Dark Breath Breaks the Seals, Ancient Secrets Emerge

The momentum of the Dual Seals merging suddenly ground to a halt.

Just moments ago, the two poles of primal power had been closing in step by step, on the verge of merging completely. But the instant Lin Chen hid a sliver of his true self in the deepest part of his soul, they abruptly froze in midair. The orderly, solemn patterns of the Primordial Chess Game, which had flowed without pause, seemed to hit an invisible barrier, their advance coming to an abrupt stop.

Across the Heavens, the feeling of an inevitable outcome that had pressed down on all living beings until they could barely breathe also cracked, leaving a barely perceptible fissure.

The golden chess chains wrapped around Lin Chen trembled violently. The ancient rules engraved along them flickered, and the force binding his primal power loosened ever so slightly, almost instinctively.

Deep in the void of the Outer Realm, the Original Chess Player's impassive will faltered noticeably.

He had plotted across the ages and calculated countless billions of possible outcomes. He had seen through the Heavenly Dao's backlash, the chess players' greed, and the obsessions of all living beings. Even Lin Chen's every defiance of the Dao and every change in temperament along the way had been accounted for. He was certain that every variable would ultimately fall into place and the Chess Core would inevitably return to its position. Yet he had never imagined that, at the final moment before success, an unforeseen event would arise from nowhere, beyond his control.

What surprised this supreme being, dormant for countless ages, even more was the strange Dark Breath quietly sprouting within the cores of the two Ancestral Seals.

That breath was cold and primordial. It carried none of the Heavenly Dao's majesty, none of the chess game's calculations, and none of Chaos's ferocity. It seemed to have emerged from the primordial void before the birth of heaven and earth, existing beyond the rules of all three chess games, subject to no established order.

"An alien force from the Outer Realm? Or the remnant primal power of a taboo from ages past?"

The low, indifferent murmur drifted slowly through the void. There was no fury or rebuke in it, but its scrutiny brooked no doubt.

Lin Chen hung in midair, his body still tightly bound by countless chess chains. Fine cracks covered his skin, and the injuries caused by his earlier outburst of defiant power continued to tear at his flesh. The power of the Primordial Chess Game kept washing over his surface consciousness. Countless rules of the game, cycles of reincarnation, and laws of heaven and earth poured frantically into his mind, constantly trying to erase his independent thoughts and grind him into a cold Chess Core that knew only how to sustain the game.

Yet the sliver of his true self buried at the very bottom of his soul's core remained calm and silent, clear-headed as it surveyed everything before him.

He could clearly sense the dark current surging deep within the Ancestral Seals. He also noticed the Chess Master's attention being drawn away by the strange disturbance, and the restraints around him briefly falling out of balance. Taking advantage of that fleeting opening, Lin Chen concealed every trace of his exposed aura and let his surface consciousness pretend to sink under the pull of the chess game's power. Meanwhile, he focused inward, pondering the source of the sudden Dark Breath.

As his thoughts turned, strange scenes from the secret realm in the sixth chapter of his early cultivation journey rose uncontrollably in his mind.

Back when he had first stepped into the chess game of the world, he had stumbled into an ancient secret realm. There had been incomplete murals on its stone walls, broken inscriptions of some legacy, and a Dark Forbidden Land hidden beneath the realm. The Heavenly Dao's rules could not detect it, and even the power of the Ancestral Seals could barely disturb it. At the time, his cultivation had been shallow and his perspective limited, so he had assumed it was merely a relic left behind by an ancient powerhouse who had perished. Now, after witnessing the destruction of two chess games and the Chess Master's supreme abilities, he looked back on those scenes, and the many hazy clues suddenly connected.

From the very beginning of his path to defying fate, what had lurked within that secret realm was never an ordinary relic of the ancients. It was a mark left behind by this Dark Breath, a primal power beyond the chess game.

The Chess Master had built one chess game upon another, encompassing everything in the Heavens, yet somehow had failed to completely contain and seal this ancient dark force. Like a ghost lurking in the cracks between the games, it had lain dormant for countless ages, silently awaiting an opportunity to break the established rules. And Lin Chen's desperate attempt to protect his true self and tear open the chess game's barriers had become the very key that awakened the Dark Breath.

It seemed the chess game spanning the ages wasn't ruled by the Chess Master alone.

Lin Chen murmured silently to himself, his taut nerves relaxing somewhat.

Despair had once shrouded his mind, as he faced becoming a Chess Core with no hope of ever transcending the game. Now an unknown external force had appeared out of nowhere to disrupt the situation, adding another unfathomable variable to a path that had seemed a dead end.

Below the void, the surviving powerhouses from every faction also sensed the strange changes in heaven and earth.

Kallen, Golden Super Saiyan, and Frieza, who had been sunk in despair and silence, slowly refocused their vacant gazes, and their tense bodies stirred faintly. After witnessing Lin Chen being designated as the Chess Core and the third chess game restarting, the three of them had felt that all their resistance had been a joke, and that the freedom and transcendence they had pursued all their lives were beyond reach. Now the merging of the Dual Seals had been obstructed, and a mysterious Dark Breath was stirring the world's momentum. A faint spark of hope quietly kindled within their sunken hearts.

