Two Golden-Armored Automatons entered the chessboard, and it trembled slightly. Luo Qian's chessboard suddenly leaped into the air. Bands of golden light shot out and wrapped around it, sending it spinning faster and faster. Soon, Luo Qian could no longer make out its shape. He saw only a sphere wound with black and white threads—the board's lines whirling at tremendous speed.
With a soft snap, the spinning stopped. The chessboard fell, and Luo Qian reached out, releasing a strand of Immortal Spirit Energy that caught it and drew it back into his hand.
The change left Luo Qian stunned. Only two pieces remained on that enormous board! One black and one white, side by side. All the others had vanished. His newly acquired army of Golden-Armored Automatons had disappeared just like that, giving him quite a fright. He studied the board for a long time before spotting something unusual: several tiny chessboards had appeared within the squares near the two pieces, and the missing pieces were attached to those miniature boards.
Remembering how he had summoned the Golden-Armored Automatons, Luo Qian tried sending a thread of Immortal Spirit Energy into the board. The trace in his breath had summoned dozens of them; the energy he channeled through one finger ought to summon hundreds at least. With boards nested inside the board and pieces within pieces, there had to be several thousand Golden-Armored Automatons in all. Summoning a few hundred should have been no problem.
Instead, he heard a click, and a strange image flashed through his divine sense. A line of words floated across a golden curtain: Insufficient energy. Unable to summon the Golden-Armored Commandant.
"Huh..." Luo Qian was surprised. There had not seemed to be so many steps before. And what was this Golden-Armored Commandant? If he could not