The instant a faint, shadowy light seeped from the depths of the source within Lin Chen's chest, the entire silent world was plunged into a cataclysm unlike any the eternal chess game had ever seen.
The power of Myriad Chess, which had previously suppressed the Heavens, crushed Chaos, and sealed away all life, was a gray torrent that swept across dimensions and seemed invincible. Yet it suddenly faltered, as though it had encountered its natural enemy.
Then, in the very next moment, it began to retreat in every direction!
Above, countless gray threads of light filled the dimensional rifts, trembling wildly. Billions upon billions of strands of Chess Dao power recoiled uncontrollably, dimming and disintegrating. The gray curtain shrouding this world and cutting it off from all outside forces had been slowly descending with the weight of a mountain, ready to refine this final chess game completely. Now it churned violently, its surface splitting with countless fine cracks like an ancient mirror on the verge of shattering.
Rumble!
The world shook, and the winds and clouds reversed.
The air, which had been frozen in place, began to flow again. The silent Great Dao thundered back to life, and the laws of the Heavens and the source of Chaos, forcibly sealed by the might of Myriad Chess Convergence, broke free of their restraints and surged wildly through the world.
The sight overturned everything all beings had ever believed.
At the center of the formation, Lin Chen's cracked body stopped breaking apart. His golden source, on the verge of running dry, abruptly steadied, while a strand of deep, ancient light protected the barrier of his soul, which had been about to collapse.
The instant the billions of gray Chess Dao chains wrapped around his limbs and soul-sea touched that strand of light, they let out a piercing hiss. The unbreakable chains of runes that had crushed countless Fate Defiers throughout the ages melted away, layer by layer, like snow beneath a blazing fire.
The Out-of-Domain will that had seeped into his soul-sea, constantly tempting him and eroding his heart, fared even worse. Under the cleansing sweep of that light, it was utterly routed, leaving not even a trace behind.
The pain faded. The silence lifted.
A power far weightier than the laws of the Supreme of the Heavens, vaster than the source of Chaos, transcending the black-and-white chess game and towering above the eternal cycle of reincarnation, took root in the deepest part of his source and began to flow slowly.
Lin Chen raised his eyes slightly. His unfocused pupils sharpened, and the brilliant golden light in his eyes, on the verge of going out, surged into the heavens once more.
He looked down at his chest. The Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal, dormant for countless ages, now flowed with a dim, shadowy light. It was neither dazzling nor violent, yet it carried an unchanging calm and majesty, as if it had existed before the world was formed and the game began.
The whisper that had crossed the ages still lingered deep in his soul-sea, perfectly clear.
The game steals the Dao; False Heaven reincarnates.
At last, someone had returned beyond the cage, bearing the Ancestral Seal.
Sixteen short characters had laid bare the truth of the ages.
Lin Chen's heart stirred. At last, every mystery that had confounded him for so long fell into place.
He finally understood why his Anti-Dao Heart could transcend the laws of the Heavens, resist the disorder of Chaos, and repeatedly break free from the lock of Myriad Chess Reincarnation.
His defiance of fate had never been a passing obsession, nor the futile resistance of an ordinary life.
The Ancestral Seal within him came from beyond the game.
This eternal game, stretching across countless dimensions and using myriad universes as sustenance and all living beings as its pieces, seemed to transcend the Heavens and Chaos and command the final cycle of reincarnation. But at its heart, it was False Heaven, born from theft of the Dao.
False Heaven created the game; the game trapped all living beings. The eternal cycle of reincarnation was nothing but an absurd prison play, a delusion meant to deceive itself!
The Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal in his chest was the one flaw in that cage—the sole root capable of piercing the Pseudo-Heaven Chess Game and breaking the eternal destiny!
"So that's how it is... So that's how it is."
Lin Chen murmured under his breath. The blood at the corner of his mouth slowly stopped, and the Ancestral Seal's faint light nourished his shattered flesh, rapidly restoring it.
All his struggles, all his perseverance, all the resolve that had kept him defiant even in the face of death had never been in vain.
It was because, life after life and age after age, he had defied fate, refused to yield, upheld the Great Dao of all living beings, and rejected the game's predetermined outcome that he had gradually awakened the Ancestral Seal slumbering within his source.
The Ancestral Seal had not granted him power. It was his heart that had proved worthy of this one and only means of breaking free from the cage!
Above, the silent gray will erupted into fury.
Since the formation of countless chess games and the Out-of-Domain Chess Player's seizure of control over reincarnation, it had never suffered such humiliation.
Across the ages, countless universes had fallen and countless epochs had ended. Countless prodigies and Supremes had tried to defy fate, only to have their hearts crushed by the power of Myriad Chess and become sustenance for the game. Even the Chaos Progenitor at his prime and the Supreme of the Heavens who had ushered in an epoch could only bow their heads within this Pseudo-Heaven Chess Game and become invisible chess slaves.
