When Zhao Ji came over, he greeted them politely, bowed slightly, and said, "Masters, I am a woodcutter from Longshan Town at the foot of this mountain. My family has been cutting wood here for generations to make a living. But today, I lost my way and entered the mountain. I have been wandering here for about an hour or two, but I still can't find the way back."
"Masters, please be merciful. I don't know where this place is. How can I get back to Longshan Town?"
The Taoist priest with black hair and a calm temperament looked at the chessboard and said in a gentle tone, "My friend, turn around and follow the stream you came from for an hour. Turn left every time you turn. When you turn left for the fifth time, you will see a huge rock with a tree under it. Turn down from there and you will be able to return home."
"Your family has been waiting for a long time, so you should go down the mountain quickly."
When the woodcutter knew the way back, he was not so anxious anymore, thinking that he must have met his destiny.
My old parents at home are in poor health and have panic attacks in their dreams every night. If I could ask for some pills, it would also relieve their palpitations. I hesitated for a moment, then felt that such a thought was really hateful and greedy. I was thin-skinned and felt hot. I stammered for a long time and couldn't utter a word.
Taking a few steps forward, he saw the chess game again. For some reason, when Zhao Ji saw this game, he was slightly stunned, and then he was involuntarily immersed in it, as if this game of chess was the most wonderful and mysterious thing in the world, and his curiosity was aroused.
After thinking about it, I realized that although I had lost my way forward, I had now found the way back.
This road is not short, but if he lets go and runs all the way, just one hour is enough to go home. He is not in a hurry anymore. Since he has this fairy chance, he will take a look first. It would be fine if he doesn't take a look, but once he takes a look, he is uncontrollably immersed in it.
The criss-crossing chessboard seemed to have turned into the stars, as if it had turned into the entire world, constantly attracting Zhao Ji's attention. At this time, it had nothing to do with his character or his realm. It was just a simple, instinctive yearning of living beings for the unknown and the vast starry sky.
But at this moment, the young Taoist picked up a chess piece with his fingers and tapped it lightly on the chessboard.
A crisp sound!
This voice seems to resound in my heart.
Just like when ordinary people are dreaming, there is the sound of a flute nearby, the sound of piercing gold, splitting stone, and shattering jade.
Zhao Ji woke up with a start, his face pale, and he was in a trance for a long time before he noticed the source of the sound. He saw the gentle Taoist drop a piece, and it seemed that everything was changing. He raised his head and looked at him with gentle eyes, saying, "My friend, the way you came is still here, so you should leave quickly."
But Zhao Ji had been so intrigued by the chess game that he felt a little embarrassed. He bowed and said, "Sorry to bother you, Taoist priest. I've loved chess since I was a kid. When I saw this chess game today, I was really itching to play. I think there is no other chess game in the world that is more interesting than this one."
"I really want to finish this game of chess."
"I promise I won't say a word and will just watch quietly from the side. Immortal, please be merciful and allow me to watch the chess game from the side, right?"
He said this sincerely and politely. The Taoist tried to persuade him to leave several times, but after persuading him several times, he suddenly stopped talking. He just looked at Zhao Ji with a blank gaze, and then glanced further, to the back of Zhao Ji, at the foot of the mountain. He paused, and then sighed.
He then stopped persuading Zhao Ji and allowed him to watch the game.
The chess game itself was already extremely exquisite, not to mention the unparalleled charm in the game. Zhao Ji was so engrossed in watching it that the Taoist lifted up a piece and dropped it casually. It was like a thunderclap rising from the ground, rumbling back and forth. The man opposite turned pale in an instant, and blood seemed to flow from the corners of his mouth.
And if an emperor of great rank came here, he would be able to sense the difference. This game of chess in the deep mountains and forests is extremely spiritual, like thousands of rivers flowing into the sea, constantly changing, passing through the bodies of the two players, and seems to be connected with all things in the world.
The chess game is the great way!
The world is everything within the chess game!
With God's will on the chess pieces, playing chess means confrontation. In the eyes of the woodcutter who came down from the mountain, it was just two hermits playing chess in the mountain, but in each other's eyes, it was a fight. When the ancient god's true spirit places a piece, it is like digging a ravine, causing the mountains and rivers to flow, majestic and turbulent.
When the Taoist's son fell, the mountains collapsed and the earth cracked, and a sword was across the sky.
As the pieces fell one after another, Zhao Ji seemed to be in a trance, as if he had seen everything in the world. He saw the magnificent waves and surging sea, as well as lightning and thunder bombarding the volcano, causing thunder and fire to interweave, and he was extremely frightened.
