Chapter 132 - Escaping

Above the floating island in the Ding Long Clan...

A silhouette surrounded by fog swept out of the floating island.

Ding Rui, who had secretly been to the flying island, was flying to a nearby peak. Ding Rui"s face had an extremely ugly look on her face.

"29x29 Heaven and Earth weiqi game? So much of it has been solved, yet the backlash from it is getting bigger and bigger, hmph!" Ding Rui"s countenance turned gloomy.

"Throne Master, Throne Master!" A subordinate rushed over, shouting.

"Hmm?" Ding Rui turned her head, looking at that subordinate.

"As your Grace was worried, Ding Tong was incited into defecting by Gu Hai. Now, he is secretly taking Gu Hai to meet Long Wanqing!" that subordinate whispered to Ding Rui.

Ding Rui narrowed her eyes immediately. "Gu Hai sure isn"t law-abiding, hmph!"

"Fortunately, we have been monitoring him, otherwise, we would have almost lost them!" her subordinate said as a smile appeared on his face.

"Let"s go!" A sliver of a cold smile flashed past Ding Rui"s face.

"Gu Hai?" Long Wanqing looked at Gu Hai in surprise.

"Hall Lord, how long has it been since we last met!" Gu Hai greeted her with a smile.

"Why are you here? Didn"t you...?" Long Wanqing looked at Ding Tong.

Ding Tong suddenly knelt down before Long Wanqing, begging for mercy, "Hall Lord, please forgive me, my humble self was also forced by Ding Rui, I couldn"t do anything. My humble self has also been extremely courteous to Hall Lord these past days!"

Long Wanqing was looking at Ding Tong, stupefied. What"s going on?

Hmm?

Long Wanqing looked at Gu Hai. Has Gu Hai subverted him? Has he truly defected?

"Hall Lord, you don"t need to worry too much. Whether I had come or not, you would have been safe, your grandfather has already set an ambush outside the Ding Long Clan!" Gu Hai said with a smile.

"Oh? Grandpa is here?" Long Wanqing"s face was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with happiness, which was soon replaced by surprise.

"His daughter was killed, how could a father remain completely indifferent. This time, the Ding Long Clan is just used as a bait, tempting the big fish to bite it, that"s all. The three thousand endgames are about to be solved. Just as it is solved, that big fish will surely appear. Hall Lord, you can only put up with the great inconvenience for the time being. In order to not frighten the snake away by beating the bush, the ambush is set far away, therefore, it is extremely difficult for ordinary people to discover it. As far as your safety is concerned, with your grandfather"s ability, you have been in his monitoring range all the while!" stated the smiling Gu Hai.

Ding Tong, on the other hand, was fiercely startled upon hearing this. There was a panic-stricken look on his face.

Long Wanqing looked to Gu Hai in surprise. First, she was delighted and then, an extremely confused look covered her face.

Suddenly, Gu Hai winked his left eye at Long Wanqing. There was a sliver of a smile in his eyes.

Long Wanqing was also extremely clever. Just from that one action of Gu Hai, she immediately came to realize the truth.

He is bluffing! I say how could Gu Hai know Grandfather! If Grandfather was here, there was no need for him to set an ambus.h.!.+ He alone could do everything. Did he still need to send Gu Hai to fight?

Looking at the very serious-looking Gu Hai, and recalling that little blinking gesture, Long Wanqing suddenly had an urge to laugh. This Gu Hai is really bad! Ding Tong has been scared to death by him!

With an equally serious look on her face, Long Wanqing spoke in a heavy voice, "Ding Tong, what else do you want to say to me?"

"Hall Lord, my humble self long wanted to forsake the darkness and cross over to the brightness, it just that I never got the opportunity to do so. Only after Mister Gu persuaded me did this lowly one suddenly came to realize!" Ding Tong said anxiously.

"Oh? Long wanted to forsake the darkness and cross over to the brightness?" Long Wanqing spoke in a deep voice.

"Yes, I was forced by Ding Rui! Although she is my aunt, many of the men of my Ding Clan must listen to her. We are all her weiqi pieces. She is also the one who had arranged for me to become the patriarch of Ding Long Clan!" Ding Tong respectfully reported.

"Oh? It was arranged by her?" A sliver of a surprise appeared on Long Wanqing"s face.

