Chapter 68 The Name of the Chess Ancestor, All Paths Return to One

The black and white pieces on the chessboard were still moving.

One, two, ten, a hundred—all the pieces slid across the board, rearranging themselves.

Strokes emerged, ancient and heavy, as if imprinted from the deepest reaches of Chaos.

Two characters.

Yi Xian.

Chen Yuan stared at those two characters, his mind roaring, unable to utter a single word.

Yi Xian. The Ancestor of the Way of Chess.

Legend has it that at the dawn of heaven and earth, he used Yin and Yang as pieces and the universe as a board to place the very first move.

The flow of mountains and rivers, the movement of the sun and moon, the life and death of all things—the source of all order originated from that game of chess.

That was one of the only two things that escaped fully intact from the hands of the Great God Pangu.

This old man had been sitting across from him playing chess for who knows how long.

"You... are Yi Xian?"

His voice was slightly hoarse, carrying an uncontrollable tremor.

It wasn't fear.

It was the kind of shock that only a cultivator of the Way of Chess feels when standing face-to-face with their faith.

The old man waved his hand, his expression lazy.

"Ancestor or not, I'm just an old man who's been playing chess for too long."

"My peers have either died or scattered. I got bored playing against myself, so when I met someone interesting, I brought them over to sit with me for a while."

He paused, his gaze lingering on Chen Yuan's face for a breath longer.

"In the three thousand eon, countless players have sat across from me."

"Of those who can move from Calculating to Following, there is one in ten. Of those who can move from Following to Merging, not one in a hundred."

He placed the white piece he had been twirling in his hand back into the jar.

"You are the first to reach this step within a hundred games."

"It's ridiculously unrefined, but the foundation is decent."

Chen Yuan took a deep breath, wanting to express his thanks, but he was suppressed by a more urgent thought.

His memories had all returned.

Chi Jingzi's sneak attack, the taiji diagram grotto-heaven, his Divine Soul falling into Chaos, Emperor Yi's murderous intent, Zi Shou's situation—

And three voices—Yunxiao, Bixiao, and Qiong Xiao—were waiting at the Chen Manor for an empty shell's soul to return.

"Senior, I need to go back."

"What's the rush?"

The old man didn't move, his voice very flat.

"If you go back now, you won't be able to defeat that fellow from the Chan Sect."

"If your Dharmic power is insufficient, what use is the deepest calculation? Rushing out with nothing but a Dao Heart is just seeking death."

He extended a finger and tapped the center of Chen Yuan's chest.

"That golden wheel inside you is a good thing."

"But you've always used it as a protective talisman. Do you know what it can truly do?"

Chen Yuan fell silent.

The old man withdrew his hand, stood up, and gave a casual wave.

In the Chaos, air currents condensed, mountains and rivers took shape, and the sun and moon hung in the air as a pocket-sized world spread out between the two.

Plants had growth patterns, rivers had directions, the wind had paths, and clouds gathered and dispersed.

It was alive.

"Use your Way of Chess to deduce the workings of this world."

The old man held his hands behind his back, his tone casual, as if speaking of a trivial matter.

"Once you achieve that, the sleeping thing inside you will wake up on its own."

Chen Yuan looked at the miniature world before him and sat down cross-legged.

Activating the heaven and earth chessboard within him, the perception of the Shanhai Chessboard extended outward, enveloping this world.

At first, he didn't even know where to begin.

A chessboard has nineteen vertical and horizontal lines with limited variables; exhaustive calculation is still possible.

The variables of this world were infinite—where a leaf falls, whether a fish swims left or right.

How the wind twists in the valley—every detail was linked to tens of millions of subsequent outcomes.

He attempted to use his mental processing power to exhaustively calculate all paths.

After thirty breaths, he was exhausted.

His thoughts were like a snapped string, breaking in mid-air with a pop.

He closed his eyes.

The old man's voice surfaced from his memory.

"It's not you choosing the position; the position is waiting for you."

