Follow the path of Dao from infancy

“`

Li Hao was wondering if he were to have his bones measured again, what the result would be.

But the chance came only once, and no one thought the old Taoist from Qingqiu Mountain had made a mistake.

Since the day of the bone measurement, he had clearly felt the bustle at the Mountain and River Courtyard diminish. In the past, the ladies from each courtyard would often bring their children over to play or invite him over to eat some border or tributary state’s delicacies and specialty fruits, then let their children play with Li Hao, trying to become closer from a young age.

But now, two months had passed, and only the First Lady, Fifth Lady, and that young Ninth Lady had come to visit him.

They just saw that he was unharmed, and then they didn’t come over again.

However, he occasionally received fruits, pastries, and the like sent over from the Eternal Spring Court.

Now that it was winter, he had even received two sets of little cotton-padded trousers and jackets made of fine beast fluff, as well as a scarf.

Li Hao put the scarf around the young girl’s neck.

…

The next day.

At the break of dawn, Lin Haixia was already practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard with Bian Ruxue.

Previously at the weapon rack, Lin Haixia had the child choose among various weapons, performing drills with each to gauge her affinity for them, and Bian Ruxue ultimately chose the sword.

And through practice, Lin Haixia found that she indeed had a talent for swordsmanship, so she taught her earnestly, occasionally being strict.

Around noon, Li Hao finally woke up leisurely. He was not yet six years old and didn’t have to abide by the family rules of visiting the Eternal Spring Court each morning to greet the head lady, so he could comfortably sleep in.

Seeing the diligent little figure practicing in the courtyard, Li Hao shook his head slightly and murmured to himself, feeling sorry for her, then, with the help of his personal maid, washed and had breakfast. Afterward, he routinely summoned the two house servants who knew how to play chess to set up the game in the pavilion.

Before long, the game of chess came to an end, but Li Hao noticed he didn’t receive any notification of experience points increasing, which made him pause in surprise.

Then he saw the following words appear before his eyes:

{To advance to the third segment of Chess Tao, one needs a chess heart.}

A chess heart?

Li Hao was puzzled.

As if sensing his thoughts, the words gradually faded away, then another line appeared:

[To cultivate a chess heart, one’s mind must contain only chess, only a passion for chess.]

Good, a straightforward explanation.

Li Hao was somewhat surprised that he could actually interact with the words.

Hello?

The words disappeared.

Li Hao tried calling out a few more times, but there was no response, so he stopped pondering about it, and instead ruminated internally, a passion for chess?

So, he needed to refine a chess heart first before he could earn experience points?

At the Divine General Mansion, Li Hao had heard of a sword heart, a spear heart, and even the phrase ‘sharp-tongued but soft-hearted.’

But he had never heard of a chess heart.

It made sense, after all, playing chess and other minor pursuits were considered insignificant trifles not worthy of attention at the Divine General Mansion.

However, a chess heart should be something similar to a sword heart, right?

He thought back to when the ladies in the courtyard would hold him and chat idly about how a certain young man had been practicing swordsmanship every day since childhood, holding a sword even while eating, sleeping with a sword, and after refining a sword heart, progressing at a rapid pace in his swordsmanship training.

So, did he need to do the same to refine a chess heart?

But did Li Hao like Chess Tao?

In his previous life, he had only a slight understanding of chess, but it was really just a little.

Playing chess… who really enjoys playing chess among serious people?

Playing poker is more enjoyable than playing chess.

After a day’s hard work, who has the energy for such a brain-draining activity?

Unless it’s for a change of pace or an occasional alternate form of entertainment.

Even though he had a panel that could improve his Chess Tao experience, Li Hao only saw it as a tool for farming Skill Points, not something to truly fall in love with or become passionate about.

That would be difficult.

Li Hao was a bit stubborn and had the house servant play another round of chess with him.

Then he became a believer.

This left Li Hao somewhat troubled, his little face creasing in frustration. Just when he was starting to enjoy cultivation practice, you tell me I can’t earn experience from playing chess, how can this be?

