Chương 336: Truths and Lies (XXII)

The sound of a chess piece hitting against the gilded board was quiet, yet the world around it was quieter still, causing it to echo. It rippled outwards, as though tossing a pebble into a lake, causing a slight gust of wind. The two men sitting on opposite ends of the chessboard, however, didn't seem to register it. Pressed against the side and by the window, their focus was entirely on the board. One appeared to be in his seventies, aged and weathered, with wrinkled skin, a graying beard, and balding hair.

The top of the head was bereft of it whole, while the sides still clung to a few remnants. He wore robes enshrouded in black and purple, with heads bearing features not quite human embroidered and stitched across the surface. Humming lowly as he picked up a knight and positioned it aggressively, his smirk was one of pride and self-satisfaction as his gaze wandered off the board and toward the man opposite him.

And opposite, indeed, he was--the man seemed no older than thirty, but there was no refinement to his appearance, unlike with the old man; his hair and beard were unkempt, his robes were tattered and full of cuts, and he smelled of alcohol entirely too loudly. Despite that, however, the gaze within the inhumanly crimson eyes was sharp like a blade, entirely unflinching.

He took a swig from a gourd, downing a few mouthfuls of what the old man assumed was bodiva's wine, before setting it down and using his bishop to take out the knight. The old man paused, frowning; it was such a beginner's move, as the bishop had moved away from guarding the queen, but he never knew the 'young' man to be so careless. Could it be a trap? Pulling back, he fell into deep thought, but he couldn't see through it--if there was one. No matter how he calculated, if he took the man's queen...

he would simply have exchanged a knight for a queen. And yet, he hesitated. It must be a trap, as simple as that. As such, rather than taking the queen, he pushed the pawn diagonally, taking the bishop instead.

"Ever the coward," the young man spoke rather snidely.

"I've outgrown my youthful stupidity," the old man said.

"And saw through your trap."

"... my trap?" the young man arched his brows and suddenly laughed.

"Ha ha ha. Aah, lil' Yin'er, there's no trap. I simply blundered."

"... you're lying."

"Hm. If it makes you feel better, keep believing it," the young man said with a chuckle, pulling the queen away from being in the direct line of the old man's rook.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same. That is why you're still here, not a crown on your head." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Hmph. I'm still here because of my lacking talents, Senior," the old man said, stroking his chin.

"Whether I was even more cowardly or as dumbly courageous as you, nothing would have changed. Hm?" The old man suddenly felt something snap--both in the spatial ring on his finger as well as in his soul. Quickly reaching into the ring, he pulled out crumbling pieces of a stone tablet--it was old and weathered, but just a day ago, it was whole, radiating life energy... that was now gone.

"Who died?" the young man asked.

"... a disciple of mine," the old man said, his gaze remaining on the fragments of the stone tablet.

"Lu Yuhan."

"... Lu Yuhan, Lu Yuhan... why don't I know him?"

"He's my newest one," the old man said.

"Took him in less than three thousand years ago."

"How did he die?"

"Somebody killed him, I presume," the old man said as white fire emerged from his fingertips, engulfing the fragments of the stone.

"He sinned against the Order and had his Nirvanic Spirit destroyed, just barely surviving. Since then, he's been living on the outside."

"Just what did you feed him to keep him alive?" the young man whistled in a faint surprise, taking another swig from the ground as the stone fragments began to turn into ash.

"..." the old man remained silent, staring at the ashes as the distant memories of the young boy flashed through his mind. He knew this day would come, one way or another; he went against the Order, however subtle he believed he was and however much he thought he was doing it for the Order, and his only fate was death since that day.

"Want me to go avenge him?" the young man asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"No. Besides, wouldn't it interfere with your Dao?"

"Aah, don't mention my Dao," the young man grunted, leaning back on the cushion and stretching.

"Why do you think I'm here?"

"To annoy me?"

"Ha ha ha, a little bit, I suppose. But... it's mostly because I hit the wall," he said, standing up and walking over to the window, glancing out at the vast landscape of twilight-shrouded pavilions embedded in the walls of the massive cave.

"You can't tell me you've never experienced a bottleneck before."

"This is... different," he said.

"I think... it's a Demon."

"A Demon?!!" the old man exclaimed in shock; of all the martial artists that he had ever met and known in the tens of thousands of years of his life, he was the one he'd think would never fall to Demons.

"How is that possible?!"

"... only one thing comes to my mind," he said, turning around and meeting the old man's eyes.

"When I heard them accuse the Blade of Dao-blasphemy... I did not immediately storm the Court and turn it upside down to learn the truth."

"... if it's true," the old man frowned.

"And it is a demon..."

"I'm not sure yet. Could just be the fading scent of guilt. I loathed that man, after all, perhaps even more so than the entire Heavenly Court combined. If there was anyone who should have celebrated his death, it was me. So, perhaps, it's merely the shortcoming of not having been the one to slay him."

"..."

"Ah, let's not talk about the old tales," he said, stretching.

"I'm sensing you lot are close to finally accomplishing your dream."

"... and you're still not stopping us?" the old man asked with a faint smile.

"Why stop something that will fail?"

"What if it doesn't?"

"If it doesn't," he said.

"Then it means that the Laws of Dao have come undone and that the cosmos itself is ending. In that case... me stopping you lot wouldn't have done anything. Something else would have caused it, one way or another."

"For someone who claims that Righteousness is his Dao, you certainly walk a loose path."

"Perhaps," he grinned, sitting back down and finally making his move on the board.

"But righteousness, as all other human things, is a concept that doesn't inherently exist. Dao is neither righteous nor unrighteous, as it's neither just nor unjust. What it means to be righteous resides in our hearts, though somebody who could never ascertain his Dao certainly wouldn't know anything about it."

"It is not my comprehension," the old man said, making a move as well.

"But my lacking talents."

"Hm," he smiled.

"Are you sure you don't want me to avenge your Disciple?"

"However little I know of Dao, even I know that an Emperor tangling in the matters of mortals would result in a punishment. He's lived a life of note, for better or worse; now, Saṃsāra awaits. Let him be, as he let all others."