History Repeats Itself

"They want to visit the Patriarch's place of enlightenment?" Qiu Jin'an paused in surprise after hearing the Technique Transmission Elder's report. One hundred thousand years ago, when the Patriarch had just attained enlightenment, that immortal realm had been a forbidden ground off-limits to anyone below the Tribulation Transcendence stage. As time rolled by and a hundred thousand years passed, countless peerless prodigies and formidable experts of the Five Elements Sect had entered the realm in pursuit of epiphanies and fortunate encounters, hoping to recreate the Patriarch's magnificent feat, yet not a single one had succeeded. As for the scene of immortals playing chess and history reenacting itself, it had never occurred again. To this day, no consensus had ever been reached regarding the true identities of those three ancient immortals. Qiu Jin'an looked up and happened to see the ancient scroll hanging on the wall. The painting brimmed with immortal essence, harboring unfathomable mysteries that defied comprehension and scrutiny. Though ancient, it was shielded by some inexplicable power, bearing no sign that it had been painted a hundred thousand years ago. In the painting, two immortals sat on stone stools, deep in thought. Though their faces could not be clearly seen, one could easily imagine their lowered heads and furrowed brows. A third immortal stood with firewood strapped to his back, staring unblinkingly at the board, his features likewise obscured. On the board, black and white were locked in a stalemate, blocking and intercepting each other, unable to connect their pieces. The battle was fierce and indivisible. Mister Tiankui was a Confucian cultivator whose brushwork touched the divine. After emerging from the immortal realm, he had splashed ink onto canvas to capture the scene he had witnessed. Beside it hung another ancient painting, also from Mister Tiankui's hand. In the second scroll, Mister Tiankui wore a white Confucian robe, exuding high spirits and the consummate bearing of a supreme expert, his feet planted atop two renowned, peerless figures—the ancestors of the Meng and Jiang families. Both great figures were covered in wounds, clearly having endured a desperate life-or-death struggle, yet they had still fallen before Mister Tiankui. Mister Tiankui was a Confucian cultivator whose brushwork touched the divine. This was a scene from his imagination. Qiu Jin'an withdrew his gaze from the two scrolls and, after a moment's consideration, gave his consent. "The youngsters have probably never seen an immortal ruin before and wish to broaden their horizons. It is understandable." "Very well, I will take them to see it myself." After all, it was the Patriarch's place of enlightenment. Even if it retained only commemorative value today, it still deserved proper reverence. ... When Lu Yang and his companions learned they were permitted to enter the immortal realm, and that Qiu Jin'an himself would lead them, broad smiles broke across their faces. This was a legendary immortal realm. Among all publicly known secret realms, not a single one had ever been confirmed as an immortal realm, which was proof enough of its rarity. Naturally, to Lu Yang, whose body literally housed the Immortal Realm, an immortal realm was no grand spectacle. Under Qiu Jin'an's lead, the group soon arrived at their destination. The immortal realm lay at the junction of the Fire Vein and the Water Vein. "What a tall mountain!" Man Gu gasped. The peak soared into the clouds, its midpoint veiled in white mist, making it impossible to tell just how high it reached. What was certain was that it stood no lower than Tianmen Peak. Qiu Jin'an offered a casual explanation. "The immortal realm lies inside a cave within the mountain. The Patriarch feared that moving only the cave would disrupt the immortals' layout and the realm's integrity, so he simply hauled the entire mountain over." For a cultivator of Mister Tiankui's stature, moving mountains and filling lakes was trivial child's play. Lu Yang noticed a perimeter fence encircling the mountain, casting a faint, shimmering barrier. It was likely meant to safeguard the immortal realm and prevent disciples from sneaking inside to disturb the immortals' chessboard. Not far from the fence's entrance, Lu Yang spotted a tattered, inconspicuous yellow talisman, stubbornly stuck to the railing and fluttering in the wind. "The seal inscribed on that yellow talisman is quite ingenious," the Immortal Fairy remarked with a casual glance, deducing the talisman's full appearance and contents from just that torn half. Lu Yang started inwardly upon hearing that. Could it be that the immortal realm held not only the immortals' chess match, but also a peerless archdemon? A scene instantly formed in Lu Yang's mind: Mister Tiankui had encountered a peerless archdemon and fought a desperate battle, ultimately falling half a step short of victory. Left with no choice, he had sealed the fiend within the immortal realm, using the immortals' chess match to suppress it. As the eras passed, the people of the Five Elements Sect had forgotten this stretch of history, and the archdemon had already broken through the seal and escaped the realm! Or perhaps the archdemon possessed something akin to the Karma Dao fruit, causing everyone to forget its very existence? Looking back at Sect Master Qiu, the man seemed not to pay the torn talisman the slightest heed. Lu Yang raised a hand and pointed at the half talisman nearby. "Sect Master Qiu, what is that?" "Is it a sealing ward?" "It's a repossession seal." Lu Yang was speechless. "The Patriarch was in quite a rush when he moved the mountain back then and hauled it back without the imperial court's permission. The court naturally refused to let that slide, so they impounded the immortal realm and slapped a seizure strip on it. "After we paid the fine and bailed the Patriarch out, the court agreed to grant the mountain and the immortal realm to our Five Elements Sect, so the seal became useless. "Back then, they didn't scrape the strip off completely, and later generations thought of it as something of a historical relic, so they left it in place." Naturally, an official strip capable of impounding an immortal realm was no ordinary object. Seeing that no one had any further questions, Qiu Jin'an led them past the fence and down to the foot of the mountain. The closer they drew, the heavier the mountain's oppressive presence weighed upon them. The group pressed on without pause, stepping into a damp cavern. The moment they entered the cave, the restless stirring in their hearts abruptly quieted, as though the tranquil state of mind from the immortals' match three hundred thousand years ago had reached across time to touch them. The cavern was silent, dark, and deep, echoing only with their hollow footsteps. The deeper they ventured, the drier the air became, as if the interior and exterior of the cave were two entirely separate worlds. "Here it is," Qiu Jin'an announced. What appeared before them was a stone table. Black and white stones filled the board completely, leaving no open intersections. Counting carefully, neither side had managed to connect five in a row. The match between the immortals had actually ended in a draw. The stone table, stone stools, and gomoku stones were all ordinary items. Only because immortals had used them for a century, imbuing them with a wisp of immortal essence, had these mundane objects survived the vast river of time without eroding away. Qiu Jin'an shook his head in regret. Indeed, no matter how many times one entered, reproducing the scene from back then was impossible. The Patriarch's epiphany was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime immortal destiny that could never be repeated. What Qiu Jin'an failed to notice was that Lu Yang's eyes had gone blank, as if his consciousness had slipped away. Lu Yang's head drooped as though he were dozing off. Then, he snapped his head up. What met his gaze was an empty chessboard, along with two strangers reaching into their stone bowls to draw pieces for a game. Meng Jingzhou, Tao Yaoye, and the others were nowhere to be seen. Lu Yang stood alone as the sole spectator. Lu Yang's heart skipped a beat. Why did this look like a reenactment of Mister Tiankui's tale? Before he could gather his wits, he heard the two players speak. Their voices carried a peculiar power that soothed the mind and anchored the spirit. "Immortal Ying Tian, will you start?" "Very well." *Clack.* A white stone landed squarely at the center of the board. Immortal Ying Tian played the first move.