Does it really mean that he should embrace the chess set every day?

But without the experience, why would I bother holding it?

Maybe he should switch to practicing some other art?

But this chess heart, he wondered what its use was; he’d figure it out later.

In the following days, Li Hao moved the chess board to his bed, laid a blanket on it, and simply used it as a pillow.

During meals, he also set the chess board beside him as if it were a statue of Buddha.

But this formality seemed to have no effect.

Li Hao didn’t continue to play chess with the servants, instead spending his time watching the young girl practice swordsmanship or browsing through various books at Listening Rain Tower.

One day, while flipping through books at Listening Rain Tower, Li Hao saw several pages of a chess manual in one of them, which made him curious.

The book told stories of a famous figure from hundreds of years ago, who had been humiliated in his youth and sought revenge later on. However, his enemy had given up martial arts for chess.

The figure had said that when the day of retribution came, he would crush his opponent completely, driving him to despair before killing him.

It turned out that the opponent had been studying chess for many years already.

They engaged in a chess battle right on the spot.

The figure was soundly defeated, and although he was stubborn, he did not kill his enemy then and there.

Instead, he executed the enemy’s entire family, sparing no one, not even children, leaving only the enemy alive, vowing to return in the future.

But he never managed to solve that chess game before he died.

After reading this, Li Hao couldn’t help but want to laugh.

It seemed the enemy knew the figure very well. Although his talent for martial arts was inferior, he was clever enough to learn this skill to avoid a deadly fate.

Suddenly, Li Hao felt that chess might be somewhat interesting after all.

It’s not surprising that the Li Family, like him, in this martial world deep down felt that playing chess was merely casual entertainment, meaningless.

“`

But now, this idea had changed somewhat.

{Chess Manual ‘Myriad’ detected, would you like to include it in the collection?}

Text suddenly appeared before his eyes.

Li Hao was surprised and then remembered that there was a feature on his panel for collecting chess manuals.

It was also clear that he indeed had no interest in Chess Tao, having treated it only as a tool for gaining experience. In five years, he had never bothered to collect any chess manuals.

At this moment, he felt somewhat ashamed.

Li Hao immediately chose yes.

Soon, an entry named “Myriad” appeared in the collection section of his panel.

At the same time, there was a prompt indicating that it could be embedded.

Li Hao, puzzled, tried selecting the embed option.

Then a line of text popped up:

{Please select an embed target: Physical Body Path, Swordsmanship.}

Li Hao was surprised, what did this mean?

He thought about it and chose the Physical Body Path.

He had just begun cultivating and experienced the feeling of a sudden increase in strength all over his body, so he was looking forward to the Physical Body Path even more.

[Embedding successful.]

At that moment, Li Hao suddenly felt a complex stream of information rushing towards him.

This feeling was very familiar to him, and after a brief moment, it was completely assimilated. Li Hao saw behind his panel:

[Physical Body Path: Level One (Myriad)]

And the patchy information in his mind told him exactly what had happened.

Myriad: Places the target amidst the myriad elements of the world, impossible to discern, concealing all traces of one’s energy.

Li Hao exerted a little bit of effort, and his bodily presence immediately retracted; the surging strength and energy inside his body seemed to shrink into every pore and cell, invisible to any observer.

“A special attribute?”

Li Hao was shocked, he hadn’t thought that a chess manual could have such an effect, it was simply inconceivable.

With his level two Chess Tao, he could somewhat understand this manual. It contained a grand maze within a smaller one, with traps and pitfalls at every turn; it was no wonder that the great figure had never been able to solve it in their lifetime.

However, after embedding this chess manual into the Physical Body Path, it turned out to give similar attributes.

If he had chosen Swordsmanship as the embedding target, would his sword techniques possess additional deceiving effects, making the true killing moves imperceptible to others?

If matched with the Tidal Sword Skill’s exquisitely lavish sword moves, it would probably be even more dazzling to the eye.

