Volume 3 - Chapter 405: The Chess Realm — All Things Are Soldiers, Heaven and Earth a Chessboard (Part 4)
Chess...
Li Hao stared at the vacant space on the board. In his mind, countless black and white stones shot past like falling stars. Countless game records, evolutions of openings and variations, layered upon one another—but none provided a solution.
Unless… the board gained one more grid.
With that one extra grid, victory would be possible.
But this was a square board. It could not gain a grid—only a line.
"The game is fixed, the stones are like dead soldiers. There's no meaning left..."
Li Hao murmured. Such a stalemate—he couldn’t break it.
Yet the moment he whispered those words, something stirred.
A memory from the Southern Region surfaced in his mind.
He recalled how he had become a pawn in the game of great figures—on one side stood the Supreme One, and on the other, perhaps the Emperors of the seven ancient immortal dynasties, like the Emperor of Chu.
But what did it matter, knowing that?
Just like those two stones on the board, he could see the hand that placed them. He was being controlled. That awareness brought only sorrow… and despair.
He looked up. At some point, autumn had arrived with its chill.
Leaves drifted down into the courtyard, carried by the breeze. One withered leaf, curled at the edges, landed softly on the board.
Branches shivered. More leaves fell, adding to the desolate atmosphere of the courtyard.
The youth sat alone in the wind, his black hair like a waterfall, and a faint sadness in his eyes...
Suddenly, that falling leaf caught his attention.
A… falling leaf?
Li Hao froze.
He looked up at the withered trees in the courtyard. Some were merely for scenery. Though they were spiritual plants, they shed their old leaves just like ordinary trees, making way for new growth.
Leaves that grow on the tree—are part of the game.
Their positions are predetermined, out of their control.
But… wind can shake them. Rain can stir them. Time can make them fall of their own accord.
Once fallen, they are no longer part of the game.
They drift with the wind, carried off to who knows where.
This falling leaf—how like the thin, lonely back on the battlefield of the Southern Region, overwhelmed by the colossal, sky-shrouding presence of the Supreme One.
Life is controllable. Death is not.
The true meaning of the board—was inversion of black and white, the interchange of life and death, the shifting of time and space...
That… was the true “game.”
Not a natural progression.
In that instant, a chill swept over Li Hao’s skin. A sense of complete clarity surged from head to toe.
A power erupted outward from his body.
This was the Chess Domain.
Within the Chess Domain—everything became a piece.
With a thought, Li Hao’s will spread outward, enveloping three meters around him. Everything within was now part of the board, subject to his will and command.
Even the breeze and grains of sand were his to move!
"The Chess Domain… all things are pieces. All things are weapons!"
He whispered, and golden light burst forth from the ground around him. Within the transformation of the laws of the Chess Dao, the sand and gravel turned into divine dust, radiating dazzling immortal brilliance, brimming with a sharp, lethal aura.
Li Hao could feel it—these grains of sand could unleash destructive force on par with immortal weapons!
This was the unique power of the twelfth level of the Chess Dao: within the domain, all things became soldiers.
[Chess Dao: Twelfth Level]
[Insight Gained: True Meaning of the Chess Dao]
A system prompt flickered before him, but Li Hao’s mind was already elsewhere. A torrent of insight surged in his thoughts.
He absorbed it greedily like a sponge. The comprehension went beyond just the Chess Dao—it included elements of other great Daos, such as life and death, light and darkness, time and space.
Li Hao never expected to gain such deep understanding of the Temporal Source from the Chess Dao. His mastery of time slowly rose from the fourth realm… and reached its peak.
"Hm?"
Inside the palace, Su Muqing—seated on her cultivation stone—suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation of a primal origin. Her eyes snapped open.
She immediately extended her divine sense, but the odd ripple vanished quickly.
She saw only the youth still sitting outside in the courtyard—unchanged, just as he had been for the past two years.
Only now, he wasn’t playing chess. His eyes were closed, and his entire being was shrouded in a Dao Domain.
Within that domain, a law-based field pulsed—similar to the painting realm Li Hao had once displayed.
Su Muqing frowned. To probe deeper, she would have to breach his domain, which would surely alert him.
Hmph, whatever you're doing—it’s none of my concern!
With a cold snort, she withdrew her divine sense and stopped prying.
Inside the Chess Domain, Li Hao sat with eyes closed, absorbing the insights of time.
Before long, his comprehension of the Temporal Source advanced beyond the fourth realm's peak, stepping into the fifth realm.
His understanding of time reached a new height.
Not just that—his grasp of the Spatial Source also grew steadily.
As he absorbed more and more origins of various Daos, his overall strength began to rise, quietly stepping into a new level.
His mind sank further into the depths of Chess Dao comprehension. Countless records, patterns, and moves wove through his vision.
There were lines that reversed death and life. Paths that found life in dead ends, or death in what seemed like salvation. Some of these moves were so divine, they could overturn almost every past game he had ever played.
Survival through desperation.
Chess is the board. And creating the game involves not just your own pieces—the opponent’s pieces are part of it too.
Thus, all things are soldiers. All things are one's soldiers!
"That path…"
Li Hao felt the shifting currents of countless variations. Suddenly, his heart trembled—an eerie realization dawning.
Black and white, fused into one game.
If chess itself could be the board, could he himself not also become part of the board?
"If my body is the black piece… then my primordial spirit is the white."
"Then… my body itself becomes the chessboard of Heaven and Earth!"
"If black and white can form a game—why can’t body and soul merge into one?"
"What if… my primordial spirit could fuse into my immortal body?"
His thoughts exploded, growing rapidly, madly.
His immortal power surged uncontrollably. His flesh began to pulse and change.
His physical cultivation had already reached the sixth realm of the Flesh Source, granting him control on par with a peak Immortal Lord.
Now, guided by his will, his primordial spirit’s golden bones began to shine. Golden dust-like radiance shimmered from them, slowly merging into his immortal body.
His celestial body was already at perfection—an apex physique even in the True Realm. But now, as his soul power infused into it, his immortal body began to change once more. Golden threads of soul energy intertwined within, binding more closely than ever.
This fusion was continuous and evolving.
Li Hao could feel it—his primordial spirit was truly becoming one with his body.
Not in the way most immortals merged soul and flesh.
This was something else.
It was… layering.
A terrifying power began to germinate within his flesh. Li Hao’s heart trembled.
To use his body as the layout—
To turn himself into the chessboard of Heaven and Earth—
It was actually possible!
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