A sinister, chilling whisper clung like a bone-deep parasite to the depths of Lin Chen's spiritual sea, impossible to shake off.
It was only a short sentence. It carried no overwhelming might or bloodthirsty intent, yet the blood in Lin Chen's body nearly froze, and his heart sank.
The layers of the ancient chess game had been peeled back one by one: first came the calculations and sacrifices of the ancient sages, then the harvesting and control of the Supreme of the Heavens, followed by the Chaos Clan's secret encroachment. Everyone had thought this was the furthest the game could go, but only now did Lin Chen realize with a start that this drama, spanning countless eras, concealed an even deeper player.
The sinister divine sense hidden in the deepest reaches of the Balance Jade Disk's origin had lain dormant for countless ages, concealing itself behind the resentment of all living beings and quietly growing stronger amid the chaos of heaven and earth. From beginning to end, it had coldly watched the various factions fight and wear one another down.
It took no part in the Heavens Judgment, made no bid for the chaos origin, and did not give voice to the grief and fury of all living beings. It simply remained at the heart of the game, watching every piece grind against the others as it waited for the perfect moment to act.
"Who are you, exactly?"
Lin Chen suppressed the shock roiling in the depths of his spiritual sea and asked in a low voice through his thoughts. At that moment, his spirit was closely connected to the Black and White Jade Disc, meaning he was facing the mysterious presence hidden in the shadows directly. Not a single flicker of emotion could escape its notice.
The blood-red resentment surging wildly around him seemed to pause all at once. The wind across heaven and earth, the roars of colliding energies, even the shouts from the distant battle, all turned faint and far away in that instant. It was as if an invisible force had isolated this entire space, leaving only him and that unknown divine sense facing each other from afar.
After a brief silence, the indifferent, lifeless voice sounded again. It remained elusive and ethereal, its source impossible to pinpoint, as if it came from the end of time—or from within his very soul.
"There's no need to seek my name. You need only know that I have been here since the day the game of this world began."
Its tone was calm, devoid of joy or anger, yet filled with the detachment of one who had watched countless cycles of time. "The ancients sought to use all living beings as kindling to defy heaven and change their fate. The Supreme of the Heavens sat back and reaped the rewards, commanding the rise and fall of all. The Chaos Clan waited for its chance to devour everything, while all living beings struggled blindly, reduced to cannon fodder... Every one of you is a piece dancing in my eyes."
Those words shattered everything Lin Chen had believed.
So the presence had known of the ancient sages' plans from the very beginning, and even the thousand-year standoff between the Heavens and Chaos had been under its control. The so-called plan to turn the tables, the struggle between races, the defiance of fate—all of it was nothing but a farce to be manipulated in the eyes of this hidden presence.
Lin Chen furrowed his brow as ancient golden bloodline power raced through his body, shoring up his crumbling spiritual defenses. He knew his situation was perilous in the extreme. Outside, the true forms of the Seven Supremes bore down on him, while the Chaos King watched like a tiger ready to pounce. Within, the resentment had spiraled out of control. Now a mysterious foe hidden for countless ages had appeared as well. Surrounded on all sides, he had truly fallen into a desperate plight.
"You've watched in cold silence for countless ages, letting living beings suffer and the game fall apart. What are you after?"
"My purpose?" The mysterious voice gave a soft laugh, its amusement utterly devoid of warmth. "When heaven and earth are orderly, life is shackled. Only when they fall into chaos can the origin be remade. The Heavens cling to old rules, Chaos is obsessed with devouring, and all living beings are trapped by fate. Only by tearing this rotten, ruined game to pieces can anything be reshuffled."
As the words fell, the chilling force clinging to the jade disk's origin suddenly surged.
The Balance Dao Rules, already on the verge of collapse, were devoured at an alarming rate. The blood-red markings spread far faster, and the fury of all living beings that Lin Chen had calmed surged wildly out of control once more. Countless agonized howls rang across heaven and earth as a torrent of resentment crashed in every direction. The situation, which he had barely managed to stabilize, collapsed again in an instant.
Lin Chen felt a violent throbbing in his head. Countless conflicting obsessions—grief, rage, and an unfamiliar, chilling malice—crashed against his spiritual defenses. A thin trail of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He clenched his teeth and forced himself to steady his mind, refusing to yield.
If the jade disk fell completely, there would be no hope of saving this universe.
High above, the battle had deteriorated to its worst.
The Seven Supremes pressed down their enormous hands in unison, carrying an unrivaled force that could pass judgment on all things. They drew closer and closer to the ground. Space collapsed in layers wherever they passed, the flow of time twisted into disorder, and the mountains still standing crumbled into dust. The shattered ley lines erupted with raging energy as all of heaven and earth trembled violently, as if it would split apart at any moment.