Li Hao glanced at his panel where the option to embed Myriad Chess Manual had disappeared, signifying that only one choice could be made.

However, this had opened a new world for him. Chess manuals were truly the way to go!

If he could collect various other chess manuals, wouldn’t he be able to imbue his attacks with all kinds of special buffs?

Thinking of this, Li Hao’s interest was piqued, and he began searching around the tower.

But Listening Rain Tower, while a sacred place for martial artists, was not a sanctum for chess players. After several days of searching within the Listening Rain Tower, Li Hao only found three chess manuals, one of which was even used to prop up a bookshelf.

“Flying Phase,” “Hidden Bow,” “Tiger Press.”

After obtaining these three chess manuals, Li Hao studied them and guessed their attributes based on the characteristics of each, embedding “Flying Phase” and “Hidden Bow” into Swordsmanship.

“Tiger Press” was embedded into the Physical Body Path.

Flying Phase: Doubles the attack range, gaining long-range striking effects.

Hidden Bow: The killing move remains hidden until it strikes fatally in one move.

Tiger Press: Slightly increases strength and has an intimidating effect.

The three chess manuals brought significant improvement to Li Hao.

Unfortunately, although Divine General Mansion had everything one could possibly need, the martial artist household did not have the habit of collecting chess manuals.

Li Hao returned to his courtyard and could only ask the house servants to look for chess manuals outside on his behalf, but they all made excuses, none daring to aid the young lord on a path that seemed far from the right vocation.

With no other choice, Li Hao had to offer a hefty reward to entice them.

In the following days, aside from waiting for chess manuals, Li Hao slowly began to ponder over the art of chess.

He removed the blanket covering the chessboard at his bedside, put it back, and took away the chessboard on the dining table. Occasionally, he would walk around the courtyard or watch the young girl practice swordsmanship.

Perhaps because she had lost her parents at a young age and experienced hardship, the young girl had an extremely hardworking nature. Under the guidance of Lin Haixia, her swordsmanship improved day by day.

“That’s not right, this move is not correct,” said Lin Haixia as she was teaching swordsmanship one day, showing her strict military officer side. Even though she was very pleased with Bian Ruxue’s natural talent for swordsmanship, she still severely criticized any mistakes made during practice.

The young girl held back her tears and stubbornly practiced over and over again.

Li Hao shook his head helplessly, thinking that even though Lin was a nice person, he might not always teach according to the learner’s abilities.

A few harsh words, and the young girl’s sword moves were almost deformed.

That night, Li Hao saw the little one still practicing in the yard and called her over.

“Your posture is incorrect, bend your arms a bit more, yes, like that. Don’t be too stiff in the waist…”

With no one around, Li Hao took the time to personally guide the young girl.

Bian Ruxue was not dull; in fact, she indeed had a talent for swordsmanship. Under Li Hao’s instruction, she quickly corrected her stance and began to emit the essence of swordplay.

“Brother Hao, do you know swordsmanship too?” the young girl asked excitedly after practicing, “Then can we practice together tomorrow?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, I don’t want to get up early,” Li Hao said, startled and quickly responding.

“If Uncle Lin finds out that you know swordsmanship, he will be very happy,” Bian Ruxue said, hopeful. Although she didn’t understand many things, she could see that the adults around seemed somewhat disappointed with Li Hao.

The young girl was so diligent and hardworking because, deep down, she was filled with the desire to prove something. Everyone said Brother Hao was no good, but she believed Brother Hao was actually very smart.

“I don’t know swordsmanship, don’t go spreading rumors,” Li Hao quickly said, hoping the young girl wouldn’t shoot herself in the foot and ruin his chance to sleep in. It would make him cry.

Bian Ruxue looked puzzled: “But you clearly…”

“Go to sleep, sleep,” Li Hao rolled his eyes and sent the young girl off, reminding her not to talk nonsensically.

The next day.

In the courtyard, Lin Haixia watched Bian Ruxue swing her sword and slowly her eyes began to widen in disbelief.