The Chess Core Locked the Body, the Rebellious Heart Not Dead

The cold, void-like sound of the Dao echoed throughout the Heavens, lingering for a long time.

The entire restored and reborn world was once again shrouded in a chilling, deathly silence that far surpassed the collapse of the Heavenly Dao and the shattering of the chess game.

Previously, the unveiling of the dual-layered chess game, the reduction of the Eye of True Heaven to a puppet, and the transformation of the Myriad Chess Player into mere expendable material had already shattered the Dao hearts of all living beings in the Heavens, forcing them to recognize the cruel truth that all of eternity was but a scam. Yet, everyone had believed that the return of the two Ancestral Seals would be the endgame—the only hope for variables to overcome constants and for all beings to break free from their shackles.

No one had anticipated that the price for tearing apart the old chess game would be the birth of an even more terrifying ultimate game, and that Lin Chen, the Fate Defier in whom they had placed all their hopes, would be forcibly locked as the core of this brand-new game!

In the center of the void, Lin Chen stood stiffly, unable to move.

He could clearly perceive the peeling away of his divine soul; it was not a brutal plunder by external force, but an assimilation and traction originating from his very source, logical and inevitable. It was as if from the moment of his birth, from the very instant he awakened his heart of defying the Dao, invisible chess patterns had been carved deep into his soul, waiting only for the moment the two seals were perfected and the endgame restarted to be completely activated and locked.

The surging, skyrocketing power of the original source within his body no longer belonged to him.

The power of the two seals, which had originally transcended the Heavenly Dao and the chess game, now transformed into thousands of fine, hair-thin golden Dao chains, piercing through his limbs, bones, and the sea of his divine soul, tightly binding his fundamental origin.

Upon each chain flowed the ancient and vast patterns of the chess game, engraved with the order and rules of the eternal reincarnation.

These patterns had suppressed chaos and disorder, balanced the beings of the Heavenly Dao, and gathered the Dao fruits and origins of billions of reincarnations; they were the foundation of the chess game created by the hands of the Original Chess Player.

"So, this is the truth of the perfected variable."

An endless chill rose from the bottom of Lin Chen's heart, and a sense of powerlessness that seeped into his marrow swept through his entire body.

He finally understood every thread of the eternal layout.

The Original Chess Player had slumbered for eons, never personally intervening in the operation of the chess game, never annihilating the True Heaven or the players, and never depriving all beings of reincarnation—not out of disdain, but out of a deliberate effort to nurture the game.

The first layer, the Myriad Chess Reincarnation Game, polished the obsessions of all beings and precipitated the origin of the world; the second layer, the Heavenly Dao Order Game, balanced the turmoil of chaos and bore the backlash of eternity. The two layers of the chess game were nested within each other, pulling and consuming one another, allowing the entire Heavens and myriad worlds to be constantly tempered and purified through suffering and reincarnation.

And he, the only variable outside the game, was the Chess Core carefully nurtured by the Chess Player.

All his resistance against the Dao, all his battles to break the game, and all his persistence in his original heart were never him defying heaven and changing fate; rather, he had been following the predetermined trajectory of the Chess Player, tempering himself step by step to perfect the Chess Core!

He resisted the Heavenly Dao to break free from the old shackles, allowing the Chess Core to completely detach from the constraints of the dual-layered game and become pure and flawless; he fused the inner Ancestral Seal and echoed the outer one to complete the unification of variables, allowing the Chess Core to bear the foundation for the operation of the entire ultimate chess game.

The True Heaven's unwilling backlash, its desperate attempt to strike back at the Chess Player behind the scenes, appeared heroic and mad, but in reality, it was merely the final warm-up before the endgame. By exhausting its eternal origin to strike at the void, it had not only failed to shake the Chess Player in the slightest, but had instead helped the barrier of the two seals to completely perfect the walls of the chess game, clearing away the final obstacles before the restart of the third layer.

Eternal planning, every step calculated.

One link after another, without a single error, without a single exception.

All living beings were chess pieces, the True Heaven was a puppet, the players were expendable material, and he, Lin Chen, was the most special, the most central, and the most helpless ultimate Chess Core among all the pieces!

"Hahaha... ridiculous, truly ridiculous to the extreme!"

A low, self-deprecating laugh echoed in Lin Chen's heart, and surging emotions threatened to crush his ten-thousand-year-old Dao heart.

Since he first stepped onto the path of the Dao, he had established his heart on defying fate and his Dao on breaking the game.

While others followed the heavens and adhered to the rules, he insisted on going against the trend and tearing apart destiny.

He had braved the desperate realms of the Heavens, fought against ancient powerhouses, withstood the reckoning of the Heavenly Dao, and endured the loneliness of reincarnation. How many times had he been on the verge of death and annihilation, only to hold on by that unyielding heart that refused to bow?

He had thought he had broken free from all control, jumped out of all chess games, and grasped his own destiny.

In the end, all his stubbornness, all his resistance, and all his persistence were merely scenes written in someone else's script.

His most proud heart of defying the Dao was precisely the most perfect foundation for becoming the ultimate Chess Core!

Below the void, the silence remained.

