Gen felt the pressure. It was a physical weight on his shoulders, made of a hundred staring eyes and the silent, waiting malice of the enemy King. The first move would set the tone. Until he understood this game's true, bloody rules, he had to be cautious. His gaze swept across the lines of cultivators frozen as Pawns on his side of the board.
Then he saw someone. A very familiar face among the human pieces.
His own face twisted into an expression that was part amusement, part cold anger. It was him. The Wild Edge Sect Leader. The man was frowning deeply, trying to shrink back, to stay hidden. But how could Gen forget what he had done? Actually, it could be called their good fortune, that attack in the cloud. But Gen could never forget the man almost harming Lorel, Liang, and all his friends. He would use him as the test subject here.
"Move," Gen ordered, his voice flat. He pointed directly at the Wild Edge Sect Leader.
The man's eyes went wide. He opened his mouth to protest, to plead, but an immense, invisible power seized him. His body floated forward against his will, moving in a straight line one square ahead, landing directly opposite one of the enemy King's white stone Pawns.
The two figures faced each other on their adjacent squares like two warriors on a silent battlefield. Nothing happened. No clash, no explosion of Qi. The stone Pawn did not move.
Everyone watched, waiting for something, some revelation of the game's violence.
The alabaster King simply waved its sword again, left.
Another one of its white stone Pawns flickered across the board, placing itself diagonally adjacent to the Wild Edge Sect Leader, boxing him in from the side.
Gen observed the movement, his mind racing. *In chess, I remember… taking out a pawn creates a line. This is a setup for a capture.* But could a normal Pawn take the life of someone like the Wild Edge Sect Leader? Gen hated to admit it, but the man was among the strongest here, not too far behind the Three-Tailed Sky Demon and the other monsters. He would be a good test subject.
Thus, Gen ordered another Pawn to move. This time, he pointed to a cultivator from a minor eastern sect. The man jerked forward one square, placing himself directly in front of the Wild Edge Sect Leader, offering himself as a shield—or as the next piece in the sequence.
The enemy King did not attack. It simply watched.
Now, Gen made his first move with a special piece. "Liang. Forward and to the left."
Liang, as the Horse, felt the command flow through him. His movement was not a simple step. He felt the rules of the board wrap around him, defining his path. He shot forward two squares, then jerked one square to the left, landing in an 'L' shape ahead of the front Pawns. His goal was simple: with the Horse's mobility, he would be Gen's blade to attack from the flanks.
"What is this fool doing, placing his Horse like that?" a cultivator among the Pawns cursed under his breath. "He has no understanding of how chess is to be played!"
"Just shut up if you don't want him to send you to your death," another Pawn hissed back.
A third laughed, a shaky, nervous sound. "Look at the other Pawns! What death? Nothing is happening!"
The enemy King's alabaster face seemed to wear a brittle smile. It looked at Gen, then gestured to the Queen beside it.
The Queen piece, a stately feminine figure of glowing white stone, began to move. The two early Pawn moves had freed a forward diagonal line for her. From the very back of the board, she floated through the empty space, her immense aura spreading across the squares like the birth of a silent doom.
She stopped on a square far into Gen's territory. She raised her hand, a simple, elegant gesture, and clenched her fist forward.
The first cultivator on that direct path—a man from the River Song Sect—did not even have time to scream. His body collapsed in on itself, turning into a wet, crimson paste that painted the Queen's white stone skin and splattered across the black square beneath her. She stood there, watching, a nightmare given form.
The sight sent a visceral chill down the spines of every cultivator. Those closest to the Queen felt their legs turn weak, as if they had witnessed a fundamental wrong.
Gen, seeing that, felt his stomach clench. Someone had just died on his board. He had no affiliation with the man, but it was still a life, and he was responsible for all of them now. Could he really bear this?
A soft, steady voice flickered in his ear. Lorel's voice. "Do not worry, Gen. We will bear it together."
Gen looked at his Queen. She met his gaze, her expression calm, resolute. He bailed his fists. She was right.
