Book One Chapter 9: The Weiqi Grandmaster Who Reign the World of Assassin Tao Jinghua was the youngest person to have ever been granted the title “Airless Grandmaster” by all of those that knew her. Her teachers, which was a lot, all acknowledge that their experiences can’t be compared to her when it comes to things that she found interesting. Acting, singing, cooking, anything- if she found it interesting, she would use 100% plus 50% of her efforts to learn, knowledge, trains, practices, and use it as a killing technique. There was that one time that she went into the Entertainment industry to kill a “pervert” old man who has a lot of influences in the entertainment-industrial and the political world. She went in as a young orphan girl who came from a small village to the south of China. At first, Jinghua had made the plan to go in as a temp worker- but, a well-known male actor at that time saw how Jinghua acted one time and he pulled her into his circle so fast that everyone thought that she was his lover or daughter. Jinghua was only 12 years old then but she was pretty tall for girls her age- and very mature too. So, everyone thoughted that the male actor, Wei Xing, was a big pervert who was eying her- only to found out that the male actor was gay and was already married to his childhood friend- privately, of course. So, it was impossible that Jinghua was his kid, much less his lover. The drama that they were filming at that time was a Historical-Mixed Time Traveling-Modern time action drama full of drama, dog-eat-dog themes, love, sacrifices, and a lot of martial artists killing each other for an object called the Pearl of Pandora. One of the main characters was played by Wei Xing, going by the nickname A’Xie. Jinghua’s character was a character that was added to the list because of the Screenwriter’s new motivation. Once the producer, the screenwriter, and the sore sponsor see Jinghua, they agree to the add-on with no problem. They even paid her way more than they should. Yet, no one complained at all. Why? Because at that time, Jinghua had just come out from the Forest of Death with 50 other kids and her aura was... deadly. So, the role that she got was an Immortal-Cultivator Assassin who controlled the Realm of the Dead, only to die from over-eating poison, and reincarnated as the sister of the main character- Wei Xing’s A’Xie. That film was very interesting- because the creator actually researches proper materials before-hand. So, Jinghua was actually interested in acting in that film. Which was why- by the end of the first week- no one could tell that Jinghua has never actually acted before. It was to the point that the producers searched for her still even after she had completed her mission and killed that ‘old’ pervert. Using his own bad habit, of course. If even the director of the Top Five Films in the World couldn’t tell that Jinghua was acting, what chances would people of this world be able to tell? Null. None. Not even the being that was watching Jinghua notices that she was faking it. When Jinghua had fainted, the only thing that she left behind to show that she’s hurting was a drop of tears. In red. A pure drop of blood tears. Her face was totally expressionless but the drop of blood on her face caused everyone to pale rapidly. “Blood tear!” Mi Ling hissed out as he picked up Tao Jinghua softly and took her back into the house. Everyone rapidly followed behind her as their faces pale in worries. Anyone in this world knew that anything that has to do with blood essence was not a joke. For Tao Jinghua to cries tears of blood was the same as suicide in their mind. After all, they are only mortals, they aren’t immortal practitioners who could recover from things like losing their blood essence. Losing a drop of blood essence was pretty much the same as killing them for mortals. Unknowingly, when Tao Mi Ling moved Jinghua away, a drop of her blood essence from her tears dropped to the floor, causing the being that was watching her to twitch in a rare show of aggressiveness. Dark pitch-black animals of some kind appeared right where the drop of blood from Tao Jinghua was at. It sniffed at the drop of blood and tilted its head slightly to the side. “That girl... was a human girl, right? Why does her soul smell different?” The being asked softly with a voice like that of a small bird. It seems like a woman’s voice but it could also be a male. He licked the drop of blood from the floor and suddenly froze... His eyes were wide open and suddenly, his figure started to condense into an even smaller shape. Before it could even make a sound, it had already vanished from its spot. Back in the house, Jinghua was pale and unconscious- or so it seemed. Liu Ying was right beside her holding her hands and crying softly. Jinghua’s mother was also right beside her, and the room which she was in was already fully packed. Her sisters, brothers, stepmothers, and even the servants were peeping out from the door. Once her father explains to them why their little/big sister was in this state, they all solemnly sit in their chairs and clenches their hands together as if praying for her recovery. Every one of their intentions was with good will. Even the servants were all solemnly clenching their teeth as they worked. It was a miracle that they didn’t make a mistake while working when they are all worried about their 29th young lady. As each day passed by, the towns quiet down from the invasion of the beast and people started to repair what needs to be repaired, build what needs to be rebuilt, and before they knew it, Jinghua actually fell asleep for real. She didn’t know when she actually felt asleep for real when she was just faking it. But- she truly did fall asleep without noticing. When she noticed it, she was in a space filled with fog and pitch black trees. Trees that have left in the color of darkness, it’s trunks are black, everything is black all the way to the soil. Tao Jinghua looked around and noticed right away that this place was a dream landscape. ‘Weird, why does this place seem similar to my dreamscape before meeting him?’ Jinghua asked herself. “This ain’t your dreamscape, girl,” A young and yet annoyed voice called out from behind her. Jinghua nearly twitches when she hears that voice but because of the lack of presence and ill-intention, she didn’t back-knee the guy-because clearly it was a male- in the stomach. Or worse, his family jewel. “Who are you?” Jinghua asked. “... The Nether Realm’s 12 Wings Watcher, Ming Ming Ming.” ... Oi, what kind of name was that? Ming from Destiny, Rank, and Bright? {明命名}... This guys' name was very Ming... alright. And what is with the Nether Realm’s 12 Wings Watcher? “...” Jinghua didn’t answer the man, who looked like he just swallowed a lemon. Hmm? Don’t tell me... “Why are you here?” Jinghua asked with a glint in her eyes. An idea was already forming in her mind. “My soul got sealed in here because I licked your blood essence,” The man answered honestly before his eyes widened and he started to curse as he kicked the ground in irritation. A thick tick marked appeared on his forehead. ...Ah- I see. He can’t lie to me when I ask him a question. Still, where are we? “Where am I?” “My Soulscape,” “...” “...” Twenty minutes later, Jinghua had asked more than 50 questions which the man, who was now being nicknamed [MingMing], had to answer it all. He even has to explain things that he shouldn’t be explaining due to the nature of such a thing. MingMing looked so haggle and tired out but his mouth was speaking nonstop; as long as Jinghua asked him a question that he knew the answer to or had an inkling of, his mouth would automatically answer back. Secrets that he would take to his grave were literally given out without any hesitation whatsoever. By the time that he finished his answer, his awareness would catch up to him and he would once again start to curse. Turns out that Ming Ming was a large Nether Bird- or what this world would call the Nine Hell Nether Blazed Bird. He was the previous Emperor of Nether’s soul partner before they went their separate ways. However, as of now, he’s the servant of Jinghua... or Soul Puppet; since MingMing was just a soul now. He had died long ago, way before this continent was even created and established. Jinghua had MingMing draw out the map of this whole world to her and... to her surprise, it was very huge. Large and huge with multiple continents, layers, suns, and moons. The World of the Dragon’s Gate has three different realms. The Human Realm, the Nether Realm, and the Sacred Realm. In between the three realms, there were also two other hidden realms. The Soul Realms or the so-called Ghost and Spirits Realms, and the Devil Realms. In this human realm, aside from the Dragon Tails Continent, there’s still the Dragon Head Continent, Dragon Horn Continent, Dragon Ears Continent, Dragon Eyes Continent, Dragon Wings Continent, Dragon Toes Continent, and all kinds of Dragon anatomy Continents. Literally, this world itself was created from the body of an Ancient 9 Elemental Dragons that was older than Nine Million Years old. First, the world was created as a ball of chaos. Then, the Creator divided all the elements into their individual elements, and each element gave birth to billions of ancient creatures. The creatures then turned into what we today know as Mountain, Land, Sea, Lake, etc.etc. This Continent was called the Dragon Tails continent because it literally was formed from one the tails of the dragons. Histories hinted that underneath this continent, there’s another continent underneath due to the other tails of the Dragon. What? This whole continent was created from only ONE tail, okay? What happens to the other 98 tails that the Ancient Nine Elemental Dragon has? The Nether Realms was created from the Sentiments and bones of the Dragons- all of the feelings and emotions that it has- especially Wrath and Hatred- was used to create the Nether Realm. While the Sacred Realm was created from the Soul and Dreamscape of the Dragon. This was why humans believed that once you died, your soul would either go to Hell or Heaven. So far in history, there have been Five Historical Events that have shaped the world to what it is today. The First one was when this world was first created within this Dimension of this Reality. The Second one was when the Nether Realm, the Sacred Realm, and Human Realm first Separated billions of years ago. The Third Historical Event was when this Human Realm’s Dimension got its consciousness- meaning that the world itself has awakened to the power of Spiritual and Magic. The Dragon Tails Continent was one of the top 50 Continents in the Human Realm. Out of the known 99 Realms, the Dragon Tails Continent placed in the top 20 at rank 16. This was because this continent was literally the 16 piece of the whole body. Ming Ming was one of the Descendants of that Dragon- the 999 Lives Dragon- the Ancient Nine Elemental Dragon- who has lived for more than 9 Million Years before it was killed and refined into this world. As a matter of fact- he just happened to be the youngest great-grandson of that dragon. He has lived for 3 million years already and already has more than 10 children. So, when he died from overestimating himself, his soul was drawn to the Human world crack between the human world and the Spirit World. Of course, being a soul who had lived for this long, Mingming was strong enough to force his way into the human world without anyone noticing it. In other words, he was the reason why the Abyss Beast came to the human world earlier than usual. They were looking for him. Well, for his soul, to be more specific. After all, in their world, the Abyss Beast was nothing more than ants. Whenever some beings with the Royal Family bloodline passed away, the ones that suffered the most are those Abyss Beast since they feed on the spiritual qi from the Royal Family bloodline. With one of the Dragon Royal Family Bloodline dying, and his soul nowhere to be found, you can say that this was literally an existence crisis for them. The Abyss Beasts don’t have a choice but to come to the Mortal Realm to