96. The Grandmaster of Dakang Chess

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Outside the God-Burying Mound.

The towering grave rose from the earth like a mountain.

Above the Hundred-Thousand Mountains, dark clouds churned densely, and thunder rolled across the sky.

The space within the God-Burying Mound was separate from the outside world.

Though they had only entered not long ago, a full day and night had already passed outside.

A strange ripple appeared.

Immediately afterward, a colossal and imposing figure suddenly materialized atop the mound.

It was none other than the High God Guangmu.

The sinister beings Yi Qingzhou had thrown out earlier had long since vanished to who knew where.

The High God Guangmu was the last to emerge.

At that moment, he frowned.

“I had forgotten. One day in Heaven is equivalent to one year on Earth.”

“The same is true of the Netherworld’s Yin Earth.”

“He brought no food with him. I ought to have conjured some offerings for him.”

Time flowed differently in the Netherworld’s Yin Earth than it did in the mortal realm.

Although Chen Huangpi would soon emerge, he might in fact spend several days inside.

Offerings were transformed from the flesh of gods.

The High God Guangmu truly could not endure Chen Huangpi eating offerings every day. That was why, helplessly, he had broken his agreement and left the Pure Immortal Temple.

Now, however, three-tenths of his strength had been restored.

He could naturally hold out for several more centuries.

At the thought, the High God Guangmu laughed despite himself.

“He doesn’t know that those offerings are made from my flesh. If he found out, he certainly wouldn’t take another bite. After all, I watched him grow up. He has always favored me.”

“But since he loves sneaking offerings so much, I cannot deny him the pleasure.”

With that, the High God Guangmu raised his hand like a blade and sliced off a piece of flesh.

Before it even touched the ground, the flesh transformed into a platter of offerings in his hand.

There was a wide variety of food upon it.

Pastries, fruit, and candies.

All sorts of little sweets beloved by children.

Looking at the platter, the High God Guangmu’s gaze grew distant, and he could not help recalling the days when he had still been in the Pure Immortal Temple.

In those days, Heaven and Earth had undergone a great upheaval, and spiritual energy had vanished.

The gods, together with the temple master, had come to the Hundred-Thousand Mountains.

At first, they had not known what they were supposed to do.

The temple master had merely told them that if they offered their flesh here, he would protect them from corruption.

For the first several centuries, the temple master had not required them to offer their flesh. Instead, he had them begin creating gods, while he himself was often nowhere to be seen.

At the time, all the gods, including the High God Guangmu, had been puzzled.

Until the upheaval of Heaven and Earth erupted completely.

The Yin Extremity appeared—the period after six days and six nights in which day and night became hopelessly confused.

One after another, the disciples had gone mad or died. Some had transformed into sinister beings, while others had been controlled by things that had grown from their own bodies.

The day after that, the temple master appeared carrying an infant.

The child was deeply abnormal. Its skin was a strange, earthen yellow, resembling a god carved from clay or wood.

It was no larger than two adult palms, like a premature infant. It had no breath, and not even a heartbeat could be heard.

It was a stillborn child.

The gods could not understand why the temple master had brought a dead infant.

Nor did they know where he had gone during the period of his disappearance.

The temple master never said.

He only told them that this was his disciple, who would take his surname and be called Chen Huangpi.

Once Chen Huangpi grew a little older, they were to offer their flesh day and night.

The gods never doubted that the stillborn child could be brought back to life. If the temple master said it was possible, then it certainly was.

What they had not expected was that the infant truly did come back to life.

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He merely took a thousand years to grow one year older.

After reaching the age of three, however, he suddenly stopped growing. Every day, he simply played and caused mischief around the temple, with a brass oil lamp at his side offering advice.

Whenever nothing was happening, he would sneak off to eat the offerings.

It could be said that Chen Huangpi had grown up under the watchful eye of the High God Guangmu.