Kallen, Frieza, and the Golden Super Saiyan stood frozen in place, their eyes hollow, their aura of power completely extinguished.

They had walked this path, following Lin Chen to break the game and defy fate, witnessing countless miracles. They had thought the endgame was near and freedom was at hand, only to suddenly face this subversive conclusion.

Having defeated the Heavenly Dao and torn apart the old game, what they ultimately welcomed was an even more terrifying chess game and an even more inescapable shackle.

If even Lin Chen, who had defied heaven and changed fate, had been reduced to a Chess Core, how could they, beings born in attachment to the chess game, speak of escaping destiny?

"So... from beginning to end, we were just supporting roles." The Golden Super Saiyan whispered, his voice hoarse and dry, filled with utter bewilderment. "The so-called counterattack of the Heavens, the so-called breaking of reincarnation, was nothing more than a farce staged by the Chess Player to temper the Chess Core."

In Frieza's cold eyes, the arrogance and ruthlessness faded for the first time, leaving only a deathly silence.

He had been bloodthirsty and warlike his whole life, fighting for power, breaking free from shackles, and deluding himself that he could transcend everything. But in the face of this eternal chess game, his ambition, his combat power, and his lifelong obsession were as insignificant as dust.

Beside them, the Seven Supremes were already ashen-faced, their Dao hearts completely shattered.

They had followed the Heavenly Dao for eons, comprehending its rules for eons, their lifelong pursuit being to comply with the Heavenly Dao and reach the peak. Previously, upon learning that the Heavenly Dao was also a chess piece, their faith had already collapsed. Now, witnessing Lin Chen reduced to a Chess Core and the third layer of the game restarting, they finally understood: within the Heavens, there is no freedom, no transcendence; all cultivation and all seeking are but illusions.

The Chaos King's massive chaotic body trembled violently, and endless torrents of chaos surged and roared, carrying the most primitive rage and unwillingness.

Chaos was the origin of the world's beginning, unordered and unrestrained, and should have transcended all order. Yet, even the birth of chaos, the turmoil of chaos, and the eternal conflict between chaos and the Heavenly Dao had been written into the rules of the chess game, becoming nutrients to nourish the game and temper the Chess Core.

Eternal chaos, eternal disorder—in the end, it could not escape the cage of the chess game defined by man.

Deep in the extraterritorial void, the Myriad Chess Player, its remaining origin on the verge of dissipation, had completely ceased its movements.

It had governed billions of chess games, toyed with eternal beings, and prided itself on transcending the Heavens and looking down upon all living things. It had exhausted all means to fight for control of the chess game, only to realize at the end that it did not even have the qualifications to step onto the endgame board; it was merely a discarded piece that could be thrown away at will when the old game came to an end.

At the peak of the void, the dim Eye of True Heaven trembled slightly.

The heavily damaged Dao body of the Heavenly Dao hung in mid-air, the endless cracked divine light slowly peeling away, its remaining origin aura weak to the extreme.

The True Heaven had now shed its eternal majesty; there was no more rage or madness, only bone-deep sorrow and clarity.

It had been unwilling to be a pawn for others for eons and had fought back in desperation, wanting to break free from the fate of a chess piece. But when its sword struck the barrier of the two seals, it finally recognized the cruelest truth.

For a chess piece to strike back at the Chess Player was, by the rules of the game, an absolutely impossible occurrence.

The barriers of the dual-layered chess game and the suppression of the dual Ancestral Seals locked away all paths of resistance for every piece at their very roots.

Its struggles, its fury, and its eternal unwillingness were utterly meaningless, serving only to exhaust itself and perfect the barriers of the game.

So... your true goal was never This Seat, nor the billions of chess games.

True Heaven's weakened will echoed through the void, heavy with endless despondency and regret.

It had governed the Heavenly Dao for eons, always mistakenly believing itself to be the balancer and controller of the game, spending its days calculating the lives of all beings and diluting destiny, all for the sake of its own transcendence. It never realized that the Chess Master's goal from the very beginning was to gestate Lin Chen as this ultimate Chess Core.

The old dual-layered chess game was merely a cradle to nurture the Chess Core.

It and the Myriad Chess Player were nothing more than whetstones used to hone the Chess Core's rebellious heart and perfect the rules of the game.

Once the Chess Core was complete, the old game would be of no further use; it would collapse as a matter of course, and the transition from old to new would be the natural order of things.

Deep within the void, an ancient, indifferent voice sounded softly once more, devoid of joy, anger, or ripples, as if stating an eternal, unchanging truth.

"The dual-layered chess game, nurturing the game for eons, refining the core for eons."

"The old game concludes, the Chess Core returns to its place, and the Third Layer Primordial Ultimate Game is thus formed."

As the words fell, the two Ancestral Seals that had been slowly drawing together in the void suddenly came to a halt.

One dark and one bright, one internal and one external, the dual-pole origins hung in the center of the Heavens, releasing a vast radiance that covered billions of dimensions.

Countless ancient, profound, and unfamiliar patterns of the Primordial Chess Game spread out from the depths of the void, flowing endlessly into Lin Chen's body and soul along the golden Dao chains that bound him.

