The work of the Go master

Ke Zhiguang and Zhu Daoduan stared at each other across a distance of several meters, both feeling an indescribable excitement and trepidation.

They both recalled the night they played against Shi Xin, a game that had a crucial impact on their respective paths in the world of Go.

Having witnessed the ceiling of world combat power, Ke Zhiguang launched a frenzied attack on it, while Zhu Daoduan felt an unprecedented panic at this ceiling, almost kneeling down.

However, the two clashed midway through the second game. Ke Zhiguang achieved a breakthrough in this game, while Zhu Daoduan also gained many insights and began his seclusion for several months.

Now that the two have met again, they inevitably feel that the other is a destined rival, and they are bound to have another big fight.

"Yo, Duanzi, you're finally awake." Ke Zhiguang switched to his battle persona, his tone becoming provocative, his jaw clenching and his eyes narrowing.

Bamboo Sword Forging was very satisfied with Ke Zhiguang's attitude, as this would allow them to skip the formalities and go straight into the battle.

"Then let's begin, and I'll show you my... power right now!" With that, Bamboo Sword Forge clenched his fist tightly in front of him, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Hmm... Although his declaration of war seemed quite imposing, considering that he's like a comedic character who makes his entrance by being ganged up on, it just feels a little strange.

Moreover, there were fist marks on his face, and if you look at the marks alone... it seems that it was Ke Zhiguang himself who took advantage of the chaos to punch him.

And most importantly... you fucking cut your bangs off! With bangs like that, can you even see what's in front of you?!

Fine, let's just label him a comedic character. At least someone who can be considered a comedic character is probably not a bad guy, right?

Soon, the two sat down in front of the chessboard, their imposing presence as strong as mountains.

For Ke Zhiguang, the current facilities are not exactly friendly. The Go tables in this recreation room are small tea tables, and players can only sit cross-legged, which is a sitting posture he is not used to.

On the contrary, when Zhu Daoduan sat opposite him, his posture became much more upright and majestic, as he was quite used to this posture.

Just like the match in the New Star Cup, this game was also held in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, with a vast expanse of white snow outside and a chilling wind making a terrifying sound as it blew against the glass.

It is also full of artistic conception.

Such a scene would probably not have occurred in ancient times. There were no such good conditions for heating in ancient times, and chess pieces could freeze a person's hands. Playing chess against a snowy backdrop is a privilege of modern people.

Several girls watched from a distance, finding it hard to understand what these boys were thinking, and how they could start fighting over a mere disagreement.

"Come on, Takami, my nemesis, let's settle this now!" Xiong Ying looked at her opponent with high spirits, as if her ignition had been ignited.

“I refuse,” Yingmei replied coldly.

As I said before, only idiots would be willing to spend their precious vacation time playing chess.

Harushima Shika chimed in, "Don't worry, once this game of his is over, you'll all be challenged by him one by one, and none of you will escape."

These noises were kept out of the chessboard, and the two players were focused on adjusting their game.

The intense heat radiated from in front of him, and even before the game of chess began, Ke Zhiguang felt the oppressive force coming towards him.

Ke Zhiguang already knew the opponent's symbolic spirit, which was Shura. As for the opponent's current strength, after careful sensing... it was roughly at a point where red and purple alternated.

A strange, distorted visual effect appeared around the other person's figure, like a scorching hot asphalt road in the sweltering heat.

【The Blessing of the Sacred Spring: The Baptism of the Imperial Pool】

A dialog box appeared on the other party's screen, but no actual effect was displayed.

When Harujima Deer, riding high on his championship glory, attacked him last time, a similar phenomenon occurred. Even before the match began, his fighting spirit was already overflowing, creating a visual effect, and his strength improved from red to alternating between red and purple.

The current bamboo sword forging is in a similar situation, with the Emperor's Pool effect being comparable to a champion's bonus.

Suddenly, a clump of snow fell from the tree branch outside the window, making a soft rustling sound. The two of them noticed this inconspicuous sound at the same time!

Using this as a signal, they started guessing first, their tacit agreement leaving not a single word unspoken.

After guessing first, Ke played light and black.

In fact, his win rate is only ten points lower when playing black compared to when playing white.

"What a pity, I didn't let you get the white pieces." Bamboo Blade sighed, whether it was a provocation or from the bottom of his heart was unclear.

Although he was in Hokkaido, he did not neglect his research on Kojima and discovered that Kojima's winning rate with white was relatively higher.

"Based on the order of challenges from weakest to strongest, you have to get past me, the one with black, before you can challenge me, the one with white, right?"

Gunpowder has already been stockpiled before the start of the operation.

Ke Zhiguang took a deep breath and went first. His first black stone fell from the sky and landed on the star point in the upper right corner of the board!

click-

The lights suddenly went out.

The sudden power outage not only stunned the players, but also caused several girls nearby to scream. Some were frightened, while others suddenly became excited.

"What's going on? The power went out just because I was trying to select a star position? I didn't select any Heavenly Origin!" Ke Zhiguang looked up in astonishment at the darkness around him.

The image of Yabu using his superpower to knock out the power to the entire hotel during the last Nova Battle was still vivid in his mind, giving Koji Hikaru the feeling that he was the one who caused the current power outage.

A staff member rushed over and said, "I'm sorry, there was a problem with the hotel's power supply due to the weather. We'll fix it right away, but don't worry, our heating system is fine, so there's no need to worry about the temperature."

The game, which had just become quite exciting, suddenly came to a standstill.