search for his soul. And yet, the so-called soul that they are searching desperately for was now the servant of a human girl who wasn’t even a practitioner. Yeah- talk about ironic or fuck-over. Ever. MingMing was so depressed that he had no control over himself. He literally was a puppet now. Any wills that he had were easily collapsible when Jinghua opened her mouth. He can’t even have any intention of harming hers- much less act on it. In other words, he was totally a puppet. He can joke and threaten her all he wants but once he actually has any ill intention toward this human girl, his very soul feels like it has been cut into billions of pieces and each piece was going through fires quenching. He felt like he was being cooked alive from the deep of his soul. So, whatever it was that he does, Jinghua would always know right away. This dreamscape that they are currently in was MingMing's dreamscape. However, after about 10 minutes of questioning MingMing, the dreamscape changed from a foggy cemetery into a paradise of heaven. With each question that was asked, something would change within the dreamscape. The surrounding area 100 km around them has already changed into something else. The pitch black earth stays the same but there was a feeling of ... something else within it. The trees have already changed from barrenly looking into the large forest looking kind of trees. The leaves on the trees were so thick that it was more like a stack of leaves instead of just one individual leaf. A large pond of Red and Purple Lotus was formed from the middle of nowhere. As suddenly as the pond was formed, a very tall- 49 level- pagoda was suddenly revealed surfacing from the pond, causing waves of waters to surge up. Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, black, white, and all sorts of trees- crystal trees- started to grow surrounding the 49 Level Pagoda. Just the 49 level pagoda itself was large enough to house a whole mid-size town. Flowers that Jinghua has never seen before started to appear and animals that are straight out of fairy tales and fantasy started to appear one after another on those crystals trees. A pair of foxes with 12 tails, three blue eyes, and two horns appeared next to the pagoda. They look straight at Jinghua and bow in servitude. A couple fish-like-mermaid creatures with two tails and four large horns that glows appeared from the lotus pond. They took one look at Jinghua and it bowed low in servitude. A horse- no, that’s a unicorn, isn’t it- although, it looks completely different from what a fantasy unicorn should look like. Hmm? Don’t tell me that’s a Qilin. Well- It might be a Qilin rather than a unicorn; three long flame tails, four longhorns, and its body was completely white. Everything- except for the eyes which were pure purple- was white. The horn was not straight- no, it was like a tree branch as it breaches out from the base of the horn and outward, wistfully. Truthfully, the horns look like thunder... Ah- don’t tell me, this is ... A Thunder Qilin? A large turtle- what the fuck?! Jinghua’s eyes started to twitch once the shape of the turtle came out- a large gigantic turtle beast that has three horns on its heads- yes- HEADS- it has three HEADS, each. The shapes of the shield were greenish blue- Azure colour and it looks like it was made or created out of gems or some kind of green metals. Hell, Jinghua even doubts that it might actually be some kind of green metal. It was about 1500 meters tall and could have weighed more than 60,000,000 tons easily! It could host a whole fucking damn kingdom on its back with no problem! The damn beast took one look at Jinghua and it... started crying... literally. “Mama~!” It whines tearfully as its hands' shields over its three pairs of eyes... What the hell, Jinghua just noticed that it has more than just a pair of hands... If both MingMing and Jinghua jump in fright when that voice enters their minds then no-one can call them weakling. Such a huge beast but what a cry-baby... If that wasn’t enough, more and more even gigantic-er beasts started to appear. ... What the hell? Jinghua’s head started to hurt because some of these beasts that came out of the Lotus Pond looked like it came straight out from “Toriko’s World”; just with a twist of gaming elements and a lot of radiation coloring. Although, some look like they are suffering from a very long time of illness and malnourishment. Jinghua can feel something deep within her twist uncomfortably when she sees the near-dead appearance of those wane looking beasts. Without caring whatsoever, she started to walk toward one of those wane looking beasts. For some reason, she knew that she would be safe in this world- or dimension or whatever this place is- because clearly, this wasn’t MingMing’s Dreamscape anymore. When she got to a horse creature that looks like it got its spot from a leopard, the creature’s eyes widened in surprise, happiness, delightfulness, and something else in its soul appeared within its eyes. The horse-like creature’s eyes started to shine like it wanted to cry but its pride and personality stopped it. Still, it lowers its head toward Jinghua happily. Jinghua’s hand automatically went to pet the horse creature and suddenly, she knew what this creature was. A Dark Phantom Fire Horse from the bloodline of the Heracles Phantom Beast. This child was an immortal beast. Born from the bloodline of a Heaven Spear Qilin and the Dragon that this World was created from. This Immortal Qilin has the ability of his father and mother- making it possible for him to stay alive anywhere possible- even in an empty space. Suddenly, a memory appeared from the deep of Jinghua’s soul. It was the memory and understanding of how she met this Immortal Qilin. Its name was Hong Fenglong; Rainbow Phoenix Dragon- a very mighty name. This was the name that Jinghua gave him. However, it has been a very long time already since they last saw each other. Jinghua doesn’t know how that was possible but it seems like her previous life before she was Tao Jinghua, she was some kind of Goddess