CG Chapter 186: The Board, The Book, The Eye
The festive Li Clan's pavilion, which had been full of vitality and radiant lanterns not long ago, had now transformed into a forlorn image of itself. The joyous juniors, the harmony of the zither, and the smell of freshly made meals for the guests were all gone.
At the heart of the pavilion, a man remained seated in his place, looking at an untouched Go board. The pieces might have seemed scattered around with no clear order or pattern. If a senior master were there to witness it, then their eyes would widen at the traces of an incredible formation. The black pieces connected to form a gentle yet deadly crane's nest. An invisible trap that one would involuntarily fall into.
Li Muren sat unattended in the grand pavilion of his. The only source of light was a tucked-away lamp placed under the wooden table next to him. The light from the lamp danced in the night, as its shadows flickered against the face of Li Muren for a slight second.
During this brief moment, his expression would become apparent. He stared at the Go board with intense focus as if it meant everything to him. Strangely enough, he did not lean his body toward the board, but away from it.
The lamp slowly waned, and as its light reached an end, tossing the pavilion into true darkness, Li Muren's unmoved gaze finally flickered for a moment before he stood from his seat as if he had made up his mind on a certain matter.
As the patriarch stepped out of the pavilion, his straight spine seemed slightly hunched over.
...
Li Suyin guided Aretius toward the most prestigious guest quarters of the Li Clan.
They stood across from each other, a single door threshold separating them. On one side stood Li Suyin, and on the other stood Aretius and the pair of siblings. The threshold was akin to a separator of the two worlds, for no matter the darkness and desolation of the Li Clan, it could never match the void that was Aretius.
Aretius's face held a warm smile toward Li Suyin as he nodded toward her with a slight hint of affection. He stretched his hand toward Li Yang as a paternal figure as he closed the gates of the courtyard.
The moment the gate was closed, Aretius's cordial face returned to its indifferent nature. His hand, however, kept holding the young boy's; he viewed the boy as a flawed work of art that needed to be perfected.
Glimpsing the inside of the courtyard, the boy seemed amazed by everything he was seeing. Even setting aside how long he spent trapped, the decades he was ensnared in a soulless graveyard.
The Li Clan guest buildings did not resemble the rest of the clan; those who had been valued as guests would enter a courtyard that mirrored a haven on Earth in the middle of the underworld.
The restructuring was only done after Li Muren had taken his throne at the center of the clan. He, more than anyone, understood that to reach the top, a sword alone was not enough; the art of the Go board required much more patience and wisdom, yet it was the only way to the top.
Li Muren remembered his master's saying in every action he made since he had left the sect: 'It is not he who sits on the throne who calls himself emperor. A true emperor has the foresight to see which rivers flow into the sea.'
The power of the hidden hand was seen by many, yet only a few knew how to detach themselves for their own greater good.
Aretius's eyes darted toward the misplaced siblings for a moment before he said, while pointing to the main room, "Go play. Uncle will play with you later."
Hearing those words, Li Yang's face began to transform into an ominous, sinister expression. His eyes shone with hatred, and two fangs grew from his mouth as if he were ready to attack and tear Aretius at any moment for daring to abandon him. He appeared as if he were going to shatter the seal placed by Aretius and strike at any moment.
A moment before he moved, his eyes glimpsed Aretius clearly pointing to where he would be. His face returned to calm, and his fangs withdrew as if they had never been there.
Aretius did not seem to mind this rage, as he stepped toward his own chambers. At the heart of the room, there was a wooden table, and on top of it lay a single book. The title of the Sutra of the Jade-Nether Puppet was etched on it in thick brush strokes.
This was none other than the Li Clan's main technique, the corpse-refining technique. The foundation of the Li Clan's martial arts was built on a mountain of corpses of the Li Clan's own people. Now, this same technique was handed to him without even a request.
Aretius, however, was not surprised by the placement of the manual. Still, he smiled at seeing the title.
During his fight in front of the Li Clan's members, Aretius could have used any of the multiple techniques he had perfected to raise his prestige. Yet during the whole fight, he insisted on doing none of that.
Hence, most of the juniors merely thought he was showing off, but a single man saw through the hidden message. He wanted to tell the Li patriarch that he lacked such techniques. If the Li Clan truly wanted to win him over, the first step would be to hand him what he needed most.
Nevertheless, even Li Muren did not see through a bigger gap. The current generation of the Li Clan had two major techniques: the original corpse-refining technique passed down through the clan lineage, and the patriarch's own Righteous Ki technique.
If Li Muren handed over his personal technique, it would mean he still held to the clan's original path, preserving corpse-refining as the dao the next generation would follow.
On the other side, his action of passing the corpse-refining manual meant that his vision was much higher than Aretius initially expected. Li Muren was willing to wager the previous generation's blood and work on a grand gamble. This would either turn the Li Clan into a paragon of the Righteous path or cause it to fall into a deathly pit, watching it being swallowed by other forces.