Primordial Wilderness.
Mountain peaks towered, arrayed like a folding screen.
In the lush, verdant valley, countless Spirit Flowers and strange plants swayed gracefully, fresh and lovely.
The Go board lay silent, black and white locked in battle.
The black stones, scattered across the board like a raging wildfire, surrounded twenty-one white stones. The position was already on the verge of collapse.
A figure in white sat beside the stone table, holding a Go stone between two fingers, perfectly still.
Suddenly, his wide sleeve stirred, and he placed another stone.
Tap!
The white stone settled. At once, a figure appeared—wearing a crude robe, his face stricken with unspeakable fear, his very presence plunging any who looked upon him into an abyss. It was Fu Qiong.
Fu Qiong quickly swept his gaze around.
At that moment, the white-robed immortal raised his head and spoke in an ethereal voice. "Floating Life is like a dream, Free Time!"
At these words, Fu Qiong came to his senses, rose at once, and headed outside.
His robe, seemingly faded from being repeatedly washed, soon disappeared among the dense flowers and trees. All around him, grass flourished and great rivers surged. On the Go board, the number of white stones had increased to twenty-two.
Faint, ink-like shadows appeared in the void, looming like nightmares. Peaks rose and crumbled; great rivers abruptly widened, then vanished. The landscape was grand and magnificent, like a mirage. In an instant, seas became mulberry fields, and myriad changes swept across the world before it finally settled into a vast emptiness.
Beside the Go board, jagged rocks grew smooth and rounded again. The moss in their crevices shifted from emerald to ocher, then from ocher to dark green, as tiny blossoms appeared.
In the blink of an eye, the seasons turned, all things