Golden Super Saiyan gazed at the two Ancestral Seals, flickering between light and dark in midair, and said in a low, reflective voice, "Even a plan laid across the ages can have flaws. It seems that what people call the inescapable decree of fate isn't truly unbreakable."

A cold glint flickered in Frieza's narrow eyes, and the violent ambition of his past began to stir once more. He had never been willing to live beneath anyone else, and had traveled across the Heavens in pursuit of power and influence. Even after witnessing the Chess Master's terrifying strength, the defiance in his bones had never truly died. Now that the chess game had changed unexpectedly, there was still a chance to escape its restraints and rewrite his fate.

High above the Nine Heavens, the Seven Supremes, their Dao-hearts shattered, all looked up, their eyes fixed on the Ancestral Seals at the center of the void.

They had spent their lives following the Heavenly Dao's order and believing that the rules of the ages could never be defied. After suffering one blow after another—the Heavenly Dao becoming a chess piece, then the Fate Defier becoming a Chess Core—they had long since lost their faith in everything they had once believed. The sudden anomaly now shook the hearts of these confused Supremes, making them reconsider this all-encompassing chess game of ages, riddled with hidden flaws at every turn.

Beside them, the Chaos King's enormous body roiled with increasingly turbulent currents of Chaos.

The primal essence of Chaos was naturally drawn to all things disorderly and to powers beyond the rules. The Dark Breath leaking from the Ancestral Seals seemed to exert an invisible pull, drawing the power of Chaos from across the land toward the center of the void. The ancient consciousness of Chaos stirred faintly, as if it had sensed within the Dark Breath an original, primal force of the same origin as Chaos at its birth.

"Could this power... be even older than the Chess Master who created the chess game?" The Chaos King's massive body trembled slightly, and an unprecedented doubt arose within him.

At the peak of the void, the Eye of True Heaven, gravely wounded and dimmed, slowly shifted its gaze, fixing it on the dark tide surging within the Ancestral Seals.

After its desperate backlash had been suppressed and it had recognized the tragic fate of having spent its life paving the way for another, the will of the Heavenly Dao had shed its former arrogance, leaving only sorrow. But as the Dark Breath beyond the chess game's control emerged, a veiled fragment of history slowly surfaced from the depths of the Heavenly Dao's essence: a forbidden age from countless eons past, deliberately erased and forbidden to speak of.

"That unrecorded battle in the ancient era... Could there truly be a being beyond the Chess Master's control that has survived to this day?"

The remnant will of True Heaven murmured softly. No longer fixated on escaping the fate of a chess piece, it instead watched with wary curiosity.

It knew all too well how terrifying the Chess Master's reserves of power were. He had created both chess games single-handedly. Yet even a supreme being like him had been unable to eradicate this primal dark force completely, which showed just how terrifying its foundations were. As the old chess game gave way to the new, this foreign power had suddenly emerged. Perhaps it would completely overturn the established order.

Deep in the void of the Outer Realm, the remnant soul of the Myriad Chess Player, its essence on the verge of fading away, also stirred faintly.

Having spent a lifetime manipulating chess games and scheming against living beings, it had an exceptionally keen sense for changes in a situation. It could clearly tell that the foundation of the third Primordial Chess Game had been quietly shaken by the sudden Dark Breath. The final outcome, which had been destined to follow a predetermined course, had already strayed from the Chess Master's intended path.

The established order throughout heaven and earth had been completely thrown into disarray.

Everyone watched in silence, each with their own thoughts, as they waited for the three-way confrontation about to unfold at the center of the void.

Noticing the Dark Breath continuing to erode the Ancestral Seals, the Chess Master stopped allowing the disturbance to spread.

An immense, boundless pressure from the Primordial surged out of the depths of the void. Dense patterns from the chess game surged forth like a tide, wrapping layer upon layer around the two floating Ancestral Seals. They tried to suppress the restless Dark Breath within by sheer force of the rules and stop the alien power from escaping.

At the same time, countless golden chains of law abruptly tightened, grinding down once more toward the depths of Lin Chen's primal essence.

He intended to complete the final tempering and stabilization of the Chess Core before the situation spiraled completely out of control. As long as Lin Chen was brought fully under the chess game's control, even the unfathomable Dark Breath would be unable to shake the foundation of the third chess game.

The crushing pressure swept over Lin Chen once more. His bones crackled, and the power of the chess game surging through his sea of consciousness grew more violent, battering his defenses. Under the extreme pressure, his body moved slowly toward the Ancestral Seals against his will, making it seem as though he had completely submitted to the chess game's arrangements.

But his true self, hidden deep within, quietly summoned the remnants of his defiant power while the Chess Master focused on suppressing the Dark Breath and stabilizing the chess game.

Faint but tenacious strands of defiant power moved slowly through the gaps in the chains wrapped around him, silently searching for flaws in their patterns. At the same time, Lin Chen's consciousness edged toward the cores of the Ancestral Seals, carefully making contact with the mysterious Dark Breath.