"Yes! Fifty years ago, many men of my Ding Clan were arranged to come to the Thousand Island Seas, and develop forces in the major islands of the Thousand Islands Seas. This lowly one was also arranged to come here. I came later. I found the Ding Long Clan pleasing to the eye, so I entered the Ding Long Clan. At first, I was just a Ding Long Clan elder. Later, Ding Rui paved the road for me, help me secretly a.s.sa.s.sinate the previous patriarch. Also, the people who were blocking the way in the front secretly pushed me into the patriarch"s position. And the price I have to pay is that I must listen to her!" A bitter smile appeared on Ding Tong"s face as he explained things.

"Ding Rui?" Long Wanqing blurted out, furrowing her brow.

"Why have you never discovered the dragon vein here at the beginning itself?" Gu Hai asked in a deep voice.

"We really hadn"t discovered anything at the beginning. Maybe the previous patriarch knew, but, I didn"t know about it at that time, as the previous patriarch had already been killed by Ding Rui! In the beginning, I also didn"t pay any attention, until Ding Rui came here over a month ago. She desperately searched around the Ding Long Clan, only then did she spot a rock table at the corner of the floating island.

"That table was very ordinary, really! It was something set aside in storage, placed in the corner of a courtyard. Who would have thought that a seemingly ordinary table was a mechanism?" Ding Tong explained with a wry smile.

"Mechanism? What do you mean?" Gu Hai asked in a deep voice.

Ding Tong looked at Gu Hai.

"Treat it as you are speaking to Hall Lord"s grandfather. As for what will happen to you in the end, it will depend on your performance!" Gu Hai stated calmly.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, so it"s like that!" Ding Tong"s eyes were immediately filled with panic, for he believed that Long Wanqing"s grandfather"s perception had already been spread to here.

"It was a 29x29 endgame! There was a weiqi bowl next to it. At that time, one of Ding Rui"s disciples was intrigued and placed a piece. However, just as he placed the piece, his piece was eaten all of a sudden. And in that very instant, a huge pressure appeared out of thin air, crus.h.i.+ng that disciple into nothing immediately!

"There wasn"t any explosion or any noise, whatsoever, neither was there any blood, internal organs, flesh, or bones, absolutely nothing remained, all had transformed into dust, blown away by the wind.

"If there wasn"t someone standing next to him, no one would have discovered this.

"Just making a move could get one killed!" Ding Tong explained in a terrified voice.

"Then?"

"Then...then, Ding Rui came to realize that the weiqi board was crucial. She flipped through many Ding Long Clan records, but found nothing. There was only one line of explanation, this small courtyard was a restricted area. That"s right, I remember that twenty years ago, when Hall Lord"s mother came here with Meng Tai and the other Ascendant Hall disciples, she stayed in that small courtyard!" Ding Tong suddenly recalled.

Hearing this, Gu Hai and Long Wanqing looked at each other. A solemn look was present in their eyes.

"Afterwards?" Gu Hai asked calmly.

"Afterwards, when Ding Rui noticed that the weiqi board was weird, she didn"t dare to play. She wanted to try and see whether she could destroy it or not. Even when she swung her sword with her full force, the weiqi board didn"t break, there was just a thunderous crash. However, in that very instant, countless clouds emerged from it, spreading in all directions. Moreover, three thousand endgames also appeared, floating everywhere!" explained Ding Tong.

"Oh?"

"We could see the floating mountain underneath through the weiqi boards. There weren"t any buildings left on the floating island already, all that was left was a small boundary world. The s.p.a.ce inside the boundary world was in the shape of the floating island. And inside it was a golden dragon"s body, seemingly stuck in that little s.p.a.ce! The dragon body was unable to move no matter what it did!" Ding Tong continued explaining.

"29x29 world?" Gu Hai"s eyebrows twitched momentarily.

He recalled that the Ninth Young Master had mentioned that a complete 29x29 weiqi game could create a world, an imperfect world which a body could go in.

"Ding Long Clan! It should be called "Nailing Dragon Clan". The earth dragon vein is forcibly nailed here so that it can"t move!" Long Wanqing"s eyes lit up.

[TLN: Nailing Dragon Clan(钉龙宗) sounds like Ding Long Clan.]

Ding Tong wryly smiled and said, "This might be true! Unfortunately, the old patriarch is already dead, and I also don"t know!"

"You couldn"t enter?" Gu Hai asked calmly.

"Correct, we couldn"t enter. Although we could clearly see the situation inside, it was surrounded by an array. And if we attacked the small boundary world, we would be counterattacked by the grand array immediately. However, after Ding Rui solved an endgame, the pieces on that 29x29 weiqi board also started moving.

