Li Hao was thinking about what would happen if he measured his bones again. But there was only one chance, and no one believed that the old Taoist from Qingqiu Mountain would make a mistake.
Since that day when the bone measurement was done, he could clearly feel that the liveliness in the Shanhua Courtyard had decreased. In the past, the ladies from various courtyards often brought their children to play, or took him to eat some small snacks from the border or tributes from other countries. They would let their children play with Li Hao, trying to build close relationships from a young age.
But now, two months had passed, and only the eldest lady, Fifth Miss, and the young Ninth Miss had come to visit him. They just checked to see that he was fine and didn’t come back again.
However, he occasionally received fruits and pastries sent from the Changchun Courtyard. Now that winter had arrived, he also received two sets of short cotton pants and jackets made from the fur of wild beasts, along with a scarf. Li Hao hung the scarf around the little girl’s neck.
The next day, as dawn broke, Lin Haixia was already in the courtyard practicing swordplay with Bian Ruxue. Earlier, Lin Haixia had let the girl choose various weapons from the rack and practice with them to test her talent. In the end, Bian Ruxue chose the sword.
As they practiced, Lin Haixia discovered that Bian Ruxue indeed had a talent for the sword, so she taught her with care, sometimes being strict.
Around noon, Li Hao finally woke up lazily. He was still under six years old and didn’t have to follow the family rules, which meant he could enjoy sleeping in instead of going to the Changchun Courtyard to greet the elder lady every morning.
Seeing the little figure in the courtyard practicing diligently, Li Hao shook his head slightly, feeling a bit sorry for her. Then, with the help of his personal maid, he washed up, had breakfast, and then called for the two servants who knew how to play chess, asking them to set up a game in the pavilion.
Not long after, a game of chess ended, but Li Hao noticed that he didn’t receive any notification about gaining experience points, which surprised him.
Then he saw some text appear in front of him:
{Chess skill level three, requires a chess heart to continue improving.}
Chess heart?
Li Hao was puzzled. It seemed that the text sensed his confusion, as it gradually faded away and then reappeared with a line:
[To cultivate a chess heart, one must have only chess in their heart, and be deeply devoted to it.]
That was a clear explanation. Li Hao was a bit surprised that he could interact with this text.
Hello?
The text disappeared. Li Hao tried calling out a few more times but got no response. He didn’t think much of it and started pondering what it meant to be devoted to chess. Did he need to cultivate a chess heart before he could gain experience?
At the Divine General’s Mansion, Li Hao had heard of sword hearts, spear hearts, and the saying about having a sharp tongue but a soft heart. But he had never heard of a chess heart.
That made sense; chess was seen as a trivial pursuit in the Divine General’s Mansion, not something taken seriously.
However, a chess heart should be something similar to a sword heart, right? He had heard the ladies in the courtyard talk about a certain young man who practiced swordplay every day since childhood, even holding a sword while eating and sleeping, and how he made great progress in his sword training after cultivating a sword heart.
So, did that mean he needed to do the same to cultivate a chess heart?
But did Li Hao even like chess? In his past life, he knew a little bit, but just a little. Who really liked to play chess? Playing poker was much more fun. After a tiring day, who had the energy for such a brainy activity? Unless it was just for a change of pace.
Even if he had a panel that could improve his chess skills, Li Hao only saw it as a tool to gain experience points. It would be hard for him to truly love and be devoted to it.
Feeling a bit rebellious, Li Hao had the servants play another game with him.
And then he believed in it.
This left Li Hao feeling troubled, his little face scrunched up. Just as he was starting to taste the sweetness of cultivation, he was told he couldn’t gain experience from playing chess. How could that be? Did he really have to hold onto a chessboard every day?
But without experience, what was the point of holding onto it? Should he switch to practicing another skill for now? But he didn’t know what the chess heart would be useful for, so he decided to think about it later.
In the following days, Li Hao moved the chessboard to his bed, laying a blanket over it and using it as a pillow. During meals, he placed the chessboard beside him, treating it like a sacred object.
But this kind of formality didn’t seem to have any effect. Li Hao didn’t ask the servants to play chess with him anymore. Instead, he would watch the little girl practice swordplay or browse through various books in the Listening Rain Pavilion.
One day, while flipping through books in the Listening Rain Pavilion, Li Hao stumbled upon several pages of chess strategies, which surprised him.
The book recorded interesting stories about a famous figure from hundreds of years ago. This person had been humiliated as a youth, and when seeking revenge, his enemy unexpectedly chose to abandon martial arts for chess.
The great figure had said that when he came to take revenge, he would completely crush his opponent, leaving them in utter despair before killing them. But his opponent had already studied chess for many years.
They immediately challenged him to a chess match. The great figure suffered a crushing defeat, yet his opponent was stubborn and did not kill him on the spot.
However, he did kill the entire family of his enemy, sparing only the enemy, saying he would come back for them one day.
But in the end, he never managed to solve that chess game before he died.
After reading this, Li Hao couldn’t help but laugh.
It seemed that the enemy was very familiar with that great figure. Although he didn’t have the same talent in martial arts, he was clever enough to learn this trick to avoid being killed.
Suddenly, Li Hao found chess to be a bit interesting.
It was no wonder that even he, in this martial arts world, deeply felt that chess was just a form of entertainment with no real significance.
But now, that thought had slightly changed.
{Detected chess strategy ‘All Things,’ would you like to record it?}
Suddenly, text appeared before him.
Li Hao was surprised and suddenly remembered that the panel had a chess strategy catalog.
