"You don't know how to play chess?" Gu Congshan said helplessly, watching Ming Zhu's retreating figure.
"That's right," Ming Zhu replied crisply. She truly didn't know how to play chess.
Then how was she going to break the formation?!
Hearing her say this, Gu Congshan felt his stomach churn with unease. He instinctively reached out to stop her, but Ming Zhu had already walked far away.
It seemed he had never once been able to stop her, Gu Congshan thought with a pang of stomach pain.
"Not knowing how to play chess doesn't necessarily mean one cannot break the formation," Chu Wujiu said thoughtfully, as if he had already guessed something.
What did that mean? Gu Congshan looked at him, hoping he would explain further, but Chu Wujiu fell silent again, leaving Gu Congshan inwardly wounded—couldn't he just speak clearly for once!
On the other side, Qu Pingsheng had already found the Formation Eye, yet still lost by a single move. How to counter the final variable in the chess game—many cultivators present repeatedly deduced the possibilities, but none could think of a way to break it for the time being.
"I fear no one will be able to break this formation today," said one cultivator.
However, the Spring Banquet would continue for another two days; perhaps with more time to study it, there might be hope of finding a solution.
Just as everyone had concluded that no one would rashly attempt it again, Ming Zhu's sudden step forward stood out all the more conspicuously.
Only when she stepped onto the high platform did the cultivators present realize what Ming Zhu intended to do.
"Only at the Nine Mansions, and she dares to break the formation?" A cultivator spoke in surprise upon sensing Ming Zhu's cultivation base, his expression odd.
Among the cultivators who had stepped forward to break the formation, Ming Zhu was by far the youngest, and her cultivation base was also the lowest.
Seeing that she was only at such a level and still dared to challenge the chess game left by Zhangsun Heng, the cultivators both on and off the high platform found it somewhat unbelievable.
The elder of the Qu Clan even sneered: "Overestimating herself!"
Since Qu Pingsheng had just carelessly lost, the elder would not show a good face to anyone who came to break the formation next.
The Qu Clan had planned everything well—using this Spring Banquet to establish Qu Pingsheng's reputation, then smoothly push forward to send him into the Qianqiu Academy. They never expected to fail at the very first step.
He inwardly complained about Zhangsun Heng—why did he have to bury a hidden trap piece in the chess game? Otherwise, Qu Pingsheng would have successfully broken the formation.
Now not only had he lost, but he had also suffered backlash from forcing the formation, sustaining no light injuries that would take two or three days to recover from.
The benefits promised to the Jiang Clan had already been given; getting them to spit it back out would be no easy task. The elder of the Qu Clan's eyes shifted with calculation—since things had come to this, he had to find a way to salvage the situation.
The most urgent matter now was to pool the clan's strength to deduce the winning path through the formation. As long as they could do it faster than the other noble clans present, the Qu Clan could push forward another junior…
He paid no heed to Ming Zhu, clearly not believing that a mere Nine Mansions cultivator could accomplish anything.
Many shared his sentiment. The Jiang Clan head raised his wine cup and commented casually: "The young know not the ways of the world; it's only natural for them to harbor some delusions."
He didn't think Ming Zhu's attempt was necessary, but since today's chess game had never stated that those with low cultivation couldn't break the formation, and with so many people watching, there was no need to stop her either.
In any case, her defeat would come within moments.
The Jiang Clan head naturally wouldn't be furious over Qu Pingsheng's failure to break the formation. Friendship was friendship, transactions were transactions—he had already done what he promised. It was the Qu Clan's own lack of foresight that led to the current situation; they had no one to blame but themselves.
Jiang Yuan's mood was even better. If not for the presence of the Qu Clan members, he would have already burst out laughing.
Just then, a servant stepped forward and whispered something to Jiang Yuan.
He looked at Ming Zhu in surprise, never expecting that she could be connected to him in some way.
How could a rogue cultivator of only the Nine Mansions realm dare to attempt breaking the endgame set by a young master of the Zhangsun Clan?
Though for a Chess Formation like this, if one could grasp the key points, even those with weaker cultivation bases could break it, given Ming Zhu's level, how could she possibly have such mastery in formations?
But if she really could break the formation, Jiang Yuan smiled with a hint of malice—he wondered what expression Qu Pingsheng, who considered himself a heaven-blessed genius, would have then.
He shook his head a moment later, dismissing the thought that had just arisen. That was impossible.
Paying no mind to those meaningful glances, Ming Zhu circulated her spiritual breath and placed a piece on the board.
From her very first move, her placement was vastly different from everyone before her, drawing a wave of puzzled murmurs.
"How can she place it on the center star?!"
At this point in the game, placing on the center star—wasn't that just a wasted move?
Questions came pouring in, but Ming Zhu showed no intention of listening. She wasn't playing chess to begin with, and besides, she didn't need anyone's permission on how to play.
