<h4>Chapter 2048: Chapter 2048: ying Chess</h4>


    "Impossible! How do you know I’m a fake?"


    Pranay Martinez on the ground kept shaking his head, as if trying to recall where he had given himself away.


    He thought hard but couldn’t find a w.


    "Didn’t know before, now I do." Julius Reed shrugged, looking at him as if he were an idiot. "My principle is to trust no one. And when you entered, you called me Julius Reed. Pranay Martinez doesn’t have the guts to shout my name in my face; even if he did, he’d deserve a beating for it."


    "You deceived me?" The Pranay Martinez on the ground widened his eyes in anger!


    He had been yed.


    "Not exactly. I had three or four parts suspicion before, now it’s a perfect ten." Julius Reed held the Break Sky Knife, standing over Pranay Martinez, slowly raising it. "If I’m not wrong, you should be the real master of the Dusty tform, right?"


    "To be able to control the entire Dusty tform and cultivate so many puppets is really no small feat. Although I don’t know who you truly are, I believe you’ve appeared by my side before."


    "You better pray that I never catch sight of you. Otherwise, the next time I swing my knife, it won’t just be this puppet’s head."


    As soon as he finished speaking, Julius Reed shed down with his long knife!


    The ’Pranay Martinez’y headless.


    The temple did not disappear, the statue remained a statue.


    The environment around them didn’t change a bit.


    The Temple of Nine Spirits stood firmly atop the Dusty tform.


    But the beheaded Pranay Martinez turned to powder and dispersed.


    Outside the door, another Pranay Martinez was looking around.


    "Western Emperor?" Seeing Julius Reed inside the temple, he eximed, "Get out! This is one of the three great temples, exceptionally wicked! Stay away from it! Just now, I tried getting rid of the old monk ringing the bell, but it was useless; that guy just won’t die!"


    "It’s alright." Julius Reed waved to him. "Come."


    Cautious about preserving life, that is the true Pranay Martinez.


    This type of caution is not cowardice but prudence!


    Trying to minimize the probability of death.


    The fake Pranay Martinez earlier disyed somewhat clumsy acting.


    Practically portraying Devlin instead.


    Pranay Martinez nced, making sure there was no problem, and then walked in.


    Bam!


    As soon as he entered, his butt received a kick from Julius Reed.


    "Damn it, Western Emperor, what’s the meaning of this!" Pranay Martinez frowned slightly, showing no displeasure in his eyes, only surprise.


    "A fake Pranay Martinez just appeared, I chopped him." Julius Reed nced at him and said casually, "I had to check the authenticity, otherwise if I chopped wrong, that’d be embarrassing."


    "Makes sense." Pranay Martinez felt a chill down his neck, a bit eerie.


    But once it was spoken, it was actually safe.


    From one moment to the next, he directly forgot about being kicked just now.


    "The fake was killed by me, but nothing here changed. If I’m not mistaken, that fake you is just an ordinary puppet, controlled by the Dusty tform’s master since it’s tangible."


    Julius Reed folded his hands behind his back, raising his head to scrutinize the three statues.


    The statues showed no changes.


    Returned to being mere sculptures.


    Hard to imagine that just a moment ago, these three sculptures had attacked Julius Reed like real people.


    "We are trapped." Pranay Martinez was asposed as Julius Reed, he gazed at the statue and sighed, "Back then when I came here for pilgrimage, thousands stood outside! In front of the statue stood the Prophet, we were ten meters away from the statue, kneeling on the ground."


    Saying so, he took a step forward.


    Standing at the foot of the statue.


    Less than half a meter away.


    "But now, I can stand before them, at such a close distance." Pranay Martinez reached out, gently touching the statue.


    Only to find himself reaching into thin air.


    "Forgot, Western Emperor, you broke it long ago, packed it in a golden coffin. Nowadays, that’d be grounds for major artifact destruction charges." Pranay Martinez turned around, teasing with a smile.


    "But also, this illusion lets me see the former glory of the temple. Everything here seems unchanged over time."


    Pranay Martinez closed his eyes, opened his arms, reveling in the moment.


    Roaming around the temple, like tourists at a scenic spot, showing no sign of being trapped on the Dusty tform.


    After some time, seemingly tired.


    Pranay Martinez sat on the ground.


    "Only the ground is real." He patted the ground,ughing, "Five thousand years ago, if someone told me such a grand temple would be dismantled, I wouldn’t believe it even if it killed me! The entire world worshipped, the Nine Provinces bowed! The temple back then, what splendor it faced!"


    "If a year ago, someone told me, I could be sitting face-to-face with the Holy One, not fighting, I’d have given them a p."


    Finished speaking, he looked at Julius Reed, feeling emotional, "That’s the charm of the world."


    "If I chopped off your head now, perhaps the world would lose that charm." Julius Reed finished, watching the slightly bbergasted Pranay Martinez, smiling, "Just kidding."


    "I feel like I just scored a free life in seconds." Pranay Martinez chuckled self-deprecatingly and pointed at the three statues in front of him. "What to do?"


    "Wait." Julius Reed sat next to Pranay Martinez, toying with the Break Sky Knife in his hand. "Since the people of the Dusty tform trapped us here, they must have their reasons. To maintain such a vast illusion consumes an extraordinary amount of spiritual power. Let’s wait for them, we’re not in a rush."


    After speaking, Julius Reed carved a chessboard onto the ground with his knife.


    "Chess?" Pranay Martinez rubbed his hands, seating himself at the chessboard, suddenly interested.


    "You know, I haven’t yed chess in years. Unlike you, Holy One, who ys with women all day, we can only y this." With that, he chuckled.


    That generation had a strong passion for chess.


    There were no other entertainment options; either climbing trees to catch monkeys or diving into the sea for fish.


    ying chess, that was a privilege for the upper echelons.


    But after that era, Pranay Martinez found no chess opponents.


    Even his subordinates were ying on their phones, nobody cared for this.


    "Your luck’s good today." Julius Reed took out a set of chess pieces from his chest, cing them in front. "These pieces are useless to me, I’ll give them to youter."


    "Really?"


    Pranay Martinez opened the chess set, feeling them in his hands, they felt very smooth and emitted an inexplicable sense of familiarity.


    "Of course, no empty words." Julius Reed picked up a chess piece and tossed it into the air.


    Strangely, the chess piece hovered in mid-air.


    The chessboard drawn on the ground projected between the two of them.


    "These chess pieces were made from the skulls of temple guards I slew in the past. You know, those were rough times." Julius Reed finished, gesturing to Pranay Martinez: "Your turn."


    "These pieces..." Pranay Martinez felt a chill on his scalp. "I don’t want them."