Beneath the bamboo grove, two men played a game at a stone table.
The game had reached its middle stage. Black and white stones interlaced in a tangled, complex struggle, much like the current conflict between the immortal and demonic paths, with factions contending on every side.
Li Ling's thoughts had long since strayed from the game. Instead, he lamented the fate of the stones upon the board, growing ever more wary. With the Mystic Continent, the North Sea, and the West Sea all showing successive signs of descending into chaos, he, his wife, and his disciples must not repeat that tragedy, becoming helpless pieces on someone else's board.
After a while, One-Mind Daoist brought up the information Li Ling wanted about Yan Buyong. "The cultivation method Yan Buyong practiced was extremely unusual. Outsiders have never known its specifics, but multiple sources have confirmed that he once traveled the mortal world as a prince, a wealthy merchant, a general, an artisan, and in various other guises. In recent centuries, he became a beggar, reduced for a time to begging for his meals.
"It is not difficult to see that he followed the path of tempering himself in the mortal world. To attain complete enlightenment, he needed to adjust his Dao heart to match the state of the identity and role he assumed.
"At your request, I searched through all the relevant Netherworld Sect texts and discovered a divine ability called the Thousand-Face Illusion Art. It closely matches his primary cultivation method, which should have originated from it."
"The Thousand-Face Illusion Art?" Li Ling asked.
"As the saying goes, a thousand people have a thousand faces," One-Mind Daoist replied. "It is the preliminary foundation for the Netherworld Sect's supreme divine ability, Ten-Thousand-Lifetime Reincarnation. Its purpose is to solidify one's ability to