"Haotian Artist, your soul life is only this much, how can you have such high achievements in both Sword Dao and Artistic Path? What bloodline do you have?"
Lin Jinrou couldn’t help but curiously delve into Li Hao’s bloodline. With a hundred years of soul life, even if one didn’t eat or sleep and only cultivated, it would be impossible to reach this level.
The elder brother from her own family, a True Dragon emerging once every ten thousand years in the Lin Family, seemed to fall short pared to Li Hao’s performance. At least at a hundred years of soul life, he was still only in the True Immortal Realm.
Li Hao smiled wryly, finding the question difficult to answer, as no one would believe it even if he spoke the truth.
Seeing Li Hao’s silence, the two women realized they had ventured into personal secrets, acknowledging their impoliteness.
As the favored of the heavens, who doesn’t have some opportunities and secrets?
"Haotian Artist, do you also play chess?"
"Why don’t you cultivate? Is Su Muqing in that hall? Didn’t she want to see you?"
Unlike Lin Jinrou, Jiang Huanhuan seemed like a curious baby, throwing out a string of questions, making Li Hao unsure of which to answer first.
Lin Jinrou was also full of curiosity. Every time she came by, this young man seemed unchanged, still sitting there, with a chair and a chessboard, black and white pieces falling, exuding solitude.
"Is your family not in the Northern Domain? Are you here alone?" Jiang Huanhuan asked.
"Do you feel lonely?"
Li Hao shook his head and pointed at the chessboard, "I would rather be lonely than dull, and fortunately, what I do is quite interesting."
Jiang Huanhuan, like Su Wanqing and others, didn’t know much about Chess Tao, nor were they interested, only responding with an "Oh" upon hearing this.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, another two years had gone by.
On the chessboard, the densely packed black and white pieces were no longer there, only two pieces remained, one black and one white.
The two pieces were placed in different spots on the board, and if you counted carefully, you would find that the grid behind each piece was balanced, dividing the small board into two equal worlds!
Li Hao silently stared at the chessboard, his eyes revealing contemplation.
Half a year ago, his Chess Tao had evolved to this state.
After placing the two pieces, there was no longer any place to move, with every step calculated thousands of moves ahead, and the final result was mutual encroachment and balance.
The black piece couldn’t defeat the white piece, and the white piece couldn’t defeat the black piece.
Thus, with the drop of these two pieces, the state of the board was the end.
Yet how to break through this end?
Chess... Li Hao looked at the empty grid, as countless black and white pieces flew through his mind like meteors, with images of chess manuals and evolutionary paths quickly overlapping in his mind, ultimately without a solution.
Unless, an extra move appeared on the board.
With that extra move, one could secure victory.
However, with a square board, it was impossible to have an extra move, only one line.
"The board is set, the pieces are like dead soldiers, already meaningless..."
Li Hao murmured, unable to break such a stalemate.
But his murmured words suddenly seemed to trigger something.
Scenes from the Southern Domain appeared in Li Hao’s mind.
He realized that he was part of a game among great figures, with one side being a Supreme and the other side possibly being Emperor Chu and the emperors of the seven Ancient Immortal Dynasties.
But knowing this was utterly meaningless.
Just like those two placements on the board, seeing his hand fall and controlling them, it was a kind of sorrow and despair.
Li Hao looked up, not knowing when the weather cooled and autumn set in.
In the courtyard, fallen leaves danced, descending from the trees and drifting onto the chessboard, a curled-up dry leaf.
The branches swayed, dropping more withered leaves, making the courtyard seem desolate.
The youth sat in the wind, black hair like a waterfall, eyes tinged with a faint sadness...
Suddenly, the falling leaf before his eyes caught Li Hao’s gaze and attention.
Falling... leaves?
Li Hao suddenly froze.
He looked up at the withered trees in the courtyard, some of which were purely ornamental, although they were also Spiritual Objects, they still shed old leaves and sprouted new branches like ordinary plants!
Leaves growing on trees were part of the game.
Positional fate was determined by nature.
But... the wind can sway them, the rain can shake them, and through time, they can shed themselves.
Falling from the tree meant leaving the game.
Letting the wind send them off to unknown places.
Those falling leaves seemed like the solitary, despairing figures on the Southern Domain battlefield, looking up to see only the towering Supreme figure enpassing the heavens and earth.
But, life can be controlled, death cannot!
The true meaning of the game is the inversion of black and white, the transformation of life and death, and the alternation of space-time...
This is the "game."
Not a natural development.
In an instant, Li Hao felt goosebumps rise all over his body, a transparent sensation running from his head to his toes, his whole body being translucent and enlightened.
A wave of power extended from his body to the surroundings, this was the Chess Realm.
Within the Chess Realm’s coverage, everything was a piece.
As Li Hao willed it, everything within three zhang around him fell under the game, under his sovereign control.
The breeze and sand within were pieces he controlled!
"Chess Realm... All things are moves, all things are soldiers!"
Li Hao whispered, and from the ground within three zhang around him, streaks of golden light appeared from the sand. Within the transformation of the Chess Dao Law Origin, these grains of sand turned into pieces of Divine Dust, bursting with golden Immortal Light, exuding an extremely sharp aura.
Li Hao could sense that these grains of sand could explode with destructive power parable to an Immortal Soldier’s sharp blade!
This was the special power of a twelve-section Chess Tao, within the Chess Realm, all things bee soldiers!
[Chess Tao: Twelve Sections]
[Understanding the Chess Heart: True Meaning of Chess Tao]
A prompt jumped in front of him, but Li Hao’s mind was no longer on it, the surging realization of Chess Tao flooded his mind.
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