The Heavens Play Chess, The Universe Lives On

The moment the Chaos Spear dissipated, the suffocating pressure that had shrouded the entire Earth suddenly eased.

The Chaos Legion, which had been rampaging across the sky, froze in unison. The pitch-black killing intent and aura of annihilation that filled the heavens were held back by an invisible hand, instantly receding and lying dormant. The doomsday battle, which had been on the verge of total collapse just moments ago, paused abruptly in a way no one had anticipated.

The world was deathly silent.

Across the broken, ruined earth, wild winds howled, carrying shards of stone. In the distance, the shattered sea churned with dead, black waves. The entire planet was scarred, covered in the remnants of where the Chaos Power had ravaged. The once-vibrant mountains and rivers had been reduced to a desolate, ruined wasteland within a mere half-hour, resembling a silent graveyard.

Lin Chen remained suspended in mid-air, his ancient golden bloodline aura flickering weakly, the excruciating pain in his bones and muscles continuing to spread. He did not relax for a second, his eyes locked onto the massive black shadow of the Chaos King above the firmament, his vigilance climbing to its peak.

This was not mercy, nor was it a withdrawal.

He had seen the change in that instant with perfect clarity.

The Chaos King had already unleashed his ultimate killing move; that Chaos Spear would have been enough to crush all the remaining strength of the four of them and completely erase the last resistance of this universe. Yet, at the very moment the fatal blow was about to land, the seven ancient, supreme extraterritorial auras deep within the dimensional barrier suddenly exerted a trace of interference.

It was those hidden extraterritorial powerhouses who had forcibly called off the Chaos King's execution.

The Chaos King might appear to wield the authority to destroy the world and command the universe, but in the eyes of those true, top-tier existences of the heavens, he was still just a pawn that could be manipulated and handled at will.

"Why..."

Kallen breathed slowly, his purple battle aura gradually returning. He stared at the suddenly stagnant Chaos Army, his eyes filled with suspicion and gravity.

He could sense that the Chaos King's killing intent had not faded; the torrent of chaos across the entire rift remained violent and surging, and the foundation of the world's destruction had never wavered. The only thing that had changed was that the opponent had suddenly reined in the fatal offensive, deliberately leaving a sliver of life.

This sudden reprieve was more terrifying than the ultimate killing blow.

The Golden Super Saiyan landed on the broken clouds, raising a hand to wipe the golden blood from the corner of his lips. He gazed toward the deepest part of the barrier between the two worlds, his expression graver than ever before.

Having lived through eons, he had seen countless chess games and power struggles, but he had never witnessed such a bizarre, cross-dimensional setup.

In previous invasions by alien races, it was either a fight to the death to annihilate everything, or a retreat once momentum was lost, leading to a stalemate. But today's Chaos catastrophe was, from beginning to end, a game controlled by the higher heavens.

The Chaos King wanted to end the battle quickly and harvest the universe's origin, but he had been forcibly stopped by higher-level extraterritorial existences.

They would not allow this universe to be destroyed just yet.

Nor would they allow the four of them to die in battle here.

"It's not that the Chaos King doesn't want to kill us; it's that someone won't let him," the Golden Super Saiyan said slowly, his voice low and hoarse, piercing the silent void. "Our lives, and the survival of this universe, have never been in the hands of Chaos—they are in the eyes of those extraterritorial heavens."

He had laid bare the essence of the situation.

In mid-air, Frieza's crimson eyes narrowed slightly. The pale, imperial energy circulating around him slowed, retracting all violent killing intent and replacing it with extreme coldness and caution.

Having dominated the galaxy for hundreds of years, he was a master of strategy and calculation, and he had already seen through the trickery.

The Chaos Race were the vanguards, the butcher's knives responsible for breaking the dimensional barrier, clearing out the resistance of this universe, and grinding down the defenses of the world's origin.

But those seven hidden heavenly factions were the true chess players.

They watched the Chaos slaughter with cold eyes, watching the four of them fight to the death, suffer repeated injuries, and exhaust their strength, watching this universe edge closer to fragmentation. They did not want a quick annihilation; they wanted a thorough, clean, and flawless harvest.

If the Chaos King were to kill the four of them now, quickly destroy the Earth, and swallow the universe's origin, the foundations, hidden trump cards, and latent mysteries of this universe would be monopolized by the Chaos Race.

Those high-and-mighty heavenly powerhouses would never allow such a thing to happen.

"Interesting."

Frieza chuckled softly, his tone carrying the cold, biting mockery unique to an emperor. "Killing too fast leads to an uneven split of the spoils, so they keep us alive, gasping for breath, to slowly grind away all the trump cards of this universe, is that it?"

This sentence instantly pierced through the ultimate truth of the ten-thousand-year chess game.