or something higher than that... And this baby Dark Phantom Fire Horse was one of her pets. Her head hurt.... From the memories and from something else. Sweats started to appear on her forehead as her whole body started to gleam with something. “Master!” Hong Fenglong’s voice was that of a young boy, but its majesty was not lost. “Mama!” The gigantic turtle from before, whose name was Gui LingYing- with the meaning of Tortoise Spirit Baby- cried out loud as he attempted to come over. But, whatever he did, it wasn’t possible. Something divine and unearthly was keeping him in place above the lotus pond water. All of the other beasts also started to tense aggressively as they started to fight against whatever it was that was forcing them in place. “I’m fine, stop moving. You guys are starting to hurt my head even more.” Jinghua said as MingMing helped her up. Hong Fenglong poke out his tongue- which he had condensed it into spirit form so that its clean of saliva- and licked Jinghua’s forehead and sweat off. All of the beasts stop their aggressiveness as they breathe out in relief once they see that their master was safe and unharmed. Their breath of relief causes more than tens of storms and tornadoes to form within the space of the dreamscape. Oddly enough, the dreamscape space was only getting larger and larger. So, even if all of those beasts started to come out of the lotus pond, Jinghua still didn’t know how that was possible or what that pond was called, it wasn’t crowded at all. Just slightly overwhelming. Very Overwhelming Large. “Master, your heads are starting to hurt because your human body cannot hold on to the large amounts of memories that are starting to awake from your soul due to the Pearl World Gem. You will have to wake up in the real world soon or you will really die,” Hong Fenglong’s voice was filled with reluctance but there was also determination within too. Jinghua’s eyebrows twitch as she messages her forehead in pain. She nodded her head as she started to breathe out in a pattern. Her headaches started to lessen slightly but for some reason, her normal breathing technique wasn’t working really well. “Master... Please hold on for a second.” Hong Fenglong turned into one of the large beasts, a gigantic Firebirds creature that was not one bit less mystic compared to a phoenix, called Tian Feifei. The Firebird in purple fires blaze, Tian Feifei, looking at Jinghua with a tendered mothering look in her eyes. Her glanze was deep and mysterious but it was kind and sincere. One of her feathers started to shine as it separated from her forehead. It flew toward Jinghua and landed on her hand. Jinghua took one look at the shining yellow feather and a name popped up on her mind; Thunderbirds Lightning Feather! How in the world did she know this name, she doesn’t know nor does she care. Without hesitation, she places the feather on her forehead. The feather shines brightly for a split second before it vanishes. Jinghua’s body starts to turn transparent and then vanishes from the spot, leaving behind a bunch of large and in various sizes of beasts and MingMing. Once Jinghua was gone, all of the beasts turned to stare down on MingMing. Their stares aren’t kind. Some were with intense jealousy while others were with killing intentions. They were jealous that MingMing was able to transform to his human body and stay with their masters while others just don’t like the Nether being due to their natural disposition. For someone of MingMing’s age and bloodline, such stares shouldn’t even bother him but none of the beast in that space was normal. MingMing might be a Godly beast with the bloodline of the Strongest Dragon ever to exist but all of the beasts that are currently facing him weren’t normal either. Just one of them was strong enough to destroy a planet by itself. Comparing MingMing’s bloodline to these beasts and MingMing wasn’t even a competitor for them. “A Dragon bloodline phantom beast, huh. Master did it again,” the firebird Tian Feifei said with a nonchalant smile on her fiery- birdy face. “Why are you surprised, Feifei? If a master could even tame you, a Chaos Blazed Origin Phoenix, who has lived for more than 90 Million years, with nothing but a look, what makes you think that she couldn’t tame a mere youngster like this boy?” An older male voice said from the left. It was from a large pitch black snake with golden horns and pure white wings. “I’m not surprised, Maoyi. I just don’t think that there’s actually someone stupid enough to licked Master’s blood without thinking.” Tian Feifei answered back. MingMing started to twitch in aggression. He has never been the receiving end of a mockery before. He is a Nether beast who has more than enough power to destroy a continent and yet- he couldn’t even make a sound when faced with the nonchalant face of the firebird and large black snake in front of him. The bird was easily a hundred times larger than himself and he could feel the dense bloodline in her feather when it came close to his new master. MingMing was totally frozen in fear so he didn’t take a good look at the bloodline's spiritual makeup but he knew for sure that this bird was easily 10 times stronger than him. Just what was with these beasts that suddenly showed up in his dreamscape! Master should be the only one able to come to this place!!! “Idiot. You licked Master’s Essence Blood without thinking so your soul was bound to hers as a servant but we’re her tame beasts! If she can come to your dreamscape and force it into her dreamscape, what makes you think that it wasn’t possible for us to come here too when we’re far stronger than you?” The cry-baby tortoise sneered at MingMing as he turned away with dismay. “Lingying, don’t take out your anger on the poor soul. He doesn’t know master, nor has he ever met anyone like master before. This Dragon Dimension was only a grade B-Dimension, don’t expect too much from him.” A new voice called back with equal power. “Feihua... You said that but you had already secretly poisoned the idiot, didn’t you?” Tian Feifei asked with a sweat