Chapter 319: Heaven as a Chessboard, Stars Fall as Pieces

The long spear was picked up, and a point of silver light bloomed.

In Liu Yu's hand, there was no half-point seal or anomaly. The long spear forged purely by the method of divine weapons stabbed out like a swimming dragon. He condensed his military cultivation into the tip of the spear, almost merging man and spear, showing extremely high martial arts cultivation.

Outside Xu Dao's body, the metal-attribute mysterious light suddenly flourished. The mysterious light emitted a strong meta-magnetic qi, scattering in front of him, wearing down and delaying that point of spear light.

Military cultivators usually practice both martial arts and military arrays, and their magic power is condensed to the extreme.

Perhaps they lack many wonderful spells and divine abilities, but they integrate their own will into the Gang Qi, turning it into a martial arts divine phase, which can restrain most spells. A body of true qi, purely from the flesh, is even less restrained by the Five Elements Heaven Escape.

Therefore, as a military cultivator, Liu Yu, who is proficient in martial arts, restrained Xu Daofu so much.

And Xu Daofu could only use the metal-attribute mysterious light to slightly contain Liu Yu's divine weapon long spear.

The spear light pierced through the metal-attribute mysterious light, but its own momentum also became the end of a strong crossbow. The other four-attribute mysterious light rotated, locking the spear tip a foot in front of Xu Daofu.

Xu Daofu was a bit stunned at first, then laughed.

"The martial arts Great Pill condenses the whole body's blood, qi, and spirit into one point, holding the pill to become golden, which is indeed extraordinary. Your blood and qi are pure yang, and the one who changes the marrow and is reborn should be a Core Formation First Rank compared to cultivators! It's just a pity that the Southern Jin respects immortals and rejects martial arts, and didn't list you among the First Rank talents of pill formation!"

"Now it's not like before, without the help of the military array, condensing the military Dao divine phase. Compared to my Yin Spirit cultivation, you are still a step behind after all."

"Previously, you could force me back, mostly relying on those five thousand Beifu soldiers. Now you have a hundred cavalry out of Jiankang, but you were blocked by the array. What is the use of you alone?"

Xu Daofu said morosely: "Those personal soldiers are still on the other side of the array! Without the help of the military array, how can you be my opponent?"

"General!" On the other side of the array blocking the river, hundreds of cavalry wandered on the left bank of the river, extremely anxious.

"Did you forget me?" Qian Chen kindly reminded.

"Husband and wife..." Xu Daofu said: "This person will be handed over to you!"

Xie Daoyun snorted, Wang Ningzhi held her hand tightly, Xie Daoyun casually lifted the chessboard on the small boat, and the black and white cloud pieces scattered like stars fell into the river, turning into a group of black and white fish, gathering and rotating in the river water.

The more than three hundred array flags

The Eight Gates were arrayed, and black and white were divided.

That chessboard transformed into a starry sky above their heads, with three hundred and sixty pure white rays of light interwoven with an equal number of dim and profound black lines, forming a chessboard. The points where the vertical and horizontal lines of the chessboard intersected coincided exactly with the positions of the hundreds of stars in the sky at that moment.

Heaven acts as the chessboard, and the stars fall as pieces!

Who dares to play?

Qian Chen looked up at the vast sky. At this moment, it was still daytime, and the starlight was not apparent. If the formation were set up at night, the power of such a formation would be twice as strong!

"With the Eight Gates as the foundation, and yin and yang as the variables..."

Qian Chen stared at the eight jade mountains that were gradually fading in the Dajiang, as well as the black and white fish scattered in the river, paired in twos, giving rise to countless changes. As for the three hundred or so formation pieces, they were merely filling in the numbers of the mysterious Six Harmonies outside the foundation of the Eight Gates and the changes of yin and yang.

"Furthermore, using heaven as the chessboard and stars as pieces, you have sealed the Profound Heaven Star Stone, the only thing I could use to probe the orientation within the formation. Above and below, there are no flaws. Below, the Eight Gates block the river; above, the celestial star chessboard. Heaven and earth are in harmony, and there are no more openings!"

Qian Chen remarked with emotion: "As expected of the daughter of the Xie family; a tiger father has no dog for a daughter!"

Xie Daoyun sat kneeling in the boat, facing Qian Chen. Between the two of them lay the Dajiang-spanning Formation, upon which the stars and constellations mingled, flickering like chess pieces, truly resembling a chessboard.

Xie Daoyun reached out to invite Qian Chen to play a game.

