Chapter 1825 – Playing Against the Game, Betting Against the Game
The Asylum of the Gods.
The shadows of the trees swayed with the wind, and by the black and white interlaced stone table chess board, a figure was as motionless as a stone mold.
Those gray eyes reflected the position of each chess piece, and shimmering light flickered in the depths of his eyes, sometimes puzzled, sometimes enlightened, not knowing what he was contemplating.
”See anything?”
A voice came out from behind him, Lin Qiye in a white coat with his hands in his pockets, slowly walking to his side.
An Qingyu didn’t look up, just asked in disbelief:
”This game of chess, who did you play with?”
”[Chaos].”
”No wonder ……”
Lin Qiye’s gaze fell on the chessboard covered in dust, this chessboard was left behind four years ago when he fought with [Chaos] for the control of the hospital, it didn’t have any special deep meaning, and later on, [Chaos] seemed to be too lazy to play chess, so he just kept it here and didn’t move it.
”What do you see?”
”Cluttered, can’t see anything.”
Lin Qiye sat down on the other side of the chessboard, “When was the last time we played chess?”
”Four years ago.” A flash of memory surfaced in An Qingyu’s eyes, “Back then, we were at Shangjing University when I was still trying to recover from my soul trauma.”
”Has it only been four years?…… It always feels as if it’s been as long as ten years.”
Lin Qiye swept his gaze across the chessboard and gently waved his hand, all the pieces automatically floated back into the two chess baskets, and the dust on the surface of the chessboard instantly dissipated.
”One more game?” He asked.
”Yes.”
”Just playing chess, it’s a bit boring …… Let’s add some color, how about it?”
An Qingyu glanced at him, “So, you’re here to find me to get information.”
Lin Qiye smiled without saying anything.
”Good.” An Qingyu didn’t hesitate much, “If you win, I can answer one of your questions …… but not all of them.”
”This standard is too vague, to answer or not to answer, it’s still up to you.”
”Then do not go down.”
”…… OK, then what if you win?”
”If I win, I want to go somewhere.”
”Go somewhere?” Lin Qiye paused for a moment, “Yes, but not all places will do……. Moreover, I’m going to go with you, and if you make any extra moves, I’ll just take you back.”
”Deal.”
I don’t know if it was intentional or unintentional, this time, the chess basket in front of Lin Qiye was loaded with black discs …… He pinched a black disc with his fingertips and took the lead to land somewhere on the board, An Qingyu followed suit and landed a white disc next to the black disc.
Seeing this scene, Lin Qiye’s eyebrows rose slightly as he re-dropped a black disc in another corner of the board, with the second white disc following closely behind, still landing next to it.
”Your chess path …… doesn’t seem to be quite the same as four years ago.” Lin Qiye’s eyes narrowed slightly.
”People, they always change.”
The breeze brushed through the shadows of the trees, emitting a crisp rustling sound, and the two of them just played against each other in the courtyard in silence. Li Yifei on the side with tea was about to come forward, seeing that both of their expressions were focused beyond measure, after hesitating for a moment, he still silently walked to the staircase and sat down.
Unconsciously, the black and white on the chessboard, has been entrenched in the wrong place, dazzling.
When Li Yifei woke up violently from his sleep, the two people beside the chessboard had already withdrawn their palms, as if they had ended the game.
Li Yifei immediately got up and walked over, asking curiously:
”How was it? How was the result?”
”A draw.”
Li Yifei shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly, “You guys have been playing here for so long and in the end it’s a draw? It’s really meaningless. ……”
Lin Qiye and An Qingyu looked at each other and simultaneously fell into silence ……
Their previous bets were judged on the basis of ‘winning’, and now since it was a draw, neither of them could get what they wanted.
”…… Actually, a draw can also be seen as both sides winning.” Lin Qiye hesitantly spoke.
”Agreed.” An Qingyu immediately nodded her head.
”In that case, you answer my question first.” Lin Qiye gazed into his eyes.
”Why did you betray Grand Xia?”
An Qingyu seemed to have guessed that Lin Qiye would ask this question without the slightest hesitation, “I refuse to answer.”
”How does the Cthulhu Mythos plan to deal with Grand Xia?”
”I refuse to answer.”
”What are your bottom cards?”
”I refuse to answer.”
”How do you break the Time Maze?”
Upon hearing the last sentence, An Qingyu’s eyes froze.
He stared tightly at Lin Qiye and remained silent for a long time before speaking in a deep voice:
”You …… found the Gate of Truth?”
”I’m the one asking you.”
Under Lin Qiye’s gaze, An Qingyu eventually spoke:
”The time labyrinth, is essentially the time field left around the wreckage after the [Gate’s Key] was eternally dormant …… There, the boundaries between time and space will be broken, so any form of spatial movement will become a bimodal change of time and space.
If you want to break the time labyrinth, you can either directly shatter the time field with a power stronger than the [Key of the Gate], or you can only find the pattern of the labyrinth and leave from it through constant trial and error.”
Hearing this, Lin Qiye’s brows tightened.
Shattering the time field with a force stronger than the [Key to the Gate] was something that almost no one in this world was currently able to do……. [Chaos], as the strongest in frontal combat amongst the Three Pillar Gods, might be able to succeed. Other than that, the only one with hope was Zhou Ping in the Sword Lodge.
The battle power of the Three Pillar Gods was much higher than the Earth’s Supreme God Realm, and it took the three Heavenly Kings and Michael to join forces to almost kill [Black Goat] back then, and Zhou Ping’s sword that shattered the sea before indicated that his battle power was probably higher than Michael’s, but it was hard to say when compared to the Three Pillar Gods ……
Even if Zhou Ping could sword break the time labyrinth, Lin Qiye wouldn’t let him do so, after all, it was his life that would be consumed by doing so, and it would be a waste to use his sword on a labyrinth.
”What’s the difference between your answer and not saying anything?” Lin Qiye frowned.
”……” An Qingyu pondered for a moment, “In the general direction, there are only these two methods right, but there is actually a simpler way to do the second method as well …… ”
”How simple?”
”Let’s put it this way, the time labyrinth itself is not a three-dimensional existence, it is made up of countless labyrinths from different times, stacked up and down, it can be imagined as a skyscraper, the initial floor you go in on is the ‘present’, all the floors downstairs are the ‘ past’, and upstairs is the ‘future’.
Every time you take a step in this labyrinth, you will be sent to any floor upstairs or any floor downstairs in the corresponding location. Generally speaking, the person who goes in can’t control which floor of the skyscraper you will come to when you take a step, it’s completely random.
But since it is a floor, there must be a thing similar to the ‘safe passage’, as long as you find this ‘safe passage’, you can freely choose which floor to go …… “