drop on her face. MingMing watches as a flower demon spirit appears from behind the large spider. MingMing started to twitch in fear as his expression paled. Why is his fate so poor! While the beasts are arguing and teasing/testing the poor nether bird, outside in the real world, Jinghua wakes up to the face of a pale teenage girl, who was sleeping with her hands on her chin as she sleeps. Ying’er? “Arg, hurts..” Jinghua hissed as a big migraine headache hit her straight to the mind. “Hm? Hua’er! You’re awake!” Liu Ying called out excitedly as she stood up so fast that she nearly fainted from blood rush to the head. “Ying’er? Where am I?” Jinghua asked the older teenage girl. “You’re in your room. It has been 5 days since you went into a coma, already. I was so worried that you would leave me behind too!” Liu Ying started to cry as she hugged Tao Jinghua. So, it was already five days since I fell asleep for real... If they knew that I was just asleep, they would be so mad. But before that, my stomach needs food. “Jing’er... I’m hungry.” Jinghua didn’t wait for the older girl to stop crying as she asked for food. Liu Ying was so happy that Jinghua felt like eating. She literally vanished from her spot using martial arts movement and reappeared at the door to call for a maid. Ten minutes later, the maid brought in a pot of rice porridge with some herbal leaves. Jinghua had to control her muscles to shake slightly as she held on the spoon, causing Liu Ying’s eyes to redden. “Hua’er, you have to live on for a long time. Now that the Tang Family is gone, I don’t have anyone else to rely on. You can’t leave me behind, okay?” Liu Ying was crying as she said this. It has already been 2 years since she knew Tang Beifeng; they were schoolmates that went to the same Reading and Writing school in Xicheng Town here. It was her who fell for Beifeng first even though she knew that he already had a fiance. At first, she hated Tao Jinghua for being so lucky but once she met the younger girl, she knew right away that her feelings were only due to petty jealousy. The younger girl was not a petty person who would jealousy control Tang Beifeng like every other woman did to her husband. Even though, in this Kingdom, having more than one wife and or husband at a time was normal, people’s hearts were still very narrow and small. The internal fighting within a family might not be much- if at all- but the emotional stress that each member went through was still not little. Scheming against each other might be very limited toward certain things in the household but they are scheming against each other nonetheless. When their husband wants to marry another woman into the house, the Main Wife’s permission is a must. This has caused countless amounts of grief and broken hearts within a lot of families. Afterall, no women would like to see their husband holding someone else in his arms that was not them. Liu Ying had the same thoughts; until she met Tao Jinghua. The girl was only 13 years old but she has the deposition of a well experienced older woman. Tao Jinghua took a long look at her and told Tang Beifeng that if he doesn’t marry her within a month then she won’t talk to him ever again. You have to know- this was the first meeting that Liu Ying met Tao Jinghua face to face- and it wasn’t as someone close to Tang Beifeng. Rather, she was there as his classmate along with countless other people who wanted to meet Tang Beifeng’s first wife. At that point, Tao Jinghua had already known that she had liked her soon-to-be-husband, and yet not only did she not take ill intention into her heart, she also ‘demanded’ Tang Beifeng to marry her. Liu Ying was so shocked at Tao Jinghua’s words that she was literally frozen in her place for a couple minutes. She didn't know what happened while she was frozen in surprise but later on, one of her classmates told her that Tang Beifeng literally kneel down and beg Tao Jinghua to retract her words because he only wanted her as his wife. According to that classmate’s words, Tao Jinghua had said that she was still too young to marry into the Tang House, during that time that Tang Beifeng used to waste waiting for her to grow up, he could have married one or two concubines to help out the house already. Tao Jinghua wanted a household full of happiness and a lot of sons and daughters to dote on like her own family. She had even said that she was already looking forward to spoiling the first kids that Tang Beifeng will ever have- whether or not it was hers. Tang Beifeng knew that Tao Jinghua likes kids. So, he agreed to marry Liu Ying. After all, it wasn’t like Tang Beifeng hated Liu Ying. After marrying into the Tang house, she knew exactly why Tao Jinghua wanted her to marry him and help out the house. The Tang Family has a couple restaurants in this town and they are a pretty large family. But- they lack more women around the house. The financial within the house was in the control of Tang Beifeng’s mother, the Main Wife of the current Head of the house. But- that woman didn’t have much time to help out in other areas because all her time was being used in keeping their Financial Book in the green. So, with the addition of Liu Ying, it made everything easier in the household. However, it still wasn’t enough because Tang Beifeng’s stepmothers were all pregnant that year too. As a result, the Tang Household hired another batch of maids. One of the maids was Tang Beifeng's third wife. Guang Meimei, an older woman who had married once already but her husband was killed by a wild beast. Mei’er had only been married to Tang Beifeng not even three months ago; and now, she’s dead, too. Liu Ying’s family had already gone a couple of years back when the 10 Years Beast Horde occurred. Now, she only has Tao Jinghua left as a fellow wife-fiancee to the same man. If Jinghua dies too, then there’s no reason for Liu Ying to live anymore. “...” Jinghua stopped eating as she watched the crying girls. This girl has a pure heart and intentions. Her aura was very pure and if not for her mentality, she’s very suited to