By this point, the battle on the ground was drawing to a close. The Shamans’ main force had retreated, while the western wing that had been cut off had been annihilated.
After the battle, the Shamans left behind more than 200,000 corpses, with countless more wounded. The Realm of Qingming suffered 30,000 casualties, the vast majority of whom had died from the Blood Curses. In addition, several thousand had perished from the black water in the earth fort zone.
All five earth fort zones had been contaminated by the black water. Nothing could grow on the surface, and all underground life had been extinguished. They could only rely on Qingming’s domain to purify the area bit by bit.
Most of the Great Shamans who had been killed in action had perished at the hands of Wei Yuan. It would appear that Heaven and Earth had largely attributed the deaths of the two Great Shamans killed by the giant crossbows to Qingming as well, so the worldly reward had mostly gone to Qingming and the immortal plants. Consequently, spirit qi rain occasionally fell from the sky, replenishing the accumulated energy Qingming had consumed.
The Shamans still possessed considerable strength at the time of this retreat. It was only because of their World Rulers’ defeat that they were forced to withdraw. Consequently, they were able to take many of their wounded with them and even removed some of the corpses.
Having been established for nearly two years, the Realm of Qingming had weathered countless major battles at this point. It now boasted at least 200,000 veteran soldiers, and every single military officer was highly experienced. Even Trueman Chu He could speak eloquently on military tactics and formations. Therefore, Wei Yuan did not need to worry too much about the aftermath. His men had naturally taken it upon themselves to clear the battlefield and tend to the wounded.
At the moment, Wei Yuan stood face-to-face with Huang Yun, Xuan Yue, Zhu Yuanjin, Ouyang Ming—a great Confucian scholar from the Four Sages Academies—the Seventh Elder of the Bao Clan, Chen Zhou, and Monk Qiuyue. The qi of these seven figures was intertwined, and none could decisively suppress the others. Each one was a Bodhisattva in their own right, so the humble temple that was Wei Yuan had to treat them with the utmost reverence.
His energy senses made him feel as though he was standing before seven towering mountains.
Ouyang Ming of the Four Sages Academies gave Wei Yuan a brief nod before heading over to Lee Zhi to offer some guidance to the academy’s most promising disciple.
The three True Lords of the Palace of Absolute Beginning offered Wei Yuan words of encouragement. True Lord Huang Yun, unable to stay for long, exchanged a few words with Bao Yun before returning to the northern battlefield. Zhu Yuanjin merely patted Wei Yuan on the shoulder before vanishing. She had always been as elusive as a ghost, and by this point Wei Yuan was used to it.
True Lord Xuan Yue was, of course, extremely pleased with Wei Yuan, though he was in a most pitiful state at the moment. His robes, both inner and outer, had been reduced to strips of clothes, forcing him to conceal his true form within a veil of cloud mist.
Upon seeing this, Wei Yuan hurriedly and discreetly produced a mystic treasure-grade outer robe he had just exchanged from the merit hall and imbued it with the intent of concealment. He then let it float stealthily toward True Lord Xuan Yue.
No sooner had the robe left his hand than it vanished. The next moment, True Lord Xuan Yue appeared clad in his new robes, refreshed. He deliberately fluttered his wide sleeves as well.
Unfortunately, Wei Yuan was not a Daoist[1] and had not exchanged for a set of Daoist robes. That was why he could only make a token gesture instead of giving his founder a complete makeover. Wei Yuan had considered shaping a Daoist hat out of stone, but everyone present was a True Lord. There was simply no way he could hide its true intent from their eyes and ears.
Wei Yuan exchanged a few words with Founder Xuan Yue and learned the general course of the battle in the Beyond.
Xuan Yue disdained overwhelming his enemies via numbers. After consulting with his fellow human True Lords, he single-handedly held off three Shadow Shamans while Ouyang Ming held off another. The remaining True Lords joined forces and, in just a few moves, severely wounded one of the Shadow Shamans. However, the Shadow Shaman unleashed a desperate burst of power during their moment of crisis and drew the attention of the otherworldly monsters as a result.
Seeing the situation turn dire, the Shadow Shamans had no choice but to flee under the gaze of the otherworldly monsters, resulting in each of them sustaining damage to their innate foundations. The Shadow Shaman who had been severely wounded during the initial ambush was even on the verge of death. It would take him one or two centuries to fully recover from his injuries.
