Chapter 48 - The Sick Young Man
"He wants to destroy the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree?"
"Chop it and burn it? He wants to burn the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree?"
"Has he gone crazy? Has Gu Hai lost his mind? That's a Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, and he wants to destroy it?"
"Ten days? If he doesn’t see Wei Shengren in ten days, he will destroy the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree? Are you kidding me?"...
All of a sudden, the cultivators around the hidden world burst into an uproar, all of them jealous of Gu Hai, this prodigal bastard!
That was a Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, ah!? In the outside world, all of the forces there would want to snatch a precious treasure likea Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree once they got wind of it. And it was even more priceless than the Hundred Years Longevity Peaches, as one could obtain Hundred Years Longevity Peaches in a steady stream from it. And… and this prodigal bastard wanted to ruin it?
How can he be so capricious? If you don't want it, just give it to us!
Numerous people's eyes went red as they stared at the sky.
Chen Tianshan stared blankly at the Throne Master even more so. At this moment, Chen Tianshan felt his three outlooks collapsed by Gu Hai[1]. Why… why can I not understand Throne Master?
"Gu Hai, you dare!" shouted Ninth Young Master suddenly.
Cocking his head, Gu Hai looked at Ninth Young Master as a chuckle escaped his mouth.
Gu Hai took a deep breath, touching the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree before closing his eyes slowly.
"Golden piece, I can communicate with the rules of heaven and earth via you, and the stronger the weiqi skills, the stronger the strength of rules!? If so, then I will place an array left by Elder Guanqi using the strength of heaven and earth rules!" Gu Hai opened his eyes suddenly.
BOOM!
Suddenly, countless white clouds churned up in the sky.
Amid the circling clouds, the mighty army suddenly scattered, arranging themselves into twenty-eight horizontal and twenty-eight vertical lines like that of a huge weiq board.
Tok Tok Tok Tok!
Vaguely, one could see the army atop the weiqi board seemingly transforming into weiqi pieces one after another, slowly disappearing among the churning clouds.
Slowly, a huge weiqi board came into existence. This huge weiqi board wasn't any weiqi board, but the programmed weiqi board that Gu Hai had seen above the white crystal in the space of his glabella just a few days ago. It was precisely the weiqi board with a 28x28 grid.
At this moment, the weiqi board with 28x28 grid started tiling, transforming into a monstrous array.
BANG BOOM BANG!
Billowing white clouds spread hundreds of li high in the sky. Faintly, a loud crash resounded among the clouds, spreading across the world before a powerful pressure spread in all directions.
It was a weiqi array!
Chen Tianshan and Gao Xianzhi's eyes went wide as a horrified look spread across their faces.
"How is this possible? Throne Master came together with us, but how could he in such a short time...!" mumbled Chen Tianshan to himself; he found it hard to believe.
"Throne Master was originally a man with peerless elegance and talent, he was just lacking an opportunity, a support. Once the opportunity presented itself to Throne Master, he could soar ten thousand li along the wind!" stated Gao Xianzhi, his eyes flickering with emotion.
On another side, Meng Tai's mouth gaped in shock, "The army wasn't the strongest form of Gu Hai's cloud beast? Is that for real?"
"Array? Arranging an array by mobilizing heaven and earth force via the golden piece? How is that possible, where did this Gu Hai come from? Who can tell me, where did he come from? What is his background?" Ninth Young Master eyes went wide as he cried out in shock.
Billowing white clouds covered the sky, preventing everyone from seeing clearly what was going on inside.
"Gao Xianzhi, Chen Tianshan, come here!" Gu Hai's shout reverberated from the swirling clouds.
"Yes!" answered the two.
Flapping its wings, the rain dragon immediately brought the two into the clouds.
---
On the ground, countless cultivators kept on staring at the sky.
"Is he really going to keep on defending for the next ten days? Will he destroy the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree after ten days?"
"Who is this Gu Hai? Who can tell me, who the fuck is this Gu Hai? When did such a character came into existence?"