practice in one of those Pure In Heart manuals for refining qi. Only, this girl was far too naive, she doesn’t suit the world of the immortal practitioners where they fight against resources and against heaven. “I won’t. Bei’er won’t like it if I don’t live on,” Drops of tears trail down Jinghua’s cheeks but her voice was steady and calm. Seeing the calm look on Jinghua’s body language, Liu Ying only cries louder. Half an hour later, Jinghua met with everyone from the family and decided to change her last name to be Tang Jinghua for 3 years as a sign/symbol that she’s already a wife to someone else. Since the whole Tang family was gone already, the elder from the Tao Family was against her changing her name, no matter how temporary it was. Even Liu Ying was against it but Tao Jinghua was not listening to them. It was only for three years but the responsibility and burden that comes with the Tang Family last name was not small. A public government agent has to be there to witness the ceremony and have to approve her decision. As a result, everyone in the Xichang Town knew that the Tao Family 29th Daughter was taking on such a huge burden so very young. Not only that- she was only a Fiance! Not a full wife yet! Maybe it was because everyone in the town knew that the Tao Family’s daughters were all very sincere in their actions, everyone was willing to help out. The Restaurants in the town bloomed so fast that Jinghua had to hire more than 10 batches of workers and maids. Not only that, she trains them herself, each of them manners fit for royalty, teaching the cooks how to cook to her taste- which admittedly was the reason why the restaurants all got famous. Within a mere year, everyone in town knew that this girl was pushing herself over her own limits due to heartache. They can’t stop her but at least, they can try to make her life easier. As a result, Jinghua was pretty much free a lot of times. All that she had to do was do her weekly routine of checking the Financial Booklet, pay the workers and maid, continue training the cooks, make new menu for special occasions, and make her quota of the porcelain bottles that the Tao family assign. All in all, her life was very carefree in her opinion- not knowing that everyone in Town has already given the opinion that she’s a heartbroken girl who used work to compensate for her sadness. The first year of taking the Tang Family name was the busiest time for Jinghua. However, once every town has a taste of Jinghua’s skills, they can’t eat what they usually eat anymore. As a result, a lot of the other restaurants in town were closed down or turned into something else. Shops such as game shops started to appear in Xichang town. Why? Because of Jinghua. She introduces them to the so called RPG Card games, Chess, poker, go/weiqi, mahjong, dominoes, shogi, monopoly, scrabble words, crossword games, table ping pong, and all sorts of games. There will be tournaments that give out Coupons for free foods and money to whoever wins it; so, everyone in town was very competitive. Why? Because it was that good. The game that was the most famous was weiqi- which was already a known game in this world, Jinghua just made it even more fun to play. Only- the difference between the weiqi that this world has and the one that Jinghua introduced them to play was that there’s an additional color stone. The Purple Stone. In normal weiqi, or go games, there’s only black and white stone available. However, with the addition of the purple stone, the games got even harder and harder. A game between two beginners would go from 90 minutes to 240 minutes, easily. This was because the board game that was called Weiqi was changed into something else. It was no longer a two player game. It was a three Player Games; Black, White, and Purple. Each playing time was no longer 10 minutes but rather, 20 minutes. The traditional board of 19X19 turns into 49X49 lines. Before anyone knew it, Purple Weiqi became the game of the weiqi game that everyone in Xichang Town plays. Even 3 years old kids. As a result, within only three years, kids who have mid-level strategy, tactics, and observation skills were abundant in Xichang town. This creates a natural cycle of training for everyone in town. Kids are more calmer, smarter, more diligent, more determined, and they learn how to be patient. Nearly everyone knew what it meant to be persistent in learning the game. Before Jinghua knew it, three years had already passed by. Jinghua changed her last name back to Tao and held a Grand Tournament for all mortal and immortal practitioners alike. The top 2 will get 5 Low Grade Jingshi, 200 Free Diner Token or coupon, and get to play against her. When news of this tournament came out, everyone in town was shocked and excited. 5 Low Grade Jingshi! 5 Low Grade Jingshi! That was 500 Gold Coins! If that wasn’t enough, the free Diner token was enough to cost countless people to drool over it. Especially the kids in this town. Nearly everyone started to prepare for the incoming Grand Tournament. Jinghua didn’t know that due to her action of putting out 5 Low Grade Jingshi as a prize, a lot of immortal practitioners also think of coming to join in the fun too. In Xichang town, all of the inns are booked full, private houses were being rented left and right, creating a business blooming period and causing countless people to join in the fun. In the middle of Xichang town was the First and Main Tang Family Restaurant that Jinghua had created. The Restaurant was called [Pavillion of Dance]. The Pavillion of Dance was where Jinghua cooked at the majority of the time. It has 10 floors, capable of holding up to 900 customers. In the surrounding of the restaurant, there were countless chairs and tables out in the open with shaded [large umbrellas] over the customer’s head. In the back of the restaurant, a large open space was created to look like a football field. Wooden benches were surrounding a 9 by 9 roll of tables for the weiqi participant games. Each table has four chairs, a large wooden board, and three large bowls of stones