Lu Zhaozhao looked around. The bright light from earlier had made her eyes dry and blurry, and it took her a while to recover.

She recalled what the soldier Tai Feng had said earlier: the first test was called abacus calculation, but the ground was like a chessboard with crisscrossing lines when she entered. So what exactly was this test testing?

She walked along, observing her surroundings.

This place is vastly different from the Western Regions. The Western Regions are desolate deserts with long rivers and setting suns, but here it is lush and green, with ancient trees reaching for the sky. Therefore, this place is either an illusion or a newly discovered world.

The road was deserted, with fallen leaves scattered everywhere, the only sound being the crunching of her footsteps as she passed by.

Hurrying through the bushes, Lu Zhaozhao spotted a towering building in the distance and thought to herself, "This is something special!" She then quickened her pace and hurried toward it.

She brushed aside the branches and leaves blocking her view, and her vision suddenly became bright, but just as she took a step, she was stopped by someone.

"Who is it!" A familiar voice rang out, accompanied by the whistling sound of a hidden weapon.

"Clang!" The bamboo sword shattered, and Lu Zhaozhao looked up and met the gaze of the person not far away.

"It's you!" Huai Jiang squinted at her, her face displeased. She was about to say something more when Lu Zhaozhao interrupted her.

"My name is Guan Nan. I happened to come here. Please forgive me if I have offended you."

At first, Huai Jiang didn't understand why she would do this, since they had met before. But then she thought about it and realized that no one else knew about that meeting except for them. Who knows who might have seen the scene in the competition arena? She broke out in a cold sweat.

So he composed himself, put on his usual airs, turned away indifferently, and was about to leave.

But as she turned around, she bumped into Cheng Sangji. However, Cheng Sangji's gaze passed over Huai Jiang and landed directly on Lu Zhaozhao.

"My name is Cheng Sangjie. May I ask if Miss Guan Nan wishes to stay here for a while?"

Lu Zhaozhao met his gaze, looked at his ambiguous eyes, and said, "Thank you, friend Cheng Sang."

Cheng Sangji nodded in acknowledgment and stepped aside to make way for her. Huai Jiang looked at him with some confusion, but did not object and followed him to the side.

Lu Zhaozhao walked up the stone steps as she spoke. From a distance, the building seemed magnificent, but upon closer inspection, she realized it was a hidden gem.

The architecture is almost identical to that of the human race's fortress!

A city wall was built around the perimeter, with parapets and crenellations on the wall, each three feet wide and two feet five inches high, with a crenellation every fifty steps. The strict regulations made the already sturdy outer wall even thicker, and the outer wall guarded the round fortress inside, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

How could the Western Regions, which have been isolated from the outside world for many years, now possess the most advanced defense system of the human race?

Lu Zhaozhao was puzzled, but she continued walking forward with a blank expression.

There were already quite a few demons here. As Lu Zhaozhao walked along the road, demons would look her up and down from time to time, and she would also look them up and down.

Of the eight clans, only Cheng Sangji and Huai Jiang have been seen so far. However, based on their last meeting, their relationship is not very close. Cheng Sangji and Nan Rongrui, on the other hand, are more familiar with each other. Furthermore, Changyu Lanshan is unlikely to act alone. Therefore, most of the eight clans should be here.

Therefore, these people by the roadside are undoubtedly members of the Eight Tribes' affiliated clans.

Therefore, this impregnable fortress was the headquarters of the eight major tribes!

Lu Zhaozhao couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Although they had some kind of alliance, they all knew that they didn't trust each other. What if these people suddenly changed their minds and refused to cooperate? Would she be torn to pieces right here just to have one less competitor?

The path wasn't long, but after stepping onto the last step, Lu Zhaozhao stood in front of the palace gate, hesitant to enter.

The door opened by itself from the inside, revealing a figure in fiery red robes fluttering amidst snow-white hair. It was Nan Rongrui who opened the door.

Behind her stood Tu Danxi, and further back, deeper in the distance, stood Changyu Lanshan and Qiehe.

