The night grew deeper.
Yet Li Guanqi was placing stones across several Go boards.
Beside him, full boards conjured from immortal essence numbered six in total!
Li Guanqi was playing against six opponents single-handedly!
As for why there were six...
It was because he had factored Xiahou Cang into his calculations as well.
Through their brief interactions, Li Guanqi felt that this man could not be completely trusted. In a moment of crisis, Xiahou Cang was very likely to discard him without a second thought!
Therefore, when mapping out the entire match, he had to include both Xiahou Cang and Yu Su in his stratagems.
Li Guanqi's eyes flickered, and he turned to play another stone, murmuring softly under his breath, "Madam Yu, I fear Li might need to open a separate board just for you."
At the same time, in Xiahou Cang's bedchamber, Yu Su rose slowly from her bed, filled with an uneasy restlessness.
Xiahou Cang sat up, looked at her, and asked softly, "Wife, what is the matter?"
Yu Su paced back and forth across the floor, her brow slightly furrowed. "I feel inexplicably restless...
"When you two went to inspect the fissure today, did Young Master Li show any odd behavior?"
Xiahou Cang frowned. "Nothing out of the ordinary. He went down first, and I followed closely behind him. I noticed nothing strange.
"Furthermore, I had the men down there thoroughly inspect the cavern afterward, and everything was completely normal."
Her brow creased even deeper. Putting on an outer robe, she turned her hand and brought out a palm-sized tortoise shell, along with three strangely shaped beast teeth.
Seeing this, Xiahou Cang hastily got out of bed. "Wife, what could possibly call for you to cast a hexagram?"
Yu Su offered a faint smile and replied gently, "It does not matter. I will merely predict the general trend without prying too deeply."
Only then did the man feel somewhat reassured, stepping over to stand beside her.
The woman placed the beast teeth into the tortoise shell. The shell was pitch-black throughout, yet the patterns across it shimmered with a golden luminescence.
*Clatter, clatter!!*
Yu Su's eyes drifted half-shut as she chanted beneath her breath. The immortal essence within her circulated in a method unseen anywhere else.
A mist of immortal spiritual qi swirled around her, while the clattering of the beast teeth inside the shell grew increasingly hurried.
*Clack!*
The beast teeth tumbled onto the ground. As Yu Su's fingers turned them over, her brow knitted tightly.
"What is it?"
The woman's face paled slightly. Turning to look at her husband, she spoke with hesitant uncertainty: "The Empty Phase..."
Xiahou Cang laughed upon hearing this. "Hahaha! The Empty Phase? Isn't that wonderful?
"The plans of the five cities will come to naught, like drawing water with a wicker basket. For us, isn't that great news?"
Yu Su sighed, an inscrutable look in her eyes.
Logically speaking, what the hexagram displayed was indeed that everything would end in empty failure.
Yet she could not shake the feeling that something was amiss.
Gritting her teeth, she moved to drop the beast teeth back into the tortoise shell.
However, a pair of large hands pressed down directly over hers.
Xiahou Cang said in a grave voice, "Wife, you must not divine further!
"To probe any deeper in an attempt to pry into heavenly secrets will incur a ferocious backlash!
"Such an omen is already enough."
The woman hesitated, but ultimately yielded. Putting the tortoise shell away, her heart settled slightly.
Even so, she did not forget to remind him to keep a close watch on the fissure.
That secret passageway was their greatest trump card and fallback.
As long as nothing went wrong there, even Li Guanqi would be unable to stir up any waves.
***
Meanwhile, in Li Guanqi's guest room.
Pengluo hugged its shoulders, shivering incessantly, while Li Guanqi pressed both hands against its back.
Shiwu's flames circulated through its body, and two wisps of frigid chill puffed from Pengluo's nostrils.
Pengluo's mouth hung slightly open, its face bearing a comically lewd expression of sheer bliss.
*Smack!*
Li Guanqi struck it on the rear and asked in a low voice, "What exactly happened down there?"
