The Game Patterns Emerge, the Lost Abyss Below

The ancient, low-pitched echo reverberated across the Ancient Platform. Each word struck deep in the heart like a heavy hammer, mingling with the gale and turbulent currents rising from underground until the whole space seemed to tremble. Daoist rhythm surged around Lin Chen, and the Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal burned hot in his dantian. An unprecedented weight pressed down on him, making his breath catch slightly.

His eyes remained fixed on the black-robed man plunging toward the abyss. The dark Game Pattern between the man's brows was branded into Lin Chen's vision. Since entering this secret realm and learning the secrets of the Double-Layer Chess Game, Lin Chen had pursued clues time and again, but had found only scattered traces. He had never imagined that here and now, he would see someone alive bearing the hidden markings of the game.

The gale's force continued to drag everything toward the pit at the platform's center, whose gaping mouth seemed to belong to a giant beast, swallowing and exhaling endless streams of Chaos. The bluestone beneath Lin Chen's feet groaned under the strain. He lowered his arms slightly and planted his feet firmly on the platform, circulating spiritual power through his meridians to resist the Primordial Array's tremendous pull. He did not rush forward. The situation had changed abruptly: the mysterious whispers from underground, the strange Game Pattern, the out-of-control array on the Ancient Platform—each concealed unknown dangers. Charging in recklessly would be unwise.

In midair, the strange-faced cultivator struggled more violently. Lin Chen had already gravely wounded him with a single palm strike, leaving most of his spiritual power in disarray. Now the array's force held him fast, and he had no strength to escape its vast pull. At last, turmoil stirred in his hollow black eyes. They were no longer dead and numb as before; instead, they brimmed with terror and panic. It seemed he had heard the ancient whisper too. His body shook violently as he flailed his hands, trying to grab anything nearby to brace himself against, but there was nothing around him except the howling wind and dissipating spiritual energy.

"No... Don't drag me down..."

A hoarse, dry cry came in broken bursts from his mouth. The sound was unlike that of a living person, more like deadwood scraping together, raising goosebumps. He seemed to fear this underground abyss immensely. Falling into this darkness filled him with more despair than facing Lin Chen's pursuit.

In just a few breaths, the gale swept him to the edge of the opening. His stiff, gray-white face looked especially ghastly in the blue light. The Game Pattern between his brows shifted with his emotions, its black lines slowly writhing as wisps of black mist seeped from them, resonating with the murky aura rising from the abyss.

Lin Chen's gaze sharpened, and he spread his divine sense once more, cautiously probing the depths of the opening. The instant his divine sense touched its surface, a murky, frigid force slammed it back, as if it had struck an invisible wall. A faint pain passed through his soul. This underground space was not only sealed by the Primordial Array; it also bore a ward specifically designed to thwart divine sense. Ordinary cultivators could not even peer inside.

"Even a pawn in the Double-Layer Chess Game fears this place?" Lin Chen murmured, his mind full of questions.

According to the information he had gathered, those bearing Game Patterns were all pawns of the hidden schemers. They acted ruthlessly and feared neither death nor danger, like puppets under someone else's control. Yet this man clearly felt fear of his own. He was not a mindless thing stripped of all reason. That meant the so-called pawns in the game came in different ranks—or there was something in this underground abyss that even the masterminds dreaded.

Just as half his body was about to disappear into the dark opening, the man suddenly summoned the last of his spiritual power and jerked his head around. His hollow black eyes stared straight at Lin Chen on the Ancient Platform, and his cracked lips moved again and again.

"The game has more than two layers... Beneath the ancient array... is a Prison Cage..."

The gale shredded his broken words, but Lin Chen still caught the key information. Before he could think it through, an even stronger pull surged from the abyss, accompanied by a wave of icy air. It swallowed the man whole. A piercing scream cut off abruptly, and his figure vanished completely into the dark opening. Not a sound came from below.

The gale gradually died down, and the Ancient Platform's violent shaking slowly subsided. The blue light of the array patterns flowing over its surface dimmed until only a faint glow remained. Only the spiral opening at the platform's center stayed gaping and dark, like a lurking beast silently watching those above. The chaotic spiritual energy in the air slowly gathered back together, restoring the earlier calm. Yet beneath that calm, dangers churned more fiercely than ever.

Lin Chen slowly eased his stance, relaxing his taut aura a little, though his guard did not lessen in the slightest. He walked to the edge of the opening and looked down into the darkness. The shaft plunged straight down, its bottom nowhere in sight. With the naked eye, he could see only a few zhang of the stone walls; below that lay darkness thick as ink, impenetrable even to the light of heaven and earth. Wisps of cold air drifted up from below. Breathing them in would make one's spiritual power sluggish and one's mind hazy. They were clearly mixed with sinister miasma.

"The game has more than two layers. Beneath the ancient array is a Prison Cage." He repeated the man's last words, rubbing his fingertips together as his thoughts raced.