Later, after the temple master went mad, the gods began to harbor other thoughts. Not only did their offerings become scarcer, but sometimes, in the dead of night when the temple master was absent, they would privately curse “Chen Egg-Born,” calling him a monster incapable of cultivation who had wasted their flesh.

Only the High God Guangmu was different.

Chen Huangpi liked him. He often curled up on his body to sleep and especially loved eating his offerings.

And the High God Guangmu, in turn, had genuine affection for Chen Huangpi.

Otherwise, why would his offerings always have been so varied, and why would they all consist of sweets beloved by children?

At this thought, the High God Guangmu threw back his head and laughed.

“He may have grown much older and acquired extraordinary cultivation, but he is still as greedy and kind-hearted as he was in childhood. It seems that although Huang Er serves as his scheming adviser, he has not led him astray.”

Speaking of this, the High God Guangmu suddenly felt utterly at ease.

He remembered how to reach the Pure Immortal Temple.

How could memories etched into one’s very bones be forgotten so easily? Even after becoming a sinister being, he had returned only once, because his instincts compelled him to avoid Chen Huangpi. Otherwise, the moment he saw him, he would descend into complete madness.

Thus, on closer examination, the three times Chen Huangpi had encountered the mutated divine statues had all been mere coincidences.

And this time, he could finally return openly and without concealment.

The High God Guangmu was happy, and deeply excited.

But just as he turned to walk toward the Pure Immortal Temple, his body suddenly froze in place.

“M-Master…”

The High God Guangmu stared at the Daoist before him in disbelief.

The Daoist wore a black robe embroidered with scattered red plum blossoms. His white hair drifted in the wind, his cheeks were sunken, and yet his pair of cloudy eyes revealed an indescribable evil aura.

…

Elsewhere.

Within Xuzhou City.

Song Tiangang was still playing chess with Wang Taiyu in a pavilion on the estate.

The game had begun yesterday.

By now, they had been playing for a full day and night.

Nascent Soul cultivators lived for eight hundred years.

Their lifespans did not gain or lose a day depending on the calendar. Even though ordinary years and leap years differed in length, both counted as a single year.

Therefore, to a Nascent Soul cultivator, this amount of time was insignificant.

But Song Tiangang could no longer sit still.

He had sensed that Song Jiu’s soul lamp had gone out.

“Grand Tutor Wang, let us end the game here.”

Song Tiangang spoke without expression.

“I still have matters to attend to and cannot keep you company any longer.”

“Come now, we have barely begun.”

Wang Taiyu smiled broadly.

“You and I were classmates in the imperial examinations. We once journeyed to the capital together to sit for the examinations, and upon ascending the Celestial Hall, both of us were clad in splendid official robes. What pressing matter could be more important than the two of us enjoying a leisurely game beneath this lakeside pavilion? It would make a fine story if word got out, would it not?”

“Taxation does not count as an important matter?”

Song Tiangang’s expression remained cold.

“Grand Tutor Wang, though we share the bond of having passed the examinations in the same year, we both hold office. We ought to relieve His Majesty’s burdens. To spend our time laughing and playing like this is excessive.”

“Come now, neither of us is wearing official robes.”

Wang Taiyu pointed first to himself, then to Song Tiangang.

“We are both in plain clothes, without those grand red robes upon our backs. What harm is there in playing another game?”

“Taxation is a matter of great importance.”

“But are the affairs between you and me not matters as well?”

“Matters have varying degrees of urgency and importance. A person must also know when to relax.”

“If one reports for duty and works every day, even a donkey turning a millstone could not endure it.”

“Not that I mean to criticize you, Lord Song, but you are simply too rigid. If it were me, I would summon beautiful women and fine wine, drink while eating grapes, and play a game of chess amid this autumn rain. Just imagining it is one of life’s great pleasures.”

Yet Song Tiangang was not truly rigid.

He had twenty concubines, each one a Nascent Soul cultivator. All were breathtakingly beautiful, each possessing her own distinct allure.

