Dawn broke, and a reminder surfaced in Wei Yuan's consciousness: today he was to head to Quliu Town to meet Yuan Qingyan and Xu Jingfeng, with ten minutes remaining until departure.
This was Wei Yuan's first inspection of his territory since the imperial edict had been issued—in essence, a declaration to every corner of the land as to who the true master was, making it of utmost importance. After tidying up simply, Wei Yuan flew to the edge of the territory to rendezvous with the expedition retinue, then boarded the carriage.
The carriage shuddered slightly, and the compartment soon floated into the air and stabilized, completely devoid of vibration. Wei Yuan closed the carriage window, retrieved a book box from his storage dharma treasure, took out a Go manual, and earnestly resumed studying the commentaries.
Just as he was reading with utter devotion, Wei Yuan suddenly noticed something unusual within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Sending his divine sense to investigate, he saw a new courtyard springing up from the ground. While constructing buildings, mortals were erecting a massive sign: Grid and Beacon Go Dao Research Academy.
The main architecture of the new academy was simple yet magnificent—a great hall capable of accommodating a hundred Go boards. At present, the main hall was not yet finished, so the mortals simply set out hundreds of boards in the open courtyard space and began pairing up to battle. Every match was recorded in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and each contributed to the advancement of its Go skills.
Wei Yuan's interest in the game was running high, and watching them gave him an unbearable itch. With a stir of divine sense, he transformed into a mortal and strode into the Go academy.
The mortals possessed varying levels of skill, though almost all were currently at the beginner level. Wei Yuan casually walked over to a match, was immediately drawn in, and began watching intently.
As he watched, Wei Yuan could no longer hold back and spoke up: "How could you place a stone there? Isn't that an excessively slow move?"
A moment later: "...Connect! If he cuts right here..."
A moment after that, Wei Yuan simply picked up a stone and slapped it onto the board: "Play here! How could he not crawl before me? See, crawled right on cue, didn't he!"
Just like that, guided by Wei Yuan, one side went from holding the upper hand to losing by mid-game resignation in just a few moves.
The two mortal players were rather even-tempered and said nothing, but Wei Yuan flew into a rage. Shoving the player in front of the board aside, he sat down himself, eager to replicate the glory of the Ten Doodle Matches.
Only, within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World and facing mortals of ordinary skill, Wei Yuan felt too embarrassed to rely on the realm's calculation to analyze the moves, brimful of confidence that he could best them purely on his own ability.
Stones flew in rapid succession, and in the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan's position collapsed like an avalanche, spiraling utterly out of control.
Naturally refusing to accept defeat, Wei Yuan reset the board for another round, only to lose again moments later.
Then a third loss, a fourth loss...
The mortal Wei Yuan had shoved aside could no longer bear it and fumed, "What kind of game are you even playing? Do you think just anyone can walk into this academy? Go, go, go, stop wasting our time! Learn how to play before coming back!"
The other player chimed in, "Where did this terrible hack come from! Who gave you the confidence to waltz into the academy and play? Utterly clueless!"
Wei Yuan wanted to argue, but the mortals paid no heed to his protests and kicked him straight out.
And so, the contemporary descending Chess Immortal, the master of the Ten Doodle Matches, the pioneer of a whole new era of Go—Wei Yuan—was thrown out of the academy gates right inside his own mindscape world.
In the outside world, it was just noon. With a dark scowl, Wei Yuan stepped out of the carriage and set foot once more on the soil of Quliu Town.
Tens of thousands of mortals were now settled in Quliu Town. The location had always enjoyed convenient transportation, along with urban infrastructure sufficient to support a hundred thousand people. Ever since Wei Yuan had carried off all the mortals the last time, people had continually gathered here to take root and make a life.
The straight-line distance to the Qingming boundary stone was merely a thousand li, and the environment had begun to improve under Qingming's influence, making life far less grueling for the mortals living here.
Moreover, because this town was an essential thoroughfare along multiple trade routes between Qingming and Zhao, and boasted fully equipped commercial streets, every caravan chose to rest here before reaching Qingming.
With more people coming and going, commerce naturally flourished. The town had steadily grown prosperous; since people could earn money here, they no longer moved into Qingming. Qingming's greatest draw was that one would never starve, not that one could get rich.
