Chapter 316 Many Paths (Part 3) Midnight Chess Wei Yun, tonight at midnight...

Zhongzhou is still within Phoenix Terrace.

Lin Feiran sat calmly among the flowers and plants, while Ru Xian sat opposite her, glancing at her from time to time. A long sheet of Xuan paper floated between them.

She was holding a brush, focused intently, oblivious to the ink stains on her face and hands, and kept writing on the paper.

After getting up from Ru Xian's legs, Lin Feiran no longer allowed herself to drown in heavy thoughts.

Under such heavy burdens, and unable to find a way out, it's inevitable to feel unbalanced. But simply suffering in silence won't solve anything; only taking action will.

Whether you use your brain or your hands, as long as you don't stay in one place, as long as you keep moving forward, as long as you still have breath, there will always be a way out!

The paper was covered with dense, irregular characters in regular script, written here and there. It contained names of people and events, and in the center of the scattered characters was a chessboard with black and white lines drawn on it.

This was Lin Feiran's habit. Whenever she lost her way, she would use this method to find a way out, writing down all the information she knew and then trying to find a flaw in it.

But she has experienced too many things along the way, too many complicated things. After writing on such a long sheet of rice paper, the paper has become messy and difficult to unravel and find the feasible "path".

So she abstracted everything and everyone into a chess piece, a solution, and like playing chess, she deduced and placed the pieces, condensing everything from her birth to her current predicament, every single thing, every person she came into contact with, into a single move on the chessboard!

She still held the black, while the Daoist Master held the white.

In this way, everything became much clearer than before, and her thoughts gradually calmed down. With each move she made, her mind became clearer, and with each step forward, perhaps she would suddenly see the light.

By this time, she had finished deducing every move with the Daoist Master. Looking at the drawn chessboard, Lin Feiran's hand paused slightly as she seemed to notice something amiss. Her gaze involuntarily fell on a few black pieces in the game.

Those were people she knew well, and people who were on her side, so she used black pieces instead. However, looking at the overall situation now, she found that these pieces were clustered together, which actually left a gap for white pieces...

Lin Feiran was puzzled and was pondering the chess game when she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. She immediately looked up and saw that the clouds over Phoenix Terrace were normal, still thick and white as cotton.

"What's wrong?" Ru Xian asked, looking up with her.

Lin Feiran withdrew his gaze, picked up his pen and stood up: "It should be the Dao Lord. He looked at me with his Heavenly Eye again... He is investigating my whereabouts."

Although there were no signs, Lin Feiran was very familiar with this sudden feeling. It was a familiar sense of being watched, but unlike Wei Changzai's blatant spying, this feeling of being scanned by the Heavenly Eye was colder and more powerful.

Lin Feiran looked down and saw a chessboard drawn in front of her. She raised her hand, rolled up the Xuan paper, and put it into her mustard seed bag.

She couldn't help but say, "Why did he suddenly start looking for me again? If Qi Chen is right, he should be weak right now, so why would he use his Heavenly Eye? Unless..."

She paused, then continued like a hailstone, "You've been playing chess here for a while now, just in time for your opponent to make their move."

He glanced at Lin Feiran and smiled, "Are you going to wait a bit, or make your move first?"

This is a game of chess, but not entirely. At least their game is not turn-based; they don't wait for the opponent to make a move before they move themselves. The pieces on the board are constantly changing.

"wait?"

Lin Feiran pondered quietly for a moment, recalling the strange thing she had just noticed.

“Previously, I couldn’t see the situation clearly, so I wanted to wait for him to make a move. But now that I understand it’s a game of chess, there’s no need to wait for him to make a move. In chess, it’s always about anticipating the outcome.”

Ru Xian pondered for a moment: "Then what do you think he's going to do?"

Lin Feiran slowly clenched his fist. Before him were waves of flowers and grass swaying in the wind, the grass blades intertwined densely, completely obscuring the surrounding paths.

"He is currently in a weak state, so naturally he doesn't want us to find the passage to the Heavenly Palace on the Cloud Top. If everything goes smoothly, he only needs to hide. Since he has taken action, it must mean that the answers we need are outside."

He wanted to cover up the answer as well.

The placement of the piece is instantaneous; she has to guess where it will land.

"Go out first." She turned around and offered her hand to Ru Xian.

Ru Xian stood up, took her hand, and whispered the incantation. With a light touch of her toes, the two of them rose up again and flew towards the exit like a dandelion.

As they passed over the grass, trees, and mountain spring below, Ru Xian looked down and suddenly said, "Actually, the scenery here is quite nice, but unfortunately no one lives here now. If you like it, we can stay here for a while after this is over."

