Bab 29: Chapter 2364
With the participants selected the 4 Venerables returned to the Western Desert to remain 'neutral'.
"My dear friend Fang Yuan it would appear that you stand the most chance to win in the contest for Reckless Savage's Myriad Beast Color Fusion Heaven," Star Constellation was smirking at Fang Yuan.
"Ha Ha, friend Star Constellation how could that be after all your Heavenly Court has yet to reveal its full strength no?" Fang Yuan replied as he waved his hands bringing out a chess set.
But this was no ordinary chess set, this was 4-man chess!
This variation of chess had never been seen before in the Gu world it was fundamentally more difficult than regular chess.
The other Venerables looked at the interesting chessboard, it featured the usual 8x8 square grid but each of the 4 sides had an additional 3 lines.
It formed a weird-looking shape.
"Oh, and dear friend Fang Yuan what precisely is this?" Star Constellation was the first to voice her interests after all since young she had been fascinated with chess.
Fang Yuan smiled: "It's chess of course but in life aren't good things meant to be enjoyed by more than 1 person?"
"I created this version of chess so that all 4 of us might participate at the same time."
The chess Fang Yuan brought out was of the most immaculate quality. It was made of numerous Rank 6,7,8 and even 9 Gu Materials.
The Board was carved from the Thunder Sakura Trees, a Rank 8 Gu Material of Wood and Thunder Path.
The Pieces were made of material that signified their importance; each pawn was carved from the Mortal Material Rank 5 Brilliant Metal.
Which was a Metal Path resource known for its durability and illustrious shine.
The Knights and Bishops were made from Rank 6 Cold Steel: An Ice and Metal Path resource.
The Rooks were made from the Rank 7 Immortal Ash Stone.
And the 2 most important pieces the Queen and the King!
The Queen was made of Rank 8 Exquisite Clear Dew Jade. A unique Rank 8 material from Earth, Water, and Wisdom Path!
Holding a piece of this Jade would cleanse one of their inner demons and allow their thoughts to be as clear and smooth as water.
The final piece, the King was made of Rank 9 Heaven's Tears.
This was a Rank 9 Heaven Path Material!
The 3 Venerables thought to themselves: "How extravagant!"
Fang Yuan was simply too rich!
For Rank 5 and 6 materials, Venerables wouldn't even bat an eye for but Rank 7 and 8 were for more scarce let alone Rank 9 and Heaven Path at that!
To waste them all on a Chessboard was nothing short of flaunting one's wealth at a homeless man.
Even though Venerables are rich they felt miserably poor compared to Fang Yuan.
In Star Constellation's case even though Heavenly Court had largely used up all its resources in the Fate War, the battle between them and the Qi Alliance, and the Crazed Demon Cave, any of these battles would make a Super Force's wallet bleed to death never mind 3 back-to-back.
Star Constellation even considered stealing the chessboard but her Venerable pride wouldn't let her.
Spectral Soul would have stolen it already if he didn't know better than to trust a refinement path expert to not tamper with the Gu materials.
Who knows what would happen if Spectral Soul used these Gu materials? He might not even be able to sell them as once news got out, they once belonged to Fang Yuan who would dare use it!?
Giant Sun was the only one relatively calm amongst them as had both the whole of Longevity Heaven's resources and the Immortal Essence Stones he had obtained from Yi Qi Zi.
Currently, he was investigating a method that would allow him to purify Heaven's Will within these Immortal Essence Stones without wasting too much of the essence.
The results were not good, currently, only 50% of the essence would remain in the stones after purification and the number only decreased with the Rank of the stones, at Rank 8 the stones would only keep 20% of their energy.
Fang Yuan then began to explain the rules of this 4-person Chess.
Unlike conventional chess, the winner is not decided after the elimination of one player but upon the elimination of one player.
The games end when all other players are checkmated.
But victory is not dependent on who is the last one standing but on who has accumulated the most points throughout the match.
For example, a checkmate gives a player 20 points but capturing pieces such as pawns and knights give between 1 and 3, with a total of 24 pawns available for capture, it is, therefore, possible to win without checkmating a single player.
This is without mentioning that the Rooks and Queen are worth 5 and 8 points respectively.
It's a game filled with twist and turn, plotting and scheming, with a dash of betrayal mixed in for good measure.
Ingenious!
Was the only word the other venerables could think of upon hearing these rules.
Star Constellation was the quickest to realize that more so than ever, 4-person chess was a more accurate representation of real-life!
In normal chess, you only have 1 opponent but in real life not only do you have multiple enemies, but you also have friends, but if one were to just have a team game with friends then it didn't take into account human greediness.
Because this game was structured so that the player with the most points wins. It would inevitably cause alliances to crumble when one party got too strong, in addition, to getting more points required capturing pieces but that also cause players to lose defense around their king leaving them exposed.
There were many more such anecdotes hidden in the game down to the materials used.
