Even though his body staggered, Ji Yuan gradually quickened his pace.

‘This predestined fate… this predestined fate…’

As his mind churned, Ji Yuan swayed left and right, moving forward aimlessly like a wandering soul. The severe pain in his eyes showed no sign of abating. His already blurred vision was covered in a layer of blood.

Ji Yuan just pressed his right hand tightly against his eyes, as if his eyes would explode if he didn’t do so.

Although his physical condition was very poor, Ji Yuan tried his best to go over his previous life’s knowledge in his mind, desperate to find an answer, to understand the chessboard of heaven and earth and the method of deciphering it.

As his mind filled with thoughts and his body wandered aimlessly with bloodshot eyes, Ji Yuan staggered and rushed around the streets of Juntian Prefecture’s capital. He subconsciously searched for only one thing, but he didn’t even have the energy to understand what that could be.

‘There must be, there must be…’

Suddenly, he found a chess set being sold in front of a street stall. His mind suddenly became clear. Ji Yuan rushed forwards, grabbed the chessboard and box, and left without even bothering to pay.

“Hey, hey, you… stole my chess pieces…”

The peddler, who was originally in low spirits, was about to attack upon seeing that someone had snatched his products, but was frightened by Ji Yuan’s ferocious appearance and bloody eyes. His voice gradually became weaker, and he didn’t even dare give chase to retrieve the chess set.

“Hoo…hoo…hoo…hoo…”

His breathing trembled, and he kept repeating one sentence in his mind in confusion.

“I am a chess player…I am a chess player…”

Ji Yuan staggered out of the city, looking like a madman. His center of gravity was obviously unstable, but his pace kept getting faster and faster, until he had almost turned into an afterimage, running straight into the mountain wilderness.

He ran madly for a whole day and night, running straight out of the capital city of Juntian Prefecture for over 300 li¹ and rushing to the uninhabited Junyuan Mountain.

Ji Yuan ran through the mountains for a long time. When he saw a stone cave in the mountain wall in front of him, which was only a couple zhang deep, he immediately rushed towards it with the chessboard in his arms, as if he had found a savior.

He staggered into the cave, took off the Green Vine Sword on his back, and placed it at the side of the cave. He put down the chessboard and box and sat cross-legged on the floor of the cave like a madman, his mind full of previous visions and lingering fear.

He opened the chess box and took out the black and white pieces. In his mind, what was in front of him was no longer a mortal chessboard, but instead the current state of heaven and earth in this world. With a small “click” sound, a chess piece fell onto the board; the illusion of the world once more spread across the sky and his field of vision, and Ji Yuan began to play chess.

Ji Yuan did not dare tell anyone about having glimpsed the indicators of great changes to come in the world.

He had a near-certain intuition that he, as a chess player who could watch the changes in heaven and earth, was doing something that would change the world. If he told people the truth, his fate would be much worse than Taoist Qingsong’s had been. Ji Yuan was afraid that he and even the people he informed would all turn to ashes in an instant!

This heavy pressure was like a mountain pressing down on him. Ji Yuan couldn’t breathe. He had to find an answer by himself, and he couldn’t ask anyone for help!

Previously, in Ju’an Pavilion in Ning’an County, when Ji Yuan and Yin Zhaoxian played chess together, they could play several games in the span of half a day. However, at this moment, every chess piece that fell onto this illusory projection of the world underwent countless changes, projecting the already dissipated chessboard of heaven and earth onto the simple chess board in front of him. Dropping each piece felt like struggling to lift a mountain.

The fire in his inner world blazed non-stop, and the spiritual energy in his body ran wildly without stopping, all just to support playing this game of chess.

The passing of time had now lost all meaning in Ji Yuan’s consciousness, but it was nonetheless obvious in the changes to his body.

The stars shifted, the moon rose and the sun set; thunder, wind, rain, and clouds greeted the dawn and the dusk…²

Even though the unique nature of the current situation and his state of mind slowed his bodily functions down considerably, Ji Yuan gradually became increasingly thin.

One night…

“Awooo…”

A sad wolf howl sounded not too far away. Soon after, a lone wolf who had been driven out of the pack carefully approached the cave wall in the mountains. In the dark, he saw a person lying frozen in place.

The man’s body was motionless, his hand still holding a little chess piece suspended above the board. His clothes were ragged, and dead branches and leaves were piled up around him.

“Grrr…”

The old wolf lowered his body into a crouch and cautiously approached the cave wall. Saliva dripped from his exposed fangs.

“Hum…”

Leaning on the outside wall of the cave, the Green Ivy Sword rang out, and the blade slid a half-inch out of its sheath. The cold light of the sword made the old wolf feel like he was entering into an icy cave.

“Wuu… wuu…”

The old wolf fled in a panic with its tail between its legs…

. . .

It was the fifteenth year of the reign of the Yuan Dynasty of Dazhen. In the county school of Ning’an County, there were no sounds of students reciting.

Of the students in the school, aside from a few who had returned to their families, all of the older students had received the opportunity to continue their studies, and had gone to several academies in Desheng Prefecture.

At this moment, the students in the hall — the youngest of which were seven years old, and the oldest of which were sixteen — all looked at their teacher with reverence and reluctance. Yin Qing, who was already fifteen years old, also sat among them with a serious look on his face.

Yin Zhaoxian didn’t speak. He simply picked up a brush and wrote a paragraph on his teacher’s desk. Once he had finished his page, he blew on it gently a couple times to make the ink dry faster, and then set it aside on the desk.