Lin Chen could clearly feel his body being reshaped and his soul being set into a fixed form.

His power of the Anti-Dao, the origin of the Ancestral Seals, and the accumulations of his eternal cultivation were all being organized and smelted by the game's patterns, transformed into the core foundation supporting the operation of the Third Layer Ultimate Game.

From this moment on, he was no longer an independent living being; he was no longer a variable that transcended the game.

He was the game itself, and the game was his shackles.

All the rules, operations, cycles, and balances of the Third Layer Primordial Chess Game took his soul as their core and his origin as their vessel.

As long as the game did not perish, he would be locked away for eternity, forever unable to transcend.

This Seat will not accept this!!

The moment the patterns of the Primordial Chess Game completely enveloped the Heavens, a heaven-shaking roar erupted from the depths of Lin Chen's heart!

His Anti-Dao obsession, teetering on the brink of annihilation, burst forth with brilliant light once more amidst the depths of despair.

His body was locked, his soul was bound, and his origin was being smelted, yet the heart of rebellion carved into his very marrow had never yielded in the slightest!

The Chess Master had calculated through eons, seen through the secrets of heaven, and accurately predicted all his struggles and transformations, but he had missed one thing—

The essence of the Anti-Dao is, by nature, to defy all fixed numbers, defy all control, and defy all fate!

Even if he were reduced to a Chess Core, even if his soul were locked, and even if he were cast into the deepest abyss, his heart refused to submit, refused to accept his fate!

Hum—!

Pitch-black Anti-Dao Divine Light suddenly surged into the sky from Lin Chen's shattered origin.

Unlike the golden majesty of the Heavenly Dao or the vast, ancient simplicity of the Ancestral Seals, this was a Dao unique to Lin Chen—a unique Anti-Dao he had carved out step by step by defying the heavens, shattering games, and struggling through eons!

The moment the Anti-Dao Divine Light erupted, the golden chess chains binding his soul and body trembled violently, and the Primordial patterns on their surface began to crack.

The assimilation process, which had been proceeding as a matter of course, was abruptly interrupted!

"Hmm?"

From the depths of the void came a trace of faint surprise for the first time.

The Chess Master, who had been silent for eons and held all things in his grasp, seemed never to have imagined that a variable already reduced to an ultimate Chess Core—destined to carry the game for eternity—could still resist.

"A mere remnant of the Chess Core dares to defy the Primordial Heavenly Law?"

The indifferent voice of the Dao sounded again. This time, it was no longer a cold statement, but carried the detached pressure of one looking down upon an ant.

The moment the words landed, the Primordial Chess Game patterns covering the Heavens flared a hundred times brighter.

Thousands of golden Dao chains tightened instantly, and a terrifying force of balance crushed down, suppressing Lin Chen's erupting Anti-Dao Divine Light.

The chain patterns that had just cracked were rapidly repaired and grew even sturdier, while more massive game rules poured into Lin Chen's body, frantically grinding away his rebellious obsession.

A desperate, crushing force swept through his soul. Lin Chen's entire body shook violently, and a mouthful of scalding blood escaped his lips.

Fine cracks began to appear on his Dao body, his soul's sea of consciousness was turned upside down, and countless Anti-Dao convictions he had held for eons shattered inch by inch under the pressure of the Primordial Heavenly Law.

The gap was as vast as a chasm.

True Heaven was a top-tier piece in the dual-layered game and still could not defy the Chess Master in the slightest; as for him, he was merely an ultimate Chess Core that had just formed and was not yet stable—he had absolutely no power to contend with the origin of the Chess Master.

His resistance was as insignificant as a candle flame against the vast ocean, as an ant attempting to shake the firmament.

Yet, even so, there was not a shred of compromise in Lin Chen's tightly closed eyes.

He gritted his teeth, letting the power of the game crush his soul and letting his origin be continuously smelted, while the spark of the Anti-Dao in the depths of his heart burned stubbornly, refusing to be extinguished.

"You calculated through eons, you laid out every game in the world..."

Lin Chen's hoarse, low voice struggled to echo through the heavens, carrying a blood-stained stubbornness and defiance.

"You refined me into a Chess Core, trapped me as the heart of the game, and decreed my eternal fate..."

"But you will never be able to define my heart!"

"The chess game may lock my body, the Heavenly Dao may destroy my path, and the ages may bury my bones..."

"But my rebellious heart will never submit!!"

A roar shook the Heavens!

The remaining Anti-Dao Divine Light suddenly detonated by half, sacrificing its own origin and foundation to forcibly shatter the shackles of a chess chain!

A trace of pure, primal will, untouched by any chess game, suddenly broke free from the suppression of the Primordial Heavenly Law and quietly slipped into the deepest depths of Lin Chen's soul, hiding itself away.

At that very moment, the Chess-Playing Will in the depths of the void stirred slightly, and the Primordial Chess Game that covered the Heavens suffered its first tiny crack in all of eternity!

No one noticed that deep within the two Ancestral Seals hanging between heaven and earth, which were about to merge completely, a strand of extremely strange, dark aura—far beyond what the Chess Master had anticipated—was quietly awakening and spreading alongside Lin Chen's hidden heart...