It was clear that he really wasn’t interested in chess, only seeing it as a tool to gain experience. In five years, he had never recorded any chess strategies.
Feeling a bit ashamed, Li Hao immediately chose yes.
Soon, a new entry named “All Things” appeared in the chess strategy catalog on his panel.
At the same time, there was a prompt indicating it could be embedded.
Li Hao was puzzled and tried to select embed.
At that moment, a line of text jumped out:
{Please select an embedding target: Body Path, Sword Path.}
Li Hao was surprised. What did that mean?
After thinking for a moment, he chose Body Path.
Having just started his cultivation and experienced the feeling of his strength increasing dramatically, he had a bit more anticipation for the Body Path.
[Embedding successful.]
At that moment, Li Hao suddenly felt a massive surge of information hit him.
This feeling was very familiar to him, and after a moment, he digested it. Looking at the back of his panel, he saw:
【Body Path: Level One (All Things)】
The fragmented information in his mind told him what had happened.
All Things: Places the target in the myriad phenomena of the world, making it impossible to perceive, capable of hiding all energy.
Li Hao slightly demonstrated it, and his aura immediately retracted. The surging power and energy within him seemed to shrink into countless pores and cells, making it impossible to be observed.
“Special property?”
Li Hao was shocked, not expecting the chess strategy to have such an effect, which was simply unbelievable.
With his level two chess skills, he could somewhat understand this strategy, which was a big maze with smaller mazes inside, filled with traps at every turn. No wonder that great figure could never solve it in his lifetime.
However, embedding this chess strategy into the Body Path actually brought about a similar property.
If he had chosen to embed it into the Sword Path, wouldn’t his sword skills then have some confusing effects, making it hard for others to see his true killing moves?
If combined with the gorgeous moves of the Tidal Sword Technique, it would probably be even more dazzling.
Li Hao glanced at his panel; the option to embed the All Things chess strategy had disappeared, meaning he could only choose one.
But this opened up a new world for him. So, chess strategies were the way to go!
If he could collect other types of chess strategies, wouldn’t that mean he could add various special buffs to his attacks?
Thinking of this, Li Hao became excited and began searching around the building.
However, the Listening Rain Pavilion was a holy place for martial artists, not for chess players. After spending several days there, Li Hao only found three chess strategies, one of which was even used as a bookend.
“Flying Segment,” “Hidden Bow,” and “Tiger Pressure.”
After obtaining these three chess strategies, Li Hao studied them and, based on their characteristics, embedded “Flying Segment” and “Hidden Bow” into the Sword Path.
“Tiger Pressure” was embedded into the Body Path.
Flying Segment: Attack range doubled, with long-distance strike capability.
Hidden Bow: Killing move hidden, kills in one step.
Tiger Pressure: Slight increase in strength, with intimidation.
These three chess strategies brought Li Hao a significant boost.
Unfortunately, even though the Divine General’s Mansion had everything, as a martial arts family, they didn’t have the habit of collecting chess strategies.
Li Hao returned to the courtyard and could only ask the servants to find chess strategies for him outside, but they all refused, not daring to help the young master stray further down the path of “not doing proper work.”
With no other choice, Li Hao had to offer a generous reward to entice them.
In the following days, besides waiting for chess strategies, Li Hao also began to slowly ponder over chess skills.
He removed the blanket from the chessboard at his bedside and put it back, also taking away the chessboard from the dining table. Occasionally, he would stroll around the courtyard or watch the little girl practice swordplay.
Perhaps because she had lost her parents at a young age and had been through hardships, the little girl was extremely hardworking, and under Lin Haixia’s guidance, her sword skills improved day by day.
“That’s not right; this move is wrong.”
One day, while teaching swordplay, Lin Haixia showed a strict side of a military officer. Even though she was very satisfied with Bian Ruxue’s talent for the sword, she still criticized her harshly whenever she made a mistake.
The little girl held back her tears, stubbornly practicing over and over again.
Li Hao watched helplessly, shaking his head. Although Uncle Lin was a good person, he might not be teaching according to the student’s needs.
A few harsh words, and the little girl’s sword moves were almost distorted.
At night, Li Hao watched the little girl practicing repeatedly in the courtyard and called her over.
“This posture is wrong; your arms need to be bent a bit. Yes, like that, don’t be too stiff in the waist…”
With no one around, Li Hao gave the little girl some extra guidance, showing her step by step.
Bian Ruxue wasn’t slow and indeed had a talent for the sword. Under Li Hao’s guidance, she quickly got her posture right and showed some sword elegance.
“Brother Hao, do you know swordplay too?” After practicing well, the little girl looked at Li Hao with excitement. “Then can we practice together tomorrow?”
“Don’t be ridiculous; I don’t want to wake up early.”
Li Hao was startled and quickly replied.
“If Uncle Lin knew you could swordplay, he would definitely be very happy,” Bian Ruxue said hopefully. Although she didn’t understand many things yet, she could see that the elders around seemed a bit disappointed in Li Hao.
This little girl was so diligent and hardworking; deep down, she felt a bit of pressure. Everyone said Brother Hao wasn’t capable, but she believed he was actually very smart.
“I can’t swordplay; don’t say that.” Li Hao quickly said, “Little girl, don’t repay kindness with malice and ruin my chance to sleep in. I might really cry.”
Bian Ruxue was confused. “But you clearly…”
“Go, go, sleep, sleep.” Li Hao rolled his eyes, sending the little girl away and reminding her not to talk nonsense.
The next day, in the courtyard, Lin Haixia watched Bian Ruxue swinging her sword and slowly widened her eyes.
(End of Chapter)