A hazy spiritual light rose as Ming Zhu placed her piece, and her consciousness projected into the game.
The scenery around her shifted, as if she were standing on a chessboard magnified several times over. Mist drifted in the distance, and below, black and white pieces stretched in crisscrossing lines. The white pieces were faintly connected, releasing an invisible pressure.
Ming Zhu's expression did not change. She barely needed to think. The onlookers could only watch as black pieces fell one after another, so fast they could hardly keep up.
Her playstyle bore little resemblance to those who had attempted the formation before, and the doubts only grew louder.
"How can anyone play like this?!" A cultivator couldn't help but speak up. Wasn't she just playing randomly?
Did she truly know nothing, and was she simply trying her luck?!
"Just now, Young Master Qu had already deduced many of the correct opening moves. If she wanted to try her luck, she should have followed his path first before making her own attempts."
Surely that would give her a better chance of breaking the formation.
Yet with such a bizarre playstyle, she somehow continued without mishap, refusing to collapse before the white pieces.
As Ming Zhu placed more and more pieces, the endless stream of doubts finally subsided for the moment. She had already placed forty-three pieces—by this point, many cultivators of higher realms than hers had already been crushed by the white pieces and expelled from the formation.
The surroundings gradually fell silent. The assembled cultivators now stared intently at the board, analyzing each of her moves. At this stage, luck alone could no longer explain the situation.
A breeze lifted the hem of her skirt. Ming Zhu's expression remained calm, no trace of tension on her face. Her pace of placing pieces did not slow in the slightest, as if she had already calculated everything in advance.
More black pieces settled, and the white pieces on the board gradually took shape, like a range of towering peaks stretching before Ming Zhu. Endless mist swirled around her, obscuring her vision.
The situation looked extremely perilous—just a hair's breadth away, and the white pieces could annihilate all the black ones.
"She's probably going to lose…"
Still, for someone of the Nine Mansions realm to hold on this long was no small feat.
But those words were clearly spoken too soon. Ming Zhu lowered her hand, in no hurry to make another move. And at that very moment, in her consciousness, the mist obscuring her vision parted, and the thousand peaks and ten thousand ravines receded to either side.
Under the gaze of the many guests at the Spring Banquet, spiritual light blazed across the chessboard. The white stone serving as the Formation Eye once again revealed itself before the crowd, causing them to unconsciously hold their breath.
Seventy-two moves!
She had found the Formation Eye in only seventy-two moves!
How long had Qu Pingsheng taken just now?
Even cultivators who hadn't carefully counted could roughly recall—at least over a hundred.
So there was such a sequence of moves that could break the formation!
Finding the Formation Eye in only seventy-two moves—could her play truly surpass Qu Pingsheng's deductions?
Even the noble clans seated on the high platform could not help but rise to their feet, staring at the chessboard, replaying the positions of Ming Zhu's stones in their minds, expressions filled with astonishment.
She hadn't been placing stones at random after all?!
Yet several of her placements had made no sense whatsoever—
Among those present, none wore a fouler expression than the elder of the Qu Clan. If she truly broke the formation…
As spiritual breath gathered in his palm, a hand suddenly pressed down on his shoulder. The old man looked up to meet the face of the Jiang Clan Patriarch, who said meaningfully: "Uncle, as seniors, we must show magnanimity."
The Jiang Clan Patriarch's restraint of the Qu Clan elder was not born of any fondness for the younger generation—merely that Ming Zhu breaking the formation did not harm the Jiang Clan in any way.
Moreover, her breaking the formation at such a low cultivation base added more intrigue, perhaps allowing today's events to spread even further.
But if Ming Zhu were to meet with misfortune before so many people, and the truth were discovered, the Jiang Clan hosting the chess game would appear incompetent—that was something the Jiang Clan Patriarch could not accept.
The Qu Clan elder could only withdraw his hand, his face ashen.
At this moment, nearly everyone's gaze was fixed on Ming Zhu.
Could she break the formation?
Gu Congshan pinched his own thigh, so tense he dared not even breathe.
Chu Wujiu folded his arms, a smile on his face. She truly was not playing chess.
Ming Zhu raised her hand through the air, and spiritual breath settled upon the chessboard.
Snap—
In the carriage heading to the capital of the State of Jin, Zhangsun Heng held a black stone and placed it in the same position.
The seventy-third move. Endgame.
At the Spring Banquet in Pingxiang, black and white light interwove across the chessboard. As Ming Zhu placed her final stone, the wind and smoke obscuring their vision dispersed completely, and the enormous chessboard dissolved beneath her feet.
The white stone that had served as the Formation Eye fell from the air, caught in Ming Zhu's raised palm.
Breaking this game required only seventy-three moves.