Chapter 1420 - Undying Inheritance

Once someone stepped into the Undying Chessboard, they handed their fate over to it. If they failed to solve it, the only path left to them was death.

Over the years, countless experts had perished inside the Undying Chessboard, so no one found it strange that Sun Xiao grew so anxious when Liu Wuxie accepted the challenge.

His worry only deepened when he remembered that Liu Wuxie's cultivation was still only at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm. However, Liu Wuxie had already agreed, so it was far too late for him to step in.

"Where did Liu Wuxie get his confidence from to challenge the Undying Chessboard?" Voices murmured through the crowd, and no one felt hopeful for him, especially when even cultivators at the Heaven Gaze Realm had died on that very board.

"Is he insane? That's no different from courting death. The Lingqiong Clan clearly wants him dead, and he walked straight into their trap of his own accord," said an Earth Immortal, sighing softly as he felt a trace of sympathy for Liu Wuxie.

If Liu Wuxie ended up dying here when he was just a step away from reaching the summit, it would be a devastating loss to both the Heavenly Dragon Sect and Hua Feiyu.

"Along the way, his answers to each question had been exquisite, and who knows? He might be able to create a miracle." A few people still voiced their support, believing that Liu Wuxie could defy the odds again.

Opinions spread in all directions, but only the cultivators of the Heavenly Dragon Sect remained silent. The atmosphere turned strangely tense as Lingqiong Zhi sat there with unshaken composure.

He had been planning this moment for a long time. They had even gone so far as to lure Gu Yu into a carefully prepared trap, capture him, and use him as leverage against Liu Wuxie.

Hua Feiyu glanced into the distance just as Elder Jian appeared, but the old man merely paused for a moment before withdrawing again, and no one knew where he went afterward.

By now, the Lingqiong Clan had already set the Undying Chessboard in place while Liu Wuxie stood motionless on the Auspicious Cloud Stairs. If he were to turn back, his apprenticeship ceremony would fail.

"Let's begin," Lingqiong Yu said. He had no intention of stalling and signaled for Liu Wuxie to start the game.

Everyone focused their attention on the Undying Chessboard. Beyond the strand of the Undying Elder's sword aura, the board itself was a treasure on par with a Quasi-Immortal Artifact, and every chess piece carried dense Quasi-Immortal Runes. A single piece alone was worth as much as a city.

Liu Wuxie narrowed his eyes and poured his divine sense into the Undying Chessboard. The scene before him warped and shifted, and his consciousness entered a boundless world.

For all these years, everyone who had stepped into the Undying Chessboard had died, so no one truly knew what lay inside. Liu Wuxie gradually lost awareness of his physical body, which remained frozen in place on the Auspicious Cloud Stairs.

As Liu Wuxie's divine sense sank into the chessboard, a faint radiance flowed across its surface, making it seem as if the board itself had awakened. The chess pieces trembled and let out soft creaks.

"It's starting!" someone cried out, and excitement surged through the crowd, especially among the younger cultivators.

They had only ever heard stories of the Undying Chessboard and had never seen it with their own eyes. Today, not only could they behold it, but they could also witness a once-in-a-lifetime attempt to challenge it.

The experts seated at the summit stepped up to the edge of the platform once more, and their gazes were fixed intently on the Undying Chessboard.

Inside that strange world, Liu Wuxie stood, confused, surveying his surroundings. The scene shifted again, and a miniature version of himself appeared seated at one side of the chessboard, while a purple-robed elder sat opposite him. The moment Liu Wuxie took his seat, the match began.

Liu Wuxie did not need any explanation to understand that this elder was only a remnant soul left behind by the Undying Elder, devoid of independent thought or emotion.

"Please, go ahead," the Undying Elder said, gesturing lightly for Liu Wuxie to make the first move. Liu Wuxie held the white pieces, while the Undying Elder controlled the black.

Without hesitation, Liu Wuxie set a white piece three points below the center. As soon as he placed the piece down, the Undying Chessboard in the outside world responded, and a corresponding white piece appeared on its surface.

