Chapter 160 - Pressure From Gu Hai
"Gu Hai!?" Li Haoran"s eyes went wide as he shouted angrily. He even stopped the forceful extraction of Grandmaster Liunian"s energy.
Not long ago, Li Haoran simply would not have paid any attention to a young cultivator like Gu Hai. But today, Li Haoran had no choice but to be careful of Gu Hai! Each and every scheme laid by Elder Guanqi from the Xiantian Endgame World to Nine-Five Island was related to weiqi.
Gu Hai"s weiqi skills had already been sufficiently proven to everyone. His weiqi skills were simply marvelous and overwhelming. He could not be underestimated!
Even though the Weiqi of Death was under the complete control of Meng Tai, the three pieces, Long Wanqing and her two subordinates, casually thrown by Gu Hai had toppled Meng Tai from the divine pedestal, and he had failed just a step before succeeding.
Just the three pieces had turned the tide!
And now, Gu Hai had personally come!
"Ha, hahaha, Gu Hai! Gu Hai!" In the distance, the dying Meng Tai went crazy upon seeing Gu Hai arrive.
In fact, Meng Tai had never underestimated Gu Hai. He always treated Gu Hai as one dangerous foe. But even after taking all kinds of precautions against Gu Hai, Meng Tai still couldn"t defeat the three pieces casually placed by Gu Hai.
Facing Gu Hai, Meng Tai had already given up on any thought of competing with him. Nonetheless, there was an unwillingness in his heart. I resorted to all kinds of schemes, but why is there someone with better schemes than mine?
Had it not been for Gu Hai, I would have been successful!
Why did Gu Hai have to be born in my generation?
"Mister Gu, you are finally here!"
"Mister Gu, help us, please solve this game quickly!"
"Mister Gu, you are extremely skillful in weiqi. Surely, you can solve this Weiqi of Death, right? Mister Gu, help us!"
"Mister Gu, please be careful of Li Haoran, that devil!"...
At the sight of Gu Hai, many cultivators" faces were filled with endless expectation. Even if the majority of them came to the Nine-Five Island to rob him the Hundred Years Longevity Peach, they had long discarded this thought at this point. Each and every one of them was filled with expectations, hoping that Gu Hai could save them.
"Grandmaster Liunian, are you okay?" Gu Hai turned his head, looking at Grandmaster Liunian.
In the distance, Grandmaster Liunian, lying in a pool of blood, spewed a mouthful of blood as he broke into laughter and answered, "I will live, hahaha!"
"Gu Hai, I am sorry, I made a mess of everything!" Long Wanqing confessed, breaking into tears.
"Well, it"s okay! I am here, aren"t I?" Gu Hai cracked a smile, gently releasing Long Wanqing.
"Hall Lord!" Her three subordinates rushed over at once.
Having let out her grievances, Long Wanqing felt a lot better. She gently wiped off the tears at the corner of her eyes before looking at Gu Hai. Her gaze was with grat.i.tude, for Gu Hai didn"t blame her.
"Let"s talk later. Go to Grandmaster Liunian"s side, he will tell you what to do!" Gu Hai said.
"Mhmm!" Long Wanqing nodded her a.s.sent.
Having sent her off, Gu Hai stepped out and looked at Li Haoran. A slight smile appeared on his lips as he said, "Divine Battalion Commander, who would have thought that you would also become a player today? How about you and I have a game?"
"Hmph, are you even fit to be my opponent? How are you even going to play? You are just a weiqi piece, that"s all! Rise for me!" Li Haoran stretched his hand out and waved, pointing at Gu Hai.
"Ahhh~!" Many cultivators" bodies started twitching, before moving about like marionettes.
Everyone was simply unable to control themselves. Terror was clearly written on their faces. It was only Gu Hai who stood right where he was, standing firm.
"What?" Li Haoran"s expression changed momentarily.
Li Haoran controlled everyone connected to the golden pieces to find the line connected to Gu Hai. Once he found it, he could control Gu Hai. Once Gu Hai was under his control, he could pinch Gu Hai to death whenever he wished!
However, Gu Hai was walking step by step towards Li Haoran at this moment. He remained simply unaffected.
"Commander Li, is it fun? Do you want me to wait until you have played for a while?" Gu Hai asked, smiling.
"Impossible, you aren"t within my control!. You aren"t a white piece, you aren"t a black piece either!?" Li Haoran"s face sank immediately.
"Did you only notice it now? Since I choose to enter this game, why would I choose to become your piece? How could I play a game against you then?" Gu Hai stated as a grim smile crept up on his lips.
"Hmph, neither a white piece nor a black piece, you can be any piece. But in the end, a weiqi piece will forever be a weiqi piece!" Li Haoran let out a cold snort.
While speaking, Li Haoran drove a palm towards Gu Hai. For this palm, Li Haoran had mobilized the strength of almost all sixty thousand or so cultivators. He wanted to kill Gu Hai with just one blow!
Over sixty thousand palm auras immediately rumbled towards Gu Hai, blotting out the sky.
Looking at this scene, many cultivators almost closed their eyes. No matter how formidable Gu Hai, he is just in the Xiantian Stage. How can he block this?
"No!" the distant Long Wanqing immediately cried out in shock.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
A series of deafening crashes rang as the sixty thousand or so palm auras landed on their target. However, at the heart of these palm auras, Gu Hai remained completely unaffected. Step by step, he continued making his way towards Li Haoran.
"What!?" Li Haoran"s face momentarily distorted.
Even Grandmaster Liunian couldn"t stand this blow, how could Gu Hai?
Many cultivators also gazed at this scene with wide eyes. But soon, they noticed that Gu Hai seemed to be surrounded by a qi wall, a qi wallten zhang in diameter!
