Chapter 623: Chess

"However... I seem to have seen these birds somewhere before." Li Huowang furrowed his brow, looking at the vultures on the ground and trying to recall something.

Suddenly, his expression hardened. He immediately remembered encountering lamas with vultures a few years ago, when he left Qingqiu. "Is it them? Are they the lamas from Qingqiu who worship death? But why would they ambush the Bureau of Celestial Monitoring out of the blue?"

As Li Huowang pondered this, he suddenly felt that the weight behind him was off. When he reached back, his face immediately darkened. "Damn it! My spine-sword is gone! These vultures were just a distraction! Their target was my spine-sword!"

"My sword is gone!" Peng Longteng appeared beside Li Huowang, grabbed him, and threw him into the air. From a higher vantage point, the furious Li Huowang frantically scanned his surroundings.

If the enemy had merely come to ambush and kill him, he might not have been so enraged. But they had actually come to steal his spine-sword! He vowed to grind that person to dust!

"Daoist! Your sword is over there! Look!" The monk behind Li Huowang excitedly reported his discovery. The next moment, the monk's body coalesced. Li Huowang grabbed his monastic robe, pulled it sharply backward, and using that momentum, shot towards the direction the monk pointed.

Closer! Even closer, Li Huowang saw a mountain ghoul wearing a Buddha mask, clutching his spine-sword. "Still running?!"

Li Huowang immediately gouged out his left eye and squeezed it, causing it to explode. The distant monkey was instantly enveloped by a strange light, slowing to a snail's pace.

Just as Li Sui's tentacles extended to wrap around the spine-sword, a cold flash sliced them into several pieces. A strange, rhythmic drumbeat began, and an old lama, clad in black sheepskin, stood between Li Huowang and the spine-sword.

As he beat the bone drum at his waist, he spun the bone prayer wheel in his hand and began to chant: "Venerable Uruvilva-Kassapa, Venerable Gaya-Kassapa, Venerable Nadi-Kassapa, Venerable Mahakashyapa, Venerable Sariputra, Venerable Mahamoggallana..."

Strange cries filled the air, and the sky-full of pus-filled vultures swirled again.

"I have no grudge against you, what in the world is going on?! Do you really think I'm still the same as before?!" Li Huowang, blood streaming from his eye socket, roared and lunged at the lama.

At that moment, the lama in the air plummeted down, covering Li Huowang.

"Knight to attack your cannon." Li Huowang, wearing blue and white striped patient clothes, sat on a red plastic stool, his brow slightly furrowed as he looked at the chessboard in front of him.

His opponent was his attending physician, Wu Cheng. Wu Cheng played chess while talking to someone through his Bluetooth earpiece.

Li Huowang picked up his left rook with two fingers and slammed it down onto Wu Cheng's pawn.

"Thwack!" The copper coin sword in Li Huowang's hand whipped across the lama's body like a long lash, and the sound of the bone drum instantly ceased.

When Li Huowang re-gripped the spine-sword, feeling its familiar touch, he let out a long breath. But when he looked up again, he found that the enemy numbers had increased, and he was surrounded.

It wasn't just the black-skinned lama from earlier; many people wearing white headscarves and black armbands had appeared. It was the Dharma Sect!

"We came out without even a disguise. Won't this kid recognize us?" "No matter. Once we kill him, we won't fear being recognized. Let's finish this quickly."

"Checkmate." Li Huowang slowly looked up at Wu Cheng, who had a slight smile on his lips.

"Are you secretly cheating me with a master-level computer? I've seen this old trick before."

"Xiao Li, you don't need to worry about winning or losing. You should calm down; this is just a game of chess. There's nothing wrong with losing."

"I really don't understand what chess has to do with my condition."

"Don't burden yourself with so many thoughts. Perhaps I just enjoy playing chess, so I found someone to play with."

Li Huowang took a deep breath and continued to play. He struggled with all his might, trying to find a turning point.

"Capture the knight."

Li Sui's bloody, indistinct head burst through Li Huowang's abdomen, tearing apart the opponent's intestines.

"Move the advisor."

Li Huowang's last remaining eye was covered by a layer of black.

"Hey! Playing chess! Playing chess!" Some curious mental patients gathered around, offering Li Huowang advice.

"Er Jiu! We're here to help you!"

Hearing the cacophony around him, Li Huowang felt extremely annoyed. "Shut up!!"

In that instant, the other mental patients around him remembered Li Huowang's identity and immediately fell silent.

Li Huowang continued to play, finding it increasingly difficult. If Wu Cheng hadn't been going easy on him, he would have likely lost a long time ago.

Looking at the chessboard, Li Huowang's temper began to flare. He suddenly pressed down on the board with one hand, about to flip it, but Wu Cheng firmly held it down.

"Xiao Li, don't always try to flip the table. Some problems can be solved by flipping the table, but many cannot."

Just as Li Huowang stared at Wu Cheng, a hand reached over his shoulder, grabbed a rook, moved it three squares forward, and then set it down.

Li Huowang slightly turned his body and was surprised to see that the player was the chubby child with autism.

Saliva drooled from his mouth, and his eyes stared fixedly at the chessboard, without blinking.

Li Huowang slowly released the chessboard, letting the chubby child continue playing against Wu Cheng.

Although the chubby child played slowly, he always managed to block Wu Cheng's checkmating moves.

Gradually, he began to capture pieces, starting with just pawns. But soon, the quantitative change led to a qualitative one, and the tide of the game began to turn.

Li Huowang violently tore off the loose, aged skin from his face, glaring with man-eating eyes at the old lama who had caused this situation.

By now, the old lama had transformed completely. He now had three heads and six arms, with each of his three heads corresponding to a different form of death: drowning, hanging, and stabbing.

Just as the opponent's bone prayer wheel began to spin again, Li Huowang unhesitatingly pulled out his spine-sword, swung it forcefully, and plunged into Great Qi.

After quickly locating the lama within Great Qi, Li Huowang reopened a rift.

He had no intention of jumping to the opponent's side to ambush him. Instead, he directly entered the opponent's body through the Great Qi rift.

Just as Wu Cheng moved his last advisor, Li Huowang's lips curled into a slight smile as he moved his general directly onto the opponent's general.

"General versus General!"

The old lama's ancient, grotesque body suddenly swelled. The next moment, large and small tentacles burst out from every orifice, flailing wildly in the air.

With a "boom," his entire body instantly exploded. Li Huowang, covered in blood, flesh, and tentacles, emerged from within.

He yelled at the Dharma Sect followers in front of him: "Checkmate! Absolute kill!"