Yet today, a mere being born in the final world of a chess game had used an awakened Ancestral Seal to counter the Chess Dao and repel the supreme might of Myriad Chess Convergence!
"Absurd!!"
A furious, icy roar exploded across the dimensional void. This was no longer the indifferent gaze from before, but a rage wrapped in a vast killing intent.
Across the boundless Out-of-Domain void, countless suspended Black and White Jade Discs trembled wildly, ringing out with a piercing clang. Urged on by the Chess Player's source will, the Chess Dao power that had been retreating and holding back surged together once more, raging out of control.
This time, there would be no gentle subjugation and no ordinary crushing force. It was a strike meant to annihilate everything, drawing on every last resource accumulated by the eternal chess game!
"A mere fragment of an Ancestral Seal, long since extinguished, dares to strut around in my game?"
"You think the dying embers of a broken cage can overturn my eternal design?"
The Out-of-Domain Chess Player's will, carrying an endless killing intent, pierced the dimensional barriers and crashed down.
The gray curtain that had been breaking apart swelled ten thousand zhang in an instant, its murky light covering the boundless sky. The force bearing down on the world, several times stronger than before, descended once more. Countless shattered Chess Dao runes reassembled into billions upon billions of black chess blades, hanging densely above the Nine Heavens. Each blade carried the power to destroy a universe.
The force of Myriad Chess pressing down on the world took shape once more, more terrifying and more hopeless than before!
Every living being in the world was once again pinned beneath that suffocating pressure.
In the distance, Kallen, Frieza, and the Golden Super Saiyan tensed all over, their pupils contracting as the hope that had just risen in their hearts teetered on the edge of a cliff.
They had witnessed the Ancestral Seal's faint light repel the power of Myriad Chess and thought the hopeless situation had been turned around. But the Out-of-Domain Chess Player's counterattack, backed by its entire source, was far more terrifying than anyone had imagined.
"So this is... the true foundation of the eternal chess game?" Kallen's voice trembled. Purple battle energy shielded him as his body quivered faintly.
That brief reversal had seemed no more than a fleeting illusion.
The Golden Super Saiyan stared at the figure at the center of the formation, his fists clenched and his eyes grave. "The Out-of-Domain Chess Player is truly out for blood. It's using everything accumulated over the ages to finish the game. This strike could wipe out an entire dimension... Can Lin Chen withstand it?"
Beyond the Nine Heavens, the Seven Supremes' bodies tensed to the limit within their divine light. Their lofty eyes held not only fear but also a fervent glimmer of hope.
They had roamed the ages, ignorant for half their lives. Only today had they learned that the order of the Heavens they had fought to uphold and commanded for generations was merely part of a Pseudo-Heaven Chess Game.
If Lin Chen could truly use the Ancestral Seal to break the game, the chains of destiny that had bound the Heavens for all eternity would be shattered for good!
If he failed, the world would be destroyed, the Heavens would collapse, Chaos would perish, and all things would return to the cycle of the Chess Dao.
"Stake the fortune of the Heavens across the ages on this one chance to break free from the cage!" one Supreme cried. Divine light surged without end as he prepared to give everything to provide support.
Beside him, the Chaos King's enormous black body heaved violently, and apocalyptic torrents of Chaos churned around him.
As a source of Chaos, born to be formless and beyond order, he sensed the Ancestral Seal's terror more clearly than anyone.
That faint, shadowy light did more than counter the Chess Dao. It stood above the Heavens and Chaos, a true force of primordial origin.
Yet he could also sense the Out-of-Domain Chess Player's resolve.
The eternal chess game had accumulated too much power. A final strike built from countless ages and the sustenance of innumerable universes was no force a newly awakened remnant of an Ancestral Seal could easily withstand.
The outcome was still uncertain.
"Like an insect trying to stop a chariot! Even with the Ancestral Seal at your side, you still can't change what's fated!"
The Out-of-Domain Chess Player's cold shout rang through the world. Billions of black chess blades, wrapped in the force to destroy everything and bearing the crushing momentum of the ages, slashed down toward the center of the formation!
Gray light blotted out the sky. The blades threatened to destroy the world. The entire realm was engulfed in an aura of destruction.
Everyone thought that, in the next instant, Lin Chen would be torn apart, his source crushed and his Ancestral Seal destroyed, leaving him to perish in this final game of the ages.
Yet at the center of the formation, Lin Chen stood tall, untouched by fear as the world-ending might of the chess blades bore down on him.
After his soul and heart had been tempered to their utmost limits and his Ancestral Seal had awakened, he had undergone a complete transformation. His Dao heart had reached a clarity it had never known before.
He had seen through the nature of the Pseudo-Heaven Chess Game. The momentum of the Chess Dao could no longer sway his heart.