Riding the momentum of the true forms' descent, the Seven-Colored Supreme Avatar's power surged once more. Divine radiance blazed across the heavens, relentlessly suppressing Kallen as he fought with all his might.
The Saiyan youth's clothes had long since been torn to shreds by the raging currents. Wounds of varying depths covered his body, and the light of his purple battle aura had dimmed. Each punch came with a heavy burden. After one punishing clash after another, both his body and his origin had been severely depleted, but the fighting spirit in his eyes had not dimmed in the slightest.
"You'll never flatten our world!"
With a furious shout, Kallen unleashed every bit of strength left in his body. The potential buried deep in his Saiyan bloodline was forced out by his desperate situation, and a purple glow around him flared sharply, holding back the oncoming seven-colored divine radiance.
But the difference in their strength was like the gap between heaven and earth. No matter how desperately he resisted, the immense divine power kept forcing him backward. With each step he lost, he became less able to block the Supreme Avatar's advance.
Elsewhere, Frieza was locked in an equally perilous battle against the Chaos King at full strength.
Black chaotic mist blotted out the sky, and countless sinister tentacles crisscrossed the air. Each lash tore through the void and corroded all energy. Frieza's white imperial blades struck again and again, while his power of ice froze the surrounding mist, but he could not stop the endless encroachment of Chaos.
Even his usually haughty face had grown solemn. The layers of protective energy around him were thinning, and he was finding it harder and harder to counter Chaos's endless attacks. After the Chaos King had unsealed his full origin, his destructive power far surpassed expectations. The darkness was everywhere, eating away at the foundation of Frieza's power at every moment.
"With nothing but the power of a broken shell, you dare try to stop me?" The Chaos King's hoarse roar rang through the void. The shadow swelled and spread without end, as if it meant to swallow the entire world in one bite.
The Golden Super Saiyan guarded the central region. The golden Origin Barrier was already covered in dense cracks, its light flickering as though it might shatter at any moment. He desperately held together the broken foundation of heaven and earth, continually burning through his own origin to mend the cracks. After enduring the impact of the resentment and the shock waves from the two top factions, his origin had been severely depleted, and his face grew paler by the moment.
The three of them fought with all their strength to hold the four defensive lines, yet they still could not stop the desperate situation from closing in. The defenses were already on the verge of collapse.
If the barrier fell, the Seven Supremes' power of judgment and the torrent of Chaos World-Ending would pour down unhindered. Then not only would Lin Chen face mortal danger, but every living being remaining in this world would be reduced to ash in an instant.
At the formation's core below, Lin Chen had to resist the hidden presence's secret erosion while struggling to guide the out-of-control resentment of countless ages. The twin burdens had left him utterly exhausted in body and spirit.
He could clearly sense that the unfamiliar divine presence was not only devouring the jade disk's origin, but also secretly twisting the obsessions of all living beings. Originally, they had only wanted to escape their fate as pieces and find peace and freedom. But after being tainted by the chilling force, many of their obsessions had gradually turned to thoughts of frenzied destruction. All they wanted now was to drag the entire world down with them.
This change was undoubtedly exactly what the hidden presence wanted.
It was using the resentment accumulated over countless ages as nourishment, twisting the hearts of all living beings and hastening the collapse of heaven and earth to achieve its own hidden aim.
"You think you can control the obsessions of all living beings and toy with the fate of countless ages, and do as you please?" Lin Chen said in a low voice. Instead of gently soothing the resentment, he focused his spiritual power into a sharp edge, trying to strike the sinister divine sense lurking within.
The Balance Jade Disk had formed from the origin of heaven and earth and carried the great Dao of yin-yang balance. Though blood-red resentment now enveloped it, its foundational origin remained firm. With this authority over its origin in his hands, and the complete memories of the ancient era passed down to him, Lin Chen was not without means to fight back.
Golden spiritual light blazed as he surged along the jade disk's veins toward the depths of its origin.
But the mysterious divine sense was exceptionally cunning. The instant it sensed his attack, it retreated into a blind spot in the origin, dodging like a slick shadow. At the same time, it continued to urge the chilling force to corrode the Dao Rules, never meeting Lin Chen head-on.
"Your struggle is futile." The mysterious voice carried faint mockery. "The Supreme have pronounced your death from without, Chaos is watching from within, and the resentment of all living beings seeks only to destroy the world. Alone, how much of this situation can you turn around? The ancient ancestors couldn't escape the game, and the Heavens couldn't break free of the cycle. What makes you, a mere descendant of this age, think you can shatter the fate set over countless ages?"
Its words were like cold blades, cutting straight to the heart of every present hardship.
Enemies surrounded him on all sides. He had no help and no support. Every path forward was lined with mortal danger, and the hope of turning things around was vanishingly small.
