Chapter 152 - Heaven and Earth Aren"t Benevolent, The Common People are Weiqi Pieces for Them
The weiqi board of life was crafted from pure white jade, and the gold threads used to form the grid, a 29x29 board, with black and white weiqi pieces already placed upon it. With just one glance, Gu Hai could see that it was a high-level 29x29 heaven and earth weiqi game!
Sweeping a glance at the whole layout, Gu Hai could see the complexity of this game, and the degree was not just ten times greater than the one at the Ding Long Clan!
"Well? Why are there three types of weiqi pieces in the weiqi of death?" Gu Qin suddenly looked a bit puzzled.
Gu Hai immediately turned his head to look.
The weiqi board of death was extremely strange. It was like a square abyss. Over the abyss were floating many weiqi pieces, and each piece was connected to a gold thread that was connected to something inside the abyss.
Over the square-shaped abyss were floating close to a hundred thousand weiqi pieces. One-third of them were white pieces, one-third black pieces, and the last one-third were weiqi pieces that were transparent and colorless, like they were crafted from gla.s.s.
But suddenly, some of the weiqi pieces broke apart into pieces!
"It"s these weiqi pieces, they all turned into weiqi pieces!" Long Wanqing stated, worried now.
"Turned into weiqi pieces?" Gu Hai blurted out, unsure.
"Father, about this weiqi board, why isn"t there any grid on it? Moreover, a hundred thousand pieces are floating above it!" Gu Qin asked, puzzled.
"Maybe there is 29x29 weiqi world inside the weiqi board, recreated by Elder Guanqi, where weiqi is played using humans, where everyone is treated as a weiqi piece. Judging from the pieces, a hundred thousand people should be able to enter, and struggle inside the weiqi world!" Gu Hai answered as a furrow crept up on his brow.
At this time, Meng Tai"s furious roar reverberated from one of the floating black pieces. "You dirty swine, it"s my Golden Tong"s business, and not your filthy swine"s turn to b.u.t.t in wantonly!"
"Fu Xue, you are not ent.i.tled to this inheritance, hmph!" Wei Yang"s cold snort immediately followed.
BOOM!
“Meng Tai, Wei Yang, aren"t you two, master and apprentice, enemies? b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, why the f.u.c.k are you targeting me!?" The flood dragon Fu Xue"s furious roar came out from a black piece in the abyss.
"Alive, they are still alive in the abyss!?" Long Wanqing clenched her fists tightly as she cried out happily.
Gu Hai, on the other hand, had multiple furrows on his brow. After all, he had no idea what was going on.
"Throne Master Gu, Grandmaster Liunian is inside, and my humble self is also extremely worried. I will enter the weiqi game of death so that Mister Gu can have a look. I hope it is useful to Mister Gu!" one of Long Wanqing"s subordinates proposed in a serious manner.
"Oh?" Gu Hai was taken aback.
That subordinate turned around and seemingly tried to leave the peony flower.
Right then, a powerful suction force appeared, dragging that man into the square-shaped abyss. That man simply didn"t have any strength to resist.
As he flew into the abyss, his figure suddenly distorted before he turned into a black weiqi piece floating about the square-shaped abyss. Afterward, a gold thread emerged from the black piece, heading straight into the abyss.
"He really turned into a weiqi piece!?" Gu Qin cried out in astonishment.
"No!" Gu Hai shook his head.
"Huh?"
"He didn"t turn into a weiqi piece, but rather entered the weiqi world. That weiqi piece should be a weiqi piece clone congealed by this world to represent his condition, indicating whatever his true body has encountered inside the weiqi world, like his location and state. Take those three weiqi pieces that just fragmented, their fragmentation indicates that their respective true bodies are dead inside the weiqi world!" Gu Hai stated in a deep voice.
"So, they haven"t turned into weiqi pieces?" Long Wanqing asked, dumbfounded.
Gu Hai nodded his agreement. "In the beginning, when your and Grandmaster Liunian"s "weiqi piece clones" were being created by the weiqi world, Grandmaster Liunian used the Dragon Locking Ring to push you out! You only saw Grandmaster Liunian turned into a weiqi piece, therefore...!"