These different things clashed again and again, round after round, seemingly endlessly and infinitely.
I don’t know how much time has passed.
It seems extremely long, yet it seems only a moment. No, at the level where heaven and earth intersect, if the traces of the mountains and rivers are used as a criss-crossing chessboard, and the movement and flow of the stars in the sky are used as chess pieces, and the bright and brilliant thunder and fire are used as the crisp sounds of chess pieces falling on the chessboard.
This is a chess game that only takes a moment.
Just as the pieces fell one by one and played against each other, the situation on the chessboard gradually became clear.
In the end, even with Zhao Ji's eyesight and attainments in chess, he could see that the Taoist had an absolute upper hand. He moved neither hurriedly nor slowly, and gradually eroded his opponent's strength with each move. In the end, he accumulated a tremendous momentum, and it seemed that any move he made could cause a huge wave.
Finally, the ancient god seemed to be unable to accumulate any more, and he tried his best to get another piece. The momentum was majestic, like a surging river, swallowing clouds and exhaling breath, connecting with the charm of the Great Dao, magnificent and majestic, as if transformed into infinite magical powers. The Taoist was calm, raised his fingers to pick up a chess piece, and put it down calmly.
A crisp sound.
So it seemed as if the big dragon was cut in half in the middle.
There was a continuous crisp sound, and time seemed to freeze. Then the crisp sound seemed to be stretched out, becoming endless. Amid the crisp sound of crackling, the chessboard suddenly shattered in the middle. The ancient god suddenly opened his mouth and coughed out a mouthful of blood. The injury that had been suppressed for a long time seemed to finally be completely suppressed at this time, and his face turned pale.
He suddenly threw away the chess game, and was about to go towards the sky. However, just as he made a move, there was a sound of breaking air, and the Taoist's finger had already touched his brow calmly, without any sharpness. The Taoist looked at him calmly, as if he had crossed over two thousand years and returned to the past, the most majestic period of the final catastrophe.
The look he saw at this moment was exactly the same as the one that the Taoist priest who confronted him with a sword showed at the beginning.
Time seemed to have lost its value and meaning at this moment. The Taoist smiled slightly and said gently:
"You lose."
These three words were written lightly, but they seemed to break the ancient god's state of mind in an instant. He was first seriously injured, then confronted Qi Wuhuo for a thousand years, and then abandoned his true body as a god and demon. What was here at the moment was ultimately a true spirit that had been consumed to the limit.
Unwilling!
Extremely unwilling!
He roared angrily, and once again burst out with boundless momentum and powerful Qi.
However, this time, before his strength could be condensed or his Qi could be gathered, the Taoist took advantage of the situation and moved forward a little, bursting out with the ultimate sword-cutting power. In just a moment, he pierced through the strongest god and demon who had been exhausted to the extreme. After piercing him, the sword energy still continued and flowed towards the back.
However, this force, which was powerful enough to shatter the last true spirit of the final god and demon, fell on the grass and trees in the mountains, but only caused the tender buds of the grass to sway slightly, like a breeze blowing on the face. The ancient god who created the world looked at the sword in a daze, like the wind blowing through the mountains and forests, and knew that the realm of the Taoist in front of him was already transcendent.
It seems only one step away.
After a long time, he finally seemed to be impressed, closed his eyes, and finally uttered only one word.
"Clothes."
Starting from the sword mark between his eyebrows, a ray of light flowed, and cracks slowly spread in all directions. Finally, a gust of wind blew over his face, and it turned into shattered rays of light, falling into the mortal world, without any trace left. Qi Wuhuo slowly retracted his fingers. The enemy who had been confronting him for two thousand years was finally defeated by this body.
His arrogant and willful figure eventually drifted away with the breeze and gradually disappeared.
It was not until this time that Zhao Ji slowly woke up. In his daze, he saw that the chess game on the chessboard had been decided, and there was also a hideous and glaring crack on the chessboard, which broke the chessboard into two pieces. Looking around, he saw that the other player had disappeared. He was surprised and puzzled, and said:
"This... Immortal, where is that senior?"
He saw the Taoist who was sitting there stand up.
He stood still as if he had not moved freely for a long time, and then stretched out his hand. A stone flew over to the position where he was playing chess with the opponent and landed in his palm. This was the last remaining power and true spirit of the god and devil who created the world in the next era, which turned into this spirit stone.
Qi Wuhuo put the item away, looked at the chess game calmly, and said, "He's gone."
Zhao Ji was puzzled and sighed, "It turns out that senior lost the game and left early."
