Chapter 97: World Game

In the sky.

“So it truly is the power of rules, the ‘Mystic’ character… this destiny-altering rule suits the title.” Sensing changes below, the Heavenly Lord relaxed. The newly ascended Mystic Lord seemed to accept his previous scheme. He resolved to observe longer and perhaps recruit this newcomer into another plan if circumstances allowed.

At Heifeng Fort.

Within the deepest hidden chamber, a hanging scroll trembled. A voice echoed from the painted surface.

“Mystic Lord? That aura… familiar yet distant. At last, someone shares our burden. Whether that old fool Heavenly Lord’s scheme succeeds remains to be seen…”

In the subterranean abyss.

A head breached the inky river’s surface. After brief skyward contemplation, it submerged without ripple or sound.

Liuhe Sect’s Taiyuan Peak.

Gu Fei, freshly appointed Headmaster, stood encircled in the ceremonial hall. The succession ritual concluded with alarming haste after she received the leadership token. Invitations had been sent to Zuo Meng, the new Mystic Lord, but envoys found his dwelling sealed against ordinary people.

Having completed his Seal, Zuo Meng had barricaded his residence with energy barriers. Reentering the sealed dimension through his personal entry point, he confronted the familiar spatial Distortion alone – this isolation defined a Lord’s nature. Each Lord maintained separate seals converging on the same core space, akin to players across game servers battling identical foes yet never meeting. Only the creator-being connected all realms.

“This surpasses my Dream World.”

Zuo Meng instantly recognized innumerable foreign rules. This realm felt more robust, more polished than his own. Thankfully, its master remained dormant.

Hovering to the colossal figure’s brow, Zuo Meng detected vibrant psychic energies. The Three Great Lords, limited by their inferior existence, sensed only an intangible “Heaven.” But Zuo Meng, sharing the giant’s fundamental nature, perceived its true form – a slumbering entity nearing awakening, destined to claim this world as Zuo Meng ruled his Dream World.

Refusing subservience, Zuo Meng formulated his counterstrike.

Reverse-dream incursion. Cognitive overwriting.

Exploiting the sleeper’s loosened grip on reality, he’d infiltrate the giant’s native plane and plant disbelief in the dream’s authenticity. Should the creator reject its own vision, the connected rules would unravel, leaving the world ripe for conquest.

Yet execution demanded sacrifice – expenditure of Dream World’s Origin Power, the essence Zuo Meng’s third-era accumulations now permitted.

His fingertip met the giant’s forehead, channeling Dream World’s energy. Equivalent forces collided, flooding Zuo Meng with subconscious revelations.

Cosmic wager.

Victory promised twin worlds’ consumption. Defeat meant surrendering his realm as stakes.

“Retreat? Unthinkable!”

Zuo Meng’s consciousness dissolved as black chess pieces materialized on the star-checkered battlefield. Thirty-three ebony markers faced five hundred ivory counterparts.

“High risk, higher reward!”

His laughter echoed through trembling space as the first black stone fell…

Huaguo, Xichuan Province.

A pallid young man stirred in hospital sheets.

“He’s awake! Big brother’s awake!”

“Quiet! This is a hospital!”

Familiar voices clashed beyond the door – overeager relatives and scolding nurses. The convalescent youth recognized everything. Zuo Meng had arrived.

Chen Fei: third-year student, three-year coma victim after a Maserati collision. Gentle professor father. Busy physician mother. Devoted couple. Younger brother Chen Yue – the excitable youth now spreading news.

“Not my original world.”

Though resembling Earth, differing nation names and geographies confirmed this as merely similar. No Transcendent powers. No martial arts.

Zuo Meng strained to summon energies, but this plane’s constraints astonished him. Neither internal forces nor rule manipulation responded. His past might as well have been fantasy.

Powerless. Ordinary.

An invalid regaining strength.