Even though his body was staggering, Ji Yuan's pace gradually quickened.
'Fate...Fate...'
As his mind was churning, Ji Yuan swayed left and right and moved forward aimlessly like a wandering soul. The severe pain in his eyes showed no sign of easing, and his already blurred vision was covered with a layer of blood.
Ji Yuan just pressed his right hand tightly on his eyes, as if his eyes would explode if he didn’t do so.
Although his physical condition was very poor, Ji Yuan was trying his best to think about the life's knowledge of two lifetimes in his mind, eager to find an answer, to understand the chessboard of heaven and earth and how to crack it.
With his mind full of thoughts and his body wandering around aimlessly with bloodshot eyes, Ji Yuan was staggering and rushing around on the streets of Juntianfu. Subconsciously, he was only looking for one thing, but he didn't even have the energy to figure out what he was looking for.
'There must be, there must be...'
Suddenly, he found a set of Go being sold in front of a street stall. His mind suddenly became clear, and Ji Yuan rushed forward, grabbed the chessboard and box, and left without even bothering to pay.
"Hey, hey, hey, you... stole my chess pieces..."
The peddler, who was originally in low spirits, was about to attack when he saw someone snatching his things, but he was frightened by Ji Yuancang's ferocious appearance with bloody eyes. His voice gradually became weaker and weaker, and he did not even dare to chase out to snatch back the chessboard and chess box.
"Ho…ho…ho…ho…"
His breathing was trembling, and he kept repeating something in his mind in a somewhat confused manner.
'I am a chess player...I am a chess player...'
Ji Yuan staggered out of the city like a madman. Although his center of gravity was unstable, his pace kept getting faster and faster. In the end, he almost turned into an afterimage and ran straight into the wilderness and forests.
They ran madly for a whole day and night, running straight from Juntianfu City for more than 300 miles and rushing to the deserted Junyuan Mountain. They ignored the thorns, vines and weeds along the way and kept rushing wherever the desolate place was.
Ji Yuan rushed through the mountains for a long time. When he saw a stone cave in the mountain wall in front of him, which was only two meters deep, he immediately rushed towards it with the chessboard in his arms as if he had found a savior.
He staggered into the cave, took off the Qingteng Sword and placed it at the side of the cave, put down the chessboard and chess box, and sat cross-legged inside like a demon, his mind full of previous images and lingering fear.
He opened the chess box and took out the black and white pieces. What he saw before him was no longer a mortal chessboard, but the situation of the world that he had substituted with his heart. With the sound of a "click", the chess piece fell, and the artistic conception once again spread across the sky and field, and Ji Yuan began to place the pieces and develop the chess game.
Having glimpsed the sign of great changes in heaven and earth, Ji Yuan absolutely could not or dared not tell anyone.
He had an almost certain intuition that he, as a chess player, was observing the changes in the world and doing things that would change the destiny of the world. Once he revealed his true intentions to others, his end would be countless times worse than that of Taoist Qingsong. He was afraid that he, Ji, and even those who heard about this would be reduced to ashes in an instant!
The heavy pressure was like a mountain, making Ji Yuan breathless. He had to find an answer by himself, no one else could ask for help!
Once in the Ju'an Pavilion in Ning'an County, Ji Yuan and Yin Zhaoxian played chess, and they could play many games in half a day. But at this moment, every chess piece that fell under the ground underwent countless changes in the virtual energy of the artistic conception of mountains and rivers, projecting the already disappeared chessboard of heaven and earth onto the Go board in front of them. Dropping a piece was like lifting a mountain.
The fire in the artistic conception alchemy furnace has been blazing all the time, and the magic power in the body is running wildly without stopping for a moment, just to support this chess game to the end.
The change of time has lost its meaning to Ji Yuan's consciousness at this moment, but it is obvious in his body.
The stars move, the moon rises and the sun sets, thunderstorms, wind and clouds rise and the sun sets... ...
Even though the situation and intention at the moment were special, Ji Yuan was slowly becoming thinner and thinner...
One night.
“Ouch~~~~~~~~~~”
A sad wolf howl was heard not far away. Soon after, an old lone wolf that was driven out of the pack carefully approached the wall of a cave in the mountains in the dark and saw a person lying frozen in place.
The man's body was motionless, his hand still holding the chess piece suspended above the board, his clothes were a little ragged, and dead branches and leaves were piled around him.
“Roar~~~~”
The old wolf crouched low and approached the cave wall carefully, saliva dripping as its fangs were exposed.
“Buzz~~~”
The tip of the Qingteng sword leaning against the outer wall of the cave rang, and the blade slid out of the scabbard by less than half an inch. The cold light of the sword made the old wolf feel like he was entering an icy cave.