Having seen the enemy Queen's position, Gen moved again. He pointed to a cultivator with a defensive earth-based technique. "You. There." He placed the man on the square diagonally adjacent to the enemy Queen.
While Liang, the Horse, was positioned with his unique movement, if the Queen moved backwards, Liang could get her. And staying where she was, the new Pawn would have her head. She was set. *This is just chess,* Gen thought. *So it should work.*
The earth-cultivator Pawn smiled, a fierce, grim thing. He cursed at the white Queen. "You damned curse! You dare kill my brother? Now die!"
He unleashed his technique. A beam of terrifying, muddy-brown Qi, heavy as a landslide, shot across the short space between them, moving like a roaring avalanche.
The enemy King flicked a single finger.
The white Queen's eyes moved. They looked at the incoming attack not with fear, but with a profound, ancient boredom.
The roaring earth-attack struck her center of mass and exploded with a deafening ***CRUMP*** that sent a blasting wind across the board, forcing every cultivator to raise their hands to shield their faces.
But as the smoke and dust cleared, everyone froze.
"Impossible!" Gen breathed.
The Queen was still standing straight, without even a scratch on her polished stone. The earth-cultivator, however, now lay curled in her open palm like a vulgar, broken toy, his body small and still.
The enemy King looked at Gen. "I forgot to mention one thing. The confrontation is determined by the will and abilities of the Pawns. Although attacking from a logical, rules-based angle gives you an edge… if you do not have faith in the game, or in your own abilities, this," it gestured to the corpse in the Queen's hand, "is what happens."
"This is absurd!" another Pawn shouted, his voice trembling.
Baili, standing among the enemy's Pawns, bailed his own fists. "Shut up!" he snarled, not at the King, but at the complaining cultivator. "The game believes in the faith of cultivators. Their will is part of the power here." He turned his burning gaze toward Gen, though he was on the opposite side. "Gen! I want to move forward."
Baili ordered it. He wasn't going to wait for Gen's command; he was taking the initiative.
Gen hesitated slightly. But Lorel, watching her brother, only had a bright, confident smile on her face, full of faith in him. Gen gave a single, tight nod.
Baili smirked. He floated forward as a Pawn, two squares ahead. As he landed, he did not wait. He unleashed the **Cloud Juggernaut**. This time, the being that formed from his deepest desire to be great was not a dark thunderhead, but a cloud of brilliant, cracking white and blue, the color of a pristine, merciless sky. Baili stepped into the void it created, moving with its power, and unleashed a devastating sideways attack at the exposed white stone Pawn diagonally in front of him.
The stone Pawn raised its fist, going for a straight clash.
The impact was a terrifying ***BOOM*** that birthed a shockwave of compressed air. The stone Pawn's arm cracked, then its torso, until the Cloud Juggernaut's overwhelming force devoured it completely. The Pawn shattered into gravel that scattered across the board. Baili landed with ease on its now-empty square.
They were right. The game responded to conviction, to the cultivator's own will to fight and win.
"I want to be next! I want to be next!" The human Pawns on Gen's side roared now like soldiers, their fear momentarily burned away by Baili's example and the promise of agency.
The enemy King's smile didn't fade. It made the Three-Tailed Sky Demon move sideways, slinking into a new position.
Gen hesitated for an instant, then gave in to the rising fervor. He let the next cultivator move as they pleased, letting them decide their own fate, directing their aggressive movements. The board became a chaos of shifting pieces, shouts, and brief, violent clashes as human Pawns, fueled by desperation and new-found faith, began to trade blows with the white stone Pawns, sometimes winning, sometimes being reduced to stains on the stone.
Liang was having a moment of fierce, quiet fun. His confidence built slightly with his high mobility as the Horse. He quickly closed gaps, his 'L'-shaped jumps carrying him deep, almost dangerously close to the enemy King's back line. *This was it. Him, Liang Wei, closest to sealing the game, accomplishing something for once in his life.* He had not been there when Gen and the others faced the Divine General, but now he was here, vital, moving…
A few moves later, more white Pawns had vanished from the board. Clearly, Gen's side was having the advantage in these skirmishes.
