The chess pieces are at my fingertips, the chessboard is at my feet

Chapter 96 The chess pieces are at my fingertips, the chessboard is at my feet

"We don't know how much they've raised yet, but it's certainly a lot."

"Children who have gone missing in various places over the years..."

"Those who were abducted at the train station, robbed at the village entrance, disappeared from their beds at night, vanished without a trace while walking down the street..."

"They're probably all in their hands, in those jars, among those insects."

Wei Shufen wrapped the wooden plaque again and stuffed it back into her bosom.

She raised her head, her bright black eyes staring straight at Li Yuan.

There was something in those eyes, not a request, not a plea, but a trust that was deeper and heavier than any of those.

"Michiko..."

"I don't want you to kill anyone, nor do I want you to risk your life."

"Whether it's killing or fighting to the death, that's our business, the business of those of us who were meant to die anyway."

"I just want you to help us rescue those children."

"They are so young, they don't understand anything. Some can't talk yet, some can't dress themselves, some are still losing their baby teeth, and some cry for their mothers at night."

"They didn't know what they had done wrong, why they were stuffed into the jars, why they were being eaten by those insects... they knew nothing..."

Wei Shufen's voice choked up, as if something was stuck in her throat, and she couldn't continue speaking.

She didn't cry; tears welled up in her eyes but never fell.

She tried her best to hold it in, until her eyes reddened, her nostrils flared, and her chin trembled slightly.

Li Yuan remained silent for a long time.

He looked at the Miao girl, at her red and swollen eyes.

Suddenly I realized that there are people in this world who, even knowing that there is a dead end ahead, still keep going.

It's not because I'm not afraid of death, but because there are some things that are more important than death.

Those people and those children were "more important than death" to her.

She was willing to die for them, but what she feared was that even if she died, she wouldn't be able to save them.

He put down his teacup.

"Let's go."

Only two words.

When those two words reached Wei Shufen's ears, she paused for a moment, as if she hadn't heard them clearly.

Then her eyes suddenly lit up, a light that seemed to ignite from the deepest darkness.

She stood up quickly, but in her haste, the stool fell to the ground with a thud, and she didn't even bother to pick it up.

She hastily wiped her face, wiping away the tears that were about to fall onto the back of her hand, then shook her hand and tossed the bundle onto her shoulder.

She turned back to call to Awang and Amu, her voice suddenly becoming crisp and bright, as if she were a different person: "Let's go! Have you all finished eating? Take what you haven't finished on the way!"

Awang and Amu also quickly stood up and hurriedly packed their things.

Amu bent down to pick up the chopsticks that had fallen on the ground, but didn't know where to put them. In the end, he just put them on the table and turned around to follow him.

Awang picked up the bowl of rice noodles, which had already gone cold, tilted his head back, and gulped down a large mouthful of soup. The soup dripped down the corner of his mouth and onto his clothes, but he didn't wipe it away.

The proprietress peeked out from the kitchen, holding a bowl of freshly cooked noodles. Seeing the group about to leave, she quickly called out, "Girl, you haven't paid yet!"

"Put it on the tab! We'll settle it when we get back!"

Wei Shufen shouted without turning her head, and her voice echoed from the alley. She had already darted several meters away.

The proprietress muttered a few words, put the bowl of noodles on the table, and her gaze fell on the last figure in the moon-white Taoist robe. Suddenly, she stopped talking.

She saw the Taoist priest turn around, glance at her, and nod slightly.

She stood there, clutching the rag in her hand, forgetting to wipe the table and forgetting to call for help.

When she came to her senses, the alley was empty except for a few empty bowls and two pairs of chopsticks on the wooden table, proving that someone had been there.

Once you leave the alley, you'll reach the road out of the city.

Huaihua is a small city; you can walk to the edge in just a few steps.

Fields began to appear along the roadside, planted with rapeseed and vegetables, a lush green expanse.

In the distance, the mountain silhouettes grew closer and clearer.

Wei Shufen walked at the front, taking large strides with an impatient eagerness, as if she were chasing after something.

Awang and Amu followed behind, glancing back at Li Yuan every now and then, as if to confirm whether he was still there.

Their eyes held both unease and reassurance. Uneasy because they didn't know what awaited them ahead, reassured because the moon-white figure was always there, neither too close nor too far, neither too fast nor too slow.