"Wait!" Star Constellation exclaimed as she used her investigative Killer Move to look at the board.
She noticed that there was a simple Gu formation within the board.
She smiled with her eyes closed at Fang Yuan: "Friend would you like to explain why there's a Gu Formation within the board that for some reason I can't seem to see through?"
The other Venerables tensed as Stat Constellation pointed it out.
Indeed, there was a Gu Formation that was concealed in the Chess Board.
This made the other Venerables warry.
"Heh, as expected of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, yes there is indeed a formation within, but it's used to merely keep score of the game." Fang Yuan then began to push the pieces towards each other.
"Observe," He used a pawn to capture the enemy's Queen, on the side that capture the Queen a holographic light burst out the text '+8', and a score counter appeared above the board displaying who was in the lead.
Star Constellation still frowned: "Oh, then why did friend Fang Yuan go through so much effort to hide the contents of the formation?"
"After all, such a simple function hardly needs to be hidden."
Star Constellation had a point.
It was suspicious of Fang Yuan to be hiding the formation as it was a relatively simple one to reproduce, even a Formation master at Master level attainment would be able to replicate this feature.
Star Constellation thought to herself: "What are you planning Fang Yuan?"
The situation quickly became tense as the other Venerables started to release their aura to pressure Fang Yuan.
The pressure caused the surrounding sand to be blown away with such strength that a sandstorm seemed to envelop the 4 Venerables.
Amidst all that pressure Fang Yuan calmly stood: "Friends I would advise you to calm down, we don't want things to get ugly."
Fang Yuan then released his own aura to compete with the other Venerables, without the boost from their Headquarters it all depended on the Dao Marks they had on hand and Fang Yuan was the only person to hold so many Dao Marks of various paths.
He had Billions of Marks at this point and Millions of Heaven Path Dao Marks.
In neutral territory, he was the strongest!
Just like back in Crazed Demon Cave, he managed to repel both Star Constellation and Giant Sun single-handedly despite being a newly advanced Venerable.
The situation was not looking good it would appear that a ceasefire really wasn't possible.
Fang Yuan sighed: "Fine. If you want to observe it so much go ahead," he then waved his hand and dispelled the concealment formation."
Rank 9 aura then burst forth from the chessboard causing Giant Sun, Spectral Soul, and Star Constellation to widen their eyes in shock.
Rank 9 Reputation Gu!
Immediately thoughts flew through the minds of the 3 venerables.
Star Constellation began to reevaluate Fang Yuan.
Giant Sun wondered how Fang Yuan managed to obtain Reputation Gu's acknowledgment.
Spectral Soul was more direct and lunged at the Chess Board.
As he launched a killer move at the board, a faint glow emanated from the board blocking his attack!
"What!?" Spectral Soul roared out.
He knew he had put a lot of strength into that attack, but it was easily blocked by a mere chessboard.
Soon a figure made of pure light stood above the board.
"Dear Venerables, I am Reputation Gu." The figure of light spoke in a voice neither male nor female but certainly more feminine as it was gentle.
The other Venerable's grew shocked once more: "A Gu actually talked just like in the legends of Ren Zhu!?"
Before the venerables could ask more questions Reputation Gu spoke again: "This era is the grandest one that I have ever seen, with Fate Gu no longer dictating outcomes there is an infinite possibility of winners! I can only be used by people with a strong Reputation. But for the first time in 3 million years, there are so many contenders. I do not wish to sit idly by and wait for a winner which is why I have gotten Fang Yuan to set up this game. Whoever wins, I will assist them."
The light figure then disappeared back into the Chessboard.
It then clicked in Giant Sun's head: "That Reckless Savage was a fake!"
Fang Yuan merely smiled and walked back to his seat at the table.
"Friends, shall we begin?"
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
zulbucks
zulbucks Let the Games Begin!
The Mind Games that is.
Thank You, everyone, I never imagine I would ever make it this far in writing I have started and stopped many times in my writing journey but for the first time ever I have succeeded in pushing myself to right and it was largely thanks to you guys, and late-night instant noodle.
The most direct way you can support my work is by adding this book to your library, seeing the few people that wait for an update from the series is what truly keeps my going!
Every day I feel like giving up I see that over 30 people are hopeful and waiting for the next step Fang Yuan would take and I can't let them down so I pick myself up, cook a packet of noodles, and begin writing, some chapters are grueling to power through and write, other's just flow right onto the page.
Nevertheless, I do it for all you guys that want and nothing tells me that more than someone adding this book to their library.
I say this because with this chapter we've hit a milestone, 50k words!
I really never thought I make it this far and I still have a long way to go, at least my goal is about 500k words or so.
I just wanted to thank all of you for giving me the motivation to go this far, I have essentially almost written an entire real-life novel.
Thank you to everyone that reads these chapters and I'll see u in the next one :)
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