Chapter 635

"Pfft—"

A jet of blood sprayed out, and a manor lord collapsed to the ground.

Dead.

Wei Se watched the manor lord's corpse from the back row, feeling nothing, just a bit bored.

How many had died today?

Seven? Or eight?

The game was being played move by move, battles were being fought one after another, many people had already died, and time was flying by; in the blink of an eye, several hours had passed.

Battles between Sword Guests were time-consuming to begin with, let alone these reluctant fights where both sides were cautious to the extreme, circling each other repeatedly, always taking half an hour to decide a winner.

Furthermore, there was the time spent on the chess moves.

Although the rules were very simple, playing chess required thought and planning. The simpler the rules, the more complex the play. Especially since the positioning and strength of the pieces varied, it was just like deploying troops in the Art of War.

For example, if these pieces pressed forward in a massive wave, their advance would inevitably be slow, unable to shift their formation for half a day. If a powerful piece were sent out alone to charge into the enemy's formation, it would be almost like a "fuel-adding" tactic; once it fell into a heavy encirclement, it would be hard to escape, wasting the piece for nothing.

The chess skills of these powerful figures were clearly mediocre. After a few consecutive moves that were either probing or successful or failed, they clearly began to hesitate. Each subsequent move actually required a considerable amount of time to think, and despite the bloody and cruel rules, for the sake of victory, they actually began to avoid combat and adopt the Art of War to erode the opponent's formation.

Wei Se wondered below: he had thought these powerful figures were just taking pleasure in them, the intruders, not caring about their lives at all, and in fact not even caring much about winning or losing, just watching them slaughter each other for fun.

How did it turn out as if they were really competing for something meaningful?

What virtue or ability did they have to be dragged into the disputes of Sword Immortals?

If he went to ask others, especially Fu Xianchan who had moved to the front, he might get more intelligence.

As a confidant of the Gaoyuan Marquis, Fu Xianchan carried a Dharma Artifact for "Clear Vision," allowing her to see things others could not.

She saw with her own eyes that every time someone was killed, a wisp of faint golden light flew into the sky.

Those golden lights... were they tokens? Belonging to some Sword Immortal.

These pieces... perhaps they really were related to the fate of such big shots.

That might be for the best...

Compared to others, Fu Xianchan knew more; she knew that their being trapped here was only temporary, that there would be people outside thinking of ways, and the longer it dragged on, the higher the probability of escape. Not to mention that Tang Zhao seemed to be doing something important over there, which also required buying time.

Viewed this way, this battle could consume several days.

Let it drag on, let it drag on; just consider them a diversionary force buying time for the main army.

She had already calmed down, and the others were gradually less tense than before during the long war of attrition, either relaxing, becoming numb, or lying flat; only the few above also felt the progress was slow, their patience wearing thin.

"Too slow."

Wangliang sat upon the Shadow, maintaining a seated posture, with endless shadows behind it.

It silently counted its own record; in the dozens of moves and several battles just now, the one from Yinglang had won the most, it was second, and its record was not even half of the other's.

That golden Mask of Destruction had only won one game in total, becoming a mere hanger-on.

Wangliang would not see Destruction's weakness; it only grew increasingly irritable at its own slow progress: "I want to change the rules! Boring, boring battles! We must avoid these meaningless, time-wasting fights. Can these people even be called Sword Guests? They have no bloodiness of a Sword Guest, only knowing how to live and survive."

The golden Mask said: "Change them if you want. Wasn't this crappy rule proposed by you yourself? Truly changing orders in the morning and changing them in the evening, fickle and capricious."

Wangliang was silent for a moment, then immediately said: "No, you almost tampered with my memory. I proposed the chess, the rules were jointly decided. You contributed quite a bit, and that woman hiding above is cooperating with you. There is a ghost in this; what is your goal? Are you... dragging out the time?"

In fact, it was just annoyed by its own record and wanted to change the way of playing, not thinking that dragging it out for a few days would cause any changes, but inexplicably, it thought of the phrase "dragging out the time" and blurted it out.

The golden Mask said unhappily: "If you can't afford to lose, just say so; why are you framing me? Are you looking at yourself being inferior to the Ruyi Sword and therefore wanting to flip the table? I didn't say I wouldn't let you change it; it's your game anyway, you insisted on dragging me in, as long as the Ruyi Sword agrees, it doesn't matter to me."

Wangliang said "Hm?", was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed in spite of itself, saying: "Why is your attitude so low? Usually, you always have something to say to whatever I say, and you never yield. I just said it casually, and you yielded like this, which makes me feel you really are dragging out the time."

Destruction was silent for a moment, but Wangliang laughed instead: "It doesn't matter, I knew you had ulterior motives long ago. If you cooperated with me quietly, I would be even more suspicious. It's just that since the trick has been exposed, you should exit quietly and look for another opportunity. I'll give you a chance. You come and change the rules to be clean and efficient, preferably more stimulating. I want to end the battle within today and finish this meal."

Destruction replied: "Give me a chance? I haven't admitted to your charges. It's just that you can't think of it. If you want speed, there are plenty of ways, but whether it's stimulating or not is hard to say. For example... ban all Sword Arts and Sword Techniques. Only allow them to hack at each other with swords; wouldn't that save a lot of time?"