他此刻却是不好意思道：“方才小子也不知道是怎么了，如发痴狂一样，叨扰了前辈两三个时辰，却是极不好意思。”他深深一礼，道人温和颔首，眼底慈悲，樵夫不解其意思，站起身来，却是觉得神清气爽。
就要辞别，道人却唤住了他。
赵季只觉得自己性灵澄澈许多，不像是当初那样，在学宫呆了数年，只修持了一个杂家基本功法，行礼询问道：“仙长还有什么吩咐吗？”
这道人看他，温和道：“他日你若是觉得，心中憋闷难以忍受的话。”
“可以去此地隐居一段时间，自有山林与你闲居。”
这道人手中不知道什么时候多出了一个锦囊，递给赵季。
赵季双手接过，却是当真得了仙缘！
回家之中，和爹娘说了，想来他们也会开心的。
就用这个话题来打破今天早上出门时候的僵持，却是最好。
于是这樵夫千恩万谢地谢过了。
转身归家，只是在这回家的路上总感觉到有些不对劲。
不知道为何，总也觉得，回来时候，见到的道路和那时候已不一样了，他走到了先前那位道人说过的石头旁边，转身的时候，却是疑惑不已，道：“奇怪，奇怪，我明明记得这里本来是一棵小树的啊，怎么这样大了？”
一丝丝不协之感浮现在他的心底。
他本来在这个时候，就已经知道不对的。
可是在这个时候，他归心似箭，太想要回家中，太想着爹娘，想着那一句未曾说出来的抱歉，急急回乡之时，却是发现这镇子怎么转眼之间，就又变大了许多？人们身上的衣裳风格，和自己穿着的也不太一样。
道路上多有些不认识的面孔……
不，或者说，全部都不认识。
一丝丝恐惧攥住了他的心，他近乎于狂奔地跑到了自己的家中，却发现家中已返修过了，唯独门前那一颗老树还在，越发雄壮，赵季伸出手用力拍打着门，大喊道：“爹！娘！开门啊！”
“我是赵季！我回来了！”
他把门拍得啪啪啪响动，大门被打开，赵季心中一松，可是立刻发现开门的是一个看着有几分眼熟却绝对不认识的年轻人，满脸警惕地道：“你是谁？！”
赵季面色发白，道：“我，我是赵季！”
“你是谁？伱为什么会在我家？”
那年轻人疑惑道：“什么你家？这是我赵家的老宅！”
“你是来找事的吗？”
“你家？”
赵季呢喃几声，却忽然激动起来，奋力推搡着这门，大喊道：“不对，这是我家，我爹赵安成，我娘刘英红，他们在哪里？你把他们怎么样了？让我进去，让我进去！”
他也不知道哪里来的力气，一下把门推倒了，那年轻人都跌跌撞撞坐倒地上，赵季踉踉跄跄却又很快地往前奔去，一下撞开另外几个闻询赶来的年轻男女，撞进去了，却是一怔，前面却是祖堂和排位。
他看到了自己父亲母亲的排位，看到了自己兄长和嫂子的排位。
甚至于看到了自己那个才出生几个月的外甥排位。
赵季如成木偶一般呆呆站在了那里，嘴唇颤抖。
喉结起伏，却是一个字说不出来，外面那年轻人闯进来，捂着肩膀道：“你到底是谁？！开什么玩笑？！我先祖已去世两百多年，你突然进来了是什么意思？”
赵季如梦呓般道：“两百多年……”
那年轻人狐疑，旋即忽而想起来了家中一个传说，说有一位先祖年轻时候上山，再也没有回来过，不由怔住，道：“你是，你是先祖赵季？！”
“先祖，赵季？”
“是啊，传说当年先祖的弟弟赵季先祖有一日和他父亲吵架了，上了山，就再也没有回来，赵安成先祖抱憾终身，一辈子再没没有沾过酒，可是，这怎么可能？”
“那已经是三百年前的事情了啊！”
“三百年前……”
赵季嘴唇抖了抖，忽而想到了那位道人连续几次劝说自己速速离开，自己不愿意离去，心中明悟，却仍旧还是不甘心道：“不，不可能，我只是去砍柴而已，我只是！”他伸出手自腰间抽出了斧头，可是这个时候，那出发时候磨得发亮的斧头却是已生锈，那斧柄已软烂如泥，落在地上。
赵季面色苍白，怔怔失神。
只余放声大哭：“爹，娘！”
……
赵季似是受了莫大冲击，辗转数次方才醒来。