"Only then did we understand that the 29x29 weiqi game was very complex. Solving it was extremely dangerous. These three thousand endgames should be its extension. If you don"t solve them, nothing will happen. But if we solve them, the weiqi game will also change! Perhaps, solving the entire endgame could dispel the array, allowing us to enter that small pocket of s.p.a.ce!" Ding Tong explained.

Gu Hai narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. "Therefore, Ding Rui offered the rewards so that she could draw everyone here to solve the endgames?"

"Yes!" Ding Tong answered with a wry smile.

"From what I have learned from Grandmaster Liunian, Ding Rui is intelligent, so why was it so difficult for her to solve the endgames?" Gu Hai asked as he furrowed his brow.

"This I know! Ding Rui isn"t good at weiqi!" Long Wanqing explained.

"Oh?"

"She specializes in the zither, she hasn"t studied weiqi!" Long Wanqing stated.

"The zither?" Gu Hai was confused.

"Zither and weiqi are two different roads. Zither, weiqi, literature, and painting, are all diverse minor cultivations. You should minor in "Dao of weiqi". In the past, Elder Guanqi was standing at the peak of the world in the Dao of weiqi!" explained Long Wanqing.

"Zither, weiqi, literature, and painting?" Gu Hai blurted out as a surprised look took over his face.

"Right, each is a huge system. You will learn all about it in the future. Unfortunately, Ding Rui has not learned the four systems properly. She is no zither master. A powerful zitherist can create storms of sword qi with their zither that can annihilate everything!" Long Wanqing continued to explain.

"Oh? Have you seen it?" Gu Hai"s eyebrows twitched slightly.

Long Wanqing nodded her acknowledgment. "I have seen King Luyang play the [Eastern Wind Break] melody on a battlefield. An army of a million cultivators was sliced into pieces by endless sword qi in the blink of an eye, the entire army was wiped out. The mountains and rivers, the entire battlefield was swept by the sword qi, and everything was razed to the ground, turned into a pile of ruins! Anyone who was inside was killed instantly!"

"King Luyang?" Gu Hai"s eyebrows twitched immediately.

"You will learn about him in the future!" Long Wanqing explained. Gu Hai nodded to her in acknowledgment.

"Ding Rui captured me because she was trying to force me to give her the Dragon Drawing Jade," Long Wanqing said in a heavy voice.

"Oh?"

"The Dragon Drawing Jade can draw out the earth dragon vein and store it inside," explained Long Wanqing.

"So it was like that!" Gu Hai said calmly.

"Ding Long Clan? Nailing Dragon Clan? Ding Rui wants to solve the 29x29 weiqi game and then, take the dragon vein with your Dragon Drawing Jade. It"s a good plan, but unfortunately, unfortunately, she is a mantis who is stalking a cicada, but is unaware of the oriole behind!" Gu Hai stated in a cold voice.

Hearing this, the nearby Ding Tong felt worried. The oriole behind, is it that big fish or Long Wanqing"s grandfather?

"Hall Lord...!" Ding Tong looked at Long Wanqing.

"I will plead to Grandfather on your behalf, perhaps Grandfather has already heard it. It"s okay!" Long Wanqing calmly said.

"Thank you very much, Hall Lord, thank you very much!" Ding Tong thanked gratefully.

"What should we do next?" Long Wanqing looked at Gu Hai.

BOOM!

With a thunderous crash, Ding Rui charged through the doors of Long Wanqing"s palace.

"Where are they? Where is Long Wanqing?" Ding Rui shouted out angrily.

The two guards standing at the entrance stared blankly at the empty hall. There was just a strange hourgla.s.s inside the hall. Weiqi piece after weiqi piece was falling down inside the hourgla.s.s, making noises as if someone was playing.

"We also don"t know, after Ding Rong left with the black-robed man, we heard this sound coming from the hall. I thought Hall Lord was playing inside, I don"t know anything after that!" the guard instantly reported in shock.

"Not good, black robes? Long Wanqing was hiding with that black-robed man!"

"Black robes? Throne Master, you mean to say that there were two people hiding inside the black robes?" another nearby guard blurted out in surprise.

"At that time, Ding Tong told us to guard the palace properly, we didn"t expect, we didn"t know-!" the crowd of guards anxiously exclaimed.

"How long ago did they leave?" Ding Rui glared at the guards with eyes widened.

"They left just now, just now!" that guard reported frantically.

"Hurry, close the Ding Long Clan array, don"t let anyone leave!" Ding Rui shouted out, glaring at them angrily.

"Yes!"