Chess Saint's Inheritance

Murong Yue's face was pale, yet she wore a delighted smile. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Xu!"

If Senior Xu hadn't played chess with her and used the Great Dao to cleanse her, it would have taken her at least another year or two to break through to the Spiritual Roaming Realm.

Xu Yan looked at her in astonishment. "Miss, do you have a masochistic streak?"

This time, when he played chess with Murong Yue, he hadn't held back in the slightest. Instead, he'd given it his all and beaten her so thoroughly she hadn't been able to fight back at all.

Could someone being brutally trounced actually enjoy it?

"Senior Xu, you jest. How could I possibly have that sort of fetish?" Murong Yue wondered if Senior Xu had gotten the wrong idea about her and spoke up.

She'd heard that some cultivators had strange quirks, but she had none. She was a proper, respectable cultivator.

Boom!

Just then, a dazzling beam of light shot skyward from the foot of Tianren Mountain, outside Tianren City.

Everyone in the Tianren Mountain region could clearly see the beam. They all sensed that something extraordinary was about to emerge.

"Senior Xu, this sudden beam of light may be connected to something unusual. I have to head back first." Murong Yue stared at the beam for several seconds, then spoke to Xu Yan.

This looked just like the appearance of a treasure. She had to go back and inform the Murong Family.

"By all means, Miss."

Xu Yan was more than happy for Murong Yue to hurry off. Why would he try to keep her?

Murong Yue left in a hurry, as if afraid someone would get to the treasure before her.

Standing outside the shop, Xu Yan looked at the beam of light. "I wonder what it is. What a grand spectacle."

He'd heard that treasures appeared amid strange phenomena, but he didn't care whether this was a treasure or not. It had nothing to do with him anyway.

With cultivators around, a treasure of any kind wouldn't end up in the hands of an ordinary mortal like him.

"That's the place where the Chess Saint passed away."

The Golden Emperor Ant, perched on Xu Yan's shoulder, suddenly spoke.

The Chess Saint had been something like his disciple. Back then, he'd obeyed the ant's every word and done whatever he was told.

Unfortunately, in the end, the Chess Saint had still perished...

That was where the Chess Saint had passed away, and it held his inheritance.

One memory after another surfaced in the Golden Emperor Ant's mind.

The Chess Saint had been a good kid.

Perhaps the Chess Saint was one reason he'd stayed in Tianren City for so long.

This was the Chess Saint's hometown.

And the place where he had passed away.

"Chess Saint. Sounds pretty impressive," Xu Yan said.

Just hearing the name told him the man had been a master of chess. He wondered how he'd have measured up against Xu Yan.

"Master, aren't you going over to take a look?" the Golden Emperor Ant asked.

In truth, he wanted to go see for himself who would obtain the Chess Saint's inheritance.

"Wouldn't it be a little inappropriate for me to get mixed up in something like this?" Xu Yan said.

He was just an ordinary mortal. What if a cultivator took a dislike to him and slapped him to death?

"It's fine, Master," the Golden Emperor Ant said. "We'll just watch from a distance. We only need to see how it turns out."

After so many years, the opening of the Chess Saint's inheritance cave had stirred the ant's heart, long since buried beneath layers of dust.

"All right. Let's see what kind of treasure has appeared. I've never seen a spectacle this grand." Xu Yan agreed.

He wanted to go and see for himself, and with the Golden Emperor Ant urging him on, he decided to investigate.

Xu Yan took Su Jiuer and the Golden Emperor Ant with him and set off from the What Are You Looking At Small Shop.

All along the way, people streamed toward the foot of Tianren Mountain. There weren't just cultivators—most of them were ordinary folk from Tianren City.

They'd come to watch the excitement. Wherever there was a spectacle, there was sure to be a crowd.

At the foot of Tianren Mountain, the three Evil Cultivators from the Evil God Palace were dumbfounded.

The cave had suddenly blazed with a radiance ten thousand feet high. That was one thing. But then a chessboard made of formation Spiritual Power had appeared, too.

The inheritance's opening had activated the formation, and the formation took the form of a chess game.

Win the game, and they could break through the formation and enter the cave. If they couldn't, the formation would remain in place, its power shrouding the cave and forming a barrier.

"Hall Master Mu, what do we do? There's no way to win this game!" the Fat Helmsman cried in despair after losing to the formation once again.

The three of them had already tried several times. They couldn't even last ten moves, let alone break the formation.

Hall Master Mu's expression darkened. "Our superiors only told us that the Chess Saint's inheritance cave was here and would soon appear. They didn't say it would make such a commotion, much less that it would have a Way of Chess formation."

He was especially furious now. He'd planned to use the Black Blood Pills to keep the Tianren Sect's attention on Tianren City, so they wouldn't interfere with the group's efforts to obtain the Chess Saint's inheritance.

But the Chess Saint's inheritance had gone and unleashed a beam of light. Now everyone in the Tianren Mountain region—and perhaps even farther away—might know about it. Their plan, which had cost them so many Black Blood Pills, was useless now.

Even worse, there was no way to break this Way of Chess formation. How could they possibly beat the Chess Saint at chess?

Even if this was only a formation arranged by the Chess Saint, and its power was probably less than a tenth of his, it was still beyond the ability of cultivators like them to break.

The Thin Helmsman couldn't help speaking up. "Hall Master Mu, why don't we retreat for now? It won't be long before the Tianren Sect and the other factions arrive."

They weren't afraid of the Tianren Sect, but if it joined forces with powerful cultivators from other factions, the three of them wouldn't be able to hold them off.

"Let's go. We'll hide nearby. If someone breaks the formation, we'll seize the chance to take the Chess Saint's inheritance item!"

Hall Master Mu had no other choice. They could only make a strategic retreat for now.

Whoosh!

Not long after Hall Master Mu and the Fat and Thin Helmsmen left, Qin Tian arrived.

Looking at the cave radiating endless light, Qin Tian exclaimed in surprise, "Could this be the inheritance of the legendary Chess Saint?"

He knew, of course, that a great figure had emerged from this area long ago. He'd been called the Chess Saint and possessed an exceptional gift for the Way of Chess.

"Grandpa, let's go inside and take a look," Qin Yudie said eagerly.

People throughout the area around Tianren Mountain had heard the legends of the Chess Saint. He was the pride of their homeland, the place where a towering, extraordinary figure had been born.

Qin Tian nodded, and he and Qin Yudie headed toward the cave.

But when they were less than ten meters away, the formation's light appeared. A chessboard materialized before them.

On the side of the chessboard nearest the cave stood a figure that was half-transparent.

Clearly, they would have to defeat this figure, created by the formation, to break through it.

"So the Chess Saint's inheritance test is a game of chess?" Qin Tian said with great interest.

It was only natural that the Chess Saint had left a test to guard his inheritance. He surely wouldn't have wanted it to fall into the hands of lucky fools with no real ability.

Qin Yudie stepped forward, brimming with confidence. "Let me try first!"