On the tower ship, Yuan Hao was covered in sweat, looking at the formation between the two. His complexion changed from pale to green, unpredictable. His mind was captured by the formation, instinctively attracted by the star-like chess pieces in the sky. Now, the formation on the ground secretly matched the number of stars; every time the formation changed, the star-chess in the sky moved one step.

This was a true game of formation strategy.

Sweat poured from Yuan Hao like paste, making Du Xiuniang feel extremely worried. She held Yuan Hao's hand and said solemnly: "Daoist Elder Yu Chen is currently outside the formation. As long as he joins that young officer in white to defeat Xu Daofu first, he can break this situation. Why must he enter the formation?"

Zhang Huaien's eyes lit up and he said: "That's right! Why break the formation?"

Zhixia shook his head slightly, and Yuan Hao whispered: "No, you don't understand! If I could enter this formation, I would too."

"Xie Daoyun has abandoned part of the formation's control; this is a gentleman's game. Both can use formation strategies to play against each other with the help of the grand formation. Xie Daoyun is now playing black first, and Daoist Elder Yu Chen responds with white pieces. Step by step, the two of them each gather part of the formation, competing with formation strategies, performing a game together!"

"Heaven acts as the chessboard, stars fall as pieces; the river acts as the boundary, generals and commanders play!"

"How magnificent!" Yuan Hao said excitedly.

The two old men, Jiao and Huan, could not help but grip the railing tightly, saying to the juniors behind them: "Watch closely, this is a world-shaking game. These are likely the two people with the highest attainments in formation strategy among the younger generation in the Central Lands today. On this Dajiang, using heaven as a chessboard and the river as a boundary, this is truly a legendary feat."

"If you can grasp even one ten-thousandth of it, you will benefit infinitely!"

Qian Chen let go of the Bai Lu, ordering it to go far away, leaving the Ear Dao Shen on the Bai Lu's horn. The Ear Dao Shen's expression was blank, yet full of vigilance.

Qian Chen smiled slightly, left a streak of spiritual light for it, and then walked straight into the formation.

Zhixia's expression became even more solemn. He knew that this was because Daoist Elder Yu Chen did not have the confidence to protect the Bai Lu and the Ear Dao Shen in this game, so he sent them away and entered the formation alone.

Since descending along the river, Qian Chen had faced one Central Lands hero after another—Zhu Wuchang, Xu Daofu, Wang Ningzhi—always handling them with ease. Only at this moment did he bring out his full spirit, facing it with composure.

Qian Chen raised the Heavenly Net Umbrella and stepped into the formation. A clear blue sky rose up and covered the chessboard in the sky. The vertical and horizontal lines fell, merging into the blue sky, and dots of stars twinkled upon the blue sky...

Qian Chen and Xie Daoyun faced each other across the river.

The waves of the river-spanning formation frothed with fine white foam, and the river surged, reflecting the projection of the chessboard in the sky. Once inside the formation, it was like entering the night from the day, with the starry sky twinkling above their heads.

Wang Ningzhi looked at this scene and could not help but feel ashamed, saying gloomily: "Lingjiang has such brilliance, yet she married a mediocre person like me."

Xie Daoyun turned her head and smiled: "Between heaven and earth, there is still Wang Lang! Why should Wang Lang be ashamed?"

Xie Daoyun looked back suddenly, and the pair of yin-yang fish dissipated. The black fish changed and merged into the formation. Just as the July heat had not yet fully dissipated, clouds and mist churned over the Dajiang, and goose-feather-like snowflakes drifted down. Before long, the world was a vast expanse of white.

Countless goose-feather snowflakes fell into the river.

The waves churned, and what they rolled up was not foam, but flying snow.

"Not as good as willow catkins rising with the wind..." Qian Chen recited softly while holding his sword. This was the poetic talent of the person opposite him in her youth; now, it was almost as if this scene were being recreated. The snow filling the sky disappeared upon touching his body, but it shaved away a tiny bit of Qian Chen's fundamental magic power.

The flying snow fell into the river, bringing with it traces of chill.

Before long, the flying snow would chill the water of the entire river, and the formation's momentum would be entirely seized by it!

Qian Chen drew his sword into the starry sky, the sword light shooting straight between the Dipper and the Ox. The seven floating Profound Heaven Star Stones fell onto the chessboard, the Dipper pointing to the North Star. A star fell into the starry sky, occupying the center, and the North Star remained motionless while all the stars bowed to it.

The sword light fell, turning into a piece of ice, reflecting cold light amidst the flying snow.

Between the vast white heaven and earth, the cold light was biting, freezing the strange power of the flying snow that shaved away magic power. As the cold light of the flying snow fell, floating ice gradually formed on the river.

