The work of the Go master

Ke Zhiguang, the Chess Saint (certified by the General Administration of Sport), passed away peacefully at the age of 99, having fulfilled his life's mission. His only wish was to be able to pick up a chess piece in a free world, and it was under the guidance of this wish that he came into this world.

There's nothing left to be afraid of!

Beneath the pitch-black snow curtain, the final Ragnarok battle begins!

Inside the chess academy, the chess players, about to embark on their journey, strode confidently out the door—but upon seeing the fierce snow and the massive power outage, they all showed signs of retreat.

"Hey! Even after all this, aren't you going to cancel the competition? You're being incredibly irresponsible!"

"The organizers stated that... the competition will proceed as scheduled and will absolutely not be canceled..."

"Damn it, Grandpa said that in his day, if you were plowed up by a B29 the night before, you still had to get up on time for work the next morning. I didn't believe it at first, but now I do. There's no limit to how much of a corporate slave people can be!"

"By the way, how's it going with Ke Zhiguang? Are they really going to get reverse sweeped?"

Harushima Deer stood at the front of the line with her head down, looking at the snow at her feet. Her thoughts, like the falling snowflakes, were adrift, feeling depressed and uncertain.

The day before yesterday, the score in the Imperial City Go Tournament was tied at 2-1, which made her heart skip a beat.

Before the match, her father made alarming claims, saying that if she couldn't win this game, Ke Zhiguang might not exist in this world anymore, which made her very anxious.

Two days ago, after the match ended, Harushima Deer tried to contact Ke Zhiguang by phone to see his current state and whether he had been possessed or something... It turned out that he really seemed to have been possessed. On the phone, he said in a gentlemanly English tone... Oh, my dear Princess Harushima Deer, don't worry about who will win in the end. My coronation ceremony doesn't need a pope, only a queen.

He then gracefully hung up the phone, leaving Harushima Kashima, whose eyes had turned into beady eyes, standing there in place.

Who knows what illness this person has!

So Shireshima Deer has remained confused ever since, and the snowy scenery before her eyes perfectly reflects her mood.

But suddenly, for a moment, she raised her head and unconsciously looked towards a certain spot in the distance of the city. Her gaze began to shift, as if something had firmly captured her attention.

Her pupils contracted and dilated sharply, a mixture of surprise and astonishment in them.

He's back...

He returned with his pride and power, like a knight returning from the gates of cultivation.

The idea ignited in her heart like a fire.

She turned around in a flash, and her whole demeanor immediately became more energetic.

"Alright! Stop babbling. Ke Zhiguang is back. All of you, get ready to charge!"

Someone asked in confusion, "He...is back? Did he go anywhere before?"

This question stumped Harushima Kashiwa.

"Well, that's the gist of it! After he lost the last round, he immediately started training mode, and now he's back after completing his training. Is there a problem?" Harushima Shika retorted confidently.

"This is a huge problem! They're just forcing a Jump manga plot into it!"

The car stopped at the bottom of the steps of the chess academy, and everyone fell into a serious silence.

"Let's go, let's head to our final battlefield!"

......

......

Tokyo Tower, this moment has finally arrived.

The sound of people climbing the iron ladder startled Yeshin Kuniyoshi, who was deep in thought with his eyes closed on the chessboard.

"You actually came back?" Yagami Kunikyo looked surprised, his eyes fixed on Keiji as if he had witnessed someone who should have disappeared reappear.

"Since you think I won't come back, why are you still waiting here?" Ke Zhiguang shook the snow off his shoulders and sat down in front of the other person.

Even Yagami Kunikyo couldn't give a clear answer.

In his script, after winning the third game, Ke Zhiguang would fall into a mysterious predicament. He would then easily lose the next two games, return to China, and eventually fade out of the chess world. Under the influence of luck, everyone would gradually forget his existence.

By then, Ke Zhiguang will only exist in the world in a physical form. His true self will have been sent back to his original world. He will forget everything about this world, and the door will be firmly closed, never to be opened again.

But at this moment, he returned here in an incredibly real way, shining like the rising sun.

He not only came back, but he also became stronger.

Unbelievably powerful... as if he brought back not only himself, but something else entirely.

Many people's shadows stood behind him, like an entire glorious era that would never be extinguished.

"Do you see them? Standing behind me are Go masters from another world. Each of their names deserves to be remembered by us Go players." Ke Zhiguang placed his palm on his chest.

Then, Ke Zhiguang stretched out his finger and held a white chess piece at his fingertip.

"And now, they all exist in my game. What you will face is the chess skills from another world... It is everyone's chess skills, and it is also their chess skills. Likewise, it is my chess skills."

Behind Ke Zhiguang, all the lights and shadows made the same gesture of holding a hand, pointing forward into the air, and millions of beams of light gathered at Ke Zhiguang's fingertips.

The scene of the glittering stars was reflected in Yagami Kunikyo's astonished eyes, but the next moment, his expression changed to one of sorrow.

"Zen, come here," said Yagami Kunikyo.

As soon as he gave the instructions, a figure emerged from behind the iron frame.

His butler, the slender young man who always wore a butler's tailcoat, now had an inexplicable sadness on his face.