Lin Feiran looked at him and said, "We can come here anytime."

The two landed at the entrance they had just come from, turned around to look at the twelve upside-down peaks, and raised their eyebrows like haze: "The houses here were all burned down to ashes long ago, where are we going to stay?"

Lin Feiran smiled, took a half step forward, waved her hand, and pointed to the twelve peaks: "There are so many places, you can stay anywhere. You choose one, I will build you a house, and then we will decorate it together, so you can come and stay anytime."

Ru Xian crossed her arms and tapped her arm lightly with her fingertips, teasingly saying, "If people find out, wouldn't it be that I, a mere demon, dare to enslave Lin Feiran? What if they come knocking on the door and demolish the house?"

“You’re not just ‘a mere demon’,” Lin Feiran chuckled, a little of the pressure in his heart easing. “Then I’ll build you another one, take one down, build one, take one down, build one…”

Ru Xian had already placed his hand on her shoulder, and his other hand covered her eyes, just as he had done when they came in. He covered her eyes and led her to the entrance, the cool temperature pressing gently against her eyelids, which was somewhat relaxing.

His chuckle echoed in my ears: "Don't worry, it can't be demolished. If you want to come in, you'll have to find the entrance here first."

Lin Feiran was blindfolded when entering and leaving, and could not see the passage between Phoenix Terrace and the outside world, but he could feel that this road was like a secret passage. There was no wind around, and occasionally there was the sound of dripping water, but there was no damp or cold smell. Instead, there was a faint warm fragrance.

She should have been wary of such a blind spot, but with hailstones whistling behind her, she simply couldn't be alert.

"What's in this secret passage? Why can't I see it?" This was the only reason Lin Feiran could think of. Ru Xian had no reason to hide the passage in and out of Phoenix Terrace from her.

As if pausing slightly, a voice rang in her ear: "Can your third eye see?"

Lin Feiran shook his head: "My eye doesn't yet have the same abilities as the Dao Lord. I guessed that."

Ru Xian couldn't help but chuckle, and said in a cool voice, "Sometimes I think you're almost a genius, and other times I think you're as dull as a block of wood."

He turned to look around and no longer denied it: "Alright, there are indeed things in this secret passage that you can't see. When I was a child, I was bored in the tower by myself, so whenever I had the chance to go down the mountain, I would come here to take a look."

Firstly, they wanted to find a way to get out.

Secondly, there's almost no one here.

He chuckled softly, and suddenly moved his hand away from her eyes by half an inch. Just as she vaguely saw some words and paintings, he abruptly pulled it back and pressed it against her eyes.

"So, I've been secretly writing and drawing a lot here, mostly my childhood thoughts. If you saw them, would I still be able to put on that 'snowflake' act?"

"real?"

It would have been better if she hadn't mentioned it, because this only made Lin Feiran more curious. But no matter what sweet words she said, Ru Xian didn't move her hand away.

Only when he saw the light of the exit did he gradually release his hand, then pressed down on her head to prevent her from turning around.

He said, "After this matter is settled, you can come back and build a house. If it suits my taste, I can come and take a look."

The two walked out of Phoenix Terrace, and behind them was only a towering tree. They could still see a hole in the tree, but when they tried to go in again, they could find nothing.

Lin Feiran stood in the wilderness, and in a short while, the giant tree disappeared without a trace. She looked at Ru Xian and said, "You've been talking about the future a lot lately. So far, you've made several promises with me about what will happen after the 'things are done'."

Ru Xian crossed her arms and looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly: "It's good that you remember. Some things, once you promise them, you can't go back on your word. If you promise something, you have to do it."

He rarely spoke like this, only revealing half of what he meant, but Lin Feiran understood the unspoken message.

She nodded: "Okay."

He was just afraid that she would do what she did last time, putting her own life and death aside for the sake of the situation and the greater good. He didn't want such a thing to happen again, so he was giving her a foothold. There were still many things to do in the future, so she shouldn't die now.

Since her "resurrection," the truth has gradually come to light, and everything has fallen into darkness, devoid of light.

Along the way, everyone Lin Feiran met was worried. They were concerned about everything that was happening, whether Lin Feiran could hold on, and even more worried that everything would lead to destruction.

Reality certainly doesn't allow for an easy life, but things like sleet don't.

He was never as preoccupied as others. He always looked at everything with composure and fearlessness, especially in front of Lin Feiran. He always exuded a calm, tolerant, and relaxed demeanor.

If everyone else's gaze was focused on the burdens weighing on Lin Feiran, then his gaze was like a feather, not falling, but gently supporting her.

They lifted Lin Feiran to a higher position.