Wangliang praised: "This method is not bad. Anyway, their third-rate Sword Arts have no aesthetic value. A bunch of idiots, most of their Sword Arts are used for fleeing; banning them is best. But how to ban..."

Destruction sneered: "Can't do it? Beyond the Sword Momentum, you can't even ban Sword Arts? It seems I can only think of some simpler methods; a slightly higher requirement is already beyond your capability."

Wangliang said coldly: "In Wangliang Mountain, I am omnipotent; banning is easy. This one idea is not enough. There are three hundred pieces below; if each fight takes the time of one incense stick, it will take three days and three nights of continuous fighting. How can one wait for that?"

Destruction said: "You can actually do math, rare. If that's still not enough, we can only make an issue of the number of moves each time."

It said a few things that gradually satisfied Wangliang, who said: "Then let's do it this way... but we must notify that woman."

With the discussion above, the chess naturally stopped. Below fell into a stagnation, everyone was anxious, not knowing what heavenly law they had violated, and the atmosphere was abnormally cold.

After a long while, Wu Shayu finally received the order and said loudly: "Everyone, just a moment ago, Lord Wangliang announced new rules. First..."

As he was speaking, one could see little bits of black water climbing up from below, condensing into a point at each intersection of the silver silk web, which was right under everyone's feet.

The huge silver web was suddenly covered in black spots, just like ink splattered on it.

"From now on, when two people meet, they will fight in their own independent shadow spaces, without being disturbed by others. You can also fight without holding back."

Creating shadow spaces was Wangliang's specialty; those First Tier and Second Tier manors all had their own independent spaces.

But everyone did not feel happy—fight without holding back? They had no intention of fighting without holding back at all, okay?

Wu Shayu then announced the good news that Sword Arts were not allowed in the shadow spaces, saying that whoever used Sword Arts, the shadow would leave and turn into a rope, dragging that person into Yingyuan.

This caused even more complaints, especially those manor lords; where had they ever fought in real combat? Standing there and exchanging Sword Arts was one thing, but in a real fight with real blades and guns, they probably wouldn't even know how to move their legs.

On the other hand, many people on the side of the Turtle Bandits were very excited; these people were all wanted criminals of the Imperial Court, and which one of them wasn't battle-hardened? This rule greatly increased their chances of winning, and at the same time, their hope of survival also greatly increased.

In fact, this was also beneficial to Wei Se, and it was practically giving him a step up. But he didn't feel happy; instead, he remembered the Sword Fighting that took place at the banquet when he first came to Wangliang Mountain.

At that time, in order to do as the Romans did, Wei Se had once gone on stage at the Changfa Manor banquet as a Fighter to fight to the death, just to amuse those manor lords who sat high at the tables drinking and eating meat.

Now, the manor lords themselves had become the objects of Sword Fighting for others' amusement. The hunter and the prey had reversed positions.

This reversal was something Wei Se could have secretly mocked in his heart, but once he thought that although the audience watching the match had changed, he was still the one below fighting to the death for others to see, he couldn't laugh anymore.

Immediately after, Wu Shayu announced another new rule, which could truly be called a "bombshell":

"From now on, every move, all pieces must move one step. And they must move at the same time. Moving forward, backward, left, and right together; those who collide must immediately start a battle."

At this, everyone exploded, and they all exclaimed: "How to move? Where to move? Who to listen to? Is Lord Wangliang going to command everyone at the same time?"

Although with a divided mind, it should be able to do it, but...

I always felt that Wangliang, who takes so long to think about a single step, isn't actually good at planning.

Sure enough, Wu Shayu added: "Lord Wangliang and other chess players will control certain chess pieces, and the controlled pieces will naturally feel it. Those pieces that are not controlled move on their own."

On their own?

Does that mean they can move wherever they want?

Then... the room for choice is quite large.

Wu Shayu sneered: "Yes, move wherever you want. But there are only four directions: front, back, left, and right. You aren't horses; do you expect to move in an 'L' shape? Just be good pawns for me."

"Furthermore, you must move simultaneously—how will it be seen that you move simultaneously? It means you don't have to walk; you must rely on choosing your movement. In a moment, the halos above your heads will descend, and you will write the four characters for front, back, left, and right on them; then you will all move together. You might want to flee far away, but you don't realize that others might want to go to where you are. If you collide, you will immediately enter the Shadow together to fight, and naturally, only one person can survive. Do you understand?"

The crowd listened in terrified silence, yet Fu Xianchan, listening from the side, suddenly felt a stir in his heart: So that's it! Wangliang, its ability is indeed limited.

Why say its ability is limited?

Because it cannot read minds.

Front, back, left, and right are only four options; even if it could simply read minds, wouldn't it be much easier to just have people silently recite the four options and teleport instantly, rather than having to write them down?

It doesn't do that, which means it lacks the power to read minds, even here on Wangliang Mountain, within its Shadow.

It cannot know what we are thinking...

Can it even know what we are writing?

Is this 'front, back, left, and right' written for the chess player of one's own faction? Does it pass through Wangliang's hands?

In other words, can one communicate directly with the Destroyer and the Ruyi Sword Palace through writing?

Thinking of this, an uncontrollable thought gradually rose in Fu Xianchan's heart:

Should I... take a gamble?