year on the earth."

"The Underworld Yellow Spring operates the same way."

"He didn't bring any food with him. I should have conjured some offerings for him."

Time flowed differently in the Underworld Yellow Spring compared to the mortal world.

Although Chen Huangpi would return soon enough.

In reality, he might be down there for several days.

Offerings were formed from the blood and flesh of deities.

The Deity of Broad Sight genuinely couldn't withstand Chen Huangpi eating its offerings every single day. That was why it had reluctantly broken its promise and left the Pure Immortal Temple.

But now.

Its strength had recovered to thirty percent.

It could easily endure for a few more centuries.

Thinking of this, the Deity of Broad Sight chuckled. "He has no idea those offerings are made from my own flesh and blood. If he ever found out, he would surely refuse to take another bite. After all, I watched him grow up. His heart is kind — he'll always side with me."

"But he loves sneaking those offerings so much. How could I not let him have his way?"

With that, the Deity of Broad Sight sliced off a chunk of its own flesh with its hand.

Before the flesh even hit the ground, it transformed into a platter of offerings in its palm.

The offerings were varied and plentiful.

Pastries, fruits, and candy.

A colorful assortment of sweets — all the things a child would love.

Looking at the platter.

The Deity of Broad Sight's gaze grew distant, drifting back to the old days at the Pure Immortal Temple.

Back then, the Heaven and Earth Mutation had occurred, and spiritual qi had vanished.

The deities had followed the Guanzhu to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

At first, none of them knew what they were meant to do.

The Guanzhu told them only that by coming here and offering their flesh and blood, he would protect them from corruption.

For the first few hundred years.

The Guanzhu hadn't asked them to sacrifice their flesh. He merely had his disciples begin creating gods, while he himself frequently disappeared without explanation.

At the time, the deities — the Deity of Broad Sight included — were puzzled.

Until the Heaven and Earth Mutation erupted in full force.

The Yin Extreme appeared — six days and six nights of light and darkness thrown into chaos.

Afterward, the disciples began falling one after another. Some went mad; some died. Some became evil spirits; some were overtaken by growths sprouting from their own bodies.

After that day.

The Guanzhu appeared carrying an infant.

The infant was deeply abnormal. Its skin was an eerie, earthy yellow.

Just like a clay-and-wood idol.

And like a premature baby, it was no larger than two palms pressed together. It had no breath. You couldn't even detect a heartbeat. A stillborn.

The deities didn't understand why the Guanzhu had brought a stillborn.

Nor did they know where he had gone during his absences.

Because the Guanzhu didn't say.

All he told them was that this was his disciple. It bore his surname. Its name was Chen Huangpi.

Once Chen Huangpi grew a little older, the deities would need to offer their flesh and blood day and night.

None of the deities doubted that the stillborn would come to life. Because if the Guanzhu said it could, then it could.

What the deities hadn't expected, however.

Was that the infant did eventually come back to life.

But it aged at the rate of one year per thousand years.

After reaching the age of three, its growth abruptly stopped. Every day it just ran around the temple causing mischief, with a brass oil lamp at its side playing strategist.

And constantly sneaking offerings.

In a very real sense, the Deity of Broad Sight had watched Chen Huangpi grow up.

Later, after the Guanzhu went mad.

The other deities began harboring different thoughts. Not only did they offer less, but sometimes, in the dead of night when the Guanzhu was away, they would grumble behind closed doors that "Egg-born Chen" was a freak who couldn't cultivate, a waste of their flesh and blood.

Only the Deity of Broad Sight was different. Chen Huangpi was fond of it. He often climbed onto its body to nap. He loved its offerings best of all.

And the deity, too, had genuine affection for Chen Huangpi.

Why else would its offerings always be so varied — and always the sweets a child would love?

Reflecting on all of this.

The Deity of Broad Sight laughed heartily. "He may have grown considerably, and his cultivation is now remarkable, but he's still the same greedy little eater he was as a child, still just as kindhearted. That Huang Er may play the role of scheming advisor, but at least he hasn't managed to corrupt the boy."

At that.

The Deity of Broad Sight felt its heart swell with joy.

It remembered the way to the Pure Immortal Temple.

Memories carved into one's bones were not so easily forgotten. After becoming an evil spirit, it had only returned once, because it instinctively avoided Chen Huangpi — contact would have driven it into total madness.

So in truth.

The three times Chen Huangpi had encountered the mutated divine statue had all been mere coincidence.

But this time, it could finally return openly.

The Deity of Broad Sight was elated, brimming with excitement.

Yet the moment it turned to set off for the Pure Immortal Temple, its body froze mid-step.

"Guan... Guanzhu..."

The Deity of Broad Sight stared in disbelief at the Daoist before it.

The man wore a black Daoist robe embroidered with red plum blossoms. White hair streamed in the wind. His cheeks were sunken, and his turbid eyes glinted with an unspeakable, sinister energy.

...

Meanwhile. In Xuzhou City.

Song Tiangang was still playing chess with Wang Taiyu in the pavilion on the governor's estate grounds.

The match had begun the previous day.

By now, it had stretched on for a full day and night.

A Nascent Soul cultivator had a lifespan of eight hundred years.

They wouldn't experience the "one day more, one day less" uncertainty that mortals faced.

