Victory or Defeat

Although Aier had guessed that the red-haired youth's true identity might be the Blood Peak Sovereign Pash, he showed no reaction, choosing instead to pretend he did not know.

Since Blood Peak Sovereign Pash had no intention of revealing his identity, Aier could not be bothered to expose it either.

If he remembered correctly, the Blood Peak Sovereign was a Destruction Low-level Sovereign, and he only had two slots for Overgod Envoys.

As of now, the Blood Peak Sovereign's Overgod Envoy slots should be full.

The Prefect of Tianshan Prefecture, Molder, and the Prefect of Youlan Prefecture, Aldrich, were both envoys of the Blood Peak Sovereign.

Among them, Tianshan Prefecture was located in the very center of the Blood Peak Continent and was where the Blood Peak Sovereign usually resided.

As for Youlan Prefecture, it was the overlap between the territory of the Blood Peak Sovereign and the Four Divine Beasts Overgods.

After the seven Divine Planes were created, almost every Sovereign of each element stayed within their respective Divine Planes.

However, the Four Divine Beasts Overgods were different.

Their unique nature dictated that they could only stay together.

If they were separated, they would definitely be killed by other Sovereigns at the first opportunity.

Therefore, although the Four Divine Beasts Overgods had influence in all four Divine Planes of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire, and their respective Overgod Legions were also stationed in those four planes, they themselves still resided in Hell.

Because the Four Divine Beasts Overgods were born in Hell before they became Sovereigns, the Destruction Chief Sovereign Utrede did not expel them from Hell after they ascended to godhood.

However, the Four Divine Beasts Overgods had no sphere of influence in Hell, retaining only the Heavenly Sacrifice Mountain Range as their residence.

When the territories were divided, Pash became the administrator of the Blood Peak Continent.

Nominally, the Blood Peak Continent was under Pash's rule.

But the Four Divine Beasts Overgods were united, a level of power recognized as "Chief Sovereign" grade by the four Rule Sovereigns.

Coupled with the rapid development of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, it almost made the people of the Blood Peak Continent forget that the continent was the territory of the Blood Peak Sovereign, Pash.

Consequently, Pash had also taken the Prefect of Youlan Prefecture, Aldrich, as an envoy, tasking him with keeping an eye on the Four Divine Beasts Clan.

It was also Aldrich who informed Pash of the conflict between Aier and the Four Divine Beasts Clan.

At that time, Pash began to pay attention to Aier.

However, the Heavenly Sacrifice Mountain Range was the lair of the Four Divine Beasts Overgods, and Pash did not dare to spread his divine sense into the range to spy on the interactions between Aier and the Four Divine Beasts Clan.

Once news spread from the Four Divine Beasts Clan that Aier was a Paragon, Pash could no longer sit still.

If this news were true...

It was precisely because of this that after observing Aier for a period of time, Pash took the initiative to appear before him, using a method that would catch Aier's attention to prompt him to strike up a conversation.

After all, according to previous intelligence, Aier was an Overgod Envoy of the Bifu Overgod and possessed a Material Defense Overgod Artifact bestowed by the Bifu Overgod.

If Pash were to approach Aier directly, the Bifu Overgod might have some thoughts on the matter.

But if Aier took the initiative to approach Pash, even if the Bifu Overgod found out, he would not say anything.

A Paragon was not the private property of any single Sovereign; even after becoming an Overgod Envoy, Paragons possessed immense freedom.

Just like Dunnington, the only Paragon in Hell previously; he was an Overgod Envoy of the Destruction Chief Sovereign Utrede, yet even now, Utrede had never forced Dunnington to do anything.

"Lost again..."

Looking at the chessboard formed by soul energy, Aier finally shook his head and conceded the game.

After Aier's Earth Element divine clone became a Paragon, the strength and quantity of his soul energy far exceeded that of an ordinary High-God.

Even a dual-element soul mutant would likely be slightly inferior.

Yet even so, in his match against Pash, Aier still felt his soul energy falling short.

He felt that Pash's soul energy was a cut above his own.

"Would you like to go again, Lord Aier?"

Dispelling the chessboard constructed from soul energy, Pash asked Aier.

Although Pash's initial goal had been to establish a connection with Aier, as they interacted—especially with these new rule-based chess games Aier introduced—Pash became even more fascinated.

His love for chess had seeped into his very marrow.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Pash had attained his Dao through chess.

Furthermore, Pash viewed the laws of heaven and earth as a chessboard and the Destruction Laws he had comprehended as chess pieces, using the game to expound upon the laws of the universe.

Perhaps among the Sovereigns, Pash's combat strength was not the strongest.

But when it came to attainments in magic arrays, Pash was absolutely the most elite among all the Sovereigns.

If not for this, Utrede would not have assigned the Blood Peak Continent, where the Four Divine Beasts Overgods resided, to Pash when dividing the territories of Hell.

As a fellow Low-level Sovereign, if Pash were prepared and had set up his magic arrays, a Pash bolstered by his arrays would not necessarily be much weaker than the Azure Dragon Sovereign, Reding.

"No more, I concede."

"Your mastery of the Dao of chess is far beyond mine."

Aier shook his head.

He was never a genius to begin with.

Even though his soul was now countless times stronger than in his past life, allowing his deductive capabilities in board games to be on par with, or even surpass, the likes of AlphaGo, it could not change the fact that Aier's actual attainment in the way of chess was practically zero.

Once Pash became familiar with the rules, Aier would no longer have any chance of victory.

This was a crushing disparity in the realm of chess mastery.

It was akin to two individuals both being High-Gods, where one had merely refined a Godhead and could only rigidly apply Laws and Profound Mysteries, while the other was a Paragon capable of perfectly fusing numerous Laws and Profound Mysteries together.

The same laws, when wielded by different hands, would manifest power that was worlds apart.

The same held true for the way of chess.

While Aier was still playing with the same rules in the Material Plane, Pash was already swimming freely through the Spatial Turbulence.

"Haha, you are too modest, Lord Aier."

"The intuition you display in the way of chess is far beyond my expectations."

Pash laughed.

Whether it was the simple game of Gomoku, the slightly more complex checkers, or the even more vast game of Go, all of them had been an eye-opening experience for Pash.

Of course, Pash's attitude toward Aier also stemmed from the fact that, during their matches, he had sensed that Aier's soul power far exceeded that of an ordinary High-God.

Although Pash had not yet seen Aier take action or utilize Willpower, the possibility in his heart that Aier was a Paragon had quietly risen significantly.

"I am also very happy to play against you, Lord Aier."

"Give me a break."

Aier rolled his eyes: "I'm the one losing, so naturally you're happy."

"If you had never won against me, then the smile you have now should be on my face instead."

"No, you are mistaken, Lord Aier."

Hearing Aier say this, Pash replied earnestly: "If I hadn't won a single game, I would be even happier than I am now."