Mo Hua silently nodded.
He thought he had considered everything, but he hadn’t expected that there were still so many things he hadn’t contemplated…
After Mo Hua left with a belly full of thoughts, Mr. Zhuang stared at the thick blood qi over the deep mountains, lost in a trance.
After an unknown period, Mr. Zhuang murmured in a low, wistful voice:
"Is this my karma?"
Old Kui silently appeared behind him and said indifferently:
"Not everything is about you, don’t flatter yourself."
Mr. Zhuang shook his head.
Old Kui glanced at him and said lightly, "So, what? You don’t want to leave anymore?"
Mr. Zhuang sighed, "Let’s wait until this matter is settled."
"What are you waiting for?"
"Once the dust has settled on this matter and the Taoist Demon’s affair has a conclusion, I will set off and leave, no longer entangled in the karma of this place."
Old Kui reminded him, "The Taoist has already been here."
"It was just a Taoist, not him in person."
Old Kui frowned, "This place is tainted with Taoist Demon’s evil; the news has reached the Taoist Court, alarming the Heaven Shu Pavilion. Your whereabouts will also be calculated, and they have always been watching you closely…"
"Let them calculate, it’s not like they haven’t calculated before," said Mr. Zhuang nonchalantly.
Knowing he couldn’t dissuade him, Old Kui realized that Mr. Zhuang, put in a nice way, was someone with firm convictions. Put bluntly, however, he was as stubborn as a bull and held to his own views.
Old Kui snorted coldly, "Good words can’t persuade the damned ghost."
After saying that, Old Kui turned to leave, but Mr. Zhuang suddenly said in a low voice, "Thank you."
Old Kui was taken aback, "Are you on the wrong medication?"
Mr. Zhuang said with a bitter smile, "I always remember your kindness."
Old Kui frowned, puzzled, "What? Do you think you’re going to repay me?"
Mr. Zhuang smiled, "If there ever comes such a day."
"It’s the living who can repay kindness. What can the dead repay? The dead can only return to the ghosts."
Old Kui said without civility, then turned and left, his figure still carrying a hint of desolation.
Inside the bamboo room, Mr. Zhuang was left alone.
Mr. Zhuang still gazed quietly at the deep mountains, at the blood qi soaring to the sky. After a long while, he murmured in a low voice:
"Brother, aren’t the sins you’ve committed enough?"
And at this very moment, in the center of the Nine State, in the center of Taoist State, in the most prominent high pavilion of the Taoist Court:
An old man with white hair and beard was playing chess.
In front of him, there was only a chessboard, with no pieces.
Across from him, there was only a meditation cushion, with no chess player.
Above the cushion, there was no one, just as above his chessboard, there were no pieces.
The old man just sat in silence, staring at the empty chessboard, expressionless, his whole being in a state of ethereal nothingness.
He seemed both present and absent in the void.
After a while, the old man slowly said:
"Come in."
A cultivator in white, who had been waiting outside for a long time, stepped forward respectfully and placed a jade slip on the table before retreating with equal deference.
The old man stared at the chessboard for a long time and couldn’t help but complain:
"No one plays chess anymore..."
He shook his head, then shifted his gaze away to look at the jade slip on the table.
The jade slip was inscribed with words drawn in faint gold spiritual power, and it contained a brief message in two lines:
North of Li State, Second Grade Black Mountain State Boundary, Tongxian City.
A Taoist Demon has appeared, taking the form of a Big Demon, named Feng Xi.
The old man glanced at it and then paid no further mind, continuing to stare at his empty chessboard. Moments later, he sensed something:
"Li State... Tongxian City..."
The old man spread out his right hand, his palm shining brightly with spiritual power, solidifying into a substance that became a Heavenly Dao compass of the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, Eryi, and Four Symbols.
The compass spun and calculated layer by layer, then fitted together perfectly.
The old man was slightly startled, "Really here..."
He then took out another jade slip marked with "Nine State Map," and according to the compass’s calculations, he traced a clear trajectory and ordered softly: