The sudden turn of events left everyone stunned.

Gu Baiying’s heart tightened. He wanted to step forward, but as soon as he took a step, the radiance emanating from Zanxing violently blocked him out. He could not take another step closer.

“What’s happening?” Both shocked and angry, a wave of foreboding suddenly surged in his heart. Instinctively gripping his Embroidered Bone Spear, he tried to shatter that light barrier.

However, all his Yuanli, when encountering that golden radiance, were like a stream meeting an ocean—gently dissolved and transformed into lingering winds that drifted away.

He could not approach Zanxing.

Bujiang also realized something was wrong. She circulated her Heavenly Demon power, trying to shake that golden light barrier, but no matter how much force she exerted, the outcome remained unchanged.

This golden radiance was identical to the aura of the Xiaoyuan Pearl. And the Xiaoyuan Pearl had always been difficult to subdue by external force.

“Shaoyang!” Her face darkened as she suddenly looked toward Shaoyang Zhenren beside her. “What have you done?”

Everyone looked at Shaoyang Zhenren in surprise.

His outward strictness yet actual protection of Zanxing was something everyone had observed. Even if Daoist Lingxin harbored great dissatisfaction, at this moment, it wouldn’t be appropriate to tear apart relations with the Taiyan Sect. The sect master of Taiyan Sect, Shaoyang Zhenren, had always been of a withdrawn nature, always maintaining an air of profound mystery. Throughout this trip to the Golden Gate Ruins to seek the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform, from beginning to end, only he had maintained an appearance of complete composure, as if he had anticipated everything.

Rongshuang and Daoist Lingxin had been guarding against him, fearing he might secretly reach some understanding with Heishi City to turn against the cultivation world. But now, looking at Shaoyang Zhenren’s demeanor, it wasn’t like that at all.

Could it be that he had deliberately led Zanxing here?

But why would he do this?

Gu Baiying stared at Shaoyang Zhenren with sharp eyes. “Master?” he said.

Silence surrounded them.

After an unknown amount of time, Shaoyang Zhenren spoke.

He said indifferently: “Legend tells that the Water God crashed into Mount Buzhou, and Saint Mother Nüwa selected thirty-six thousand five-colored stones to mend the firmament, breaking the legs of the divine turtle to support the four poles.”

“The thirty-six thousand stones for mending heaven each transformed into stars.”

He looked toward Zanxing, shrouded in radiance, his expression somewhat strange: “The Xiaoyuan Pearl is a stone for mending heaven.”

The Xiaoyuan Pearl was a stone for mending heaven!

Everyone looked at him in shock.

“How could the Xiaoyuan Pearl be a stone for mending heaven?” Bujiang spoke urgently. “Look clearly—this is the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform. Now that you’ve found the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform, what must be done next to obtain the immortal method?”

The Demon Empress had always been elegant. Even when imprisoned by Gui Yansheng in the Extreme Ice Abyss, she had never been seen in the slightest state of distress. Yet now, standing here, she showed a panic unlike her usual composure, as if she too had sensed something wrong and could not maintain her usual calm.

Rongshuang glanced at Bujiang and asked Shaoyang, “This is indeed the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform. Shaoyang, what do you want to do? What exactly is going on?”

The Chess Game of the Imperial Platform had been found—what then? Where were the immortals to play chess, and how would this game begin?

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes: “Do you still remember that legend?”

“What legend?” Gu Baiying stared at him. The young man’s knuckles gripping the Embroidered Bone Spear turned white, as if suppressing some strange emotion. “The legend of the savior who first won the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform a thousand years ago?”

A thousand years ago, floods were rampant, rain fell incessantly, all of Duzhou became a vast ocean, and all living things created by heaven, without exception, perished in the great waters.

Until a cultivator appeared out of nowhere. He exhausted every method to find the entrance connecting the human and immortal realms, and with a mortal body, gambled a game of chess with the immortals.

He won that game of chess.

The immortals gave the cultivator the method of flood control as the prize for the chess game. The cultivator used the flood control method bestowed by the immortals to resolve the water disaster.

“Is the legend false?” Fu Ronghua asked tentatively.

“No, the legend is true.” Shaoyang Zhenren’s expression was very calm, and his voice was also indifferent. “But he did not gamble chess with immortals, nor did he win that game.”

“He used his own body to mend the firmament and resolve the water disaster.”

Gu Baiying’s heart trembled violently.

The meaning of these words was not difficult to understand.

In the silence, Meng Ying spoke. She looked toward Shaoyang Zhenren: “Sect Master, even if what you say is true, why would there be holes in the firmament? Since the saint from a thousand years ago had already resolved the water disaster, why would it return? Why would the same thing happen again?”

Upon hearing this, Shaoyang Zhenren did not immediately answer. He only quietly gazed at the various small statues in the squares of the great hall, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a while, he asked: “Why do you cultivate immortality?”

Why cultivate immortality?

When mortals cultivate immortality, the more mundane mostly seek powerful strength, longevity, beauty, and eternal youth. The more refined seek to explore the great Way, break free from heavenly fate, and protect all living beings.

Tian Fangfang answered without thinking: “Naturally, it’s to become immortal.”

“What happens after becoming immortal?” Shaoyang Zhenren asked in return. “Immortals—what of them?”

When he said this, his usually withdrawn and desireless face seemed to flash with a trace of disgust and compassion, though it disappeared in an instant.

Tian Fangfang was speechless, not knowing how to answer for a moment.

Shaoyang Zhenren said indifferently: “Heaven and earth are vastly separated; gods and mortals do not mingle. Cultivating immortality and ascending is originally defying heaven and changing fate. The Heavenly Way has never allowed ‘accidents’ to occur.”

Many years ago in Duzhou, spiritual energy was abundant, the cultivation of immortality flourished, great masters emerged in the world, making people often feel that ascending to immortality was not such an unreachable matter.

Until the great flood a thousand years ago rudely destroyed everything, submerging everything. How many sect schools and major factions vanished into nothingness in an instant?

That first cultivator who found the Chess Game of the Imperial Platform walked to the place where the heavenly and human realms connected. He saw the broken chess game in the firmament.

Floodwaters poured down from the horizon, the pillars supporting heaven swayed precariously, and Duzhou’s spiritual energy gradually faded through this cavern like a giant beast’s maw. If this continued, Duzhou would collapse, spiritual veins would dry up, and everything here would turn to nothingness.

Everything would cease to exist.

The cultivator stood upon the chessboard, like a mayfly floating and sinking in the vast rivers and seas. He was only one step away from ascension—above was the nine-layered heavenly realm, below was the vast flood.

Advance or retreat, a difference of one thought, the margin between life and death.

He did not hesitate. With his own body and lifelong cultivation, he filled the vacancy on that chessboard, saving this world on the verge of collapse.

The legend was true—this cultivator resolved the water disaster, made the withered spiritual veins flow again, and was the greatest savior of the Duzhou continent.

The legend was false—this cultivator failed to ascend to immortality. He remained in the Golden Gate Ruins, within reach of the heavenly realm, becoming the most insignificant chess piece in the Heavenly Way’s chess game.

“These small statues…” Rongshuang realized something.

In the great hall, the glowing small statues in the squares had lifelike features, vivid and realistic, smiling as they gazed at everyone.

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes.

“They are all those who mended the firmament.”