“Cheng Sangjie sent a message saying a girl has arrived. Is that you?” Nan Rongrui winked at her mischievously. Lu Zhaozhao understood and nodded.

She made room for Lu Zhaozhao, just the right size for her.

Lu Zhaozhao glanced at her bright smile, then at the single-minded man behind her, thanked her, and went inside.

As soon as the door closed, the guarded expressions of the group immediately relaxed. Nan Rongrui walked straight to the chaise lounge and slumped down, fiddling with her blood-red fingernails. She looked at Lu Zhaozhao and said, "Don't be offended. People outside can see what's happening here. Only in this hall can we talk."

Lu Zhaozhao found it interesting, looked around the inner hall, and said, "Is this the work of Commander Taifeng?"

“That’s right,” Nan Rongrui said, “It’s just for convenience.”

"Why are you telling her so much?" Changyu Lanshan interrupted him irritably. He had never liked Lu Zhaozhao.

Lu Zhaozhao ignored him and went straight to the point, asking Nan Rongrui, "What do you want me to do?"

Upon hearing this, Nan Rongrui immediately sat up straight, and Tu Danxi also shifted his gaze from the knife to her.

"Didn't they specifically look for me? Or did I misunderstand the markings on the road?" Lu Zhaozhao said with a smile. She had noticed from the beginning that although the distribution of trees seemed chaotic, there was only one path formed by the undulating foliage, which was obviously unreasonable. After all, in the many dense forests she had seen, the mountain paths were numerous and would only make people get lost.

“Cheng Sangjie is right, you can definitely see it, but I’m too lazy to set up other paths, so please forget about this crude signpost.” Nan Rongrui rested her chin on her hand, her tone as languid as a cat, and continued, “Do you know how to get through this level?”

Lu Zhaozhao shook her head.

“There are specific places here, and they are scattered like chess pieces on a chessboard, but these are all dead pieces.” As she spoke, she conjured a chessboard with several pieces on it, pointing and explaining, “We are the pieces that have not yet been placed on the chessboard, which are the variables in this game. When we came in, we were automatically divided into two camps, playing against each other, and the side that wins wins.”

"How do we play the game?"

“Kill the enemy team members, and they become our pawns.” Changyu Lanshan joined the conversation, clearly interested in the game.

“But there are only a few of you here. Aren’t the eight clans allies? Are you going to kill those members of the eight clans who are not on the same side?” Lu Zhaozhao asked.

But Nan Rongrui just smiled and didn't answer.

An absurd idea popped into Lu Zhaozhao's mind, and she frowned, saying, "You're setting me up!"

The door behind them creaked open, and Cheng Sangji and Huai Jiang walked in.

"The key to this competition is abacus calculation, not chess." Cheng Sangji walked over unhurriedly, found a seat, and accepted the tea that Nan Rongrui handed him.

"A draw is allowed in a game of chess, but in the process, both sides need to sacrifice some pieces, so..."

"So you need to calculate a draw and eliminate those who don't belong to you. The more you eliminate, the better for you. Therefore, none of the eight of you can be in the same camp."

Lu Zhaozhao finished speaking in one breath and looked at him in disbelief.

Cheng Sangjie nodded.

Lu Zhaozhao spoke with some difficulty: "The chessboard has nineteen lines, one hundred and eighty-one black pieces and one hundred and eighty white pieces. To achieve a draw, how many of your own kind do you want to kill?"

"Our own kind?" Changyu Lanshan burst into laughter. "Are you out of your mind? They dare to call themselves our own kind?"

He bent down, approached Lu Zhaozhao, and said the cruelest words in the world: "It is their greatest honor to pave the way for us."

Her stomach churned, and Lu Zhaozhao couldn't help but turn her head and dry heave. Her gaze lingered on the faces of everyone in the room; they all seemed to agree with this approach.

"Sorry." Lu Zhaozhao left after saying that, and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

"What's wrong with her?" Nan Rongrui asked, puzzled.

"It's alright, she'll be back sooner or later." Cheng Sangji brushed away the tea foam and slowly sipped his tea.