Chapter 317: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 5)
Just as the surrounding crowd grew anxious, Su Chen finally made his move. His fingertip glided across the chessboard. In that instant, it was as if supreme experts were clashing in a grand battle.
A flash of amazement appeared in the old man's eyes.
"Not bad."
That simple, understated praise rippled across the crowd like a stone dropped into a still lake, stirring waves in every direction. In the past half year, no one had ever heard the old man offer a single word of praise to anyone.
"Just whose descendant is that little fellow? To actually earn praise from him!"
"No, I suspect this is an old monster who has cultivated to the point of returning to youth. He must be the little girl's elder. After all, even I cannot see through the depth of his strength. It is simply unfathomable."
"Nonsense! That is the current Majesty's Ninety-Ninth Prince!"
"The Ninety-Ninth Prince… him? The one the Heavenly Physician Great Emperor declared could not cultivate and would not live past a hundred years?"
"How is that possible? Even the Zhuge Clan's peerless talented daughter received no praise from him. The Ninety-Ninth Prince cannot cultivate, so how could he see through the mysteries of the chessboard?"
"..."
When Su Chen's identity was revealed, the crowd was stunned.
The Ninety-Ninth Prince of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty was known as a waste who could not cultivate. Yet this so-called "waste" possessed a deeper understanding of the Dao of Chess than even Zhuge Yao, the Zhuge Clan's foremost genius.
"What a pity… No matter how profound his chess skills, the Ninety-Ninth Prince still cannot cultivate."
Without the ability to cultivate, no matter how dazzling one's talent, one would not live past a hundred years. A century was nothing more than a short journey, a fleeting insight, or the time it took to break through for these cultivators.
Su Chen devoted his full attention to the chessboard. Countless brilliant lives fell, yet he remained unmoved. In his eyes, those powerful and dazzling beings were merely chess pieces. His only goal was to slay the heavens.
The old man narrowed his eyes as he studied the board. A trace of shock flickered across his face.
This was not winning by half a move. He was completely powerless to resist!
"You have lost."
As the rather childish voice rang out, the chessboard began to crack apart bit by bit, gradually dissolving into nothingness.
"Who… who lost?"
The surrounding spectators looked utterly confused. They had not yet understood what had happened, but the game was already decided.
"This old man has lost…" the elder admitted openly, showing no concern for the uproar around him. "Young friend, your wisdom is truly extraordinary. I am ashamed to be inferior."
Nan Hongsang grinned, revealing her cute little canines. She was delighted that Su Chen had won.
As promised, Su Chen could now choose any item from the old man's treasury. It contained countless innate supreme treasures, including artifacts that even Emperor-level experts would covet.
Yet Su Chen ignored them all. His gaze fell on a plain, pitch-black stone.
"This one."
Compared to the dazzling array of treasures, the stone looked utterly ordinary. But Su Chen had chosen it at first glance because he could not see through its origins. He could only sense that it was extraordinarily extraordinary.
This only strengthened his decision.
"I never expected you to choose it…" The old man looked surprised, but the surprise quickly gave way to melancholy. "Perhaps this is simply how fate was meant to be…"
He smiled, then slowly rose to his feet. Leaning on his banner staff, he walked away step by step like a fading illusion, vanishing into the world.
"He was actually an Emperor Lord-level expert."
An Emperor Lord who had survived more than thirty tribulations. Such beings had not appeared in the three thousand provinces for a very long time.
Su Chen watched the old man's departing figure while toying with the black stone in his hand. He needed to return and study exactly what this thing was.
...
Chapter 318: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 6)
Time flowed like water. Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
Ever since that outing from the palace ten years ago, the six-year-old Nan Hongsang had defeated Song Wuxin, the top genius of the Ten Great Emperor Mansions, in a single move. She had since been quietly hailed as the greatest female war god of the younger generation in the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty.
As for Su Chen, his name had gradually faded from memory. The powerhouses of Heavenly Capital no longer recalled that chess game from years ago. Su Chen knew the Emperor Lord had erased all traces of the event.
Inside a quiet, secluded pavilion, a white-robed youth sat cross-legged on the floor. His clothes were neat and spotless. He held a thick ancient book in his hands, which he had just finished reading the final page.
As the last page closed, another wisp of aura emerged in the wheel of light behind Su Chen's head. The Wheel of Wisdom radiated an imperishable glow. Moments later, it slowly faded away.
Su Chen's aura remained calm and tranquil, as if everything in the world lay within his grasp.
Over the past decade, he had read countless techniques and divine abilities in the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty's imperial library. With his comprehension, any technique or ability below the Emperor Lord level was as clear as lines on his palm. He could fully grasp their contained Dao with a single glance.
At this point, Su Chen estimated that his Dao of Wisdom could easily kill a Great Emperor.
In addition to the Dao of Wisdom, a black stone appeared in his palm. This was the opportunity he had obtained from the mysterious old man.