created from who knows what. The wood board itself was lined up with 49 by 49 black lines. On the side was the label; North, South, East, and West. Aside from the listed item above, there was also a large sheet of paper that was labelled with “Purple Weiqi Kifu”. When the news of the weiqi tournament made it to one of the large sects near Xichang town, one of the elders there came by to watch the show. His name was Wang Chen. He loves to play weiqi but he has no opponent within his sect anymore. So, when the news of such a tournament made it to his ears, his interest was poke at. As a result, he volunteered to watch over the tournament for any cheater. However, Wang Chen didn’t know that this whole town was used to playing Purple Weiqi now. Not only that, they are used to playing against two people in the same board game. When Wang Chen first saw the scene of three people playing against each other, he was shocked. So, he wanted to join in the tournament too. However, he can’t. Why? Because of the age limit. This tournament was called the Young Early Bird Tournament. Meaning that Jinghua places a restriction on who can play. First, the participants have to be younger than 30 years old for mortal and less than 100 years old for immortal practitioners. Second, they must be at least a yellow belt player. That’s right, the Purple Weiqi game has a rank too. Like how rank in Go was; there’s a Dan rank for professional and Kyu rank for amateur players. In this case, The Kyu rank has 9 Tiers under it; Tier 1-3 was Red Belt, 4-6 was Blue Belt, and 7-9 was Green Belt. For Dan Rank, There are 12 Tier under; Red, Red Orange, Orange, Yellow, Yellow Green, Green, Sky Blue, Blue, Violet, White, Brown, and Black. From lowest to highest. You will have to be a yellow tier or higher to join this tournament. Third rule; a fee of 3 Silver Coins. All of these rules have to be met to participate in this tournament. Wang Chen has never joined the mini-tournament in this town before. So, his rank and tier was not determined, which made it impossible for him to participate in this tournament. As a result, he sulked for a couple minutes before he brightened up and watched the other players play with interest. In this Tournament; there are 6 groups of players. Lilac Flower Group; where all the females are. Metal Rose Group; Where all the kids who are at least a yellow tier rank are. Three Pine Tree groups; randomized players based on rank. Fish Soup Group: Where all the elderly men who have already known each other for a while now play. Orchid Flower Group; where outsiders from other towns and cities are. And lastly, Fruits and Wine Group; for immortal practitioners. Each group has 81 players. 3 players to each table, for the nine tables. The schedule for this tournament was for three days from 9am in the morning to 9pm at night. Each table has 3 hours per game. Overtime is limited to only 45 minutes per game. In total, you have 3 hours and 45 minutes to bring your games to a close. There is a game in the morning and one in the afternoon, a couple hours after lunch. This was to give the people sometimes to think of strategies and tactics and to rest the player’s mind. As Wang Chan continued to watch the players play their game, he noticed right away that the people who were native to Xichang town were far better at these three player games of weiqi than even the immortal cultivator. However, this didn’t last long either as cultivators started to get used to playing against two players at a time. Due to the size of the board and the extra color stone, this weiqi game was even harder than ever before. All of the people who came from outside notice right away that playing this three colored weiqi game was very mentally draining and a good way to train their mind. As a result, the atmosphere surrounding the players from outside changed consistently. At the beginning, for people who have never played the three color weiqi, or the Purple Weiqi, the game was a total mess. Nothing seems to make any sense for them. However, soon enough, they started to get used to pushing their minds to the limit to understand each move of the game. As a result, countless people who came to watch the tournament were turned into fans of the game. Some was even hardcore fan and those players that are stronger had already started to get their own fan-club. Within the crowd of watchers, there was an old man named Guang Yi. He was an old scholar from one of the government agencies in this town. He was also the one that witnessed the change of Tao Jinghua accepting the Tang Last name for three years. Guang Yi has been one of the governments in this town for 10 years already. But- this was the first time that he had seen his town prosper this much. He was very grateful toward the Tao girl. However, he was also worried about the immortal practitioners that are showing up in this small town. If there’s a fight here due to the tournament, then this town will be destroyed! He was both glad and worried at the same time. Lucky for Guang Yi’s mind, there was no fighting at all. All fights are fights within the board game. Jinghua was watching the games progress from each table as she walked around. There was a reason why she created this grand tournament after all. In fact, this three color weiqi game wasn’t even a three color weiqi game. In truthfulness, it is a four colour weiqi game. Aside from the new color of purple stone, there was supposed to be another one; the gold stone. Due to the size of the board, 49x49 grids, each player was supposed to have 800 stones in their bowl if this game was a three player game. However, in those stone bowls, there were only 600 stones each. It was missing 200 stones. This was because the size of this board was created for a 4-player game, with each player having 600 Stones of each color; Black, White, Purple, and Gold. However, this world has never played or heard of such a game before. They only knew of the traditional Black and White Weiqi game on the 19x19 board grids. As a result, Tao Jinghua had to make due with only the Three