The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 333 Hengqu (5k)

A battle between water and fire?

Du Yuan was a little surprised. He had only ever heard of conflicts between mountains and rivers, and never imagined that there would be a war between water and fire.

I remember in my hometown, the fire god Zhurong fought a great battle against the water god Gonggong. In the end, Zhurong angrily struck Buzhou Mountain, causing the pillar of heaven to collapse and the four seas to be destroyed. The Holy Mother had no choice but to refine stones to mend the sky.

However, there is another theory that Emperor Yu drove away Gonggong while controlling the floods, but it's unclear what the situation was on that side.

Thinking of this, Du Yuan couldn't help but sigh softly again.

In this foreign land, what he feared most were always these seemingly plausible but ultimately false things.

You need to remind him that he is a stranger in a foreign land, but you also need to make him understand that this is not his hometown.

Why are you sighing?

Zou Zi asked out of curiosity.

"Nothing to do with you!"

Du Yuan looked up, then added sarcastically:
"Why do you all like to be high up in the sky, looking down on others? Is it because you feel uneasy if you don't? If so, isn't that rather pathetic for someone of your status?"

Zou Zi did not answer, but fell into a long silence.

But then he suddenly said to Du Yuan:
"Greed, anger, ignorance, and rage—I have violated all the precepts of Buddhism. You are right; many times, I myself feel that I am not quite like a patriarch. But who in the world has ever said that a patriarch should be like what they think he should be?"

"That doesn't make sense!"

Having said that, Zou Zi picked up a coin with his fingertips and said loudly:
"Fellow Daoist, look at my son!"

Before he finished speaking, the black piece in his hand crashed to the ground with a thunderous sound.

In the blink of an eye, Du Yuan felt the world around her suddenly turn upside down, and she found herself in a completely different world!
The sky, which had been gray and hazy due to the dissipation of the calamity clouds, suddenly opened up into a clear expanse, with flowing clouds stretching out like ink patterns, crisscrossing and reaching the deep blackness of the sky.

The stone steps of Kyoto that were just beneath my feet have vanished without a trace. The undulating peaks in the distance, like sleeping giants, slowly move, transforming into black stones imbued with a sense of vastness and desolation. The surging rivers of the world suddenly stop, their waves receding to form lustrous white stones, lying quietly amidst the cloud patterns.

"Using the sun, moon, and stars as my pieces, I am currently lacking in grandeur." High above, Zou Zi's voice slowly descended. "Therefore, I request that you, fellow Daoist, lower yourself and play this game with me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the black and white pieces on the chessboard moved on their own.

Each chess piece was as majestic as a mountain, rising and falling above Du Yuan's head with the force of a thousand peaks collapsing and a tsunami churning the sea.

In a short while, the unfinished game of Zou Zishou, which had been played for thousands of years, was laid out in front of Du Yuan.

The feeling was extremely strange: Du Yuan was clearly in the middle of this boundless chessboard, yet he could see the entire game clearly. Even when he was in the heart of the game, the overall structure of the game was as clear as the lines on his palm.

It was at this moment that he suddenly recognized the game—it was the same game that the old man in gray had shown him in the tavern in front of the White Jade Bridge in Kyoto, only with some minor changes.

Du Yuan looked around, following the movements of the chessboard, but all he saw was the chessboard formed by heaven and earth. He raised an eyebrow slightly and softly uttered a single word: "The people!"

The next moment, the chessboard suddenly disappeared, and the scene of Kyoto reappeared in view.

His gaze swept across the faces of Feng Si, Prince Ning, the tea shop owner, and others, then fell on the poisonous insect lying horizontally in Madam Wang's courtyard, before finally settling on Wang Chengsi.

"Another excellent natal character, fellow Daoist truly surprises me time and again." Zou Zi's voice was full of praise. "I suppose you should have already discerned some of the cause and effect, right?"

He looked up at Kyoto, its interior and exterior bearing the marks of time's passage.
“I have been playing this game of chess for more than ten thousand years! Although you have disrupted my pace a bit, your ‘Great Dragon’ is dead, and the world’s situation is still in my hands.”

Zou Zi then looked deeply at Du Yuan, his admiration growing even stronger:
“Fellow Daoist, if you had entered the game earlier, I would have had absolutely no chance of winning this game. After all, your Great Dao leaves me even more helpless than that little brat surnamed Li!”

Looking at the patriarchs of various schools and the great positions of the three religions, even a sword cultivator like Li Shiyi, whose natural Dao is the counter to him, could be made to start laying out his plans from ten thousand years ago.

