Chapter 1715 – Predestined Monk

　　[Distance from the ringing of the Eastern Emperor’s Bell: 620 years]

　　Ming Dynasty, winter of the fourth year of Yongle.

　　Great Snow.

　　Between the Kunlun Mountains, a gray figure slowly walks through the endless white snow, the gusty wind swirls up the broken snow, drowning those two clear lines of footprints without a trace.

　　The figure passed through the mountains and finally stopped in front of an ancient broken temple.

　　This temple seemed to have been a product of a thousand years ago, the outer walls had almost all collapsed, the snow covered the wreckage of the temple, it was impossible to see the outline of the house, and half of the dilapidated portal stood alone in front of the wreckage, emitting ear-piercing creaks with the whistling gale.

　　”Has it been almost 1,400 years already?……”

　　The gray figure looked at the wreckage of this temple and muttered, “It’s been even longer than I thought.”

　　He reached out and tried to push open the half-broken portal, only to hear a crunching sound as the portal snapped right into the snow, the ear-piercing creaking sound disappearing completely, leaving only the endless wind and snow whimpering.

　　He sighed and took a step into the wreckage of the broken temple.

　　With his memories, he arrived before a snow mound, and with a light step of his foot, the snow in front of him was automatically shattered, clattering and spilling all over the ground, revealing the clay-tooled Buddha statue within.

　　More than 1,400 years of time, even the outside walls have collapsed and decayed, this clay Buddha statue, surprisingly still maintain the original appearance!

　　And in the belly position of this clay Buddha statue, a crack had spread, almost splitting the front of this statue into two halves, and as the snow collapsed, the crack spread again, as if something was about to rush out from the inside!

　　That gray-clothed figure just stood quietly in the ruins, gazing at this scene, without the slightest intention of making a move.

　　Click-!

　　Only a muffled sound was heard as the clay Buddha statue in front of him split in half from the crack in the center, and a figure maintained the same posture as the original Buddha statue, quietly sitting cross-legged on top of the stone platform.

　　It was a young monk in his early twenties, with a clear and handsome face, clad in a muddy robe, yet his skin was fair and translucent, like a holy Buddha born from silt.

　　His face, surprisingly, was exactly the same as that gray-clothed figure!

　　”You came out a little late.” Lin Qiye, who was clad in gray, looked at the face in front of him that was exactly the same as his own and spoke calmly.

　　The monk’s eyes slowly opened like a deep and calm autumn water, and although his face was exactly the same as Lin Qiye’s, his aura was very different, and his every move contained Zen.

　　”Molding this physical body isn’t easy, not to mention, preventing it from being discovered by the [Gate Key].”

　　He stood up from the ruins, patted the mud on his robe, and stood opposite Lin Qiye between the wind and snow.

　　”What should I call you? The Established Fruit? The Fated Buddha? Or …… Lin Qiye?” Lin Qiye asked.

　　The monk clasped his hands together and bowed slightly to Lin Qiye:

　　”Just call me …… [Predestined Fate].”

　　”Predestination?” Lin Qiye sized up the monk in front of him, “Is this your Dharma name?”

　　”Name, dharma name, posthumous name …… are all nothing but vanity, not Buddha, not Dao, not God, not human, I am me.”

　　Lin Qiye’s eyebrows rose slightly, “You see things thoroughly.”

　　”Humans always like to complicate simple things through so-called ‘personalities’, ’emotions’, ‘love and hate’, I’m just doing the opposite of thing.”

　　The Predestined Monk folded his hands together and spoke calmly, the tone that did not rise and fall in the slightest, not like a living human being, but rather like an ice-cold machine.

　　This did not come as a surprise to Lin Qiye, a consciousness born out of pure cause and effect would not possess the emotions that humans possessed, yet possessed extremely terrifying computing power, this was what he wanted.

　　”This game of chess, how did you solve it?” Lin Qiye asked the most concerned question.

　　”Within fifteen hundred and twenty-five years, I performed six thousand four hundred and twenty trillion arithmetic operations, and judging from the pieces we have available, the win rate is less than two in a thousand.” The Predestined Monk said indifferently.

　　”Two thousandths ……”

　　Lin Qiye had thought that the human race’s chances of winning would be very low, but he hadn’t expected that even if he returned to Western Han to set up this hidden chess game, the chances of winning would still only be this much ……It seemed that what [Key of the Door] had said earlier, that throughout the long course of history, the human race didn’t have the slightest chance of winning wasn’t a joke.

　　The gram system, far more terrifying than what they knew.

　　Lin Qiye frowned, “So how many more pieces do we need?”

　　”The increase or decrease in victory rate is not determined by the number of pieces, but the quality of the piece, with the role he can play in karma.” The Fateful Monk paused for a moment, “Even if there are three more Jade Emperors, their role in this game of chess might not be as good as one Li Yifei.”

　　”I understand.” Lin Qiye nodded, “I’ll deal with the problem of the chess pieces……. What are your plans now that you’ve obtained a physical body?”

　　”To me, with or without a physical body, it doesn’t make much of a difference ……I condensed this physical body just to fulfill a piece of karma for you.”

　　”…… Zhou Ping?”

　　”We need Zhou Ping, and Zhou Ping, in turn, needs a [Transmutation Fate Pearl] condensed from this physical body of mine, only then can we complete this paradox of karma and hide Zhou Ping’s existence completely.”

　　”Since you’ve already thought of everything, then go …… If something happens, contact me directly with the karmic silk thread.”

　　Lin Qiye had only come here to meet this [Established Fruit] once to see if he was as qualified to be a chess player as he had expected …… And the performance of the Predestined Monk was even better than he had expected.

　　”Don’t forget, there’s another person’s karma that you haven’t hidden.” The Predestined Monk opened his mouth and reminded.

　　”That era is too close to the era where I was in the past, in order to avoid the entanglement of the karma of the two of me, I will seal my own karma fifty years in advance and fall into a deep sleep …… him, and leave it to you.”

　　”Good.” The Predestined Monk nodded slightly, “After this body of mine is left to Zhou Ping, I’ll just condense another one.”

　　Seeing that Lin Qiye turned around and was about to leave, the Fatal Monk remained silent for a moment before slowly opening his mouth:

　　”Because.”

　　Lin Qiye stopped and looked back.

　　”Humans can’t lose this game of chess, right?” Monk Predestined asked as he folded his hands in the wind and snow.

　　”That’s natural.” Lin Qiye spoke as a matter of course, “If even humans don’t exist anymore, what’s the need for this game of chess to continue?”

　　The Fateful Monk gazed at Lin Qiye for a long time and nodded slightly:

　　”That’s good.”

　　As the words fell, he turned around and walked towards the other side of the mountain, his mud-covered robe hidden in the wind and snow.

　　Seeing that Monk Predestined suddenly asked such a question, Lin Qiye was a bit puzzled, but he still shook his head and walked down the mountain from the other side ……