Chapter 88: On the Board, Only Living Pieces Decide the Outcome

One sentence, eight words, each word landing like a thunderclap.

Because this was a return from a dead end.

It was a turning point so immense that it was almost impossible in this world.

Lin Xiaosu frowned slightly. “Why?”

“Because someone personally promised that if you could complete this assignment, he would open a special channel for you. You could enter Potential Dragon and go straight to a gold badge.”

“This person... carries that much weight?”

“In Potential Dragon, no one carries more weight than he does.”

Lin Xiaosu’s heartbeat quickened.

They did not mention the man’s name or his post, but he knew at once who it was.

The Dragon Lord.

That was only the nickname used among ordinary people. Within Potential Dragon, he was not called Dragon Lord, but by a neutral title: the Dragon Head.

The Dragon Head, master of Potential Dragon.

Only the nation’s top leaders knew who the master of Potential Dragon truly was.

He was a true giant, standing on the same level as those leaders themselves.

And now such a man had spoken to him personally.

To open a special channel...

Lin Xiaosu slowly shook his head. “No.”

Long Night shot upright. “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean I appreciate his kindness, but I refuse to become a gold badge of Potential Dragon.”

“You...” Long Night was shaken to the core. “Why? You must give me a reason!”

“There is more than one reason. There are a whole stack of them.”

“Fine, fine. Spill the whole stack.”

“Reason one,” Lin Xiaosu said. “I’m not in Potential Dragon, so I can charge Potential Dragon for my work. If I nod yes, won’t all my future casework become unpaid labor? How stupid would I have to be to go against money?”

Long Night glared at him. “Money again! Always money! Will you die if you don’t mention money?”

“My original motivation for opening a detective agency was money. If it doesn’t make money, I really would feel like dying.”

Long Night sighed. “I’m too exhausted to even complain. Reason two?”

“Reason two: once you become Potential Dragon, you have the Potential Dragon regulations hanging over your head, with all kinds of taboos and restraints. I’m living just fine in the mortal world, so why should I go and find myself a father to supervise me?”

This time Long Night was not too tired to complain; she simply lacked the confidence to do so.

He was running a detective agency in the mortal world, making money hand over fist, enjoying himself, and even with two beautiful women around him to share the pleasure.

From any ordinary person’s perspective, he really had no reason to go and find himself a father figure to keep him in line.

The only blame lay with those old fossils on the original review committee. When this kid was still rather innocent, they rejected him. Now that he was making a name for himself in the mortal world and had found his own pleasures here, his mind had started to branch in other directions...

You wanted him to join Potential Dragon.

He refused to join.

“Why don’t you ask about reason three?” Lin Xiaosu looked at her.

Long Night rolled her eyes. “Ask what? You’ve already convinced me. Faced with a shameless little thug with no grand ambitions, what can I even say?”

“You should first ask yourself: if I never joined Potential Dragon, did that mean I never did anything for Potential Dragon?”

Long Night’s heart jolted violently.

He had indeed never joined Potential Dragon. But had that stopped him from doing its work?

In Phoenix City, he had uprooted the underground empire that had ruled the city for years. Although that was not strictly within Potential Dragon’s direct duties, it was still aligned with its purpose.

He had uncovered the ant nest in Cloud Terrace Mountain, completing in one night a mission that countless gold badges had failed to finish in their entire lives.

And this time, while the experimental subjects had run wild and three special operations teams from Potential Dragon were still in a complete uproar, he had already finished the job and was off flirting with girls.

Had he ever hindered Potential Dragon’s operations?

Long Night slowly lifted her head. “That’s your third reason, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Lin Xiaosu said, “Want to know the fourth?”

“There’s a fourth too? Go on.”

“Have you ever played Go?”

Long Night blinked. “I have.”

“On the black-and-white board, a battle of wit and strategy. The stones already placed are dead stones; the stones not yet placed are living stones.” Lin Xiaosu said, “The crucial move that decides victory and defeat is never the dead stone on the board, but the living stone that has not yet been laid.”

Long Night’s heart surged with waves.

That was the wisest sentence she had heard all night.

In a game of strategy, the key move is the living stone not yet placed.

He would not be a dead stone. He would be a living stone.

If he joined Potential Dragon, he would step onto the board and become a dead stone. But if he did not join, he would remain a living stone. And what is a living stone? It means doing the things Potential Dragon cannot conveniently do.

“You’ve convinced me. Truly convinced me,” Long Night said. “Should I send you back to Phoenix City now?”

“Since everything’s been said clearly and the mission is complete, there’s no need to be in such a hurry, is there?”

“Understood...” Long Night glanced at him, a hint of allure in her eyes. “I’ll slow the flying car down a bit. There’s still some time in the car for you to lie down comfortably.”

They stood up. The flying car descended from the sky and they boarded it. Long Night set the destination, and the two of them lay back on the spacious rear seat.

Lin Xiaosu gently pulled her closer, and Long Night fell into his arms.

“Did you turn off the car’s surveillance?”

Long Night gave him a sidelong look. “It’s been off for ages. What do you want to do?”

“Sometimes life requires us to face the ultimate challenge head-on...” Lin Xiaosu’s hand slipped into her clothes.

Long Night pressed him down at once. “Are you trying to kill yourself? I already said that place is absolutely off-limits...”

“Then this place should be fine, right?”

His hand changed direction, moving from below upward.

Long Night wanted to object, but she could not. For him, they had already kissed, and nothing had gone wrong; touching the rabbit’s head really did not count for much...

Forget it. Let him enjoy himself.

