Chapter 2635: Legion Flag

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

Beside the chessboard, the gigantic Yuan Xi glowed with a faint light. She raised a hand and struck out at Hei Xue. Under this blow, the protective barrier on Hei Xue’s body wavered, its luster dimmed, his body swayed, and blood spilled from his mouth and nose.

His face was grim. This was because ever since Jiao was killed in battle, the situation had rapidly deteriorated.

Wherever Lu Ye went, no one could stand against him. Countless black pieces were cut down, leading to a continuous weakening of the black side's overall strength, which in turn affected his, the chess player's, offense and defense.

In the previous two rounds, seeing the unfavorable situation, he hardened his heart and dispatched the Mother of the LiShuai Insect Nest to intercept Lu Ye. That Mother Worm was arguably the strongest piece under his command after Jiao's death. She was originally a powerful entity on the same level as him, and having killed many enemies in the game, her strength was extraordinary. To ensure absolute certainty, he even dispatched more than ten Integration Realm cultivators to accompany the Mother Worm.

Yet, even with such a lineup, they couldn't curb Lu Ye's rampant slaughter. After paying the price of nearly half their Integration Realm cultivators being killed, they only managed to inflict minor injuries on Lu Ye. If he hadn't promptly withdrawn the remaining living black pieces, they might have been completely wiped out.

Unstoppable! Unrivaled!

The Starry Sky Chessboard had appeared many times in the Inner Realm, but never once, in a legion chess match, had a single individual cultivator been able to influence the entire game's outcome. Legion chess is a contest of each legion's overall strength and foundation. It's a large-scale confrontation between numerous pieces from both black and white sides, a battle of wits and courage between the chess players in deploying their pieces.

But now, on the white side, a monster had emerged. It had shattered the balance of the entire game. And ironically, the nourishment for this monster's growth came from the fallen powerhouses of the black side. The thought of it made Hei Xue so distressed he felt like spitting blood.

"Pfft..." He actually did spit out a mouthful of blood. His gaze lowered, watching the struggle within a certain chess square. Within that square, the black and white pieces were originally entangled in a fierce, evenly matched struggle. But after Yuan Xi had just transferred Lu Ye there, the situation quickly became one-sided. This Human race soldier-cultivator killed wherever he went. Wherever his dark long saber pointed, powerful Integration Realm cultivators fell like straw.

Then Hei Xue saw him charge into the center of the chess square, gripping a blood-red flag that fluttered wildly.

Legion Flag!

This was the second major development since the game began. Just a few rounds earlier, this Legion Flag had suddenly appeared in this chess square. Both chess players immediately perceived the miraculous use of this blood-red flag, and naturally began dispatching troops and pieces from all directions to contend for it. Currently, this Legion Flag had undoubtedly fallen into the hands of the white side.

When Lu Ye raised his hand and pulled this great flag from the void, it suddenly transformed into a solid phantom image, hovering behind him. The blood-red color undulated like ripples on a lake, spreading across one chess square after another. All white pieces enveloped by the blood-red ripples instantly felt their strength increase to varying degrees. The miraculous effect of this Legion Flag was its ability to boost the strength of pieces within a hundred chess squares centered around the flag by 5% to 20%. The closer a piece was to the flag, the greater the enhancement.

This was also the reason Yuan Xi and Hei Xue had deployed numerous cultivators to compete for it. In a normal chess game, this flag was indeed a treasure that could influence the overall outcome, an object that must be seized. Whichever side captured this flag would gain a significant advantage in the subsequent struggles.

However, this chess game had already become somewhat abnormal. The abnormality lay with Lu Ye. His current power was unique in the entire game, far surpassing everyone else. Originally, before he had fully matured, Jiao could be considered his strongest opponent. But after killing Jiao and being unhindered, Lu Ye's strength increased so rapidly that the black side was utterly unable to contain him.

For example, the Mother Worm of the LiShuai Insect Nest they had previously confronted. After such a long period of killing, her strength had actually reached nearly 4,000 Dao of power. Compared to Lu Ye's 5,000 Dao, she was only 1,000 short. If it were merely this difference, the Mother Worm could still contend with Lu Ye for a while.

However, after Lu Ye could no longer gain direct strength boosts from the game, the unexpected gains he received were all compensating for his overall foundation. His strength, speed, and even reactions had all been enhanced to an unimaginable degree. Furthermore, there were the endless strange abilities granted by the chessboard... Under these circumstances, how could the Mother Worm compete with Lu Ye? Even leading over a dozen Integration Realm cultivators, they were utterly defeated and annihilated.

Now that the Legion Flag was in hand, the white side's advantage would further expand. Unless the black side could now seize the Legion Flag from Lu Ye, perhaps the decline could be stemmed. But to seize the Legion Flag, they would have to kill him, which was a dead end.

Hei Xue's face grew increasingly gloomy. It was as if he could already see the scene of his own defeat and death. Previously, only Lu Ye was uncontrollable in the entire game. Now, wherever he went, all white pieces within a hundred squares received a strength boost. The number of uncontrollable white pieces had increased.

