The four of them were deep into the enemy’s formation, and there was no room for them to dodge. All the straight routes were locked. Even if they could kill a few chess pieces, the other chess pieces would kill them instantly.
“You cheated when you lost. You call this being number one in chess?” Li Xuan said.
“The world is like chess. The victor is king. As long as you can win, you are number one in the world.” The elder was already confident of victory, so he didn’t immediately take action.
Zhou Wen looked at the elder and asked, “How can a human like you control dimensional creatures in a dimensional zone?”
Zhou Wen wasn’t worried about his safety. He was only curious how the elder had done it.
“I’m the Chess King. This is a chess dimensional zone. The heavens have chosen me to be the king here, allowing me to revitalize the way of chess,” the elder said fervently.
“What a joke. Is this how you revitalize chess? You rely on cheating to defeat others, yet you still call yourself the Chess King. What a joke,” Li Xuan mocked.
“Ignorant people like you know nothing about chess. A win is a win. Die.” As the elder spoke, he ordered his chess pieces to attack.
Without any hesitation, Zhou Wen activated the Heaven-Opening Scripture and broke through the dimensional zone’s taboo. Instantly, he summoned tens of thousands of Musical Note Sprites.
Bam! Bam!
The elder’s fifteen pieces killed a few Musical Note Sprites, but the endless number of Musical Note Sprites had already occupied the entire space. They blotted out the sky and enveloped the entire chessboard.
“No... Impossible... How can you summon so many chess pieces... There are only sixteen chess pieces on one side of the chessboard...” The elder was horrified. Every Musical Note Sprite that filled the sky was a chess piece. Even someone who didn’t know how to play chess could instantly kill him.
“The rules here are useless to me,” Zhou Wen said.
“You are cheating...” the elder shouted with a ferocious expression.
Li Xuan burst out laughing. “Weren’t you the one saying that cheating doesn’t matter. Who was the one who said that the victor is king?”
“Tell me, why can you control the dimensional creatures here?” Zhou Wen stared at the elder and asked.
The elder didn’t answer. He suddenly roared and ordered his chess pieces to attack again, but it was useless against Zhou Wen’s sea of Musical Note Sprites.
With a thought, all the elder’s chess pieces were instantly killed. As for the elder, he charged at a Musical Note Sprite, but Zhou Wen didn’t give him a chance to die. He controlled the Musical Note Sprite to spare his life.
“There’s something wrong with this elder.” Li Xuan also realized the problem.
“He should be controlled by a dimensional creature.” Zhou Wen couldn’t tell anything with his naked eye as he retracted his Companion Beasts. Then, he switched to the Hell King Life Soul and sized up the elder again.
This time, he finally saw the problem. There was a soul-shaped dimensional creature on the elder’s body. It looked like an ancient chess player.
“I’m number one in chess... I’m the Chess King...” The elder shouted crazily as he charged at Zhou Wen and company.
“What should we do?” Feng Qiuyan looked at Zhou Wen in a dilemma. He had no problem killing the enemy, but there was clearly something wrong with the elder. He wasn’t willing to kill him.
“Let me do it.” Zhou Wen walked towards the elder. When the elder rushed in front of him, he waved his hand and slashed out Supreme Hell King’s sinflames, burning the soul attached to the elder to ashes.
With the soul gone, the elder immediately collapsed to the ground like a deflated balloon. The madness in his eyes quickly faded.
With the soul-shaped dimensional creature dead, Zhou Wen and company felt their surroundings return to normal. There were no taboo powers to restrict their movements. They could walk horizontally and diagonally as they wished.
“I’m... I’m sorry... I... I didn’t do it on purpose... I...” The elder regained his consciousness and said helplessly. He looked like an honest old man. He was no longer as crazy as before.
“We know it’s not your fault. You were controlled by a dimensional creature. Tell us, what happened here?” Zhou Wen pulled the elder up and asked.
The elder heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Zhou Wen. Then, he recounted the situation.
This place wasn’t very famous. In the past, there was a small village on the mountain. The elder was a villager. The village lacked water and electricity, so there wasn’t much entertainment. Therefore, chess became the hobby and entertainment of many villagers.
Later, after the dimensional storms, many villagers were afraid that dimensional zones would appear here. Therefore, they moved to large cities.
The elder’s grandfather was a nostalgic person who didn’t wish to leave his hometown. Furthermore, there weren’t any dimensional zones nearby back then. Therefore, their family lived a peaceful life in the remote mountain village.
It wasn’t a big deal in the beginning. As there weren’t any dimensional creatures appearing, they lived rather comfortably. However, after more than ten years, after the elder’s grandfather died, the surroundings gradually began to change. The elder’s father was prepared to take him to a large city, but he realized that they couldn’t leave. This was because a dimensional creature called Chess Soul had appeared nearby.
If he wanted to leave this place, he had to play chess with Chess Soul. If he won, he could pass. If he lost, he would be possessed by the Chess Soul and become an elder.
After the elder’s father lost to the Chess Soul, he was controlled by it. His mother didn’t dare take him out again. Therefore, the mother and son lived in the small mountain village. Apart from being unable to leave, there were no other problems.
Later on, the elder’s mother passed away. The elder slowly aged. He had been practicing chess all these years, hoping that he could one day rush out.
As he had never had the courage, he only plucked up the courage to play chess with the Chess Soul when he was about to die of old age. The outcome was the same. He had lost to the Chess Soul and ended up in this state.
“In that case, there’s more than one Chess Soul?” Zhou Wen asked.
“In the beginning, there were only a few Chess Souls that sealed the nearby paths. Later, more and more Chess Souls appeared, and the range of control increased,” said the elder.
“From the looks of it, there are still many Chess Souls ahead. Should we continue forward?” Li Xuan asked.
Zhou Wen looked at the map and said, “Let’s continue. I’ll lead the way. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Although he could choose other routes, Zhou Wen had already taken them. That didn’t bring any benefits to the Glimmer Life Soul, so he decided to continue taking this path.
When the elder heard that they wanted to continue walking forward, he pleaded to take him along. If he could meet his father, he begged them to save him.
Since it was just a matter of convenience, Zhou Wen agreed to take him along.
As they walked forward, they realized that there were indeed many criss-crossing rivers. They were like lines on a chessboard. When they walked to a river in front of them, they realized that a creature had appeared opposite them. However, this time, it wasn’t a human, but an ancient chess player in a Spirit Body state.