The desert is vast and insignificant, with constant ups and downs, and people suddenly seem so small in the middle of it.

The boundless desert is like a yellow sea, and the sky is full of fire, and ten thousand points of light shine brightly.

Waves of heat rise in the desert, making it difficult to breathe.

The six people came here, only Wu Liuqi still had a few pieces of moon cakes on him, the monkey and Nishang could not eat, and Liu Xingyan and the night quicksand could also last for a while. Only Tang Xuansong and Wu Liuqi needed food, and when they were hungry, they ate a small bite of moon cakes, but their mouths were dry at the moment, and their bodies were getting weaker and weaker.

In the end, the two of them really couldn't walk, the night quicksand carried Wu Liuqi, Liu Xingyan carried Tang Xuansong on his back, and followed the monkey and Nishang to walk in the boundless desert.

After walking for a while, Nishang looked forward and saw that the desert in front of her was flat and spread all the way to the horizon, where the sky and the earth met, and there were undulating jagged sand dunes.

"Monkey, you can take us to fly 1,800 miles in a blink of an eye, but you don't have to move forward in this desert, are you sick?" Tang Xuansong, who was lying on Liu Xingyan's back, had a weak face and the corners of his lips were pale, but he was still chattering.

The sky was like a furnace, and the sweat on several people soaked through their clothes. The monkey carried the stick and said loudly: "You don't see, Qinghai head, no one collects the white bones in ancient times, the new ghosts are annoyed and the old ghosts are crying, and the sky is cloudy and rainy." ”

"Haha, the monkey can even recite poetry, laugh at me, laugh at me......" Tang Xuansong exaggeratedly shouted and laughed on Liu Xingyan's back, Liu Xingyan frowned, and roared: "Don't make noise, if you make any more noise, I'll throw you on the ground." ”

"Monkey, what do you mean by the poem? Actually, Xiao Tang is right, you could have taken us out of this desert, why did you still walk forward?" said Night Quicksand, walking beside the monkey, puzzled.

The monkey said, "Don't forget the purpose of our journey, our purpose is to find the Four Messengers and the Messengers. This time, I went to the prison to talk to the Qin Demon, and he told me that the chess master was nearby and that he would meet us soon. So let's try not to go far and wait slowly. And I'm also thinking about ways to extinguish this endless sea of fire, if this fire continues to spread, the world will become a hell completely. ”

"You're going to the prison again, how is Qinglian, do you have any instructions?" asked Liu Xingyan.

The monkey said, "I told her that you and Tong'er are fine, and she didn't say anything, and she was relieved to know that you were all safe." ”

Listening to the monkey's words, Liu Xingyan quickened his pace, his eyes were firm and persistent.

The group had traveled some more distance, and at this moment they were completely in the middle of the desert, and they could not tell where the direction was to the west.

Just as a few people were disoriented, a figure appeared in the distance.

The figure got closer and closer, and it turned out to be an old man dressed in white.

The old man carried a chessboard on his back, and with a smile on his face, he slowly walked to the place of the six and stood in front of the monkey.

"Are you a chess master?" asked the monkey.

The old man nodded and said, "Since you know the old man's name, you have already met the Qin Demon. ”

The chess master suddenly appeared, and the four monkeys all looked happy, only Nishang and Wu Liuqi didn't know why the four were happy.

"Chess Master, why do you only carry the chessboard on your back and not the chess pieces?" asked Night Quicksand.

At this time, Tang Xuansong also jumped off Liu Xingyan's back and solemnly saluted the chess saint.

The chess master pointed to the sky and said: "The chessboard I carry is just an empty shell, the real chessboard is the four directions, and the chess pieces are all living beings." ”

"Heaven and earth are plates, and all beings are sons. Who's playing chess?" asked the monkey.

The chess master took out the chessboard on his body, put it on the desert, pointed to the chessboard and said: "Everyone can make a different set of chessboard and different chess pieces, and thousands of different chess pieces can walk on the common chessboard, but the maker of each chessboard has different rules and formulates different route steps. If different pieces appear on a board, those pieces will reject the board, thus disrupting the rules of the board, and the pieces will either be abandoned by the board owner or taken away by the original owner. This is the most superficial meaning of different chess games in the world. ”

"You mean, there are a lot of chess players in this world?" the monkey continued.

The chess saint shook his head and said: "The rules of heaven and earth, the six reincarnations, and the three laws of definition, who can have the ability to spread out such a big situation?"

The monkey shook his head and said, "I just want to ask how many chess players I don't know there are today, and I don't want to know the owner of the only chessboard." ”

"Chess within a game, outside the game. There are too many people who can play chess in this world, and I don't know how to answer this question. The chess master still shook his head and sighed.

When the two of them spoke like this, the others could not understand what they meant by each other.

The monkey said, "In that case, do you know whose chess piece I am?"

The chess master's face suddenly became solemn, and he said in a deep voice: "You are the chess piece that disrupted other people's chess games and was abandoned, you have no master now, and there are no rules to restrain you for the time being." You can choose to become someone else's pawn again, or you can play your own game and let someone else become a pawn in your hand. ”

"If that's the case, then I can only go with the flow and continue to be an abandoned pawn. No matter what the future holds, I'm not going to change anything. The monkey's tone grew deeper and deeper, and there was a worried look on his face.

The chess master nodded and said, "The current situation is an endgame. And you, the abandoned chess piece, are stirring up in it, causing countless unknown results. This rain of fire from the sky is one of the unknown results, I can investigate some of the mysteries of heaven and earth, but I can't see through the unknown cause and effect caused by you. ”

Sun Wukong said: "So the Qin Demon wants you to go to the Heavenly Prison to find him, and he will tell you something." ”

"Did he tell me to go to the prison to find him?" asked the chess master.

The monkey said "yes".

Looking at the monkey's thoughtful look, the chess master said, "Actually, the four of us only know each other's names, but we have never met. When we come together, it is when the Preacher is born. ”

"The four envoys of the piano, chess, calligraphy, and painting have never met? The messenger has not yet been born? So what are we going all the way west for?" Tang Xuansong suddenly opened his mouth and asked three questions in succession.

The chess master picked up the chessboard, put it on his back again, and said to Tang Xuansong: "The four of us are just like the four of you, although we have never met before, we are destined to meet. The preacher is just a title, and he may even be one of you. As for why you're heading west, all I can say is, let it all be. ”

After saying this, the chess master carried the chessboard on his back and walked slowly towards the front. Several people turned to look at the chess saint, and saw that the chess saint was stepping into the air like a ladder, step by step, higher and higher, farther and farther, and finally disappeared into the sky.