The starlight above their heads lit up, one by one.

Not far away, Yuan Hao's mind was increasingly captured by it. He was drenched in sweat, his body gradually trembling. When Qian Chen and Xie Daoyun played the twenty-first move, sealing the river with heaven and earth and freezing the water of the entire river, Yuan Hao suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, plunged headlong, and fell into the Dajiang.

Du Xiuniang cried out and flew down to rescue him. The two Core Formation old men on the tower ship said with trembling voices: "Don't look! Those who don't understand shouldn't look, and those who do understand should look even less!"

"To grasp even one ten-thousandth... it's wrong, it's wrong! Just one ten-thousandth is enough to destroy your Dao heart!"

The old man surnamed Jiao trembled, not knowing if he was frozen by the chill between heaven and earth, or if his heart had turned cold.

…………

Xu Daofu's five-colored mysterious light fell, and the rotation of the five elements turned into a world. Although it shattered in an instant, it was reborn in an instant. This endless world suppressed Liu Yu, leaving him with no power to resist.

But Liu Yu also, in the blink of an eye, used the tip of his spear to pierce the most subtle point of the five-element rotation.

He punctured the mysterious light, escaped, and looked back, his spear like a meteor streaking across, stabbing straight at Xu Daofu.

Xu Daofu casually shook his mysterious light, opening a world three feet in front of his chest. That grain-sized five-element world was struck by the spear tip. The meteor-like spear momentum streaked across ten thousand feet, yet it did not advance a single distance within that five-element mustard-seed world.

A distance of one grain was like a natural chasm.

Liu Yu shook his long sword, and his powerful military magic power shattered this mustard-seed world, but the mysterious light rotated and was always reborn in an instant.

"Liu Yu, since the last battle, my cultivation has just happened to improve a bit. Although your martial arts have improved more, without the help of military formations, sixty percent of your ability is wasted. You are always a line away from breaking my Five Elements Great Escape!"

"This line of difference is like a natural chasm. No matter how fierce your long spear is, don't even think about stabbing within three feet of my body!"

Liu Yu knew that what he said was true. Last time he defeated him, it was mostly because five thousand Beifu elites were by his side. Today, he brought his personal guards, having calculated that with the help of those hundreds of personal guards, he could still occupy the upper hand.

But who would have thought that Xie Daoyun would actually make a move! With the formation blocking the river, he rode his horse across the river, but his personal guards could not follow. And Xu Daofu, after that battle, also knew shame and became brave, his cultivation improving quite a bit.

With a Core Formation body, contending against a Yin Spirit, and it being a true transmission of the Dao Sect like Xu Daofu, he was ultimately a line short.

Liu Yu was not discouraged. With his martial arts, he could still defend, but if they continued to stalemate, the opponent had endless means, and there would ultimately be a time when he would be taken advantage of. But the more this was the case, the more he had to be calm.

His thoughts raced as he looked for a strategy to break the enemy.

At this moment, a childish voice came from behind him.

"Aba aba!" The tiny person gestured, conveying some information to Liu Yu. Liu Yu dared not be distracted, but a thought floated up, secretly saying: "Is that the spirit creature left by that person?"

At this moment, the Ear Dao Shen gestured for a long time, simply picked up a talisman brush, and pointed at the cloud paper in the air. With a flourish, a team of Imperial Guards spread out in the ink, breaking through the clouds and emerging.

"As wings for the country, flourishing like a forest!" that team of knights roared.

As Liu Yu's thoughts flashed, he felt that this military momentum was extremely compatible with him, even more so than the Beifu personal guards he had cultivated for decades.

He did not know that this was a streak of spiritual light that Qian Chen had intercepted from his destiny's remaining Immortal Han qi before entering the formation, casually stuffing it to the Ear Dao Shen, ordering it to sprinkle the spiritual light as a painting at a critical moment to give him a helping hand.

But Liu Yu also reacted instantly; this was a backup plan left by Qian Chen.

He roared and merged with the Imperial Cavalry. The military momentum condensed, martial arts transformed into a divine image, and a crimson qi soared into the sky. The edge of the Red Sky Sword flashed, and the red qi transformed into a flaming phoenix.

The flaming phoenix swirled above the long spear, and a hundred birds sang together.

Liu Yu rode his horse and thrust his long spear straight, the spear tip nodding like a phoenix, pointing toward Xu Daofu. The five-element mysterious light was instantly broken, and the crimson flaming glow at the tip of the spear struck toward Xu Daofu's throat...