Chapter 264: Unwittingly Ensnared

Chapter 264: Chapter 264: Unwittingly Ensnared

To be reborn from a Land of Death, to entrust one’s hopes to the future—that is the greatest form of courage.

This sentence rang in Chu Fan’s mind like a great temple bell. Chu Fan’s eyes were fixed on the chessboard on the screen, his body completely still.

Of the Fifty Great Dao, the heavens divine forty-nine, and one escapes. Nothing in this world is absolute.

The Celestial Dao itself is incomplete. What is that escaped one?

This "one" represents infinite possibility. Man proposes, Heaven disposes; do your best, and leave the rest to fate.

The Dao of Cause and Effect is also part of the Celestial Dao, so it too must have an "escaped one." This escaped one is the opportunity to change Cause and Effect.

So, does planting a specific cause inevitably bear a specific effect?

No!

Most likely, yes. Even after countless twists and turns, the result will remain the same. But what if a crucial juncture within that process is changed?

This is the "man proposes" part.

On the chessboard, Chu Fan’s vacant eyes saw a soaring dragon struggling ceaselessly. A youth held a dragon-slaying saber, peeling off its Dragon Scales one by one. The dragon was bathed in its own blood.

And in a hidden corner beneath the soaring dragon, a young dragon was rapidly growing.

Just as the soaring dragon was about to die, the young dragon unleashed a bolt of Thunder from its mouth, striking the dragon-slaying youth on the head.

"Young Master, the second question has begun!"

Lü Yunxiu’s voice suddenly broke Chu Fan’s train of thought. The chessboard screen in the air was slowly being retracted.

On the stage, Wen Chan held a Jade Flute and began to play it slowly.

Chu Fan was actually quite annoyed. He felt that he had just been on the verge of grasping a Heavenly Dao Law, only to be interrupted by Lü Yunxiu.

When he tried to recall it, he found he had forgotten what he had been thinking.

"What’s this question?" Chu Fan asked Lü Yunxiu.

"Miss Wen will play a piece. If someone can replicate it perfectly, they’ve passed the second question. Or, they can use two sentences to describe what they heard in the music. The answer is in the box beside her; as long as the meaning is close to the standard answer in the box, it’s considered correct."

’This question is quite novel.’

’With all this pomp and circumstance, it really seems like this woman is looking for a soulmate. If my Spiritual Power weren’t stronger than hers, I might have thought she was looking for a partner to spend the rest of her life with!’

Chu Fan immediately began to listen intently.

The woman’s skill truly surprised Chu Fan. She was genuinely a master of all the fine arts.

’One should never underestimate anyone in this world. Who doesn’t have a few special talents?’

The woman’s breath control was extraordinary; listening to the flute, it seemed as if she never paused to breathe, the melody flowing gracefully from beginning to end.

Listening to the flute music, Chu Fan felt as if he were in a valley deep within Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.

Countless Demon Beasts playfully chased each other around him, a hundred birds sang, and a curtain-like waterfall crashed into a pool from high above, roaring as a babbling brook flowed into the same pool from the side.

The countless sounds converged, forming a symphony of nature.

The harmonious scene formed a painted scroll so captivating one would never want to leave.

Here, there was no sorrow, no worry, no deceit. One didn’t even need to speak; you only had to stand there and feel it with an open heart.

Of course, this wasn’t an Illusion Realm; it was merely a scene imagined from listening to the flute’s song.

At this moment, Chu Fan thought of Yan Jiuxuan, of that Great Roc, and of Peach Blossom Valley.

’I should go visit Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain when I have the time!’

Chu Fan decided in his heart.

’When I’m free... there are so many places I need to go when I’m free. I have to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and ask Leng Yingxue why she left without saying goodbye.’

’I have to go to the Bamboo Sea to visit Yun Xi. I wonder if the Death Qi on her has been cleansed. She was already well-versed in pharmacology; how is she doing studying with those four old masters?’

