Immortal Travel of Longevity

As Huaixu departed, Chen Changsheng followed suit, returning to Reincarnation.

To his surprise, however, their previous game was gone. The Demon Sovereign was now agonizing over an entirely different arrangement of game pieces.

Seeing Chen Changsheng, he set down the game piece in his hand and looked up.

"Sit."

Chen Changsheng took a seat. "What happened to our game?"

"Jiuxiaozi broke it," the Demon Sovereign said. "He solved it with a single glance. It was effortless."

Chen Changsheng was taken aback.

He asked, "Where is he?"

"After you returned," the Demon Sovereign said, "he went back into your Dream Method."

Sensing something strange in his eyes, Chen Changsheng asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"That man cannot be allowed to live!" the Demon Sovereign declared.

He stood. With a raise of his hand, he grasped a Sword.

"If you won't kill him, I will kill him for you!"

Chen Changsheng couldn't understand the Demon Sovereign's sudden shift in demeanor, nor why he had abruptly drawn a Sword.

His reaction now was far more intense than when he had suffered defeat. It was the first time Chen Changsheng had ever seen him speak with such deadly solemnity.

He made no attempt to hide his murderous intent.

"Are you worried?" Chen Changsheng asked.

The Demon Sovereign stared at him. "Are you truly not afraid at all? You should know better than anyone how I suffered defeat at your hands, yet you dare treat him so lightly?"

"This Chen has no feud or grievance with him," Chen Changsheng said. "Why harbor such murderous intent?"

"He is nothing like us!" the Demon Sovereign said. "His obsession with the Dao far surpasses ours. A man like that will resort to any means necessary. What's more, his heart is utterly devoid of emotion—he cares for nothing. Do you want to be stripped of your flesh again? To end up like me, trapped here in Reincarnation?"

"Then kill him."

"What?"

The Demon Sovereign faltered, caught off guard by the sheer decisiveness of his reply.

"Go ahead and try," Chen Changsheng said. "See if you can actually kill him."

The Demon Sovereign furrowed his brow.

Chen Changsheng shook his head. "We will only perish when heaven and earth collapse. That is our shared fate. No external force can kill us."

"Then I will sever his thoughts," the Demon Sovereign said.

"He can hardly even be considered a person anymore," Chen Changsheng pointed out. "How exactly do you plan to sever his thoughts?"

Looking down at the chessboard, Chen Changsheng picked up a game piece and placed it in a corner.

With a sweep of his arm, the Demon Sovereign flipped the board.

Clatter!

Countless game pieces scattered across the ground.

But with a wave of Chen Changsheng's hand, the game before him restored itself to its original layout.

"A scourge!"

The Demon Sovereign spat the word out coldly.

"The ebb and flow of karma exist within profound mysteries," Chen Changsheng said. "Perhaps he will not be a scourge after all."

The Demon Sovereign stared coldly at Chen Changsheng. He sneered, "I look forward to seeing you fall into the exact same state as me."

With that, he turned and walked away.

After the Demon Sovereign departed, the figure of Jiuxiaozi appeared and took the seat across from him.

Holding a game piece, Chen Changsheng continued to ponder the broader strategy of the match.

Jiuxiaozi glanced back. "He seems to harbor a great deal of prejudice against this poor Daoist."

"Indeed."

"That is simply his nature, after all," Chen Changsheng said dismissively.

Jiuxiaozi placed a piece on the board. "Did the Heavenly Sovereign ever consider severing my mind?"

Chen Changsheng shook his head. "Never."

"Why?"

"My origins are much like yours," Chen Changsheng said. "You are a game piece that This Chen discarded. The things we have experienced are completely different, and our temperaments are vastly distinct, but we share one similarity: neither of us is willing to remain a mere game piece."

"We always believe ourselves to be the ones playing the game," Chen Changsheng continued. "But in truth, we have been game pieces from the very beginning. Because of that, we constantly push forward. We relentlessly question this world in search of the truth, yet in the end, it is all an illusion. A game piece is nothing more than a game piece."

Jiuxiaozi fell into deep thought at those words.

Chen Changsheng placed his next piece on the board.

But for a long time, Jiuxiaozi made no move to respond.

"Fellow Daoist, it is your turn," Chen Changsheng reminded him.

Recovering from his daze, Jiuxiaozi picked up a piece. Yet, as he hovered it over the board, he found himself entirely unsure of where to play.

He seemed to have plunged into a deep internal conflict.

It was a struggle utterly devoid of emotion, which only made it harder to break through and find clarity.

Chen Changsheng didn't push him, simply waiting in silence.

There was no concept of time within Between Reincarnation.

Growing somewhat weary, Chen Changsheng simply leaned back in his chair and drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke, he found that many more game pieces had been played on the board before him.

A letter rested off to the side.

As for Jiuxiaozi, he was nowhere to be seen.

Shaking off his lingering drowsiness, Chen Changsheng picked up the letter and began to read.

[Fellow Daoist, neither of us are mere game pieces. The Great Dao can be merged with, and so can I. I hope Fellow Daoist will not let this poor Daoist down. Fight for this match, and become the player behind the board.]

Chen Changsheng stared at the words in a daze.

As he set the letter down, he was suddenly struck by the sensation that everything around him was breaking down and unraveling.

The Dream Method was shattering!

Chen Changsheng closed his eyes as everything around him dissolved. Just as before, he was plunged into a void of nothingness—devoid of flesh, devoid of sensation, left with nothing but his mind.

A long time passed before he was finally pulled out of that emptiness.

When he opened his eyes, the Demon Sovereign stood before him.

The Demon Sovereign stared at Chen Changsheng, sizing him up for a long while with obvious confusion.

"Didn't you say you couldn't destroy him?" the Demon Sovereign asked.

Chen Changsheng sat down. "This Chen did not destroy him."

"If you didn't destroy him, then how..."

The Demon Sovereign trailed off, his eyes widening in disbelief as he stared at Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng didn't look back at him. "He completed merging with the Dao into me. Bereft of the Great Dao, the Dream Method shattered."

A sharp glint flashed through the Demon Sovereign's eyes.

In the span of a single thought, he materialized right behind Chen Changsheng.

But in the very next instant, Chen Changsheng raised a hand and caught the blade. The Sword couldn't advance a single inch further.

Astonished, the Demon Sovereign slowly withdrew his Sword.

Chen Changsheng looked at him calmly. "Why not try again?"

The Demon Sovereign shook his head and sheathed his Sword.

He took his seat again, his gaze drifting off into the distance. "There may be thousands upon thousands of us in this world, but when it comes to the path of the mind, no one can compare to you. You seem as though you've achieved nothing at all, yet every step you take perfectly aligns with karma. Karma reigns supreme, and it is a threshold I can never cross."

The Demon Sovereign could not fathom how Jiuxiaozi had been so perfectly willing to undergo merging with the Dao into Chen Changsheng.

It was something he simply couldn't figure out.

And on this point, he had once again lost to Chen Changsheng.

Hearing this, Chen Changsheng fell silent for a moment before replying, "You flatter me."

The Demon Sovereign shook his head and said nothing more.

He sank into deep thought.

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