The ten-thousand-year layout and the breaking of the dimensions were never a solo invasion by the Chaos Race, but a joint game played by cross-heavenly factions.

Chaos was responsible for breaking the game and clearing the board, while the heavenly powerhouses sat back and watched. Only when this universe was completely drained of all value and all resistance was utterly exhausted would they enter the field one after another to divide the origin and the laws of this low-dimensional universe.

That was why they wanted to keep the Earth, the living beings, and the four of them—the final top-tier combatants—alive.

It was not out of mercy; it was to harvest them slowly, to strip them bare.

Above the firmament, the Chaos King's massive black shadow shifted slightly. His hollow, pitch-black eyes swept over the four below, carrying a trace of impatience at being interfered with, yet he dared not show the slightest defiance.

"You ants, you live by luck."

The vast, cold voice resonated through the world once more. The previous killing intent was gone, replaced by the indifference of someone toying with prey.

"The heavens have decreed: the chess game of this realm is not yet finished, and its potential is not yet exhausted. You are granted a temporary reprieve."

"This Seat will give you three days. Within these three days, you may gasp for breath, repair your wounds, gather your remaining strength, and struggle in vain. Three days from now, the game will restart, and there shall be no living things left in this universe."

As the words fell, the chaotic torrents rolling in the sky stopped pouring down. The dense black shadows of Chaos retreated in unison, anchoring themselves beneath the high-altitude rift to form an impenetrable, pitch-black barrier.

They did not attack, nor did they retreat.

They had completely locked off all exits from the Earth.

The outer star channels, space-jump trajectories, and interstellar escape routes were all sealed by the power of Chaos.

From this moment on, Earth had become a completely isolated cage.

They had been granted three days of breathing room—the final countdown left by the heavenly powers for this universe.

The black mist of Chaos slowly retracted upward, no longer eroding the land. The tremors of the collapsing earth finally ceased, and in the deathly silent world, a faint trace of life remained.

Deep in the forest, Bulma let out a long breath. Her body, which had been tensed to the limit, went limp. She stumbled, grabbing a nearby tree trunk for support, her back already soaked through with cold sweat.

In that moment just now, she had been prepared for the end of everything. Yet, this sudden pause did not make her feel fortunate; it only made the chill in her heart grow deeper.

The enemy was in no hurry at all.

They watched like predators observing prey starving in a cage, granting a final, fleeting moment to watch the prey struggle, huddle together, and cling to life, only to harvest them at their leisure.

Little Goku looked up, his clear eyes fixed on the gradually stabilizing pitch-black firmament. His tense, small body finally relaxed slightly, yet the vigilance in his eyes remained undiminished. He did not understand the games of the heavens or the partitioning of dimensions, but he knew clearly that the danger had not vanished; it had merely paused.

Lin Chen landed slowly, his feet pressing into the cracked earth, his heavy body finally finding a moment of respite. He closed his eyes, focusing his senses on the state of the entire world.

In just a brief moment of catastrophe, more than thirty percent of the Earth's primordial essence had been depleted; countless mountain ranges and spiritual veins had been extinguished, and the aura of massive amounts of life had dissipated entirely. If they endured a few more rounds of Chaos scouring, the universe's own Heavenly Dao would wither and collapse completely, even without the enemy lifting a finger.

At the same time, he clearly sensed that beyond the dimensional barrier, those seven ancient presences of the heavens remained quietly entrenched, motionless as silent, eternal mountains, coldly watching everything within the cage.

They were watching.

Watching how they struggled, watching what trump cards this universe still held, and watching the progress of the Chaos Race's purge.

"Three days."

Lin Chen opened his eyes, his ancient golden pupils remarkably clear, and spoke in a deep voice.

"This is our only chance, and the last chance for this universe."

Kallen landed on the ground and walked to Lin Chen's side, his expression solemn. "Injuries can be forcibly suppressed, and combat power can be briefly restored, but the four of us have all suffered damage to our foundations. We have less than thirty percent of our peak strength remaining. Even if we reorganize our state, we cannot stop the Chaos King's true form from crushing us."

This was the cruelest reality.

The Four-Force Heaven-Suppressing Seal was shattered, their foundations were severely damaged, and even with the four of them working together, they could not withstand a single projection attack from the Chaos King. Once the game restarted in three days, they would still be dead without a doubt.

Golden Super Saiyan pondered for a moment and spoke slowly: "Conventional combat power and direct confrontation of foundations are completely ineffective. Low-dimensional power cannot break a high-dimensional trap. If we want to turn the tables, the only hope lies in the foundational roots of this universe—the secret trump cards left behind from ancient times."

Throughout the eons of the universe's operation, for this world to have survived until now, enduring countless dimensional upheavals and cosmic shifts, it could not possibly be without a foundation.