When it was Hei Xue's turn, he didn't hesitate for a moment, immediately strengthening his own defenses. Due to the changes in the overall strength of both sides' pieces, he had completely fallen into a disadvantage in the chess player's offense and defense. If he didn't reinforce his defenses this round, he might die after two more rounds of attacks from Yuan Xi. He had been doing this for several rounds already. In other words, he had been in a state where he could only take hits and not retaliate.

"Clinging to life!" Yuan Xi was not surprised by this sight, merely scoffing. Even if Hei Xue strengthened his defenses every round, she was confident she could end the battle within ten rounds. As long as she could kill the black side's chess player, the game would be won.

She was considering whether to prolong the game, because there were still quite a few black pieces on the board. Once the game ended, these black pieces would be freed from their constraints, and hunting them down afterward would be too troublesome. It would be better to annihilate them while the game was still active. Currently, the white side possessed this capability.

Facing Yuan Xi's mockery, Hei Xue remained silent. A defeated general indeed had no right to say much. But in his lowered eyes, a flickering light gleamed. Because he suddenly remembered something.

This time, Black Blood City and the LiShuai Insect Nest had led their forces to attack Thin Bamboo City under the command of Xue Jiu. At the very beginning, Xue Jiu had even personally intervened, opening an insect passage to allow their army to descend upon this place and catch Thin Bamboo City off guard. He had also received some orders from Xue Jiu, instructing him to primarily focus on delaying tactics in this battle. At first, he didn't understand why. Only later did he realize that Xue Jiu intended to lure out the Starry Sky Chessboard hidden here! He had evidently, through some unknown method, detected that this supreme treasure was hidden here. Luring it out clearly indicated an intention to claim it.

If he intended to claim it, he would surely have a contingency plan. But now the game was nearing its end, so why hadn't his ancestor appeared yet? Hei Xue couldn't understand. The only thing he was sure of was that his ancestor would not make a futile effort. Therefore, in this game... he might not be without hope of turning defeat into victory! All he had to do was wait for Xue Jiu's arrival.

In the blink of an eye, several more rounds passed. The black pieces' situation grew increasingly dire. Even though Hei Xue was fully deploying them to evade the white pieces' pursuit, the numerical disparity between the two sides on the board had reached an extreme level. Especially since Lu Ye was now carrying the Legion Flag, not only was his own combat power unparalleled, but the white pieces within the surrounding squares also received significant boosts. With the situation developing this way, Hei Xue estimated it wouldn't be long before his pieces would likely be completely annihilated.

Moreover, he had already perceived Yuan Xi's intention. Because in these past few rounds of the chess players' conflict, Yuan Xi had clearly held back. It seemed she intended to eliminate all the black pieces first before dealing with him, the chess player! What a malicious thought. Yet, the ancestor was still nowhere to be seen...

Almost as soon as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly heard Yuan Xi on the opposite side let out a soft interjection of surprise, and then turn her head to look in a certain direction. Hei Xue also felt something at the next moment and quickly looked in that direction. What met his eyes was a streak of blood-red light flying from that direction at an unimaginable speed. From within that blood-red light, Hei Xue sensed a familiar aura. His heart was filled with great joy!

He had been right; the ancestor indeed had a backup plan. He had spared no effort, even exposing the existence of a supreme treasure, to instigate this great war. After luring out the Starry Sky Chessboard, how could he simply ignore it? Now that he had arrived, he was undoubtedly taking this opportunity to subdue the Starry Sky Chessboard. Although the Insect and Blood races, as well as their allies, had suffered immense losses in this battle, as long as the ancestor succeeded, any loss, no matter how great, would be acceptable.

However, what puzzled Hei Xue was that the ancestor's aura was very faint, and something seemed to be pursuing him from behind.

"What is this..." Yuan Xi's expression suddenly turned grave. A strong sense of warning suddenly arose in her heart. She focused her gaze and saw an unfamiliar head flying within the blood-red light. It was indeed just a head; below the neck was completely empty, with no body or limbs. Normally, such an injury would be unsurvivable. Yet, this head clearly still possessed vitality. Moreover, its face was alight with an extremely excited expression, as if it had just done something incredibly thrilling.

"Xue Jiu!" Yuan Xi's face changed dramatically. Although it was just a head, she still sensed a trace of Xue Jiu's aura. Before the great battle, Xue Jiu had acted once, and Yuan Xi remembered his aura. Thus, she confirmed her judgment was correct: the one who had arrived was Xue Jiu, the City Lord of Blood Drinking City and one of the Inner Realm's most powerful experts. She immediately realized this was a wisp of Xue Jiu's spirit, possessing some Blood Race individual. As for who this Blood Race individual was, she didn't know, as she had never seen them before. Therefore, even with only a head remaining, there was still vitality, because this was Xue Jiu's doing.

Just as Yuan Xi wondered what Xue Jiu was up to, she suddenly sensed a chilling and terrifying murderous intent closely following the head. Even with Yuan Xi's strength, upon sensing the sheer purity of this murderous intent, she couldn't help but shiver.