Chapter 50 The Chess Piece

A faint smile, calm words, and the powerful Qi dynamic boost brought by the Embodiment of Cause and Effect, representing one of the three Kunlun Gods, made Kai Ming, who was originally handsome but too scummy to be considered attractive, wear an unhurried smile.

The true spirit manifested, restoring the calmness of one of the Ten Great Peaks, the Dao Fruit Realm.

His temperament was distant and mysterious, as if he were the one behind the scenes. He seemed surprised that he had been detected and discovered in advance. Then, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, with three parts astonishment, three parts indifference, three parts carelessness, and one part leisure. He said faintly, "I didn't expect that the Heavenly Lord would notice me."

"But, what can you do even if you notice me?"

"I won't tell you anything."

"Or, at this time, pretending not to know is the best choice for both of us."

Kai Ming smiled and leaned forward, saying, "What do you think?"

Before his voice fell, a shadow flashed before his eyes, followed by the afterimage of five fingers. Kai Ming's pupils contracted.

[Authority · Overseeing the Ten Directions].

Kai Ming directly observed this move in the future and said with a smile, "I'm not like Yuan Tiangang, that half-baked amateur."

"He couldn't foresee that you would hit him, but I'm different."

"Everything within and without the Ten Directions is within my sight."

"You, too."

His words were gentle and understated, as if everything were under his control.

His footsteps paused slightly, just as he was about to dodge.

The intense pain was already on his face.

What?!

The Daoist's five fingers directly gripped Kai Ming's head, his eyes calm and innocent. Then, he twisted his body, and the terrifying power of his flesh instantly erupted. In a second, Kai Ming's head accelerated to the point where it could actively emit light, accelerating the object directly to the speed of light. Then, it was incredibly heavy and slammed heavily against the wall!

Boom!!!

Kai Ming's face was directly embedded in it.

The Daoist silently retracted his right hand and casually smoothed his neat sleeves.

"What did you say?"

"Your voice was a little soft just now."

"This Daoist didn't hear clearly."

"Say it again?"

His tone was gentle, but it sounded like a heavy threat to Kai Ming's ears.

Kai Ming was embedded in the wall, his limbs hanging down and swaying. He said in a muffled voice, "...How is that possible? I clearly foresaw it."

The Daoist said calmly, "Don't you understand yet, Kai Ming?"

"Just because you saw it doesn't mean you can avoid it."

Wei Yuan's eyes were deep as he stared at Kai Ming. Kai Ming felt as if he had fallen into a quagmire woven from cause and effect, unable to break free. It was like an ordinary person seeing the explosion of the universe—what use was it even if you saw it?

He could only helplessly say, "What did you do?"

Wei Yuan maintained the status that the Yuanshi Heavenly Lord should have in front of the three Kunlun Gods and said calmly, "It was nothing."

"I just erased the process between cause and effect, so that the beginning and the end overlap."

"That's all."

!!!

Kai Ming gasped, inhaling a mouthful of slaked lime because he was embedded in the wall.

He coughed violently several times.

He reached out, supported himself on the wall, and pulled himself out. He already understood why his authority had been broken—if cause and effect overlapped, the beginning would be the same as the end. When you saw it, it meant that it had already hit you with full force.

Look, go ahead and look.

Aren't you so great?

If you saw it, try dodging it!

He looked at the wall in front of him and saw that it was still intact. His mouth twitched, "How could the wall withstand that just now? Is this wall made of star gold or the sands of time? How is it so solid?"

"I erased the [effect] of destroying this thing."

??

Kai Ming gritted his teeth and said, "That's not cause and effect at all!"

Wei Yuan glanced at Kai Ming and said, "Whether it's cause and effect or not, I decide."

Kai Ming sat down dejectedly, still holding the candied hawthorn in his mouth—even when he had been slammed into the wall by the Yuanshi Heavenly Lord, he had managed to transfer the candied hawthorn in his mouth to a safe position. His face was dejected as he said, "Okay, okay, I admit I was a bit arrogant just now, so..."

He looked curiously at the Daoist in front of him and said, "You came to me to ask something?"

"I see, you didn't deduce my true form at all!"

"You just relied on your status to see it at a glance. I was just saying, you reckless..."

Wei Yuan raised his eyes.

Kai Ming paused, his expression unchanged, and said, "Reckless... Among the vast crowd, the intelligent, wise, and exemplary curator can certainly perceive my true form without relying on authority, just by relying on himself."

Wei Yuan ignored him and said, "I saw the same aura on the painter and the old soldier."

"Oh, Brother Soldier's Soul is actually one of Lu Wu's anchors."

Kai Ming said very readily, "Because he's too honest. If the Big Sister and I aren't around, he'll definitely be taken advantage of and tricked. If things go wrong, his soul might be scattered, and his Dao Fruit might be used by others. So, to prevent such things from happening, of course I have to help him."

"To prevent Lu Wu from discovering this anchor, I even added something to it specifically."

"???"

Wei Yuan was silent. He suddenly thought of the thing that had fallen from the aura of the true spirit behind the Soldier's Soul.

He looked at Kai Ming, who was smiling so widely that it seemed his mouth would split to his ears.

