CHAPTER 328: CHAPTER 206: BLACK KING DOMAIN, FIVE ARMIES AND TWO KNIGHTS

"This ’King’s Flash’... seems to be even more formidable than I imagined."

Xia Pingzhou stood at the top of the Parliament Building, looking up at the gaping hole in the city sky.

At the center of the hole, a solitary cold full moon was surrounded by a ring-like cloud, resembling a bright mirror placed in black pond water.

"After all, it’s a move that requires the sacrifice of three chess pieces to use," he thought, "with such troublesome prerequisites, it would be too much if it didn’t have a bit of a dazzling display."

The Queen’s Statue suddenly lightly tapped his shoulder, raised her finger, and wrote in the air with a chilling blue flame:

"We need to leave; the commotion we’ve caused is significant."

Xia Pingzhou glanced at the blue words hovering in the air, then looked down at the brightly lit street below.

At that moment, every citizen was craning their necks, directing their gazes to the top of the Parliament Building. They pointed at the hole in the sky and shouted. The discussions rose and fell like tidal waves, and the whole city gradually became restless, as if just after bidding farewell to dusk, they welcomed a lively daylight.

Xia Pingzhou nodded: "Let’s go."

He turned his head to look at the King’s Statue beside him and suddenly remembered that due to the influence of the skill [Puppet King], the King’s Statue can actually move now.

Maybe it could run really fast? Thinking this, Xia Pingzhou ordered:

"King, move."

At this moment, because of the release of "King’s Flash," the eyes of the King’s Statue had lost their brilliance once again. It suddenly started to move jerkily, its elbow’s movement exceedingly rigid, like a mechanical dancer on a high school festival stage.

Xia Pingzhou fell silent, thinking to himself: "How is this any different from not being able to walk?"

The Queen’s Statue silently glanced at the King, shrugged, and turned to look at Xia Pingzhou.

Xia Pingzhou shrugged in return, silently retrieving the King’s Statue into the Black and White Ring Road.

"Let’s go," he said.

The Queen’s Statue nodded at him, then quickly embraced Xia Pingzhou, activating the "Nihilization" form.

The next moment, their figures, like transparent flying birds, ignored the buildings beneath their feet, plummeting straight from the top of the huge clock tower, speeding through the center axis of the Parliament Building.

For a second, their figures even overlapped with the face of Big Ben, as if embedded together.

The Queen’s Statue carried Xia Pingzhou straight down, then zipped into a nearby alley, darting and skimming past walls, stepping on railings to reach the rooftop, hurrying towards the direction of the underground corridor.

Throughout the entire journey, Xia Pingzhou only needed to be carried. With nothing to do, he looked up at the panel suspended in mid-air and began checking the gains from this battle.

[Due to the influence of the passive skill "Demon Hunter," a one-time chess piece — "Clock Demon" has been obtained.]

"I really should have saved the ’Blue Electric Mouse Demon’ and ’Magician Demon’, then I’d have completed a family of three." he thought, "This piece should be quite powerful, although I defeated it with one strike, judging by its performance, it’s probably at least a B-level demon."

[Detected that a demon above C-level has been killed, the accumulated kill count of the "Winter of the Wild Hunt" system has been updated: 27/40]

[Current kill count: 27, 13 more kills needed to complete the target of "Training Task 4."]

[The current progression of the Celestial Driver’s "International Chess" for Character No. 2 is: 33%/100%]

[Tip: Upon reaching 100% progress, your Celestial Driver will automatically evolve to a third stage form, which allows contract with a brand-new demon, significantly enhancing the capabilities of the Celestial Driver.]

[It has been deduced that one of the abilities that may appear after the Celestial Driver ascends to third stage: "Black King Domain" (Once you unfold the "Chessboard," unless permitted by you, or you are killed, no one can leave the "Chessboard" at will)]

"Sealing the Chessboard?" Xia Pingzhou raised an eyebrow, "Is that for real, it’s practically timely help... after all, my superpower system understands me the best. This way, once the second body ascends to the third stage, I’ll have a way to deal with the Ripper."

Initially, Ji Minghuan was worried that on the day of the official battle with Yanmo Lin one month later, what if Yanmo Lin chose not to confront directly but kept running away?

Although the possibility is not large, considering the Ripper’s personality, he would likely get enraged and only leave when beaten to his knees; but if the Ripper got wise and thought of leaving Xia Pingzhou’s chessboard domain, he could never catch up with her.

In such a scenario, he would have the upper hand during the battle, but if the Ripper suddenly decided not to fight and ran straight out of his chessboard, all his previous efforts would be wasted.

After all, bound by the Celestial Driver’s mechanism, Xia Pingzhou specializes in positional warfare.

Currently, only the Queen can transcend the influence of the chessboard and move outside of it, therefore the second body is likely helpless against strong enemies outside of the chessboard.