Pengluo hurriedly turned around, gulped, and gesticulated wildly with an exaggerated expression. "An Ice Phoenix!! A gigantic one!!!"
Li Guanqi frowned, pressing for details. "What do you mean?
"What Ice Phoenix? Is there no Cold Soul Jade Glaze down there?"
Pengluo scratched its head with both hands, searching its memory. "I didn't see any Cold Soul Jade Glaze... Just a gigantic Ice Phoenix!!
"Uh... wait!!
"That Ice Phoenix didn't seem right..."
Pengluo jumped down from the meditation cushion, rubbed its chin with a tiny hand, and paced back and forth.
Suddenly!
Pengluo froze, its eyes lighting up with brilliant excitement. "Ah!! I understand now!!
"That Ice Phoenix... is the manifestation of the Cold Soul Jade Glaze!
"The Ice Phoenix's beast core is the Cold Soul Jade Glaze!"
Li Guanqi drew in a sharp breath. This was the first time he had ever heard of a spiritual treasure of heaven and earth manifesting in the form of a beast!
"How strong is that Ice Phoenix?"
Pengluo pondered for a long time before speaking. "Rank-three! Definitely rank-three!
"I couldn't discern its exact aura, but a rank-two creature definitely could not produce that kind of suffocating pressure!"
Li Guanqi suddenly grew concerned about whether the inscribed talismans he had left behind might prove useless.
As if discerning his worry, Pengluo patted its chest and declared proudly, "Master, rest easy. In that split second, I slapped on every single inscribed talisman I had.
"Even if there weren't a hundred, there were at least eighty!"
Li Guanqi voiced his praise upon hearing this, then asked, "Right, are the inscribed talismans far enough from the fissure barrier?"
Pengluo's face froze. Scratching its head, it mumbled, "Uh... they're all stuck right by the entrance..."
The corner of Li Guanqi's mouth twitched. "Right by the entrance... What if Xiahou Cang finds them!"
Pengluo scurried off like a wisp of smoke.
Only Li Guanqi remained in the room, sitting on his chair in a daze.
At present, he had left an inscribed talisman at the entrance of the secret room's teleportation array, as well as several inside the fissure barrier.
Even if he could not enter in advance, he could at least ensure that Xiahou Cang would not shut him out of the affair.
***
Time passed swiftly. Early the next morning, Xiahou Cang arrived outside Li Guanqi's courtyard.
Li Guanqi walked out of the room and smiled faintly. "Good morning, Castellan Xiahou."
A genial smile adorned the man's face. "Haha. With Young Master Li joining us, I finally had a good night's sleep."
Li Guanqi bantered, "I would say it is because Madam Yu returned, relieving Lord Castellan of your worries back home, that you could truly put your mind at ease."
"Haha, you could say that. Would Young Master Li like some breakfast?" The man walked up beside Li Guanqi.
Li Guanqi shook his head in refusal. "No need. Let us head straight to the study."
The man nodded, and the two walked side by side.
Along the way, Li Guanqi noticed numerous servants and maidservants bustling about the manor.
"Castellan Xiahou has quite a few eyes and ears in this manor.
"I imagine portraits of me are already resting before the masters of the other five cities..."
Xiahou Cang smiled faintly. "If they know, they know. That works out just right."
Li Guanqi had not deliberately concealed his identity or his presence within the Castellan Manor.
The more value Xiahou Cang placed on him, the smoother his next few moves on the board would be.
Inside the study, Xiahou Cang asked with a furrowed brow, "Is doing this... truly feasible?"
Li Guanqi took a leisurely sip of tea and replied softly, "Whether it works or not, we will know once we try.
"The more genuine we make it appear, and the harder we try to keep it under wraps, the more convinced the other side will be.
"Only then can our subsequent moves proceed smoothly."
The man gritted his teeth and said in a heavy voice, "Very well, I will go prepare the materials at once!"
Chapter 1736