’I have to return to the Eastern Domain to see my old friends. I also want to know how the Great Xia Kingdom is doing now. The people of the Eastern Domain should have settled down by now, right?’

When the piece ended, many were still lost in its reverie.

"I know! Miss Wen’s piece was about streams, birds, beasts, and waterfalls! So it must be about a harmonious mountain forest, right?"

Lowering her Jade Flute, Wen Chan looked at the man who had spoken and gave him a gentle smile.

"Does anyone else wish to say a few words?"

"I heard someone roaming the world with a sword!"

"No, it was clearly a pastoral song!"

In the sixty-four private rooms, most were shouting out the scenes they had perceived. Some had genuinely discerned a certain mood, while others were just summarizing what they’d heard from others, having actually understood nothing beyond the fact that the music was pleasant.

Still others had clearly heard a song of debauchery, yet pretended to be men of elegant and scholarly tastes.

Wen Chan maintained her smile the entire time, listening to them present their answers without saying whether they were right or wrong.

Finally, once the room had quieted down, she cast her gaze in the direction of the private room where Chu Fan was.

"And you, Young Master, what did you hear?"

"I heard the desire for seclusion, the pain of unfulfilled longing, the hope for a peaceful life, the weariness of conflict, and the helplessness of being swept along by the tide."

As Chu Fan spoke, Wen Chan, on the stage, trembled slightly.

A flash of terror in her eyes was gone in an instant, but how could it escape Chu Fan’s perception?

"Finally got what you wanted, didn’t you! Hmph!" Yan Ying’s voice sounded from beside Chu Fan.

"Huh? What are you talking about? What do you mean, ’got what I wanted’?" Chu Fan asked, confused.

"If I’d known you were this kind of person, I never would have brought you here."

At that moment on the stage, two Maids opened the box, took out an envelope, and after tearing it open, read from the paper inside.

"The life I hope to live after I retire from the world."

"That doesn’t count!" someone shouted.

"Right, right, that doesn’t count! Isn’t a pastoral song about life after retiring from the world?"

"Yeah, and so is roaming the world with a sword!"

"And what about waterfalls, streams, birds, and mountain forests? Isn’t that the same thing?"

Could the people who spent ten thousand taels of silver to amuse themselves in Xi Jun Building’s Blessing Tower possibly lack any status or standing?

What’s more, this was the Capital City of Hua Xu. Here, if a wall fell and hit ten people, at least two or three of them would be officials.

Faced with the angry crowd, Xi Jun Building had no choice but to nullify the question.

"In that case, shall we say that everyone has passed this question?" Wen Chan said with a bow.

"Fine!" someone responded.

"Hurry up and give us the third question!"

"Actually, the young master in the Mingxiu Room on the third floor has already answered two questions. According to the rules, he need only grant this humble one a promise, and I shall be his," Wen Chan said timidly.

"No way! What if I answer the third question correctly and he doesn’t? Wouldn’t I still have a chance to compete?" someone said.

As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of agreement rose up.

"Very well. Then this humble one shall present the third question!" Wen Chan said, clapping her hands.

Another screen was lowered from above.

This screen was filled with written characters, jumbled in arrangement, varying in size, and in different calligraphic styles. The cursive script was wildly frenetic, while the standard script was as rigid as that of a young child just learning to write. It was clear that these characters were not all written by the same hand.

"This question is very simple. There are a total of 9,800 characters on the screen. Seven of them were written by this humble one, and the rest were written by others. To pass, you need only find the seven characters that I wrote."

"How the hell are we supposed to find them? We’ve never even seen your handwriting!"

"Exactly! Just looking at all those characters is dizzying. Finding seven characters out of nearly ten thousand? Isn’t that asking the impossible?"

For others, this question was indeed difficult. But for Chu Fan, it wasn’t difficult at all.

He only needed to look at it through the lens of Cause and Effect to see which characters were written by Wen Chan. However, he didn’t plan to give the answer right away. Instead, he began to study the different calligraphic styles on the screen...