Chapter 173: The World of a Chess Board
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Come, let me introduce to you my unskilled disciples."
While Lin Feng appeared sincere superficially, he was brimming with glee inside. Despite calling his disciples 'unskilled', any single one of them would stun Kang Nanhua and Yue Hongyan beyond belief with their skills.
Eh, maybe all except Wang Lin, who had yet to reach his full potential. However, his understanding of spells and abhjina was definitely above average.
Initially, he wished to show off his disciples. Who knew that he could only sense Zhu Yi and Wang Lin now?
Xiao Yan and Xiao Budian were completely silent as if they had disappeared.
"Zhu Yi, what is this? Where are Xiao Yan and Xiao Budian?" Lin Feng arched his brows, as he threw his voice using mana to Zhu Yi.
Immediately, he heard Zhu Yi's panicky voice. "Master, you come at the right time. When Litte Junior went to play with the treasure tree, there was an old man playing chess alone underneath it. He got sucked into the old man's chessboard!"
"Big Senior wanted to save him, but he himself too was sucked into the chessboard. Third Junior and I wanted to save them, but we dared not make a wrong move."
Lin Feng's heart thumped rapidly, as he almost forgot about entertaining Kang Nanhua and company. He wanted to see if Xiao Yan and Xiao Budian were alright.
"Calm down, calm down!" Lin Feng took a few deep breaths as he controlled his thoughts. He threw his voice to Zhu Yi, "I will be there shortly, don't panic, don't do anything. Stay there and wait for me."
"I'm sorry that you had to see that," Lin Feng turned his head to look at Kang Nanhua and Yue Hongyan. Smiling, he said, "Kids are not yet fully mature in thought, and hence they like to play pranks. Sometimes, these pranks will occasionally get themselves into accidents. Let me go and take a look."
Kang Nanhua and Yue Hongyan exchanged a glance and nodded. They indicated that they would stay outside and look after the other kids.
Lin Feng smiled and nodded, as he flew slowly into the sky and entered the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World above the Black Heavenly Treasure Tree.
Once Kang Nanhua and the rest had disappeared from view, he changed his demeanor immediately. Throughout the journey to the location of the smaller treasure tree, he was so anxious he felt as if his heart was on fire.
The young lady carrying a sword was still circling the treasure tree round and round.
Lucky the baby could be heard wailing. As he could not find Xiao Yan, he was rolling on the ground, throwing a tantrum.
Zhu Yi and Wang Lin were too panicky to focus on him, and hence they stood next to the old chess player. Upon seeing Lin Feng, they bowed and said, "We humbly greet our master."
Lin Feng waved his hand and came before the old chess player. The old man was dressed extremely shabbily, his hair was messy like a chicken's nest and his clothes were old and torn. He was sitting and playing chess alone.
"What did Tianhao do to get sucked into the chess board?" Lin Feng turned his head to ask.
Wang Lin answered, "Little Junior wanted to take a chess piece from the chess board. Immediately, his entire body shrunk and flew into the chess board. Big Senior wanted to hold onto him, but who knew that once he touched Litte Junior's hand he too shrunk and flew together with Little Junior into the chess board."
"When they landed on the chess board, they had disappeared completely."
Zhu Yi added, "I tried to communicate with them by breaking the Voice-Projecting Crystal, but to no avail."
Lin Feng looked at the old chess player, and he made some calculations in his heart. He then nodded, and said, "Don't worry. The two of you stay here. I'll bring them out."
After saying that, he casually lifted a chess piece from the board.
The moment the chess piece left the chess board, an odd wave of energy appeared. Lin Feng felt as if a whirlpool had appeared before him, and it was trying its best to suck him into it.
Lin Feng did not resist, and he allowed himself to enter the whirlpool.
"Just as I predicted, within the chess board is an independent alternate dimension."
After the sight before him returned to normal, Lin Feng landed on solid ground. Before his eyes was a world composed entirely of neatly-divided black and white.
The ground beneath his feet was white like an endless expanse of snow. On the other hand, the sky above him was completely black, but it did not affect him from seeing clearly. The horizon in the distance the line that separated the black from the white.
Lin Feng walked forward, and as he walked he thought, "Where did the two idiots go?"
As he walked, he suddenly felt as if the black and white world was turning increasingly impure in their separation. Shades of gray began to appear.
In that instant, a weird energy harassed his sense and induced a drowsy sensation in him.
Lin Feng felt a sense of dread creeping up on him, as he began to use his mana to resist the onslaught of this weird energy. However, the effects were not evident as his brain became increasingly muddled him, increasingly sleepier.
" Fences of Heaven," Lin Feng arched his eyebrows and brought his hand down in a chop. With this, he split the space between him and the weird energy, allowing himself some reprieve from it.
However, Lin Feng knew that once his Fences of Heaven was gone, the weird energy would be back.
In his mind, he was beginning to understand. Only those cultivators who were in their Nascent Soul stage could enter, as the only way to prevent oneself from falling prey to the weird energy was to continually separate the space between oneself and the dimension.
Had Lin Feng not cultivated the Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams and realized the dangers of this dimension earlier, he too would have fallen into a deep sleep here.
"Unfortunately, this could only be the unintentional doings of this dimension. If it really sensed hostility and used all of its powers, even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator could not resist it."
Lin Feng used the Fences of Heaven to carve out a path for himself. As he walked forward, he saw two figures collapsed on the floor before. They were Xiao Yan and Xiao Budian.
