In the vision, both he and Chun Ge appeared as they had four or five years ago in their youth, while that Tang-suited man showed no difference from the stranger who had come to his house today. It was as if… as if time had left no trace on his face…
The doctor stood there in a daze for a long time, so long that even Tang Yuan noticed something was wrong and came out to see what he was doing.
The doctor first put the black jade sphere in his pocket, closed the door, and returned to his room. Then he went to Tang Yuan’s room—the latter slept in the room converted from the living room. The doctor stood in front of that wall, silent for a long moment, then raised his hand and peeled off the wallpaper.
“Hey hey! Uncle! What are you going crazy about in the middle of the night?! Even if you’re mad at me, don’t take it out on the house!” Tang Yuan jumped anxiously: “What are you looking for? Huh, this wall was cracked before? What shoddy construction. But this repair job looks pretty ugly too.”
“I fixed it myself…” the doctor said in a daze. Fragmented images flashed by, and he remembered that due to being short on money at the time, and because the formation of this crack was too bizarre to explain to others, he had bought some cement and sand himself, mixed it up, and clumsily patched it. Later, feeling it was too conspicuous, he bought wallpaper to cover it when he had more money.
Tang Yuan blinked but didn’t respond.
The doctor casually stuffed the torn wallpaper into Tang Yuan’s hands: “Figure out how to put it back up yourself!”
“Hey!” Tang Yuan was angry and about to protest when he noticed the doctor’s serious gaze was frighteningly intense: “What… what’s wrong?”
“Do you know that person who came tonight?” the doctor asked word by word.
“Yes… yes! He’s my senior brother!” Tang Yuan started somewhat guilty, then felt this was the truth! Why should he feel guilty? He puffed out his little chest proudly.
“I want to see him. Right now.”
The Boss, who should have been at the Dumb House, now stood in a deep mountain forest. The sky was overcast with dense clouds, no stars or moonlight visible, making the place even more eerie and terrifying.
Deep in the mountains lay a long-abandoned estate. The lanterns at the gate were already damaged beyond repair, torn paper fluttering in the cold wind. The two stone lions standing silently at the entrance were covered with withered ivy vines, making them look as if bound by ropes at first glance.
If Lu Zigan were here, he would recognize this as the estate where the Liubo chess gathering had taken place years ago. But times had changed—this estate had long lost its former grandeur, leaving only desolation.
The Boss stood before the estate gate for a long time before reaching out to push open the half-closed door.
Fallen leaves covered the blue bricks in the courtyard, looking as if no one had been here for ages.
After briefly determining direction, the Boss headed toward the true west of the estate.
This Liubo chess estate wasn’t oriented north-south like ordinary residences, nor was it positioned according to traditional geomancy. The entire courtyard was laid out like a chessboard in a perfect square, with four corners precisely positioned in the southeast, northwest directions.
Newcomers to this estate, without celestial bodies to identify direction, probably wouldn’t notice this peculiarity and would assume it faced south.
The Boss walked along, only the sound of night wind stirring fallen leaves accompanying his footsteps. He kept his eyes straight ahead until reaching the corner in the true west. At the base of the courtyard wall stood a stone platform with a bronze ornament embedded on top.
The Boss’s eyes narrowed, because this was precisely the White Tiger Suppression Town he had collected from the doctor years ago.
This White Tiger Suppression Town should have been lying peacefully in a brocade box in the inner room of the Dumb House, yet now it had been placed here by someone. If he hadn’t been checking the antiques in the Dumb House and discovered some items had mysteriously disappeared, he wouldn’t have noticed.
It was precisely because of this White Tiger Suppression Town’s disappearance that the Boss deduced something was wrong with this Liubo chess estate. Suppression Town—Zhen means to suppress. The character “Bo” could mean numerous or universal, but could also refer to Liubo chess.
“If I’m not mistaken, the other three directions also have corresponding Four Divine Beasts Suppression Towns,” the Boss seemed to mutter to himself, but turned his head toward a certain spot in the corridor: “I really underestimated you—you even managed to collect all the scattered Four Divine Beasts Suppression Towns.”
“Hehe, I’ve already returned to the mortal world—what’s impossible about that?” Accompanied by a cold, emotionless voice, a figure slowly emerged from the darkness. Though his clothing and hairstyle were different, that gloomy face and bewitching eyes left no room for the Boss to mistake his identity.
