Shi Tian and Xiu Ying were both sitting on the ground under a tree. Shi Tian was busy carving some wooden pieces into small sculptures.
"Young Master, what are you making?" Xiu Ying curiously asked as she held a carved wooden statue that was the size of her palm.
"I'm making game pieces," Shi Tian replied while focusing on carving the wooden statue in his hand.
"It's called chess. I read about it in some old book. It seemed interesting, so I decided to make one for us." Shi Tian wasn't lying to her. There was indeed a game similar to chess in this world too, but it was somewhat different from Earth's chess game and much more boring.
Xiu Ying kept tugging at him to play with her, which meant sparring in martial arts. It was his third day in this world. Shi Tian still wasn't used to the new lifestyle, and in the morning, he had already been tortured by the Bone Tempering Pill for three hours straight, so he was quite tired now.
Rather than playing a tiresome game like sparring, he preferred something easy for now.
So he decided to make chess pieces to play with her. There weren't many indoor games in this world; in fact, there weren't many games at all. The whole world seemed focused on martial arts.
He had no choice but to bring out games from his previous world. Among indoor games, Shi Tian was quite fond of chess and card games.
The game of chess was easier to make, as it only needed thirty-two pieces and a plane board to play. Shi Tian could easily carve thirty-two wooden sculptures into the chess pieces and use a three-square-foot wooden plank as a chessboard.
After two hours, Shi Tian finished carving all thirty-two pieces, then he used black ink to paint the wooden plank into a chessboard.
Xiu Ying remained silent and looked at Shi Tian, who was making the chessboard with a serious expression. From time to time, she held the small wooden statues in her hands and inspected them. All of them had a weird design that didn't seem to resemble any creature, except for four pieces, whose upper portion resembled a horse's head.
After painting the chessboard, Shi Tian coated sixteen pieces with black ink. After that, they waited a few minutes for the ink to dry before setting up the chessboard. At this time, Shi Tian started teaching her the rules of chess.
"Ying'er, listen carefully. These are all chess pieces," Shi Tian said while pointing towards the thirty-two wooden statues. "The chess pieces are what you move on a chessboard when playing a game of chess. There are six different types of chess pieces. Each side starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, one queen, and one king."
After that, he gave a short introduction to her: "This big guy is the king, this is the queen, the rook, the knight, the bishop, and lastly, this is a pawn."
Xiu Ying listened carefully and nodded. After that, Shi Tian began teaching her how to play chess.
An hour later, Xiu Ying pouted cutely and protested, "Ahh, Young Master... this game is so difficult and confusing..."
"Haha, it's because you are still learning the rules. Once you understand all the moves of the pieces, you will find it interesting," Shi Tian laughed and said. Xiu Ying nodded slightly.
"Good morning, Young Master!" At this time, another sweet voice of a girl appeared. Shi Tian looked to the side to see a blonde-haired girl walking toward them.
"Good afternoon, Duan Mei!" Shi Tian replied with a faint smile.
"Hmm! What are you both doing here?" Duan Mei said as she came to them.
"Well, I was teaching Ying'er a game," Shi Tian said faintly.
"Young Master invented a new game, but it's too difficult to play," Xiu Ying said as she pointed toward the chessboard.
"Hmm, a new game," Duan Mei looked at the chessboard, with dozens of wooden statues placed on the board. It looked kind of strange to her. But she didn't pay much attention to the chess; rather, her mind was occupied with another matter.
"Young Master, this is unfair. You are showing favoritism again. Why didn't you call me as well? I also wanted to play with the Young Master," Duan Mei sat down beside Shi Tian and said with a wronged expression while holding his hand and shaking it.
"Don't worry, I will teach you as well," Shi Tian smiled lightly and said, which surprised Duan Mei. In the past, whenever she tried this kind of thing, he would show an annoyed expression, while now it was completely the opposite.
Duan Mei happily took advantage of the moment, moving closer to him, almost clinging to him, as she felt the Young Master seemed in a good mood today.
At this close distance, Shi Tian could smell her faint sweet fragrance. He couldn't help but give a quick glance at Duan Mei.
Duan Mei's personality was the polar opposite of Xiu Ying's. She was an enthusiastic, talkative, and cheerful girl. She was moderately mischievous as well. Duan Mei's personality slightly resembled the personality of his girlfriend from Earth.
His predecessor used to be annoyed by Duan Mei due to her cheerful and playful nature, as she disturbed his cultivation from time to time. Unlike Xiu Ying, who never showed a disobedient nature.
But Shi Tian didn't find her cheerful nature annoying; rather, it was something he liked.
After that, Shi Tian started explaining the moves and rules of the chess game to Duan Mei.
"Okay, it's only a two-person game, so you two can play. I will watch from the side and give you instructions if you girls make any mistakes," Shi Tian said to the two girls. Both girls nodded as they became immersed in the chess game in no time.
Both girls started playing chess while Shi Tian taught them from the sidelines, explaining other advanced rules of the game to them.
Soon after, his mother also found out about the new game when she saw them playing in the garden, and then his aunt and "sister-in-law" did as well.
"Tian'er, where did you learn this game? I have never heard of chess before," Xiangyue asked curiously.
"Mother, I read about this in an ancient book in the past," Shi Tian said with an innocent expression.
Xiangyue nodded slightly. There were thousands of old books in the library of the Shi Clan that had been collected over many generations. Shi Tian was a bookworm in the past; he liked to read a lot other than cultivating and practicing martial arts.
"Mother wants to learn too. Teach me," Xiangyue said, looking at the two girls who had extremely serious expressions on their faces as they stared at the chessboard, their expressions changing with every move they made. It drew her interest a little bit.
Bingyao and Shen Xiaoli just agreed to learn out of curiosity.
After that, Shi Tian once again started explaining the rules and moves of chess to the three women.