Chapter 65: Only Seeking to Win Half a Piece Against the Heavenly Dao (Big Chapter, Second Update)

In "Mie Changsheng," special Opportunity events are not necessarily good things that only bring benefits; there are equally terrible events that can throw the entire Nine Provinces into turmoil.

This adds a great deal of randomness, and this particular Opportunity event is clearly a historical one, the kind that triggers at a fixed time.

【The Heavenly Dao has issued the Demon Slaughter Order. Large-scale slaughter will erupt within the Nine Provinces, public order in every province will decline sharply, and the overall Morality of all living beings within the Nine Provinces will decrease by 10 points as a result. The gods are unaffected.】

【The Demon Race's stance toward the Human Race has dropped to freezing point.】

【The Human Race's stance toward the Demon Race has plummeted to the bottom.】

The screen fell into a state of complete chaos.

The figure of the Heavenly Dao Leader appeared at the top of the entire world map, and the Heavenly Dao Leader, face covered by a Bronze Mask, stretched out both hands to their limit, Spirit Qi surging upon them as if the entire Nine Provinces were within their grasp.

【"Monsters?"】

【"All of you, go die."】

【"In this Heaven and Earth, only we can endure forever."】

With a cold, sinister smile curling at the corners of their mouth, the Heavenly Dao Leader seemed to have overturned the order of the entire Nine Provinces.

【"The Dazhou Dynasty?"】

【"A spineless wretch that can protect nothing."】

【"A new order shall be established by us."】

The Heavenly Dao Leader reached out and pushed over everything in front of them, just as if the chaotic, warring pieces on a chessboard had all been swept off in one go.

Different stances, different classes, different identities.

No matter who they are, no matter what person they may be, they will eventually be reassigned to a brand-new identity, and their Heavenly Dao will become the true order, creating a new landscape.

And behind the Heavenly Dao Leader, a group of cultivators known by the Heavenly Rankings slowly emerged from the shadows, their respective supernatural powers named after their code names appearing one by one.

Seeing such a scene, Gu Jiangming felt his entire being gripped by a sense of tension; who knew what these lunatics were going to do next?

Looking at this posture, it was clearly intended to incite absolute opposition between the Demon Race and the Human Race, and this opposition was clearly meant to completely exterminate the other side. Even some cultivators among the Human Race were not to be spared by the Heavenly Dao; this was a total reshuffling.

【You are contemplating the scales on the back of the Mysterious Turtle, and the powerful pressure from the outside world makes it difficult for you to calm down.】

【You know well that the ambition of the Heavenly Dao does not stop here.】

【And at this moment, you think of many people.】

【You think of the Dragon Princess at the seaside in Jiangyang Fishing Village, you think of Wang Qinghe who spent every day with you in the Taicang Ruins, you think of the many fellow disciples of the Zhenggang Sect, you think of your father-in-law Wang Jiangxing, and you even cast your gaze upon Jiu Jiu before you.】

【The Great Harmony of the world pursued by the Heavenly Dao requires absolute fairness for everyone except themselves.】

【Demons cannot be above humans.】

【Gods cannot be above humans.】

【Even ordinary cultivators cannot be above common people.】

【Only they, the Heavenly Dao themselves, can be above mortals.】

【It is for them to personally manage the cycle of Heavenly Principles and human order.】

【The opportunity currently placed before you is to wait quietly, lying dormant here for four hundred years, a hidden dragon in the abyss, waiting to enter the world as a dragon when the winds and clouds change.】

【But】

【There is also a path of a dragon fighting in the wilderness, its blood turning black and yellow.】

【Do you choose to completely burn your lifespan, using your body as bait, to invite the people of the world into the game? To enter the world now?】

【Please remember, the path of choosing the second option will be extremely perilous; one wrong step and the whole game is lost.】

【Do not harbor delusions of... winning half a piece against the Heavenly Dao!!!】

Now, two choices were left for Gu Jiangming.

It was these damned two choices again.

One path was to turtle up first, waiting until he had sufficient ability before entering the game; in this way, he would have absolute dominance in the endgame.

The Heavenly Dao was bound to wear itself out against the Demon Race first.