“Woo… woo…”
The frightened old wolf fled in panic with its tail between its legs...
. . .
In the fifteenth year of the Yuande reign of the Dazhen period, there was no sound of reading in the county school of Ning'an County.
Among the students in the school, a small number of them were older, and except for a few who returned to their families, the rest got the opportunity to continue their studies and went to several academies in Desheng Prefecture.
At this moment, the students in the hall, the youngest of whom was seven years old and the oldest was sixteen, all looked at their teacher with reverence and reluctance. Yin Qing, who was already fifteen years old, was also sitting among them with a serious look on his face.
Yin Zhaoxian did not say anything, but just picked up the pen and wrote an article on the teacher's desk. After a long time, when he finished an article, he blew it gently a few times to make the ink dry faster, and then put it aside on the table.
Seeing that the writing on a piece of paper with an article on it on the table had dried, he took it, folded it carefully, put it in an envelope, and then picked up a pen and wrote on the envelope: Master gives it to Du Ming.
After finishing writing, he closed the envelope and put it aside, stacking it on top of a dozen thick paper seals on the other side of the desk.
After doing all this, Yin Zhaoxian picked up the pen again, dipped it in ink and started writing the next article.
Today, Mr. Yin from Ning'an County School wants to write a letter to each of his students, just like the one those students who dropped out of school and returned home received before they left, and just like the one those students who went to study in distant academies received before they left.
The whole classroom was in complete silence. No child disturbed their teacher while he was writing. The students sat upright and respectfully without anyone whispering to each other.
This kind of school discipline comes from heartfelt respect. Today, Yin Zhaoxian's teacher's majesty does not need a ruler, and the ruler of Ning'an County School has long been covered in dust.
About half an hour later, Yin Zhaoxian put the pen back on the pen holder and waited for the ink on the last piece of paper to dry before sealing it.
"Okay, there are sixty-seven letters in total. I have finished writing them all. I will send them to you one by one after the cram school starts."
Yin Zhaoxian imitated this move from his close friend Ji Yuan. He felt it was very clever and could more or less help students strengthen their aspirations and ideals.
All the students below were looking at Yin Zhaoxian, who felt a little sympathetic. He stood up and smiled.
"Why do I read the books of sages? Of course, I want to give back to the world. However, in today's world, it is not easy to promote the teachings of sages. It is not something that a commoner like me can accomplish."
Yin Zhaoxian held a handwritten book entitled "An Essay on Birds" in his hand.
"Master, I once passed the provincial exam and got a second-class score. I am determined to do better in this re-examination so that I can realize my ambitions in the future. Master, you have educated thousands of people in your lifetime, and you have educated tens of millions of people as an official!"
"Master... I heard from my father that the officialdom is very cruel, and the struggles in the court are bloodless..."
A thirteen-year-old boy sitting at the front of the classroom hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke. He was the second son of Ning'an County Magistrate Chen Sheng, named Chen Yu, and one of Yin Zhaoxian's more admired students.
In fact, in the past two years, Yin Zhaoxian, a teacher in Ning'an County, has already gained some fame in nearby counties and even in two or three academies. This is because he is very capable in teaching and educating people. Most of the students he teaches are well-versed in classics and have unique insights. Older students can be admitted to the academy based on their own talents and insights.
As a result, people from other counties sent their children to Ning'an to go to school, and the number of students in the county school increased significantly.
Chen Yuqing heard his father Chen Sheng comment on Master Yin at the end of last year, saying that he was a man of great ambition. Although his works "On Birds" and "To Know Righteousness" were still being improved, they were not simple books at present. However, this kind of person had too much righteousness and was most likely to fail in officialdom.
Chen Yuqing was a little scared of these words. For some reason, she didn't dare to say them out loud now, for fear that her teacher would never come back after she said them.
Yin Zhaoxian was naturally not aware of the complicated thoughts in the students’ minds. He just felt warm in his heart because of the students’ reluctance and concern for him.
"Well, although I am only a scholar, I have discussed the imperial court with my friends, so I have a certain understanding of it. But you don't have to worry, maybe I am not knowledgeable enough and will be eliminated from the list!"
Yin Zhaoxian's joke also made the students laugh, but perhaps only the youngest students took it seriously. The other children believed in their hearts that their teacher would definitely pass the exam.
Yin Zhaoxian held the book in his hand and looked at the green bamboos in the garden outside the school. He took the provincial examination again after nine years. Now he was thirty-six years old, which was not very old, but he was not a young scholar either.
But this time, I felt a lot less anxious.
After publishing two good articles, Yin Zhaoxian felt more and more that education and nurturing were important, but educating people in this school alone was too weak, so weak that even these two books were difficult to publish.