Li Yuan walked last.

His pace was unhurried, as if measured, each step landing steadily on the ground, yet it seemed as if he exerted no effort at all.

After walking for a while, Wei Shufen suddenly stopped and looked back at Huaihua City.

The morning light had fully spread, enveloping the small town in a warm, golden glow.

She stared at it for a long time.

There was reluctance, determination, and a sense of melancholy in his eyes, as if he didn't know if he could ever come back.

Then she turned around and continued forward.

"Hurry up," she said.

"We must cross the first mountain before dark."

Li Yuan followed behind her, his gaze sweeping over the rolling mountains, over the clouds swirling around the mountainside, and over a Miao village hidden deep in the mountains, which was not yet visible at the moment.

His gaze was so far that it seemed he could see the back of those mountains, the ravines beneath the clouds, and the untrodden path leading into the depths.

Inside, the Daluo Palace stands eternally.

That moon-like radiance hung above the palace, neither rising nor falling, neither increasing nor decreasing, like an invisible eye, quietly watching over everything.

The light didn't come in from the outside; it shone through from within, penetrating the void and the layers of cause and effect, shining all the way to a very, very far place.

Deep within that light, an extremely fine thread of cause and effect was slowly extending.

One end of it connects to Li Yuan, to that moon-white figure, and to that skin walking on the mountain road of Miao territory.

Its other end, passing through layer upon layer of illusions and deceptions, points to a deeper, darker, and more distant place.

There are fifty children in that place.

That place has a gathering of medicine immortals.

There is another piece he must place in that place.

The chess pieces are at your fingertips, the chessboard is at your feet, and this game...

just began.

The mountain road was even more difficult to travel than Wei Shufen had described.

Less than half an hour after leaving Huaihua City, the bluestone road underfoot disappeared, replaced by an earthen path half-covered by weeds.

The earthen path appeared and disappeared intermittently, sometimes hidden in the bushes, and sometimes cut off by gullies carved out by mountain torrents.

Wei Shufen walked at the front, but her pace was much slower than before.

She would stop from time to time to check her direction, stand on tiptoe to look at the distant mountains, and then look down at the moss on the ground.

Those moss marks seemed to her like some kind of road sign.

Awang and Amu followed behind, the contents of their bamboo baskets jingling all the way.

Amu was panting heavily, sweat streaming down his face.

His round face turned bright red, and he tried to say something several times, but swallowed his words back.

Ah Wang wasn't panting much, but his slender eyes kept scanning his surroundings, as if he were on guard against something.

Li Yuan walked at the very back, his pace still unhurried.

His moon-white Taoist robe stood out conspicuously in the lush green mountains and forests.

Strangely enough, the branches of the thorns and bushes seemed to have a spirit, automatically moving aside as he passed by, without catching a single hair on his clothes.

His shoes had a little mud on them, but that was all.

He had walked for so long, yet his breathing hadn't become disordered at all.

Wei Shufen secretly glanced back at him, a complex light flashing in her bright black eyes.

There was relief, awe, and a sense of peace that she herself didn't even realize.

She quickened her pace, the jingling of her silver ornaments echoing through the valley, startling several unknown birds that fluttered up from the bushes, drawing arcs in the sky before landing back in the distant woods.

By the time we crossed the first mountain, the sun was already setting.

The mountain wasn't high, but it was extremely steep.

In some places, you have to climb using both your hands and feet. Gravel slips off your feet and rolls into the bottomless valley, where a muffled thud is heard only after a long time.

Amu couldn't climb any further when he reached the halfway point of the mountain. He squatted behind a large rock, panting. His bamboo basket tilted to one side, spilling out several bamboo tubes, a packet of herbs, and a rusty bronze mirror.

He frantically picked it up, and the bronze mirror slipped from his palm, rolling down the hillside with a clanging and tinkling sound.

"Senior sister," he said, his voice trembling with tears.

"Don't chase after me," Wei Shufen said without turning her head. "The bronze mirror my master gave me."

"I'll find you another one later. Hurry up, it'll be troublesome if we can't get down the mountain before dark."

Amu responded, haphazardly stuffed the rest of the things into the bamboo basket, and scrambled after them.

Awang was walking ahead when he suddenly stopped and listened intently to something.

