Ye Ling's gaze was drawn to the chessboard, and he immediately stepped forward to examine the game.
The Lord of the Upper Realm also leaned in, staring at the pieces on the board. "This game is played without any strategy," he remarked. "It's as if the most basic rules aren't even understood. I didn't expect Mr. Bai to be such a terrible player."
Ye Ling nodded in agreement with the Lord of the Upper Realm's assessment.
Although Ye Ling rarely played chess, during the Three Thousand Universes era, when he pioneered the Emperor Ancestor's Path by drawing upon the strengths of various schools, he had incorporated principles from the art of chess. Furthermore, Ye Ling's soul possessed computational power countless times greater than that of a supercomputer. His chess skills, if not the best in the entire Primordial Chaos, were certainly that of a transcendent chess sage.
However, the current game on Mr. Bai's board featured black and white pieces placed in a chaotic manner, devoid of any discernible rules. At first glance, it resembled the work of two ignorant children casually placing pieces.
After staring at the board for a while, the Lord of the Upper Realm lost interest. He shifted his attention to Mr. Bai's house and asked Ye Ling, "My lord, shall we take a look inside Mr. Bai's bedroom?"
"You go ahead. Just tell me if you find anything. I'll take another look at this game."
Ye Ling had a subtle feeling that the chessboard was not as simple as it appeared. He waved his hand to the Lord of the Upper Realm, signaling him to go alone.
Although the Lord of the Upper Realm didn't believe Ye Ling could discern anything significant, he didn't say anything. He bowed to Ye Ling and left the vicinity of the chessboard, entering the house.
Ye Ling sat on a stone stool, took a deep breath, and his gaze fell upon the chessboard, a radiant glow in his eyes.
As if in a trance, a gentle breeze blew, and all the pieces on the chessboard vanished. Opposite Ye Ling, Mr. Bai, wearing a mask, sat down.
"What are you trying to express with this game?" Ye Ling asked Mr. Bai opposite him.
Mr. Bai remained silent. He simply placed a black piece and then watched Ye Ling without uttering a word.
After a moment of eye contact, Ye Ling condensed a white piece in his hand and placed it on the board.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Black and white pieces alternated on the board, their crisp sounds echoing through the courtyard.
A gentle breeze blew, scattering peach blossoms across the yard.
The black and white pieces on the chessboard gradually formed a peculiar picture.
As Ye Ling placed the final piece, the game on the board returned to its initial state.
...
"My lord, I've inspected the room, and there's nothing special inside."
At this moment, the Lord of the Upper Realm emerged from the house. Seeing Ye Ling sitting alone before the chessboard, lost in thought, he couldn't help but be surprised. "What's so interesting about that game? He's completely engrossed..."
The Lord of the Upper Realm couldn't understand Ye Ling's actions, but he dared not disturb him. He stood in the courtyard, quietly waiting for Ye Ling to come back to his senses.
Meanwhile, Ye Ling's consciousness was already in the courtyard filled with dancing peach blossoms, where he had begun another game with Mr. Bai.
This time, however, Ye Ling played black, and Mr. Bai played white.
As Mr. Bai placed his final piece, Ye Ling saw a brand-new pattern on the board.
The two pictures complemented each other, like light and shadow, black and white, irreconcilable yet born from the same root.
The next moment, the peach blossoms in the courtyard vanished, and the radiant glow in Ye Ling's eyes dissipated. He returned to the real courtyard.
"So that's how it is... Truly a masterful move, like the finishing touch, exquisite and unparalleled." Ye Ling looked at the chessboard before him, filled with admiration, and even began to clap.
The Lord of the Upper Realm, hearing Ye Ling's words from not far away, was also bewildered. He couldn't help but ask, "My lord... are you sure you're not mistaken? How can that strategically flawed game be called a masterful move?"
For a fleeting moment, the Lord of the Upper Realm felt that Ye Ling had gone mad. However, he dared not voice his thoughts and could only subtly try to remind Ye Ling.
"Come here and take a closer look," Ye Ling said with a smile, beckoning the Lord of the Upper Realm.
The Lord of the Upper Realm walked to the chessboard again and observed it carefully for a long time. His brows furrowed deeper, and he said gravely, "No matter how I look at it, I can't discern any hidden meaning."
Hearing the Lord of the Upper Realm's words, Ye Ling smiled and reached out, removing a piece from the board. "Now, take a look again?"
The Lord of the Upper Realm couldn't comprehend Ye Ling's action, but he looked at the chessboard once more, and his pupils suddenly contracted. "This! Impossible!"
After Ye Ling removed that piece, the seemingly chaotic game instantly transformed into an ancient and epic confrontation between two peerless masters.
"How could the entire game change so drastically? This is impossible!"
A tempestuous wave surged in the Lord of the Upper Realm's heart. He looked at Ye Ling with disbelief. "My lord, how did you achieve this?"
"I simply simulated the process of a game in my mind," Ye Ling said, tossing the piece in his hand. "This final move was a smokescreen to conceal the entire game. Without removing this piece, one cannot glimpse the secrets within this game."
"I suspect 'Brain' is also suspicious of Mr. Bai, but it lacks evidence. And due to that piece, 'Brain' overlooked this game."
As he spoke, Ye Ling used his spiritual energy to lift the pieces from the chessboard. He then simulated the Primordial Chaos in the courtyard using Origin Script, treating the simulated Primordial Chaos as a chessboard, and sent all the pieces into it.
The black and white pieces covered the entire Primordial Chaos, constructing two wondrous pictures, one bright and one dark, within it.
And at the intersection of these two pictures was the piece Ye Ling had removed from the chessboard.
There existed a plain and unremarkable universe.
The Lord of the Upper Realm, looking at the universe Ye Ling indicated with the chessboard in the courtyard, said to Ye Ling, "My lord, that's just a universe commonly found in the Primordial Chaos. There's nothing special about it. Could it be a coincidence?"
"Whether it's a coincidence or not, we can find out by investigating. That universe seems to be called the Sanqing Universe..."
Ye Ling memorized the location and information of that universe. Simultaneously, using the Ink Between, he controlled an Awakened one who was causing destruction at the Overseer headquarters. He used its consciousness to access the Overseer's shared archives to investigate information about that universe.
As Ye Ling reviewed the information regarding that universe, a special piece of information recorded in the Overseer archives caught his attention.
"The Overseers established their presence in the Primordial Chaos for three hundred and eighty million epochs. The Skywalker invaded the Primordial Chaos from the Sanqing Universe. The Seven Pillars, Mr. Bai, was ordered to intercept and, in the Sanqing Universe, killed zero Skywalker powerhouses and shattered the Skywalker's conspiracy."
This brief sentence in the archive revealed a great deal of information.
The Lord of the Upper Realm, seeing through Ye Ling's perspective, also viewed the Overseer archives and read the information about the Sanqing Universe. He muttered, "This happened hundreds of billions of epochs ago. Mr. Bai, as one of the Seven Pillars, often traveled to various universes to carry out 'Brain's' missions. It's quite normal for Mr. Bai's trace to appear in the Sanqing Universe, isn't it?"