He may not have been without his own concerns and anxieties, but he rarely showed them to her. For example, when he came to Phoenix Terrace, he not only wanted her to rest there, but also fulfilled his own desires.

He couldn't help but think that if Lin Feiran was truly tired and didn't want to go any further, and wanted to stay at Phoenix Terrace, then he would close the entrance and leave only the two of them here. No matter how raging the flood was outside, at least she wouldn't lose her life.

But he knew Lin Feiran wouldn't stop, so he still told the old story.

He looked at the vast wilderness shrouded in the heavy darkness of night, his gaze shifting slightly before turning to Lin Feiran: "Where are you planning to go?"

Lin Feiran took a few steps forward, paused slightly, and turned to look in a certain direction: "Come out. You're being followed too obviously. We noticed you a long time ago."

In the wilderness, a cold wind blew by, and a pale blue figure appeared not far from the two.

From the moment Lin Feiran left, he followed closely behind, like a silent shadow, quietly accompanying them to Tailing City. He squatted on the rooftop listening to Ji Changying's past, and then followed them here.

They disappeared here and entered Phoenix Terrace. He waited here, and the wilderness wind blew for a long time. He just stared at the sky until the two reappeared, and then he turned around.

He carried two long swords on his back, his hair adorned with plum blossoms, and he was as cold and aloof as the long moon, quietly gazing at this place.

Lin Feiran looked at him. Among the unusual chess pieces on the chessboard, one of them was Wei Changzai.

She sighed slightly, but still said, "The current situation is special, so you should come with us. It will be like having another helper."

Wei Changzai pursed his lips, his eyes flickered slightly, as if he was somewhat surprised. After a moment of silence, he stepped forward and stopped in front of Lin Feiran. He raised his hand, holding a struggling paper crane between his fingers.

“Manman, this is Zhang Siwo’s letter. It couldn’t find you and wandered around here for a long time. I was afraid it would destroy itself, so I stopped it in advance. I didn’t read the letter.”

Lin Feiran was somewhat surprised, not because Wei Chang was waiting here, but because the messenger bird had a red dot on its tail feathers, which clearly indicated that it was an extremely urgent matter.

Thank you.

She immediately took it, and the paper crane in her hand calmed down after sensing her spiritual power.

She formed a hand seal and unwrapped the letter. The paper crane slowly unfolded, revealing a sentence hastily written on it.

“Something has changed. The Dao Lord has sent a letter inviting many people to meet tonight. The purpose is unclear. We are currently gathered at the Imperial Academy in Nanping Continent. Come quickly.”

Below this sentence is a mark, a cloud pattern from Esoteric Buddhism, resembling an open eye gazing at the sky.

Lin Feiran frowned slightly. She flipped through the letter again, checked its spiritual power, and confirmed that it was sent by Zhang Siwo. She asked in confusion, "If he was sending a letter, why would he draw cloud patterns from the esoteric sect?"

Ru Xian stared at it for a moment: "Could this be a letter sent by the esoteric sects?"

Wei Changzai peeked out and glanced at it, his dark eyes pausing slightly: "I've seen this mark before."

Lin Feiran looked up at him: "You should have seen this before; it's considered a totem of Tantric Buddhism."

“No.” He shook his head and raised his left hand. “We met here.”

A cloud pattern was clearly imprinted on his left palm, resembling slightly closed eyes.

Lin Feiran was speechless for a moment: "How did this come about?"

Wei Changzai looked at his palm: "It appeared suddenly, but at that time I was chasing after and controlling the messenger bird, so I didn't pay attention to it. I only glanced at it, and then I waited for you here. As I waited... I forgot that I still had this mark on my hand."

It wasn't that he forgot; rather, he simply didn't care. After catching up with the paper crane, he stared intently at the spot where the two had disappeared, like a statue.

He thought that perhaps Lin Feiran wanted to get rid of him.

If he hadn't had a vague feeling that she was still there, he probably would have been searching for her everywhere long ago.

Thankfully, she didn't leave.

"Perhaps this can help you."

Wei Changzai looked down at his palm, then glanced at the letter. After noticing a slight difference between the two, he raised his hand and gathered spiritual power. Hidden light flowed through the cloud patterns on his palm, and slowly, the cloud eyes in his palm opened slightly.

A familiar and even voice came from within the cloud pattern.

"Wei Jun, let's meet at midnight tonight to discuss something."

His words were full of familiarity; if one did not listen carefully, one might mistake him for one of Wei Changzai's elders. However, this was the Dao Lord, whom he should have been completely unfamiliar with.

Author's Note: [Heart emoji] [Heart emoji]