醒过来的时候，终于明白发生了什么，他看了那一局棋，看了足足三百年，三百年过去，修行刻苦，若是没有道心，踏不破先天一炁，常人也只有百二十岁的寿命，到了现在，他熟悉的一切都已经离开了他。
拉扯他长大的爹娘，终究没有等到他的报答和尽孝。
他拖着身子，去拜了父母的坟墓，想到那一日终究不曾说出的抱歉，痛哭流涕，几经昏厥，后又迟疑去了当年青梅竹马的地方，询问周围的人家，是否有一家张屠夫，却得到回答道：“张屠夫？”
“这里百来年的老字号，都是离屠夫，哪里有什么张屠夫？”
“姓张的？或许是有吧，不过怎么也是好多年前的事情了，客人，你要买猪肉吗？是好猪肉啊，前腿肉，肥嫩，拿了最好下酒！”
赵季自这里走了出来，见人来人往，大哥的子孙们似是以他这一位老祖为得以炫耀的资本，常常遍邀宾客前来夸耀，忽有一日夜间，赵季躺在床铺之上，听外面宾客谈笑，只觉得烦恼吵耳，辗转反侧，不得以安眠。
忽而想到了那位仙长给的锦囊，将其取出打开来，里面写着三个字，并一张地势图。
赵季呢喃道：“方寸山……”
再做樵夫。
他呢喃几遍，忽而大笑，笑而有泪。
终究是明悟。
又提了一砍柴的斧头。
佩戴在腰间，推门而出，旁人皆拦不得他，只看他径直朝那方寸山而去了，旁人追去，却如何追逐得到，远远不见了身影，只是听到了这人悲呼长吟之声，且吟道：
“观棋柯烂，伐木丁丁，云边谷口徐行。卖薪沽酒，狂笑自陶情。苍径秋高，对月枕松根，一觉天明。”
“认旧林，登崖过岭，持斧断枯藤。”
“持斧【断】枯藤！”
……
人世之间，多有奇人，奇事，奇景诸事。
却也难以流传过广。
其中的波澜壮阔，却也是唯独此间人自己知道，实在难以和外人道也。
泰山之巅，琴韵清幽。
白发女子抚琴，神韵旷古绝世，云开雾散，却唯明月相伴。
云琴让自己女儿睡去了。
这孩子总是让她有些头疼，就是因为这孩子太像她了，总是喜欢偷懒。
平日玩耍的时候，精力充沛得好像是永远都用不完似的。
可是一轮到了修行学习，就立刻开始打盹，困倦得不行，若是要责怪她，就只是乖巧坐在那里，满脸无辜可怜，娲皇娘娘和后土皇地祇娘娘都没脾气，伏羲又极宠溺她，唯北帝可以让她去练剑，可很快就会被伏羲破局。
如此一来二去的，就连云琴都有些无奈，今日本来是让她修行的，可是孩子又困倦了，没奈何，云琴就只好让她回去睡了。
她自己却是睡不着，心事多，以此身此刻的修行境界，却也实在是用不着睡眠了，只在此地，对月看红尘，抚琴清幽，独自一人的时候，就总会不自觉地回忆过往，此刻回忆年少时候事情，不觉到伤心处。
见月色之下，有鸟儿成双成对而去，抚琴之声也是顿住，再抚不下去。
云琴沉默许久，轻声呢喃道：“一千年，又是一千年。”
“你又要让我等待几个一千年呢？无惑……”
她轻声自语，声音悦耳温柔，却似是让人心碎。
却又深深吸了口气，仍旧如同年少那样，伸出手掌轻轻拍了下自己脸颊，然后握拳，似乎给自己鼓气，道：“不过，不管是几个一千年，我都会等你的。”
“然后，恶狠狠地咬你！”
“咬你！”
云琴独自一人，做咬牙切齿的模样，还是和当年那时候一样。
却忽而有轻笑声音响起。
时间仿佛凝固了。
云琴的眸子一下子瞪大了。
云霞，月色，山下的河流，还有拂过的风都成为了此刻的注脚。
白发女子微怔住，她似是不敢置信，一点一点，转过身来，看到月色之下，山高云远，有道人安然而立，嘴角噙着微笑，亦如当年，一时间，仿佛外物都离开，天地万物和一切都失去了意义。
只有那白发女子和道人看着彼此。
此刻无言。
燕子欲归时节，高楼昨夜西风。
求得人间成小会，试把金尊傍菊丛。
歌长粉面红。
斜日更穿帘幕，微凉渐入梧桐。
多少襟情言不尽，写向蛮笺曲调中。
此情千万重。
齐无惑轻声道：
“我回来了。”