Lu Zheng was startled, his eyes narrowed, and he almost let go of his grip on the mountain wall, causing him to fall down.
Lu Zheng tightened his hands and grasped the cliff again. He blinked and sensed carefully. Except for the mountain wind at the turn of spring and summer, which carried the smell of moisture and grass, he felt no other smell.
But the words he just said clearly echoed in his mind. He is a master! His spiritual cultivation is extremely deep!
Lu Zheng's eyes flickered. He came six or seven times, but the other party never made a sound. Only this time he spoke when the water was not full. This made Lu Zheng less alert by at least half.
In that case...go check it out!
So Lu Zheng did not retreat but advanced, climbing up again while saying loudly, "Thank you very much, senior!"
I continued to climb up the cliff and soon reached a small platform. This platform was only halfway up the mountain. There were still rocks and cliffs for dozens of feet up and down, but the vegetation in front of the platform seemed to have been cleared away.
After a while, a cave was exposed against the mountain wall.
This is it!
Another cave!
Lu Zheng first bowed at the entrance of the cave, and then stepped in. Although his speed was not slow, he was actually mentally alert and the blood in his body was circulating to protect himself tightly.
The cave passage slopes downward, and it is not deep at all. It only took two turns and came to a wide cave space.
The space of this cave is not large, only tens of feet in diameter. There are dozens of gaps above the cave that connect to the outside of the mountain. Sunlight shines in from the gaps and shines into the cave. The sunlight is diffusely scattered and illuminates the surrounding space, creating many colors.
The green stalactites caught Lu Zheng's eyes.
What caught Lu Zheng's attention the most was, of course, not the environment inside the cave and the stalactite springs accumulated in various stalactite recesses, but the place on the inner side of the cave where the slanting sunlight happened to shine.
An old man in brown robes, with a pale face and black beard and black hair, sat in front of a two-foot-square stone slab. He kept staring at the stone slab until Lu Zheng entered the cave, then he raised his head stiffly and glanced at him.
Looking at each other, Lu Zheng could only feel that the other person's eyes were as dark as abyss, and the light was flowing, as if there was a universe hidden inside.
He is a master!
"Lu Zheng, a layman from the outer sect of Baiyun Temple, has met my senior!" Lu Zheng bowed and said.
"Yeah." The old man looked a little dazed, as if he was thinking about other things. After waiting for a moment, he motioned to Lu Zheng about the stalactite spring in the cave, "Go and fill it."
"Yes, thank you, senior!" Lu Zheng bowed again, and then walked towards the center of the cave.
In the cave, there are stalactites in the shape of inverted bamboo shoots above, and there are drops of turquoise spring water. Drop by drop, they gather from the tips of these stalactites and then drip down.
Below, in the low-lying areas on the ground, there are small pieces of depressions, filled with these stalactite springs. These stone springs are green in color, clear and translucent, and have a fragrance that fills your nose. They are of better quality than the spring water you received under the cliff.
Better.
Lu Zheng took out the other two empty bottles, put them into the puddle, and filled two more bottles.
During the process of filling the water, the old man seemed to have come to his senses, and said with some surprise, "All the laymen from the outer sect are so good at it. Is Baiyun Temple so powerful now?"
Lu Zheng smiled shyly, "Senior is laughing!"
"Hmm." Maybe Lu Zheng's cultivation level was not enough to shock the old man, so the old man nodded and said nothing. He just watched Lu Zheng fill two bottles of water and put them back in the bamboo basket behind him.
Then he asked again, "Can you play chess?"
Lu Zheng turned around and saw that the two-foot stone slab in front of the old man was a carved chessboard filled with black and white pieces. It looked like the end game of Go.
"I know a little bit," Lu Zheng said.
"Come and take a look." the old man said.
"Yes." Lu Zheng nodded, came to the old man's side, and looked down.
This is a two-foot-square stone slab with thirty-eight grooves carved horizontally and vertically. At the intersection of the grooves, there are stone chess pieces. Although they look half and half black, Lu Zheng can tell at a glance that black has the advantage.
It's so huge that it has almost surrounded and killed all the white pieces.
"Be careful." the old man reminded.
"Be careful?" Lu Zheng blinked, and when he looked at the chessboard again, he felt his eyes blurred.
In an instant, the black chess filled his eyes and turned into a dark universe, wrapping himself in it, making him unaware of the years and the surroundings. Then the white chess was like a knife, and the knife struck at him. His soul only felt a chill, as if
He is about to die.
Good guy!
The spiritual platform was guarded tightly, and the "Nine Heavens Golden Que Cave True Divine Transformation Method" was running rapidly. Lu Zheng felt that the spiritual platform was clear and bright, his eyes lit up, and he returned to the stone chessboard again.
"Huh?" The old man glanced at Lu Zheng again, "You have a good mental state."
Lu Zheng shed a drop of cold sweat on his temples. He felt his spirit become heavy. He looked at the chessboard again and saw nothing unusual. "What a weird chess game."
"I have been thinking about the endgame set up by an old friend for thirty years." The old man said calmly, "It contains some of my insights. You can get out of it so quickly. Not bad, not bad."
After thinking about it for thirty years...I'm afraid...
Lu Zheng smacked his lips, and then looked at the chess game again. He stood for a long time, concentrating on the deduction. He changed several moves and repeated dozens of steps, but still the result was that White would lose.
"White can definitely win?" Lu Zheng asked with a frown. With his current chess skills, he still didn't see the chance of white's victory. He doubted whether white could really win.
"We will definitely win." The old man nodded and glanced at Lu Zheng in surprise, "How many steps have you deduced?"
Lu Zheng's eyes flashed and he said honestly, "There are four trends, each with twelve or three steps."
"Oh?" The old man's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his hand to Lu Zheng, motioning for him to sit down, "Let's give it a try."
"You're showing off your ugliness." Lu Zheng bowed and sat cross-legged opposite the old man. He picked up a white stone in his hand, pondered for a moment, and placed it on one of the positions.
"Not bad." The old man nodded and responded.
The two of them played against each other at a very fast speed. They played seven rounds in a row. Obviously, these were all in the virtual deduction of the two before, so they responded very quickly.
Until the eighth move, Lu Zheng obviously slowed down because the old man's response was not included in his deduction.
Until the fourteenth time, the old man also slowed down because Lu Zheng's response was somewhat beyond his expectations.
but……
Even though Lu Zheng struggled hard, the black stone's first-mover advantage was still extremely strong. Under the premise that the old man himself was also amazing in chess, Lu Zheng surrendered on the nineteenth move.
"Okay!" The old man's eyes were bright, surprised and happy, "Do you have three other ideas?"
Seeing Lu Zheng nod, the old man stretched out his hand and flicked the chessboard. The black and white stones returned to their respective nests, and the slate chessboard returned to its original endgame appearance. "Come again."
Lu Zheng took a deep breath, then picked up a white stone, pondered for a moment, silently deduced it, and finally placed it gently on another position.