Immortal of the Nine Realms

Fang Chen looked at the board in front of him and nodded. ”Yes, just a few more moves and I’ll lose.”

Li Wuwang’s deep gaze flickered with a strange light. ”That old man really didn’t teach you how to play chess?”

”Don’t call him ’old man’. Master Yun He indeed didn’t teach me the art of chess.” Fang Chen shot Li Wuwang a glance. ”Was your opening strategy taught by Master Yun He?”

Hearing this, a faint smile appeared on Li Wuwang’s face, and he gave a slight nod. ”That’s right. The opening moves came from the old man. As for the rest... they were the product of my study over the years, unrelated to him. I just didn’t expect that you received nothing from him. Seems I overestimated you. You’re nothing more than a piece on the board.”

”That’s not right.” Fang Chen frowned in thought and waved his hand lightly. ”Something about this feels wrong. Let me think.”

Li Wuwang smiled and nodded. ”Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

Everyone held their breath. Qiu Jing and Kong Jin frowned at the chessboard, then exchanged a glance.

”The young lord... is indeed about to lose.”

”It’s already a dead end.”

Neither Qiu Jing nor Kong Jin was a master of chess, but they knew enough to read the board. Fang Chen’s defeat was already set. There was no turning the tide.

Fang Chen looked up at Li Wuwang and said, ”I am neither a chess piece nor the one playing the game.”

”What are you trying to say? That you’re an outsider to the board?” Li Wuwang chuckled. ”Since the old man sought you out, you’re already in the game. And besides, you’ve inherited part of his legacy; your techniques are extraordinary.”

”Who said I’m an outsider? Even if I am, I would willingly step into the game.” Fang Chen shook his head. ”But that’s not what I’m here to say.”

”Then what is it...?”

”I might be... the one who flips the board.”

As the words fell, a sword light flew in from the sky and landed in Fang Chen’s hand. It was Little Sword.

The fifth form of the Eight Desolation Supreme Sword Scripture.

It was an unremarkable slash, but it shattered the chessboard before him, and the invisible sword intent within it shot straight toward Li Wuwang.

”The one... who flips the board?”

Watching the board split apart, Li Wuwang didn’t look shocked. In fact, he even had time to ponder.

He didn’t take the incoming sword intent seriously. After all, the entire area was already enveloped by his sword domain.

As expected, the sword intent pierced through Li Wuwang but caused him no harm, as if... he wasn’t truly there, and the sword had only passed through a phantom.

Everyone was dumbstruck. The scene of the chessboard being shattered still lingered before their eyes.

He really just flipped the board?!

”This guy... doesn’t follow any rules!”

”Who the hell flips the board mid-game? Is he some kind of demonic cultivator?”

”Shameless! Flipping the board is worse than just admitting defeat!”

Some sword cultivators shouted angrily.

Qiu Jing and Kong Jin looked at each other, their expressions odd. Even they hadn’t expected Fang Chen to outright destroy the board.

”Can’t win, so he flips the board? A brute...” Corrosive Dragon King muttered. ”No wonder people say sword cultivators are reckless. What reason or rules can you expect from them...”

The two Immortal King attendants beside him remained silent. They dared not comment, especially with a group of sword cultivators, who were undeniably the strongest present, still standing overhead.

”The old man didn’t teach you to play chess because he wanted you to flip the board?” Li Wuwang suddenly turned to Fang Chen, eyes chilling. ”What gives you the right to flip the board? Those sneaky, underhanded tricks of yours?”

”It’s not up to you to decide whether I have the right.” Fang Chen smiled. ”You weren’t affected by my sword intent earlier because you activated your sword domain? What’s so special about your sword domain? Care to explain it to me?”

”Still trying to probe my secrets? Do you really think... you’ll walk out of here alive today?” Li Wuwang chuckled. ”Fine, I’ll tell you. My sword domain is called: Boundless Reach.”

”’Fearless’? As in no fear at all?” Fang Chen looked puzzled. ”Who names their domain something like that? Sounds a bit insecure.”

”It’s ’Reach’ as in ’distance’!” Li Wuwang’s face darkened. ”I’ll give you one more chance to draw your sword. If you can wound me, I’ll count this match as your win. But to do that, you’ll have to break my sword domain first. Here, on the Chaotic Star, even Song Zhili wouldn’t have more than a few percent chance of doing that.”

”Then I’ll give it a try,” replied Fang Chen, his smile widening.

In his mind, he had already rehearsed the later forms of the Eight Desolation Supreme Sword Scripture countless times. That’s why his execution of the fifth form just now had seemed so smooth. It was hard to imagine he had never used it before today.

Perhaps he wasn’t ready to unleash the seventh form just yet, but the sixth... might be within reach.

A flicker of mocking amusement passed through Li Wuwang’s eyes. He intended to crush this so-called chosen one of Yun He with absolute dominance.

Only then could he prove that Yun He’s judgment had been completely wrong. That his choice back then was a colossal, irredeemable mistake.

Fang Chen’s cultivation was merely at the second transformation. Even if he was a sword cultivator too and his sword strike from earlier had some merit, Li Wuwang didn’t believe for a second that this youth could shake the very foundation of the Boundless Reach domain. Without breaking it, he couldn’t so much as scratch him.

”I hear you’ve also cultivated a sword domain. Why not... unveil it so we can compare?” Li Wuwang suggested.

Fang Chen shook his head. ”Don’t play tricks. My cultivation is far beneath yours. If I want to break your domain, I can’t use the same methods.”

”Then...?”

Just as Li Wuwang was about to speak, he noticed Fang Chen’s aura suddenly retracting. In an instant, he could no longer sense Fang Chen’s presence. Yet it still appeared to him as if Fang Chen was still standing exactly where he was.

Suddenly, Fang Chen began to age at a rapid pace.

In the next moment, a sword strike fell, and the heavens and earth cracked open!

That was no exaggeration. The crowd truly saw countless cracks spreading across the world, as though the entire space was covered in mirror-like layers now shattering outward.

Bang!

The mirror world shattered completely. The fragments floated in the void. At that moment, Li Wuwang’s physical form seemed far more... real than before.

Pff...

A mouthful of blood burst from Li Wuwang’s lips. He looked down at his chest, where a single, unremarkable sword wound had appeared.

Despite the formidable physique of a second-transformation Loose Immortal sword cultivator, the injury refused to heal, and blood streamed out.

”What... kind of technique is this?”

”Naturally... the method of flipping the board,” answered Fang Chen, his voice carrying the hoarseness of age.

Everyone quickly noticed that Fang Chen’s appearance had changed. He resembled a middle-aged man, utterly different from the youthful arrogance he exuded moments earlier.

Another sword fell as the withering aura around Fang Chen deepened.

Li Wuwang stared intently at Fang Chen. His storage ring flashed. The shattered mirror-like world restored itself in an instant.

In the next blink, Li Wuwang vanished.

He had left. And with him, the sword domain disappeared as well.

So the second sword had struck only empty space. Fang Chen had wasted a significant portion of his lifespan for nothing.