182: It was an ordinary day.

"Damn it, damn it!"

"Faster, just a little faster!"

A youth darted rapidly through the ornate palace walls.

He clutched an imperial jade seal tightly to his chest, running for his life.

Perhaps due to extreme nervousness, the youth suddenly tripped, falling heavily to the ground. The jade seal flew from his grasp, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

Just as the youth reached out to retrieve it, the sound of footsteps approached from behind.

"Step, step, step."

The footsteps were unhurried, each one landing like a blow to his heart.

He didn't care about picking up the jade seal or his painful injuries; he scrambled up and continued to run wildly.

Perhaps because he had lost the jade seal, he ran slower and slower, and his ornate robes felt increasingly heavy.

The youth's eyes were bloodshot, tears and snot streaming down his face, as he tore at his accessories and clothing while running.

But the clothes were too cumbersome, and his tearing only tangled him further.

He fell heavily once again.

"Step, step, step."

The footsteps stopped behind him.

Realizing someone was standing behind him, the youth turned his head stiffly. It was a young man with white hair covering his face, his features obscured.

He held a wooden sword high, slowly bringing it down toward the youth.

"Don't kill me! Please... don't kill me!"

Terror reached its peak; the youth begged desperately but could not make a sound. His painful pleas could only turn into silent sobs.

The wooden sword continued to descend slowly.

Although it was just a wooden sword, the youth felt it could easily cleave him into pieces.

"Do you have any last words?"

The man seemed to say something, and then many blurred figures appeared all around, shouting indignantly.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

The youth was filled with fear, but the words of mercy that should have been on his lips turned into:

"I have nothing more to say, please proceed."

As soon as he spoke, the slowly descending wooden sword suddenly transformed into a giant sword like a mountain, swiftly striking toward the youth's head!

"Ahhh—!"

"...Haa... Haa..."

Long Tianxing opened his eyes abruptly, only to realize that everything just now was just a dream.

He wiped his forehead with his sleeve; the cuff was soaked with sweat, and his back was cold and damp.

He sat on the bed in his white sleeping robe, dazed.

Another inexplicable dream... What on earth was that? And who was that person?

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Junior Brother, are you awake?"

A soft female voice came from outside the door.

Long Tianxing snapped out of it, went downstairs to the door, and opened it.

Outside was a female Disciple who was about to knock again. Because the door opened suddenly, she was momentarily flustered.

Long Tianxing's robes were loose, revealing part of his chest, and she couldn't take her eyes off him.

Long Tianxing ignored her reaction, simply leaning against the doorframe, tidying his loose long hair, and asking expressionlessly:

"What is it?"

The female Disciple's cheeks flushed slightly, somewhat embarrassed, her hands unconsciously twisting the corner of her clothes.

"Um... the acting Sect Master said that if you have recovered, you should go to the Sect Main Hall to see him; he has something to discuss with you."

"Understood."

Long Tianxing turned to close the door, but the female Disciple reached out to hold it, plucking up her courage to say:

"Junior Brother Long! I... can I invite you to dinner?"

Long Tianxing took a handkerchief from his robe, grasped the female Disciple's wrist through the handkerchief, and pulled her hand away from the door.

"We Cultivators should practice restraint regarding worldly desires."

"Clap."

The door was closed.

The female Disciple held the wrist that had just been touched through the handkerchief, her face burning red.

"Junior Brother Long is so dashing, and he has such a strong personality..."

She touched her hot face, her lips curling up, completely devoid of the disappointment of being rejected.

Afterward, she threw a small fan tucked at her waist onto the ground, and it instantly transformed into a giant cattail leaf fan. She sat on the fan and drifted away.

Long Tianxing stood on the third floor, watching her leave the entire time.

"Boring."

He whispered expressionlessly, then burned the used handkerchief to ashes and scattered them out the window.

Then, he returned to the bedside and changed into a set of black ornate robes, still in that ancient, aristocratic style.

Just as he was dressed, a familiar voice came from outside the window.

"Junior Brother Long, how many times have I told you, don't litter in the Small World!"

"This trash is difficult to recycle in the Small World; it will affect our environmental rating!"

Long Tianxing pushed open the window, apologized indifferently, and immediately flew out of the window on a Flying Sword, heading toward the giant vortex in the sky.

