"So this is what you meant by overturning the chessboard?"
Chen Fan's lingering Dao resonance reached me, its meaning unreadable.
"Stepping outside the chessboard, refusing to accept the present outcome, and fighting for that one elusive, illusory possibility..."
"Abandoning the current situation simply because you 'cannot accept it'?"
I offered no comment. That was indeed the case.
Perhaps it was precisely that unwillingness in my heart that had kept me persevering.
"You once asked me whether my true objective was... the Sword Dao fruit position..."
"Was it all to prepare for this moment, to mend the roof before the rain?"
He asked again.
But this time, he already had the answer.
I nodded slightly, giving him my affirmation.
Then, abruptly, I smiled in self-mockery.
Looking at Chen Fan, I imagined he thought nothing of the sort now.
He thought I was inexplicable, that I was merely a madman, that I was indulging in wild fantasies...
"Did you include me in your schemes too?"
He asked again:
"I think I understand your plan now. What a true-false supreme realm."
For him to voice such a sentiment, he must have figured it out.
But even so, in this life-and-death chess game, I would surely achieve my objective in the end...
Back then, the future self had told me about Chen Fan, whose title was Eternal Radiance Immortal Venerable.
Yet he had never told me why.
Of the information he had inscribed, nearly a third consisted entirely of descriptions of him.
It was clear that the future self held Chen Fan in very high regard.
He had spoken of what made this Otherworldly Demon special.
During Chen Fan's brief period of weakness, he had deliberately observed him.
When I read the future self's initial description of Chen Fan, I felt it was merely