Lu Yin stood at the peak of the Fifth Mainland and not even the Seven Courts would dare to claim that they could avoid contact with him in the future. If they had conflicts, or even wars, what would happen once Lu Yin reached a power level of a million, or even became a Semi-Progenitor? Would the Seven Courts still be untouchable to Lu Yin? At that point, not even Xia Ji would be able to threaten Lu Yin.
They had to be prepared for when that time came.
Ce Yue eventually agreed to allow Lu Yin to study the Immovable Chessboard. It did not really matter as Lu Yin had already comprehended the Ce Secret Art, which meant that he could gain nothing by observing their greatest treasure.
The Ce family’s greatest treasure was the Immovable Chessboard that had been left behind by their ancestor, Progenitor Ce Wangtian. They kept their treasured inheritance within their ancestral home.
Ce Yue personally led Lu Yin to the Ce family’s ancestral home.
“Alliance Leader Lu, please enter,” Ce Yue said in a deep voice that seemed devoid of all emotion.
Lu Yin observed the family’s ancestral home. “Thank you.”
He then took a step and entered the building.
The Ce family’s ancestral home was not large, and it was actually no different from the house of an ordinary person. Ce Wangtian was someone who had risen to power from nothing, and this ancestral home represented the Ce family’s rise from their common origins.
Long ago, Mister Mu had used Zhu Tiezhu’s blood to allow Lu Yin to peer through the long river of time to observe the Immovable Chessboard. Had Ce Wangtian lived in this place? Or was it simply the ancestral home of the Ce family that was part of the Seven Courts?
The Ce family’s ancestral home included a hut that was completely dark. Lu Yin pushed the door open and entered the hut before closing the door behind him. There was a dusty chessboard in the middle of the room, and moonlight from nowhere illuminated it.
This was a very familiar scene to Lu Yin, as it was the same scene that he had seen when he had observed the vision of Ce Wangtian.
Step by step, Lu Yin moved closer to the dusty chessboard. When he had first seen this place in the vision, he had stood to the side and observed the chess game. But this time, he walked right up and sat down in the seat for one of the players. Regardless of who the opponent might be, he was willing to participate, even if it was a game of strategy.
Lu Yin had already defeated Progenitor Chen at the same cultivation realm as him, so he felt no fear when facing anyone at all.
An unseen breeze blew through, removing the dust from the chessboard. Lu Yin stared down at the chessboard and then subconsciously raised a hand to pick up one of the chess pieces. Suddenly, his body trembled, and his eyes went blank. He next found himself in space, surrounded by chess pieces. In fact, Lu Yin himself was a pawn.
He looked up and saw two massive figures sitting on either side of the game board, and one of them laughed loudly. “You’re destined to lose this time, hahahaha!”
“It’s impossible for you to beat me. You’re just too terrible at playing chess,” another voice replied. The voices were so deafening that Lu Yin’s head almost cracked.
Lu Yin stared up at the two huge figures in shock, but he was not able to see either of their faces clearly. Down on the game board with him, chess pieces began moving. Someone was playing chess.
Are they playing chess? Why am I a pawn? Clearly I should be a player!
Lu Yin opened his mouth to call out only to find that it was impossible.
“Hahahaha, how about this move? I’ll win!”
“Ce Wangtian, when it comes to chess, you’ll always this lousy. You can’t even beat an ordinary person.”
“Hmph! I never plan ahead and simply play chess in the moment. I make every move at the moment instead of planning ahead. I don’t play like you, where you observe the entire game with each glance. Where’s the fun in that?”
“There is no pleasure in playing chess for people like us. I don’t want to play with you.”
“You have to, unless you manage to beat me.”
“What’s the point? It’s impossible for you to win as long as you play in this manner.”
“Bullshit! I’m invincible! Who says that I can’t win? I’m going to beat you!”
Lu Yin tried to escape from the chess game, but all of his efforts were fruitless. He did not know what this game of chess was supposed to represent, or why people who were supposed to have died during the ancient era were able to trap him, but he knew that he should not be a chess piece, but rather one of the players.
“Ce Wangtian, you are going to lose.”
“Impossible! I’ve never lost to anyone in my entire life! Wait, I made a mistake… I need to take that back.”
“No, you can’t take back a move.”
“I made a mistake. I need to redo it.”
“You can’t take back a move in a game. You’ve already lost.”
“Bullshit! I’m positive that I’ll win! I just made a mistake with that one move, so I need to take it back.”
“No.”
“Re-do.”
“No.”
“Yu De, you know me, right? Well, who says that I can’t take a move back? I’m going to manipulate this board, and there’s nothing that you can do about it!”
After that, Lu Yin watched as space collapsed and the entire game was destroyed. Space twisted in odd ways in the surrounding area, and Lu Yin felt something odd.
Lu Yin had no idea how much time passed, but eventually, space returned to a normal state, and he heard a crazed laugh enter his ears. “Hahahaha, I, Ce Wangtian, have finally created a secret technique: Astral Chessboard. After playing chess for decades. I’m the only person in the universe who can take back a move! Nobody can rewind their life, but if I want to do so, then only I can take back my move! Ce Secret Art: Astral Chessboard.”
There was a snap, and Lu Yin’s eyes widened. He found himself staring down at a dusty chess board. He had not moved at all. When he looked around, he was no longer in outer space, but rather back in the Ce family’s ancestral home. There was no one playing chess, and he was no longer someone’s chess piece.
What had he just witnessed? Could that vision have been from the ancient times? Had he just been witness to the reason why Ce Wangtian had created the Ce Secret Art?
Lu Yin stared down at the chessboard, a bit speechless. Had Ce Wangtian really only created his secret technique in order to play chess and take a move back? What did it mean to manipulate the game so brazenly and blatantly?
Staring at the chess pieces on the board, Lu Yin closed his eyes and reviewed what he had just seen. He especially focused what he had felt when Ce Wangtian had seemed to go crazy because he wanted to take back his move and space had started to get agitated.
One day. Two days. Three days…
Lu Yin stayed in the ancestral home for nearly half a month, and outside, Ce Yue grew increasingly solemn.
“Elder, how is Lu Yin?” Ce Laoyan asked as he arrived just outside the ancestral home.
Ce Yue answered softly, “He should be gaining enlightenment.”
Ce Laoyan was caught off guard. “He’s already comprehended the Ce Secret Art, so what could he be gaining enlightenment about?”
Ce Yue seemed to drift off. “Do you believe that the Ce Secret Art is as simple as how we use it?”