In the quiet darkness, Han Xuhan felt a sense of crisis he had never felt before. It wasn't terror, it wasn't anxiety, it wasn't the urge to jump to his feet and run away.

This was something much more ambiguous, striking at the rarest depths of his heart, dragging up a mass of emotions that he had never clearly felt before; not together, at least.

At this moment, Han Xuhan didn't dare to move a muscle. As if facing a predator whose nature went beyond his wildest ideas, every cell of his body was frozen in a mixture of incomprehension and fear.

He was facing an existence in this chaotic world of cultivation who could appear and disappear from perception as she pleased. The forces involved with her, the powers wielded by her, and the secrets surrounding her, none of these were within his capabilities.

So when she hinted that the game of chess he was playing with her in the dark wasn't an ordinary game involving dead, wooden pieces, Han Xuhan's first reaction was to stop playing immediately.

If there was a deeper meaning behind this game, then he didn't understand it. And what he didn't understand, he could naturally not play with.

Games with a powerful entity capable of supernatural feats could never bring a good outcome, this he understood clearly after having consumed thousands of folktales from hundreds of cultures thriving on the internet.

Unfortunately, the mysterious woman seemed to have sensed the lack of actions on his side very quickly. She snorted and said in a displeased tone, "Why have you stopped moving your pieces? The game has just begun!"

"...Erm, senior sister, the thing is... This game of chess is really confusing me right now. I thought it was an ordinary game. But you just said that the pieces are alive.

"I am a kind-hearted person. So when I imagine that the pieces I'm moving across the board so casually are alive, I feel that their fate is too tragic, being controlled by a blind fool who doesn't even know the rules of the game.

"I cannot bear to commit such cruel acts, pushing living things towards death without a thought. That's why I think it's better that I stop playing. Someone who can match Senior Sister's skills in blind chess should be taking my spot instead."

"...."

The woman seemed lost for words for a good few seconds. But she recovered quickly and retorted.

"For you, who can't even penetrate the spiritual curtain of this game, the pieces are indeed as dead as they should be. You don't have to feel guilty of any unjust acts. The vision you saw just then is meaningless, just a product of the gameplay with no effects on the real world. Don't overthink so much and keep playing."

Is she contradicting herself to force me to continue playing the game?

Han Xuhan felt deep suspicion towards her persuasive words. It did feel like she was going to say anything as long as it could convince him to keep moving his pieces.

"Senior Sister, this lawless chess we're playing isn't very entertaining, truth be told. The fate of every pawn is doomed, since they can only move forward. Without knowing what pieces stand ahead, every pawn-"

"If you don't shut up and play, don't blame me for my rudeness."

"...." Han Xuhan was rendered speechless.

There was no use trying to reason with a bully like this woman. The edge in her threatening voice was quite prominent. She might really do something outrageous if he kept trying to avoid playing.

While humming loudly to show that he was thinking about his next move on the chessboard, Han Xuhan considered his options in a flash.

There were only two possibilities. If she was an invincible and untouchable entity who could do as she pleased inside Crimson Snow Sect, he could not resist her command at all.

If she was weaker than that level, then the sect master and the Elders probably knew about her, in which case she wouldn't really dare to harm him.

Moreover, Han Xuhan still had a golden finger to rely on in cases of emergency. The moment things take a fatal turn for him, he would be warned by his active Bronze Token. So he didn't have to worry about being caught off guard by deadly twists in this game.

Eventually, Han Xuhan reached out in the dark again and picked up what felt like one of his rooks. He made it advance across the board casually, disregarding the rules as usual, and stopped only when he felt it clash into another piece, one from his opponent's side.

Once again, his mind sank into an inexplicable vision of combat. This time, however, he was ready for it. He observed every detail in his stiff line of vision without panicking.

The enemy in this vision was riding a horse that had eight legs. Its lush mane was bright purple, and its head had a somewhat draconic feature, with long fangs that went past the jawline and lizard-like eyes.

The soldier seated on top of the horse was heavily armored, his face hidden behind a thick silver mask, carrying a lance on his back that had glowing golden letters encircling its shaft like satellites.

The enemy and his ride let out a conjoined roar as they rushed towards Han Xuhan. The lance was taken in hand and held horizontally in a stable grip, targeting Han Xuhan's chest.

As they crashed into him, the hooves of the horse accompanied the head of the lance, striking Han Xuhan's torso at three different points at the same time.

Unfortunately, the collision only made Han Xuhan's avatar in the vision stagger back a few steps. He didn't even feel any pain. Instead he grabbed the outstretched front legs of the horse and heaved the massive beast over his head like throwing a sack of flour in the air.

The soldier riding on top flew off its back uncontrollably. As he landed on all fours and rolled across the marble floor a few times because of the momentum, Han Xuhan's avatar was already upon him, fists joined together in an overwhelmingly powerful downward slam.

Bang!

Both fists landed on his face the moment the soldier tried to sit up, slamming his head against the hard floor with a sickening squelch. Blood, bones, flesh, and steel splattered into a mess under Han Xuhan's fists. Half of his head had disintegrated!

From behind came the gut-wrenching warcry of the eight-legged horse. Han Xuhan grabbed the fallen lance of the soldier and spun on his heel, turning around and hurling the lance in the distance.

The horse had just begun its charge. The lance skewered its throat, punching a bloody hole through the neck and dragging out fragmented bones with its tip. The horse fell head-first halfway into its charge, sliding to a stop right beside its master.

As the vision began to fade, Han Xuhan memorized the important details in the vision.

Just like the previous foot soldier, the fallen knight had a clear insignia carved on his armor. The scripts written around the image gave him an uncanny feeling. The image itself was of a black tree, surrounded by numerous floating pink leaves.

Similarly, there was also an insignia drawn on the back of the gauntlets covering the hands of Han Xuhan's avatar in the vision. Despite many attempts to examine it in detail, he could only get a few glimpses.

This insignia was a circle filled with black and white squares, resembling a chessboard.

A chessboard, a tree, and an armor piercing arrow...

What could be the connection among these three insignias?

The thought made Han Xuhan's heart run faster and faster.