Chapter 3497: Spirit Chess

Grandmaster Yu Ran nodded in response to Lu Yin’s question. "The Spirit Treasure Society accepts all cultivators who pursue becoming Spirit Treasure Masters. Unless a person is truly evil, there is no reason for the society to reject them."

Lu Yin laughed loudly. "That sounds quite similar to how my Grandverse Manor does things. In that case, tell me, do you think that I am truly evil?"

Yu Ran frowned. "Evil? You could be called that. Your Grandverse Manor has violated many of the Spirit Nidus’s edicts. You could be considered a great evil."

Lu Yin did not argue.

Different perspectives would lead to different conclusions. To the people of the Spirit Nidus, Lu Yin was indeed an evil person. Violating the statutes of their megaverse was an act of pure evil, as had been dictated by eons of their cultivation culture.

"The Grandmaster's Trial is the most sacred location in the Spirit Treasure Society. If you challenge it and succeed, you can become a society Grandmaster. However, it’s also possible that you might be an exception to that, Third Boss."

Lu Yin shrugged. "Your Spirit Treasure Society is united. I see that. If you can't accept me, then I can understand. After all, you cannot offend the entire Spirit Nidus for someone as reviled as me. I appreciate that you can tell the truth."

Yu Ran revealed a bitter smile. "Even if you have committed many crimes, Third Boss, you are an honest and upright man. Personally, I would like for you to join the Spirit Treasure Society. But for the sake of the society, I, Yu Ran, am also willing to carry all of the blame for this. If the Grandverse Manor encounters trouble in the future, the Spirit Treasure Society will never cast stones at you."

Lu Yin smiled softly, but he said nothing.

"That being said, what I must do now is quite similar to what Cheng Liang just did." Yu Ran grew serious as she stared at Lu Yin. "I am going to change the ninth step."

"How so?"

"The original challenge on the ninth step cannot stop you, and so, I wish to attempt to do so myself. If I can stop you from conquering the Grandmaster's Trial, it would be ideal, but if I fail, all blame for this matter will fall upon me, Yu Ran."

Lu Yin looked around at all the gathered members of the Spirit Treasure Society. Everyone had heard Yu Ran's declaration, and that was another reason why he admired the woman.

She was someone who lived with integrity.

The Spirit Treasure Society had no obligation to offend the Spirit Nidus for Lu Yin’s sake, even if he became one of their Grandmasters.

The Spirit Treasure Society as a whole could not be sacrificed.

Unity was important, but Spirit Treasure Masters were not fools.

Lu Yin could understand their reasoning.

"You’re overthinking things. I’ve never considered joining the Spirit Treasure Society or gaining the title of Grandmaster. I’m merely curious about the Grandmaster's Trial, and I wanted to test it out for myself," Lu Yin said.

Yu Ran took a deep breath. "The ninth step will feature a game of Spirit Chess. Third Boss, you can choose the spirit treasures. We will proceed right here."

"Spirit Chess?" Lu Yin was puzzled.

Yu Ran was caught off guard. "Are you not familiar with Spirit Chess, Third Boss?"

"Please explain it to me."

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Spirit Chess is a game that uses the spirit treasures’ danger zones as the pieces in a game to control territory. The pieces are split into black and white..."

Lu Yin understood. This was simply another name for Stable Zone. The Spirit Nidus had the same game, just with a different name.

"Do you understand, Third Boss?"

"I do. I’ve actually played before, but I simply didn’t know the name of the game. Very well, we can start now."

"Third Boss, please select your spirit treasures."

Lu Yin laughed. "Since you’ve changed the challenge to Spirit Chess, you should be the one to choose the spirit treasures."

Yu Ran's expression turned serious. "Are you certain, Third Boss?"

"It doesn’t matter."

Yu Ran thought for a moment and then released a bit of power. A wave of her hand caused one spirit treasure after another to appear, much to the shock of everyone watching the Spirit Treasure Society.

Zhi Shan, Qian Huifeng, Ying Han, and the other Grandmasters were all startled. So many?

Lu Yin was also taken aback. He was looking at ten sourceboxes. To be precise, he was looking at ten Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. Yu Ran was truly ruthless.

The hardest game of Stable Zone that Lu Yin had ever participated in was when he had faced off against Mu Shang. At that time, they had used eight Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. If he hadn’t received all of Qiu Ling's lockbreaking memories, Lu Yin would not have stood a chance against Mu Shang. Ultimately, he had only won by relying on Gu Yue’s notes to notice a hidden trap.

