Chapter 150 - Weiqi Games of Life and Death
Having discussed Gu Mansion"s trivial matters with the Executives, Gu Hai left with Long Wanqing.
Gu Hai, with Gu Qin, Shangguan Hen, a team of ex-convicts, and some Gu Mansion managers, drove the flying s.h.i.+p towards the Peony Clan.
Long Wanqing had already cleaned herself up. She had changed her clothes and tidied herself a lot. Nevertheless, her eyes were still filled with worry. Her three servants stood respectfully by her side.
"Hall Lord, when we have disembarked at the Peony Clan, Shangguan Hen and my men might continue to use your flying s.h.i.+p to transport grains to other places!" Gu Hai explained.
"It"s alright, you coming is what matters to me! You can use the flying s.h.i.+p however you like!" Long Wanqing said straightforwardly.
Gu Hai nodded his acknowledgment.
Today, all five kingdoms had surrendered to Gu Mansion, but there were still too many things to do. Everyone couldn"t leave. Originally, Gu Qin would also have had to stay to preside over the general situation. However, under Gu Qin"s relentless requests, Gu Hai agreed to let him come. When all was said and done, although Gu Mansion was just a mansion, Gu Hai attached quite a bit of importance to talents. The Gu Mansion managers had divided their jobs meticulously, and as such, many things didn"t need too much attention. Everything followed a strict prescribed routine.
"Hall Lord, can you describe the situation when you first arrived at the Peony Clan?" Gu Hai asked Long Wanqing.
"That day, when we arrived at the Peony Clan together, we discovered that the Peony Clan was desolate. There were still a dozen or so disciples here and there, running around in a panic. We caught one ,asked a few questions and came to know about the mutation at the Peony Peak. A giant peony flower had appeared there. The Peony Clan patriarch led a group of Peony Sect disciples went inside, and they never came out!
"From the giant peony flower, intermittent dragon roars could be heard. We all thought that it was the earth dragon vein. After thinking for a while, Li Haoran sent someone to investigate, and when we discovered that there wasn"t any danger, we too went in. Then, we saw Elder Guanqi!" Long Wanqing gave a run down as to what had happened with a forlorn smile on her face.
"Elder Guanqi!?" Gu Hai was slightly astounded.
"It should be a puppet left by him! Elder Guanqi has set up two games of weiqi, weiqi of life and weiqi of death. If you don"t enter life, then, you enter death! Weiqi of life is a game with Elder Guanqi; as for the weiqi of death, I have no idea!" Long Wanqing"s eyes flickered with regret.
"Weiqi of life and death!?" Gu Hai repeated, perplexed.
"In the beginning, we entered the weiqi of life area, and placed a game with Elder Guanqi, but once we lost a piece, the player was inexplicably reduced to dust by the weiqi array in a flash. Thereafter, no one dared to play again. At that time, we wanted to withdraw, but, once stepped into that giant peony flower, no one can leave. We wanted neither the game of life, nor the game of death, and just as we tried to withdraw, some kind of power pushed into the abyss-like weiqi of death. In the blink of an eye, everyone started to turn into weiqi pieces. At that time, I was also about to turn into a weiqi piece, but at the last moment, Grandmaster saved me! Employing all his strength and using the Dragon Locking Ring to protect me, he pushed me out of the abyss. I was the only person to escape!" Long Wanqing finished describing her experience, downcast.
"Dragon Locking Ring?" Gu Hai said, puzzled.
Long Wanqing immediately took out a golden ring. It used to Song Shengping"s treasure in the past, and was obtained by Grandmaster Liunian before his death.
"According to Grandmaster Liunian, the Dragon Locking Ring was also a treasure forged by Elder Guanqi. So, it might be the reason why I was able to escape!" Long Wanqing said with a bitter smile.
"You watched them turn into weiqi pieces?" Gu Hai asked, perplexed.
"Yes, all of them turned into weiqi pieces, some turned into white pieces, and some turned into black pieces, I saw everything. Tell me, are they still alive?" Long Wanqing answered, panicking.