He had believed that the Double-Layer Chess Game was the greatest mystery before him. But now the man had said otherwise, which meant the mastermind's game was far more vast and intricate than Lin Chen had imagined. This Primordial Array platform standing at the heart of the secret realm seemed to be a site of inheritance, but was actually a Prison Cage for something. Whatever had been locked underground must have been terrifying indeed to require such a massive ancient array to suppress it.

Thinking of the whisper that had crossed ten thousand years, the voice had called out, "The Fate Defier has entered the game." It clearly knew his identity, and perhaps had been waiting for him to arrive from the very beginning.

From Zhong Yin luring him there, to Dark Shadow following him, to the Ancient Platform appearing and its array activating, the many coincidences along his way now formed a carefully laid path. He had thought he was actively seeking opportunities at every turn. Little had he known that from the moment he heard the bell, he had been stepping into someone else's trap.

"What exquisite scheming." A trace of coldness flashed in Lin Chen's eyes.

The other party had not attacked him directly. Instead, they had used the secret realm's bell, the ancient platform, and his own instinct for sensing opportunities to guide him here, step by step, without raising the alarm. They had calculated that the Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal within him would resonate with the Ancient Platform, that he would surely climb up to investigate, and that the Dark Shadow pawn following him would make its move at this very moment. One link after another, each step perfectly timed.

But for all their calculations, they likely had not expected the pawn used to test and restrain him to be driven into the underground abyss—and to leave behind a crucial clue.

Lin Chen circulated his spiritual power, keeping the cold miasma drifting around him at bay. The Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal slowly turned, radiating pure, gentle Daoist rhythm to protect his soul. He did not immediately leap into the opening. Instead, he turned and examined the entire Ancient Platform once more.

During the fight and the array's disturbance, most of his attention had been drawn to the sudden upheaval. Now that he had calmed down and looked closely, he noticed that beyond the sealing patterns originally carved into the platform's walls, there were many scattered characters. They were even more ancient than the array patterns, their strokes twisted and strange. They belonged to none of the scripts used in the world today. Across the entire cultivation world, few could recognize them.

Lin Chen stepped closer and gently brushed his fingers over the cold stone. Faint imprints of spiritual consciousness remained on the characters, undiminished despite the passage of countless ages. He urged the power of the Ancestral Seal and tried to decipher them with his own Daoist rhythm. Countless broken images immediately flooded his mind.

A dim world, mountains and rivers shattered, figures battling across the sky, and enormous shadows blotting out the heavens as they rampaged beneath the firmament. Experts roared, artifacts shattered, and the Great Dao wailed as the whole world was engulfed in war. The images flickered past too quickly, their fragments too scattered to piece together into a complete account of the past. Yet the brutality of that battle came through clearly.

Then the images froze. Countless top experts joined forces, using their supreme cultivation to forge this Ancient Platform of bluestone and lay down a chain of arrays. They used the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as locks and the mountains, rivers, and ley lines as chains, forcibly suppressing a colossal being underground. The ancient characters were the sealing inscriptions left behind at the time, meant to strengthen the array and warn those who came after.

"So that's what it is. This really is a Prison Cage." Lin Chen drew back his fingers, understanding at last.

In ancient times, a world-shaking battle had erupted, and many experts had joined forces to suppress a terrifying being here. They had built the Ancient Platform and laid down a sealing array to imprison it forever. As the years passed, the experts of that era had long since turned to dust, and the array's power had steadily weakened, loosening the seal with it. The mastermind behind the so-called Double-Layer Chess Game was likely coveting the being imprisoned underground, hoping to break the seal and bring it under their control.

As for the owner of that ancient whisper, its identity was all the more intriguing. Was it the remnant soul of someone who had helped suppress the being? The imprisoned thing itself? Or another mastermind hiding in the shadows?

Questions circled in his mind, but there were no answers.

Just then, a faint rustling of footsteps came from the woods outside the Ancient Platform. The steps varied in weight. There seemed to be three or four people, their auras mixed and their cultivation uneven. They were clearly other cultivators who had entered the secret realm. The Ancient Platform's tremor and the pillar of light shooting into the sky must have been too conspicuous, drawing nearby treasure seekers.

Lin Chen lifted his eyes toward the entrance to the valley. Soon, several figures emerged from the forest and appeared below the Ancient Platform. The two in front wore matching blue Daoist robes embroidered with flowing-cloud patterns at the cuffs. They were disciples of a nearby second-rate sect. Two rogue cultivators followed behind them, all wearing expressions of excitement and greed.

"Would you look at that! The disturbance just now really was caused by a treasure appearing here!" one of the blue-robed cultivators exclaimed, looking up at the floating Ancient Platform with burning eyes. "This platform is obviously an ancient ruin. There's even a deep hole at its center. The opportunity must be down there!"