"He is looking for Wei Shengren? Who is this Wei Shengren?"...
In a flash, cultivators across the world were in a complete pandemonium as if an explosion had taken place.
---
In the square...
Great Elder and Bodhisattva Lian Sheng were staring in the sky.
"Hahaha, it seems, your Weiqi Empyrean Court has encountered trouble this time!" stated Bodhisattva Lian Sheng, laughing and shaking his head.
Great Elder remained silent, staring at the sky.
"Great Elder, that madman said he will destroy the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree after ten days, are we still not going to take any action?"
"Great Elder, that is Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, it was planted by Grandmaster himself back in the day!"
"Great Elder! What should we do now? Who is Wei Shengren?"...
Many grew anxious.
"Inform Little Nine to see me immediately!" said Great Elder, suppressing his anger.
"Yes!"
---
In a great hall, after a day...
There were two seats at the immediate north of the great hall.
Great Elder sat on the left, while on the right, sat a sickly young man.
The sickly young man, dressed in faint red peony white robe, looked quite handsome. His appearance was a bit similar to Ninth Young Master. At this moment, he sat next to Great Elder and seemed to lack an ounce of respect as he grabbed handkerchiefs one after another, looking at Ninth Young Master standing in the opposite with a gloomy expression.
Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!
The sickly young man started coughing as he covered his mouth with the handkerchief.
"Great Elder, I tried my best!" Ninth Young Master assured the Elder bitterly.
Great Elder took a deep breath. "I know you tried your best, but in the end, you lost the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree. And that is nothing to scoff at!"
"Gu Hai wants to meet Wei Shengren, we...!" said Ninth Young Master hopefully.
"Waste! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!" the sickly young man said coldly, while covering his mouth with handkerchief, coughing.
In response, Ninth Young Master's countenance became ugly, he did not dare to retort.
"This matter is quite pressing, otherwise, we would not have disturbed you. Are you okay?" Great Elder turned his gaze on the sickly young man.
"It's the old weakness of mine. It will flare up once every two centuries, I will be okay soon!" The sickly young man shook his head.
Having said that, the sickly young man stared at the Ninth Young Master.
Unexpectedly, NInth Young Master lowered his head facing the sickly young man.
"Since you lost the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, it's your job to recover it. The Weiqi Empyrean Court disciples will not intervene, this is the rule established by Grandmaster himself. Even if it's for the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, it's still no good," said the sickly young man coldly.
"But I...!" Ninth Young Master's countenance turned ugly as he began to protest.
"Apart from Weiqi Empyrean Court disciples, everyone else can follow at your discretion. Ask all the outer sect disciples of Weiqi Empyrean Court who had just joined to discard their Weiqi Empyrean Court identity first, degenerating into ordinary citizens; thereafter, they can follow your dispatch!" stated the sickly young man coldly.
"Yes! I will definitely try my best!" assured Ninth Young Master.
The sickly young man gazed at Ninth Young Master ominously, "How are your preparations? Cough! Cough Cough! Cough!"
"I will properly organize the outer sect disciples to break the large array defense, and recover the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree thereafter!" assured Ninth Young Master, gritting his teeth.
"Stupid! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!" said the sickly young man coldly.
"Eh?" Ninth Young Master was slightly taken by surprise momentarily.
"Don't be foolhardy, can't you use your head? Now that the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree is already exposed, it's not just us who want the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree; all the outsiders want it as well! All these outsiders are a huge resource for you to tap into, and you actually cannot understand how to use them? Tempt the outsiders to attack the large array. Even if it's the outer disciples of our Weiqi Empyrean Court, they are still very precious. How can we serve them up on a platter so easily? Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!" stated the sickly young man coldly.
"Yes!" Ninth Young Master's countenance changed immediately; he was extremely ashamed.
"Very well then, go!" said the sickly young man frigidly.
"Yes!" Ninth Young Master could only choose to withdraw from the great hall.