Even this year, when the taxes had to be collected in greater quantities and with greater urgency than in previous years, he had never halted his pursuit of new concubines.

Some people even joked that Song Tiangang took a new concubine for every year he remained in office.

The Shepherd of Xuzhou did not govern Xuzhou at all. He governed his concubines.

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Of course, such words were spoken only in private. No one would dare voice them openly.

But at this moment, hearing them from Song Tiangang’s perspective, the thought filled him with intense disgust.

“I said that this game ends here!”

“Lord Song certainly has an impressive official temper.”

Seeing Song Tiangang’s cold expression, Wang Taiyu’s own face turned chilly. He rose and said, “Since that is the case, I shall not disturb you any longer. The autumn rain has already fallen, and it is time for plowing and sowing.”

“As for the taxes, I trust the Shepherd of Xuzhou will pay them proper attention.”

With that, Wang Taiyu rose and left, muttering as he went.

“If I had known the Shepherd of Xuzhou was such a selfless official, I would have worn my grand red official robes when I came. Ah, official business, official business. What private business could there possibly be?”

“Farewell, and do not expect me to see you off!”

Song Tiangang spoke harshly, his hands hanging over his knees clenched tightly.

If Wang Taiyu did not leave soon, he truly would smash the chessboard over his head.

“Lackey Grand Tutor! Lackey Grand Tutor!”

Suppressing his fury, Song Tiangang gritted his teeth.

“What a cur. A clueless cur. Does that cur truly think that draping himself in human skin is enough to make him human?”

“A dog actually dares bark at me?”

“He deserves to die! He deserves to die!”

Song Tiangang’s fury soared to the heavens.

But it came quickly and subsided just as quickly.

Wang Taiyu had offended him, a scion of an aristocratic clan. Naturally, the man deserved death.

But he could not kill him now.

Otherwise, it would amount to striking the face of the Great Kang Emperor.

Not only that, Song Tiangang had to protect Wang Taiyu’s life. At the very least, he could not allow him to die within Xuzhou City.

Otherwise, if word got out, the other aristocratic clans would certainly mock the Song family for lacking dignity and refinement—for handling even a killing so crudely, acting only for immediate gratification and stepping outside the rules. They would consider it fortunate if they did not seize the opportunity to trample the Song family further.

Yet the thing Song Tiangang hated most was precisely the rules.

He looked at the chessboard.

The black and white stones were locked in a fierce struggle. Although the game had yet to produce a victor, anyone could see that Black’s position had already collapsed. The dragon’s head was about to be severed, while White’s stones were linked together everywhere, rising in a scene of overwhelming prosperity.

Song Tiangang held the black stones.

Wang Taiyu held the white.

“How laughable.”

Song Tiangang picked up a black stone and placed it at the very center of the sixteen-by-sixteen grid.

No matter how many changes you devise, no matter how brilliantly you calculate—

I still have one stone that has yet to be played.

Once it falls, I can soar into the clouds and transform into a dragon in an instant.

No. More precisely, I can ascend to immortality in a single step!

Song Tiangang looked at the golden seal hanging from his waist.

With the golden seal’s support, he was equivalent to the City God of an entire prefecture.

What was more, he had already siphoned away eighty percent of Xuzhou City’s tax-derived popular vitality for this year.

With eighty percent of the city’s vitality behind him, even if the Hundred-Thousand Mountains were as strange and perilous as rumored, Song Tiangang was confident he could pass through unhindered.

Song Jiu was dead, but he was not.

At that very moment, outside the Song estate, Wang Taiyu staggered out.

There was not a soul around.

After all, this was the residence of the Shepherd of Xuzhou. Ordinary people were naturally forbidden to approach.

“Everyone from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, make your move.”

Wang Taiyu spoke slowly.

“Song Tiangang is already losing his temper. If we delay any longer, he may figure out what is happening.”

Today’s update ends here.

Get some good rest. Tomorrow, I shall return with another ten-thousand-word installment!

Thank you all for your support!

End of chapter.