"What you calculate is the result; what you follow is the trend."

"All paths return to one, and that one is chess."

He withdrew his mental processing power.

He stopped calculating and predicting, simply letting his perception spread out quietly—like water flooding the ground, not pushing, just flowing.

Mountains have their flow.

Water flows to lower ground; it doesn't need to be calculated.

The wind circles the mountain Peak; the path is given by the mountain itself, not chosen by the wind.

He began to feel, no longer calculating.

Just as one can only see the true form of a chessboard after giving up on winning.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

The Great Dao Golden Wheel suddenly moved.

It wasn't being activated; it moved on its own.

On the embryonic golden wheel within him, the blurred patterns began to clear up one by one.

It wasn't a Law he actively comprehended; it had simply arrived—like a game reaching a certain move where the piece's position is naturally there, requiring no choice.

The Shangqing Immortal Arts operated on its own, and his Dharmic power rose like a water level, steady and without any agitation.

Heavenly Immortal Middle Stage.

Heavenly Immortal Late Stage.

Heavenly Immortal Peak.

Taiyi Golden Immortal Early Stage.

His Dharmic power continued to rise. Spiritual Qi from the Chaos poured in like a tide, and the Wuwei Sutra operated on its own.

It kept all his aura perfectly contained, like a deep pool—calm on the surface, but bottomless beneath.

Taiyi Golden Immortal Middle Stage.

It stopped.

Chen Yuan opened his eyes.

Compared to before, the perception within him wasn't just a difference in quantity, but a difference in quality.

Previously, he could perceive the flow of Qi for several miles; now, sitting here, every minute breath of the entire miniature world fell within his perception, as clear as if etched onto his palm.

He flexed his fingers.

It's enough.

"Don't make that face."

The old man's voice came from across him, sounding lazy.

"Middle Stage Taiyi is more than enough to fight Chi Jingzi, but Chi Jingzi isn't your only trouble."

"As for greed, wait until you're truly free to talk about it."

Chen Yuan didn't argue.

He stood up and gave a deep bow to the old man, bending his waist low.

"Your Junior Gu Ziyuan, known as Chen Yuan in this life. Thank you, Senior, for this journey."

He straightened up, looking straight ahead.

The old man didn't move, picking up a white piece and twirling it between his fingers twice.

"Chess can calculate heaven, earth, past and present lives, and eternal Karma."

He set down the white piece, his voice dropping very softly.

"But there is one thing it cannot calculate."

Chen Yuan waited.

"It cannot calculate what you yourself want."

"That is something only you can answer."

As his voice fell, something in the Chaos suddenly vibrated slightly.

It wasn't the old man's movement; it came from a great distance, faint.

But Chen Yuan's perception was no longer what it used to be; those three auras were like three threads.

Through the double barriers of Chaos and the Magic Treasure space, they still fell clearly within his perception.

Yunxiao, Bixiao, Qiong Xiao.

All three auras were in a state of violent fluctuation.

It wasn't cultivation.

It was battle.

Chen Yuan's pupils suddenly constricted.

The old man looked at him, his lips twitching slightly.

"Just as I thought, those girls couldn't wait."

His tone was light, but a faint trace of solemnity was suppressed in his eyes.

"If you don't go back now, they might just poke a hole in the sky of your world."

Chen Yuan didn't say another word.

The Jie Sect Lotus Seal on his chest suddenly flared with light, and the Soul-Protecting Seal resonated from afar with the immortal power Yunxiao had planted outside the Chaos.

Like two magnets being violently pulled toward each other by a force.

He was going back.

The Chaos began to shatter, and Chen Yuan's Divine Soul was swept up by a massive force.

It fell straight toward the Physical Body that had been waiting for who knows how many days.

At the final moment, he heard the old man's voice coming from the depths of the Chaos, distant but clear.

"Stupid kid. Next time you come, bring your Master along."

"I want to see if Pangu's descendant possesses the Divine Might Pangu once had."