Lin Chen slowly raised his eyes. The faint light of the Ancestral Seal in his chest burst forth, no longer concealed or dormant. Its deep, ancient radiance shot into the sky and became a shadowy pillar of light connecting heaven and earth.
Every trace of gray Chess Dao power vanished where the pillar passed. Every black-and-white chess blade descending upon him shattered, piece by piece!
"You steal the life force of heaven and earth, create a cycle of reincarnation under False Heaven, trap all living beings in a game, and bind the ages in a cage."
"All living beings across the ages are your pieces, your sustenance, your slaves. You think that locking away time and controlling reincarnation makes you the supreme Great Dao?"
"The fate you claim is set by Myriad Chess is nothing but an absurd farce before my Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal."
As his words fell, Lin Chen raised a hand and pushed his palm forward.
There were no world-shaking visions or earth-shattering roars—only an ordinary, unremarkable palm strike, carrying the purest Cage-Breaking Power of the Ancestral Seal.
Hiss—!
The unseen, invisible force of his palm pierced the void and struck the gray curtain of Myriad Chess that shrouded the world.
In the very next instant, the barrier of the game—unbreakable for countless years, and able to withstand the combined might of the Heavens and Chaos—split open with a deafening crash. A gigantic crack stretched across the boundless sky!
Where the crack spread, the gray laws ceased to function and the eternal Chess Dao collapsed. The Out-of-Domain Chess Player's final-game force, backed by its entire source, was torn apart by that seemingly simple palm strike!
Crack, crack, crack—
The gray curtain overhead continued to fracture and peel away. The billions of Black and White Jade Discs trembled ever more violently, while muffled rumbles from the Out-of-Domain void echoed from the Chess Player's source, as if its Great Dao had been damaged and its foundations cracked!
"Impossible!!"
For the first time, the Out-of-Domain Chess Player's voice carried genuine shock and disbelief.
It had commanded the game for eons and witnessed the vicissitudes of time, yet it had never imagined that any force could directly injure the source of its chess game and shake the foundations of its Chess Dao!
"The Ancestral Seal... it really is the power to break the cage... Who exactly are you?!"
The Chess Player's voice was filled with utter shock and doubt. The power of the countless chess games rapidly withdrew, no longer attacking but instead moving to defend, as though it feared the Ancestral Seal's power now fully unleashed within Lin Chen.
The gray light faded across the world, and the oppressive force of despair that had weighed on every living being vanished completely.
Kallen, Frieza, and the Golden Super Saiyan stared in stunned silence. The power tensing their bodies abruptly relaxed as an overwhelming shock swept through them.
One man, one palm, and Myriad Chess was broken!
It was a heaven-defying power that overturned every belief held across the ages!
Beyond the Nine Heavens, the Seven Supremes trembled, their eyes filled with joy and awe.
The overwhelming momentum of the chess game that had persisted for eons had truly been broken!
The Chaos King gazed at the shadowy pillar of light connecting heaven and earth. His enormous body bent slightly, as the suppression of a more primordial source filled him with an overwhelming urge to submit.
The game was False Heaven; the Ancestral Seal was the true source.
When truth confronted falsehood, the true source was bound to overpower False Heaven. It was the inevitable law of heaven!
Lin Chen stood at the heart of the world, surrounded by the Ancestral Seal's faint light. His golden Anti-Dao source merged with its shadowy power, and in that moment his soul, Dao heart, and source completed their ultimate transformation.
He could clearly sense that the Chess Player beyond the dimensions had grown afraid, and that the reincarnation system of the eternal chess game had suffered irreversible damage.
If he kept channeling the Ancestral Seal's power, he could break through the dimensional barriers, storm into the source of the Out-of-Domain chess game, and shatter this eternal Pseudo-Heaven Reincarnation for good!
But just as he prepared to press his advantage and break the game once and for all, that ancient, vast whisper, beyond the reach of all time, softly rang out in the depths of his soul-sea once more.
This time, it was no simple declaration. It carried a detached warning that seemed to look down upon the ages.
"The Pseudo-Heaven Chess Game is but a cage of trapped insects. Even the Chess Player is a puppet."
"Breaking free from the cage is not the end. The true Heaven has already awakened beyond the void of myriad worlds..."
Hum!
Before the voice had finished, the entire boundless void abruptly sank into darkness.
The gray aura that had just faded vanished completely, replaced by an endless, deathly blackness.
This darkness belonged neither to the Heavens nor to Chaos, and not even to the eternal chess game.
In its deepest reaches, a pair of supreme eyes, cold and indifferent as they gazed across countless ages, slowly opened.
It was the true Heaven—far beyond the Out-of-Domain Chess Player, towering above all laws of the Dao!
As the false heaven of the eternal chess game fell, the true Heavenly Dao beyond the cage had finally appeared!
The faint light of the Ancestral Seal flowing around Lin Chen's body trembled slightly for the first time as those eyes opened.
Before you continue