Xiao Yan's face appeared to have aged and matured. Initially, he still had a tinge of youth on his face but now, all signs of childishness had evaporated. All that was left was a strong and handsome grown-up face.
On the other hand, Xiao Budian's changes were more drastic. Lin Feng was stunned when he saw him. Before Lin Feng left, he was still a little boy of about five to six years old. Now, he became a pre-teen of about ten years old.
Just like before, his skin was still chubby, powder-white and cute. He was still a true little shota.
However, the two of them were sound asleep, and that affected their image.
Lin Feng used his mana and sensed that two of them were unhurt, only sound asleep.
"Eh? They didn't waste their time here," Using his mana Lin Feng realized instantly that Xiao Budian had begun to construct his spiritual altar, and was in the middle of the Foundation Establishment stage. Xiao Yan took it to a next level, his crucible was already completed. His mastery was in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment stage.
Lin Feng was curious. Xiao Budian joined him the earliest, and his innate ability was the highest. Despite his age and childishness, his mastery was without equal amongst Lin Feng's disciples. How did he lose to Xiao Yan?
Furthermore, what shocked Lin Feng was that the spiritual altar that Xiao Budian erected was actually a first class spiritual altar.
Theoretically, even in a sect like the Great Void Sect which was brimming with talent, it was a matter of great celebration for a disciple to erect a first class spiritual altar.
For other sects, such an act would warrant sending invitations to fellow cultivators to witness such a feat.
However, this was Xiao Budian, who was born in the Foundation Establishment stage, a prodigy that seemed to have descended from the heavens. Right after his birth, he managed to split his aura sea and built a supreme spiritual altar upon it. His innate ability was a solid ten out of ten.
When Lin Feng took him as a disciple initially, despite being harmed by others and hence losing his supreme spiritual altar. However, with his high innate ability level, Lin Feng believed that should he ever construct another spiritual altar, it would be a supreme spiritual altar.
Who would have thought that it was merely a first class one?
"His kin should really be killed!" Lin Feng arched his eyebrow, as he felt terribly sorry for Xiao Budian. He then used his mana to sense again carefully.
Upon his second sensing, he opened his eyes in shock.
"This little b*stard!"
Probing deep with his mana, Lin Feng could clearly view Xiao Budian's innate aura sea. Only then did he realize that in Xiao Budian's aura sea was a whole line of spiritual altars, formed up like soldiers in a parade.
"One, two, three, four...five! F*ck me, five spiritual altars?!"
Five spiritual altars and all were first class!
Lin Feng was truly stunned beyond measure. According to what he knew about the Grand Celestial World and its many eons of history, there were, though extremely few and rare, supreme spiritual altars.
However, no one, not even the most prodigious of prodigies, could form more than one spiritual altar. Xiao Budian's formation of five spiritual altars was truly unprecedented.
As Lin Feng probed deeper, he eyes narrowed. In Xiao Budian's aura sea there was actually a sixth spiritual altar, and it would rise any minute. It already possessed a general outline, and as long as Xiao Budian concentrated he would soon be able to establish his sixth spiritual altar.
Furthermore, according to precedents, Lin Feng had reasons to believe that the sixth spiritual altar too would be a first class spiritual altar.
"Full marks for innate ability, full marks for innate ability..." Lin Feng gritted his teeth, as he thought, "No wonder that when Xiao Yan was in the later stages of Foundation Establishment, you were still in the middle phase. How many spiritual altars do you want to build?"
The sound-asleep Xiao Budian, as if having felt Lin Feng's probing, turned in his sleep.
Lin Feng's consciousness exited from his aura sea. He raised his head and saw a halo floating above Xiao Budian's head.
"What's this?" Out of curiosity, Lin Feng allowed his consciousness to enter the halo. However, he realized that a picture flashed non-stop in the halo.
In the picture, Xiao Budian was laughing nonstop. Behind him, a giant, ferocious beast roaring with rage was chasing him nonstop. Laughing, Xiao Budian hid behind a black shadow and said, "Big Senior, hit him!"
The black shadow roared and charged towards the ferocious beast, kicking him aside with one foot.
However, what flummoxed Lin Feng was the fact that the black shadow was actually a fierce gorilla.
"Sc*w me, why is the image of Xiao Yan a gorilla in your mind?" Lin Feng then realized that in this halo was the subconscious memories of Xiao Budian. That is to say, his initial take on everyone.
In another picture, Xiao Budian appeared extremely drowsy. However, he had no choice but to muster his strength and sit there, while listening to a big white goose cry out.
The big white goose wore a green robe and an antique crown on its head.
In the image, Xiao Budian muttered angrily, "Second Senior is so annoying!"
Lin Feng covered his face and could no longer bear to watch. This was the image of Zhu Yi in the mind of Xiao Budian.
In the third image, it was silent. Xiao Budian hid behind a tree and watched a quiet black dog that was staring at him silently.
Xiao Budian appeared to be slightly scared of the dog, and he mumbled, "I could beat Third Senior easily, but why is it that I am scared of him everytime I him?"
Lin Feng watched this scene expressionless, thinking, "So you are saying that dog who does not bark should be replaced? That's what you want to say right? You little b*stard!"
"Wait a minute, what's my image in the mind of this little b*stard?" Lin Feng suddenly thought of this important question.
Here, the soundly asleep Xiao Budian turned again, as he muttered, "Master..."
Lin Feng's ears perked up, as he stared unblinkingly at the halo above Xiao Budian's head. Indeed, the image began to change again.