" you lost again!" Lan Xi said while looking at her son.

She seemed displeased and also disappointed.

The boy did not know how to feel. He was being abused by his mother again.

He could understand a parent being displeased and even disappointed when their children could not reach their expectations. The said parents could make their disappointment known one way or another.

But what was this situation?

Du Ren lowered his head and looked sadly at the chess game between the two of them.

He had lost too miserably.

It was their hundredth and something party, and he had not even won once.

Lan Xi could lead him by the nose during the game, she also seemed able to read his tough process.

How could he win in this situation?

During the last week, they had played chess and another game of this world that looked similar to go.

There were many similar games, in this world, and Du Ren never thought that his mother loved playing so much that she will one day start to torture her son.

Every day, they will play at least fifteen parties, greatly reducing the time that he had for his training.

Who knew that she liked to play mind games so much?

" I am not good at playing this kind of game mom. I lost every time, I face you" Du Ren said in a sad tone.

He wanted to say something like ' I should use this time to train instead' but knowing the somber side of his mother he remained silent.

" you should never underestimate yourself. You are growing taller every day and becoming a stronger martial artist.

But you also need to learn how to use your brain or you will never really grow" Lan Xi said seriously while rearranging the chess pieces. They were going to play another game.

It all started a week ago. Du Ren had just won against the town's blacksmith during a contest of strength. He also learned the fact that he will need much effort to break through the fourth stage of body tempering.

As if it was not enough, he received an inheritance from an ancient power, the endless Illusion temple.

Naturally, he became full of himself.

Despite his appearance of an 8-year-old boy, he was 19 when he died.

It was a time when one dreamed of adventure and freedom.

Everything was ready for the start of his journey, map, weapons, money.

He only needed to inform his mother of his plan and reassure her.

Sadly, she did not hear him out at all. She just said that there were only two ways in which he could leave. He could wait until he was twelve years old.

It was an age where children acquired a little degree of independence in this world.

He could also beat her at playing chess. Du Ren confidently accepted. He was ready to surprise her.

She did not know it but in his past life, he was rather good at playing chess.

Sadly, yet again, he was defeated.

Not one or two, but many times.

He discovered even more how fearsome his mother was as time passed.

It was not just a matter of luck, but also her ability to analyze the likelihoods and predict the next move of her opponent from his every move.

During these years, when he started training Du Ren was so excited by the feeling of superhuman strength and extraordinary power that he submerged himself in his training. Little by little, he started to grow apart from anyone else and also passed no time with his mother.

But Lan Xi was pretty good had seized every opportunity. Knowing what her son wanted, she used it as bait to initiate these long hours of mother and son bonding. 

Every time, she will let him have the feeling that the difference in 'strength between the two of them was not that great. He will do his best to ameliorate his strategies only to discover that Lan Xi was scarier than what she let him think during their last match.

During these moments, Du Ren could also strangely feel as if his mind was being refreshed as if he was achieving an equilibrium between his mind and his body.

As time passed he grew calmer and started to gain a moderate temperament.

He now remembered one of the talents of his mother 'strong mind'. In the description, it was a talent useful in martial art training.

Du Ren could now understand how she developed it. Sadly for her, at the time she had already passed the age when martial arts could be effectively trained.

****** 

Du Ren's day was now like that. He will go out before the morning to start his training. Every martial artist knew that despite its short duration, the moment when the sun eas rising was the most effective time to train the body.

The ray of the rising sun will send a warm current that will strengthen the blood essence of the martial artist.

The strengthening was very little but it was still ten times better than other times.

In the afternoon, Du Ren will be seen playing chess with his mother. In this world, the chipboard was made of wood and we're also rather huge. Only martial artists could carry them around effortlessly.

Lan Xi said that it is for this reason, that it was kept away most of the time.

They will pay till the night. After that, Du Ren will start to meditate.

Lan Xi had thought him how to do it. The chess game in this world was rather complex. There were also fifty squares on every side of the chessboard...

There were also strange pieces like the ' beast horde' the 'royal master' the general that could move in ever strangest way.

Lan Xi said that the way of chess was also the natural order of things.

To make the same decision, two different people could take different amounts of time even if they had the same concern.

She said that some people were thinking critically while others were thinking carefully and calmy.

That if a person could arrange his tough process in a similar way to that of the chessboard, every of his tough and judgment will be throughout and effective.

Lan Xi's gaze was profound while seeing that as if she had some to a new epiphany every time she was saying that.

So Du Ren will try to, construct a headboard in his mind, before replaying their earlier match. He was far from the legendary level that Lan xi was talking about.

Finally, his last task was the practice of the ' endless illusion scripture'. He had never left his tough to start looking for a way to break through the middle stage of body tempering as soon as possible; not did he wish to abandon his mother behind.

This technique could remove that problem, helping him to achieve both dreams at the same time.

Thank the endless illusion scripture, he could create a shadow puppet.

The shadow puppet was amazing in itself for anymanyasons.

First, the shadow puppet has its own set of essence channels. Most of the time, a martial artist could only learn on secret method, because his channels will take the characteristic of that method, rendering them useless while crying in another incompatible method.

The owner of the shadow avatar could cultivate both his channels and that of the avatar with two different methods.

He could also change his channel will that of his clone meaning that he had two pairs of channels.

It is exactly what Du Ren needed. He could train his second lot of channels with a technique of his choice even though he needed the help of the Qin clan to train using the originals one.

Du Ren could not Drool one day imagining the possibility of having many different channels cultivated with peerless technique. After all from the Twelve temple of inheritance, he only visited one.

The shadow avatar could also be manipulated as if it was a real body. There were no distant limits while using it.

The shadow avatar could be sent to the most deadly errand because even if it was killed Du Ren will only feel mild pain and fatigue nothing too difficult for martial artists. He could recreate another shadow avatar when he felt better.

Finally, there was a strange link between Du Ren and his shadow avatar. He could send things to it through his shadow. It was also the other way around, without wasting too much energy.

With a power like that, he could become the greatest merchant in history.

But it was painful to create a shadow avatar and he could only have one at time. To create it, he needed to lose more than 70 percent of his blood essence to it during one entire week.

Its needs will only grow as his level of training increased.

But Du Ren could not stop now despite the pain.

You should know that everyone had blood essence, even ordinary people. When they only have half of their blood essence left they will start to collapse.

With only thirty percent of their blood essence lost, the state of an ordinary person could only get worse until he or she died, or until he or she was saved.

But Du Ren did not think he had much choice, with such power at his disposition, he will be an idiot not to use it.

He was also curious as to how this new world looked.