◎Everyone else is a non-human, except Jiang Tingbai, who is the odd one out◎
Just as Jiang Tingbai’s disastrous attempts at artifact crafting had once shocked Ji Qinghong, Yan Luoyue’s exceptional talent in refining tools now left Jiang Tingbai equally stunned.
Out of years of familiarity, a reluctance to see talent go to waste, trust in Yan Luoyue’s abilities, and genuine affection, Jiang Tingbai wrote a personal letter recommending the young Yan Luoyue to Ji Qinghong.
At the time, Yan Luoyue was preparing to attend the Thousand Refinements Assembly.
Before her departure, Jiang Tingbai specially crafted three sword talismans for her.
And as he handed them over, a fleeting thought crossed his mind—
Given their schedules, his master and Yan Luoyue should meet at the Thousand Refinements Assembly.
Surely, his master wouldn’t be so bored as to ambush Yan Luoyue on the way just to scare the child, right?
To this, Yan Luoyue, Wu Manshuang, and Ling Shuanghun could answer with absolute certainty from personal experience:
Oh yes, he would. Ji Qinghong was exactly that kind of shameless rabbit—the type who’d intercept a kid on the road, give them a fright, and then issue them a penalty slip!
Senior Brother, you’re far too trusting of rabbit nature. With Ji Qinghong, you can’t let your guard down for even a second!
……
Thanks to his earnest recommendation, Jiang Tingbai finally gained a clever, sensible, and adorable junior sister who seemed capable of bringing a touch of normalcy to their eccentric sect.
Of course, said junior sister also brought along a junior brother, but that wasn’t a big deal.
Jiang Tingbai, who had reached this conclusion, would one day come to realize: In their sect, everyone else was a non-human—only he was the odd one out.
But for now, Jiang Tingbai remained blissfully unaware of Yan Luoyue and Wu Manshuang’s divine origins.
So far, the biggest trouble his juniors had caused him was Wu Manshuang’s overly stubborn personality.
After the incident in Shancha Town, prompted by Chu Tiankuo’s reminder, Jiang Tingbai noticed how tightly wound Wu Manshuang usually was.
After some thought, he took Wu Manshuang on a mission. It was during this trip that Jiang Tingbai offered him a suggestion.
“If you’d like to cultivate your temperament, Junior Brother, you could learn Go from our master,” he said.
Recalling Ji Qinghong’s Go skills—and his sportsmanship—a mischievous smile tugged at Jiang Tingbai’s lips.
He added casually, “I’m sure Master would be happy to teach if someone’s willing to play with him.”
Heaven and earth bore witness: This suggestion wasn’t Jiang Tingbai’s rare attempt at teasing someone.
After carefully considering Wu Manshuang’s personality, he believed learning Go from Ji Qinghong would help him relax and, more importantly, teach him how to lose—and accept defeat gracefully.
Of course, perhaps due to some subconscious influence, Jiang Tingbai didn’t mention Ji Qinghong’s actual Go prowess to Wu Manshuang.
……
And so, Wu Manshuang walked into Sulu Hall with an earnest heart, completely unprepared.
He bowed to Ji Qinghong, expressed his desire to learn Go, and then watched as his master produced a… particularly massive stone Go board.
Wu Manshuang: “!!!”
This board… is something wrong with it?
While Wu Manshuang didn’t know Go, he’d at least seen others play it. A standard Go board shouldn’t have this many grid lines, right?
Faced with his confusion, Ji Qinghong remained utterly unperturbed. “My Go is just like this,” he declared shamelessly.
At the time, the still-innocent Wu Manshuang actually believed him.
—Tragedy. Following Jiang Tingbai, another disciple had fallen victim to Ji Qinghong’s rabbit-like deceit.
Then, Wu Manshuang was kept there for three whole days, playing Go with Ji Qinghong.
By the time he returned, Yan Luoyue and Jiang Tingbai were grilling skewers together.
Hearing Wu Manshuang’s footsteps, Yan Luoyue handed him a perfectly charred, honey-glazed chicken wing and asked offhandedly, “You studied for so long—how many games did you play?”
Wu Manshuang answered honestly, “One.”
“Huh?” Yan Luoyue blinked. “Just one game took that long?”
Usually, beginners surrendered pretty quickly, didn’t they?
Wu Manshuang thought back and replied seriously, “Master’s board was quite large.”
Perhaps too large.
They’d played for three full days before filling the board, ending in a stalemate…
Hearing this, Jiang Tingbai suddenly chuckled.
Yan Luoyue frowned. “Senior Brother, what’s so funny?”
Jiang Tingbai straightened his expression. “Ah, I just remembered something amusing.”
Setting down his skewer, he asked mildly, “How did Master explain that oversized board?”
Wu Manshuang repeated verbatim, “Master said it’s because his skills are so advanced…” hence the need for an equally advanced board.
Jiang Tingbai snorted again.
Yan Luoyue squinted. “Senior Brother, what’s amusing now?”
“Nothing,” Jiang Tingbai said smoothly. “Just another amusing thought.”
Yan Luoyue narrowed her eyes. “Is this the same ‘amusing thing’ as before?”
“Yes.” Jiang Tingbai nodded. “By the way, Junior Brother, did you win against Master?”
Wu Manshuang shook his head sheepishly. “It was a draw.”
This time, Jiang Tingbai laughed so hard he buried his face in his hands.
Yan Luoyue couldn’t take it anymore. “Senior Brother, you’ve been laughing at Manshuang this whole time without stopping!”