Before entering the chessboard, Liu Wuxie had used the Heavenly Dao Book to analyze it countless times until he finally derived a solution to the game. He had only managed to reach that solution by relying on his recent breakthrough to the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm and the strength of his primordial spirit.

Even so, the effort had all but exhausted his soul sea. He knew he had little time left and had to finish the game quickly. If others learned that he had nearly drained his soul energy playing chess, they would find it hard to believe.

Outside, everyone watched with bated breath as countless divine senses exchanged thoughts the instant Liu Wuxie's piece landed.

"Back then, Quasi-Immortal Wu Hen placed his first piece there as well, but he still fell short by a move," said the palace master of the Nine Dragon Palace.

In those days, Wu Hen had played ten moves before dying with regret. Most challengers could not even endure more than three moves before suffering defeat. That was why surviving ten moves was already considered astonishing, and Wu Hen had earned the title of "Chess Immortal."

Wu Hen had long been a renowned figure, and when he failed to break through to the Immortal Realm, he chose to stake everything on one last attempt.

Everyone knew he had entered the Undying Chessboard in search of a path toward immortality.

As Liu Wuxie's first move settled on the board, the Undying Elder picked up a black piece in answer. The pattern on the chessboard shifted, black pieces surging forward to encircle the scattered white stones, and the battle truly began.

Liu Wuxie stayed composed and flicked his hand again, summoning another white piece. Instead of reinforcing the center, he dropped this one in the lower-left corner of the board. The moment it landed, confusion rippled through the onlookers, especially the many chess masters present.

"What sort of strategy is this?" Someone frowned. Throughout history, no one had adopted such an approach on the Undying Chessboard, and this second move stood far from the center. Placing his piece there looked almost like conceding the heart of the board to his opponent.

Black pieces continued to rain down as the two sides traded moves. Even as his opponents captured swathes of white pieces at the center, Liu Wuxie refused to yield and continued to press his attacks.

"He has already made the sixth move, and he still hasn't lost the game," said the Comet Temple's abbot, stroking his beard with visible shock on his face.

"Brilliant! He's dancing at the tip of the blade, and he could find a way to survive each time," said the White Mist Manor's manor lord, himself a master of chess.

Expressions across the crowd varied wildly. Some watched with open admiration, others shook their heads, and many stared in puzzlement, unable to follow the intricacies of the game.

"This can't go on forever. At this rate, the black pieces will capture all the white pieces," someone muttered.

No one could deny that Liu Wuxie's performance was heaven-defying, but his survival came at the cost of sacrificing countless white stones. If this were a real battlefield, it would be akin to cutting off a limb to preserve one's life.

When the seventh piece fell, Liu Wuxie placed it directly at the center of the board. As soon as it settled, the scattered white stones linked together, forming a strange pattern that resembled a character.

"This is..." said the manor lord of the White Mist Manor, scratching his head in bewilderment. In that instant, he looked less like a dignified expert at the Heaven Gaze Realm and more like a chess fanatic about to lose his mind.

As the pattern took shape, it intertwined with the black stones, weaving into two streams of light that crossed and coiled across the chessboard.

"What's going on? Why did all the chess pieces vanish?" Everyone asked, confused, unable to grasp what was unfolding before their eyes.

No one answered them as the game advanced. When Liu Wuxie placed the seventh piece, the picture behind the Undying Chessboard finally took shape.

Only someone who understood the power of life and death could unravel its mystery.

After all, the extremity of undying was life, and the extremity of life was death—anyone who sought immortality needed to endure endless cycles of rebirth.

No one could truly live forever, not even Immortal Emperors, who at best shared the lifespan of heaven and earth.

Yet heaven and earth also had an end; when the universe reached the twilight of its existence, even an Immortal Emperor would fall.

No one comprehended rebirth more deeply than Liu Wuxie, and he suspected that the Undying Elder had also passed through rebirth and, from that experience, created the Undying Art.

