The Chess Core Locks His Body, but His Defiant Heart Still Lives

The cold, ethereal Daoic voice echoed through the Heavens, lingering long after it had faded.

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

The revelation of the Double-Layer Chess Game had exposed True Heaven as a puppet and the Myriad Chess Players as expendable pawns. It had already shattered the Dao hearts of all living beings across the Heavens, forcing them to face the cruel truth that the whole of eternity had been a deception. Yet everyone had believed that the Dual Seals returning to their rightful places would mark the end—that variables would overcome destiny, and all living beings would finally break free of their shackles.

No one had ever imagined that tearing apart the old chess game would bring forth an even more terrifying ultimate game, or that Lin Chen, the Fate Defier in whom they had placed all their hopes, would be forcibly locked in as the core of an entirely new game!

At the center of the void, Lin Chen stood frozen, unable to move.

He could clearly feel his soul being stripped away. It wasn't a crude plunder, torn from him by some outside force, but an assimilation that flowed naturally from his very origin. It was as though, from the moment of his birth—or from the instant he awakened his Anti-Dao Heart—invisible chess patterns had been carved into the depths of his soul, waiting for the Dual Seals to be made whole and the ultimate game to restart before they activated and locked him in place.

The surging, ever-growing power of his primordial origin no longer belonged to him.

The power of the Dual Seals, once beyond the Heavenly Dao and the chess game, had now become countless fine golden chains, thin as hair. They pierced his limbs and bones, his sea of consciousness and soul, and wound tightly around the very foundation of his being.

Ancient, vast patterns of the game flowed along every chain, engraved with the rules of order that governed countless cycles of reincarnation.

These patterns had suppressed Chaos and disorder, kept the Heavenly Dao and all living beings in check, and gathered the fruits of the Dao and the power of countless cycles of reincarnation. They were the very foundation of the chess game, forged by the Original Chess Player himself.

"So this is the truth behind a perfected variable."

A profound chill welled up inside Lin Chen, and a helplessness that pierced his very bones swept through him.

At last, he fully understood every thread of the plan laid down across eternity.

The Original Chess Player had slept through the ages, never intervening directly in the game, never destroying True Heaven or the Chess Masters, and never robbing all living beings of their cycles of reincarnation. It wasn't because he considered them beneath his notice. He had been deliberately nurturing the game.

The first layer, the Myriad Chess Reincarnation Game, had worn away the obsessions of all living beings and accumulated the world's origin power. The second layer, the Heavenly Dao Order Game, had kept the chaos and turmoil in check and borne the backlash of the ages. Layer upon layer, the two games had intertwined, pulling against and consuming one another, continually tempering and refining the entire myriad worlds through suffering and reincarnation.

And he, the one and only variable from outside the game, was the Chess Core the Chess Master had carefully nurtured.

Every struggle against the Dao, every battle to break the game, every time he had held fast to his true heart—not once had he truly defied Heaven and changed his fate. He had merely followed the Chess Master's predetermined path, tempering himself step by step until the Chess Core was perfected!

He had resisted the Heavenly Dao to escape the old shackles and free the Chess Core entirely from the constraints of the Double-Layer Chess Game, making it pure and flawless. He had fused with the Cage-Inside Ancestral Seal and answered the call of the Cage-Outside Ancestral Seal to complete the convergence of the variable and make the Chess Core the foundation that would sustain the entire ultimate game.

True Heaven, unwilling to accept the backlash, had risked everything to attack the Chess Master behind the scenes. It had seemed a glorious, desperate act, but in truth, it had merely served as the final prelude to the endgame. After exhausting its origin power through the ages to strike at the void, it had not so much as shaken the Chess Master. Instead, it had helped the Dual Seals' Origin Barrier complete the game's defenses, clearing the last obstacle before the third layer could begin anew.

A plan laid across the ages, with every step carefully arranged.

Every link had connected to the next. Not a single step had gone wrong. Not a single person had been spared.

All living beings were pawns, True Heaven was a puppet, and the Chess Masters were expendable. And Lin Chen was the most extraordinary, most central, and most helpless Chess Core of them all!

"Hahaha... How ridiculous. Truly, utterly ridiculous!"

A low, self-mocking laugh echoed inside Lin Chen. His emotions surged like a storm, threatening to shatter his Dao heart, forged over ten thousand years.

Ever since he had embarked upon the Dao, he had made defying fate the foundation of his heart and breaking the game the foundation of his path.

Others had followed Heaven's will and played by the rules. He had chosen to fight against the tide and tear fate to shreds.

He had braved the deadliest trials across the Heavens, fought ancient powerhouses, endured the Heavenly Dao's reckoning, and borne the loneliness of reincarnation. Countless times, when he had been on the brink of death and his Dao's destruction, he had endured through sheer defiance, refusing to bow his head.

He had believed that he'd escaped every form of control, leaped beyond every chess game, and grasped the fate that was rightfully his.

In the end, every act of stubbornness, every struggle, every moment of perseverance had been nothing but a part written for him in someone else's script.