True Lord Xuan Yue was as formidable as ever, but he also, as always, slightly overestimated his own abilities. Fighting three opponents alone turned out to be an immense struggle for him. Fortunately, he possessed a wealth of combat experience and only sustained injuries to his mystic body. His face was completely unscathed.
After speaking with the founder, Wei Yuan went on to thank the Seventh Elder and the other True Lords.
The sudden appearance of these True Lords had come as a complete surprise to Wei Yuan. Had it not been for their arrival, they would have been one True Lord-level cultivator short compared to the enemy. Although True Lord Xuan Yue could have taken on two opponents single-handedly, they would have been at a disadvantage. They would have had to wait for Lee Zhi’s elder to show up to turn the tide of battle.
Although he had expressed his gratitude, the three True Lords showed no intention of leaving. The Seventh Elder in particular looked like he was in a foul mood at the moment.
This was the Shattered Realm, and the wills of multiple otherworldly monsters had just descended. Even an Avatar like Wei Yuan occasionally felt a twinge of dread, let alone the World Ruler heavyweights. They had to maintain a mind as still as water at all times, and their Dao energy could not fluctuate or leak out in the slightest to avoid detection by the otherworldly monsters.
The Imaginary World of a True Lord was vast and very difficult to control. Therefore, it was extremely taxing for them to remain here. That was why True Lord Huang Yun and the great Confucian scholar Ouyang Ming had taken their leave after brief pleasantries. Zhu Yuanjin had departed without hesitation as well.
However, the Seventh Elder and the two unfamiliar World Rulers showed no signs of leaving. As long as they stayed behind, True Lord Xuan Yue would not leave either. He wanted to know what these three were plotting to do to his great-granddisciple.
The Seventh Elder looked at Wei Yuan and couldn’t help but recall that crushing defeat he had suffered in the game of Go. His expression grew even fouler, and no matter how he looked at Wei Yuan, he found him to be utterly disagreeable.
How should he describe the feeling? It was like having taught a disciple a set of sword techniques, but not only did the disciple refuse to follow the prescribed moves, he couldn’t beat him. As a result, he was stuck with a belly full of profound wisdom but no chance to share it. It filled him with an indescribable sense of frustration to say the least.
The Seventh Elder let out a heavy grunt and declared, “I believe you’ve strayed from the true path of Go and fallen into heresy! If you continue like this, it will ruin you sooner or later! Though, I suspect that you won’t accept my words. Master Qiuyue and Mister Chen Zhou had both reviewed the record of the game you played, and they felt that you are too talented to be allowed to veer off course. That is why they have come to offer you some guidance.”
Wei Yuan had no choice but to express his gratitude. At the same time, he mobilized the mortals within the Fire of Humanity.
His soldiers had just returned from a fierce battle. The main force had already withdrawn and, after a hearty meal, they had begun to rest. Because of this, tens of thousands of people had appeared in the Fire of Humanity, greatly increasing the speed of the calculations.
Master Qiuyue and Mister Chen Zhou had come well-prepared and were clearly no easy opponents. Fortunately, Wei Yuan wasn’t overly competitive and felt that winning or losing a game was no big deal. But then, he thought deeper into it. Earlier, he had defeated the Seventh Elder. If he were to lose easily to Monk Qiuyue and Mister Chen Zhou, wouldn’t that imply that the Seventh Elder’s Go skills were poor?
Wei Yuan had just obtained the Seventh Elder’s support. It would be unwise to shame him before his peers. He had to at least put up a fierce fight against these two grandmasters before losing gracefully.
True Lord Xuan Yue felt both astonished and helpless after hearing the whole story. Although he considered his own Go skills to be decent, he possessed enough self-awareness to know he certainly wasn’t at the level of a grandmaster—his skill was at least one rank below. Without strength, he had no right to speak. Thus, True Lord Xuan Yue wisely kept his mouth shut.
The group descended into the Realm of Qingming and took their seats at Wei Yuan’s residence. Wei Yuan ordered his attendants to fetch a Go set, set up the board, and began his game against Qiuyue.
Watching from the sidelines, Xuan Yue could tell that Wei Yuan was at a disadvantage after just a few moves. To put it bluntly, Wei Yuan’s moves did not exist in the kifu at all and looked as ugly as could be. Some of the stones were even arranged like a wall, creating a formation so rigid that it couldn’t look any worse.
