"Have you made up your mind?"
Wu Suowei easily raised his right hand, holding a white chess piece between his index and middle fingers.
This white chess piece shimmered with a faint starlight, exuding immense attraction.
He reached out.
Holding the white chess piece between two fingers, he offered it to Duan Chen.
"The white piece represents the descent of my authority. If you accept the white piece, it signifies that there is no turning back. You can only participate in this game."
"This is a road of no return."
Wu Suowei's words were not a plea for Duan Chen to refuse the white piece.
Duan Chen, of course, understood. Without a word, he raised his hand and snatched the starlight-shimmering chess piece from Wu Suowei's grasp.
He spoke rapidly, "You just need to tell me how to fuse the white piece."
"It's not necessary."
Wu Suowei shook his head.
He looked directly at Duan Chen.
"The moment you accepted it, you agreed."
The white piece transformed into a stream of light in his hand and flew into Duan Chen's body.
As it entered, Duan Chen's eyes widened, bloodshot in an instant.
Wu Suowei, standing before him, smiled, his power steadily collapsing.
From the outside, there was no discernible change, but only he knew that his strength had fallen to a new level.
Yet, he remained unfazed, his gaze fixed on Gu Sang, who stood beside him.
Gu Sang's Soul Shatter Spear was nearing the completion of a countdown. He raised the spear, aiming it at the immobile Duan Chen, but Wu Suowei intervened directly.
Wu Suowei, without anyone noticing, appeared before Gu Sang.
"Hey, kid."
His voice was a little hoarse.
"Don't you know that the transformation process cannot be interrupted?"
"Doing so is like peeking under a pretty girl's skirt!"
Gu Sang: ...
He couldn't quite understand what this somewhat unhinged man was saying.
However, the man exuded a great sense of danger. After a moment of hesitation, he glanced at the Leviathan, who was causing havoc.
He eventually retracted the Soul Shatter Spear.
Meanwhile, Duan Chen was undergoing a tearing sensation from within.
Countless streaks of starlight erupted from his body, turning him into a glowing entity. The power surging from within him, wave after wave, washed over his muscles and meridians, bringing him excruciating pain.
The pain in his eyes was particularly intense.
Unbearable agony erupted from his eyeballs.
His eyes twitched erratically, as if they were about to burst.
Amidst this intense suffering, Duan Chen gradually comprehended new abilities.
"Petrifying Eye!"
"Kenjutsu Eye!"
"Eyes of Death Perception!"
Awakening three ocular skills at once almost burst him.
Wu Suowei then appeared by Duan Chen's side, looking intrigued, stroking his chin, and paying no mind to the rampaging Leviathan.
By now, everyone knew that no matter what they did, the situation was irreversible.
As a deity, Wu Suowei could not interfere too much in worldly affairs.
As an exchange with Duan Chen, the intervention that stopped the Leviathan's rampage in that instant was the maximum extent of his involvement.
Therefore, events should unfold as they are destined to.
However...
"You've gained my authority, yet you've awakened ocular skills? Three of them at once, though. Your naming talent is quite good."
Duan Chen, covered in blood and sweat, fell to his knees.
He raised a hand to cover his eyes, a bitter smile on his lips.
"You didn't tell me accepting power would be this painful."
He had thought he had died several times over just now.
Wu Suowei shrugged.
"Would you have refused if I had told you?"
That was a point well made.
Duan Chen no longer dwelled on whether he should have been informed that accepting the white piece meant enduring the pain of tearing.
He felt his newly acquired three ocular skills and took a deep breath.
The moment these three skills manifested, he had almost instantly named them.
Petrifying Eye.
Possessing the power to petrify those who meet its gaze.
Much like Medusa in Greek mythology.
However, unlike her, the duration and area of petrification depended on his own spiritual energy.
Kenjutsu Eye.
Seeing the past and future.
But similar to the previous skill, how far into the past or future he could see was entirely dependent on his spiritual energy.
Some functions overlapped with ocular skills he already possessed.
But that didn't matter.
The last, the Eyes of Death Perception.
It allowed him to see the lines and points on a person.
It allowed him to discern weaknesses.
He could sever an enemy's existence without effort.
Those killed by this pair of eyes would completely vanish, from past to present to future, forever erased from the river of time, utterly annihilated.
Like...
The Soul Shatter Spear Gu Sang wielded?
Duan Chen felt an inexplicable strangeness, as if there was a connection between the two.
But he couldn't pinpoint what that connection was, so he temporarily put his doubts aside.
He took a breath and looked at Wu Suowei standing nearby.
"I haven't fully fused with the white piece yet, and even in this initial stage, I've awakened three ocular skills. The power of a god is truly formidable."
It also inspired immense reverence.
He took a deep breath.
"Don't worry. Since I've stepped onto the chessboard, I will help you win this game."
Wu Suowei smiled indifferently.
"The most important thing right now isn't making promises to me."
He gave a hint.
Duan Chen's pupils contracted.
He immediately turned and left without further ado.
As time passed, more and more monsters appeared here, born from the revival of the Leviathan. These monsters and disasters were all sorts of strange and grotesque forms.
Duan Chen's Thousand Illusions Pandora had transformed into its blade mode.
He acted like a ruthless butcher.
The white piece had not only granted him new ocular skills but also increased his spiritual energy.
It made him invincible.