Lu Yin was quite surprised to see Yu Ran immediately pull out ten sourceboxes to set up the game board.

The sight of ten Boundless Advanced sourceboxes shocked everyone in the Spirit Treasure Society. It was evident that, even when it came to lockbreaking, the Spirit Nidus surpassed the Tianyuan Megaverse. A game of Stable Zone with so many Boundless Advanced sourceboxes was practically unheard of.

Yu Ran was very wary of the game board herself.

"Third Boss, is this alright?"

Lu Yin gave Yu Ran a long look. "Are you sure you're alright with this?"

"Thank you for your concern, Third Boss. Let’s begin," Yu Ran solemnly stated.

She was betting everything. In order to stop Lu Yin from conquering the ninth step and to prevent the Spirit Treasure Society from being criticized, she was willing to take great risks, even risking her own life.

She herself was a sequence powerhouse. A game with eight Boundless Advanced sourceboxes was certainly within her abilities. After all, even Mu Shang had been able to handle that level of danger. However, each additional sourcebox increased the difficulty of the game exponentially. The sourceboxes’ danger zones stacked and became incredibly complex. The increase in difficulty was far beyond a linear increase.

Ten sourceboxes represented a level of danger that could even threaten sequence powerhouses. After all, players needed to defend themselves against the sourceboxes’ combined danger zone while also playing the game.

This put Yu Ran at a severe disadvantage, as she was much weaker than Lu Yin.

In fact, this setup was to Lu Yin’s advantage, as he would be able to completely ignore the threat of the sourceboxes’ danger zones.

Yu Ran felt cornered. No matter how many spirit treasures she used, it would never be enough to threaten this Third Boss. Because of that, she had decided to make the game as complicated as possible. The more complicated things became, the more the game would rely on their skills as Spirit Treasure Masters, and that was her only way of increasing her chances of victory. However, by doing so, she had ensured that even the smallest mistake would cost her her life. The stakes were exceptionally high.

At the moment, the danger zones of ten Boundless Advanced sourceboxes were colliding chaotically and spreading further and further. Already, the chaos had reached the eighth step, and it continued on to the seventh step, the fifth, but it still had not stopped.

The danger zones clashed and combined, sometimes even canceling each other out. It took more than half an hour for things to finally stabilize.

In the end, the entire Grandmaster's Trial were enveloped by the ten sourceboxes’ danger zones. The existing spirit treasure formations on the Grandmaster's Trial—the Tomb of Mountains and Streams, Twilight Maple Forest, and Heaven's Wrath, Earth's Ruin formations—had all been incorporated into the game board, merging with the danger zone of the ten combined sourceboxes. This led to a very odd sight.

From the Tomb of Mountains and Streams, water fell from the void.

A light had appeared in the Twilight Maple Forest.

Lu Yin had already broken Heaven's Wrath, Earth's Ruin, and it had started to scatter. However, before it fully dispersed, it had also been incorporated, and it rumbled with thunder while the occasional streak of lightning could be seen. The sight sent chills down people’s spines.

This development was beyond any of Yu Ran’s expectations. She had never used ten spirit treasures to set up a game of Spirit Chess before. Her previous limit had been just nine.

Ten spirit treasures had created an uncontrollable game board that had then combined with a number of spirit treasure formations, making the entire conglomeration far more terrifying.

Zhi Shan called out, "Yu Ran, reset the board! This game is over!"

Qian Huifeng also shouted, "This is no longer a game of Spirit Chess! This has morphed into something between a spiritual treasure formation and Spirit Chess. It's completely mutated and cannot be controlled."

Ying Han’s face had grown pale. This was not a game board for Spirit Chess.

If she entered, she would not last long.

Lightning, thunder, water dripping from the void, and light? It’s completely incomprehensible. What is this?

Yu Ran’s brow furrowed, and she automatically looked over Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had been observing the woman the entire time. "You can reset the board. That’s no problem for me."

Yu Ran gritted her teeth. "That’s not necessary. This is the challenge of the ninth step."

Lu Yin laughed. "The more complex this game board becomes, the more likely you believe your chances of victory in this game of Spirit Chess to be. This demonstrates your confidence, but if you can’t even endure the danger zone that is the game board, how do you expect to play?

