Three days after the Immortal Dao Conference, a pickup truck sped along a highway heading northwest from Mount Sanqing. In the back seat, Wang Sheng was playing a game of Go[1] with his senior sister. The Go board floated in front of them, controlled by his senior sister's qi. It was steady and unmoving, immune to the jostling of the vehicle.0

As if finding the game effortless, the two played move after move seemingly without thinking. The two young members of the Special Investigation Unit in front of the vehicle had been sneaking glances for some time before they realized that the two Daoist experts weren't playing Go at all but rather a refined version of Five-in-a-Row, simply with a much more exquisite board.2

Right now, half the cultivators had yet to leave Mount Sanqing. Just as they had expected before the conference, most of those who remained were unaffiliated practitioners from various sects. Finding Mount Sanqing to their liking, some had even casually joined nearby Daoist temples, considerably strengthening several of the sects based on Mount Sanqing.0

Reflecting on his own experience at the Immortal Dao Conference, Wang Sheng was reminded of a joke that...0