“Cough. I’m not laughing at Manshuang.” Jiang Tingbai forced a straight face and waved Wu Manshuang over. “Come, let’s play a few games on a normal board… I’ll teach you a few tricks.”
That afternoon, Wu Manshuang lost over twenty times to Jiang Tingbai.
But after this crash course, he managed to defeat Ji Qinghong the very next day.
“……”
Staring at the gigantic board before him, then at his disciple’s earnest, expectant face, Ji Qinghong fell into a long silence.
Finally, he spoke slowly, “This time… you’re providing the board?”
Wu Manshuang paused. “What?”
Ji Qinghong nodded decisively. “—This time, you’re providing the board.”
Wu Manshuang: “?”
It was only later that Wu Manshuang learned: When playing outside the sect didn’t count, but within the sect, any disciple—be it Jiang Tingbai or Mi Jichen—who won against Ji Qinghong even once had to craft a new Go board.
This new board wasn’t anything special.
It was just an ordinary Go board with its standard nineteen vertical and nineteen horizontal lines, except that the board on which Ji Qinghong had once lost was slightly larger each time, with one additional line added to both dimensions.
But as one might expect, the more lines there were on the board, the worse Ji Qinghong’s defeat became.
According to unverified rumors from the martial world, Ji Qinghong once lost by over two thousand points in a single game—a record in this cultivation realm.
When Wu Manshuang learned of this afterward, he was left speechless.
Wu Manshuang was deeply shaken.
After all, when ordinary people lost, they might at most drag a single decisive match into a best-of-three, and then extend that into a best-of-five.
But Ji Qinghong’s method of refusing to admit defeat… was simply too extraordinary!
Moreover, while manually crafting those custom oversized boards, Wu Manshuang came to understand a truth.
—Sometimes, winning is also losing.
……
On that mountain peak, on an utterly ordinary day, Wu Manshuang was walking along a narrow path after practicing late into the night at the back cliff.
The moonlight, pale as frost, quietly bathed the peak.
Suddenly, Wu Manshuang heard a sound and looked up. There, at the corner of a soaring pavilion, he caught sight of Ji Qinghong’s solitary figure.
His snow-white hair seemed to melt into the moonlight as he sat with one knee bent and the other leg dangling casually over the edge of the roof. He looked like a true wild goose, about to vanish into the misty night.
Ji Qinghong lowered his head slightly, bringing a small instrument to his lips and occasionally blowing out a few thin, fragmented notes.
Noticing Wu Manshuang’s gaze, Ji Qinghong smiled faintly, his crimson eyes glinting, and beckoned him over.
With a warm smile, Ji Qinghong said, “Still practicing at this hour? Come up and sit for a while.”
That smile was like shattered glass, like ripples disturbing a still pond.
The distant, almost melancholic image of Ji Qinghong from moments ago seemed to dissolve into the cracks of time, as if it had never existed.
Once Wu Manshuang settled beside him, Ji Qinghong retrieved an identical instrument from his storage pouch—only slightly smaller—and handed it to Wu Manshuang.
With a meaningful smile, he said, “You might as well learn a little. It’s elegant, simple, and natural—young ladies tend to enjoy listening to it.”
Wu Manshuang stared at the object in his palm, skeptical due to his understanding of Ji Qinghong’s character.
“This… seems a bit too simple, doesn’t it?”
Ji Qinghong gave him a leisurely glance. “The Great Dao returns to simplicity. It’s the ordinary things that move people.”
Twirling the instrument in his fingers, Ji Qinghong half-closed his eyes, as if recalling some past experience, and said with a smile, “What, don’t you believe me?”
Wu Manshuang hesitated for a moment before tightening his grip on the object.
The instrument was tiny, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Nestled there, it did look rather delicate and charming.
Maybe… she really would like listening to it? Wu Manshuang thought uncertainly.
Ji Qinghong said gently, “It’s very simple. You’ll learn it in no time.”
Wu Manshuang asked for guidance, “Then may I ask, Master, what are the techniques or secrets to playing this instrument?”
What Wu Manshuang had meant to ask about was the playing technique.
But for some reason, Ji Qinghong’s answer was completely off-topic.
After a brief pause, he replied, “One thing to note—don’t play it for too many young ladies at once. Otherwise, you might end up getting beaten up.”
That very night, Wu Manshuang mastered the instrument with ease.
The next day, Yan Luoyue rubbed her temples and tugged at Wu Manshuang’s sleeve.
“Manshuang, did Master cause trouble again last night?”
Wu Manshuang tensed up immediately. “Why do you say that?”
Naturally, such a small shift in expression couldn’t escape Yan Luoyue’s notice.
She blinked in disbelief. “Wait, don’t tell me you were part of the midnight sleep-disrupting squad too?”
Wu Manshuang reached out and gently smoothed the faint crease between her brows.
He admitted honestly, “Master was teaching me—”
Yan Luoyue gasped dramatically.
“What were you two doing? We’re in a cultivation world… and he’s teaching you track and field? What were you rehearsing? Long-distance running? Sprints? The four-hundred-meter relay? A triathlon?”
The barrage of questions left Wu Manshuang utterly bewildered.
He stared blankly. “No, none of that… Why would you think that?”
Yan Luoyue said indignantly, “You two were blowing whistles all night! Damn it, I even thought someone was holding midnight military drills, making everyone march in formation!”
—Extra Story 2·The End—