In his heart, he suddenly had a strong suspicion about Kai Ming's true purpose—whether it was to 'protect his companion's true spirit' or to 'watch his companion's misfortune.' He thought of the cold, white-haired, golden-eyed young man who lived on Mount Kunlun year-round, dressed in snow-white clothes, and his mouth twitched.

If he knew you were doing this, he would probably come down with his sword and chop you up.

"What about the painter? Is it the Queen Mother of the West?"

The smile on Kai Ming's face gradually faded. "...I don't know."

His eyes glanced outside. Because of the seal of cause and effect, the people outside couldn't hear the movements inside. He saw the young female painter eating vodka-flavored noodles with a happy face. Then, he withdrew his gaze and said, "I've tried many tests, and I even gave her the nickname Vodka Lady."

"I deliberately called her Big Sister and Your Majesty."

"But there was basically no reaction."

"Whether she is the Queen Mother or not, I don't know... but it's highly likely that she's harmless to the human world. I can be sure of that."

Wei Yuan said slowly, "Not the Queen Mother of the West... Even you don't know where the Queen Mother of the West is?"

Kai Ming shook his head.

His pupils were deep, as if they carried the convergence of countless causes and effects, but he still couldn't see through the true face of the faceless goddess behind the painter girl. It was as if that goddess was originally in a faceless state. Finally, he withdrew his gaze, noticed Kai Ming's gaze, and replied, "Not involved in cause and effect."

"Sigh..."

Kai Ming was slightly helpless.

Wei Yuan thought for a while and said, "I've always been curious... what is your relationship with the Water Ghost?"

"Is he just your clone?"

Kai Ming was surprised, then laughed out loud and said, "You want to ask, if I completely awaken, will I directly occupy his true spirit, and then the final result will be that I come back, and the guy in your museum who fished himself is gone, right? Hahahaha..."

"You're really... If you want to ask, just ask directly."

"I don't know who you learned this awkward personality from."

Kai Ming shook his head and said, "Don't worry, that won't happen."

"Strictly speaking, he and I are two different individuals, but he and I have a certain [connection]."

He reached out and said, "Our state is different from yours, Wei Yuan. In your case, the true spirit reincarnates again and again. The true spirit is like every drop of water. Each reincarnation will fall into a slightly larger puddle, and then reincarnate again. All the water in it will continue to exist, so you are always you."

"And we were gods from the beginning."

"Our true spirit is like an ocean to ordinary mortals, and this body is just containing a drop of water."

"This drop of water represents an anchor point, a chance for us to return when we encounter a crisis. Apart from that, the Water Ghost's self-awareness and personal growth are all independently possessed by him."

"So, I am him, but he is not me."

"It is me, and yet not me."

The Daoist nodded slightly and suddenly seemed to think of something. He raised his fingers slightly and said, "If I cut off the cause and effect between the two of you, wouldn't that mean that the Water Ghost would just be himself?"

Kai Ming smiled brightly and gently, his eyes slightly narrowed. "You want to cut off the anchor of cause and effect that I, also in the Dao Fruit Realm, left behind."

"The Yuanshi Great Heavenly Lord is indeed the Yuanshi Great Heavenly Lord. He's really domineering."

Wei Yuan lowered his eyes and said, "After all, he's a member of my museum."

"After everything is over, I will cut off this cause and effect."

"I will bear the cause and effect within."

"One last question."

Wei Yuan's fingers slightly gripped the sword hilt. He thought of the question that had always puzzled him, the suspicion he had always been pondering.

His voice was calm as he asked, "Why did you, Lu Wu, and that faceless goddess place your anchors and opportunities here with me? I don't think I'm so lucky. At the beginning, when I hadn't even recovered my true spirit, and I could only see ghosts in this lifetime, when I entered the museum, there were already three of you there."

"After that, there was also the inheritance of the Kunlun Mountain God and Li Chunfeng of the Tang Dynasty."

"Are these things coincidences, or are they preparations for a great calamity in the future, a scheme, and the beginning of this scheme began when the Undying Flower was picked?"

"Overseeing the Ten Directions couldn't have failed to see Jue pick the Undying Flower. In other words, you allowed Jue to pick the flower."

"I've been walking alone all the way."

"Or have I been guided by you in the dark?"

"Am I a pawn of yours, arranged to walk this path?"

"Overseeing the Ten Directions, piercing through the wall?"

!!!

Kai Ming's scalp tingled, and he raised his hands, saying:

"Damn, calm down, calm down, this pot is too big, I can't carry it!"

"Do you think I can arrange and design an existence of your level?"

"And weaving such a big destiny, weaving it down piece by piece, that's the authority of the God of [Destiny]! Even he would have to vomit blood from exhaustion."

Wei Yuan said, "Of course the Yuanshi Heavenly Lord cannot be designed."

"Then, what about Yuan?"

"You didn't deny the rest, which means you did let Jue take the flower away at the time."

"Then why would one of the Ten Great Peaks make these decisions?"

"Is it to create a [anchor] of the great calamity that will devour the Undying Flower, run through the tribulations of the human world, and will definitely reincarnate in the final great calamity of the Three Realms..."

"The [anchor] of the great calamity."

"And then gather your anchor, Lu Wu's anchor, and all the other methods, all with me as the anchor?"

Kai Ming's expression was slightly solemn.

ps: Second update today...