Mr. Feng in front of Chen Ji laughs unrestrainedly, freely and thoroughly.

Laughing to the end, he placed his palm on Chen Ji’s shoulder, laughing with a bent waist, startling flocks of birds that flew up between the mountain forest, circling in the night sky.

Chen Ji leaned on his knife and stood. The knife blade was close to Mr. Feng, but the other party seemed not to see it, or perhaps, the other party never worried about what a Houtian realm small official could do to him.

Chen Ji lowered his head to look at Mr. Feng in front of him, thinking about whether to take the chance and kill the other party with one knife.

But after sizing him up for a long time, he discovered that there was no flaw.

The other party’s seemingly casual hand placed on his own shoulder was certainly faster than his own knife.

After a long time, Mr. Feng straightened his waist, using his thumb to wipe away the tears from the corners of his eyes from laughing. “Young man, you are truly witty. One moment you were advising me to abandon darkness and turn to light, the next you straightforwardly change banners and switch sides.”

Chen Ji said seriously, “Since someone as smart as Mr. Feng is willing to follow the Liu family, I imagine the Liu family must have extraordinary qualities that I am unaware of.”

Mr. Feng stared at him with a smile that was not a smile. “You say it all. Then I’ll ask you, what conditions do you have for working with me?”

Chen Ji thought for a moment. “Let go of the Crown Prince and the Princess!”

“Just that simple?”

“Just that simple!”

Mr. Feng thought for a bit and said, “I cannot decide this matter. Change one condition!”

Chen Ji said helplessly, “Mr. Feng cannot even decide such a small matter? Then what’s the point of staying in the Liu family? You might as well follow me to Jing Wang Manor.”

Mr. Feng was between tears and laughter. “You say that as if you can decide for the manor. I say I want thirty thousand taels of silver a year, how about that?”

Chen Ji said, “Good!”

Mr. Feng looked at Chen Ji speechless. After a moment, he sighed. “You really dare to promise anything. It’s clear you are delaying time, yet I cannot help but want to hear what nonsense you can come up with to save your life. But seizing the Crown Prince and Princess doesn’t require me to do it personally. What use is it for you to delay me?”

Chen Ji said seriously, “Sir misunderstands. I sincerely want to follow you and work for you!”

Mr. Feng, however, didn’t pay attention to his nonsense, but lowered his head and thought, “What exactly are you waiting for by delaying time?”

“Waiting for Jing Wang? It’s a pity that the experts on Jing Wang’s side have all been eliminated by the Imperial Secretariat over the years. Waiting for the Secret Service? The Secret Service is far away in Lu City; they fundamentally cannot know what happened here…”

Mr. Feng raised his head to look at Chen Ji, laughing even more happily. “Young man, you seem to have no way out!”

This time, Chen Ji was silent and did not speak.

In Mr. Feng’s few words, he seemed to grasp something.

Something seemed wrong, but for a while, he couldn’t think clearly about exactly what was wrong.

Mr. Feng laughing patted his shoulder. “I know you are certainly waiting for something. But there’s no harm. If you want to drag time, I will accompany you to drag time. I heard you won against Jing Wang and Zhang Zhuo in chess. I haven’t had a chance to play chess with those two. How about you come and play a game with me?”

“Good!”

Chen Ji felt a bit strange.

This Mr. Feng was not like a person who gets carried away by success. The other party could clearly kill him at this time.

This was the approach of a smart person. But the other party *pianpian* was willing to wait with him.

He was waiting for reinforcements.

What was the other party waiting for?

Mr. Feng beckoned to his back. “Jiang Yan, get the chessboard and chess basket from the horse saddle.”

Not far away, two war horses were tied to a dead tree.

Jiang Yan took out a handful of beans from the saddlebag on the horse saddle to feed the war horse, and then took out a cloth chessboard from the saddlebag on the other side and came back, laying it flat and neat on the ground.

Chen Ji and Mr. Feng sat cross-legged under the moon.