Looking at this revitalized town, Wei Yuan's mood finally brightened a little.
By this time, Yuan Qingyan had led the civil and military officials to wait respectfully on both sides of the main avenue, a full two li from the commandery governor's manor.
Seeing Yuan Qingyan, Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised and frowned. "Why are you still here?"
Yuan Qingyan's heart skipped a beat. Stealing a glance at Wei Yuan's grim face, he knew the young master was in an awful mood. Though he had no idea why Wei Yuan was upset, years in officialdom had honed his knack for reading expressions, so he offered cautious, ingratiating smiles as he spoke.
Despite his foul temper, Wei Yuan could hardly take it out on Yuan Qingyan seeing him act like this. With a scowl and a flick of his sleeves, he stepped forward and instantly appeared in the main hall of the governor's manor, taking the high seat and sulking all by himself.
Yuan Qingyan was a Dharma Idol cultivator as well, barely half a step behind. He took a seat below with extreme caution, perching only on the very edge of the chair. Then the officials of various ranks rushed in one after another, panting heavily. The distance was neither long nor short, but sprinting at full throttle consumed a considerable amount of magic power. Believing Wei Yuan was testing their cultivation, every one of them had exerted themselves to the limit.
Meanwhile, Wei Yuan's mind was wandering within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, wondering if he should call down a bolt of lightning to blast the Go academy's signboard to pieces. But doing so would be far too conspicuous.
Then Wei Yuan suddenly remembered something: hadn't those mortals mentioned that the matches he played would also be recorded by the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World?
Wei Yuan was startled. He immediately went to find Maiden Yin-Yang.
Maiden Yin-Yang still stood where she had been. The zone of distorted rules around her had noticeably expanded, and the distortion had grown even more severe. As Wei Yuan walked through it, he felt faint prickling pains across his body, indicating that the environment posed a threat even to him.
Wei Yuan found it somewhat incomprehensible. How could his own dharma idol pose a threat to him?
Passing through the zone of distorted heaven and earth, Wei Yuan saw Maiden Yin-Yang standing amidst a pile of garments scattered across the floor...
The impact of this spectacle was so immense that Wei Yuan's mood shot from rock bottom straight into the heavens. Hurriedly suppressing improper thoughts, he asked, "Can you delete those games I just played?"
Maiden Yin-Yang remained motionless, signaling insufficient energy.
Wei Yuan checked his current stock and found he still had a dozen or so strands of purple advanced karmic luck. He brought half of them over, wondering if they could substitute for otherworldly fortune to activate Maiden Yin-Yang.
As the purple qi entered her body, Maiden Yin-Yang finally showed a slight reaction, but it was purely mechanical, completely devoid of sapience. It seemed that while purple qi was superior to mortal azure qi and could be utilized, it lacked the ability of otherworldly fortune to let her move with self-generating sapience.
Fortunately, such instinctual, mechanical reactions consumed very little energy. Several strands of purple qi should suffice to sustain her for quite a long time without leaving her entirely unresponsive.
Besides, her current lack of sapience was actually a blessing. If she had been sapient, Wei Yuan would have felt guilty taking more than a glance, unlike now, where he could look freely while she didn't even know to pick up the clothes that had fallen to the floor.
Now that Maiden Yin-Yang had reacted, Wei Yuan repeated the question. Her reaction was somewhat sluggish, but she conveyed a thought in response: *Answer three questions correctly to delete. Otherwise, permanent retention.*
There was an additional note: *Cannot lie.*
Wei Yuan was struck by an indescribably bizarre sensation. Did this creature possess sapience right now, or didn't she? This was clearly his own dharma idol, his own mindscape world—why was it growing more and more alien?
Yet this was the only option. To avoid leaving behind embarrassing dirt, Wei Yuan could only compromise and choose to answer.
The first question was: *Is it nice to look at?*
Wei Yuan thought it over seriously. Facing his own inner heart, this was essentially answering his own question. Thus, he answered, "It is."
He passed this question smoothly. Then came the second question: *Do you like looking?*
Since he had already answered the first, Wei Yuan no longer held anything back and replied, "I do."
Passing once more, he finally arrived at the last question: *Are you face-blind?*
Chapter 466