"I can tell you right now." Lu Yin raised a hand to point to at where Heaven's Wrath, Earth's Ruin had originally stood. At the moment, lightning was raining down on the location. "That location alone can completely obliterate you."

Yu Ran took a deep breath. "This is the path for Spirit Treasure Masters. Everyone who steps onto this path is fighting against the megaverse itself. Such a death has no regrets."

Lu Yin was impressed. "Your resolution is certainly commendable, but it’s not worth the risk.

"Have Senior Su Shidao come out. He can play with me."

Yu Ran somberly replied, "If you win, I will personally take you to meet Senior Su, but this game is mine."

Lu Yin shrugged. "As you wish, but don't blame me if you die.

"Choose, black or white."

"Black."

"Then I’ll be white."

Yu Ran looked away, refocusing on the game board for their game. Next, she needed to find a way to enter it.

Lu Yin also turned to focus on the game board.

Even if he was not concerned about the danger zones of the sourceboxes and arrays, if he rushed in and caused the game board to grow chaotic, all of his black pieces might disappear at once. Even if it was a matter of pure luck, it was possible for him to lose.

He had never played a game of Stable Zone like this one, and he knew that the game would be a challenge.

It would also greatly improve his own mastery and comprehension of lockbreaking.

More people arrived at the Spirit Treasure Society. Some were cultivators, but others were society members.

The Grandverse Manor’s Third Boss had challenged the Grandmaster's Trial and had even reached the ninth step. This news had sent shockwaves through the megaverse that were no smaller than when he had swept through the Consciousness Domain in an invincible manner.

The path of Spirit Treasure Masters was different from the path of cultivation. No one had expected the Third Boss to be such a powerful cultivator, but learning that he was just as impressive a Spirit Treasure Master as a cultivation powerhouse was shocking. The man was just one step away from becoming one of the Spirit Treasure Society’s titled Grandmasters.

How had he cultivated?

In the Ascendant Hall's Apex Palace, the High Seraph stared off into the distance.

He was not surprised by the news. After all, Lord Lu was the ruler of the Tianyuan Megaverse. He had been blessed by the fate aura of the megaverse upon birth. He was someone capable of comprehending karma; there was no need to be surprised that he had comprehended spirit treasure formations as well.

Su Shidao... I hope that he won’t disappoint me.

Also, just where is Yong Heng?

The High Seraph's expression fell. He had been focused on Lu Yin, believing himself to have seen through the ruler of the Tianyuan Megaverse. However, in doing so, the High Seraph had lost track of the lord of the Aeternals. True God was another individual that the High Seraph was highly wary of.

Despite the fact that they had never fought, the High Seraph understood that True God might be the only one whose strength rivaled his own.

Meng Sang's disappearance was also definitely related to True God.

In the Spirit Treasure Domain, on the ninth step of the Grandmaster's Trial, two people had already spent several days standing in place, staring at the game board of their game of Spirit Chess. Both were searching for a way to enter the game board.

A short distance away, Grandmaster Zhi Shan, Grandmaster Qian Huifeng, and the other Grandmasters were all staring at the game board as well. All of them were contemplating how they would enter the game board if they were playing and how they would unravel a path to victory in this game.

While Lu Yin and Yu Ran were the only two playing Spirit Chess, the truth was that everyone else was also involved in the game.

Two more days passed. After that, Lu Yin looked up at Yu Ran’s bloodshot eyes.

Once Spirit Chess reached a certain level of complexity, one’s personal strength became crucial.

All paths ultimately led to the same destination. Even if Lu Yin had never studied lockbreaking, he would be able to see through such things with his current level of strength. On top of that, he was already an incredible Lockbreaker.

Yu Ran’s ability meant that she would be able to find a path into the game board in no more than two more days, but at this moment, that time might as well be an insurmountable gap.

Lu Yin moved forward, entering the game board diagonally.

Everyone in the Spirit Treasure Society stared as he moved.

A tremor ran through Yu Ran’s body as she watched Lu Yin enter the game board. Had he seen through it?

As soon as Lu Yin entered the game board, the sourceboxes’ calm danger zone turned chaotic once again, and the separate danger zones started to overlap and collide. Black and white pieces were constantly erased. Occasionally, Lu Yin lifted a hand to deflect a bit of the danger zone, as he was constantly preventing his black pieces from being destroyed. All the while, the white pieces were being erased, faster and faster.

Given the situation, it would not take long for all the white pieces to disappear from the game of Spirit Chess.