The Spoiler

Outside, the wind and rain swayed.

Inside the room, an unusual calm prevailed.

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor's expression was solemn as he listened to Chen Xia's response, rendered speechless for a moment. After a while, he finally nodded and said softly, "As expected of you."

Chen Xia responded with a smile, "I merely spoke the truth."

"Chief Chen is indeed an honest person," the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor remarked, his tone ambiguous, between praise and sarcasm.

Chen Xia, never one to mince words, smiled back, "It has always been my way."

His trademark was a straightforward, no-nonsense approach, as the Celestial Harmony, the Three Elders, and the Dao Ancestor had all experienced.

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor chuckled, putting away his umbrella, and said, "I have another matter I wish to ask Chief Chen."

"Please, go ahead," Chen Xia replied.

"What is Chief Chen's relationship with the Domain? Are you completely unrelated, or hopelessly entangled?"

"Neither," Chen Xia laughed. "For I will strike the Domain with a heavy blow when the time is right."

"So we are allies, then?" The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor smiled wryly.

"No, for I will also strike you with a heavy blow," Chen Xia firmly responded.

He was a typical battle-crazed warrior.

"Very well, very well." The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor nodded repeatedly, as if in acknowledgment, then fell silent, seemingly rendered speechless by Chen Xia.

His gaze swept the room, and he remarked with a smile, "Chief Chen truly has refined interests. You have set up a chessboard and cultivated a medicinal field—it has been a long time since I've seen a cultivator with such hobbies."

"Would you care for a game?" Chen Xia stood by the chessboard, gently smiling as he asked.

Seeing Chen Xia's soft tone, the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor found it difficult to refuse. He nodded, and a smile crept onto his aged face as he responded, "Then let us engage in a friendly match, regardless of the outcome. Friendship comes first."

Chen Xia merely smiled, saying nothing.

Friendship first?

Heh.

Let's see if I can capture your knights in the opening!

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor, having lived for so many years, had studied everything, and his chess skills were not excellent but certainly not poor either. He had originally thought he wouldn't lose too badly, but he had clearly underestimated Chen Xia.

The opening gambit of capturing both knights was not particularly strong, but the mockery was unmistakable.

Throughout the game, Chen Xia maintained a jovial atmosphere, clearly relishing the opportunity to enjoy himself at another's expense.

What could the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor do? He couldn't truly become angry, for that would be an admission of being utterly defeated and earn him a reputation for pettiness.

Human joy is often built upon the suffering of others.

Chen Xia understood this principle well and took pride in it.

"I concede," the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor said, shaking his head and withdrawing from the game.

"Giving up so easily?" Chen Xia asked with a smile, still toying with the captured knights.

"It is but a trivial game of chess; conceding is of no consequence. As long as one does not concede in truly important games, it matters not."

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor spoke solemnly, his brows furrowed, his aged face seeming to scrutinize Chen Xia.

He found Chen Xia difficult to comprehend.

From the perspective of self-interest or emotion, he could not understand the man before him.

Chen Xia's thought processes were simply unlike those of ordinary people.

He seemed to care little for gain or emotion, or perhaps he simply had no emotional connection to the Domain itself.

"Chief Chen, if the Domain were to collapse entirely one day, what would you do?"

Chen Xia grinned, "I would say, 'Good riddance.'"

"Truly?"

"Why not?"

"If that is the case, you have no reason to remain in the Domain!"

This was the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor's primary concern.

"Mind your own business regarding the Four Dao Saints," Chen Xia retorted, raising an eyebrow.

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor fell silent, shaking his head. He truly could not fathom this enigmatic figure. Finally, he spoke again, "In this war, the Four Dao Saints also face peril and may even perish. You would do well to exercise caution."

"Even if you die, I won't," Chen Xia replied nonchalantly, then waved his hand. "No need to see you out."

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor turned and left. His visit had been to gauge Chen Xia's attitude toward the Domain, but now it seemed ambiguous, with no clear allegiance—Chen Xia had stated he would strike both sides.

Did he truly have such brazen audacity?

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor found it somewhat unbelievable, sensing an element of bluster in Chen Xia's words, but it mattered not. The Heavenly Rain Realm had now glimpsed some of the Domain's hidden intentions.

The Shanshui Quasi-Emperor could not yet fully comprehend it, but he was now on guard.

In the year 2000 of the new era.

After two hundred years of peace, conflict erupted once more at the borders.

Five Lords of the Forbidden Zones launched a surprise attack on the borders, engaging in battle with several Great Saints of the Heavenly Rain Realm and drawing out the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor. The ensuing clash between the two sides caused mountains and rivers to shift, the celestial vault to shatter, and the sun, moon, and stars to be thrown into disarray.

At that time, the entire world was shrouded in darkness, with the upper realm of the Domain engulfed in gloom, each great cultivator a solitary point of light illuminating the current Domain.

And the Domain, which had been suppressed by the Heavenly Rain Realm for thousands of years, unexpectedly launched a counterattack, slaying numerous cultivators of the Heavenly Rain Realm.

There is an ancient saying, "Sitting on the mountain, watching the tigers fight," and another example of the clam and the mussel quarreling, while the fisherman profits.

Chen Xia was this fisherman.

He sat in his humble abode, counting the days until the opportune moment, then shouldered his hoe and walked to a small grave mound, sighing, "Old Zhang, I've come to relocate you."

He unearthed the ashes buried for thousands of years, staring at them for a moment before gently embracing the urn, blowing away the dirt, and placing it within his small realm.

The Domain was becoming inhospitable, and he needed to find a way out, taking old Zhang's ashes with him.

Otherwise, if the entire Domain truly erupted into battle and crumbled, old Zhang's ashes would be scattered.

Although that sounded rather cool, it simply would not do.

Chen Xia was a sentimental man who had not forgotten to bring along old Zhang's ashes, even as the Heavenly Rain Realm and the Domain clashed at a critical juncture.

This was primarily manifested in the Shanshui Quasi-Emperor's desperation, as he began summoning others to battle, assembling the might of four Quasi-Emperors to face the Lords of the Forbidden Zones.

In truth, they were outmatched, but the Lords of the Forbidden Zones held back, seemingly content to engage in a protracted struggle.

But Chen Xia had no interest in watching their entanglement, nor did he care for the Domain, which held little emotional significance for him.

He used the Great Time Shift technique to separate the area within ten miles of his humble abode, creating an independent realm, and then set out during the darkest moments of the upper realm.

Earlier, during his solitary journey through the river of time, Chen Xia had glimpsed the future.

He saw Wang Yangzi nailed to the highest point of the celestial vault, his false sacred body shattered, a pitiful sight.

He witnessed the collapse of the entire Domain, the Lords of the Forbidden Zones fleeing to the myriad realms, the great formation crumbling, and the celestial reckoning descending, eradicating the Domain.

He had seen it all.

So rather than wait for oblivion, he chose to take the offensive.

He would slay the Lords of the Forbidden Zones and the cultivators of the Heavenly Rain Realm.

His approach was one of impartial evenhandedness.

If the Domain was the chessboard and its cultivators the pieces, with the Lords of the Forbidden Zones as the players and the Heavenly Rain Realm as the contender, then Chen Xia was the one disrupting the game.

He cared not which side prevailed; he merely sought to capture the knights in the opening, reveling in his own amusement.

"Damn it, I'll ruin it all for you!" Chen Xia's azure robes billowed as he disdainfully uttered those words, heading straight for the highest point of the celestial vault.

It was a bold, brazen declaration of madness.

He had always been this way.