The instant he touched it, a vast, ancient stream of information steeped in the passage of time flooded into his mind.

Fragments of broken images flashed rapidly through his thoughts: within the boundless primordial void, two supreme beings faced off in battle. Chaos collapsed, primal essence shattered, and the nascent world was repeatedly destroyed and remade. In the end, one side was defeated and fell dormant; the other seized the opportunity to create a chess game and gather the living beings of the Heavens. The surviving fragments of the defeated side's primal essence then hid in the cracks between the games, lying in wait for a chance to take revenge and turn the tables.

Lin Chen's mind trembled, and he instantly understood where the Dark Breath had come from.

It was the remnant power of the opposing primal force that had contended with the Original Chess Player in ancient times! After losing that battle, it had not been completely destroyed. Instead, it had hidden within the chess game, biding its time through the ages. Now, with the Dual Seals returning to their positions and the chess game changing, it had awakened, intending to seize the chance to overturn the order created by the Chess Master.

So, from the very moment the chess game of ages was born, it had hidden a struggle between life and death.

At the instant Lin Chen grasped the secret, the Ancestral Seals, tightly enveloped in Primordial patterns, suddenly shook violently.

The Dark Breath within them refused to remain sealed and erupted with all its force. A pitch-black current surged like a raging flood through the seals, crashing about within and repeatedly striking at the merging paths of the two poles of primal power. The Ancestral Seals' forces, once complementary, one light and one dark, were now forcibly divided by the dark power, their opposing tendencies pulling them in starkly different directions.

Crack—

A faint, crisp sound of breaking rang throughout the Heavens.

The Primordial patterns enveloping the Ancestral Seals were the first to fracture under the dark force's violent assault. The foundation of the third chess game, once as solid as a fortress, began to show visible signs of loosening.

The Chess Master in the depths of the void had clearly not expected the Dark Breath to erupt so swiftly. For the first time, his majestic will took on a distinct note of gravity. The situation, once firmly under control, had spiraled completely out of his grasp. On one side was Lin Chen, the Chess Core who refused to submit and still concealed power; on the other was a dark force that had lain in wait for countless ages, bent on overturning everything. Both threats had struck at once.

He no longer fixated on rapidly refining the Chess Core. Instead, he diverted most of his primal power to surround and attack the dark currents eroding the Ancestral Seals.

For a time, clashes of primal power boomed endlessly in the depths of the void. The chess game's power of light and the ancient power of darkness fought and dragged at each other with savage fury. Shock waves of invisible force spread outward, shaking mountains and rivers across the world and sending the laws of countless realms into alternating turmoil and calm.

At the heart of the storm, Lin Chen endured the restraints and crushing force of the chess chains while watching the fierce clash between the two ancient powers, rapidly weighing the situation.

The opposing dark force wanted to overthrow the Chess Master's rule, while he refused to become a Chess Core for all eternity. They shared a common goal, at least for now. But the origin of this dark primal force was mysterious, and its nature unpredictable. There was no way to know whether it was an opportunity he could use as an ally or another enormous trap lying in wait.

He dared not reveal the direction of his true thoughts. Maintaining his half-sunken, half-conscious state, he lay low in the gap between the two supreme powers, building up his own defiant strength while watching the situation unfold and waiting for the perfect moment to break the game.

The clash and upheaval in heaven and earth continued. Light and darkness waged a constant tug-of-war within the Ancestral Seals, and the third ultimate chess game teetered on the brink of collapse.

Below, the gathered powerhouses held their breath, their emotions rising and falling. They all knew that this sudden upheaval would completely rewrite the fate established across the ages.

And just as the clash between light and dark reached its fiercest point, the mass of Dark Breath deep within the two Ancestral Seals slowly coalesced, taking the shape of a hazy, ethereal human silhouette.

A hoarse, ancient voice, its low tones spanning countless ages, traveled from the Ancestral Seals' primal essence to every corner of the Heavens.

"After lying in wait for countless ages, at last the day of the chess game's collapse has come... Chess Master, your grand design of unifying all things must come to an end."

As the words echoed, the Incomplete Ancient Jade Tablet Lin Chen had obtained in the secret realm back in the sixth chapter suddenly shot uncontrollably out from deep within his sea of consciousness. It radiated a faint black light, answering the dark silhouette within the Ancestral Seals from afar.

Everyone watched in horror as a line of ancient seal script, never before seen, gradually appeared on the surface of the incomplete jade tablet.

At the same time, the two forces battling in the depths of the void abruptly came to a halt. The dark silhouette slowly turned its head, its gaze piercing through layer upon layer of spatial barriers to fix on Lin Chen, at the heart of the chess game.

More astonishing still, the Ancient Remnant Soul sleeping within Lin Chen's spirit suddenly awoke and surged violently, as if it had seen the ancient being it feared most in its fate, yet longed to encounter.

A final entanglement of ancient grudges, three chess games, and two supreme primal forces had been caught up in the unveiling of an ancient secret. The true battle had only just begun.