But something was off in the position of his pieces on the board. Furthermore, despite the Three-Tailed Sky Demon and the Greedy Shark moving, they had not been sent to fight even once. What was the enemy King doing?
"Gen!" Chubbs called out from his place as the Fool, his voice urgent. "He is trying to collapse on us! The pieces are coiling! Let Baili and Liang return now!"
Gen wasn't very versed in the game, but upon a frantic, closer look, Chubbs wasn't wrong. The enemy's pieces were not scattered; they were forming a slow, tightening net.
The enemy King ordered its next piece to move.
This time, it was the **Fool** of the King that moved. The Fool, a stout, jester-like figure of stone, flickered in space. It didn't move like a normal piece. It **changed its position** with a Pawn that was far ahead, suddenly appearing sideways to Liang, ready for a claw-back attack.
All the cultivators had their faces darken upon seeing that. "That… that isn't a chess move. At least not a usual one," someone whispered, the fear returning.
The Fool moved its massive arms, clawing forward as it tried to close around Gen's position. Liang, suddenly in its path, was sealed into its grasp. The massive stone arms lifted him into the sky like a trophy. Liang's face turned pale as he fought, pouring his Qi into the Kalash, enveloping himself in defensive flames. But it was like the King had explained: attacking from the logical angle of the game gave an edge. This was a legal, devastating capture.
Despite his flames, his body was being crushed. A sickening ***CRACK*** sounded—a rib.
Gen's heart skipped a beat. He looked around the board, but no Pawn was in position to save Liang. The only piece that could intercept was…
"Let me go, Gen."
Lorel's voice was calm. She was already rising from her square, the pink Unbound Lantern blazing to life around her.
Before Gen could even voice the command, Lorel moved. As the Queen, she could go anywhere. She flashed through the board, placing herself sideways to the stone Fool. She did not shout. She simply opened her hands, and from the Lantern, a wave of pure, concentrated pink energy spread out like a born nova.
The enemy King flicked its finger. The Fool vanished, returning to its original position far back. The original white stone Pawn that had been swapped into the Fool's attack position took the full force of Lorel's Nova. It was obliterated, turning to dust.
Lorel hovered protectively over the coughing, injured Liang, her light bathing the board.
The enemy King's smile now grew wider, more genuine, as if this was what he had been waiting for. He observed the board, the pieces now committed, the Queen drawn out.
"Now," the alabaster King said, "it starts."
He ordered the Three-Tailed Sky Demon to move.
It moved with its poisonous claws, not at Lorel, but tearing through another of Gen's human Pawns with effortless, gruesome ease, letting fresh blood paint the board once more.
Gen panicked. The advantage was gone. The net was tightening. "I can't stay here! Gen, get me out of this position, the poison aura is seeping in!" a cultivator screamed from a square near the Sky Demon.
"Move me! I can attack from the side!"
The noise, the pressure, the rising panic caused Gen's head to ache, his thoughts to scatter.
Annoyed, overwhelmed, Gen saw one chance. He pointed at the Wild Edge Sect Leader, who was now, through the chaotic movement of pieces, within striking distance of the enemy King's back line. "You! Attack the King!"
If he defeated the King, the game was over, right?
The Wild Edge Sect Leader, seeing a path to survival and maybe even reward, enveloped himself in his signature wild, cutting winds. He shot forward, not to capture a piece, but to land on the square directly adjacent to the enemy King—a move that would put the King in "check."
However, as he flew forward, the enemy King moved again. It did not block the Pawn's way. It simply… stepped aside. One square to the left, vacating the space.
The Wild Edge Sect Leader landed on the now-empty square on the very opposite end of the board.
A silver crown of light materialized above his head.
He had just turned into a Queen.
A second, hostile Queen now stood on the board, her eyes glowing with the Sect Leader's malicious glee, her power radiating not from the game, but from his own cultivated strength, now amplified and set free.
"Checkmate," the other King said, its brittle smile fixed on Gen.
The dynamic on the board had shifted completely.