Aside from those transcendent beings like the founders of the three religions, he was confident that no one could defeat him, and that at least half of them would meet a tragic end, dying and disappearing from the world.

It wasn't just a simple loss to him!
Du Yuan was no exception, but this "no exception" was entirely due to the fact that Du Yuan entered the game too late.

Du Yuan didn't understand chess at all; at most, she only knew basic principles like "not occupying the center point" and "surrounding and killing with four pieces will result in death."

Even so, he, an outsider, could clearly see that Bai Zi was probably doomed to lose.

Although the black pieces occupy a small area, they seem to have locked down every possible path for the white pieces. Even if there are one or two unexpected changes, they cannot shake the overall downward trend.

Furthermore, due to her current profound cultivation, Du Yuan has also discerned a deeper key: this game of chess is no longer just about black and white winning or losing; the infinite power of the entire human world rests on these two-colored chess pieces.

Now that Black is stronger than White, the overall trend of the world, like a game of chess, has naturally tilted in favor of Zou Zi.

Zou Zi intended to use the immense power he had accumulated over millennia of planning to crush him completely.

"Fellow Daoist, you should understand now." Zou Zi's voice suddenly turned sharp. "In today's game, no one can win with white! This is no longer a simple matter of winning or losing a game of chess; it is the general trend of the world, the only predetermined fate accumulated over countless ages!"

"So, fellow Daoist, do you still intend to defy the heavens?!"

The last sentence, delivered with the force of a great bell, caused the entire world to tremble slightly, carrying the unshakeable momentum of millennia, and fell straight towards Du Yuan.

At this moment, Du Yuan felt unstoppable, as if she were a god.

With her clothes fluttering in the wind, Du Yuan stroked her sword with one hand and gazed at the high sky.

Then he nodded sincerely and said:
"I don't understand chess, but even if I did, I don't think I could win this endgame."

Zou Zi was somewhat surprised, but also felt that it made perfect sense; at their level, there was nothing they could do and nothing they couldn't do.

Actually, you can see most of it at a glance.

Now that they knew the outcome was decided, they naturally wouldn't hesitate.

"So, fellow Daoist, will you simply surrender and retreat silently, or will you stubbornly resist to the very end?"

At this point, Zou Zi couldn't help but say:
“You previously showed me four characters related to my destiny: 命 (mìng), 生 (shēng), 往 (wǎng), and 开 (kāi), and just now you mentioned 民 (mín). These five characters are all excellent choices, but they don’t complement each other well.”

"If there were only two, that would be fine, but you have five, so you definitely shouldn't have scattered them like this. So, fellow Daoist, tell me the truth: are you hiding another natal character? And, can the natal characters you obtained be combined into something?"

This statement is both out of curiosity and also contains a deep sense of pride, because even if such a person suddenly intervenes and catches him off guard, he will still lose to his scheme.

At this moment, he didn't care how skilled Du Yuan was, because the more skilled he was, the happier he would be to win!
Upon hearing this, Du Yuan, who was supporting the old sword, laughed and nodded repeatedly.
"You're right, the characters I have can indeed be used together!"

These words made Zou Zi laugh as well:

"As expected, I knew that someone like you couldn't possibly have a name without a story. But fellow Daoist, even someone like you has still lost to my millennia-long scheme. Are you willing to accept that?"

Unlike when facing Wang Chengsi, Zou Zi did not intend to kill Du Yuan, because it was too difficult and not worth it.

His ideal solution would be for both sides to point out the winner and each take a step back.

However, even if Du Yuan were to put up a stubborn resistance, he would not be afraid. After all, a plan that had been in place for ten thousand years could not be easily broken.
Du Yuan looked at Zou Zi with a slightly mocking expression and said:
"Are you willing to accept this? I should be asking you that. A thousand-year plan, ruined in an instant, are you willing to accept this?"

"Oh? What kind of talk is that?!"

Zou Zi narrowed his eyes slightly, then panicked and suddenly threw his piece!

The black pieces on the chessboard instantly rose up, condensing into rolling black clouds in the sky, like ink splashed across the heavens, swirling and pressing down on the earth, truly a scene of dark clouds pressing down on the city, threatening to crush it!

The sunlight was completely blocked, and the people in the streets and alleys cried out in alarm and prostrated themselves on the ground. Even the monsters and gods turned pale and their blood and qi stagnated, as if they would be crushed into dust by the dark clouds at any moment!
Such power wasn't even directed at them; it was merely a minor ripple effect.

Suddenly remembering that this person was Zou Zi, a variable he couldn't see through at all, he had to win before Du Yuan revealed his hand!

