Chapter 1694: The Dao Child's Game

Among the Dao Children.

A man and a woman gazed at each other with deep affection.

One was the Holy Maiden of the Dual Bliss Holy Land.

One was a Sword Child from some unknown place—one instant, and it was eternity.

Many of the more sentimental female cultivators who saw this scene couldn't help but feel a little dazed; many beautiful images floated up in their hearts.

In the end, people are still people. Is cultivating the Dao and seeking longevity not precisely for the sake of encountering all these beautiful things in life?

"Adulterous whore and her lecher."

More of the Dao Children, however, sneered coldly in their hearts.

"The Dual Bliss Holy Maiden had best truly be confident, or else she might one day hear of yet another Dao Child slain beneath a sword cultivator's blade. These sword cultivators have a greedy craving for our lives…"

"Still, sword cultivators are also pure and extreme in their emotions, far more prone to losing control than orthodox Daoist law cultivators."

"If the Dual Bliss Holy Maiden can seize upon a single flaw in his Dao-heart, she may well be able to tear his Dao-heart apart, capture him for her own use, and from then on make great strides on her Dao path…"

Many Dao Children assessed thus.

This truly was a very dangerous game. If the Sword Child and the Dual Bliss Holy Maiden continued to develop in this way, perhaps something very interesting would happen.

After Fusang Holy Maiden Shi Daoling finished her piece, the Floating Wine Cup and Winding Stream in the sky continued to flow on.

Ten thousand Daos' rules circulated, splendid colors blossomed; within them, fate and cause-and-effect seemed to shift. Wine cups formed of cause-and-effect traced beautiful arcs across the sky, and the paths of the many Dao Children seemed to converge here, then flow onward into the distance.

'This game is very interesting.'

Jiang Ding thought silently to himself.

Shi Daoling had given him a secret tome called *The Myriad Daos in Primordial Chaos*—this was the rulebook for this little game. Namely, the many Dao Children each put forth a wisp of their own Great Dao aura into the Floating Wine Cup and Winding Stream, which then spontaneously evolved, running toward more interesting and pioneering directions.

Legend had it that this little game had been popular for tens of thousands of years, and that true immortal maidens had participated in its development.

This one little game, with the rules of fate and evolution it contained, had given him great gains. It seemed many of the results could be applied to the Central Array Spirit Computer, or used to upgrade the soul-operation Yan Suan Fa, letting him mobilize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and execute sword arts a fraction faster.

Moreover, Jiang Ding clearly sensed that what he had comprehended and mastered of these things was not the whole—only a small portion.

Coming to this Myriad-Dao Celestial Pivot had been the right call.

The wine cup in the sky, after countless calculations and the flowing of countless fates, arrived before the youth in blue under the pull of cause-and-effect and bonds.

Jiang Ding was briefly taken aback.

"Big brother,"

"fate and causality have chosen you."

The Dual Bliss Holy Maiden, at some unknown moment, had come to the side of the Great Sun Sword Child. She pressed her lips together and laughed lightly: "This means that in fate's and the rules' foresight, big brother in the future

will influence the fate of the endless cosmic starry skies, or else Big Brother's path is very unique and pioneering, capable of showing everyone more possibilities.

"This means big brother is very formidable."

She was very friendly, drawing close without seeming abrupt, arriving like a warm spring breeze, like a kitten's paw.

Fusang Holy Maiden Shi Daoling had likewise been about to explain, but upon seeing this she silently stepped back and hid herself away.

"Dual Bliss Child, you speak too highly."

"This sovereign comes from some rural backwater; having a few unusual points is only natural."

Jiang Ding smiled faintly.

The Dual Bliss Holy Maiden's eyes shimmered; she said nothing more, merely looking at the blue-clad youth before her.

So-and-so Child.

This seemed to be a very common form of address in ancient times, no longer much used today. In the past it was often applied among Dao Children—roughly between three kalpas and ten kalpas ago?

The Dual Bliss Holy Maiden recalled the records of many scriptures within her sect.

