123: Tianqi

Regarding the extra chess piece Qing Yao suddenly took out, Shen Ying asked doubtfully, "Weren't there only one hundred and thirty-four pieces? What is this?"

Hearing the question, Qing Yao chuckled, somewhat disrespectfully for his age, and put the chess piece back into his bosom, saying, "A gentleman hides his tools within himself, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Alright, listen carefully, I'm going to tell you how this chess should be played."

After saying this, Shen Ying could clearly feel that Qing Yao's mood seemed to have become serious, and he began to count them one by one while speaking.

"This chess is called Heaven and Earth Chess, also known as Yin-Yang Chess, totaling one hundred and thirty-four pieces, with one hidden piece, making it actually one hundred and thirty-five pieces.

Among the one hundred and thirty-five pieces, the hidden piece will never appear. There are seventy-two Earth Pieces, thirty-six Heaven Pieces, twelve Main Pieces, nine Punishment Pieces, plus four Heaven and Earth Settling Pieces, and one Governing Piece."

Hearing this, Shen Ying calculated softly, "Seventy-two, thirty-six, twelve, nine, four plus one, that is indeed one hundred and thirty-four."

Next was the game. Because the pool side continuously emitted energy for Shen Ying to absorb, coupled with the fact that Qian Hao had also brought a lot of food,

Shen Ying and Qing Yao's game, their very first match, actually lasted a full day and night.

It ended exactly twenty-four hours later, not a minute or second off, which startled Shen Ying, fearing that Qing Yao might have suddenly died.

But seeing the other party's radiant complexion, in the instant her mind relaxed, Shen Ying herself felt a deep fatigue.

This fatigue was like the deep weariness in her mind after commanding countless experts, facing enemy attacks again and again, and barely coping.

And so, Shen Ying just fell asleep.

A Spirit User Organization who had broken through to the Tenth-Order after these past few years, just fell asleep like an ordinary person.

Because Little Luan was constantly paying attention to the situation here, the moment Shen Ying fell asleep, she flew over and gently shielded Shen Ying between her wings.

"Sigh, Qing Yang his grandfather, what kind of broken chess is this? It can actually make a Tenth-Order Spirit User Organization fall asleep. Can you tell me about it? Or maybe we can play a game?"

Little Luan's clear voice made Qing Yao smile and shake his head while tidying up the board.

"Haha, you, you are not a player, you are not qualified."

Hearing an ordinary person say she wasn't qualified, Little Luan's eyes instinctively sharpened.

But in the end, Little Luan said dejectedly, "Still not qualified? If you weren't Qing Yang his grandfather, I'd show you if I'm qualified or not."

When the morning sun rose the day after Shen Ying fell asleep, she woke up automatically.

Shen Ying didn't mind the fact that she had actually fallen asleep like this, thinking she had been too tired in recent years.

Afterwards, Shen Ying started weaving hemp again.

The days seemed to pass slowly without any ripples. On Shen Ying's side, she played a game of chess with Qing Yao every seven days.

At first, Shen Ying only felt the deep fatigue after each game of chess.

But as the number of times increased, and Shen Ying gradually adapted to Qing Yao's ever-changing moves, Shen Ying had new feelings.

Firstly, there were personal changes. Every time she finished playing chess with this grandfather and woke up the next day, she felt completely clear, and even the speed at which she absorbed energy from the pool seemed to have increased significantly.

After that, it was mental. From initially worrying about whether every piece would be captured, she later learned to make choices, sometimes even directly sacrificing one of the four Settling Pieces just for a change in a certain part of the game.

Qing Yao saw Shen Ying's rapid growth throughout, but he didn't show it.

One evening, while Qing Yao, the Old Man, was teaching Shen Ying how to weave reverse hemp, his gaze suddenly fell upon the nearby pool.

Then, Qing Yao thought for a moment and immediately said to Shen Ying, "Little Ying, play a game of chess with Grandpa."

"Play chess? Didn't we just play the day before yesterday?"

Although puzzled, Shen Ying still walked to Qing Yao's opposite side, picked up her pieces, and slowly began to play.

Within the first ten moves, Shen Ying already felt a different intensity than before; it seemed Qing Yao was directly increasing the difficulty this time.

In this situation, while being serious, Shen Ying was also using her brain more and more.

By the nineteenth move, Shen Ying already felt tired, but she could still persevere.

It wasn't until the thirty-first move that Shen Ying completely couldn't hold on, blood flowed from her mouth and nose, and she directly fainted opposite Qing Yao.

Chirp~

Almost the instant Shen Ying fainted and blood appeared from her mouth and nose, Little Luan discovered the problem immediately, let out a cry, and instantly flew over.

Little Luan's cry also alerted the other Divine Beasts in various parts of the Ge Xing Islands.

In less than a minute, when Mao Qiu and the others also rushed over, Qing Yao glanced at the pool again without a trace, and immediately spoke faster.

"Overexertion of the brain, she fainted, it's nothing serious. Hmm~, look, what's happening to that pool?"

Qing Yao's words immediately attracted Ba Qing's attention.

Then, when Ba Qing turned his head to look, he saw that at this moment, the pool had already begun to give off faint white mist.

Not only that, the entire pool, which originally had no ripples, gradually began to show fluctuations, as if it was about to boil.

Seeing this scene, Ba Qing made a decisive move, instantly commanding Little Luan and the others to start pulling the large net.

After waiting for less than five minutes, Shen Ying also slowly woke up and saw the Divine Beasts standing ready, subconsciously asking, "Is the Spiritual Tide coming?"

Not far away, Ba Qing stood to the side, his huge tiger paw pressing down on one end, his maw also biting the large net, and gently nodded.

Farthest from the Divine Beasts, Qing Yao whispered softly, "The force is sufficient, but the net doesn't have a main load-bearing point, it can't hold, it's easy to break."

While murmuring to himself, Qing Yao began to look around and ponder.

Finally, Qing Yao suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Isn't there ready-made hemp right here?"

Buzz~

By the pool, the entire pool at this moment seemed to be boiling. Waves of energy fluctuations were surging up layer by layer, like giant waves.

Boom~

At a certain moment, as a gigantic white beam of light, a full five hundred meters thick, suddenly erupted from the pool, the next second, Ba Qing, Little Luan, Xuan Ming, and Golden Pixiu, who were the first to bear the brunt, immediately felt a huge force, as if it was tearing the large net.

"Roar~, hold on!"

As the white light beam penetrated the large net, pieces of zhen crystal also suddenly shot up into the sky along with the light beam.

Within the huge spider web-like net, countless zhen crystal, like grains of rice, were rapidly filling the large net.

And as the zhen crystal increased, the net's load-bearing capacity became weaker and weaker, seemingly ready to tear apart at any moment.

Just at this critical juncture, Qing Yao suddenly stood up and quickly said to Shen Ying.

"Based on my experience with fishing nets, this large net seems unable to hold on. Little Ying, there's hemp over there, you already know how to twist hemp. Twist out two eight-hundred-meter-long hemp ropes, and try infusing your energy into the hemp."