Seeing the approaching dark clouds, Du Yuan became serious and then spoke to the world the wisdom of the ancients:
"Establish a heart for heaven and earth!"

At that moment, Du Yuan's voice resounded throughout the heavens and earth, and the dark clouds that covered everything also paused.

The cultivators of the world were completely baffled; what did this mean?
Yet they were all awestruck by the grandeur of that statement!

This suggests that people should set their minds on upholding the moral principles of heaven and earth.

They also say that the vastness of heaven and earth, the indifference to all living beings, and the lack of benevolence and virtue, are the reasons for establishing a moral compass for heaven and earth!
Zou Zi's heart skipped a beat:
"This is your natal character? Impossible! Of the five characters you mentioned, not one of them is here, and you could never have obtained 'Heaven' or 'Earth'!"

The Confucian personal name is considered one of the most powerful supernatural abilities in the world. Therefore, with the tacit approval of the founders of the three religions, several ancient gods each seized an extremely powerful character.

With the vastness of heaven and earth, nature is also included!

But it was also at this time, inside two small temples in the southwest of Qingzhou.

Both primordial deities emerged from their respective temples and looked toward the high heavens of Kyoto.

The owner of the plain white robe had eyebrows that curved into a crescent shape.

"In the end, it all comes down to me!"

Then, her jade-like hand, as bright as the moon, gently stretched forward, and then the heavens turned back to the heavens!

Cultivators from all walks of life were in an uproar: "It's a Confucian character, and this gentleman has five more characters!"

"That's not right! Heaven and earth couldn't possibly be taken away by the Confucianists!"

"Wait? It's saved! It's saved!!!"

By revering the imperial authority, the heavens and earth are now clear and pure.

At this moment, countless cultivators shouted with even greater excitement than if they themselves had obtained such a great divine power:

"This saint has obtained the heavens!!!!"

"What about the last land? What about the last land?!"

Amidst the immense excitement of countless cultivators, the formless and shapeless woman within the Qingzhou Temple smiled helplessly:

"Oh, you've made such a commotion and got caught, so don't blame me. After all, you've already taken it, I can't just hold back and not give it to you, can I?"

Just like the owner of the plain white robe, she also raised her hand forward, and then returned to the ground!

The next moment, Zou Zi's exclamation resounded throughout the heavens:
"You really got it?!?"

The cultivators throughout the land were in a frenzy of celebration:

"They handed over heaven and earth to humankind!!!"

The imperial edict governed the earth, and the land became warm and fertile.

The heavens and earth are still in the hands of the gods. Many people don't mention this, and they really think they don't care.

But when the gods returned heaven and earth to humankind.

They then realized that even someone like themselves could be so excited.

Because this signifies that from now on, heaven and earth will no longer belong to the gods, but to humankind!

Zou Zi had already lost his speech.

This was an ending he had never imagined, even after planning for millennia.

He used heaven and earth as a chessboard, believing that no one could break this game and that all living beings could only be trapped in it and struggle against him.

Not to mention that he holds immense power accumulated over millennia; as long as this game continues, he will remain invincible.

This was a complete and utter dead end. He dared not be arrogant, for even the three founders of the Three Religions had to resign, but he truly hadn't considered that Pang Yu could break it!
In that instant of shock, the chessboard of heaven and earth shattered with a deafening roar, its fragments scattering across the universe like meteors before quickly disappearing, leaving countless cultivators who had hoped to profit from the chaos weeping in despair.

This is a meticulous arrangement by the heavens; even finding just a little bit is a blessing that one could never obtain in countless lifetimes!

Just as Du Yuan once said to the old man who asked for the solution to the endgame, since there is no solution to the endgame, let's start a new game!

The pieces and the board are in our hands, so why be fixated on a dead end?

The dark clouds that arose from the chessboard vanished as the chessboard crumbled.

The once mighty dynasty crumbled in an instant. Zou Zi suddenly clutched his chest, a metallic taste rising in his throat. He suppressed his surging emotions and retreated repeatedly across the sky, his gaze falling on Du Yuan below with a complex mix of emotions.

Heaven returns to heaven, earth returns to earth. This person did not hold those two words that determined the fate of the world in his hands to monopolize heaven and earth, but he could take them and use them whenever he wanted.
The situation had completely reversed, and he had suffered a crushing defeat. But Zou Zi stubbornly refused to give up; he was waiting, waiting for the next development.

