Chapter 1247: A Game of Chess Across the Board
Upon hearing these words, Black Sheep's eyes instantly turned cold and grave.
"Human Monkey, you should know..." Black Sheep said in a deep voice. "Lying to me won't do you any good, will it?"
"I had no choice," Human Monkey replied. "That's what my teacher conveyed, so I'm relaying it faithfully."
"So that damned guy has already gone up against the Heavenly Tiger, hasn't he?"
"Yes." Human Monkey nodded.
Yan Zhichun could see that Black Sheep was extremely anxious, but at this moment he was completely helpless, as if two important matters were colliding in his mind.
"Is he still alive?" Black Sheep asked again. "He's not dead already, is he?"
"He was still alive when I left."
"That damned thing..." Black Sheep gritted his teeth. "He went to confront the Heavenly Tiger without waiting for me… I swear I'll kill you sooner or later."
"Teacher Black Sheep, you might have misunderstood," Human Monkey shook his head. "Teacher Tiger didn't go looking for the Heavenly Tiger—the Heavenly Tiger came to him."
"Came to him himself…?"
Black Sheep wasn't sure whether today's plan could be considered smooth or not.
After all, assembling this squad had taken far too long. The hundreds of "Participants" flooding into the carriage were an unexpected surprise to everyone, hindering many plans.
At first, he thought it would be a terrible start. But as the plan actually unfolded… he felt as if some force had quietly smoothed over countless tiny cracks.
For example, the "Dead Gate" among the "Zodiacs" had been cracked. For example, the massive team had walked all the way to the "Cargo Hold" without any resistance. For example, the "Heavenly Levels" were moving out individually and scattered. For example, the current team was far stronger than he had imagined—nearly all of them possessed "Immortal Arts," and among them was a "Spirit Vision" that could help others stably obtain "Immortal Arts" in a place like the "Train"…
And for example, when "Gatekeepers" were needed, they appeared right before his eyes.
If even this one link in his plan had so many inexplicable boosts, how would everyone feel if the battlefield expanded to the entire "Train"?
It seemed as if an invisible giant hand hovered directly above the "Train," treating all the characters as chess pieces and deploying strategies of alliances and cross-coordination.
At every critical moment, it would push the right piece to the square that needed it most, using strategy to compensate for combat power, using clever schemes to ignore numerical disparities, leading a group of ordinary pieces to checkmate a "god."
Every time Black Sheep thought about how this person had long ceased to exist, he still couldn't help but feel a chill down his back.
Where was the horror?
It lay in the fact that this giant hand wasn't now overlooking the whole situation and arranging strategies based on current circumstances.
Instead, it had anticipated all possible scenarios months, years, or even decades ago—and had laid out the corresponding chess moves in advance.
Perhaps, for a single move, he had spent years approaching and understanding a single piece, subtly transforming it into a convenient weapon for himself.
In the end, he turned himself into one of the many pieces on the board, coordinating with the giant hand he had once extended from the sky, charging toward the enemy camp.
Among all these pieces, only he himself knew he was a piece.
Everyone else thought they were striving for some goal beneficial to themselves—and the same went for the enemy.
The enemy believed that not interfering with these "rebels" at this moment was the most advantageous choice for them, unaware that they were already one of the pieces.
So… if asked whom Black Sheep admired most throughout the entire "Taoyuan," he could only blurt out "White Sheep."
This admiration was not submission to someone's skill, but a feeling of powerlessness in the face of an unknown creature. This powerlessness made it impossible for Black Sheep to even conceive of "rebelling against White Sheep."
If White Sheep were a strength that Black Sheep could reach by merely standing on tiptoe, he would naturally have the heart to compete. But when he got drawn into this plan, Black Sheep realized how ridiculous his thoughts were—like a three-year-old child unilaterally declaring war on the Soviet Union.
"I have to get the Heavenly Ox out of here quickly," Black Sheep said to Human Monkey and a few of the "Human-Level Zodiacs." "I'll leave this place to you… But let me warn you now: guarding here might mean death."
"We'll all die sooner or later," Human Monkey nodded. "I was just about to tell you that if you find no way to return here, the only possibility is that we've been completely wiped out."
"Good," Black Sheep nodded. "If you're all annihilated, I'll kowtow ten thousand times to Peiqian Tiger in hell to make amends."
"Don't joke, teacher—by then we'll all be dead."
Black Sheep turned back and exchanged a glance with Yan Zhichun. After nodding, they walked one after another through the metal door and descended the steps one by one, their footsteps echoing in the dark tunnel before gradually fading away.
Human Monkey bent down and wedged his mask into the door crack, then left the door slightly ajar.
Just as he was about to assign tactics to those around him, he heard the sound of a door opening from the "Heavenly Level" rooms in the distance.
Everyone followed the sound with their eyes. A withered old man and a white-haired old woman stepped out from their respective doors—and in an instant, Human Monkey and the others' hearts leaped into their throats.
No sooner had they sent off Black Sheep than "Heavenly Levels" arrived. Even Black Sheep probably hadn't expected the mission to fail so quickly, right?
For a dozen "Human Levels," fighting with their lives might be enough to stop one "Earth Level." But what did it mean for mere mortals to face two "Heavenly Levels" at once?
None of them made a sound. They just stared as the two "Heavenly Levels" walked step by step to the center of the T-junction.
The withered old man seemed injured—his face was slightly pale, and there were dried bloodstains at the corners of his mouth. He quickly noticed a group of strange people standing at the entrance to the "Cargo Hold." He opened his mouth as if to say something, but seemed wary of causing trouble, so he just shook his head, pretended not to see them, and turned into the "Train" corridor.
The old woman behind him, however, was even more intriguing. She seemed not to have noticed the people standing at the "Cargo Hold" at all. In her hand, she held a severed limb covered in bite marks, and she was looking around as if searching for something. If not for the horrifying object in her hand, everyone would have thought she was just an old lady who had lost a child.
Thus, the two "Heavenly Levels" swaggered right past these "Human-Level Zodiacs." Not only did they not step forward to stop them—they didn't even say a single word.
Human Monkey and the others were all baffled, feeling that the situation seemed different from what they had expected.
But no matter what, getting through one checkpoint was one checkpoint. Judging by how anxious Black Sheep had looked, killing the "Heavenly Ox" shouldn't take too long. They could only hope it would end soon.