In the photo, the shadows of the village ruins stretched long in the setting sun, starkly defined. Even if there were ambushes, hiding in the shadows, her phone’s pixel count likely wouldn’t be able to make them out. Just as I was about to tell Lao Ba to move down a bit for a closer recon, she sent another photo. This time it was of the Han Yin Temple opposite, focusing on the parking lot in front of it. I opened the original image and zoomed in. Whoa, a lot of luxury cars had shown up. Forget the BMWs and Audis; there were two Rolls-Royces alone. Looking at the license plates, some were from Ji Province, and some were Beijing plates.
It must be people from "Sha Bi Ya's" headquarters.
I hadn't expected their reaction to be so quick. Their headquarters must have a lot of experts. For safety’s sake, I didn't have Lao Ba venture any closer, only telling her: "Report any changes immediately."
No need to rush back for a counter-attack yet, because our objective wasn't to occupy Jiuxian Cave, but merely to retrieve something. I thought the Chessboard Mountain base camp was good and should be properly managed. The "East" in the feint needed to be far away, to avoid exposing the main base.
Zhao Nana called my room, asking if I had any special requests for dinner.
As mentioned before, dinner could be eaten in the main building or delivered. Of course, I chose delivery.
I asked, "Does our restaurant have game meat?"
Zhao Nana replied, "We dare not lie to Miss's guests. We do, but it's all farmed wild game, nothing truly wild. Hunting pure wild game is illegal."
In that case, there was nothing else to do but let the demons go break the law themselves.
"Then, whatever is fine. No need to prepare too much, our group has very small appetites," I instructed, to avoid waste.
Only Yao Yao, Bing Bing, and I were eating. The others only tasted a little. After eating, they used the excuse of going up the mountain to watch the sunset, skirted around the main building, and began climbing Chessboard Mountain. Not long after entering the mountain, the demons dispersed, each going to hunt. It was the three of us who climbed up along the stone steps.
The mountain wasn't high, and we soon reached the summit. Between the western mountains, the sea of clouds shimmered with the sunset glow, carrying a round red sun, which seemed about to fall.
Yao Yao stood with her hands behind her back, looking entranced. The sunset glow illuminated her mask, resonating with the golden light, reflecting a noble and mysterious radiance. It made me increasingly curious about what kind of face was hidden beneath this mask.
"Wow, this mountaintop really does look like a chessboard!" Bing Bing exclaimed.
I withdrew my gaze and examined the mountaintop. Indeed, it was square, about the size of a basketball court, with scattered rugged rocks resembling chess pieces. There were just no lines on the chessboard. If I were a scenic area manager, I might have fabricated some lines to fit the name "Chessboard Mountain," which would surely attract more customers.
However, not long after, I abandoned this idea because I had misunderstood the meaning of "Chessboard Mountain"...
"Can you tell us the legend of Dragon Mountain now?" Bing Bing urged Yao Yao.
I had completely forgotten about this.
Yao Yao nodded. "Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, there was a Black Water Dragon King and a White Water Dragon King who often viewed the scenery and played chess in this 'Dragon Mountain' area. Both dragon kings were highly skilled, and it was hard to tell who was superior. One day, while chatting about their chess skills, they couldn't convince each other. So, they wagered their wives and used Dragon Mountain as the 'center point,' the streams to divide the ground into a chessboard, and the surrounding mountains as the black and white pieces. They fought for seventy-seven days and forty-nine nights, still without a clear winner."
"By chance, at this time, the Black Dragon King's wife came to call him home for dinner. The Black Dragon King was distracted and accidentally made a wrong move. The White Dragon King seized this weakness and, in a few swift moves, won the game. According to the agreement, the White Dragon King wanted to take the Black Dragon King's wife. The Black Dragon King was still studying the endgame and didn't interfere, but his wife was very strong-willed and refused to go. The White Dragon King then forcibly dragged her. The Dragon King's wife must also have been a dragon, and quite large."