Chapter 1531: Last art
"Just keep training here and don’t run around too much."
Han Ba didn’t reject this since he knew that they would gain more from training with the dummies here. However, it still seemed like he wanted to go around the Dao Sect ruins a bit more.
It wasn’t that he was being greedy, it was more that he was hoping that he would be able to help Lin Fan.
Lin Fan knew this as well, so he said, "It’s not the right time. When it’s time for you to appear, I’ll come and bring you out."
Han Ba gave a firm nod that showed his trust in Lin Fan before going back to train with the training dummies.
Since Xiao Mu was leaving as well, there were others that were arranged to train with Han Ba.
The ones that had been prepared were those training dummies for the inner sect disciples of the Dao Sect. And it wasn’t just a single training dummy that was set to train with Han Ba, there were several that were prepared to fight him at the same time.
Other than that, there was even a training dummy for the core disciples of the Dao Sect that was prepared.
Everything was just to make Han Ba stronger.
Both Lin Fan and Ye Qing Huan were interested in seeing just how strong his physique would become if he was beaten by these training dummies.
After leaving the training dummy pavilion, they didn’t head back to the alchemy pavilion either since there was no need for them to worry about those core disciples. They would be able to handle themselves since it wasn’t as if they were helpless.
Instead, they were following Xiao Mu to the next pavilion.
Once they arrived, they found that there was something interesting waiting for them.
But at this point, they weren’t actually surprised to see this thing since it was something that they were already familiar with.
It was something that they had already experienced twice before.
Only this time, it was a board and several go pieces that were just floating there in the space in front of them.
"As expected, it was the last art." Lin Fan wasn’t surprised at all since there were already three pavilions that dealt with the four arts previously. It only made sense that the last of the four arts would also have a pavilion like this.
Though this manifestation of the last art was certainly surprising.
Even if he had already guessed that there would be such a thing, he didn’t expect it to be this simple. Lin Fan had been expecting something much more complicated than what was currently in front of him.
After all, that was how it was with the other pavilions.
"No, the music pavilion was different."
Lin Fan couldn’t help wondering why the music pavilion was different from the other two pavilions. Perhaps it was because of the nature of that pavilion in the first place, perhaps it was because that place had been designed to welcome guests to begin with.
Regardless of what it was, the important thing was facing this board in front of them now.
Instead of going forward, he turned to look at Ye Qing Huan and Xiao Mu with expectation.
It was just that Ye Qing Huan was already looking at him as if she was expecting him to go forward. Seeing her look at him like this caused a wry smile to appear on his face.
But he turned his attention to Xiao Mu who was looking at the board.
Seeing this, Lin Fan didn’t say anything as he waited for a reaction from Xiao Mu.
After all, he could see that Xiao Mu was carefully observing the board and seemed to be forming an idea of how to clear it.
The pieces on the board were already arranged in a way where there was an ending, but one still had to put the final few pieces onto the board before they could achieve that ending. If even a single piece was misplaced, then it would give the other side a chance to come back in this game.
In short, it was a simple puzzle to finish the game.
But for a pavilion of the Dao Sect, it was impossible that this puzzle would be that simple.
After a long silence, Xiao Mu shook its head and said, "I can’t see through it."
Lin Fan wasn’t surprised since during this time, he had also been observing the guidance of the system. The system had activated the moment that he looked at the puzzle itself, but he had been ignoring the answer since he didn’t want to step up himself.
But now it seemed like he had no other choice.
Even without much knowledge, he had an idea of what this puzzle was about.
However, just to be certain, Lin Fan did exchange for a bit of knowledge to ensure that he would be able to adapt to anything that changed. With this knowledge, he had an idea of what the system was guiding him to do.
In fact, even he had to admit that the system was indeed genius with the solution that it proposed.
But then again, it wasn’t as if this was unexpected since it was a system.
"When it comes to things like this, systems really have an advantage..."
Since Xiao Mu wasn’t able to figure it out, then it was Lin Fan’s turn to take charge.
It was just that after stepping forward, he realized that there wasn’t anything for him to actually place pieces on the board with.
Looking around, there just didn’t seem to be any pieces at all.
Since there was nothing, he chose the simplest manner of tapping on the board itself with his finger.
That turned out to be the right answer as a piece appeared on the board where he had touched the board. But the moment that this piece appeared, there was a piece of the opposing colour that also appeared on the board.
Lin Fan wasn’t surprised at all to see this, he just calmly tapped another spot on the board.
Back and forth like this, the two sides continued putting more and more pieces on the board until eventually there wasn’t a response from the other side. It seemed like the other side wasn’t certain where to put the next piece.
After a long moment of silence, there was finally a piece that was put down.
It was just that this didn’t matter as Lin Fan put down the following piece right away.
This time, there was no follow up from the other side. This time, it seemed like the other side had completely conceded.
After all, it was hard to keep playing when the board shattered like this.
Once the board floating there in the air shattered, the doors that were sealed by them opened. In fact, the doors even swung open with a bit too much enthusiasm, as if whoever was in charge of the pavilion couldn’t wait for him to come in.
When the board shattered like this, Ye Qing Huan and Xiao Mu couldn’t help looking at Lin Fan with strange looks.
Even though they had already chosen to leave this matter to him, it was still shocking seeing this kind of result. They thought that he would simply solve the puzzle, not dominate the owner of the puzzle like this.
The shock was especially strong for Xiao Mu who understood what had just happened.
Xiao Mu had a deep understanding of go because of the database that it was connected to, so it knew exactly what the purpose of each move was. Seeing the deep moves that was made by both Lin Fan and the owner of the puzzle, it was hard for it not to be shocked.
It was one thing for the owner of this puzzle to make these kinds of moves since they were the ones that owned this pavilion. They were once an elder that was at the peak of their path in the Dao Sect.
It was understandable if they were at this level.
But for Lin Fan to reach the same level...
Not to mention that he was at the same level when it came to poetry and painting as well.
Even if he started training from when he was in the womb, it shouldn’t be possible that he was at this level in all three of these four arts.
The only thing that he wasn’t good at was music...
Xiao Mu just couldn’t figure out what it was that allowed Lin Fan to be this proficient in the four arts...
Lin Fan naturally knew why they were looking at him like this, it was a look that he had already received several times from them. But even if they looked at him like this, it wasn’t as if there was anything that he could tell them.
So all he could do was face the door that opened in front of them and walk through.
They didn’t say anything as they followed behind him, but they did what they could to pressure him with their gazes the entire time. It didn’t matter if he didn’t respond, they just wanted to put this pressure on Lin Fan to show that they hadn’t forgotten this matter.
Once they were inside of the hall, they found that it was quite simple once again.
These halls were all the same, they were all designed with one thing in mind.
Everything was designed for the pursuit of their passions.