Another quickly nodded and warily scanned the area. When his gaze landed on Lin Chen atop the platform, his expression immediately grew guarded. "Someone got here first. Fellow Daoist, would you be willing to share the opportunity here with us?"

In the cultivation world, the law of the jungle reigned supreme. When people spoke of sharing, they were really only testing the waters. If Lin Chen's cultivation seemed ordinary, they would swarm him and take the treasure by force. If he proved powerful, they would hold back for now and wait for a chance to act.

Lin Chen's expression remained calm. He did not respond to them; his thoughts were on the underground abyss and the chess game, and he had no interest in getting entangled with ordinary cultivators. But his indifference looked like arrogance to them.

"Hmph, putting on airs! He's only one man. What can he do against the four of us?" one of the rogue cultivators snapped, unable to hold back any longer. He leaped toward the platform. "Let's knock him off first, then go down and search for treasure!"

The other three saw him move and no longer hesitated. They all circulated their spiritual power and followed close behind. Four streaks of spiritual light cut through the air, rushing straight at Lin Chen.

Lin Chen furrowed his brow slightly. He had no wish to hurt innocent people, but they were pressing him relentlessly, and he would not let them provoke him without consequence. He did not move. The spiritual power around him rippled, sending out a gentle but irresistible force.

A series of thuds rang out.

The moment the four cultivators set foot on the platform, they seemed to hit an invisible barrier. Their bodies all flew backward, crashing heavily to the ground among the trees. Their blood and qi churned as shock filled their faces. They could clearly feel the gulf between their strength and his. He had not even made a deliberate move; the aura he released alone had sent them all flying.

"What incredible cultivation!" The leading disciple's face went deathly pale. He no longer dared harbor the slightest greed. He hurriedly called to his companions to retreat, then stopped at a distance to watch. None of them dared approach the Ancient Platform again.

The woods fell quiet again. Lin Chen withdrew his gaze and paid no further attention to those outside. There was no point in delaying. The clues, the opportunity, and the mysteries were all hidden in the underground abyss beneath his feet. The pawn bearing the Game Pattern had fallen in there; the mysterious whisper came from that place; and the unknown being imprisoned below, along with the truth behind the game, could only be investigated in person.

He took a deep breath, tamping down his tangled thoughts, and brought the Fate-Defying Ancestral Seal to full power, raising his defenses to their peak. A faint radiance circled his body, keeping the sinister forces and the ward at bay.

"Since everything is part of a game, I'll enter it and see for myself."

With those words, Lin Chen leaped straight down into the pitch-black opening.

At first, he could still feel the lingering power of the array around the Ancient Platform as he fell. But after dropping dozens of zhang, the surroundings changed completely. The cold air grew denser, and the stone walls were covered in strange black patterns, vaguely resembling the Game Pattern on the cultivator's forehead. Darkness engulfed everything. Ordinary methods of sight were useless, leaving him to rely on spiritual power and divine sense to find his way.

After falling about a hundred zhang, his feet finally touched solid ground. He stood in an immeasurably vast underground space. Above him, layers of array-patterned light screens blocked out the sky and firmly sealed off the whole area. Gray-black mist filled the space, mixed with a faint smell of blood and decay that made him deeply uncomfortable.

The underground space was not empty. Deep trenches crisscrossed the ground, and countless battered stone statues stood between them. Their shapes varied: birds and beasts, humanoid ancient gods. All were broken and damaged, their severed limbs scattered across the ground. Every statue was covered in cracks left by battle, clear evidence that a brutal war had taken place here in ancient times.

At the very center of the ruins stood an even larger, more sinister black stone platform. It rose several zhang high. Atop it sat a simple, ancient black jade throne. The seat was empty, yet it exuded a bone-chilling pressure that seemed to command all beneath heaven.

The instant Lin Chen landed, the gray mist filling the underground space suddenly roiled. Ghostly green flames ignited in the hollow eye sockets of every broken stone statue.

The orderly sound of marching footsteps slowly approached from deep in the mists in every direction.

The steps were heavy and dull, drawing closer and closer, accompanied by the grating scrape of chains dragging across the ground.

Lin Chen's gaze sharpened as he focused on the fog.

Figures emerged from the mist one by one, clad in battered armor and moving stiffly. Their faces were gray-white, their eyes vacant, and black chains wound around their bodies. On every one of their foreheads, a black Game Pattern was unmistakably branded.

There were dozens of them.

A dense mass of puppet pawns completely surrounded him on all sides.

The leader at the front, far larger than an ordinary person and wielding a massive bone blade, stopped. Its vacant gaze fixed on Lin Chen, and its hoarse voice rang through the underground space:

"Fate Defier, you have entered the Prison Cage. From this point on... there is no turning back."

At the same time, a blurred silhouette slowly raised its head from the shadows of the black jade throne at the center. Through the layers of mist, a pair of deep eyes, cold as a still pool, quietly settled on Lin Chen.