Although it was only affectionate care for the “rabbit,” one had to admit that the aftereffects were a little intoxicating. By the end, both of them were blood rushing hot through their veins, unable to resist the temptation to meet some ultimate challenge.

But in the end, Long Night’s reason still defeated the unruly stirrings of her heart.

“I’m conducting drug research. There will definitely be a successful day... As for you, your Spring Revival Art will certainly keep improving too. We’ll wait until we’re both ready before saying more... You, New Moon really wasn’t wrong. You’re a little pervert! Where on earth did you learn those techniques? You’re definitely not inexperienced...” Long Night was a little breathless.

Inside the night sky, they reached Phoenix City.

The flying car landed accurately on the rooftop of the detective agency.

Inside the car, Long Night half-parted her lips and gave him a kiss goodbye.

After the kiss, her gaze was slightly dazed. “You were a little too excited tonight. Should I simply take you back to Old Tower Mountain Village? Someone in your room there can put out the fire.”

“And you? Watching the show from afar?”

“How could that be? Do I seem that vulgar to you?” Long Night shot him a look. “I told you, she’s an intelligent bio-robot. She has no remote control. She’s fully autonomous. I don’t know anything about her condition.”

“Really?”

“I swear on my nonexistent first kiss that it’s all true!”

Long Night answered with absolute certainty.

“Goodbye then...” Lin Xiaosu got out of the flying car.

The vehicle rose high into the sky and flew back to 101.

Long Night lay on the back seat. With a lift of her hand, a pair of dragon-eye lenses settled over her face. In the dim cabin, the figure of an old man appeared.

“Godfather, the mission has been completed!”

The old man suddenly raised his head, his eyes blazing with light. “How complete?”

“The Red Bird is dead. The body is with me.”

The old man laughed. “Three special operations teams were no match for you alone... or rather, for the two of you. It seems this special-recruitment gold badge of mine is indeed no ordinary talent. You may arrange a time to bring him over.”

“Godfather, he does not want to be a gold badge. He wants to be an Hidden Dragon.”

“Hidden Dragon?” The old man’s eyelids twitched lightly. “Hidden Dragon is no ordinary matter. Even I cannot make that decision with a single word.”

Hidden Dragons did not carry Potential Dragon gold badges; they carried jade badges instead. Their files were held only by the upper echelons of Potential Dragon, and ordinary gold badges had no right to access them.

In the eyes of officially recognized gold badges, Hidden Dragons were also shrouded in mystery.

Long Night herself was a Hidden Dragon.

And the young man she had set her sights on wanted to become one from the very start?

Was that not asking for too much?

“You’ve understood it wrongly. The Hidden Dragon he wants to become is not the Hidden Dragon within Potential Dragon’s system. He wants to be a Hidden Dragon in the vast world, in the endless mortal realm. He does not need Potential Dragon’s appointment. His name will not enter the Potential Dragon system. His outward identity, and his true identity, will both simply be himself. He said one thing that really moved me...”

She then recounted her conversation with Lin Xiaosu in full.

The old man remained silent for a long time.

“On the board of strategy, the living stone is the key move that decides victory and defeat... Well said. Well said indeed!”

“Godfather, you agree?”

“Agree to him.” The old man said, “When there is something that requires his help, pay him properly and treat it as a normal commission. The rest of the time, let him grow freely.”

“In that case, it still doesn’t quite show how much you value him,” Long Night said, her eyes glimmering.

“You little girl, what are you plotting now? Out with it.” The old man smiled faintly.

“Godfather, could you give him a little gift?”

“For example?”

“A pair of glasses.”

The old man looked at her for a long time.

Long Night said, “He’s a detective. What he needs most is to protect those eyes.”

...

Lin Xiaosu came down from the rooftop and returned to his room.

At that moment, it was the darkest hour before dawn.

Miao Ruolan and Zhou Xi were probably both still in sweet dreams.

Yet Lin Xiaosu could not sleep no matter what.

It was not because of the lingering heat from testing his hands-on feelings with Long Night, though that aftereffect was indeed quite strong.

Compared with another matter, however, that aftereffect was trivial.

Because what struck him was beyond anything else.

The secret realm within his body.

That secret realm had saved him from certain death.

Its mysteries were as though they did not belong to this world at all.

A great hole had suddenly appeared inside his arm. It could neither be seen nor touched, and yet it truly existed in Lin Xiaosu’s consciousness alone.

Inside the hole were chaotic currents of space.

The Beast Crystal of the Netherworld Nine-Transformation Beast, sweeping through all things like a storm tide, plunged into that turbulence and was instantly destroyed, with no room for the slightest resistance. Yes, that orb was the essence crystal of the Netherworld Nine-Transformation Beast. Essence crystals were unheard of in modern society, but records of them existed in The Abyss Sea Classic and The Mountains and Rivers Classic. What was it? It was the condensed essence of all blood and vitality of various archaic beasts. As long as the essence crystal remained unbroken, the beast could not die.

The essence crystal was the hardest thing of all.

In the mortal world, there was almost nothing it could not destroy.

Yet this cave-like secret realm had easily destroyed it.

And what was the thing inside that secret realm?

The spatial laws recorded in the Dao Scriptures.

What are spatial laws?

The level of Dao mastery.

There are three stages of the Dao: Dao-seeing, Dao-understanding, and Dao-wielding.

Among these, spatial law stood among the very highest tiers of Dao-wielding...

People of this world were still spinning within the vortex of genetic modification, treating any such alteration as a miracle. And yet what exactly had he just done? Cultivation? Comprehending the rules of heaven?

To oppose the people of this world with such methods—wasn’t that like fighting from an entirely different dimension?

And not just a little different... it was a great deal different.