Chapter 76: The Four Evil Ones Arrive

In the Heavenly Dragon world, Leigushan.

Zhang Jie was playing go with his junior cousin Fan Bailing.

Hmm, although Fan Bailing was already over forty, his hair and beard streaked with gray,

even Zhang Jie’s father, who had been far younger than a youth of twenty, would have been older than him,

but who else but Zhang Jie could be considered an equal to his master, Su Xinghe?

Becoming a disciple of Wu Yashu not only greatly strengthened Zhang Jie’s internal energy,

but also elevated his seniority—now, across the Jianghu, nearly everyone was his junior.

Tap-tap-tap.

Black and white stones landed on the board,

forming two massive dragons with jagged, snarling edges.

The two dragons glared at each other, each seeking to devour the other.

Yet any go expert would immediately see

that Zhang Jie’s white stones held absolute dominance.

“Where should I place this stone?”

Fan Bailing held a black stone, hesitating.

One glance told him he was surrounded on all sides—his black stones had no hope of salvation.

While Fan Bailing frowned in intense concentration,

Zhang Jie sat across from him, calm and relaxed.

His go skill had already reached master level when he played against Su Xinghe,

and after inheriting Wu Yashu’s legacy and the accumulated go records of the Xiaoyao Sect and Su Xinghe, he had risen even higher.

Zhang Jie dared claim that fewer than five players in the world could match him in go.

Though Fan Bailing was known as the “Go Demon,” obsessed with the game, having played thousands of matches,

he was still no match for Zhang Jie, this cheat.

In the primordial world, divine arts could not overcome fate—Fan Bailing’s talent could not overcome a cheat.

Zhang Jie: Don’t challenge my cheat with your hobby~

“By the way, could my go skill earn me a living in the Song court?”

Seeing Fan Bailing hesitate, Zhang Jie, certain of victory, let his mind wander.

The Song court was now under Emperor Zhezong, the peak of Song’s strength,

reversing its long-standing poverty and weakness, adopting an aggressive foreign strategy,

demonstrating formidable military and diplomatic power—forcing Western Xia to seek peace,

subduing Tubo, and making the Liao dare not stir.

With national strength strengthened, all forms of entertainment flourished.

Among them, professional go masters thrived, and professional weiqi entered another golden age,

with seven renowned players such as Liu Zhongfu and Yang Zhongyin,

all serving as Go Court Attendants, frequently playing with the emperor in the Hanlin Academy.

This was why Zhang Jie dared not call himself the best go player in the world:

Liu Zhongfu, the most famous among them, was known as the “Go Sage of the Song.”

Anyone granted the title “Sage” was an absolute cheat.

“But if I joined the court, wouldn’t I be the very Cao Guanzi?”

Thinking of the highest official go title—Go Court Attendant—

Zhang Jie recalled the Cao Guanzi from that world where one carried a blade but no umbrella on a snowy day.

Compared to that prince who doomed his own thirty thousand iron cavalry,

the Cao Guanzi who upheld propriety and died for his love was far more admirable.

“If I’m Cao Guanzi, then who’s my Sejia?”

Zhang Jie’s imagination ran wild—perhaps he should sneak into the imperial palace

to see if Emperor Zhezong’s wife was the most beautiful in the land.

Emperor Zhezong: Are you polite?

…

“Dead position! Dead position!”

As Zhang Jie’s thoughts wandered, Fan Bailing still hesitated, unable to find a move.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, Zhang Jie’s ears twitched slightly, and he smiled.

“Why is my uncle smiling?”

Seeing Zhang Jie’s sudden smile, Fan Bailing asked.

He didn’t believe such an utterly one-sided game

could make his heavenly-seeming master uncle rejoice.

To be honest, in recent days he had played over a dozen games with this uncle,

and lost every single one—no draw, no struggle,

each time crushed utterly, defeated without mercy.

Had he not been obsessed with go, he would have abandoned it long ago.

“Confucius said, ‘Is it not delightful when friends come from afar?’

Today, a long-awaited friend arrives—how could I not be pleased?”

Zhang Jie’s lips curled into a faint smile.

“Could it be someone from the Duan family of Dali?”

Fan Bailing guessed.

Having lingered at Leigushan for days, he naturally knew well of Zhang Jie’s message spread by Xue Muhua:

“Outside the Heavenly Dragon Temple, beneath the Bodhi tree, a beggar unkempt, Guanyin’s long hair.”

He himself had helped circulate part of that message.

Don’t underestimate the network of a go master!

Like Xue Muhua, he deduced from the Dali-linked location of the Heavenly Dragon Temple

that Zhang Jie was seeking someone tied to the Duan family of Dali.

“The Duan family of Dali?”

