Chapter 279 - 276: The Superhumans’ Life-and-Death Crisis

Chapter 279: Chapter 276: The Superhumans’ Life-and-Death Crisis

In response to the Super Dominator’s furious and frustrated words, Ji Donglai retorted with a mocking Heart Image message:

"What era are you living in, still trying to compete with martial arts? We’re competing with weapons now!"

"If you have weapons and don’t use them, how can you call yourself a master of superpowers!"

"The times have changed, you old fossils!"

Outside Guiyun Peak, a blinding light flashed once more.

Before the antimatter—powerful enough to annihilate mountains—could detonate in the Super Dominator’s silver-gray palm,

its all-destroying energy was instantly enveloped by a mysterious force field.

This was a special application of the scorching energy produced when the Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator’s Heart Image materialized from illusion into reality. It was called [Telekinesis].

This move allowed it to directly interfere with enemies via willpower, bypassing conventional physical contact.

Seizing the opportunity, the Super Dominator did its best to reverse the planet’s magnetic field, pulling its body back as if fleeing for its life.

It just hoped to get a little farther from the source of the disaster and take a little less damage.

But after less than 0.01 seconds, the energy from the antimatter explosion instantly broke through its restraints, surging skyward with even more terrifying power.

Upon contact with the energy, the Super Dominator’s molecular structure trembled violently on a microscopic level. Its silver-gray coating disintegrated into particles, like a pencil drawing being erased.

Before the eyes of all living beings in the various nations, the lower half of the Super Dominator’s arm was immediately swallowed by the blast.

Cracks spread across its body. Everything in the antimatter’s path was disintegrated and torn apart.

The Super Dominator watched in despair as the wave of destruction crept closer, threatening to travel up its arm and engulf its entire body.

A fifty-meter-tall body simply wasn’t agile enough. A direct hit would mean severe injury or instant death.

Just as all the onlookers, including the Super Dominator itself, thought its odds were grim, the unexpected happened.

At this life-or-death moment, a figure appeared in front of the Super Dominator without a moment’s hesitation.

The Super Dominator was not fighting alone now!

Xiang Hongtu?

It was not Xiang Hongtu!

It was the old man from the Chess Pavilion, the Fourth Turn master who had just escaped the antimatter fire lotus.

’But what good would he be as a shield?’

The old man’s body was nowhere near as tempered and refined as that of the peak Fourth Turn master, Xiang Hongtu.

’The moment he made contact, his physical body would probably be annihilated instantly!’

The answer was his legacy!

Without any attempt to dodge, as the Super Dominator watched with its lightbulb-like eyes—a mixture of shock, astonishment, and a hint of being touched—the old man resolutely charged head-on into the destructive antimatter collapse.

The next moment, a solemn, resounding, elderly voice emerged from the old man’s Heart Image.

"Chessboard—unfurl!"

In the next instant, a profound black-and-white Array spread out from beneath his feet, expanding rapidly.

Then, Ji Donglai, who had been hiding off to the side enjoying the show, watched in astonishment as his own body was forcibly teleported to the scene.

Before him were the rampaging antimatter explosion and the old man’s sly, triumphant grin.

Immediately after, a cold, emotionless voice rang out in the minds of Ji Donglai, Fang Can, the King of Bad Gigs, and the others.

[Yi Tianxing has issued you a Go challenge. As you initiated an attack, the match will be forcibly started!]

[Please determine who goes first within three seconds!]

As the voice echoed in their minds, everyone saw the pillar of fire that was about to engulf the old man suddenly get suppressed by an invisible force and then extinguish.

Taking advantage of the moment the antimatter vanished, the Super Dominator’s body immediately pulled back.

Although it was only a moment of contact, the Super Dominator’s right arm had completely vanished from the elbow down.

The light-particle energy that formed its body sprayed from the stump like blood.

But in its transformed state, the Super Dominator was essentially a high-density energy being. As matter from other parts of its body was redirected to the injury, the lower half of its arm quickly grew back.

In that instant, while Ji Donglai was still stunned, the Super Dominator seized the momentary opening and spread its hands wide.

The prismatic crystal on its chest erupted with brilliant white light, and an invisible force field tore the clouds for dozens of miles around into a spiral-shaped rift.

A vast amount of its Heart Image converted into energy, and a sea of light particles rapidly converged from all over its body to its chest.

Then, the Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator crossed its left arm in front of its chest and held its right arm up vertically, forming an L-shape.

"Wash-Your-Socks (Domain Profound Secret: Zeperion Ray)——"

The shout was accompanied by a furious roar that could shatter mountains.

Seeing this, Yi Tianxing shouted urgently, "Stop, Brother Red Fire! Don’t waste your energy like that."

But the warning came too late. A magnificent scene was reflected in the eyes of all living beings.

The high-density light particles had been compressed into a flowing, liquid waterfall of light.

The next instant, a blue-and-white beam several meters in diameter shot through heaven and earth.

The air in its path was ionized into an eerie blue plasma, and the rocks on the ground melted into crimson Liuli from the dissipated energy waves.

A massive stream of white particles—enough to easily level a large city—poured madly from the Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator’s raised right forearm at the speed of light.

By the time Ji Donglai reacted, it was too late to dodge. ’Getting hit by the full force of this ultimate is going to make me drop a fortune in loot.’

But then, a stunning scene unfolded.

The waterfall of energy particles from the Zeperion Ray was completely blocked as if it had hit an invisible wall, posing no threat whatsoever.

"Wha—?!" After unleashing its ultimate move, the Super Dominator stared in astonishment at the two figures, shielded by the black-and-white chessboard. ’What’s going on?!’

