After Wen Wumian placed his pieces, Song Yao immediately raised her hand, and five spirit stones on the table flew up in response.
She didn't arrange them according to the star positions, nor did she follow any standard formation rules.
Instead, they crashed straight into the trapping array set up by Wen Wumian, accurately striking several weak points of the array cores. The silver lines that were flowing just now shook from the impact, and the formation instantly loosened quite a bit.
Wen Wumian calmly raised his hand to patch up the array.
After a few rounds, he found that Song Yao only attacked and never defended, playing completely outside the box with a fierce, aggressive offense.
He was forced to adjust his formation. Guided by his fingertips, two spirit stones had just shifted positions to stabilize his footing when he heard the surrounding disciples let out low gasps of surprise.
Looking up, he saw that Song Yao's scattered and chaotic spirit stones had somehow connected. Silver lines linked together like spider silk, weaving a dense, airtight web on the chessboard that instantly entangled his array cores.
Under this sudden countermeasure, his originally stable trapping array collapsed in an instant, and spirit stones rolled onto the table one after another.
The surroundings fell silent for a moment before a burst of cheers erupted. “Pay up, pay up! Lin Mu won!”
“Winning within ten moves, double the payout!!”
“Don't back out now, everyone!”
The disciples who lost their bets groaned and pulled out their spirit stones to pay.
Ming Ran had bet quite a lot and triumphantly gathered her winnings. “Little Master, we'll split it fifty-fifty later.”
The smile on Ye Chang'an's face froze, his fingertips imperceptibly gripping the armrests of his chair.
Wen Wumian stared at the spirit stones scattered all over the table, stunned for a long while before realizing what had happened. Feeling somewhat unwilling to accept it, he said, “Another round.”
Song Yao swept all the spirit stones on the table into her arms. “No.”
Wen Wumian: “...”
Song Yao: “I'm not playing anymore.”
Wen Wumian: “...”
No, wait.
Who just runs away after winning like that?
Frustration welled up inside him, but he couldn't say anything. With a gloomy face, he walked back behind Ye Chang'an.
Wen Wushuang, however, noticed something amiss.
This little pill cultivator's formation style... why did it look a bit familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before?
She took half a step forward. “Junior Sister Lin, how about a game with me? I won't bully you. I'll spot you ten spirit stones, how about it?”
Ten stones to start an array was an extremely difficult disadvantage to overcome, even for a formation cultivator.
She didn't care about winning or losing; she just wanted to take a closer look.
Song Yao had already had her fill of fun. Carrying her pocketful of spirit stones, she stepped away from her seat and said without looking back, “No, I don't like playing these games.”
Wen Wushuang: “...”
Jiang Jin gave Song Yao a look, trying to signal her not to be so dismissive. Unfortunately, Song Yao's attention had already been drawn to the pastries on the table, and she was whispering and eating with Cheng Yue and Ming Ran.
He had no choice but to give up. He said politely, “Senior Sister Wen, how about I play with you?”
Wen Wushuang pursed her lips, turned, and left. “No need.”
Jiang Jin: “...”
...
After Ye Chang'an became normal and stopped making things difficult for others, the discussion banquet went on quite interestingly.
Before it ended, a cultivator from the Beiyao Sect stepped forward to announce some good news.
He said that tomorrow, a highly renowned senior in the cultivation world had been invited to give a lecture to the disciples of all sects, and everyone must attend.
Song Yao knew this senior.
Tao Cangxuan.
Most of the introductory lecture notes for the sects in the Tianshu Realm were written by her.
In her past life, when Song Yao's body was perfectly fine and her soul was whole, she would fall fast asleep just reading the books written by Senior Tao, let alone now.
Just one look at her books was probably more effective than a sleeping potion, and listening to her lecture would be absolute torture.
The surrounding disciples fell into a collective silence, barely holding back their groans.
Was this good news?
This was clearly a form of torture.