Mr. Feng looked at Chen Ji levelly. “We’ll play fast chess. Each move cannot exceed ten breaths. If you exceed ten breaths and still don’t move, Jiang Yan will chop off your head right here and send it back to the Liu family manor. If you still haven’t waited for the person you are waiting for by the end of this game, you must also die.”

With that, he actually took the black pieces and placed the first one.

Chen Ji silently counted his breaths, placing a white piece at the last moment.

As soon as his fingers left the chessboard, Mr. Feng had already placed the second black piece.

Chen Ji dragged it to the last breath every time, while Mr. Feng never hesitated.

After a few short moves, he suddenly frowned.

This Mr. Feng’s thinking was agile and sharp, the likes of which he had only seen in his life now.

The other party defended with a worry-free corner. As soon as his white piece collided, the other party would immediately open up and create another battlefield, not getting entangled with him.

This person’s thinking was about the overall situation, not just a corner.

Chen Ji’s chess skill wasn’t particularly strong, but the chess style he learned from AlphaGo was the first time he had been defeated so quickly.

If this was the other party’s long-thought-out chess style, he could understand.

But this Mr. Feng broke the situation without thinking.

At this time, Mr. Feng’s gaze left the chessboard. He raised his head to look at Chen Ji teasingly. “This chess style isn’t your own, right? How can you use it so awkwardly and dryly?”

Chen Ji was startled. He had actually been seen through.

In a daze, Jiang Yan at the side slowly raised his knife edge. He hurriedly placed a piece on the chessboard.

Mr. Feng suddenly said dissatisfiedly, “Bad chess, bad chess. This move counts as me disturbing you just now. I’ll let you take it back…”

With that, he picked up the white piece Chen Ji had just placed and threw it back into Chen Ji’s hand. “I’ll give you another ten breaths.”

Chen Ji took a deep look at Mr. Feng, and then took a deep breath, looking at the chessboard.

Just as the last breath was about to pass, he placed the white piece at the bottom on the ‘autumn’ position.

Mr. Feng’s eyes lit up and he praised him. “Young man, you have good courage. This time it’s more like your own chess style. Earlier, you didn’t know where you picked up others’ wisdom and learned something neither fish nor fowl.”

Chen Ji ignored him, only silently staring at the chessboard motionless, as if shutting out the outside world.

Shaking branches, wind-blown dry leaves, birds under the moon. All quieted.

The two alternately responded on the chessboard, playing faster and faster.

On the chessboard, Chen Ji’s weak white dragon rampaged from the corner, almost killing its way out of the heavy encirclement several times.

Mr. Feng said as he placed his piece, “This method of managing isolated groups indeed has spirit and vitality, no wonder you can kill your way here. Young man, I again have the mind to cherish talent. If you can follow me and work for me, I will help you fulfill one wish, how about that? Only, the Crown Prince and Princess are of great use to me. I cannot promise you this matter.”

Chen Ji replied without lifting his head, “Good.”

Mr. Feng smiled, not annoyed, only casually placed a piece on the chessboard.

In an instant, Chen Ji’s white dragon could no longer move.

He held a white piece, hesitating about where to place it.

Dead end!

One breath!

Two breaths!

Three breaths…

Ten breaths.

Mr. Feng sighed. “The person you were waiting for ultimately did not come. Although I have the heart to cherish talent, it’s better to kill a person like you in the budding stage to be at ease!”

Jiang Yan at Chen Ji’s side silently raised his knife and struck down like thunder.

However, Chen Ji seemed to have been prepared. He grasped the handle of the whale knife and slashed upwards.

But…

The knife that was originally sure to chop off Jiang Yan’s wrist missed.

Only Jiang Yan’s wrist barely hung at the edge of the knife’s trajectory. His powerful control allowed him to avoid this knife, and then it fell again.

This was suppression from realm.

Xiantian realm.

Chen Ji grasped his knife and awkwardly rolled backward to dodge this knife, then stood up and ran into the mountain forest without looking back.