After regenerating its body and firing its ultimate move at full power, the prismatic crystal on its chest faded from a warm white glow, then began to flash a blinking red.

As it blinked, it also emitted a rhythmic "BEEP-BOOP, BEEP-BOOP" sound.

After that momentary, frantic expenditure of energy, its transformation could now probably be maintained for less than a minute.

Only then did a deeply regretful Heart Image message arrive from the old man, Yi Tianxing:

"Aiya! How foolish of me! You’re invincible during the phase where you decide who goes first. Why else would I have dared to jump in and take the hit for you?"

The Giant Mountain Super Power Dominator exclaimed, "What?! Why didn’t you say so sooner?!"

And while the two were talking, Ji Donglai and his group had already begun to seriously study the gridded chessboard beneath them.

They didn’t need to study it for long. A massive amount of information about the rules of the unfurled chessboard was already pouring, unreserved, into their minds.

[This is a life-and-death Go match of absolute fairness.]

[During the phases of determining the first move and placing a stone, you have the right to be 100% shielded from all external interference.]

[During these phases, you cannot move more than 100 kilometers away from your opponent.]

[Upon defeat, the losing party will receive damage equivalent to a peak Fourth Turn level attack.]

...

And thanks to Mr. Know-It-All’s live broadcast, the rules of this Go match naturally fell into the view of all living beings.

"So that’s how it is. As long as you’re in the state of determining the first move, you’re completely invincible?"

A flash of understanding crossed Xiang Ziyu’s eyes. She now understood exactly how Yi Tianxing and Yan Chqing had survived.

They must have initiated a Go match against Yan Chqing and used the three-second invincibility frames from the first-move determination phase to forcibly break through the antimatter encirclement.

’This is trouble...’

On Fang Can’s side, everyone frowned. They discovered that every single superpower user inside Ji Donglai’s space was now part of the Go match.

It seemed that because their space overlapped with Ji Donglai’s, the targeting system had locked onto all seven of them.

"After defeat, suffer damage equivalent to a peak Fourth Turn attack..."

For a moment, everyone’s heart pounded in fear.

If they lost, they didn’t dare to imagine what would happen to everyone else besides Ji Donglai.

Seeing the grave expression on Ji Donglai’s face, Yi Tianxing revealed a triumphant smile.

Back on Guiyun Peak, Ji Donglai had fled too quickly, faster than Yi Tianxing could react and escaping his line of sight before he could get a lock. Otherwise, he would have issued the Go challenge long ago.

Besides, this Go match couldn’t be triggered so easily.

An ability this terrifying was bound to have more restrictions.

For example, after breaking through to the Fourth Turn, he would only have ten opportunities to play a life-and-death match in his entire life, unless he broke through to the next level.

And yet, in just the last few minutes, he had already used two of them.

Theoretically, a match could only begin with the consent of both parties.

But there was one exception.

If the party being challenged launched an attack, the invitation step would be skipped, and the match would be forcibly initiated.

That was why he had dared to block the antimatter just now.

Apparently, his legacy’s judgment system had identified the antimatter as an attack from Ji Donglai, which directly forced them into the match.

’This is a game we can’t lose. We can only win!’

Everyone, including Ji Donglai, made this fierce resolution in their hearts.

Because if they were defeated, Ji Donglai would directly trigger "Isolated and Helpless," and no one else was confident they could withstand a peak Fourth Turn level attack.

’Wait, then how did Yan Chqing survive after her match?’

Fang Can paused for a moment. After a brief thought, he queried his legacy and found that there was indeed an option to [Request a Draw]. But it was impossible for them.

Because in this Incessant Battlefield, Yi Tianxing would never give them a chance to surrender.

The thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning. Ji Donglai said decisively, "Fang Can, time is short. You handle the first-move selection."

The so-called *cai xian*, or first-move selection, is the process of deciding who plays first in Go.

The older or higher-ranked player takes a number of white stones from the board and asks the opponent to guess if the number is odd or even.

The lower-ranked player presents one or two black stones in response.

One black stone means they guess the number of white stones is odd; two means they guess it’s even.

If they guess correctly, the lower-ranked player goes first. If they guess wrong, the opponent goes first.

Ji Donglai was now asking Fang Can to make the guess.

He wanted Fang Can to use his luck as a fortune-based ability user to win the first move.

Under the watchful eyes of the public, the people of the various nations saw the superpower users inside Ji Donglai’s personal space for the first time.

Inside Ji Donglai’s personal space, Fang Can wore a solemn expression.

"Don’t worry! Go is just a game of probability with 10^768 possible variations."

In response to Fang Can’s Heart Image message, a grim smile appeared on Yi Tianxing’s face. "Brat, Go isn’t as simple as you think!"

As he spoke, Yi Tianxing grabbed a handful of white qi, which solidified into white stones in his grasp. He held out his right fist and said, "Make your guess!"

Fang Can didn’t speak. He calmly grabbed some black qi and formed it into a single black stone in his palm.

Fang Can was guessing that the number of white stones in the old man’s hand was odd!

The moment he saw the single black stone in Fang Can’s hand, Yi Tianxing’s smile widened.

Yi Tianxing gently opened his palm, and before everyone’s eyes, six white stones rested in his palm.

Fang Can had guessed wrong!

Meeting the shocked gazes of Ji Donglai and the others, Yi Tianxing said slowly and deliberately,

"They say this is a match of absolute fairness. On this chessboard, it seems my luck is a cut above yours!"

At that moment, the superpower users’ side faced the greatest crisis they had encountered in the battle thus far!