When Liu Wuxie dropped the ninth piece, creaking sounds finally rang from the chessboard, and Lingqiong Yu narrowed his eyes, instinctively stepping back.

"Everyone, fall back!" Chi Heng shouted, stepping forward to maintain order as the Heavenly Dragon Sect disciples who had gathered to watch hurriedly retreated.

The Undying Elder sitting opposite Liu Wuxie also sank into deep contemplation. When the tenth piece appeared in Liu Wuxie's hand and fell onto the board, the surrounding black stones began to fade away one after another.

"Dao! It's the character for Dao!" Someone cried out as the pattern etched across the Undying Chessboard resolved into a single character—Dao.

Sharp cracking sounds echoed as a jagged fissure split open at the center of the Undying Chessboard, drawing gasps from all who watched.

As Liu Wuxie continued to drop his pieces, the game surged into its final stage, while the Heavenly Dao Book raced through his soul sea, analyzing every change. The Undying Chessboard's profundity had risen to an entirely new level.

"Why have so many black pieces vanished?" Even the manor lord of the White Mist Manor could no longer make sense of the situation. The Undying Chessboard had surpassed its capacity to reason, and even a Quasi-Immortal would struggle to comprehend its depths.

The match no longer resembled an ordinary game of chess. It had turned into a contest of immortal arts that only Liu Wuxie could follow. The Undying Elder had poured his life's effort into crafting this Undying Chessboard, and he had never intended for anyone to solve it easily.

"Vitality... there's a powerful surge of vitality pouring out from the chessboard!" someone exclaimed as the nearby flowers and trees suddenly flourished, and the fissures on the Undying Chessboard continued to spread.

Lingqiong Yu felt as if his heart were bleeding. The Undying Chessboard was a priceless treasure, and if it shattered, their ancestor would undoubtedly hold them accountable.

"Heaven sets the pieces; earth is the board. White is yang, black is yin. Life is the opening; death is the endgame. This match is over!" Liu Wuxie set another white piece down, and the scene before him began to dissolve and shift.

Just as he had deduced, heaven represented the pieces, earth acted as the chessboard, and all of it existed within the vast universe.

"What a game! What a game! Congratulations on solving the Undying Chessboard and comprehending the profundity of undying." As the purple-robed elder spoke, his figure gradually faded away with the conclusion of the match.

At that exact moment, deep within the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm, another purple-robed elder suddenly opened his eyes in surprise. He muttered, "Liu Wuxie has already solved the Undying Chessboard. Is another immortal going to appear in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain?"

Although he had not brought the chessboard with him to the Celestial Realm, he still maintained a faint connection to it.

A beam of violet light shot into Liu Wuxie's soul sea, splitting into a torrent of characters that flooded through it. This was the Undying Elder's inheritance.

"The Undying Art," Liu Wuxie murmured to himself.

The inheritance was a cultivation technique that could temper an undying body. Once perfected, it allowed one to be reborn even after being ground down to a single speck of dust.

Shortly afterward, a powerful surge of sword aura flashed out like lightning and plunged into the desolate world. That aura carried the Undying Sword Intent and contained the Divine Undying Sword as part of the inheritance.

The desolate world could hold all things. Whether it was blade intent or sword intent, all paths would eventually converge within it.

Liu Wuxie felt both his Great Asura Sword and Divine Nine Suns Sword swell in power, their might increasing by dozens of times in an instant. The Undying Sword Intent reinforced both sword arts, and cracking sounds echoed through his soul sea like a chick breaking through its shell.

"My primordial spirit has broken through to the Earth Immortal Realm?" Liu Wuxie could not even put his current emotions into words. His cultivation still rested at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm, yet his soul sea now stood on par with the Earth Immortals.

When he glanced around, he saw vast waves of energy hovering in front of him.

"The Undying Chessboard is really a treasure. I'll make use of it today to make my breakthrough to the Void Realm," Liu Wuxie said with a sinister smile, realizing that the Lingqiong Clan's scheme had backfired entirely and turned into his opportunity instead.