Even the difference between a common year and a leap year counted just the same.

For Nascent Soul cultivators, this kind of time was nothing.

But Song Tiangang couldn't sit still any longer.

Because he sensed that Song Jiu's soul lamp had been extinguished.

"Grand Tutor Wang, let us end this match here."

Song Tiangang said without expression. "I have matters to attend to. I'm afraid I can no longer keep you company."

"Come now, we've barely gotten started."

Wang Taiyu said amiably. "We sat for the imperial examinations in the same year, you and I. We walked into the Hall of Heavenly Ascent together, draped in brocade. What matter could possibly be more pleasant than a leisurely game of chess between old friends in a lakeside pavilion? If word got out, people would call it a fine tale indeed."

"And you don't consider the matter of taxation important?"

Song Tiangang replied coldly. "Grand Tutor Wang, though we share the bond of classmates, we both hold offices of the Crown. Our duty is to ease His Majesty's burdens. All this idle amusement is a bit much, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh, but neither of us is wearing our official robes, are we?"

Wang Taiyu gestured at himself, then at Song Tiangang. "We're both in plain clothes. No crimson official robes in sight. What's wrong with a game of chess?"

"Taxation is a serious matter."

"And what we have going on — isn't that a matter too?"

"Business has its urgencies and its lulls. A man, in turn, needs balance between exertion and rest."

"Punching the clock every day without reprieve — even a donkey pulling a millstone would collapse under that."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Governor Song, but you're far too rigid. If it were up to me, I'd have summoned beautiful companions and fine wine, sipped as I pleased, nibbled on grapes, and played my match to the patter of autumn rain. Now that — that would be life's true delight."

But Song Tiangang was anything but rigid.

He kept twenty concubines, every one of them a Nascent Soul cultivator, each stunningly beautiful in her own way.

Even with this year's tax quota heavier and more pressing than ever, it hadn't slowed his pace of taking new wives.

Some had even joked.

Every year Song Tiangang held his post, he took on a new concubine.

Governor of Xu Province? More like governor of his harem.

Of course, such remarks were only whispered in private. Nobody would say it to his face.

But at this moment.

Wang Taiyu's words grated on Song Tiangang's nerves with a visceral disgust.

"I said this match is over!"

"My, what authority, Governor Song."

Wang Taiyu's genial smile faded as he gazed at Song Tiangang's frigid expression. He rose to his feet. "Very well then. I won't impose any further. But the autumn rains have already begun to fall, which means it's the season for planting."

"Do give the tax matter some attention, Governor."

With that, Wang Taiyu stood and walked away, muttering as he went, "Had I known the Governor of Xu Province was such a devoted public servant, I'd have worn my crimson official robes to this meeting. Ah well, duty, duty — when is anything ever private?"

"Farewell. I won't see you out!"

Song Tiangang's voice was hard as iron. His hands, resting on his knees, clenched into white-knuckled fists.

If Wang Taiyu didn't leave soon.

He was going to slam the chessboard down on his head.

"Lapdog tutor! Lapdog tutor!"

Song Tiangang seethed through gritted teeth. "What a mangy cur. Does that mutt truly believe that putting on a human skin makes him a man?"

"A dog, barking at me?"

"He deserves to die!"

Song Tiangang was ablaze with fury.

But the fire flared and faded just as quickly.

Wang Taiyu had provoked a man of his noble house, and for that he deserved death.

But not now.

Killing him would be a slap across the face of the Da Kang Emperor himself.

More than that, Song Tiangang had to keep him alive. Under no circumstances could Wang Taiyu die within the borders of Xuzhou City.

If word got out.

The other great families would mock the Song clan for lacking grace and refinement — for killing a man so crudely, satisfying a momentary impulse while trampling every convention. Far from sympathy, they'd kick the Song family while it was down.

But what Song Tiangang despised most of all was conventions.

He studied the chessboard. Black and white stones were locked in a bitter deadlock. Though no victor had been declared, anyone could see that black's position was crumbling, its dragon's head about to be severed. White, on the other hand, was thoroughly interconnected — a picture of rising, triumphant momentum.

Song Tiangang played black.

Wang Taiyu played white.

"Laughable."

Song Tiangang picked up a black stone and placed it at the center of the sixteenth-line intersection.

Let you scheme a thousand variations. Let you calculate every move.

He still had one stone yet unplayed.

And the moment it fell, the dragon would transform and soar in an instant.

No — more accurately, it would be an ascension to immortality in a single move.

Song Tiangang glanced at the golden seal on his waist.

With the seal's blessing, he was effectively the City God of Xu Province. And beyond that, he had already siphoned away eighty percent of Xuzhou City's tax-designated human qi this year.

Eighty percent of the human qi.

Even if the Hundred Thousand Mountains were ten times more treacherous.

Song Tiangang was confident he could pass through unimpeded.

Song Jiu was dead, but he was very much alive.

And right then, outside the Song estate.

Wang Taiyu ambled out, swaying slightly. Not a soul in sight.

After all, this was the Governor's residence.

Ordinary people weren't permitted anywhere near it.

"Gentlemen of the Bureau of Astronomy, make your move."

Wang Taiyu said calmly. "Song Tiangang has already lost his composure. If we stall any longer, he'll see through the ruse."