“Lord Chamberlain, it’s been a long time,” the Boss said neither humbly nor arrogantly. He had been prepared to encounter Zhao Gao on this trip, just hadn’t expected him to arrive so quickly.
Hearing this, Zhao Gao chuckled lightly and shook his head with a sigh: “That title—I just heard it not long ago.”
The Boss was stunned, his expression changing: “You’ve seen the Young Master? What did you do to him?” In this era, besides himself, only Fu Su could address Zhao Gao as Lord Chamberlain.
“What could I do to him? This is a society ruled by law now.” Zhao Gao spread his hands with mock innocence, looking entirely blameless.
The Boss wouldn’t believe a single word of this. He stared at the other intently for a moment before slowly saying: “Zhao Gao, what is it you want?”
“What does the Lord Minister mean by this?” Zhao Gao raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms in a listening posture.
“If you wanted to reach the pinnacle of power and influence, you’ve already achieved it.”
“If you wanted to become a sovereign ruler, Hu Hai was no match for you—you could have replaced him completely, but you didn’t.”
“You schemed tirelessly to climb to the heights, yet played the entire empire like a toy, manipulating everything just to destroy it with your own hands?”
“Everyone has something they want, someone they want to become, achievements they want to establish. But all your actions are completely untraceable—I can’t figure you out. So after I crawled out of Qin Shihuang’s tomb, I specifically went to Handan to investigate.”
The Boss’s ethereal voice echoed through the dilapidated estate. By the last sentence, Zhao Gao’s previously composed expression finally showed some change.
He lowered his head, stroking his fingertips, and chuckled: “Oh? What did the Lord Minister discover?”
“Zhao Gao, second son of Zhao Daoxiang King Zhao Yan, born on the day of the Battle of Changping when four hundred thousand soldiers were buried alive. Born amid the blood and evil of four hundred thousand troops, judged by the Grand Astrologer as an ominous child. Bullied in the royal mansion from childhood, despised by his grandfather for his birth time, not even entered in the family genealogy.” The Boss spoke slowly, and for a moment it seemed as if the sounds of ancient battlefield clashes echoed in his ears—but listening more carefully, it was just the rustling of fallen leaves.
The corners of Zhao Gao’s mouth curved into an intriguing smile: “It seems I underestimated the Lord Minister.”
“With such origins, the Lord Chamberlain’s difficult life in Zhao is understandable. And the Lord Chamberlain’s friendship with the First Emperor probably began in their youth in Handan.” The Boss wasn’t intimidated by the coldness in Zhao Gao’s eyes, calmly stating his deductions.
“The Lord Minister’s speculation is correct.” Zhao Gao admitted frankly.
“After the Lord Chamberlain’s mother died tragically, you switched allegiance to Qin and helped the First Emperor destroy Zhao. That crown of King Wuling of Zhao that the First Emperor bestowed upon you probably held some obsession, didn’t it?” The Boss recalled that purple shell hairpin that had caused such turmoil years ago and couldn’t help shaking his head with a sigh: “The death of Empress Dowager Zhao Ji was probably your doing too, wasn’t it? All to have Zhao’s dowager queen executed. The Young Master was even implicated in this matter, losing imperial favor—the Lord Chamberlain really played an excellent game.”
“What the Lord Minister did back then truly amazed me—worthy of being Master’s favored disciple!” Zhao Gao clapped and laughed, but his bewitching eyes held no warmth.
“The Lord Chamberlain secretly aided the First Emperor in unifying the realm, yet afterward destroyed that empire without hesitation, acting entirely without principles or laws, purely according to whim. Such willful behavior—no wonder Master sealed you in the Apotheosis Formation, never to be reborn.” The Boss’s voice turned cold, completely unconcerned whether his words might anger the person before him.
“It seems you really do know quite a lot!” Zhao Gao casually leaned against a corridor pillar, but his tone returned to that emotionless monotone.
Some things he had learned after contacting his junior disciple Tang Yuan. The Boss looked up at the night sky where clouds had dispersed. More than two thousand years had passed, yet the stars above still moved along their ordained paths.
Human life is brief, like morning dew.
