Zanxing (Retranslated)

Chapter 347 - The Chessboard of the Imperial Platform (2)

The sudden change left everyone stunned.

Gu Baiying’s heart tightened. He wanted to move forward, but as soon as he took a step, the light emanating from Zanxing forcefully kept him at bay, preventing him from approaching any further.

“What’s going on?” he asked, both shocked and angry. A bad premonition suddenly surged in his heart. He instinctively tightened his grip on the Xiu Gu Spear, trying to shatter the protective barrier.

However, all his spiritual energy, when encountering the golden light, was like a stream meeting the ocean, gently dissipated and carried away like a long, drifting wind.

He could not get close to Zanxing.

Bu Jiang also realized something was wrong. She mobilized the celestial demon energy, attempting to shake the golden barrier, but no matter how much effort she exerted, the outcome remained unchanged.

The golden light was exactly the same as the aura of the Xiao Yuan Pearl. And the Xiao Yuan Pearl had always been difficult for external forces to control.

“Shaoyang!” Her expression darkened as she suddenly looked at the side, at the figure of Shaoyang Zhenren. “What have you done?”

Everyone turned to look at Shaoyang Zhenren in surprise.

He had been outwardly harsh with Zanxing but was actually protective. Everyone had seen this. Even though Daoist Lingxin had many grievances in his heart, it was not a good time to confront the Taiyan Sect openly. Shaoyang Zhenren, the sect leader of the Taiyan Sect, always had a calm and inscrutable demeanor. From the beginning to the end of their search for the Imperial Chessboard at the Golden Gate Ruins, he had remained unaffected, as if he had anticipated everything.

Rong Shuang and Daoist Lingxin had been wary of him, fearing he might secretly reach some understanding with Heishi City and then turn against the cultivation world. However, Shaoyang Zhenren’s current appearance did not suggest that.

Could it be that he intentionally led Zanxing here?

But why?

Gu Baiying stared at Shaoyang Zhenren, his gaze sharp. “Master?”

There was silence all around.

After an uncertain amount of time, Shaoyang Zhenren finally spoke.

He said lightly, “It is said that when the Water God struck the Pillars of Heaven, the Holy Mother Nuwa selected thirty-six thousand pieces of five-colored stones to mend the sky, using the legs of the Divine Turtle to support the Four Extremes.”

“Thirty-six thousand pieces of the mending stones, each transformed into stars.”

He looked at Zanxing, who was enveloped in light, with a somewhat peculiar expression. “The Xiao Yuan Pearl is one of the mending stones.”

The Xiao Yuan Pearl was one of the mending stones!

Everyone looked at him in shock.

“How could the Xiao Yuan Pearl be a mending stone?” Bu Jiang spoke urgently. “Look clearly, this is obviously the Imperial Chessboard. Now that you have found the Imperial Chessboard, what must be done next to obtain the Immortal Formula?”

The Demon Queen had always been graceful. Even when imprisoned in the Abyss of Extreme Ice by Gui Yansheng, she had never shown any signs of distress. Yet now, standing here, she seemed unusually flustered. It was as if she too sensed that something was wrong and found it difficult to maintain her usual composure.

Rong Shuang glanced at Bu Jiang and asked Shaoyang Zhenren, “This is indeed the Imperial Chessboard. Shaoyang, what do you intend to do? What is really going on?”

The Imperial Chessboard had been found, but then what? Where was the immortal who played the chess, and how did the game begin?

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes. “Do you remember that legend?”

“What legend?” Gu Baiying stared at him, his knuckles white as he gripped the Xiu Gu Spear, seemingly suppressing some unusual emotion. “The legend of the savior who won against the Imperial Chessboard a thousand years ago?”

A thousand years ago, floods were rampant, and the rain never ceased. The entire state of Douzhou had become a vast ocean, and all living things perished in the deluge.

Until a cultivator appeared out of nowhere. He exhausted every method and found the entrance connecting the human realm to the immortal realm. With his mortal body, he gambled a game of chess with the immortals.

He won the game.

The immortals bestowed upon the cultivator the method to control the floods as a prize for winning the game. The cultivator used the method given by the immortals to alleviate the disaster.

“Is the legend false?” Fu Ronghua asked tentatively.

“No, the legend is true,” Shaoyang Zhenren said with a calm expression and an equally calm voice. “But he did not gamble with the immortals, nor did he win the game.”

“He used his own body to mend the sky and alleviate the floods.”

Gu Baiying’s heart trembled violently.

The meaning of these words was not difficult to understand.

In the silence, Meng Ying spoke up, looking at Shaoyang Zhenren. “Sect Master, even if what you say is true, why are there still breaches in the sky? Since the cultivator from thousand years ago solved the flood disaster, why has it returned? Why does the same thing keep happening?”

Shaoyang Zhenren did not answer immediately. He merely stared at the small figures in the grid of the great hall, seemingly lost in thought.

After a while, he asked, “Why do you practice cultivation?”

Why practice cultivation?

For mortals, the reasons for cultivating can be mundane—strength, longevity, beauty, eternal youth—or more noble, such as exploring the Dao, breaking free from fate, and protecting the people.

Tian Fangfang answered without hesitation, “To become an immortal, of course.”

“And then what?” Shaoyang Zhenren countered. “What does it mean to be an immortal?”

As he spoke, a fleeting expression of disdain and pity seemed to cross his usually indifferent face, but it disappeared in an instant.

Tian Fangfang was at a loss for words, unsure of how to respond.

Shaoyang Zhenren said lightly, “Heaven and Earth are distant and separated, gods and mortals are distinct. Cultivation and ascension are meant to go against fate and alter destiny. The Dao of Heaven does not permit ‘accidents’ to occur.”

Years ago, in Douzhou, with abundant spiritual energy and a flourishing cultivation trend, it often seemed that ascending to immortality was not so unattainable.

Until the flood disaster a thousand years ago, which violently destroyed and submerged everything. Many sects and great factions were instantly obliterated.

The first cultivator to find the Imperial Chessboard reached the place where the celestial realm and the mortal realm connected. He saw the shattered chessboard in the sky.

Floods poured down from the heavens, and the Pillars of Heaven were on the verge of collapse. The spiritual energy of Douzhou gradually faded through the gaping holes, and if this continued, Douzhou would collapse, the spiritual veins would dry up, and everything would turn to nothingness.

Everything would cease to exist.

The cultivator stood on the chessboard, like a mayfly drifting in the vast sea. He was one step away from ascension. Above was the Nine Heavens, below was the vast flood.

Advancement or retreat, life or death, was a matter of a single thought.

He did not hesitate. Using his own body and lifetime of cultivation, he filled the gaps on the chessboard, saving the world from imminent collapse.

If the legend was true, this cultivator alleviated the floods and restored the exhausted spiritual veins, becoming the greatest savior of the Douzhou continent.

If the legend was false, this cultivator did not ascend to immortality. He remained in the Golden Gate Ruins, within reach of the celestial realm, becoming the most insignificant piece in the celestial chess game.

“These small figures…” Rong Shuang realized something.

In the great hall, the small figures within the grids, glowing and lifelike, were smiling at everyone.

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes.

“They are all those who mended the sky.”

***

Welp.