"Why did this happen?" Long Wanqing asked, puzzled.
Gu Hai remained silent for a while before answering, "Elder Guanqi must have prepared for both possibilities for his own inheritance!"
"Oh? Elder Guanqi"s inheritance, not the earth dragon vein?" Long Wanqing blurted out, stupefied.
"Hey, didn"t Wei Yang just mention inheritance as well?" Gu Qin was also taken aback.
Gu Hai, nodding his agreement, said, "Yes, inheritance, an inheritance left by Elder Guanqi. The earth dragon vein is just a part of Elder Guanqi"s inheritance. Specifically what, I am not clear. But I guess Elder Guanqi is looking for someone to accept his mantle, someone who is quite like him, exceptionally good at weiqi. Anyone who could solve the weiqi of life, can get his mantle!"
"Weiqi of life?" Long Wanqing"s eyebrow broke into a twitch as she shook her head and said, "The weiqi of life has never been solved, anyone who lost would be killed by the weiqi game! Earlier, many Divine Battalion soldiers lost their lives under the weiqi game. It"s so complex that even Grandmaster Liunian didn"t dare to give it a go!"
"That merely means that if your weiqi skills are inadequate, you can"t get Elder Guanqi"s inheritance. Perhaps Elder Guanqi also expected this, he knew that perhaps no one might be able to solve the game. That"s why, he set up the weiqi of death. Perhaps, one doesn"t need too much weiqi skill for the weiqi of death!" Gu Hai conjectured, a.n.a.lyzing.
"Weiqi of death, as a backup plan?" Gu Qin asked, his eyebrow twitching momentarily
"Perhaps! So long as anyone gave up on the weiqi of life after entering the peony flower, he or she will be pulled into the weiqi world of death. Inside there, everyone has the chance to fight for the inheritance! I am not sure what"s happening inside, but it might be far from anything good!" Gu Hai stated as a frown crept on his brow.
"What do you mean?"
"In the weiqi of life, if you lose, you will die for sure. But do you know what would happen if you can"t win in weiqi of death?" Gu Hai asked, frowning.
"That only leads to death!?" Gu Qin blurted out, slightly taken aback.
"That"s right, there is only one inheritance. The winner can only be one, the rest are all losers!" Gu Hai"s eyes flickered with a sliver of worry.
"Apart from the winner, everyone else fighting inside will die in the struggle!" Long Wanqing"s expression changed for the worse.
Gu Hai nodded his agreement. "That"s what I think, as well!"
"You mean to say, as long as anyone stepped into this giant peony, only one man can get the inheritance, and others will die? The hundred thousand cultivators inside will all die?" Worry was clearly plastered over Long Wanqing"s face.
"Is this also the reason why those fifty thousand cultivators outside don"t dare to come in? They might have been waiting here for a long time. One can only come in, no one could go out; at first, when it happened a few times, they remained indifferent, but when it happened again and again, they were finally afraid. That"s why they didn"t dare to come in!" Gu Qin"s face turned ashen as he finished.
Hearing his a.s.sumption, everyone"s countenance changed for the worse. The white and pure peony amid the white mist before their eyes no longer appeared that angelic, but rather it looked far more sinister than h.e.l.l itself!
This peony was a flower that could eat people!
Gu Hai nodded his agreement.
"Father, can you solve the weiqi of life?" Gu Qin asked in antic.i.p.ation.
"I will see what I can do!" Gu Hai nodded his acknowledgment.
Everyone looked at Gu Hai in antic.i.p.ation, only to see Gu Hai slowly taking a seat at one end of weiqi board, sitting right across from Elder Guanqi"s puppet.
"The weiqi game has already been restored, please make your move and solve the endgame!" the white-haired old man sitting right across from him said with a smile.
Gu Hai nodded his acknowledgment as he lowered his head, carefully looking at the weiqi board. Nonetheless, Gu Hai didn"t place any piece, but rather started carrying out the deduction in his mind.