The bloodline inheritance, broken secret arts, and ancient memories left to Lin Chen by his ancestors might be the only hope for a breakthrough in this desperate situation.

Everyone's gaze instantly converged on Lin Chen.

Frieza crossed his arms, his scarlet eyes scrutinizing the young Saiyan before him, and said coldly: "This King does not believe in destiny, nor in turning the tables in a desperate situation. But at this moment, you alone carry the ancient Saiyan foundation and bear the oldest inheritance of this universe. Whether there is a trump card or not, you tell us."

Now that the barriers were gone and grievances set aside, even the arrogant and domineering Galactic Emperor had to admit that Lin Chen was the only key to breaking the deadlock.

Lin Chen took a deep breath, suppressing the surging blood in his body, and rapidly sorted through the fragmented memories of the Ancestral Remnant Soul in his mind.

Ten thousand years of sealing, the calculations of Chaos, bloodline anchors, the barrier between two worlds... countless broken pieces of information connected and collided in his mind.

A moment later, a faint light ignited in the depths of his eyes.

"There is a trump card."

He looked up at the pitch-black sky, his tone incomparably firm.

"The ancestral inheritance records that this universe is not a natural low-dimensional wasteland. Eons ago, this world was a mid-to-upper-tier dimension among the heavens, possessing complete Heavenly Dao order, fundamental laws, and domain authority."

"Later, during the ancient war of the heavens, the dimensional foundation of this universe was shattered by the combined efforts of powerful foreign enemies, its domain authority was stripped away, and it was forcibly knocked down to a lower dimensional level, becoming the low-dimensional cage it is today. Our world is not naturally weak; it was artificially sealed and artificially downgraded!"

This secret shocked the three people present to their core.

Kallen's pupils constricted; as an inheritor of the ancient Saiyan race, he had never heard of this ancient secret history.

Golden Super Saiyan's body trembled, and within his eternal memories, some blurred ancient fragments were instantly awakened, confirming Lin Chen's words.

For the first time, a look of genuine astonishment appeared on Frieza's cold face.

He had traversed the galaxy, studying countless cosmic classics and civilization secrets, always believing that this universe was inherently a low-dimensional backwater. He never imagined it was an ancient, powerful realm that had been forcibly knocked down!

"The dimension was sealed, the authority was seized, and the foundation was locked, which is why our power is forever restricted and we can never touch high-dimensional rules."

Lin Chen's speech grew faster, the brilliance in his eyes surging.

"The Chaos Race can invade across borders, and the powerful of the heavens can peer across boundaries, because they control high-dimensional authority. But we, if we can restart the ancient domain seal of this universe and reclaim the lost dimensional authority, we can reverse the difference between high and low, and use the Heavenly Dao power of this realm to suppress all foreign invaders!"

This was the only path to survival, and the only way to turn the tables.

It was not about using human power to resist the Heavenly Dao, but about awakening the Heavenly Dao of their own world!

But no sooner had he finished speaking than a strange, icy, and ancient forbidden piece of information exploded deep within Lin Chen's mind.

A final secret, forcibly sealed by his ancestors and forbidden to be touched, was completely unlocked in this desperate moment.

Lin Chen's face instantly turned from firm to deathly pale.

He froze in place, his blood nearly freezing, and a chill far greater than what he felt facing the Chaos King permeated his limbs and bones.

The other three instantly sensed his abnormality.

"What is it?" Kallen asked urgently in a deep voice.

Lin Chen stared blankly at the deepest part of the dimensional barrier, at those seven silent shadows of the heavens, his lips trembling slightly. His voice was dry and hoarse, filled with unbelievable horror.

"I know... why this universe was knocked down in dimension and its authority sealed."

"The ancient war of the heavens that shattered our universe's dimension was not caused by foreign enemies at all."

"It was—our own universe. In ancient times, it betrayed the order of the heavens and attempted to devour the essence of the outer heavens, angering all races, only then being jointly attacked and cast into the dust, imprisoned for eternity!"

Before the words had even faded, the air in the entire world suddenly solidified.

And an even more terrifying forbidden image surged into Lin Chen's mind along with his ancient bloodline—

The masterminds who had joined forces eons ago to shatter this universe, strip away its dimensional authority, and set up the eternal cage were none other than the seven supreme beings of the outer heavens who were currently peering across the boundary, pretending to be mere observers!

The three days of respite they were granted were not a chance at life.

It was the seven supreme beings waiting for this universe to restart the ancient forbidden arts and activate the domain essence, so that through their hands, the remaining ancient hidden dangers of this universe could be completely eradicated!

This trap, spanning eons, had been laid the moment they were defeated in ancient times.

All of them, from beginning to end, were merely sacrificial pawns in an ancient endgame, used to tie up the loose ends!