One path was to stop turtling altogether, directly choosing the most insane route, confident in clearing the game in one life, participating in the entire chess game from the very start.

No matter from which angle one looked at it, the gains of the former were greater than the latter, and the risks were smaller.

This belonged to the category of a grand melee where one mixes in to reap the rewards of the endgame.

The duality of madness and turtling.

Gu Jiangming did not know whether he should be mad or be a turtle.

He gritted his teeth.

Looking at the four characters 【Born with a Proud Bone】 hanging on his status.

The duality of madness and turtling?

In my life, I have never turtled; I have only been mad!

One must enjoy life to the fullest while one can!

To turtle for a moment is to regret for a lifetime; to be mad for a moment is to have everything.

A gambler at the table either loses everything or takes everything; how could there be a saying about turtling first and waiting to reap the rewards?

How could there be so many opportunities for you to maneuver?

If you quit at the gambling table, isn't losing half still losing?

Only a madman can win it all.

The more Gu Jiangming looked at the warnings above, the more he felt they were telling him to choose the first path, to seek stability instead of risking it on the second path.

But I have a rebellious bone in my head.

I never listen to advice.

I choose the second path.

【You have chosen a path completely different from the one before.】

【On the back of this Profound Turtle, under the pressure of the outside world, you force yourself to comprehend the ancient characters on this scale shell.】

【You begin to deconstruct these characters; you feel your head spinning, as if you are completely unable to understand the profound content within, yet you still endure this nauseating dizziness, staring at the content above to continuously comprehend it.】

【You feel as if you are about to go insane.】

【"Little one, the things on my scales are not things that you mortals can comprehend." The Profound Turtle seems to have noticed that your entire body is in a state of trembling.】

【"I still remember the last person who looked at these characters very clearly; his name was Feng Li."】

【"I heard he was a rather outstanding prodigy among your Human Race, capable of Heaven and Earth Enlightenment in eight hundred years and standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods, but it is a pity—he insisted on forcing things that were not in his fate."】

【"After comprehending them for three hundred years, he forced himself into a cultivation deviation and completely turned into a madman."】

【"Hahahaha, how can a mortal comprehend the realizations of gods." The Profound Turtle let out bursts of laughter, "You must know, this is Qimen Dunjia."】

【"There are a total of Four Thousand Bureau, and over three thousand ancient divine abilities."】

【"Many divine abilities have gone extinct in the current age; if it weren't for the fact that I cannot see these things, I would have liked to comprehend them thoroughly myself—perhaps I could have attained the godhood by now."】

【You spit out a mouthful of blood.】

【Your face ages by thirty percent.】

【Jiu Jiu is guarding this sea area from a distance; hearing your commotion, she immediately rushes back. Seeing the scene of you vomiting blood, she immediately raises her hand, wanting to help you up.】

【"This is..." Jiu Jiu cannot help but cast her gaze upon the patterns on the Profound Turtle's back. Just by taking a single look, she feels as if she sees countless figures emerging in her mind; it is an innumerable amount of divine abilities simultaneously releasing their essence, making it difficult to settle one's state of mind.】

【"Pfft—" Jiu Jiu also spits out a mouthful of vital blood from her mouth, feeling her entire lifespan wither by a hundred years because of it.】

【"Change... what is change."】

【"Change is to calculate all possibilities within, to declare all possibilities within the momentum, to give no opportunity, to leave no opportunity, to block all possibilities..."】

【You fall into a state of obsession.】

【After Four Thousand Bureau, one finally knows the true name and surname of the Hidden Dragon.】

【Due to your realization, the unlocking time limit is shortened by 20 years.】

【But your lifespan is depleted by two hundred years because of this.】

【Yes/No: Continue to comprehend in this way?】

I have no path of retreat left to speak of.

Gu Jiangming clicks to continue the method of comprehension once again.