His brows were furrowed, and his narrow eyes were slits, making him look like a fox that had sensed danger.

"Senior sister," he said softly.

"Someone has been here."

Wei Shufen paused in her steps.

The fallen leaves had been turned over, and the cut ends of a few broken branches were still fresh. There were faint footprints on the soil, not just one person, but many people.

Her expression changed.

"People from the Medicine Immortal Society?" Amu's voice trembled.

Wei Shufen did not answer.

She stood up, looked around, and unconsciously placed her hand on the cloth bag at her waist.

The cloth bag was bulging, and I wondered what was inside.

Her lips were pressed into a line, and her chin was slightly raised. This was the instinctive reaction of a Miao woman when facing danger, not a retreat, but a preparation to fight.

"It's not the Medicine Immortal Gathering."

Li Yuan's voice came from behind, as calm as if he were saying that the weather was nice today.

All three people turned to look at him at the same time.

Li Yuan walked to the pile of marks, glanced down at them, and said, "Hunter."

"Three people, with hunting dogs, passed through here yesterday evening."

"They went west and never looked back."

His gaze fell on a crushed leaf.

"The hounds caught something, they stopped here for a while, and then continued on their way."

Awang squatted down, carefully examined the marks, and then looked up at Li Yuan, his eyes filled with barely concealed shock.

He only saw that someone had come by, and this person could tell how many people there were, what they were carrying, when they came, where they went, and even what they did along the way.

This can no longer be explained by ordinary "eyesight".

Wei Shufen, however, did not find it strange.

From the moment she saw that golden light on the train last night, she knew that this person was capable of far more than she could imagine.

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"Let's go..." She withdrew her gaze and continued forward.

"We need to reach the mountain pass before dark."

"There's a mountain god temple over there; we'll spend the night there."

After crossing the ridge, it was already getting dark.

Beyond the mountain lies a deeper valley and a denser forest.

Looking into the distance, the layers of mountains resemble solidified waves, one after another, stretching to the horizon.

The setting sun was bathing the mountains in a golden-red hue, and the light pierced through the clouds swirling around their waists, making them look as if someone had casually sprinkled gold powder onto a bluish-gray silk.

The mountain god temple that Wei Shufen mentioned is located under an old pine tree at the mountain pass.

The temple was extremely small, so small that only three or four people could squeeze inside.

The walls were built of rubble and thatched with straw. The door hung crookedly, creaking in the mountain wind.

The temple houses a stone statue that has been so badly weathered that its face is no longer recognizable; only the outline of a human figure can be vaguely discerned.

The incense burner in front of the stone statue was empty, filled with half a burner of rainwater, with a few withered leaves floating on the surface.

Amu plopped down on the ground, his bamboo basket tossed aside, and he slumped against the wall, panting heavily.

Awang didn't rest. He gathered some firewood and started a fire in front of the temple. He also took out some dry food from his bamboo basket, skewered it on a branch, and roasted it by the fire.

Wei Shufen stood at the temple gate, gazing absently at the last rays of the setting sun in the distance.

The afterglow was fading, and the outline of the mountain changed from golden red to bluish-gray, then from bluish-gray to dark black, finally merging completely into the night sky.

One by one, the stars lit up, starting with the brightest few, then more and more, densely covering the sky.

"Senior sister..." Awang handed her a piece of dry food.

"Tomorrow, after crossing Eagle's Beak Cliff and two more rivers, we'll reach the village."

Wei Shufen took the dry food, took a bite, and chewed very slowly.

Her gaze shifted from the stars to the figure in the moon-white Taoist robe beside the campfire.

Li Yuan did not sit down, but stood under the old pine tree, gazing at the boundless darkness below the mountain.

In the darkness, there were occasional flashes of light, whether fireflies or the lights of distant houses, it was hard to tell.

"Daozi," Wei Shufen suddenly spoke, her voice somewhat ethereal in the night wind.

Why are you helping us?

Li Yuan did not look back.

His voice came from the shadows of the trees, still as gentle and calm as ever: "Didn't you already beg?"

"But you don't know me, you don't know the people in our village, and you don't know those children."

Wei Shufen's voice was a little tense: "You could have just ignored it."

"You saved those people on the train last night; you've done more than enough."

No one will blame you.