The territories of humanity's great thousand worlds were not always fixed. Sometimes due to war, sometimes due to the natural workings of the universe, certain great thousand worlds' territories would vanish, or appear, undergoing change.

She locked down several ancient great thousand worlds in her mind.

The many Dao Children, meanwhile, looked this way with curious expressions.

"A song, or a painting?"

Jiang Ding pondered.

These Dao Children's discourses on the mysteries of the Dao were rather elegant—utterly unlike the sword child's discussions of the Dao, or the immortal-gate's precise, unadulterated immortal-Dao research and development. They always had to find some pretext.

However, it was a great pity that he was entirely untalented in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

"Here is an endgame position,"

"if any of you fellow Daoists have a spare moment, please offer a word or two of guidance."

Jiang Ding did not deliberate long. With a wave of his hand he sent out streams of sword qi; the sword qi transformed into black and white chess pieces that fell into the void, each one sinking and floating. Countless army-formation runes appeared among these pieces, radiating a heavy aura.

Among these pieces, the white and the black were each different.

The white pieces numbered only a third of the black. The formation patterns between the pieces spread, layer upon layer, connecting each piece with extreme efficiency. The patterns were complex and tight, far exceeding the limits of ordinary Dao soldiers.

This was precisely a simplified version of the immortal-gate's contemporary army formation.

The black pieces facing the white were an upgraded version of the Flesh-and-Blood Furnace Dao-Soldier Grand Formation—a corner of the Supreme Battlefield, recorded in the inheritance of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm. Here it was casually laid out by Jiang Ding.

In the current situation, the white pieces were already surrounded by black pieces three times their number, on the verge of annihilation; the endgame was nearly over.

The hopes of the human Dao—destroying the Immortal-Slaying Qi Sect—Jiang Ding had never forgotten.

Jiang Ding looked at the many Dao Children, wanting to hear their thoughts.

These people were each and every one the very finest prodigies of the great thousand worlds. It would truly be a waste not to make use of these nuclear-powered donkeys.

"An endgame?"

The many Dao Children fell into thought.

A sword child skilled in army formations—that was quite rare; his grasp of army formations seemed to run quite deep.

"Here, one can play a piece."

Before long, one Dao Child raised a hand and guided a white stone to take a step.

In an instant, a corner of the heavy encirclement of black stones collapsed, shifting from a dead position to a living one—a stroke worthy of the gods, forcibly turning the tide.

"Brilliant!"

Jiang Ding's eyes lit up as he praised.

This kind of military formation modification was something he had never been able to think of before; he hadn't expected that a single casual change would immediately break the deadlock.

"A fortunate insight, nothing more."

This Dao Child smiled.

He took a few more steps, but was finally trapped on the eleventh stone, unable to continue any further, and could only give up with regret.

The surrounding Dao Children grew interested.

Slaying sword cultivators was a losing proposition for them, but this kind of literary contest was different—it allowed them to become more familiar with sword cultivator combat while also bringing considerable benefits to themselves.

Many Dao Children tried in succession, each managing at least several steps.

From time to time there appeared flashes of brilliant inspiration—ideas that no one knew where they came from; others could rack their brains and still not come up with them, yet these people produced them casually.

Jiang Ding watched from the side, his eyes practically glowing.

Among these people, Shi Daoling walked twenty-one steps, the Zhenjun He Huan Holy Maiden walked twenty-two, and the strongest was the Qingfeng Beidou Dao Child Liu Qianhua, who walked thirty-two steps—she was a Dao Child of the Qingfeng Beidou Star Region skilled in conquest and warfare, evoking in Jiang Ding a feeling of gazing up at a towering mountain.

The harvest from this single occasion was comparable to a thousand years of comprehending the Dao!

Jiang Ding's gaze flickered with wonder as he wondered whether next time he should throw in some sword art problems and let these Dao Children offer some inspiration.

The only slight pity was that no one appeared who could break the position in a single stone.

The True Immortal Maiden was not present here.