Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 666: Chapter 549 Coming_3

The Pavilion Elder lifted his head, displeased, “How can you not focus when playing chess?”

The Supervisor was taken aback, and couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

The winds rose, and clouds surged, with the mystery of the immortals ebbing and flowing.

Is now really the time to be playing chess…

The Pavilion Elder shook his head, sighing, “This won’t do. Your mind is restless and impatient, lacking steadiness. With such a disposition, you’ll never make progress in chess in your lifetime…”

The Supervisor silently glanced at the chessboard.

On the board, most of the Pavilion Elder’s pieces had already been “captured” by him.

That was because he had considered the Pavilion Elder’s dignity and couldn’t bear to make a move, allowing the Pavilion Elder many pieces out of pity.

Though to say so might seem disrespectful.

But as everyone knows, the Pavilion Elder of Heaven Shu Pavilion is famously a “lousy chess player” far and wide.

Now the Pavilion Elder is saying that he “will never make progress in chess in his lifetime,” and really, he didn’t quite know what to say…

The Supervisor felt somewhat tired at heart, but still asked helplessly, “Aren’t you worried at all?”

“Worried about what?” the Pavilion Elder said with an air of indifference.

“About… the Taoist Mysterious Gate and them…”

A chill suddenly flashed through the aged eyes of the Pavilion Elder.

“Are you eager for them to rush to their deaths?”

The Supervisor was startled, his expression becoming more solemn, “Have you calculated something?”

The Pavilion Elder completely lost interest in chess, placed a piece, effectively “sacrificing” a large group of his pieces, and said coldly:

“Not calculating would be for their own good.”

“Without calculations, they wouldn’t rush to their deaths.”

“Calculating slower, they’ll die slower.”

The words of the Pavilion Elder were laden with deep meaning.

The Supervisor’s gaze sharpened, “Is it really that dangerous?”

The Pavilion Elder neither affirmed nor denied.

The Supervisor asked in confusion, “Have you told the Shangguan Family and people from the Taoist Mysterious Gate all of this?”

“It’s not worth it…”

The Pavilion Elder shook his head, aimlessly fiddling with the chess pieces on the board, “Even if told, they wouldn’t believe it. They might think I’m exaggerating to scare them, suspecting I have ulterior motives, and would end up blaming me instead.”

“So if I can delay it, I will…”

The Pavilion Elder sighed, “I’m getting old, senile; how can I still calculate so quickly, so accurately?”

“Then them…”

“Life and death are predestined, let nature take its course,” said the Pavilion Elder indifferently, then looked at the Supervisor and slowly continued, “Before a moth flies to the flame, it never thinks it will die.”

“Can you stop a moth from flying into the fire?”

The Supervisor frowned, “Is this matter truly so perilous?”

The Pavilion Elder silently gathered the chess pieces and put the board in place, “Not everyone is capable of playing chess, and not everyone can play in this game…”

The Supervisor acknowledged with a solemn nod.

The Pavilion Elder meant that this matter involved the Heavenly secret and was of great significance; one should not lightly wade into these muddy waters.

But the Supervisor also faintly felt that the Pavilion Elder’s words had a double meaning, and they contained a message for himself as well.

Implying that he wasn’t qualified to play chess with him.

Even though, dear Pavilion Elder, your own chess skills are terribly lacking…

The Supervisor shook his head, pondered for a moment, and then said: “The Taoist Court is full of capable people, geniuses are everywhere, surely it couldn’t be that…”

“Geniuses?”

The Pavilion Elder’s gaze grew slightly cold, “What is a genius?”

That question left the Supervisor speechless.

He intended to say, “One with an excellent Spiritual Root, exceptionally intelligent, extraordinarily talented, with stunning brilliance,” but the words felt too superficial as they reached his lips.

That obviously wasn’t the meaning hidden in the Pavilion Elder’s words.

It seemed the Pavilion Elder didn’t really expect an answer from the Supervisor, but just gazed into the distance and sighed softly:

“Grasping the world’s benefits for one’s own selfish desires, no matter how genius, what use are they?”

“The more ‘geniuses’ there are, the more corrupt the Taoist Court becomes, the more the Cultivation World deteriorates…”

The Supervisor was puzzled, but the Pavilion Elder said no more.

A silence settled atop the pavilion.

After some thought, the Supervisor still asked: “Pavilion Elder, I still don’t understand. If we really wade into these troubled waters, where lies the danger?”

The Pavilion Elder, with an inscrutable gaze, countered with a question, “Who are we plotting against?”

The Supervisor hesitated, “Mr. Zhuang?”

“Do you think that young man surnamed Zhuang is so easy to plot against?”

The Supervisor was taken aback and then frowned again, “Even if he was extraordinary back then, after so many years, with his Taoist Foundation shattered, could he still be so troublesome?”

The Pavilion Elder scoffed, “He is at the end of his life, his Heavenly secret calculations exhausted, powerless to overturn fate, otherwise he would not be in such dire straits, and furthermore…”

A serious look flickered in the Pavilion Elder’s eyes.

“The most terrifying thing is not actually him, but his senior brother…”

A chill ran down the Supervisor’s spine, “You mean, the Tricky…”

The Supervisor held back, refraining from uttering the full name, then shook his head again, “The Planting Devil in Taoist Heart, it’s not considered as one of the top Demon Path inheritances, is it…”

The Pavilion Elder glared at him, “When you stop talking big, I’ll worry less.”

The Supervisor was somewhat chagrined.

The Pavilion Elder sighed as if reminiscing, the depths of his eyes harboring a hint of trepidation:

“Their entire sect is filled with Evil Monsters.”

“That young man surnamed Zhuang is one, and his senior brother, naturally, is as well.”

“One Thought, Two Methods, Heavenly secret Tricky Calculation…”

“Compared to ‘calculating,’ none of you can out-calculate that young man named Zhuang; and if it’s about ‘playing,’ you’re even less of a match for his senior brother.”

“When you plot against that young man named Zhuang, he considers sentiment and won’t strike fatally…”

“But that senior brother of his is a different story…”

“Should you really encounter him, nine times out of ten, you will all be played to death…”

The Pavilion Elder looked solemn.

The Supervisor’s expression gradually grew serious…

…

In Dali Mountain.

After the heavenly tribulation, the golden and crimson lights dissipated together.

The Saint Heir was in utter disbelief:

“My Undying Rune… shattered?!”

That brat surnamed Bai, trading “life” for “life,” has actually eroded my natal Undying Rune?!