Li Guanqi was certain he had seen Fate, yet he had never imagined it would appear in such a way.
Boundless skies, stars scattered like a net, vast nothingness, a single lone piece.
This lone piece hesitated in place for a long while before taking a step. Ripples spread from the instant its heel touched down, stirring up vertical and horizontal lines across the empty ground.
Once the ripples faded, the lines vanished as well. As far as the eye could see, there was once more empty space on three sides, with only the star-strewn sky above illuminating the lone piece.
"Am I dead, or am I not..."
The chessboard had appeared only briefly, and only part of it had been visible. Even Li Guanqi could not analyze the situation from the positions of the pieces.
Whether those within Fate were dead or alive, no one knew. After all, everyone who had experienced it firsthand was dead.
Yet Li Guanqi still retained his reason, and at this moment, his mind was clearer and more lucid than ever. Beneath this starry sky, he seemed to have returned to the purity he possessed when he had first entered Heavenly Sea.
He recalled the chessboard paths that had flashed into view when the ripples had appeared earlier. After some thought, he took another step, and the paths emerged again.
The ripples glowed a faint blue as they spread, seeming to echo the stars in the sky. The chess game beneath his feet was beginning to take shape.
"So I am not a lone piece."
As the ripples from his two steps spread outward, Li Guanqi saw the chessboard beneath his feet. Black and white pieces of all kinds had long since been placed upon it.
Contrary to what he had expected, this was