"Low-level game at the Golden Tong, middle-level at the Ding Long Clan, and high-level at the Peony Clan. Although the three games are different, one leads to another progressively. If one hadn"t seen the low-level and middle-level game, it would be really hard to solve this game. What a complex game!" Gu Hai knit his brow into tight furrows.
This was the first time Gu Hai had found a weiqi game complex.
Bit by bit, Gu Hai"s mind slowly sank into the game, reading it thoroughly.
Long Wanqing, Gu Qin and the others waited patiently. Anxious as they were, they were afraid to disturb Gu Hai.
This round of sitting lasted for an entire day.
In the world outside, the fifty thousand cultivators were always paying attention to the peony flower. In regards to Gu Hai entering the peony world, they were also antic.i.p.ating changes.
Although everything was shrouded by dense mist, they could still see the major part of it, albeit hazily.
"Gu Hai has been sitting there for an entire day, but why hasn"t he placed any piece yet?"
"That"s right! Is he afraid to make a move, and intentionally delaying?"
"No, ten days ago, one guy also tried to drag the time out intentionally, just like Gu Hai. As a result, he was killed by the weiqi game in less than four hours!"
"But then, why can Gu Hai drag out for time? This is so not fair!"...
An unconvinced look showed up on the faces of countless cultivators.
Be that as it may, still no one dared to step on the peony flower.
Already many people had lost their lives in the weiqi of life. In addition, a hundred thousand cultivators had entered the weiqi of death. Not one person had come out alive yet!
That peony was a land of death. Anyone who stepped into it was finished for sure!
Although everyone wanted to obtain the earth dragon vein, they needed to be alive to take it. Anything offered by Elder Guanqi was just too dangerous!
The game of weiqi was certainly complex. But because of this very complexity, there were a lot of inspirations to obtain inside it. Because of this, Gu Hai suddenly comprehended many things. In the blink of an eye, he realized many things.
In the s.p.a.ce within Gu Hai"s glabella, the black piece was still floating in the air as if it were lording over the world. Underneath it was a white crystal shard, and below that were a hundred thousand endgames, undergoing a long two by two merging. Already half of the endgames had merged. But after Gu Hai"s sudden inspiration of many things, the weiqi games below suddenly started to merge at an extremely high speed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
Not long after a series of quick fusions, eighty thousand endgames had completely merged into twenty thousand huge endgames under the two by two fusions. There were still twenty thousand endgames behind, which were extremely complex and unable to merge.
"It seems they can still be condensed!" Gu Hai mumbled to himself in meditation.
Immediately afterwards, the huge endgames that were created from the fusion of four endgames into one suddenly started to shrink, bit by bit; the useless weiqi pieces were eliminated, and some of the vertical and horizontal lines in the grid disappeared. Slowly, the huge endgames transformed back into 19x19 weiqi boards.
But these endgames weren"t the same as the previous four endgames. While they seemed to have some semblance of the previous four endgames, it seemed that all the essences of the four endgames were concentrated into these newer endgames.
With a constant thrum, the twenty thousand remaining weiqi boards shrank at an astonis.h.i.+ng pace. After another day, they had all shrunk back into smaller weiqi boards.
All of them had reduced back into 19x19 weiqi boards. Counting the endgames that were unable to be fused, there were now forty thousand smaller endgames. Each endgame was extremely complex.
"When the weiqi board starts to contain many intents and rules, it can be congealed into an array!?" Gu Hai was slightly taken aback.
On one side, he was looking at the 29x29 heaven and earth weiqi game, and on the other, watching the forty thousand endgames in the s.p.a.ce of his glabella. Gu Hai had a feeling that he was able to communicate with the forty thousand endgames, and if he could shrink them again, perhaps he could use it to arrange an array!
Perhaps Elder Guanqi"s 28x28 heaven and earth weiqi game, and the 29x29 weiqi game also came into existence just like this!
Merge, shrink, eliminate the dregs, take their essence and condense their rules, make the game even more perfect! This is the Great Dao of weiqi!