"Don"t worry too much about it. Back then, didn"t my three thousand subordinates also turned into statues? Now, aren"t they all fine and living?" Gu Hai comforted Long Wanqing.
Hearing this, Long Wanqing bit her lip as she nodded.
"If that"s the case, then, why did it take you a few months to arrive at my mansion?" Gu Hai asked, confused about this matter.
It had already been a few months since they parted ways at the Ding Long Clan!
"I...I was being hunted down by someone. However, I was eventually able to get away!" Long Wanqing said bitterly.
"Hunted down by someone?" Gu Hai was taken by surprise. There was someone who still dared to hunt Long Wanqing?
"Mhmm, it was a blind old man. Right, there was a one-eyed man as well!" she described them, recalling their appearances.
"A blind and a one-eyed man!?" Gu Hai"s eyebrows immediately started twitching.
Without a moment of delay, the nearby Gu Qin quickly started rummaging around before he found two portraits and handed them to Gu Hai.
"Right, right, it"s them!" Long Wanqing"s eyes widened with surprise.
"Li Wei, Wei Yang!?" Gu Hai"s eyebrow twitched.
"Li Wei? The Golden Tong Boss? Hadn"t he turned into a vegetable?" Long Wanqing"s expression flickered as she recalled.
"Yes! This Wei Yang is Li Wei"s and Meng Tai"s master! Wei Yang should have awakened Li Wei. They were after you?" Gu Hai slightly knit his brow.
"It seems they wanted to ask about the situation inside the giant peony flower!" Long Wanqing conjectured as she recalled.
"Wei Yang! Ha, he sure is a cautious man! He knew that the dragon vein was there, yet he didn"t dare to rashly enter!?" Gu Hai stated as a furrow crawled up on his brow.
"So to say, Wei Yang has already arrived there, but once inside the giant peony flower, one can only enter, they can"t come out. They were also worried. When they saw Hall Lord could actually come out, they wanted to know the situation!?" Gu Qin surmised, contemplating.
"Maybe!" Long Wanqing nodded her agreement.
The flying s.h.i.+p was quite fast. It didn"t take long for them to reach the Peony Clan.
With a thrum, the flying s.h.i.+p came to halt at the summit of a mountain. Gu Hai, Gu Qin, ten ex-convicts, Long Wanqing, and her three servants jumped down the flying s.h.i.+p.
Following their disembarkment, Shangguan Hen drove the flying s.h.i.+p away at an astonis.h.i.+ng speed.
"That giant peony flower has bloomed!? A few months back, it was just a bud!" Long Wanqing exclaimed, stunned.
Far away from them, a distant peak seemed to have been cut off by the waist, and laying upon it was a huge peony flower, three thousand zhang in diameter. Floating above it were numerous clouds.
At the place where the stamen and pistils should be was even denser mist. Vaguely, one could spot two huge weiqi boards inside; a black and a white weiqi board!
Before the white weiqi board sat a blurry, white-haired old man.
The black weiqi board"s location seemed like a black cave, one could not see anything clearly.
At the edge of the peony flower were eight huge golden characters were floating. Weiqi of life, weiqi of death; everyone"s destiny is preordained!
"Weiqi of life! Weiqi of death!" Gu Hai slightly furrowed his brow.
At the white weiqi board place, right before the white-haired old man, a huge, golden Life (生)character was floating. Even across the dense mist, it was still glittering clearly.
At the black weiqi board"s location, an equally huge golden Death (死) character was floating, also visible at first glance.
At this moment, all the peaks around the Peony Clan had been occupied by many cultivators.
However, all the cultivators were observing the huge peony flower from a distance. None dared to approach it. For a moment, countless cultivators" faces were laced with hesitation.
And then, from underneath the peony flower, came a dragon"s roar!
"Dragon vein"s roar?" Gu Qin"s eyes lit up.
Long Wanqing, with worry clearly written on her face, gazed at the distant giant peony flower. Gu Hai, on the other hand, had a slight furrow on his brow.
It was because, with their arrival, all the cultivators around the Peony Clan turned their gazes towards them.