Lin Chen steadied his turbulent thoughts, refusing to let the other's words cloud his mind.
The ancients had been limited in their choices, the Heavens had weaknesses in their rule, and Chaos had flaws in its desires. No matter how perilous the situation was, that did not mean destruction was inevitable. If he surrendered so easily, the suffering of countless living beings would have been for nothing, and every struggle against fate would become a joke.
"Fate has never been set in stone." Determination filled Lin Chen's gaze, and an unyielding fire burned in his eyes. "We'll make amends for the mistakes of those who came before. We'll win back the freedom all living beings have lost. No matter how long you've hidden or how deep your schemes run, you won't be able to control everything as you please."
He stopped obsessing over forcibly expelling the sinister divine sense. The most urgent task was to stabilize the Balance Jade Disk, which had completely spiraled out of control, and suppress the raging blood-red resentment. As long as the core of its origin remained intact, he would have a chance to strike back.
With a thought, Lin Chen drew on the universe's origin that had been passed down to him, merging it completely with the remnants of yin-yang Dao resonance within the jade disk. Layer upon layer of gentle yet resilient golden power spread out. Rather than trying to dispel the violent emotions, he used the power of the great Dao of balance to forcibly restrain the torrents of resentment rushing in every direction.
The raging blood-red waves crashed against their golden bonds again and again, stirring up earth-shaking turbulence. The land trembled violently with each impact, and cracks spread across its surface, branching in every direction.
As Lin Chen fought with all his might to stabilize the situation within, the Seven Supremes above had already lost patience.
Seven enormous hands, each spanning a starry river, pressed down faster in unison. The Judgment Divine Light gathered to its peak, its blinding radiance blanketing heaven and earth. Its crushing pressure left every living being struggling to breathe.
"Resistance is futile. Today, it ends."
A majestic divine voice thundered down. The power of the Seven Supremes merged into a pillar of destruction that spanned heaven and earth, crashing toward the shattered land below.
At the same moment, the Chaos King seized the opportunity. An endless torrent of darkness gathered into a pitch-black giant axe, wrapped in the murderous force of devouring all things, and came cleaving down right behind the pillar of light.
One was the judgment of the Heavens, the other the world-ending might of Chaos. Two sure-kill attacks, each powerful enough to destroy a universe, converged on the formation's core.
The three people guarding the four sides blanched in unison.
"No!"
Kallen's pupils contracted sharply. Ignoring his injuries, he unleashed every last bit of strength and condensed his purple battle aura into a massive shield, rushing forward to block the attack.
Frieza's Emperor Energy surged rapidly as the icy chill gathered around him, building layer upon layer of defensive walls.
The Golden Super Saiyan clenched his teeth and burned through his own origin, forcibly widening the damaged golden barrier once more.
All three defenses held firm at full strength, but under the combined assault of the two ultimate powers, the barrier shook violently. Cracks spread at a visible, frantic pace.
BOOM—
A thunderous explosion shook the cosmos as light collided violently with darkness, and a raging shock wave of energy swept in every direction.
The three defenses shattered one after another. Kallen, Frieza, and the Golden Super Saiyan were all hurled away by the terrifying force, crashing heavily onto the ruined ground. Blood poured from their mouths, their auras weakened drastically, and they had lost the strength to fight.
The defenses had completely collapsed. With nothing left to stop it, the deadly attack hurtled straight toward Lin Chen and the jade disk at the center.
Lin Chen looked up at the destruction bearing down on him, knowing there was nowhere left to run.
He took a deep breath and gathered all his spiritual power, bloodline origin, and the jade disk's power of balance into himself, preparing to face a blow capable of destroying everything.
Just as the force of destruction was about to touch him, the sinister divine sense deep within the origin suddenly stopped hiding and unleashed a strange, unfathomable gray power.
This power belonged neither to the order of the Heavens nor to the darkness of Chaos, and it had nothing to do with the resentment of all living beings. It seemed to exist between reality and illusion, its nature impossible to fathom.
The gray power instantly enveloped the Black and White Jade Disc, while an inexplicable force of attraction suddenly seized Lin Chen's spirit.
The whisper sounded once more, carrying a hint of absolute certainty:
"The game is reaching its end. It's time to claim the piece that belongs to me..."
Lin Chen felt his spirit being wrenched violently. He could not move, the destruction from outside was nearly upon him, and the sinister power within him was poised to strike. At last, the presence hidden behind everything for countless ages had revealed its true aim.
At the brink of life and death, countless ancient, sinister runes Lin Chen had never seen before slowly surfaced within the blood-red markings on the jade disk. The trajectory of fate across all heaven and earth veered completely from its original course, plunging into an unknown abyss that no one could predict.
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