Chapter 412 - 412: King versus King

The 6th floor finally had something different than the last two floors.

It wasn't empty, to say the least; instead, it was filled. There were thousands of insects wriggling on the ground here and there, and the scary thing was that all these insects were known to be the most poisonous insects in the world.

Even though they were just the corpse puppets, their poison was still as effective.

The whole floor was covered with them, and there was no place to step.

The stairs were 400 meters away from him so that he couldn't teleport there either.

"I would've had trouble with this before, but not anymore. I literally have a flying sword," Long Chen muttered, smilingly. He brought out his Spirit Sword from his storage ring and stood on top of it.

The sword flew above the insects wriggling on the ground and brought Long Chen to the stairs at the other end. He didn't get off on the stairs and flew higher on the sword as he went to the 7th floor.

The 7th floor again changed things. Long Chen could feel that the air here was different. It has something that was causing him to feel sleepy.

He stopped his breath as the Spirit Sword raced to the other side of the room.

He had also closed his eyes, and he was also covering his mouth to stop his breathing.

If he hadn't done that, he would've fallen asleep, and he would have stayed asleep for eternity. Also, the sleeping gas was only denser at the center, which didn't work on him as he maintained the safety from the start.

Long Chen only used his Divine Sense to look around and to control the direction of the sword, which worked perfectly and showed him the way.

The Spirit Sword brought him to the 8th floor.

Long Chen opened his eyes. He was still a little sleepy, but it was manageable. Fortunately, he had taken action at the right time.

Long Chen opened his eyes and looked around the room.

"I don't get it? What exactly is this tower? Is this a reward tower, a punishment tower, or a training ground?" Long Chen muttered as he got down from the sword.

He saw around 20 humanoid puppets in front of him.

He stepped forth as he brought his King's Sword out of his storage ring. He was ready for the battle, but even as he got there, he didn't see them move.

With a confused look on his face, he walked past them and reached the stairs, but the puppets didn't move.

"Are they broken?" Long Chen let out with a wry smile on his face, but he ignored them as he started stepping up.

He got to the 9th floor, and it once again managed to stun him.

The room was less like a room and more like a chess field.

There was a Chess-like design made on the ground. It had six boxes in an 8x8 format.

Sixteen puppets were standing on the other side of the room, and 15 of them were standing on his side of the room. The King's position was still empty on his side.

"I thought about it before when we were fighting for the flute, but the ground did seem like a chessboard, and this confirms it entirely. The Divine Heaven Sect knew about Chess," Long Chen muttered. "That's why they have the same thing here."

He stepped further and passed by the puppet, but no matter what he did, he wasn't able to step on the 3rd row of the squares on the ground.

No matter what he did, he couldn't step forth. 

"It's similar to how I was stopped on the stairs in the treasure hall and could only move forward when I answered. I guess I need to play by their rules here as well," He muttered. "They must want me to play the game and act as the king of the black side."

He walked to the empty square that was supposed to be the king's position on the black side.

The puppet at the front row seemed to be warriors that had a sword in their hands.

The Queen's were female puppets that wore Royal looking clothes.

The Bishops had fat puppets instead that seemed like the rich ministers in a Royal Palace.

A wolf-like beast puppet occupied the knight position.

The Rook Position was occupied by the puppet that seemed to be made from the body of the Heaven Shaking Elephant.

The King on the white side wore a kingly robe and had a white beard on his face. His head had a crown that was studded with jewels.

As soon as Long Chen got on his spot, the Pawn from the other side took a step forward.

"You! Move forward!" Long Chen commanded the puppet that stood in front of the Queen.

The White King sent another Pawn forward. Long Chen followed suit and sent a pawn ahead as well. This time, he sent a pawn that was standing before the knight.

The White King made the pawn take another step forth.

Long Chen didn't follow this time. He instead moved the knight and sent in on the playing field.

It was standing near the Pawn of the white king. If the White King didn't move the pawn, he would have died, but the White King didn't move it.

Instead, he sent his bishop outside, which stood near the Knight, directly aiming at him.

"Kill that pawn," Long Chen commanded the knight. The Wolf moved to the position of the pawn and cut it's neck off, killing it instantly.

The White King didn't seem to care as it brought out its horse as well.

The strategy battle continued for the next 20 minutes. Both sides had an equal number of losses, but the damage was more for the white side. 

The White Side had lost both its knights, one rook, two bishops, and three pawns, whereas Long Chen had sacrificed one knight, one rook, and six pawns.

"Knight, Kill the rook," Long Chen commanded the knights who moved two and a half steps and killed the last rook of the white king.

Now the white side only had the king, the queen, and five pawns remaining, whereas Long Chen still had most of his firepower.

The Queen of the White made a move and killed Long Chen's second rook as well.

"A queen should never underestimate another queen," Long Chen muttered. "Black Queen, kill the Queen of White."

The Queen of Long Chen moved and killed the Queen of the White Side. Now the white king had no significant help and only had five pawns remaining.

Long Chen kept commanding his army that kept Killing the pawns that the King used to protect themselves.

Soon, there were no pawns left on the white side.

The White King was encircled from all sides. No matter where he moved, he would be killed.

He finally made a move and moved one step to the left.

"Queen, finish it and kill the White King," Long Chen commanded.

The Queen of Black moved to her right and sliced the head off the body of the king.

Long Chen tried moving, and finally, he was able to go further than the 2nd row of squares.

Long Chen was allowed to walk to the other side of the room freely, but before he walked to the center of the room, the roof once again opened as a small box fell down to the ground.

"Another reward?" Long Chen muttered with a questioning gaze, but he was ready to teleport if the box had a trap inside.

He opened the small box.

"What is this doing here?" he muttered with a confused look on his face.