The Tide Has Turned?

"You are a cautious man. ＝＝＝23wx＝"

Junzuo nodded, his smile unchanged. His halted hand fell onto the chessboard, and the scarlet pieces suddenly scattered. Yet they did not vanish; instead, they turned into babbling streams that flowed through the illusory continent upon the board.

Then, the trickling water seeped into the continent's soil, nourishing it. Immediately afterward, Junzuo, standing outside the chessboard, swept his sleeve, and a gentle breeze rippled forth, blowing forward to envelop the entire board.

At once, fierce winds rose within the board. Yet rather than strengthening the previous Black Wind, this wind blew it into scattered fragments that fell like drizzling rain onto the earth and sank deep into the soil.

These fragments were also formless wind. Their nature was wholly different from ordinary currents of air, so they could not meld with the continent. Nor did they vanish or disperse as they fell.

Once the fragments entered the soil, they remained independent, slowly sinking until they reached the depths and joined the trickling water. They nourished one another, like seeds buried beneath the earth, silently lying dormant as they awaited the moment they would break through the ground.

"Oh? The Black Wind fragments are fundamentally different from this world, which is why they can remain independent..." Watching the scene unfold on the chessboard, the scholar did not intervene. He merely observed in silence, sensing the changes and comparing them to the situation in Wuxin City. "No, their natures need not necessarily be different. There simply has to be a distinction. With distinction comes contrast, and only then can two individuals reveal themselves."

The scholar playing against Junzuo was none other than Qiu Yan. However, his true body had not come here; this was merely an incarnated consciousness he had condensed within the Literary Web.

The