The Anti-Dao Heart he had taken the greatest pride in was precisely the perfect foundation for becoming the ultimate Chess Core!

Beneath the void, the silence remained.

Kallen, Frieza, and the Golden Super Saiyan stood motionless, their eyes vacant, the power in their bodies utterly still.

They had followed Lin Chen through every battle to break the game and defy fate, bearing witness to countless miracles. They had thought the end was near and freedom within reach, only to be met with an outcome that turned everything upside down.

They had defeated the Heavenly Dao and torn apart the old game. Yet what awaited them was a more terrifying game, a more inescapable prison.

If even Lin Chen, who had defied Heaven and changed his fate, had become the Chess Core, how could they—beings born to serve the game—ever hope to escape their destiny?

"So... from beginning to end, we were only ever supporting players." The Golden Super Saiyan murmured, his voice hoarse and dry, filled with utter bewilderment. "This so-called rebellion of the Heavens, this so-called breaking free of reincarnation—it was nothing but a farce staged by the Chess Master to temper the Chess Core."

The icy arrogance and ferocity faded from Frieza's eyes for the first time, leaving only a dead, empty silence.

All his life, he had reveled in slaughter and battle, fought for power, and sought to break free of every restraint so he could rise above all others. Yet before this game spanning eternity, his ambitions, his power, and every obsession of his life were as insignificant as specks of dust.

Nearby, the Seven Supremes had long since turned ashen, their Dao hearts utterly shattered.

They had followed the Heavenly Dao through the ages and studied its rules, devoting their lives to following Heaven's will and reaching the summit. Learning that even the Heavenly Dao was a pawn had already shattered their faith. Now, having witnessed Lin Chen become the Chess Core and the third game begin anew, they finally understood: within the Heavens, there was no freedom and no transcendence. Every path of cultivation, every pursuit, was an illusion.

The Chaos King's colossal body of Chaos shuddered violently. Boundless torrents of Chaos roared and surged, filled with the most primal rage and unwillingness.

Chaos was the origin from which Heaven and Earth had first emerged—without order, without rules, unbound and unconstrained. Yet even the birth of Chaos, its upheavals, and its age-old conflict with the Heavenly Dao had all been written into the rules of the game, becoming nourishment that sustained the game and tempered the Chess Core.

Eternal Chaos, eternal disorder—it had still failed to escape the cage of a game devised by another.

Deep in the Outer Realm's void, the Myriad Chess Player, its remaining origin power on the verge of collapse, fell completely silent.

He had commanded countless chess games, toyed with living beings across the ages, and prided himself on transcending the Heavens and looking down upon all life. He had exhausted every means to seize control of the game, only to realize at the very end that he hadn't even qualified to step onto the final board. He was nothing more than a useless piece, discarded at will when the old game ended.

At the edge of the void, the dim Eye of True Heaven trembled faintly.

True Heaven's grievously wounded Daoic body hung in midair. Countless cracks in its divine light slowly flaked away, its remaining origin power weakened to the faintest whisper.

True Heaven had now shed the majesty it had wielded for ages. Its fury and madness were gone, leaving only a bone-deep sorrow and a clear-eyed understanding.

Unwilling to spend eternity paving the way for another, it had launched a desperate counterattack, hoping to escape the fate of a pawn. But only after its sword struck the Dual Seals' Origin Barrier had it finally understood the cruelest truth.

A pawn attacking the Chess Master was something the rules of the game made absolutely impossible.

The defenses of the Double-Layer Chess Game and the restraining power of the Dual Seals' origin had locked every pawn's path of resistance at its very root.

Its struggle, its rage, its age-old resentment—none of it had served any purpose beyond depleting its strength and completing the game's defenses.

"So... your true target was never me, nor the countless chess games."

True Heaven's feeble will echoed through the void, filled with boundless dejection and regret.

For ages, it had commanded the Heavenly Dao, convinced it was the one who balanced and controlled the game. It had spent its days scheming against all living beings and diluting the Mandate of Heaven, all in pursuit of its own transcendence. It had never known that the Chess Master's sole purpose, from beginning to end, had been to nurture Lin Chen into the ultimate Chess Core.

The old Double-Layer Chess Game had merely been a cradle in which to nurture the Chess Core.

It and the Myriad Chess Player had been nothing more than whetstones, used to temper the Chess Core's defiant heart and perfect the rules of the game.

Once the Chess Core was perfected, the old game was no longer needed. Its collapse and the succession of a new game were simply the natural order of things.

From the depths of the void, the ancient, detached voice sounded once more, soft and unruffled, as though stating a truth that had remained unchanged since time immemorial.

"The Double-Layer Chess Game nurtured the game for ages and forged the core for ages."

"The old game has ended, and the Chess Core has taken its place. The Third Layer Primordial Ultimate Game is now complete."

As the voice faded, the two Ancestral Seals, which had been slowly drawing together in the void, abruptly stopped.

One dark, one bright; one within, one without. The two opposing sources of power hung at the very center of the Heavens, radiating a vast, hazy glow that spread across countless dimensions.

