[During the time since the Donghuang Bell sounded: 620 years]

Ming Dynasty, winter of the fourth year of Yongle.

Heavy snow.

In the Kunlun Mountains, a gray figure walked slowly through the endless white snow. The strong wind blew up the broken snow, submerging the two clear lines of footprints.

The figure passed through the mountains and finally stopped in front of an old dilapidated temple.

This temple seemed to be built thousands of years ago. The outer walls had almost completely collapsed. Heavy snow covered the temple ruins, and the outline of the house could not be seen at all. Half of the dilapidated door stood alone in front of the ruins, making a harsh creaking sound with the howling wind.

"It's been almost 1,400 years..."

The gray figure looked at the ruins of the temple and muttered, "It took longer than I thought."

He stretched out his hand to push open the half of the dilapidated door, but with a crisp sound, the door broke directly in the snow. The harsh creaking sound disappeared completely, leaving only the endless whistling sound of wind and snow.

He sighed and walked into the wreckage of the ruined temple.

Relying on his memory, he came to a snow hill and stepped lightly. The snow in front of him was automatically shattered and fell all over the ground, revealing the clay Buddha statue in it.

After more than 1,400 years, even the outer walls have collapsed and decayed, but this clay Buddha statue still maintains its original appearance!

A crack had spread across the belly of the clay Buddha statue, almost splitting the front of the statue in half. As the snow collapsed, the crack spread again, as if something was about to burst out from the inside!

The gray-clothed figure just stood quietly in the ruins, staring at the scene, with no intention of taking action.

Snap——!!

With a muffled sound, the clay Buddha statue in front of him split into two halves along the crack in the middle. A figure maintained the same posture as the original Buddha statue, sitting cross-legged quietly on the stone platform.

He was a young monk in his early twenties, with a delicate and handsome face. He was wearing a muddy robe, but his skin was white and translucent, like a holy Buddha born in the mud.

His face was exactly the same as that of the gray-clothed figure!

"You came out a little late." Lin Qiye, who was wearing gray clothes, looked at the face in front of him that was exactly the same as his own, and spoke calmly.

The monk's eyes slowly opened, like a pool of deep and calm autumn water. Although his face was exactly the same as Lin Qiye's, his temperament was completely different. There was a Zen spirit in his every move.

"It is not easy to shape this body. Moreover, we have to prevent it from being discovered by the [Key to the Gate]."

He stood up from the ruins, brushed off the mud on his robes, and stood opposite Lin Qiye in the wind and snow.

"What should I call you? The Predestined Result? The Buddha of Fate? Or... Lin Qiye?" Lin Qiye asked.

The monk clasped his hands together and bowed slightly to Lin Qiye:

"Just call me... [Fate]."

“Destiny?” Lin Qiye looked at the monk in front of him, “Is this your Buddhist name?”

"My name, my Dharma name, my posthumous title... are all just illusions. I am neither a Buddha nor a Taoist, neither a god nor a human. I am just who I am."

Lin Qiye raised his brows slightly, "You see it very clearly."

"Humans always like to complicate simple things through so-called 'personality', 'emotions', 'love and hate'. I am just doing the opposite."

The fatalistic monk clasped his hands together and spoke calmly. His tone was flat and did not fluctuate at all. He did not sound like a living person, but rather a cold machine.

This did not surprise Lin Qiye. The consciousness born from pure cause and effect would not have the emotions that humans have, but it possessed extremely terrifying computing power. This was what he wanted.

"How did you do on this game of chess?" Lin Qiye asked the question that concerned him most.

"In the past 1,525 years, I have performed 6,420 trillion calculations. Judging from the chess pieces we have now, the chance of winning is less than 0.2 percent," said the monk of fate calmly.

"Two thousandths..."

Lin Qiye thought that the chances of human beings winning would be very low, but he did not expect that even if he returned to the Western Han Dynasty and set up this secret chess game, the chances of winning would still be so slim... It seems that what [Key to the Door] said before, that throughout history, humans have no chance of winning is not a joke.

The Ke system is far more terrifying than they know.

Lin Qiye frowned, "So, how many more chess pieces do we need?"

"Whether the winning rate is improved or not is not determined by the number of chess pieces, but by the quality of the chess pieces and the role they can play in cause and effect." Monk Fate paused for a moment, "Even if there are three more Jade Emperors, their role in this chess game may not be as good as that of Li Yifei."

"I understand." Lin Qiye nodded. "I will take care of the chess piece issue... Now that you have a physical body, what are your plans?"

"For me, it doesn't make much difference whether I have a physical body or not... I condensed this physical body just to complete a cause and effect for you."

"...Zhou Ping?"

"We need Zhou Ping, and Zhou Ping also needs a [Life-Transforming Pearl] condensed from my body. Only in this way can we complete this causal paradox and completely hide Zhou Ping's existence."

"Since you have made up your mind, go ahead... If you need anything, just contact me using the causal thread."

Lin Qiye came here just to meet this [Predestined Fruit] and see if he is as qualified to be a chess player as he expected... and the performance of the Monk of Fate is even better than he expected.

"Don't forget, there is another person's cause and effect that you have not hidden." The monk of fate reminded.

"That era is too close to the era I was in in the past. In order to avoid the entanglement of the cause and effect of the two of me, I will seal my own cause and effect fifty years in advance and fall into a deep sleep... I will leave him to you."

"Okay." Monk Fate nodded slightly, "After I leave this body to Zhou Ping, I will condense another one."

Seeing Lin Qiye turning around and about to leave, Monk Su Ming was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke:

"because."

Lin Qiye stopped and looked back.

"Humanity cannot lose this game of chess, right?" Monk Fate asked in the wind and snow, with his hands clasped together.

"Of course." Lin Qiye said as a matter of course, "If even humans no longer exist, what's the point of continuing this game of chess?"

The fateful monk stared at Lin Qiye for a long time and nodded slightly:

"That's good."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and walked to the other side of the mountain, his muddy robes disappearing in the wind and snow.

Seeing the fateful monk suddenly ask such a question, Lin Qiye was a little puzzled, but he still shook his head and walked down the mountain from the other side...