Chapter 288: Black and White Blast

As a piece landed, the white light on the entire chessboard instantly burst forth with brilliant golden rays.

Clearly, this was the release of a special move during the game. The pieces on the entire board seemed to mysteriously connect, forming an abstruse magical array, and the white side's offense immediately became much fiercer.

Over the next dozen or so rounds, large numbers of black pieces were captured. Everyone's life force continuously weakened, and Fifteen-Lang became extremely smug.

Little did he know, Xu Yang had long since secretly employed a strategy, simply waiting for the moment Fifteen-Lang would fail at the very last step.

“Old man, do you really believe that the outcome of a single game of chess can determine all our fates? You're far too naive.”

Xu Yang's words instinctively made Fifteen-Lang shiver.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Heh heh, no matter. This game is about to end anyway. Hurry up and play.”

Fifteen-Lang believed Xu Yang had completely given up resisting and was merely trying to mislead him. Without a second thought, he immediately exerted force, finally completely surrounding the last black piece on the board, which represented Xu Yang's life force.

As soon as this last piece was played, the black side's last breath would be sealed off, and the game would be declared over. The power of the law, which would judge all on the black side, would then be activated.

At that time, everyone's life force, which had been temporarily absorbed, would permanently disappear. They wouldn't even need to meet Tuoba Yun in person; they would likely be completely devoured by the dense malevolent aura of this place.

“Hahaha! Xu Yang, do you have anything else to say? I never thought you'd have a day like this, and to think it's I, Fifteen-Lang, who has finally conquered you!”

The Chess Sage of the Three Thousand Dao States seemed to have reached the pinnacle of his life. He was well aware of Tuoba Yun's promises: whichever faction could eliminate a member of Xu Yang's team would receive unprecedented rewards upon returning to Northern Jin.

Thinking of his ultimate aspiration to dominate chess across all realms, Fifteen-Lang gathered his incredibly powerful life force and finally lifted that last white piece high.

Just as the entire situation was about to become irreversible, a scene no one expected suddenly occurred.

A slightly cold voice entered Fifteen-Lang's ear, causing his entire soul to freeze!

“Fifteen-Lang! Do not change your original intention for the sake of your desires! This game, clearly, you have lost!”

Turning his head sharply, Fifteen-Lang saw that the one speaking to him was none other than the outline of Tuoba Yun!

“Your Majesty!! You, how did you return…?”

Covered in a dense, oppressive black aura, Tuoba Yun's Asura Soul seemed to have mutated quite severely. His eyes appeared chilling and hollow as he stared coldly at Fifteen-Lang.

“That is not the main point we need to discuss. The main point is that you should not have cheated in this game; it was never a fair match! If you had truly won, you would never reach the pinnacle of chess cultivation in your lifetime! Because an indelible stain would be left upon your chess path!”

“Your Majesty…”

Fifteen-Lang began to tremble uncontrollably, because the sight before him was completely beyond his expectations. Who could have imagined that the very person who had once personally ordered him to set up this scheme would suddenly appear and tell him that everything was wrong?

The sudden spiritual blow brought Fifteen-Lang's mind to the brink of collapse.

Little did he know, this was not Tuoba Yun's true soul at all, but a painted soul of Tuoba Yun, drawn by Xiao Tuantuan under the guidance of the Sword Soul!

And this was the most crucial factor in the solution Xu Yang had spoken of!

It's important to note that the limitations of this chessboard space's laws were focused on restricting and suppressing life force. However, they had no such restrictive effect on energy forms without life fluctuations.

Those within the game naturally had to obey this rule, but the painted soul drawn by Xiao Tuantuan could be free from the limitations of the law's power, existing outside the rules.

This precisely leveraged Fifteen-Lang's deep belief in his own law-bound space! Therefore, when Fifteen-Lang saw Tuoba Yun's soul appear, he didn't doubt for a moment that the Tuoba Yun emitting such a malevolent aura before him was fake. He had already begun to be thoroughly brainwashed by Xiao Tuantuan's painted soul...

“Your Majesty!!”

As he spoke, Fifteen-Lang immediately knelt to the ground, beginning to kowtow and admit his mistake to Tuoba Yun. The embarrassing part was that he hadn't even figured out what he had done wrong.

Throughout this entire process, Xiao Tuantuan's control over the painted soul was guided by the tall, reddish figure of the Sky Sword Soul. The Sword Soul's guidance, naturally, was carried out according to its master Xu Yang's will.

It could be said that Xu Yang used a very clever method to free his will from the constraints of these spatial rules, dominating his opponent's thoughts from a higher level.

“Now, I command you: immediately withdraw the Nine-Star Heavenly Net Array, and completely release all the power of the law! These people must be killed by me personally; you are not qualified to eliminate them!”

“This…”

Fifteen-Lang was indeed somewhat unwilling, but facing Tuoba Yun's power, he truly dared not harbor any thoughts of negligence or defiance. A slight misstep in angering the Northern Jin Emperor would only lead to death.

“Alright…”

Fifteen-Lang finally chose to compromise. He reluctantly turned around and began to gather his spiritual will to release the law's confinement, while simultaneously dismantling the Nine-Star Heavenly Net Array.

Xu Yang's partially confined life force began to rapidly return. Just as he fully recovered to his peak, and the law's power around the black piece above his head was completely lifted, a sudden unexpected turn appeared!

Because part of Xiao Tuantuan's life force was confined, and her foundation was already relatively weak, she couldn't continue to perfectly maintain all the spiritual energy required for the painted soul form. This caused the painted soul controlling Fifteen-Lang to begin twitching violently, and its soul power became very unstable.

“Hm?”

Fifteen-Lang was exceptionally shrewd. He immediately turned his head sharply and instantly realized that this Tuoba Yun was fake.

“You bastards, it's a painted soul! How dare you trick me! I'll have all of you die!!”

Fifteen-Lang didn't hesitate for a moment. He re-gathered his powerful life force, attempting to play that final white piece before the array truly collapsed.

Once the final harvesting rhythm of the chessboard was completed and the law's punitive power descended, at least everyone except Xu Yang would lose a massive amount of life force, which would be no different from perishing.

“It's over!!”

The white piece released incredibly brilliant life force fluctuations and was about to smash down onto its final destination.

But this time, Xu Yang, having already broken free from the rules' restraints, roared like a tiger unleashed from its cage. His entire being instantly exploded with power, and with the Sky Sword, he unleashed his current strongest path of killing.

“Kill!!”

With an angry roar, black aura billowed around the chessboard. A powerful killing intent locked onto that last white piece about to land and shot out.