Song Yao coughed lightly and said to Chen He, “I was struck twice by the snake demon in the Twin Insect Cave, and now my body feels a bit uncomfortable. Please help me ask for a day off tomorrow.”
Chen He saw through her intentions at a glance and said helplessly, “You were just playing the spirit stone chess array with some people. Isn't it a bit too late to use this excuse now? Besides, they said no one is allowed to be absent, otherwise, it would be disrespectful to Master Tao.”
Song Yao: “My soul is incomplete. If I accidentally fall asleep during class, wouldn't that be even more disrespectful?”
Chen He: “...It's fine, I'll wake you up.”
This Junior Brother Chen was good in every way, except he was a bit too rigid.
Song Yao had no other choice. Once the discussion banquet dispersed, she turned and left the Beiyao Sect to buy some wine, and at the same time, look into the land and housing prices near Jiangshui City.
This place was far from the Nine Saints Hall. Although the winter was a bit cold, the environment was excellent. If she had the chance in the future, it wouldn't be a bad idea to live here, raise some chickens and ducks, and do some farming.
After walking around the area, the sky gradually darkened, and she didn't find any courtyard she liked.
Holding her sweet osmanthus wine, Song Yao walked back slowly.
There weren't many people in the suburbs, only the occasional carriage rumbling past, kicking up dust along the way.
After walking for a while, she heard a faint movement in her ears.
She pressed her brow, changed her direction, and instead of heading toward the Beiyao Sect, she turned into an open forest. Holding the wine jar in her arms, she sighed, “Come out, stop hiding.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the shadows of the trees suddenly shook, and two dark figures darted out from diagonally behind her, their long swords wrapped in bone-chilling cold light, stabbing straight toward her face.
Song Yao tapped her foot lightly, her figure shifting to narrowly dodge the attack. She took the opportunity to flip and leap onto an old scholar tree nearby, her robes brushing against the branches and bringing down a few dry leaves damp with night dew.
She closed her eyes, and her divine sense quietly spread out like an invisible net, sweeping through the shadows of the forest.
Within an instant, she accurately locked onto that familiar aura hiding behind a tree not far away.
Two masked men, seeing their attack miss, gritted their teeth and charged forward with their swords again, the blades shaving off a piece of bark as they scraped past the tree trunk.
Song Yao didn't even bother to pay attention to them. She directly bypassed the two cold lights and glided behind the tree not far away.
Ye Chang'an was squatting there, watching the show with an anxious and excited expression on his face.
By the time he realized something was wrong and turned his head, Song Yao was already squatting beside him, smelling strongly of sweet osmanthus wine, resting her chin on her hand as she smiled at him. “What a coincidence, Young Master Ye.”
Ye Chang'an: “...”
Caught red-handed out of nowhere, he let out a startled cry and fell backward onto the ground. He scrambled backward in a panic, his face pale. “I-It's not me! It has nothing to do with me! Nothing at all!”
The two masked men charged over with their swords. Before they could even get close, Song Yao bounced over to Ye Chang'an in two quick movements and grabbed his hair.
Ye Chang'an let out a painful howl, his face turning red, not daring to struggle.
The two masked men looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and raised their swords at Song Yao again, their tension palpable. “Let him go!”
Song Yao held the wine jar in one hand and gripped tighter with the other. She remained silent, only her clear, beautiful eyes blinking slightly.
Ye Chang'an felt a sudden illusion that he was about to be tonsured and become a monk. Giving up all his dignity, he stopped struggling and roared, “Get lost! Get the hell out of here, now!!!”
The two masked men were taken aback. They hesitated for a moment, and Ye Chang'an roared in anger again, “What are you standing there for? Go!!”
This time, the two did not stay. They hastily sheathed their swords, turned, and leaped onto the treetops, their auras disappearing from Song Yao's divine sense.
Unfortunately, Song Yao still didn't let go. She tilted her head and looked at him. “Is Young Master Ye really so petty that you'd hire people to kill me over this?”
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