I, the mortal, come from the great world of Xuanhuang

"No matter what, I will not be a pawn on anyone's chessboard. No one can make me a pawn on the chessboard."

Zhang Ruochen's attitude was very firm, extremely firm, but what he said made Fang Yu unable to help but laugh.

Because that statement is just too ridiculous.

"Do you know that we are all on a chessboard, and we are not even qualified to be pawns yet? Everyone is on the same chessboard, no one is an exception, no one can escape it, not even our Empress. No one can escape this game, not even gods. A powerful god might become a pawn and then a player, but one day he might fall back to being a pawn. It all depends on one's strength. So, you say you don't want to be a pawn? That's impossible. No one can do it, not even me, let alone your family." Good heavens, if even I can't do it, expecting you to do it is utterly unrealistic, completely impossible. Don't even think about how capable you are, how powerful you are, to break free from control, to escape a manipulated fate. It's impossible, absolutely impossible, for everyone. And I'm not just talking about humans, but also beasts, gods, and those supremely noble beings. For them, breaking free is incredibly difficult, or rather, utterly impossible. All I can tell you now is that we are all... A pawn, but our pawn is somewhat useful, unlike the others. One day, when you're strong enough, you can say you don't want to be a pawn. If you do want to be a pawn, then say nothing more, because it's meaningless. No matter how much you say, it's pointless. To become the master of this world, you must first become strong enough. Without sufficient strength, it's simply impossible. What you should do now is take that big black cat and obediently cultivate other things. You don't need to worry about anything else. I know you hate me and might try to take... "Take everything you have, but have you ever considered why I'm taking it all from you? I'm doing it to save your life. I've already made it very clear. What you should do now is take your big black cat and get the hell out of here. The farther the better. The best option is to never show your face in front of me again, because if you do, I might just slap you, you idiot, flying. To be honest, as your older brother, I've never seen anyone as stupid as you. I've made myself perfectly clear, don't you understand what you should be doing? What you should be doing is going back to your training. Big black cat, come out here!"

Before Fang Yu could finish speaking, a cat meowed in his ear.

"Stop pretending. Remember what I said. This is my brother. If anything happens to him, I don't care if you're immortal or not, I'll kill you. You should understand that. Just because others can't do it doesn't mean I can't. I can, but there will be a price to pay. I know you made a deal with that old bald monk, and I know he's the one who made you this way, to give my brother an extra layer of protection and help him grow up faster. After all, he was chosen by that old bald monk, and I chose him too. Although I had better options, I thought he was the better choice. Mainly because he has more humanity. The other best option was inhuman and might even turn against me. At least he might not turn against me in the future, and that's enough. So I chose him. I believe you understand this clearly, so I don't need to say anything more." "What you need to do is get my brother onto your back, or swallow him whole, and then get out of here with him. I know this is a little difficult, but I expect you to do it. If you don't, you know the consequences very well. I will absolutely not let either of you off. If you want a good ending, do as I say. If you don't, then don't say anything more, because it's pointless. If you don't do as I say, you're just courting death. I can tell you, what you need to do now is to obediently listen to my orders and do them. If you do well, you'll be rewarded. If you don't, then you can imagine the consequences. I can't think of a way to kill you, but I can assure you that if you don't do well, even if I can't think of a way to kill you, I will use my own methods to kill you."

"You're saying all this because you're worried this kid will affect your important plans, right? But can his strength really affect your plans? You've already taken so much from him. You've taken quite a lot. Although those things are only obtainable with strength, what you've taken isn't just because of his strength, but also because you knew this would happen, which is why you took them. Although these things are nothing to you, only slightly increasing your strength, they are very important to him, forcing us to choose other methods to make him even stronger. Luckily, we have backup options; otherwise, getting him to that level wouldn't be easy. I think you understand this, so I don't need to say more, right? Since that's the case, you should know what you need to do, instead of asking me for help. What you should do now is change his fate as soon as possible. If his fate cannot be changed, the consequences will be unimaginable. The whole world may face an apocalyptic crisis. Can you really bear that consequence?"

The big black cat's voice changed, and the appearance of this voice caused Zhang Ruochen's expression to change as well. He felt that the big black cat now was completely different from the big black cat before.