The stone was called the Human Emperor Stone. Inside it lay a technique known as the Human Emperor Art. Rather than a mere technique, it was a complete Great Dao—the cultivation path of ancient human emperors from primordial eras.
It absorbed the fortune of the heavens and earth to forge the Human Emperor fruit position. If he could truly become a Human Emperor, Su Chen believed the chances of achieving immortality through the Human Emperor Art were slightly higher than through the Dao of Wisdom.
Only children made choices. As an old monster, he wanted both.
The only headache for Su Chen was that he still had ninety-eight brothers and sisters, along with a crown prince. Forging the Human Emperor fruit position through the Human Emperor Art would be a long and arduous road.
Su Chen left the library. Suddenly, he felt a stir in his heart. The Wheel of Wisdom rotated, and new information surfaced in his mind.
"So that's how it is…"
He returned to his residence, where a familiar figure now waited. The young woman carried a heroic air, one that could rival any man. Yet a trace of sorrow lingered between her brows.
"Little Chenzi… I have to go to the battlefield with my father and brothers to fight."
The Nan Clan's ancestral rule required both men and women to experience real combat. Only then could they ensure no useless offspring. As the Martial Immortal Physique, Nan Hongsang was no exception.
She looked reluctant to leave. It was not the prosperity of Heavenly Capital that she would miss.
"Little Chenzi, I won't be able to eat Worry-Free Pastries anymore… and I won't see you for a very, very long time. How about… we get married today? Twenty pieces of Worry-Free Pastry will be enough."
Nan Hongsang blinked at him with expectant eyes.
Looking at the tipsy Nan Hongsang, Su Chen let out a soft sigh.
The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty's war against the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain had grown increasingly intense. Once she left, it was unknown how long it would be before she could return.
"Little Chenzi, I'll definitely find a way to let you cultivate…" she murmured in her sleep.
Su Chen could not help but chuckle at her drunken ramblings. Had this little girl obediently followed the Nan Clan's arrangements just so she could search other worlds for a method that would allow him to cultivate?
Still, it was good for her to gain experience through real battles.
A golden light flickered at Su Chen's fingertip and sank into Nan Hongsang's mind. She fell into a dream, where she encountered an immortal being whose casually demonstrated Dao was countless times more terrifying than anything she had felt from her father.
The next day, flowers bloomed like fire under a beautiful sky. Nan Hongsang departed.
Many young geniuses left with her for the front lines.
Su Chen looked at the letter left on the table, written in crooked handwriting.
"Little Chenzi, wait for me to return famed across the world… I will let everyone know that you, Chen Chen, are my Nan Hongsang's little man."
Su Chen: "..."
The letter burst into flames in his hand without any fire.
As countless young heroes departed the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, the dynasty's supreme experts also rushed toward the battlefield one after another. Ancient warships sailed forth amid resounding war horns before vanishing into the distance.
Su Chen gazed at the figure standing before him. It looked identical to him, except for the added trace of dominance between its brows.
"Greetings, True Self," the Human Emperor incarnation said with a cupped-hand salute.
"I'll leave things here to you," Su Chen replied.
This was the incarnation he had severed while cultivating the Human Emperor Art. At the moment, it appeared to be an ordinary mortal incapable of cultivation, but it was enough to help him deal with his mother.
Su Chen left as well. It was time to begin his own plans and advance further along the Dao of Wisdom.
...
Outside the city, cold winds carried drifting snow.
Yang Buwei lay on the ground, his eyes lifeless.
"How could this happen… how could this happen…"
His cultivation had been crippled. He had been thrown out of the city like a dead dog.
Just yesterday he had been the eldest young master of the Yang Clan—respected and carefree. Everything changed the moment news of his father's death arrived. Overnight, his once-kind second uncle took the position of clan patriarch and revealed his long-hidden fangs.
All of his father's loyal subordinates had been slaughtered. If not for the ancestor's intervention, he would not have merely been crippled and cast out to fend for himself—he would have been killed directly by his second uncle.
"What difference does it make?" Yang Buwei lay in the snow, feeling his body grow colder. He laughed bitterly at himself.
Perhaps dying by a single blade would have been cleaner than enduring this inhuman torment.
"It's just a pity that I never uncovered the truth behind Father's death or personally slew that beast Yang Ming. To die like this… I'm truly unwilling."
His mind grew heavier. He knew he was about to die.
If there was a next life…
Hm?
Wait.
This time, Yang Buwei clearly heard a strange voice in his mind.
"Young man adrift in the vicissitudes of life, do you wish to understand the meaning of existence?"
Yang Buwei was certain he had not misheard, nor was he hallucinating. He was on the verge of death, and someone wanted him to understand the meaning of life?
"Is the meaning of life nothing but death? No… I don't want to understand."
Rage filled Yang Buwei's heart. In his current state, was his second uncle still sending people to mock him?