Colored Weiqi for now. Once the people of this world are strong enough, the Gold color will be added as a Special Style. Back on Earth, the game Weiqi/go/baduk has already evolved into a 4 player-board game. It was no longer a two-player game. However, in this world, weiqi was still just the traditional weiqi. Jinghua was used to fighting against three people when playing weiqi. So, now that she’s here in this world, she would like to play with three other people too. Which was why she created this game in this town and even made it into a Profession. What? Jinghua was bored, okay? Ever since she met the beasts within that dreamscape, her mind and mentality strength has increased so much that playing the traditional weiqi game became far too easy. It wasn’t fun anymore. Yes, she could have played against the beasts in that dreamscape but for some odd reason- they always ended up losing badly that they refused to play with her anymore. As a result, Jinghua created this situation and introduced the third color stone to the board game. Of course, this was not without trouble; a lot of people were against it because it is not traditional. However, once she introduced this kind of game not as a new game but rather a Style- it got people interested in it fast. That was because in Xichang Town; Weiqi Rank player was a Profession. You got paid to play. Of course, if you lose then you get to pay a small price but if you win, then you get 3 times as much as you pay. For Kyu rank players; those that are still under a belt, they have to pay 5 copper coins to 1 lead coin to use the salon within this town to play. However, if they win, then depending on how much they pay, the payback was three times that. In a day, some people made from 3 lead coins to 4 lead coins easily. This made it easier for the citizens in this town to make a living. As a result, the three colored weiqi spread fast and were very aggressive into the minds of everyone. Even the maids in the Tao Family know how to play now. Even her sisters and brothers love it. Three days later, two players were crowned as the winner of the tournament; Li Guan and Wu Xi. Li Guan was an elder from the Fish Soup Group and Wu Xi was from the Fruits and Wine Group, he's an immortal practitioner. The person after those two was another cultivator by the name of Bei Liyi. In the game that they had played on the third day of the tournament, Bei Liyi was very aggressive but he wasn’t careful so Wu Xi sprung a lot of traps on his White Stone. While Wu Xi spread traps for the other cultivator, old man Li Guan was securing his territory. As a result, Li Guan won by 3 komi due to secured territory. After the ceremony of giving Li Guan and Wu Xi their prize, both of them choose to play against Jinghua.... Only to get their ass kicked so badly that they couldn’t even think of a way to come back. After all, Jinghua was already a Grandmaster Weiqi player ever since she was 15 years old. She played against countless people in the 25th Century who were also in a similar position to hers. There’s no way that she would lose to people who have only started to play not even two years ago. MingMing laughed out loud in Jinghua’s mind as he saw the faces of the two winners. Hah! There’s always a Mountain higher than the one you are standing on! Jinghua continued to congratulate the two winners and told them to continue working hard for the next Grand Tournament, which was in another 5 years. She left the tournament behind for the maids and servant to clean up. Today was the last day of the tournament so it would still take some time for news of the three coloured weiqi to hit even more people. Jinghua was already making plans on creating more events for gathering weiqi players. The more players know about the Three Player weiqi game, the better. Especially for high class citizens in this world, if they ever learn how to play the Three Colored Weiqi games, then well- there’s a reason why they are the high class and the commoner are the commoner. What Jinghua didn’t know was that due to this action of hers, she will have to leave this town behind soon. The inns were still fully packed as people discussed the games that were played. They didn’t stop even until midnight. Currently, she doesn’t know that such a thing will happen. She was living in the Tang Resident now- which has already changed into her name with her as the sore owner. Although the resident was the Tang Family’s resident, right now, it belongs to Jinghua completely. However, the courtyard house was really too big and not modern enough. So, Jinghua has been slowly changing it into a more modern looking courtyard house. She sat down on the chair in her room as she took out a pile of kifu papers that the game administrators she had assigned had recorded. Jinghua also took out some blank kifu sheets. In the blink of an eye, a dark red weiqi board appeared from nowhere. Four large bowls of stones were placed next to Jinghua. She took the first game record from the tournament and started to replay them; only, she put herself into the game and played it like she was playing against those three players on the kifu as she recreated the game. Soon enough, a large and complex game of Black, White, Purple and Gold Stone was weavened on the board. Two hours later, Jinghua placed her last stone and watched as the whole game collapsed. Black stone’s territory was reduced by 1/3 of its amount. White’s stone was trapped within a maze of trickery and tactics. Purple’s stone was blocked off completely with no path to take. Counting the score; Gold stone won by 35 Komi. Jinghua recorded her wins into a new kifu paper. As the night progressed, more and more new kifu games started to appear within Jinghua’s room as she continued to review more and more games. Before Jinghua noticed it, the morning sun had already risen above the horizon. In a location long away from Xichang town, a court order was being given. Soon enough, 7 soldiers and two official governors left the wall of the city and went toward the south. Their destination? Xichang Town!