"It's truly unexpected that you would possess a large black cat. Although this black cat isn't an ordinary one, it's still a large black cat. For someone of your status to possess it is quite surprising. And to possess it just to talk to me, you've gone so far as to possess it. It seems I'm quite important, or rather, my existence has affected your plans, right? Since my existence has affected your plans, you should have destroyed me. So why haven't you destroyed me? There's only one possibility: you can't destroy me. Since you can't destroy me, why should I..." If I'm leaving, why should I give up all of this? I know you want to change his fate, to correct it, to have it altered under my influence, so that he can be used by you in the future. Your ideas are excellent, very good indeed. I admire your thoughts and plans immensely. If I didn't admire them, I wouldn't be telling you all this. It's precisely because I admire them that I'm telling you so much. And Big Black Cat, you need to understand one thing: what you need to do now is take my brother away from me as soon as possible. "Don't let him appear in front of me again. His presence won't benefit either of us in the slightest. Don't you understand that? If he appears, it will only harm us, because I might not be able to resist beating him up. I won't kill him, but I might still beat him up, which won't do us any good. You should understand this clearly. If you don't, then I'll beat you up first, how about that? I know you don't want to be beaten up, but I also understand one thing: if I don't beat you up, it's impossible to make you obey. Honestly, your existence has really affected many things, such as my plans. You think I've affected your plans, wanting to change my brother's fate, but have you considered that your existence has also affected my plans? The future is uncontrollable. No matter how meticulously you plan, the future is still uncontrollable. Even if you arrange things perfectly, the future path is chosen by him, not controlled by us. We can actually control very little, unimaginably little, but you insist on controlling it. Don't you think you're incredibly foolish?"

"Don't you also want to control his future? Don't you also want to use his power to control the future you want? What kind of future do you want? We all know, but we can't let you have your way. We absolutely can't let you achieve your goal. There is no possibility of negotiation between us because our goals are different. We know what your goal is, and you should know what our goal is. So there is absolutely no possibility of negotiation between us."

The black cat's tone was no longer as strange as before, but had become very formal, so formal that Fang Yu was somewhat impressed. However, Fang Yu also knew that the black cat was no longer the same as before, and it was normal for it to speak in this tone, so he smiled and continued to speak.

“You’re right, I want to control him, but he’s my brother. So even if I control him, I won’t do anything to him. On the contrary, I’ll make him even stronger. I admit that I’ve taken everything he has now, but have you ever thought about why I took everything he has now? It’s because only by doing so can I make him stronger. As for those things you arranged before, it’s best to give them to me because I can make perfect use of them. But my brother can’t do that. He doesn’t have the ability or the skill. He really doesn’t have the skill. If he had any skill, he wouldn’t be like a piece of trash now, listening to our conversation without making a sound.”

"I'm not useless, but I really want to know its current identity, or rather, which senior it is, which senior wants to control me. That's something I really want to know. Can you tell me?"

Zhang Ruochen naturally couldn't admit to being a good-for-nothing, so he asked Fang Yu what the big black cat's true identity was and who wanted to control it. This was a very important matter, at least for Zhang Ruochen. He had to figure it out; he absolutely had to understand it. Otherwise, he simply couldn't give up, because he knew that many people wanted to control him, to possess him, and that these were things he feared, worried about, and didn't want to face. So he had to find out.

"I can't tell you the current identity of this big black cat, not even myself. It would be ridiculous if I were wrong. I can't confirm his exact identity yet, but I'm certain he's an old man, and his identity is definitely not simple. As for which old man he is, I can't say. But I'm certain he wants to use you to get what he wants. I'm just curious why he thinks this way, why he does this. It's a very intriguing thing, and a very worthwhile thing to explore. If this isn't clarified, the consequences will be unimaginable. I think he knows that, right, big black cat?"
"Actually, I still don't know your identity. I want to find out, but I think it's best not to, because finding out could bring me a lot of trouble. So I've decided not to. As for your identity, I don't care anymore. After all, your goal is the same as mine. I know your goal is similar to mine, but I won't let you achieve it, just as you won't let me achieve it." (End of Chapter)