Zhang Jie first blinked in surprise, then nodded slightly:

“Indeed, it is connected to the Duan family of Dali.”

Just ask whether Duan Yanqing is connected to the Duan family of Dali!

“Since the Crown Prince Yanqing has arrived, why not show yourself?”

Zhang Jie spoke calmly.

“Show yourself.”

“Show yourself.”

Though Zhang Jie’s voice was soft, it echoed instantly across hundreds of meters.

Before his words faded, a man in a green robe, long beard hanging to his chest, face pitch-black,

wielding an iron cane, leapt out from the nearby bushes.

Beside him followed a beautiful woman, slender and graceful.

Unfortunately, three deep bloodstained scars marred her face, robbing her of perfection.

Yet those scars lent her a haunting, tragic beauty.

The iron-cane man regarded Zhang Jie with deep wariness:

“Your internal energy is profound!”

He had not chosen to emerge—he had been forced out by Zhang Jie’s internal energy, compelled to counter with his own.

At their level, once one unleashed great internal energy,

one became like a firefly in the dark—impossible to hide from peers.

Since concealment was impossible, better to appear openly than lose face.

“Evil-Filled Duan Yanqing, Unrelenting Evil Ye Erniang!”

Fan Bailing, seasoned in the Jianghu, instantly recognized them.

He snatched up the go board beside him, eyes alert.

The Four Evil Ones’ names were built on countless lives!

“Hah!

And don’t forget your grandpa, the Fierce Demon Yue Laoer!”

With a booming laugh, a towering man, head bound with cloth,

face grotesque, bearing the visage of a “Fierce Demon,”

wielding an alligator-mouth shears and an alligator-tail whip, sprinted up the mountain path.

With each step he took, the bricks beneath his feet shattered one by one.

As if the stones beneath him were not steadfast, unmoved by wind and rain,

but the tender tofu sold by the Tofu Beauty at the foot of the mountain!

“Third brother, tell me, what number are you?”

Ye Erniang glanced at Yue Laosan.

“Uh, I’m the third, I’m the third.”

Under Ye Erniang’s watchful female gaze, Yue Laosan couldn’t help but shiver.

Though he prided himself that he couldn’t match her in direct combat,

didn’t he know the saying: “The fang of the green bamboo snake, the stinger of the yellow wasp—

both are venomous, but none more venomous than a woman’s heart”?

Just as Yue Laosan acknowledged his position as the third,

a man in green robes, tall and emaciated as a bamboo pole,

with a narrow, elongated face like a crane and a serpent, exuding cunning and malice,

wielding an iron claw and steel staff, his face gaunt as a skull,

his eyes occasionally flashing with lewd lust, appeared silently behind Duan Yanqing,

as if he had always been there!

“Fierce Demon Yue Laosan, Ruthless Cloud Crane!”

Fan Bailing cried out, recognizing the man behind him.

Knowing today’s conflict could not be resolved peacefully, he gripped his chessboard tightly.

“Where did you hear ‘Outside Tianlong Temple, beneath the Bodhi tree, a beggar in rags, Guanyin’s long hair’?”

Yet Duan Yanqing didn’t even glance at the wary Fan Bailing—his gaze was fixed entirely on Zhang Jie.

A mere second-rank expert meant nothing to him.

According to the intelligence he’d gathered, it was Zhang Jie who spread this phrase.

“Your abdominal voice technique, Prince Yanqing, is quite extraordinary.”

Zhang Jie answered without addressing the question.

When Duan Yanqing “spoke,” his lips didn’t move at all!

“Since you know my identity, you know my fate.”

Duan Yanqing replied in a flat, unvarying tone.

Years ago, I was hunted by treacherous ministers, my face scarred, my legs severed,

and even my throat crushed, rendering me unable to speak again.

Had I not, by sheer chance, mastered abdominal voice, I could not even communicate normally!

“Big brother, why waste words with this yellow-haired brat?

Let me capture him—then we’ll know everything!”

Impatient and quick-tempered, Yue Laosan raised his Crocodile Shears and charged toward Zhang Jie.

“You dare!”

Fan Bailing shouted sharply, stepping in front of Zhang Jie with his chessboard raised.

Though he knew Zhang Jie’s martial skill far surpassed his own,

and that Zhang Jie was the absolute core force needed to defeat Ding Chunqiu and revive the Xiaoyao Sect,

as a disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect, how could he stand idly by while a villain attacked the sect’s master?

“Third, stand down!”

Seeing the tension between them ready to explode, Duan Yanqing barked.

“Yes, Big Brother.”

Yue Laosan immediately lowered his Crocodile Shears.

He resented Ye Erniang because he believed her martial skill was weak.

But Duan Yanqing had subdued the other three evildoers through absolute power!

He had no choice but to submit.