But it seems now, this concern is unnecessary. As long as the Celestial Driver ascends to the third stage, Xia Pingzhou can lock the Ripper within his chessboard.

By then, she would be just like a turtle in a jar, forced to face Xia Pingzhou’s thousands of troops alone.

"Thousands of troops?" The thoughts of the Queen’s Statue transmitted to Xia Pingzhou’s mind.

"Five troops, two horses." Xia Pingzhou responded likewise with thoughts.

The Queen’s Statue nodded, she seemed inexplicably serious about such matters.

A person and a giant statue were shuttling through the dark night. Looking upward, the full moon among the clouds shone more brightly than any other day, almost like daylight.

The chimes of Big Ben and the voices on the long street overlapped, for a moment creating a hubbub that might lead one to believe it was a sleepless night. But soon the clouds once again covered the moon, and the city faded under the intermittent moonlight, while the Thames River continued its quiet flow.

At the same time, Xia Pingzhou returned to that underground passage.

The passage was so dark that he couldn’t see his fingers, with only the footsteps of him and the Queen’s Statue breaking the silence.

He withdrew the Queen’s Statue back into the Black and White Ring Road, then subdued the Celestial Driver, removed his hat, smoothed his slightly disheveled bangs, and shoved both hands into the pockets of his black coat.

As he passed Ayase Origami’s room, he lightened his footsteps, fearing she would question where he had just been.

However, upon arriving at his room, he paused with a slight start.

Xia Pingzhou stopped his steps, hesitating at the doorway, noticing a cellphone strap hanging from the doorknob, with a tiny black and white cat doll attached to the end.

He hadn’t seen this doll before, presumably bought by Ayase Origami during her solitary stroll around the destination today, intending to give it to him as a cellphone charm.

Xia Pingzhou could almost imagine the lady stepping out of her room earlier, knocking on his door, not receiving a response, quietly waiting for a little while, possibly thinking he was already asleep, thus hanging the cellphone on the doorknob.

Of course, she might have already known Xia Pingzhou had slipped away again.

Xia Pingzhou lowered his gaze, picked up the cellphone, glanced at the additional strap, then twisted the doorknob and entered the room. The basement was empty except for the humming of the exhaust fan.

Ordinary people living in such a place for too long might experience symptoms of tinnitus due to oppression. Fortunately, Ji Minghuan was different, his true self lived in a place far more oppressive.

Xia Pingzhou casually closed the door, flopped directly onto the bed, a wave of tiredness surged through him.

He brought up the gear panel, opened the event card book, took a look at the card he had just acquired.

[Event Card Name: Noon has Struck]

[Event Card Number: London ①]

[Event Card Effect: Can only be used at "midnight 12 o’clock", spreading a burst of clock chimes, causing the enemy’s gravity to suddenly amplify several times upon hearing the chimes.]

[Note: Event cards will disappear after use, but you can choose to sell the card in exchange for "1" skill point.]

"Amplifying the enemy’s gravity, could make them kneel directly on the ground unable to move, sounds like it’s surprisingly effective." Xia Pingzhou thought, "But the time restriction is too harsh, it must be used at midnight twelve o’clock, though a single skill point isn’t needed at the moment, better keep this card for dealing with Jack the Ripper."

Thinking this, he closed the series of system panels.

"Sleep..." Xia Pingzhou picked up the strap, stared at the cat doll hanging from it, "Tomorrow I still have to go to Norway, can conveniently get some information from Tong Zizhu, inquire about the matter of the First Body’s mother."

He yawned, placed the cellphone back beside the pillow, slowly closed his eyes.

His consciousness gradually blurred amidst the humming of turning fan blades.

Just then, he was suddenly awakened by a series of continuous urgent sounds.

"Yaguba, Yaguba..."

Ji Minghuan let his consciousness empty, idled for a while, then finally reacted recognizing it was Cezar’s voice.

He thought perhaps it was still not dawn over at the Whale Terrarium, could there be an assassin again? But what kind of assassin would be so bold, knowing Li Qingping was still guarding in the courtyard?

Thinking this, he swiftly synchronized his consciousness with the Third Body.

The palm-sized Nobel Shark opened its eyes from within the Crystal Ball, discovering itself presently on the rooftop, Cezar placed the Crystal Ball at the top of the railing, eyes lowered, gazing intently at the island on the sea.

"What happened, Cezar?" Yaguba asked.

However, as soon as the words were out, it paused slightly because it saw a large, red exclamation mark hovering above that seaside island, indicating a card event occurring within the Whale Terrarium.

"Doesn’t seem right... The magical creatures residing on that island appear to be heading toward the town." Cezar said while lifting his index finger pointing towards the forest.

Yaguba’s pupils narrowed slightly, his keen dynamic vision capturing shadows swiftly moving through the woods like eerie specters.

"Let’s go check it out."

It said while manipulating dark water streams to pop open the lid of the Crystal Ball, leaping out and landing on Cezar’s shoulder.

"Okay."