He had dragged time when he could, done what he could. At this moment, he could only escape.

He turned back to look, but saw Mr. Feng slowly rise from the ground, seemingly not planning to chase him.

Chen Ji ran out several hundred steps, running and running until he realized something was wrong.

He slowly stopped his footsteps and saw from afar the two tall war horses tied to the tree. Jiang Yan stood beside the horses, feeding beans to the war horse on one side while looking at him coldly.

Further away, Mr. Feng said with a smile, “Where do you want to run to?”

Chen Ji slowly retreated backward.

Ghost wall?

No, this was an official’s means.

He looked around, not missing a single clue.

But this mountain forest was just an ordinary mountain forest; he couldn’t see any anomaly.

Chen Ji ran out several hundred steps again.

This time, he ran to the other side of the war horse. Jiang Yan was facing away from him, feeding beans to the war horse.

Weird.

Too weird!

Mr. Feng said loudly, “Don’t waste your effort. This is Jiang Yan’s Eight Gates Golden Lock Array. Ordinary people cannot escape.”

As soon as the words fell, a meow sounded from behind Chen Ji.

He suddenly turned around and ran straight towards the sound.

He followed the sound and ran several hundred steps, no longer circling back to the original place, but crashing into an invisible wall.

“Open!”

Chen Ji angrily swung his knife. The whale knife chopped on the air, as if tearing a piece of canvas.

The world suddenly became new, and even the mountain wind became more violent.

Mr. Feng lightly said, “Interesting.”

“Sir, shall we chase?”

Mr. Feng smiled. “Chase what? He entered the Scenery Gate. Just wait for him to come back.”

“Yes!”

Mr. Feng stood with his hands behind his back, lightly humming, “The Scenery Gate brings blood light, the official symbol sells fields and manors! Disasters should be numerous, children and grandchildren suffer disaster. Outer death and bad death, six livestock also see injury. Birth separation and death parting, entering must guard against. Ha ha ha, must guard against.”

In the mountain forest.

Chen Ji ran madly. He hadn’t waited for the person he wanted to wait for, but he had waited for his cat.

Passing a big tree, Black Cloud leaped down from the tree crown, lightly landing on his shoulder.

It stretched out a claw and touched Chen Ji’s ear once.

A vast molten flow poured down.

Furnaces inside Chen Ji’s body ignited one after another.

Forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, … fifty-six lamps.

Chen Ji only felt that the fatigue from the previous fight had dissipated, as if he had gained a new life.

But he ran several hundred steps, and then gradually slowed down his footsteps again.

Chen Ji expressionlessly took Black Cloud off his shoulder and threw it into the mountain forest, then walked forward.

The mountain forest parted like waves, revealing Mr. Feng holding a horizontal flute, standing at the edge of a green stone, returning with a smile, “Where did you go for a stroll, that it took you so long to come back?”

Chen Ji frowned. Even like this, he couldn’t run out?

Mr. Feng walked towards him carrying the horizontal flute. The long green tassel dangling from the horizontal flute swayed, almost sweeping the ground.

He said unhurriedly, “Everyone has youthful chivalric dreams, but in the end, what they gain are all lessons. Young man, don’t struggle. I promise you, I can bring your complete corpse back to the Liu family… hmm?”

Before he finished speaking, the light in the sky greatly brightened!

A streak of white light, from far to near, illuminated the mountains.

Chen Ji suddenly turned back, but saw a meteor like a white heavenly horse crashing through the sky, drawing a thrilling parabola, flying from a long distance.

With a boom, this arrow seemed to shatter something. The world broke like glass.

On the other side, Jiang Yan’s sleeve suddenly caught fire. He used force to pat his sleeve, dropping out a half-burned talisman paper.

He raised his head to look at Mr. Feng. “Sir!”

Mr. Feng didn’t pay attention to him, but looked at Chen Ji, suddenly realizing, “So you were waiting for the heavenly horse!”