"That"s Devil Lord Gu Hai!" someone in the distance recognized Gu Hai instantly.
"That"s the Ascendant Hall Lord, Long Wanqing! She was the only one to escape from the peony flower!" another one shouted in surprise.
"Gu Hai? Gu Hai is here!? He can solve the 29x29 heaven and earth weiqi game!?"
"Gu Hai solved it at the Ding Long Clan, he might solve it!?"...
Gradually, the look in many cultivators" eyes changed.
Gu Hai looked about, but all he felt were hostile intentions. Many cultivators were itching to make a move on him.
Suddenly, an angry shout came from within the peony flower, sounding from the black weiqi board of death. "Arghhh, evil creature! Are you looking to die!?"
"That"s Meng Tai"s voice!" Gu Hai"s eyebrow twitched for a second.
"Meng Tai has entered the weiqi board?" Long Wanqing was astounded by this revelation.
"Meng Tai, she is my Yue Yao!" another voice rose from the weiqi board of death.
"That"s Li Wei!" Once again, Gu Hai"s eyebrow twitched for a second as he spoke.
"Li Wei and Wei Yang have both gone inside!" A sliver of curiosity appeared on Gu Qin"s face.
"Meng Tai, you won"t have a good end, Wei Yang, when did I offend you?” Another roar once again reverberated out.
"That"s the flood dragon, Fu Xue!?" Gu Hai"s eyebrows twitched as he stared at the distant weiqi board of death.
Hearing the shouts, Gu Hai felt that this situation had turned far more complicated than he had imagined.
"Why is there no Grandmaster"s voice?" Long Wanqing asked, worry-worn.
"Hall Lord, don"t worry! Although I don"t know what is going on, at least we know that you don"t necessarily die after entering the weiqi of death, right? Grandmaster Liunian should have no trouble in safeguarding himself!" Gu Hai rea.s.sured Long Wanqing.
"That"s right, Grandmaster will definitely be fine!" The tension in Long Wanqing"s eyes eased up a bit. Nonetheless, she was still extremely worried.
"Father, something"s wrong. More and more cultivators are gazing at us with no good intentions. Some even seem to be moving towards us!" Gu Qin"s eyebrow momentarily twitched as he reported, worried.
Gu Hai looked about, and indeed, more and more cultivators were breaking into a discussion. Some cultivators even took out their swords and sabers, moving towards their group while raising their guards against everyone else.
Looking around, there were at least fifty thousand cultivators gathered here!
"They know that I will play the game, they want to threaten me to pave a road for them!" The corner of Gu Hai"s lips rose into a sliver of a cold smile.
"Mhmm!" Gu Qin nodded his agreement.
"Gu Hai, how about we go in?" Long Wanqing pleadingly looked at Gu Hai.
"I guess that"s okay! Let"s go! I also want to see how difficult a 29x29 heaven and earth weiqi game is!" said Gu Hai, his eyes flickering with determination.
"Thank you!" Long Wanqing told him earnestly.
"Hall Lord, you don"t need to do this!" Gu Hai said politely as he burst into laughter.
"But, what will we do if we encounter some danger. How about Gu Qin stays outside, in case something happens to us!" a worried Long Wanqing proposed.
"Not necessary! Hall Lord, I feel that it will be safer by Father"s side. Can"t you see the look in everyone"s eyes? They will capture me to threaten Father!" Gu Qin smiled.
"Alright!" Long Wanqing agreed with his words.
Gu Hai"s team of sixteen men made their way towards the main peak where the giant peony flower was blooming.
Along the way, as they went by the watching cultivators one by one, the cultivators had a complex look in their eyes. They wanted to step up, but they seemed to be worried about something.
Finally, when they were halfway across, about thirty cultivators could not hold themselves anymore. They jumped out and blocked Gu Hai and his team"s path.
"Mister Gu, are you planning to enter the peony flower?"
"We want to accompany Mister Gu, what do you think?"
"We can protect Mister Gu!"...
Everyone came over. Polite as their tone was, they had swords and sabers in their hands, and a cold look on their faces.