True Lord Xuan Yue could only sigh inwardly. The Skyblue Hall had never placed much importance in the Six Arts and focused only on refining the art of one’s fists. Looking at Wei Yuan’s stone formation, there could be no doubt that he was a disciple of the Skyblue Hall.
In contrast, Monk Qiuyue’s moves were light, graceful, grandiose, and imbued with the subtleties of Zen. At the same time, it also evoked the majesty of vast landscapes and boundless grandeur. Even from his layman’s perspective, he could tell that the game had the potential of becoming a memorable masterpiece. The only problem was that Wei Yuan’s play was so unsightly that it severely dragged down Monk Qiuyue’s performance.
Finding the match to be utterly tedious, Xuan Yue shot Mister Chen Zhou an unfriendly look and declared, “Come on, let’s try a game ourselves.”
Although Mister Chen Zhou was a proud man, he had already witnessed True Lord Xuan Yue’s formidable combat prowess during the earlier battle. He knew that he was no match for him. Therefore, he chose to overlook the True Lord’s rudeness and simply waved an immortal-looking jade table, jade chair, and a jade game board into existence.
True Lord Xuan Yue did not stand on ceremony either, placing a stone directly on the Star Point. This was the standard procedure: by making the first move, True Lord Xuan Yue acknowledged that his skill fell short of his opponent’s.
Both players made their moves with lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, a murderous glint flashed in True Lord Xuan Yue’s eyes.
Miser Chen Zhou suddenly swept his sleeve, ending the game, and declared, “This game doesn’t count. Let’s start over.”
He placed a white stone on each of the diagonal star points, then took black and made his first move. Although the previous game had been brief, Mister Chu He had already discerned that True Lord Xuan Yue was no match for him. That was why he had reset the game and started with a two-stone handicap before Xuan Yue could fly into an embarrassed rage.
True Lord Xuan Yue allowed this without a word. While he had a short temper, he was not a man of bad faith. If one’s skill fell short, it was only natural for them to accept a handicap.
A moment later, Mister Chen Zhou reset the game again and increased the handicap to four stones.
The handicap grew from five stones, six stones, seven stones, and eventually eight stones. An eight-stone handicap was generally considered to be the limit. If a player had to give their opponent a nine-stone handicap or higher, then the skill gap was so vast that even their disciple’s disciple could play against the opponent.
This time, True Lord Xuan Yue finally took the game seriously. After playing a dozen or so moves, his pace slowed considerably. He would often spend a whole incense stick before placing a stone. It wasn’t that True Lord Xuan Yue was truly in deep thought—with his skill and the speed of his perception, a single breath’s worth of time would have sufficed. Thinking any longer wouldn’t yield a better move because it wasn’t a matter of overlooking a move, but a matter of skill level.
That was why True Lord Xuan Yue had made up his mind: If need be, he would take a full day just to play one move. For a True Lord, merely existing in the Shattered Realm was to suffer. They were constantly losing Dao energy without any replenishment. They must maintain a perfectly calm state of mind as well. True Lord Xuan Yue was certain that his opponent’s cultivation was inferior to his own. He only needed to hold out for seven or eight days, and Mister Chen Zhou would naturally be forced to bow out of the Shattered Realm. He would be able to effortlessly win the game then[2].
Thus, while holding a single stone between his fingers, True Lord Xuan Yue became as still as a statue. His perception had long since drifted over to Wei Yuan’s game.
At the moment, steam was literally rising from Wei Yuan’s head. He had long pushed himself to his limits, mobilizing a whopping 80,000 mortals in the Fire of Humanity to perform the calculations. In fact, the number was still growing.
The more mortals were involved in analyzing the game, the faster the calculations became, and the more incisive and effective their proposed moves grew, even if they seemed utterly baffling at times.
Wei Yuan’s stone formations looked as ugly as ever, but he had successfully thrown Monk Qiuyue off his game. Faced with such unrelenting pressure, Monk Qiuyue ended up playing a series of clumsy, disjointed moves as well.
Monk Qiuyue’s stone formations had originally resembled a magnificent landscape painting, but now it looked as if it had been smeared with several large blobs of ink. It was barely better than Wei Yuan’s own formations.
Not only that, Monk Qiuyue’s face was ashen, and his bald head was flushed red. He looked like he was several moves away from losing his Zen composure completely.
1. ?? He’s not?? ☜
2. I’m not a sore loser! Proceeds to come up with the most sore-loser way to win imaginable. XD ☜