Chapter 1136 - 236: Chess Tao Entering Saint, Yan Luo Performs_2
Chapter 1136: Chapter 236: Chess Tao Entering Saint, Yan Luo Performs_2
Elder Wang chuckled lightly, casually placing a piece, preparing to block, when he suddenly uttered a small “hmm” and stared at the position of Li Hao’s move.
His eyes flickered slightly, focusing on the position of that move. It seemed as though the move was intentionally stepping into his layout, equivalent to giving away a piece, but it wasn’t obvious. With his level of chess ability, it was quite apparent.
Yet… he could tell it was a giveaway, but he faintly sensed that it was a deliberate one.
If he took the piece, it would be a slow move that would give Li Hao a slight reprieve on the other side. If Li Hao could seize that leftover opportunity, it might create a gap in his chess formation.
But could this young fellow see through that?
Elder Wang twirled a piece in his hand, contemplated briefly, and decided to take it, then looked at Li Hao with a slight smile and said:
“You just gave me this piece for free.”
“Mm.”
The young man didn’t lift his head, replied with a gentle “mm,” and then quickly placed another piece.
And the position he chose was precisely where Elder Wang had just bet his step, and upon hearing Li Hao’s “mm,” Elder Wang’s heart sank. When he saw Li Hao’s move, he immediately realized that the previous move was indeed deliberate. However, this didn’t match this young man’s previous steady style of play.
The opponent changed his play style!
“Clever boy, you’re setting a trap for me!”
Elder Wang couldn’t help but say.
Li Hao slightly raised his head, revealed a toothy grin, and said: “It still needs your cooperation for it to be a trap, otherwise, it would just be a wasted move.”
Elder Wang, hearing this, rolled his eyes and noted his smug expression.
“This move won’t change the outcome, winning or losing isn’t decided yet. Although this move created a gap for you, this side seems destined to be a dead end!”
As he spoke, he placed a black piece, crossed to Li Hao’s front, and like setting the world in order, pressed it on the boundary line, sealing off a small dragon formation on Li Hao’s side.
Li Hao smiled, as if he had foreseen this, and continued placing pieces to tear open Elder Wang’s gap.
With several successive moves, Li Hao’s small dragon formation was completely killed off, while Elder Wang’s universe chess formation was also breached with a gap.
This was completely different from Li Hao’s previous path of steady preservation. Elder Wang raised his eyebrows slightly; at this moment, Li Hao’s style became fierce and sharp like an unsheathed sword, preferring to shatter rather than remain whole!
Elder Wang chose to defend; otherwise, his great situation would fall apart.
But Li Hao was relentless, abandoning all previous chess formations along his path, launching a fierce attack.
Elder Wang’s expression turned serious as he parried and defended at each step, but as Li Hao placed his pieces, he faintly sensed something was wrong. The formations Li Hao abandoned were somehow all interconnected as he pursued his onslaught!
In an instant, it was like being besieged on all sides, turning a gap road into a wind leaking from all directions!
Elder Wang fell into deep thought.
Li Hao, on the other hand, leisurely waited. Seeing that Elder Wang was pondering for a long time without placing a piece, he went to the side to brew tea and drink it.
After drinking three cups, his opponent still hadn’t moved. Li Hao wandered to the fields and admired the previously cultivated few immortal elixirs, noting their good growth.
As the sun set and the twilight sky gleamed, Li Hao returned to the chessboard. Elder Wang snapped out of his thoughts, rolled his eyes at Li Hao, and immediately placed a piece, saying:
“This kid, I’m tired of competing in this game, let’s say you won!”
With that, he placed a piece. Li Hao quickly sat back on the small wooden stool and followed with his own move.
After a few exchanges, Li Hao made no mistakes, and Elder Wang sighed helplessly, conceding defeat.
Li Hao counted and found out although he won, it was only by half a point.
Elder Wang had foreseen this earlier, and in terms of chess ability, he was still much stronger.
Li Hao managed a slight chance through temporary enlightenment, and Elder Wang happened to gamble on that opportunity.
As the game concluded, Li Hao’s mind buzzed and a prompt flashed before his eyes.
[You have comprehended the Chess Tao State of Mind: Transcendent Entering Saint]
After three years of playing chess, his Chess Tao experience had long since filled the Ninth Stage.
Now, with a surge of information, his Chess Tao broke through the Ninth Stage and leapt to the Tenth Stage!
Ninth Stage to Entering Dao, Tenth Stage to Sacrificial Dao, touching the true meaning of the Tao!
Previously, Li Hao treated a chess piece as merely a chess piece.
But later, the changes in the paths saw him treating a cluster of pieces as one piece.
On the chessboard, everything was a piece. This was returning to simplicity after experiencing countless pathways.
Like seeing a mountain as a mountain, seeing a mountain not as a mountain, seeing a mountain still as a mountain.
Since it is a piece, one could ’abandon’ it, or rather, not truly abandon because abandonment itself is a move!
Utilizing it to its extreme is what chess is.
If it has no use, that’s a wasted piece.
With the breakthrough in Chess Tao, obtaining the state of Transcendent Entering Saint in Chess Tao means that Li Hao can elevate a combat art to the Tenth Stage.
Cooking Dao, Artistic Path, and Carving Arts, three kinds of Tenth Stage Transcendent Entering Saint insights, were respectively embedded by Li Hao into Physical Body Dao, Control Dao, and Sword Dao.
Now, this fourth Chess Tao Entering Saint insight, Li Hao intends to embed into movement technique.
Thus, his Ninth Stage movement technique can also rise to the Tenth Stage, the Sacrificial Dao!
Among All Heavens, there are few who use movement technique for Sacrificial Dao; the only one Li Hao knows of is Feng.
Though Li Hao first learned fist skill followed by movement technique, now compared to Fist Skill, movement technique proves more advantageous.
Previously, when battling the Mixed Heaven Saint, Li Hao suffered due to weak movement technique, only managing to survive by leveraging the Extreme State.
If the movement technique reached the Tenth Stage, merely the movement technique would be enough to rank top-tier among All Heavens Saints.
With the addition of Extreme Realm, speed would be unmatched, definitely placing him at the pinnacle of the same realm.