BOOM!
Suddenly, four of the forty thousand complex endgames in the s.p.a.ce of Gu Hai"s glabella started to merge together, flowing in a two by two fas.h.i.+on into a bigger weiqi board!
"My guess was right! The fusion of endgames and shrinking them down is the foundation of creating the arrays, it is the beginning of creating the world!" Gu Hai"s eyes grew brighter and brighter.
The forty thousand complex endgames seemed to be starting to merge in a two by two fas.h.i.+on. Nonetheless, it wasn"t a matter of moments. All Gu Hai could do was slowly deduce. Gu Hai"s mind slowly sank into the 29x29 weiqi game completely.
Sinking deep into it, Gu Hai suddenly felt his consciousness enter a weiqi game.
To him, it felt like he was standing in a vast world, standing absolutely alone in a completely white world.
Suddenly, a woman"s silhouette emerged not too far away from him.
"Xian"er?" Gu Hai was taken aback. Nevertheless, he knew it was an illusion.
But the next moment, he saw a golden thread appearing on his body, connected to Chen Xian"er. The word "love" seemed to be circling around the thread.
Thereafter, four kids suddenly appeared not too far away.
"Gu Qin, Gu Han, Gu Tang, Gu Ming!" Gu Hai looked at the four kids, puzzled.
Once again, four golden threads connected to the four kids appeared, and the word "family" seemed to be circling around the thread.
Suddenly, an azure cloud of mist appeared not too far away from him. Standing inside were a bunch of people whose appearance wasn"t clearly visible. Leading them was a man clad in azure robes; a bewitching aura lingering around him. At first glance, everyone would shudder in fear.
The golden thread was connecting Gu Hai and these groups; circling around the thread was the word "hatred".
On the vast land, more and more people started to appear out of thin air. Each one had a golden thread connected to Gu Hai. On every thread was a word that described their respective relations.h.i.+p with Gu Hai.
Gu Hai, standing on this vast land, was absorbed in thought, as if he seemed to have realized something.
After a long while, Gu Hai suddenly looked at the sky and said, heaving a long, deep breath, "I understand! The heaven and earth is the weiqi board, while all the living beings are weiqi pieces on it. The emotions of love, grudges, graciousness, and hatred between each person are just like invisible horizontal and vertical lines of the grid, connecting these many weiqi pieces to the grid on the board, so that the weiqi pieces can only struggle inside the weiqi board, unable to get out. Every being is a weiqi piece. The heaven and earth aren"t benevolent, the common people are only pieces to them!"
BUZZ!
Gu Hai seemed to have comprehended an extreme truth. His entire body was surrounded by a golden halo. Bit by bit, his consciousness gradually withdrew from the weiqi game.
Raising his head, Gu Hai looked at the Elder Guanqi"s puppet sitting right across him.
"Why has Father still not placed a piece?" Gu Qin wondered aloud, worried.
"Yes, it"s been three days already. Is Gu Hai still thinking?" Long Wanqin was also extremely worried.
In the world outside, countless cultivators were also looking at Gu Hai, confused. Gu Hai had been sitting for three days straight. That was also the longest anyone had sat without placing any piece. Is he going to place his piece or not?
"Congratulations, you are only one who has solved this game at this point!" Elder Guanqi"s puppet sitting right across from Gu Hai spoke.
Elder Guanqi"s puppet wasn"t loud or anything, but strangely, his voice rang in everyone"s ears.
Hearing this, the onlooking fifty thousand cultivators broke into an uproar at once; ready to explode.
"How is this possible, Gu Hai hasn"t placed even a single piece yet!"
"How did he solve the game? That is cheating!"
"It"s not fair, he just sat there for three days and he solved the game!? I can also do that!"...
Long Wanqing and Gu Qin also looked at the Elder Guanqi"s puppet vacantly. Solved just like that? Without making a single move?
"You have already solved the game, please place your piece! Prepare yourself to accept my inheritance!" Elder Guanqi spoke up once again.