Countless ancient, arcane, unfamiliar patterns of the Primordial Chess Game unfurled from the depths of the void. Following the golden chains wrapped around Lin Chen, they poured ceaselessly into his body and soul.

Lin Chen could feel his body being reshaped and his soul being set in its form.

His Anti-Dao power, the Ancestral Seals' origin, and the fruits of his cultivation across the ages were all being ordered and smelted by the patterns of the game, transformed into the core foundation that would sustain the third ultimate game.

From this moment on, he was no longer an independent being or a variable beyond the game.

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

Every rule, every turn, every cycle of reincarnation, every balance within the Third Layer Primordial Chess Game would revolve around his soul and rest upon his origin.

As long as the game endured, he would be imprisoned for all eternity, with no hope of transcendence.

"I refuse to accept this!!"

Just as the Primordial Chess Game's patterns were about to blanket the Heavens, a furious roar exploded in Lin Chen's heart!

His Anti-Dao obsession, on the brink of extinction, erupted once more in a dazzling radiance amid his utter despair.

His body was locked, his soul bound, his origin refined—but the defiant heart carved into his very bones had never once yielded!

The Chess Master had calculated across the ages, seen through Heaven's secrets, and anticipated every struggle and transformation of his. But there was one thing he had failed to account for—

The very essence of the Anti-Dao was to defy every destiny, every form of control, every fate!

Even as the Chess Core, even with his soul bound, even at the bottom of an abyss ten thousand feet deep, Lin Chen's heart still refused to submit. It would not accept its fate!

Vmmm—!

A pitch-black Anti-Dao Divine Light erupted from Lin Chen's shattered origin, surging into the heavens.

Unlike the Heavenly Dao's golden majesty or the Ancestral Seals' vast, ancient simplicity, this was Lin Chen's own Dao. It was the one and only Anti-Dao he had carved out step by step by defying the heavens, shattering the game, and fighting back against the ages!

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

The assimilation that had been proceeding as naturally as the turning of the world was abruptly halted, if only for an instant!

"Hm?"

From the depths of the void came the faintest hint of surprise—the first ever.

The Chess Master, who had remained still through the ages with all things under his control, had seemingly never imagined that the variable destined to become the ultimate Chess Core and bear the game for all eternity could still fight back against the tide.

"A mere rebellious remnant of a Chess Core dares defy the Heavenly Law of the Primordial Chess Game?"

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

The instant the words fell, the patterns of the Primordial Chess Game covering the Heavens blazed a hundred times brighter.

Countless golden chains tightened at once. A terrifying force of restraint bore down, crushing Lin Chen's erupting Anti-Dao Divine Light beneath it.

The cracks in the chains' patterns swiftly mended, leaving them stronger than before. An even more overwhelming flood of the game's rules poured into Lin Chen, frantically grinding away at his defiant obsession.

Despairing pressure swept through his soul. Lin Chen's whole body shook, and a mouthful of scalding blood spilled from his lips.

Fine cracks spread across his Daoic body. His sea of consciousness and soul reeled as the Anti-Dao convictions he had upheld for countless ages shattered one by one beneath the crushing force of the Primordial Heavenly Law.

The disparity between them was a gulf as wide as Heaven and Earth.

True Heaven had been a top-tier pawn in the Double-Layer Chess Game, yet it had been unable to so much as challenge the Chess Master. Lin Chen, on the other hand, was only a newly formed, still unstable ultimate Chess Core. He had no power at all to contend with the Chess Master's origin.

His resistance was as insignificant as a candle fighting the ocean, an ant trying to shake the sky.

Yet even so, there was no hint of surrender in Lin Chen's tightly shut eyes.

He clenched his teeth, letting the power of the game crush his soul and his origin be smelted away, while the tiny seed of his Anti-Dao continued to burn stubbornly in his heart, never once going out.

"You have calculated across the ages and laid out games for all under Heaven..."

Lin Chen's hoarse, low voice struggled to echo across the world, stained with blood and filled with stubborn defiance.

"You are forging me into a Chess Core, trapping me at the heart of the game, and deciding my fate for all eternity..."

"But you will never decide what is in my heart!"

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

"But my defiant heart will never submit!!"

His roar shook the Heavens!

Half of the remaining Anti-Dao Divine Light suddenly exploded. At the cost of damaging the very foundation of his origin, it forcibly broke through the restraints of one of the chess chains!

A wisp of pure, untainted power of his heart—one beyond the game's control—broke free of the Primordial Heavenly Law's suppression and slipped quietly into the deepest reaches of Lin Chen's soul, hidden from sight.

And in that very instant, the Chess-Playing Will stirred faintly in the depths of the void. The Primordial Chess Game covering the Heavens developed its first tiny flaw in all of eternity!

No one noticed that, deep within the two Ancestral Seals suspended between Heaven and Earth, poised to merge completely, a strange, unfamiliar Dark Breath—one far beyond the Chess Master's expectations—was quietly awakening and spreading, following Lin Chen's hidden heart...