Given that this person possesses such an aura of encompassing heaven and earth, and has reclaimed the world from those two, coupled with the five words he uttered earlier, there is absolutely no way he will stop here! Nor is it that simple!
He wants to see it through to the end, and he wants to lose clearly and decisively!
Du Yuan, supported by the old sword, slowly stepped forward, her voice resounding throughout the universe:
"Establish a destiny for the people!"

Zou Zi, whose long-cherished plan had been shattered, shook his head with difficulty, clearing the fog from his eyes, before he could see Du Yuan walking towards him.

Life, people, and destiny—only three words?
Realizing this, he suddenly let out a bitter laugh:
"Heh, you still have some?"

The scattered cultivators across the land were already in an uproar:
"To establish a heart for heaven and earth, and to secure a destiny for the people? Just how many characters does this gentleman have in his destiny?"

"The lingering charm of the previous sentence hadn't even faded when another phrase appeared: 'to establish a destiny for the people'! This isn't just his life's motto; he's shouldering the responsibility for all living beings under heaven!"

"Ten? That's ten characters, isn't it!"

"What do you mean ten? There are clearly eight! '为' and '立' are reused!"

"Are you stupid?! Have you forgotten about 'opening' and 'going'?"

"That's right! But where are 'open' and 'go'?!"

"Could there be more?!"

"My goodness, this is unprecedented!!!"

The cultivators who finally came to their senses stood frozen in shock. Du Yuan had uttered far more than ten powerful natal characters; these two lines were truly magnificent and awe-inspiring verses!

Judging from the current situation, it's not over yet!
Du Yuan, supporting herself on the ash-handle, walked up to Zou Zi and said, word by word:

"To carry on the legacy of the saints!"

Zou Zi forced a smile:
"The character '往' has finally come out. But there's still the character '开' left. It seems you're still holding back a line?"

The cultivators from all walks of life had long since lost their earlier commotion and excitement, leaving only blank stares in their eyes:

"He even took the character 'Saint' from his name?"

"The lost teachings of the sages, the wisdom and lifeblood of all beings. This person's words are about to continue the greatest cause and effect in the world, the scale of which is immeasurable!"

"Fourteen characters! A full fourteen characters, and not a single one of them is useless!"

"My God, who exactly is this person who has been reincarnated?"

"I don't recall seeing this person in the Confucian Temple, do I?"

Du Yuan nodded slightly, and then uttered the ultimate mission of Confucianism, which was also the last line of Zhang Zai's four-line poem:
"Bring peace to all eternity!"

The moment the words fell, the world suddenly became clear, and the entire universe fell into a deathly silence.

Zou Zi nodded repeatedly, repeating in a low voice:
"To establish a moral compass for Heaven and Earth, to secure a destiny for the people, to continue the lost learning of past sages, and to usher in an era of peace for all generations?"

After pondering for a long time, he suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter echoing through the sky:
"What a noble cause to establish a moral compass for Heaven and Earth! What a noble cause to secure a destiny for the people! What a noble cause to continue the lost learning of the sages! What a noble cause to usher in an era of peace for all generations!"

Finally, he looked down at Du Yuan with utter dejection and said:

"Is this the mission and answer you've found for your Confucianism? The scale of this is unprecedented. No wonder you were able to reclaim the two characters 'Heaven and Earth'."

"No wonder you are the unpredictable anomaly that is always hard to fathom. That's certainly how it should be. In fact, it would make no sense if it weren't!"

After hearing these four groundbreaking sentences, Zou Zi was completely convinced.

The Confucian scholar who can utter these four lines is no longer facing the broken version of himself he is today.

It should be the most revered teacher!
Because he was answering the entire Confucian school!

"The loss wasn't unjust."

After uttering these words softly, Zou Zi closed his eyes and stood there, peacefully facing death.

Du Yuan did not make a move, but instead turned around to look behind her.

A moment later, another Zouzi came out.

He was wearing a gray shirt.

He was the same person who, that day, held a white chess piece and asked Du Yuan how to break the deadlock under the tavern in front of Baiyu Bridge.

Seeing Du Yuan looking at him, he nodded calmly and smiled:

"It's only right, don't hesitate!"

Du Yuan wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she knew that if she killed this Zou Zi, then the gray-robed Zou Zi in front of her would certainly not survive either.

Therefore, he was seeking the other party's opinion.

Only then did Du Yuan retaliate by shattering the black-clad Zou Zi's Dharma form, sending him to his death.

Looking at the scattered fragments of the Dharma image scattered across the human world, the gray-robed Zou Zi walked to Du Yuan's side, gazing at the human world with a hint of lingering affection.

"I have been struggling with myself for a long time, and today, it is finally over."

(End of this chapter)