The young man wearing the enforcement Disciple robe looked helpless.

This was not the first time Long Tianxing had scattered ashes. He looked around the small floating island; there were only a few pavilions on the island, appearing exceptionally quiet.

This Small World was not large to begin with, ranking outside the top few hundred in the healing grotto-heavens, focusing on being remote and quiet.

But ever since this kid arrived, the female Disciples had gone crazy, sneaking in from time to time, either delivering love letters or food.

This kid accepted everything without refusal, didn't take it seriously, and turned around and burned it all to ash. Those ashes floated in an environment rich in Spiritual Qi, taking at least a dozen years to naturally decompose.

Consequently, he had almost become Long Tianxing's full-time cleaner, having to come in every day to cast Spells to recycle these ashes, all while watching the female Disciples fawn over that kid.

"Damn this bastard! Being handsome is a big deal, huh!"

The enforcement Disciple cast a Spell, constructing a small cycle, gathering and degrading the ashes into Spiritual Qi of high purity but very low quantity, allowing it to merge into the Small World's Spiritual Qi circulation.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly felt empty under his feet.

Looking down, there was nothing there.

"Huh? Nothing?"

"Damn! Where is my newly bought Tier 3 Flying Sword!"

"Long Tianxing, I..."

At this moment, Long Tianxing had passed through the vortex in the sky and left that healing grotto-heaven.

Under his feet, he was stepping on the Tier 3 Flying Sword he had casually "borrowed," his palm gently grasping empty air twice.

"The suppression of this Thunder Penalty on my treacherous Divine Ability is truly strong; it took so long to recover after being hit once."

"However, my 'Star-Plucking Hand' is still very powerful."

"Indeed, there are no useless Spells, only useless Cultivators."

"Just wait, Zhou Yan."

"Even if I am in the worst environment, learning the worst Legacy, I will still be invincible under heaven."

Mentioning Zhou Yan, Long Tianxing's lips curled into a wicked smile.

Meanwhile, in the Royal Treasury.

Zhou Yan, who was using the "Time-Burning Technique" to slow down the pace of the chess game and wear down his opponent's patience, suddenly sneezed.

"Isn't the opponent scolding me to my face? Why would I sneeze?"

He looked up at Emperor Gaozong of Yu sitting opposite him; the other party was looking at him with concern, but the moment he opened his mouth, Zhou Yan casually muted him.

Thus, he only saw the other party gesticulating excitedly.

"F*** you, can you hurry up, I can f***..."

Facing the increasingly irritable Emperor Gaozong of Yu, Zhou Yan just slowly placed a piece and took a sip of tea.

"Senior Gaozong, chess naturally requires thinking. If you can't wait, you could just increase your cultivation level to break the restrictions and declare me the winner, wouldn't that be easier?"

He could feel that the Emperor Gaozong sitting opposite him was tending toward transforming into a vengeful ghost, but the other party still remained calm and did not break the rules.

Emperor Gaozong of Yu could actually escape the control of the chessboard if he increased his cultivation level, but doing so would mean he lost this trial, yet he stubbornly refused to admit defeat.

Looks like a stubborn old mule.

"Less nonsense, hurry up and play!"

Zhou Yan smiled slightly, naturally not going to follow his wishes.

How could he play chess?

Being able to play this long was all thanks to the AI's help.

This was the mechanism of this mini-game.

Every move has a thinking time; after the timeout progress bar expires, the AI will make the move on his behalf.

Although this AI isn't that strong, it can negotiate a bit based on the opponent's strength.

Giving you more time to think about the next move is considered a benefit for Go beginners.

But for experts, this feature is quite torturous; back in the day, countless "time-burners" relied on this trick to drag down their opponents.

After all, although this doesn't guarantee you a win, as long as you wait for the progress bar to end every time and let the AI make a time-wasting move for you.

Then you can drag it out further and further, wasting a lot of the opponent's time and inflicting mental torture on them.

Because most people don't have the time to play this long, smelly, and tedious chess game with you, this playstyle once affected the gaming environment at the time.

So later, this feature could only be used in beginner games.

And what Zhou Yan is doing now is the same thing.

Looking at the other party's gradually distorted face, he chuckled and then said.

"I can play with you all day."