"Barrier!? Defensive barrier!?" suddenly someone cried in shock.
"Player! Gu Hai is also a player! How is this possible?" Meng Tai"s eyes went wide in shock as a look of disbelief spread over his pallid face.
Aren"t the two pieces in Li Haoran"s hands? Li Haoran should be the only player! How can Gu Hai be in possession of the defensive barrier?
"Mister Gu is also a player!?"
"Awesome, Mister Gu also has a golden piece!"
"That defensive barrier of Mister Gu is the player"s defensive barrier!"...
The cultivators promptly broke into cheers.
Li Haoran"s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the two golden pieces in his arm and said, "Impossible! How can you also have a golden piece? How can you possibly be a player as well? All the white and black pieces are under my control!..."
Right then, Li Haoran was jolted as he realized something. His expression changed as he exclaimed, "The transparent piece! The transparent pieces are under your control!? But wasn"t the transparent golden piece destroyed by Wei Yang? Wasn"t it broken?"
"Since the game hasn"t yet finished, how could it be destroyed?" Gu Hai stated, smiling calmly.
Hearing this, Li Haoran"s face sank. His eyes flickered with a cut-throat look. I am not the only player? There is Gu Hai as well! I will have to fight with Gu Hai!?
Outside the Weiqi of Death, atop the giant peony...
As Li Haoran was a player, his phantom had emerged as well. His earlier bout of craziness sent countless cultivators outside the giant peony into a pandemonium.
No one had expected that Li Haoran would be so ruthless that after lying to Long Wanqing, he wanted to kill everyone, just for Elder Guanqi"s inheritance!
Just a moment ago, he had almost killed Long Wanqing as well!
"Li Haoran is really insidious. He actually began deceiving Long Wanqing a long time ago!"
"Just for the earth dragon vein, he was really willing to resort to all kinds unscrupulous divisive tactics!"
"He sure is looking to die. He wanted to kill Long Wanqing, Long Wanqing"s grandfather will not let him go!"
"Fortunately, he discarded that thought! But others are still in a precarious position!"
"Look, Gu Hai has also become a player!"
"Gu Hai and Li Haoran will go against each other! Gu Hai sure is a monster!"
"Yeah, all thirty thousand or so demonized humans were actually completely ma.s.sacred by Gu Hai. He sure is ruthless!"
"Gu Hai is a bit better. After all, those he killed were demonized humans. If the demonized humans were allowed to escape, they would surely eat people! What Gu Hai did was eliminating devils!"
"Look, they are about to fight! Li Haoran has mobilized everyone"s force once more!"
"Gu Hai is a player, he has the defensive barrier. He blocked it!"...
The outside cultivators" eyes were open wide, watching the play filled with twists and turns inside the Weiqi of Death. The captivated cultivators could not bear to move their gazes away!
Under a huge tree halfway up a mountain…
Wei Shengren was still watching quietly.
"Li Haoran, I never thought he had this kind of courage!" Wei Shengen said softly, as if he was talking to the air beside him.
"I will look again! The girl"s death can"t be that mysterious! Let me see what kind of means this Li Haoran has!" Wei Shengren continued speaking to the air beside him.
Atop the giant peony...
Li Haoran was holding two golden pieces. His phantom was standing at neither the south or north of the weiqi board, but started at the center before moving to the west side of the weiqi board, staring at his opponent with an icy look on his face.
On the east side of the weiqi board, Gu Hai"s phantom gradually congealed, staring at the Li Haoran opposite him with a cold smile on his lips.
In the eyes of everyone outside, these two people were now in charge of the game. They were playing a game of weiqi!
"Young Master, my Lord and Li Haoran are fighting. But Li Haoran has over sixty thousand black and white pieces, while my Lord has none!"
"Yes, all the transparent pieces were completely annihilated by my Lord. My Lord is completely empty-handed, what is he going to do?" his men asked, clearly worried.
Gu Qin, on the other hand, shook his head and replied, "No need to worry! No one has a better understanding of weiqi than Father! Watch closely, nothing will happen to Father for sure!"
"Yes!" Everyone nodded their compliance.
Inside the Weiqi of Death...
Li Haoran tried to ascertain Gu Hai"s thoughts. But the more he pondered, the more fruitless it felt. When all was said and done, it was a game of weiqi!
Had it been a combat situation, a hundred Gu Hais weren"t a match for Li Haoran. However, across a weiqi board, no one knew what the result would be!
On the other side, Long Wanqing had arrived next to Grandmaster Liunian.
"Grandmaster, are you okay? How should we proceed?" Long Wanqing asked as she helped Grandmaster Liunian up.
"Hurry up, we have to quickly hide!" Grandmaster Liunian said, frowning.
"Ah!"
"Gu Hai sent you to me because he wanted me to take you all to hide. I don"t know what Gu Hai is planning, but you and I are black and white pieces, we are Li Haoran"s pieces! Perhaps Li Haoran can defeat Gu Hai; if so, then, we can only blame our luck. But if he can"t, he is definitely going to hold you and me hostage, to threaten Gu Hai!" Grandmaster Liunian said, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
"Ah! Right!" Long Wanqing"s face changed immediately.
Without any of her previous hesitation, Long Wanqing led her three subordinates away, quickly fleeing into the distance to hide.
"Commander, Long Wanqing and Grandmaster Liunian are escaping!" a Divine Battalion soldier suddenly cried out.
"Hmm?" Li Haoran"s brow twitched momentarily as he looked in their direction.
Hearing the shout, the fleeing Long Wanqing"s face turned stiff.
"Commander Li, you haven"t thrown the towel right at the beginning, have you? You aren"t going to use a woman to threaten me, right?" Gu Hai started laughing mockingly.