【Your innate proud bones do not allow you to just fall here; you concentrate your spirit and continue to comprehend the scales on the Profound Turtle without sleep or rest.】

【You gradually realize that you seem destined to come here, destined to see everything on the back of this Profound Turtle.】

【On these scales, the Four Thousand Bureau of the strategist's layout represents the limit of an ancient cultivator's—or even an Ancient God Race's—cognition and usage of the true Heavenly Dao.】

【He exhausted his Great Dao throughout his life, tying everything he learned in the world into a single thought, all for the sake of a glance, a look, a tilt of the head—those divine abilities... those formations could cover every direction beneath his feet, using this as a bureau, using himself as the formation.】

【"Do you know, many things are destined by fate."】

【"Some people are born standing at the peak, while some people are born struggling even to grow up slowly."】

【"Some people are born enjoying everything, while some people are born to be ridden beneath others, willing to toil."】

【"These are all matters of fate."】

【"A fate you cannot escape."】

【Voices ring out in your heart, as if seducing your mind, causing you to waver, but your willpower is extremely tenacious; this is the spirit gifted to you by your proud bones.】

Innate Proud Bones, I, Gu Jiangming, hereby unilaterally declare you the strongest trait.

You have preserved your fate of not being wiped away!

Please continue to work hard for your fate of not being wiped away!

【"I refuse—this is not my fate." You shout from the bottom of your heart, "If there is fate, and a person's life is determined by Heaven long ago, then what is the need for people? To follow fate step by step... and just end one's own miserable life, which is but a drop in the ocean, like this?"】

【"Let this Heaven determine the fate it wants."】

【"I want to walk my own fate, not the fate it has determined!"】

【"You coming here is all destined fate." That voice emerges in your heart once again.】

【"Just like you seeing everything on these scales, it is all determined by fate."】

【"Hahahahahaha—"】

【"If that is the case... then me coming here is something I decided, not something you decided, so I am the fate."】

【"If I am unwilling, who can stop me."】

【"A fate that can be changed, that can be controlled, is never a destined fate."】

【"Only people themselves can control their own fate."】

【You spit out another mouthful of fresh blood, feeling the lifespan within your body withering at the fastest speed, and you become aged at a speed visible to the naked eye.】

【When your head is full of white hair, you open your eyes.】

【You sit withered.】

【One hour, one day, one night, one month, one autumn, one year—you sit just like this, wind and rain beating down without changing you in the slightest.】

【At the ten-year mark, it passes in the blink of an eye.】

【"So, this is... the true meaning of the formation."】

【"Being in the formation of the ten thousand worlds, using the four directions as the bureau, I am the position at the center, I am the place where my own fate is controlled; only I can decide the changes of the surrounding ten thousand worlds. This is truly turning decay into magic, turning the impossible into the possible, and turning the possible into an absolutely dead end."】

【"Whether it is time, space, or even the fate of life and death, they should actually be controlled by the person who enters the bureau."】

【"Because the one who enters the bureau has paid the full price in their hands, and this price must also have an absolute return."】

【"Using myself as bait, turning the world into a bureau, seeking only to win half a move against Heaven."】

【"This is the true essence of 'After Four Thousand Bureau, one finally knows the true name and surname of the Hidden Dragon'."】

【You have comprehended a brand-new formation realm—After Four Thousand Bureau (no one can replicate it; when you die, it will become an extinct divine ability).】

【You now need enough time to replenish the four thousand divine abilities missing from "After Four Thousand Bureau" to serve as the placement of the chess pieces.】

"But please remember: your lifespan is no longer enough to be squandered wantonly; when the destined end arrives, you are fated to perish."

Watching everything happen before her eyes, Jiu Jiu's expression at this moment was also one of utter shock.

He... he seems to have realized something extraordinary?

At the same time.

The Heavenly Dao Leader, who had just placed a piece on the grand map, changed; it could be seen that Gu Jiangming had already replaced the position where the Heavenly Dao Leader had been.

"You are a person within the game, and I am also a person within the game."

Following Gu Jiangming's words, a white piece in his hand landed brightly upon the Nine Provinces.

It gently tapped a patch of murderous black pieces out of the game.

"But the victory or defeat is still undecided."

"I may not necessarily be your chess piece, but you are certainly my game."

There are more updates, but I can only write them when it's light out; I'm sleepy, brothers!

(End of this chapter)