When he saw that his writing on the piece of paper had dried, he picked it up, folded it carefully, and put it in an envelope. He then picked up the brush once more and wrote on the envelope: “To Du Ming, from the Teacher.”³

After he had finished writing, he closed the envelope and put it aside, stacking it on top of a dozen identical paper envelopes on the other side of the desk.

Then, Yin Zhaoxian picked up the brush once more, dipped it in ink, and began writing on a new page.

Today, Teacher Yin of Ning’an County’s School wished to write a letter to each one of his students. It didn’t matter whether the student was planning on dropping out of school and returning home, or whether they would be going on to study in distant academies, each would receive a letter before they left.

The whole classroom was completely silent. No child disturbed their teacher while he was writing. The students sat respectfully upright, without any whispering.

This kind of school discipline came from heartfelt respect. The current Teacher Yin Zhaoxian no longer needed a ruler for discipline, and the ruler of Ning’an County’s School had long been covered in dust.

About half an hour later, Yin Zhaoxian placed the brush back in the brush holder and waited for the ink on the past piece of paper to dry, before sealing it in an envelope.

“Alright, there are sixty-seven letters in total. I have finished writing them all. I will send them to you all one by one after the academy classes start.”

Yin Zhaoxian had copied this move from his close friend Ji Yuan. He felt that it was very clever, and could more or less help students strengthen their aspirations and ideals.

The students below were all looking at Yin Zhaoxian, and he felt a little sympathetic. He stood up and smiled.

“Why do we read the books of the sages?⁴ Of course, it is to give back to the world.⁵ However, in today’s world, it is not easy to implement the teachings of the sages. It is not something that a commoner like me can accomplish.”

Yin Zhaoxiang held up a handwritten book titled, “On the Subject of Birds.”⁶

“Teacher, I once passed the provincial exam and got a second-place score. I am determined to do better in this re-examination so that I can achieve my ambitions in the future. Teacher, you have taught thousands of people in your lifetime, but as an official you will educate millions!”

“Master… I heard from my father that the world of officialdom is very cruel, and that in the court one can perish without ever seeing spilled blood…”

A thirteen-year-old boy seated at the front of the class hesitated for a moment, but he still spoke. He was the second son of Ning’an County’s magistrate Chen Sheng. His name was Chen Yuqing, and he was one of Yin Zhaoxian’s most outstanding students.

In fact, in the past two years, Yin Zhaoxian had already gained some fame in the nearby counties and even in two or three academies as the head teacher of Ning’an County, as he was very talented in teaching and education. Most of the students he taught were well-versed in the classics and offered unique insights. Older students could even be admitted to the academy thanks to their own talents and understanding.⁷

As a result, people from other counties would sometimes send their children to Ning’an for school, and the number of students in the county school increased significantly.

Chen Yuqing had overheard his father Chen Sheng commenting on Teacher Yin at the end of the previous year, saying that he was a man of great ambition. Although his works “On the Subject of Birds” and “Understanding Justice”⁸ were still in the process of being improved, they had already grown past the point of being normal books. However, this kind of person was too upright, and was more likely to fail in the realm of officialdom.

Chen Yuqing was a little afraid to speak these words. For some reason, he didn’t dare voice them now, for fear that his teacher would really never return after speaking them aloud.

Yin Zhaoxian was naturally unaware of the complicated thoughts in his students’ minds. He simply felt warmth in his heart from his students’ reluctance to see him leave and their concern for him.

“Well, although I’m just a scholar, I have discussed the reality of the court with my friends, so I have a certain understanding of it. But there is no need for you to worry; perhaps I am not knowledgeable enough, and will be eliminated from the list!”⁹

Yin Zhaoxian’s joke made his students laugh. Only the youngest took it seriously; the other children believed in their hearts that their teacher would definitely pass the exam.¹⁰

Yin Zhaoxian held the book in his hands, clasped behind his back, and gazed at the green bamboo in the garden outside the school. He would be taking the provincial examination again, nine years later. Now, he was already thirty-six; he wasn’t too old, but he was no longer a young scholar, either.

However, this time, he felt a lot less anxious.

After writing two excellent books, Yin Zhaoxian was increasingly of the opinion that, while education and nurture were important, being a teacher in this private school alone made too weak of an impact — so weak that it was difficult for him to publish these two books.

1. 150 km, 93 miles
2. 星斗挪移月升日降，雷雨风云朝阳霞暮 Poetic couplet — 8 characters on each line, portrays the passing of time through the movements of the heavens
3. The word used is 赠 (zèng), which means to give as a present (or posthumously bestow a title, but that’s not really relevant)
4. 圣贤 (shèngxián): sages/wise & holy man/Buddhist lama — I translated it as “sages” because based on context it seems to be more the secular interpretation
5. 天下 (tiānxià): lit. “Land under heaven,” also realm/rule/this world/all of China. Both giving back to the world in terms of morality and virtue, and giving back to the current dynasty by learning more and contributing to the administration
6. Refer to chapter 87
7. i.e. as opposed to through connections
8. 谓 (wèi): to speak/to designate/meaning, 知 (zhī): to know/to be aware, 义 (yì): justice/righteousness/friendship
9. 榜 (bǎng): notice or announcement/list of names/public roll of successful examinees
10. T/n: they’re talking about the imperial examination to become a state bureaucrat in Imperial China. Read more about it here

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read