Even when forging bamboo knives, he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

How could I possibly encounter such a situation?

This is not the game room of that hotel from before, where a spotlight could be quickly set up to assist in the game. Moreover, there is no moon tonight, and the only light source is the faint silver light on the snow.

Without a light source, it's impossible to play a game.

So the situation entered a test of patience, a sit-and-wait mode, waiting for the call to come in.

Silently, snowflakes began to fall from the window again.

Chapter Ten: No Wind Tonight

The whole world was different after the power outage; there were many things that shimmered like crystals in the darkness.

Under the sunlight and lamplight of ordinary days, these naturally luminous and light-refracting glass objects appear extremely dull. However, when the real light disappears, they can break through the darkness and become as lush and vibrant as newly sprouted grass.

This power outage wasn't limited to this hotel; the entire city of Otaru experienced a widespread blackout, likely due to a problem with the central power supply system. Fortunately, the heating system was still functioning.

The storm that had raged for several days came to an abrupt end, and glistening snowflakes slowly fell from the night sky, transforming the town back into a fairytale-like place.

All was silent, like a dream.

In the hotel's courtyard, snowballs were fired back and forth in a crisscross pattern, with occasional snowballs hitting the floor-to-ceiling windows and shattering into a lump of dough.

This is where the benefits of natural snow come into play. A soft, pinkish clump can be easily picked up from the ground and doesn't hurt much when it hits someone.

"Take this, Eagle Beauty, eat my Big Ivan!" Xiong Ying threw an excessively large snowball at Eagle Beauty, and it was unclear how she even managed to make such a snowball.

Yingmei initially thought it was just a small snowball and didn't defend herself much, but instead, she was met with a heavy slap, as if she had been hit on the head by an apple pie.

"How long have you been rubbing this snowball for...?" Yingmei's fist hardened.

"That's why he's called Ivan the Great!"

"Damn it, you stupid bear, stop right there! That's the lower half of the body I used to build my snowman!" Shinobu Harishima joined the chase after Sakura Kuma.

Bai Meng and Shao Gong also ended their day of study due to the power outage and came to the central courtyard.

"You two are finally willing to come down?" Shuicheng squatted to the side, building a small snowman.

"I thought the power would come back on soon, but it hasn't shown any signs of coming back on after all this time, so I just gave up," Shao Gong said.

"Finally, I can hug the snow, woof~" Bai Meng pounced forward and lay down in the snow.

"Come on, lie still and don't move. I'll bury you, just like you're on the beach."

Bai Meng was too lazy to resist, so she simply lay down and let Shao Gong shovel snow onto her.

Many hotel guests came to the courtyard; they could only be seen during power outages, and their numbers were surprisingly large.

It felt like stepping back into my distant childhood; even power outages brought me joy.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Ke Zhiguang and Zhu Daoduan were still sitting facing each other, while snowballs bloomed one after another on the floor-to-ceiling window next to them.

The two had entered a silent standoff mode, like two motionless bronze statues, waiting for a beam of light to wake them up.

"It seems that today's match is unlikely to continue." Bamboo Sword Forger shrugged and loosened the taut bowstring.

“I think so too. My interest has been completely dampened. Maybe there’s something like quantum mechanics preventing us from playing against each other.” Ke Zhiguang sat back down and leaned against another table.

I don't know if this is due to quantum mechanics, but it's also possible that they just can't have a proper fight right now.

There's no wind tonight, only snow, very gentle snow.

Looking out the window at the festive atmosphere, Zhu Daoduan said, "I've figured it out. I can't fight you right now, and even if the phone comes back on later, I still can't."

"Want to save the match for the next game?" Ke Zhiguang could vaguely guess this scenario.

"Yes, that's right. The battle of famous generals is about to begin, and you are very likely to compete with me for the championship. I don't want to reveal my secrets to you before we officially fight." After loading the Emperor's Pool into its perfect state, Bamboo Blade Forging had thought through the details of this matter very clearly.

Ke Zhiguang nodded as well.

The phrase "a king never meets another king" might mean something like this.

This is similar to RTS competitive games from the previous life. The two sides who were about to compete were matched in the ranked ladder the night before, and they both tacitly chose to quit immediately.

This match really needs to be postponed. The more important the match, the more it deserves to be enjoyed with a solemn and grand ceremony, right?

A true chess player knows how to delay the thrill and concentrate it at a single point before unleashing it.

Bamboo Blade Forging suddenly changed the subject: "After each game of chess, Shi Xin would give his opponent some advice or guidance. Has he ever said anything to you?"

"He said he was waiting for me to return the copy of 'Ten Games of Danghu' that I had borrowed from him," Ke Zhiguang answered truthfully.

"Is that so? That's an unprecedentedly high compliment." Bamboo Sword Forger chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"He didn't say anything. If I think about it, his asking me to play the second half of the game in his place was a message to you."

Ke Zhiguang was stunned. He really had never thought about why Shi Xin had agreed to his request for the second game, and then asked Zhu Dao to play the second half of the game.

But now that I think about it, I have an answer to this question.

For Bamboo Blade Forging, although he lost this game, it allowed him to stand up again and get rid of the fear of being dominated by Stone Heart in the previous game. For Ke Zhiguang himself, it was a chance to witness a miracle and the limits.

It seems that everything is under Shi Xin's control.

"Get ready to meet again in the next Grandmaster Tournament, Koji Mitsuki." Taketsukasa said, raising his gleaming eyes.

Ke Zhiguang felt that this sentence structure looked familiar; if he had to make an analogy, it would be—