Chapter 170: External Chess and Variable Chess

By this time, apart from the red ants controlled by Lin Wei, very few ants remained in the confinement area.

On the transparent plate, the accumulation of ants grew denser. The ants that had entered earlier began to wobble due to time limitations, and the number of newly arriving ants gradually decreased, leaving the transparent plate densely packed with ants from edge to edge.

"Such a prosperous scene... yet in truth, collapse is merely a matter of any given moment..."

Lin Wei's eyes held a rational expression, faintly tinged with mockery.

"The greatest weakness of human nature is following the crowd... People will forget fear out of greed, just as they will forget greed out of fear..."

"Moving forward amidst hesitation, being born anew out of despair, dying within fanaticism... This is the very essence of human nature!"

At that exact moment, the transparent plate, which had previously looked dazzling with kaleidoscopic colors, suddenly descended into turmoil!

In an instant, hundreds of ants plunged downward in a mad rush, pouring down like cascading mud and sand!

A terrifying chain reaction instantly occurred. Terrified of being assimilated into other types, the ants across all the transparent plates fled indiscriminately, regardless of the cost.

Some ants even smashed directly beneath the black horizontal line, their entire bodies shattering into battered wrecks.

"The black horizontal line appears to be a critical threshold. Once an ant actively flees into this zone, its body shatters. If it wishes to escape, it can only merge with other shattered kindred, causing the overall population to dwindle continuously..."

Lin Wei silently observed the pattern.

The ants in the confinement area multiplied, while the ants on the transparent plate diminished. In the span of just a few short minutes, the entire scene seemed to have inverted.

"The fear inherent in human nature is suffocating..." Lin Wei's eyes brimmed with madness. "Then... let us be born anew amidst despair!"

Swish, swish, swish!

While the other ants fled desperately, the red ants controlled by Lin Wei made their entrance all at once.

A hundred ants, like a formidable and sweeping army, marched onto the transparent plate one by one.

Snap, snap...

The vanguard red ants were assimilated by the remaining unescaped ants, and the number of red ants under Lin Wei's control began to shrink.

Yet Lin Wei's expression remained unchanged. He continued to drive the red ants forward. Like resolute warriors marching to their doom, they pressed onward without a second thought for their lives.

The frantic actions of the red ants caused the previously crumbling transparent plate to gradually regain stability. The ants that had not yet managed to flee completely abandoned their escape attempts because of the red ants' behavior.

Not only that, but the ants that had previously fled to the confinement area even showed a tendency to return.

"History is a cycle... eras change, but human nature does not... When the same temptation arrives, people will still forget everything and calmly march to their deaths..."

At this moment, Lin Wei was left with just over seventy red ants, yet he remained utterly calm and composed.

The ants from outside re-entered the arena.

A hundred... Two hundred... Four hundred...

In another blink of an eye, the transparent plate restored its bustling prosperity once again.

"Just now, I spoke of being born anew in despair... Now, I say... let us die within fanaticism!"

Amidst this flourishing scene, Lin Wei's red ants began to crash downward!

Swish, swish, swish!

The other species of ants seemed utterly unprepared for this development. Before they could react, they were completely assimilated by Lin Wei's red ants!

The seventy-odd red ants swelled to a hundred and fifty in the span of just a few breaths!

Crack, crack!

Massive cracks began to spread across the transparent plate!

The space surrounding Lin Wei also fractured like a broken wall, revealing a silent and terrifying darkness within the crevices.

Lin Wei felt his control over his own body return.

"Have I passed the test?"

Lin Wei pondered inwardly, "Am I about to return to beneath that mysterious chessboard?"

However, reality did not conform to Lin Wei's expectations. When he was once again able to perceive his surroundings clearly, he found himself in a space of endless light.

This space was the complete opposite of the previous endless darkness, yet it similarly stretched infinitely outward, with no visible boundaries in sight.

"Where is this..."

Just as Lin Wei felt bewildered, two gentle ripples abruptly emanated before him.

Two more chess pieces.

"Outer piece... Variable piece..."

Looking at the mysterious characters flowing across their surfaces, Lin Wei instinctively recognized them.

Just as Lin Wei thought the outer piece and the variable piece would turn into streams of light and merge into the back of his hand like the previous ones, he suddenly felt a coolness on the back of his hand.

The morning piece and the dusk piece, which had originally been embedded in his skin, shot forth from the back of his hand.

"Hm?"

Knowing very little about everything here or about these four chess pieces, Lin Wei could only passively await the changes.

The morning piece and the dusk piece hovered before Lin Wei.

Whoosh!

Black light emanated from the surface of the dusk piece, while white light spilled from the surface of the morning piece.

The world in Lin Wei's vision transformed into black and white.

The black world and the white world began to slowly fuse together.

Hope, vitality, beauty... Despair, death, ugliness...

The intertwining sensations continuously pounded against Lin Wei's mind.

"Everything is in a state of rotation..."

Lin Wei closed his eyes.

"Hope and despair are antagonistic twins; vitality and death accompany one another..." A faint, serene smile appeared at the corners of Lin Wei's mouth. "The ancient does not necessarily decay, nor does the newly born necessarily replace everything..."

The moment this thought arose in Lin Wei's mind, the variable piece and the outer piece, which had been quietly floating nearby, also joined into the process.

Rumble!

A deafening roar that seemed to shake all creation burst beside Lin Wei's ears.

The white-light chessboard from the previous dark space slowly materialized and condensed before Lin Wei.

The tightly packed and interlocking grid squares were now reduced to just nine.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The morning piece, the dusk piece, the variable piece, and the outer piece simultaneously dropped into their respective positions.

No other pieces appeared on the remaining five empty spaces.

"Is this a game of chess?"

Lin Wei's entire body floated upward, suspended in the void alongside the white-light chessboard.

"Yet it seems there are pieces for only one side... Could it be that I am meant to play against myself?" With a thought from Lin Wei's consciousness, he arrived at the edge of the chessboard.

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Five empty squares."

"Perhaps this is not a chess match, but a choice..."

Just as Lin Wei was plunged into utter confusion, the Holy Light Shadow of the Wizard Meditation Method, which had seemed to return to ordinary, suddenly transmitted a peculiar thought to him.

"I once thought my uniqueness lay in the transplantation of deep blue flesh, but now it seems... it is far more than that..."

"From this chessboard, I sense something akin to the intelligent core... It is not artificial intelligence, but rather a deduction bound by some profound and subtle law..."

Lin Wei's body began to move toward the chessboard.

"If I had to give this deduction a name... it should be called..."

"Prophecy."