---
Now, only Great Elder and the sickly young man were left inside the great hall.
"Won't Wei Shengren notice such a huge commotion?" asked Great Elder with a frown.
The sickly young man shook his head, "I don't know, it will be very difficult for us to hide anything from Wei Shengren with his ability. But he is rarely concerned about worldly affairs. I also don't know whether he will pay attention or not. Furthermore, it was us who lost it, how could we ask him to save us? However, who is this Gu Hai? Why does he know how to manipulate the heaven and earth rules of this world?"
"He is just a mortal who turned seventy this year. He has also just joined the Ascendant Hall! As for other stuff, I am also not that clear!" answered Great Elder as he knit his brow.
"Perhaps the weiqi piece at the 9-5 position on the energy accumulating weiqi board that exploded is related to him. After all, it is too coincidental. We should check his bottom line as soon as possible!" said the sickly young man in a solemn tone.
"Oh? Is it related to him? We need to capture him and interrogate him!" stated Great Elder calmly.
The sickly young man refused, shaking his head, "No, we should not act against him!"
"Why?"
"If we don't take action against him, everything will remain unchanged, which is for the best! Wait until all the weiqi pieces have amassed the energy. If it was not him, taking action against him would be useless. If it is him, he had already been pulled in. If we act against him now, it would instead be inconsequential!" stated the sickly young man in a heavy tone..
Great Elder remained silent for a moment before nodding.
---
The third day...
Suddenly, all the outsiders surprisingly found golden weiqi pieces.
The golden pieces were normally extremely rare and very hard to find, as well. Even though almost ten thousand people had found the golden pieces in the past, the outsiders that had entered this world didn't number merely ten thousand.
The heavens knew how many forces from Thousand Island Sea had arrived. With so many outsiders, the total golden pieces that had appeared in the past were just one-tenth of the cultivators, or even much less.
However, it seemed that Weiqi Empyrean Court wanted to guide them now. More and more people found the golden pieces.
The number of people who could mobilize cloud beasts were slowly increasing by the moment.
Tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand golden pieces, had now appeared. Following which, more and more cloud beasts had appeared in the sky. The cultivators who had been shocked by Gu Hai's army at first were suddenly having palpitations at this moment.
Gu Hai had an army, however, our cloud beasts are also not lacking! The appearance of tens of thousands of cloud beasts was a prelude to the destruction of Gu Hai's mighty army.
Countless cultivators who had not soared into the sky were already feeling endlessly restless. One after another, cloud beasts made their way into the sky, circling around the large array arranged by Gu Hai to investigate, seemingly wanting to find flaws and weak points.
---
Meanwhile, Chen Tianshan, Gao Xianzhi, Gu Hai, and Little Rou looked outside, standing inside the large array.
From the outside world, one could hardly see the situation inside the array, but the opposite was not true. Looking at the appearance of more and more cloud beasts, Chen Tianshan swallowed nervously.
"Throne Master, the situation is precarious. How did they suddenly find so many golden pieces in just a few days?" said Gao Xianzhi with an ugly look on his face.
Gu Hai looked at the outside world coldly, "Well, the Weiqi Empyrean Court has finally intervened!"
"Is the Weiqi Empyrean Court guiding them?" cried Chen Tianshan in surprise.
"The Weiqi Empyrean Court plans to tempt a hundred thousand outsiders to storm my large array. Although they won't be able to exploit all one hundred thousand outsiders, they could certainly make use of tens of thousands of outsiders to attack my large array. Well, the temptation of Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree is indeed quite big. The Weiqi Empyrean Court had also become learned to be wiser this time, huh?" said Gu Hai coldly.
"Does not that mean we are going to be facing tens of thousands of cultivators?" Chen Tianshan’s mouth was agape.
Four vs tens of thousands of people? Aren't we going to die? Should we really take such a big gamble?
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Translator’s Note:
[1] Three outlooks of life - Outlook of world, life, and values.