Chapter 1 Taking Advantage

With the advantage firmly in their grasp, the experts from the military and the dark army unleashed their full firepower. Jiang Cheng personally witnessed a man in a camouflage vest collapse inward in a bizarre manner, ultimately vanishing without a trace. Yet, moments later, a formidable shouye ren (night watchman) expert with a large braid and a face full of橫肉 (hengrou - fleshy and fierce looking), abruptly dropped his weapon, clutching his chest in agony. His chest bulged grotesquely, then with a wet '噗呲' sound, it exploded. The man in the camouflage vest, who had vanished from the exposed ribs and flesh, crawled out. This scene, defying all laws of physics, unfolded before their very eyes. The man crawled outward, his collapsing body strangely restoring itself, as if reversing the collapse.

The Piren (human skin) Scholar who had been flirting with Lin Wan'er was now also cornered. Chen Ran had targeted him from the start. However, this Piren Scholar possessed genuine skill, relying on his control over a dozen beauty-skin puppets that crawled out of the book basket on his back. He managed to escape Chen Ran's short sword several times, leaving him looking miserable and covered in wounds.

But his good fortune ended there. Number 2, having swiftly dealt with his own opponent, joined the battle. The Piren Scholar momentarily lost his focus and Number 2 seized the rhythm. Chen Ran brought down his sword, slicing off one of his legs at an angle.

The Piren Scholar screamed and was carried backward by two Piren puppets, "Bing Zhu Ren! Save me!"

But it was too late. The Piren puppets left to cover the retreat were chopped into pieces by Chen Ran's sword strikes. He then flung a short sword, pinning the Piren Scholar's other good leg to the ground.

Number 2, landing next to the Piren Scholar, gave him no chance to speak. He twisted his jaw and then brutally reached into his mouth, tearing out his tongue.

Then, placing his hand on the back of the half-alive scholar, he activated something with a strange rhythm. The scholar's spine began to twist like a snake, the twisting growing increasingly exaggerated until, finally, it pierced through his skin and emerged from the back of his head.

Witnessing Number 2 holding up the string of constantly writhing human scorpions, everyone present felt a chill in their bones. The shouye ren (night watchman) defense line was on the verge of collapse.

"Good! Well done!" Number 8, his face contorted, cheered loudly, waving the axe in his hand, wishing he could rush up and flay the Piren Scholar alive.

Seeing the situation improving, the Full-Bearded Old Man couldn't help but frown. "The Undertaker, bring me back a tongue, a tongue of someone qualified."

Jiang Cheng also noticed something was wrong. The opposing side was too calm. He was referring to Bing Zhu Ren (Candle Holder) Xiu Niang and the others watching from the rear. The front lines were collapsing, yet these fellows could still sit back and watch.

Soon, a corpse missing its lower half crawled rapidly towards them using its hands.

Jiang Cheng recognized the corpse. It was the Nuo Opera expert who had once fought Wu, the one who cooperated with the Broken Vow Monk.

This person had already died under Wu's blade, but now he was clearly being controlled by the Undertaker. The Nuo Opera expert crawled to the Full-Bearded Old Man's feet, then reached up, broke his own neck, and raised his head high, offering it to the Full-Bearded Old Man.

At least so far, Jiang Cheng hadn't seen the Full-Bearded Old Man use his abilities. To be ranked in his position, this person was definitely not simple.

The robes enveloping the Full-Bearded Old Man shifted. Then, a withered arm, far longer than a normal person's arm, reached out from the middle of the robes, picked up the head, and retracted back inside.

Suddenly, Jiang Cheng noticed that the Full-Bearded Old Man's aura had changed. His eyes began to tremble, then suddenly rolled upward, leaving only terrifying whites in his sockets.

This strange scene didn't last long, maybe only half a minute. The Full-Bearded Old Man shuddered, and something was thrown out from the slit in his robes. The object rolled several meters away.

His pupils contracted involuntarily. Jiang Cheng saw it clearly. It was a shriveled, wrinkled head, drained of all flesh and blood, shrunken to the size of a fist.

The head's features were twisted, as if it had endured immense pain. More importantly, he recognized this head. It was the Nuo Opera expert!

"They really do have a conspiracy!" The Full-Bearded Old Man also returned to normal, abruptly opening his eyes. "Jiang boy, you must be careful. This person's memory is incomplete, but the shouye ren (night watchman) have a great conspiracy aimed at you."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone walked out from Bing Zhu Ren's side. This person had snow-white hair and beard, wore a long gown, a jade belt around his waist, and held poetry books in his hands, possessing an extraordinary bearing in every gesture.

As Jiang Cheng looked over, the Scholar smiled calmly at Jiang Cheng and gently tossed the book in his hand towards Jiang Cheng.

The book grew larger as it met the wind, seemingly fluttering lightly, but its speed was extremely fast. Fortunately, there were also experts guarding Jiang Cheng's side. A strong man with an ancient Han sword at his waist leaped up and slashed the book in two with a single stroke.

But an astonishing scene occurred. The severed book shattered into starlight, disappearing into Jiang Cheng's brow at an extreme speed.

At the same time, Jiang Cheng seemed to have his soul instantly drawn away, standing blankly in place with lifeless eyes, unresponsive to anyone's calls.

The sudden change caught everyone off guard.

"That's that man's ability. He's the Chess Maniac, the Reclusive Old Man. This is troublesome," said the Full-Bearded Old Man.

Although he said that, the Full-Bearded Old Man didn't show much concern for Jiang Cheng, which made Fatty and the others very dissatisfied. "Aren't you supposed to be an unrivaled strategist? How come you didn't even calculate this? You're just using us as tools!" Fatty had learned some of the Full-Bearded Old Man's history from Number 13. His abilities were very strange, even Number 13 wasn't very clear about them, only knowing that this person was very good at setting up schemes, and this person was also behind Xia Tan and the others' ability to severely wound the old president 20 years ago.

The Full-Bearded Old Man didn't care about Fatty's questioning, and instead explained the other party's abilities to everyone. "This person's nickname is the Reclusive Old Man. He became famous very early and is considered an expert of our generation. His ability is related to playing chess. He's an unadulterated chess maniac, obsessed with playing chess against others his entire life. Now Jiang boy has been pulled into his chess game world. Only by winning against this person in that world can he leave."

"If he loses, he won't die, but he'll be trapped there forever, constantly learning chess techniques in a sea of books, becoming a withered chess player. That's why he's called the Reclusive Old Man with three thousand disciples."

Hearing that Jiang Cheng wouldn't die immediately even if he lost, Fatty felt a little relieved. Now they had the upper hand in the overall situation. After they cleaned up Bing Zhu Ren and the others, Boss Lin would definitely find a way to capture this Reclusive Old Man and make him release the doctor.

"He can't be released. A chess player is trapped by chess for life. The Reclusive Old Man is essentially a puppet trapped within it. Whether he can come out depends on Jiang boy's own luck." After the Full-Bearded Old Man finished speaking, he ignored everyone and continued to cast his gaze into the depths of the distant black mist.