A Record of A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

Chapter 627: The Attendant Boy

The group of people quickly arrived in front of the stone gate. The yellow-robed cultivator’s command token radiated a glow before suddenly disappearing, and the passage vanished without a trace.

“Stay close,” the man said coldly after glancing at the others.

Then his fingers danced continuously as both hands formed complex seals. Suddenly, he turned sharply and raised his hands.

Two sharp beams of red and yellow light shot out, striking the heavily sealed stone gate.

Immediately, the originally closed azure door lit up with glowing runes flickering in turn. Amid a low humming sound, the gate slowly opened, revealing a long rectangular corridor inside.

Without a word, the yellow-robed cultivator strode inside.

The others exchanged glances and quickly followed.

Han Li walked among the disciples, eyes straightforward but his spiritual awareness scanning everything nearby.

The rectangular corridor appeared to have been dug directly into the mountain’s interior using a magical artifact. Not only were the four walls unusually smooth, but every few steps, the walls were inscribed with profound, inscrutable talismanic scripts.

Although he couldn’t study them in detail right now, Han Li knew these inscriptions were far from mere decoration.

The corridor wasn’t very long. After walking just over a hundred zhang, the group’s eyes brightened as they entered a tidy stone hall.

The hall was roughly fifty to sixty zhang wide and about seven or eight zhang high—quite spacious.

In the center of the hall stood a large green stone platform, several feet across. Ten faces of vertical and horizontal carved grooves formed an enormous chessboard, covered with black and white pieces densely arranged, seeming to be in a critical moment of the game.

On either side of the chessboard sat an old man and a young boy holding black and white pieces. The old man wore brocade robes and had a long face, looking to be in his fifties. The boy was only seven or eight years old, with rosy lips and white teeth, like a reincarnated jade child.

“Senior Uncle Lan! How is it that you are here?”

A cultivator surnamed Bai suddenly exclaimed upon seeing the child, then hurriedly stepped forward to pay respects with a deep bow.

“Senior Uncle Lan?”

The gray-robed old man and a middle-aged cultivator from the Hundred Skills Courtyard were initially taken aback to see an unfamiliar boy here. But upon hearing the Bai cultivator’s address, their expressions changed drastically. Looking at the boy’s small braid, bare feet, and golden bracelet, they immediately thought of a rumored senior figure.

“We, the juniors Du Hui and Yu Shan’an, pay respects to Senior Lan!” The two were startled and quickly bowed without hesitation.

“Rise. Don’t you see that Senior Junior Uncle Hu and I are at a critical point in the game? Don’t speak; we’ll discuss whatever matters after the game,” the boy said with a surprisingly mature tone despite his tender, delicate appearance, speaking with great confidence.

“As you command!” The Bai cultivator and the other two foundation formation cultivators responded obediently, then stood quietly nearby with hands lowered, showing no sign of dissent.

The long-faced old man playing chess with the boy gave the three a slight bitter smile but said nothing.

As for the yellow-robed cultivator, since entering the stone hall, he had been standing properly behind the boy, showing the respectful demeanor of a disciple.

The young cultivators who followed in were immediately stirred into a commotion upon hearing that these three grandmasters actually addressed the seven or eight-year-old child in front of them as “Senior Uncle.”

They all knew what this title implied — how could they, qi refining stage disciples, not understand? Their eyes widened, staring fixedly at the boy, their hearts stirred intensely.

Han Li’s heart skipped a beat the moment he saw the boy. This was a genuine early nascent soul cultivator—how could he be here?