“People living in this world, whether pursuing ideals or goals, ultimately seek only to leave proof of their existence.”
“Human life spans mere decades. The ambitious pursue deeds that will be remembered through history, earning posthumous admiration—or if that’s impossible, notoriety will suffice.”
“Some write books or stories, hoping these words will become literature passed down through generations, existing for ages.”
“Some construct buildings—grand and magnificent, beautiful and spectacular, multi-storied pavilions, carved railings and jade balustrades—hoping to remain forever in the world.”
“Others create exquisite porcelain, jade, bronzes and such, praying these objects will be fine enough for wealthy collectors to treasure, hoping these items will be passed down.”
“This is actually the meaning behind antiques’ existence—each piece bearing traces of time is proof that countless people once existed.”
“So, Lord Chamberlain, can you tell me what exactly you pursue? If what you seek is lasting infamy, you’ve certainly achieved it. But what about now?”
The Boss questioned him sentence by sentence, but didn’t move Zhao Gao in the slightest. He smiled coldly: “Since the Lord Minister found this place, you should have guessed somewhat, shouldn’t you?”
The Boss fell silent. After a long pause, he frowned: “This place was built by Master, designed for Hu Hai to use humans as chess pieces in Liubo chess. Once life and death are at stake, the chess rules can strip the opponent’s lifespan. Given Master’s nature, this estate wouldn’t be so simple.”
“Oh?” A night wind swept through the hall, scattering Zhao Gao’s long hair tied behind his ears, partially obscuring his face and making his expression hard to read.
“The estate is like a chessboard, with four corners like a board, spaces reserved for placing Suppression Towns. Once this set of Four Divine Beasts Suppression Towns is complete, this place will probably become a world unto itself, becoming… a yin residence…” The Boss hesitated unusually at the end: “This place should be the yin residence Master prepared for you, but fearing he couldn’t capture you in one strike, he changed it to the Universe Formation to seal you instead.”
“Hehe, that Taoist built this estate to play a fair game of chess with me—a game with life as the stakes.” Zhao Gao laughed contemptuously: “Unfortunately, at the crucial moment, he backed down instead, tricked me into the formation, and imprisoned me alive for over two thousand years.”
“So you want to…” The Boss vaguely guessed what Zhao Gao sought, but without hearing it confirmed, found it hard to believe.
“Exactly. What I want is to finish the game he owes me.” Zhao Gao brushed away the hair blown across his forehead, revealing his wickedly charming face with a triumphant smile: “With him and me as the two owl pieces—the loser disappears completely from this world.”
A cold gleam flashed in the Boss’s eyes as he said icily: “There’s another choice—I don’t need to play chess. I can send you to meet the King of Hell right now!”
But before the Boss could act, Zhao Gao casually raised his hand. The Four Divine Beasts Suppression Towns on the stone platform rotated slightly, directly causing the Boss to feel chest pain, cough up blood, and unable to maintain his footing, dropping to one knee.
“Fool, I’m your senior brother—how could I not guess what you want to do?” Zhao Gao revealed a sinister smile and turned to leave. His cold voice came intermittently: “You’d better find the other five chess pieces and five players within a year. I can give you some advance information—I’ve collected countless evil objects these past years, so choose carefully which antiques to use as chess pieces!”
The Boss wiped the blood from his lips, his gaze sharp.
He didn’t doubt the truth of Zhao Gao’s words, and with such confidence, probably none of the antiques housed in the Dumb House could match his collection.
Would he have to go to treasure vaults across China to select suitable antiques?
Night wind blew past, fallen leaves rustling.
The Boss slowly stood up, his expression grave.
Zhao Gao had seized his weakness, leaving him no choice.
But the treasure vaults…
The Boss touched the jade armillary sphere at his chest—this sphere was the key to opening treasure vaults. Ever since this object was accidentally blood-bonded to Fu Su years ago, every vault opening required bringing Fu Su along. After Fu Su’s death, he could only bring Fu Su’s current reincarnation.
Fu Su had been mentioned by Zhao Gao earlier, probably already fallen into Zhao Gao’s hands, which was why the latter was so confident and unafraid of non-compliance.
So… was there only one choice left…
He really didn’t want that person dragged into this affair again…
The Boss closed his eyes, his hand gripping the jade armillary sphere trembling slightly.