Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 877: The Daoist Discussion Among Corpses

Chapter 877: The Daoist Discussion Among Corpses

In that point of white light, two identical figures sat cross-legged facing each other.

The middle corpse held the white stones, while Chen Huaian held the black stones.

Tap.

A white stone landed, its sound like jade shattering, instantly imposing a solemn stillness upon the entire void space.

This move did not occupy a corner, nor did it defend a side. It directly landed beside the center point of the board.

Chen Huaian narrowed his eyes, a chill running through his heart.

It was as if the middle corpse had not placed a piece of Go, but rather a declaration, a framework.

It was regulation.

It was 'reason.'

In an instant, the nineteen intersecting lines seemed to transform into lines of latitude and longitude, the three hundred sixty-one intersection points becoming orderly stars.

The white stones' layout unfolded accordingly, each move landing on the nodes of the stars' movement, echoing one another, forming a great net that enveloped the entire board.

Sweat beaded on Chen Huaian's forehead.

Every shift, every conception of the black stones seemed to have already been calculated and ensnared within this net.

"The Great Dao is supremely simple; with order comes prosperity." The middle corpse's voice held neither joy nor sorrow, cold and devoid of inflection. "Your defeat begins with a disordered mind.

A disordered mind scatters your energy; scattered energy weakens your momentum; weakened momentum leads to the death of your pieces.

Like chaotic stellar orbits, like breached riverbanks—this is the path that invites disaster."

The middle corpse's white stones continued to fall, neither hurried nor slow, yet each one landing precisely on the joints where the black stones' energy flowed.

Chen Huaian felt his black stones were not being besieged, but rather deconstructed,

stripped of their vitality bit by bit by this perfect order, marching toward a silent death.

On the board, the white stones gradually formed a cold, magnificent star chart.

The black stones, meanwhile, resembled embers about to be erased from the star chart's background.

"Submit to this order, and even at the end, you may retain a measure of dignity."

The middle corpse lifted its gaze, its eyes like an ancient well reflecting the moon. "Resist, and you only add to your own wretchedness."

Though the middle corpse did not explicitly say it, Chen Huaian understood it was telling him to obediently submit, to merge with it.

After that, all problems would be solved; he wouldn't need to worry about any Taishang Laojun or Celestial God Clan.

All his responsibilities, all his pressures, would vanish in an instant.

At the same time, his existence would not disappear.

He would merely share it with the middle corpse through fusion.

The hand holding the black stone trembled slightly.

To the middle corpse, he seemed to be nothing more than a dish to be consumed.

The sense of suffocation was unprecedented.

This Go board seemed to transform into the desperate situation outside the South Heaven Gate.

The white stones were the authority of the Four Imperial Great Emperors ruling over all directions, the unyielding furnace fire within Taishang Laojun's Tushita Palace.

His great black dragon was deeply trapped, surrounded, on its last breath.

Was he truly to accept a predetermined defeat under this perfect order?

"Order... dignity..."

Chen Huaian murmured these two words softly, his gaze sweeping over the white stone star chart, perfect to the point of despair.

Too clean.

So clean there wasn't a trace of accident, not a speck of dust.

Like a piece of jade meticulously polished for ten thousand years, or like... a crystal-clear tomb prepared for all things.

Suddenly, images flashed through his mind: the warrior Zhongli dragging his broken body to fight to the death on the battlefield; the swordsmith who threw himself and his wife into the flames, smashed to pieces; the Human Emperor who defied the will of Heaven, fighting against heaven and earth until his dying breath...

None of those were perfect. None followed rules or order.

They were stained with blood, sweat, mud, and screams.

But that... was the feeling of being alive.

Destroy, then establish anew.

And the very word 'destroy' itself operates under the constraints of rules.

A scorching heat rose from his dantian, dispersing the coldness within his Divine Soul.

The confusion in his eyes was ignited, transforming into two points of wild fire.

"If the order decreed by Heaven is for me to die..."

Chen Huaian grinned, his smile revealing a ruthless, reckless ferocity.

"Then I refuse to acknowledge this order!"

Thump!

A black stone landed, its sound dull, yet like a heart beating inside a coffin.

This move did not go to rescue that noble but dying great dragon, nor did it fill any gaps.

It was like a stubborn, unruly rock, or a drop of filthy ink, smashing fiercely near the white stones' thickest, most glorious, most core area—the "center point" of the board!

What game of Go?

Why should I play Go with you here?

And why must I obey so-called rules?

Better to overturn this board.

The middle corpse's flawless calm and detachment cracked for the first time.

A faint trace of astonishment flickered in its eyes. "This is... cutting off your own path to life?"

"No," Chen Huaian licked his dry, cracked lips, his eyes frighteningly bright. "It's opening a path to life! Your path is too clean; the living cannot walk it!"

Thump!

The stones fell like a sudden storm!

Chen Huaian completely abandoned all established patterns, Go principles, and winning tactics!

Wherever the white stones were thickest, he crashed into them; wherever order reigned supreme, he stabbed into it!

At the cost of losing a thousand of his own, he sought only to wound the enemy eight hundred!

The black stones became ugly, fragmented, like a band of mountain-dwelling brigands, chaotically assaulting the white stones' impregnable fortress.

Chaos!

Unprecedented chaos!

But within this extreme chaos, a savage, grassroots vitality erupted forth.

The white stones' precisely operating "Great Dao order" encountered a variable that could not be calculated by "reason."

—It was humanity's instinct to survive, and the madness willing to pay any price for that instinct!

The middle corpse's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

The white stone between its fingers hovered for a long time.

Its "optimal solution" had calculated every variation that conformed to the rules, but it could not calculate an opponent's will to "survive" even at the cost of "not playing Go properly."

The perfect star chart was splashed with a blot of dirty ink.

Then it began to twist and deform under the assault.

"This is sheer dishonesty!" The middle corpse's voice remained calm, but now carried a trace of helplessness.

"Living—" Chen Huaian, mustering all his strength, drove his final black stone onto an intersection point that seemed utterly unrelated but precisely choked the white stones' last breath, "—is inherently an act of dishonesty!"

The board froze.

The black dragon that should have been slaughtered did not soar on mighty wings. Instead, it burrowed into the mud, becoming an earth dragon covered in filth yet stubbornly biting into its opponent's vital artery, forcibly carving out a path to life within the white stones' splendid central territory.

The white stones still held an absolute advantage; one could even say they had won by points.

But, the black stones lived.

They lived in the most undignified, most imperfect, most unreasonable manner.

The middle corpse looked at this board that had become "utterly improper," silent.

The perfect star chart was already shattered. Black and white intertwined in chaotic disorder, yet... it brimmed with a glaring, piercing vitality.

After a long while, it let out a soft sigh, unclear whether it was regret or relief.

"Regulating heaven and measuring earth is not as good as... wild grass setting stars ablaze. In terms of mental state, I am inferior to you. No wonder... I was not the chosen one."

It waved its sleeve, and the Go board dissipated into smoke.

"The way of Go is ultimately a minor path of 'reason.' The Great Dao within your heart can no longer be confined by my path."

The middle corpse stood up, its great sleeves sweeping wide.

Crash—

The Go board shattered, the black and white stones transforming into a sky full of dust.

"Since the debate of the Dao cannot hold you..."

"Then... let us cross swords!"