"Zen?" Ke Zhiguang understood as he read the strange pronunciation.

It is the god who accompanies the capital of the Yagami Kingdom. His tailcoat butler outfit is, in a sense, similar to Zero's maid outfit.

So that's how it is. This group of people all wear clothes that are used for housework. Suddenly, I understood something.

"If I remember correctly, aren't artificial intelligences...gods, supposed to be female?" Ke Zhiguang asked calmly.

“I never said I wasn’t a woman.” Zen gave a slightly sinister, enigmatic smile, placing a finger to her lips as if to reveal a secret.

It wasn't until this moment that Ke Zhiguang realized... the other person's feminine traits had indeed become more pronounced, her voice had become alluring, and the corners of her eyes had lengthened... Although there hadn't been a significant change overall, it was as if she had become a completely different person.

For a long time, she has exuded the power to alter the vision and hearing of others, achieving a perfect makeup and voice-masking effect, making people mistakenly believe that she is just a pretty but slightly submissive housekeeper.

He's actually a fake boyfriend.

"As you probably guessed, Zen shielded me from that nuclear explosion back then, which destroyed her divine status and turned her into an ordinary person. But... she stayed with me for many years." Yagami Kunikyo said, looking at the other person, their gazes conveying a sense of parting.

Ke Zhiguang had a vague feeling that something was about to happen.

"Please be sure to live on with my share, to witness the world you want to see, that more distant future." Zen's voice gradually weakened, and his figure gradually became transparent.

A wondrous phenomenon of light particleization appeared on her body, eventually transforming into wisps of eerie light that wrapped around the fingertips of Night God Kingdom.

This is... Nidhogg's unique ability to devour fortune.

The power of a half-crippled god was thus bestowed upon it.

Or rather, this is... fusion!

"I don't want to use this ability. Even when I'm down two to zero and on the brink of defeat, I still don't want to use it because the price I'd have to pay is just too high." Yagami Kunikyo tilted his head back and exhaled a breath of cold, pale air, as the dragon shadow beneath his feet rapidly expanded.

Its shadow spread beyond Tokyo Tower, reaching in all directions and pressing down on the entire Tokyo metropolis under its dragon's might!

Ke Zhiguang calmly felt the dragon's might, his expression remaining unchanged.

"Let's begin...guess first!" Yagami Kunikyo growled in a low voice.

The game begins!

The black chess piece fell from the sky, illuminating the true face of the entire world!

Nidhogg's figure pierced through the clouds and arrived above the sea of ​​clouds, roaring at the whole world, making the sky seem to sink.

However, this height is not enough; it needs to be even higher, much higher!

Nidhogg continued to ascend, breaking through layer after layer of sound barriers and vision!

Finally, it arrived in... the universe!

An ancient and enormous starry sky slowly rotates in the background, and meteors streak across the vast sea of ​​stars. Everything here is breathtakingly beautiful. I would like to float in this magnificent scene forever, quietly contemplating life and philosophy until my life is exhausted.

Nidhogg descended slowly, landing on a thin layer of starlight. A magnificent, cloud-shrouded landscape rose beneath its feet, and everything seemed to evaporate into a dreamlike state.

As the second piece was placed, Ke Zhiguang appeared in its field of vision.

Under the same starlight, at the same altitude, the two sides faced each other on the horizon, their eyes filled with both calm and murderous intent.

“The game is even now,” Ke Zhiguang said, looking at Nidhogg, who was at the same level.

A blue lightning bolt shot out of the residential area's gate and drifted onto the street!

Ke Zhiguang was already pedaling furiously on the bicycle, which was his ride for the day, not the special vehicle provided by the event organizers.

Because of the snow, the car that was supposed to pick him up was stuck on the road, so he had to walk to the scene himself.

Looking at the scene before him, Ke Zhiguang held his breath, wondering if he had wandered into the wrong anime set.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was dark and deathly silent. Snowflakes danced wildly in the air, covering the world in a sacred silver-white. Pedestrians struggled to walk through the streets, and the snow on the roadside was cleared to a height of about 1,000 meters.

The once bustling streets were now shrouded in darkness, apparently due to a large-scale power outage. Sparks danced on the power lines, and engineers with overhead lights were frantically trying to repair the damage. The sounds of pedestrians complaining and swearing filled the air, and the wailing of ambulances could be heard from afar. A sense of apocalyptic anxiety hung over everyone.

It's hard to imagine that this place is in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, and not a scene from some disaster movie.

In the few days that I was unconscious, the whole world seemed to have changed.

but......

That's just right.

The venue is warmed up!

With that thought in mind, he stomped his foot hard, and the bicycle almost took off with the wind, leaping into the air and soaring into the sky.

Bicycle skills, unleashing full power!

As he sped along at high speed, his thoughts became clearer and clearer, and he began to gradually recall the few seconds before he lost consciousness.

The deadly piece flowed from the fingers of Yagami Kunijō, while Nidhogg also opened the sharp teeth of the iron thorns and spat out the dragon's breath that proclaimed victory.

At the same time, a giant axe, wreathed in black flames, was drawn from his sheath and slashed straight at Ke Zhiguang.

The Axe That Rotten Axe

This is the final display effect that Kezhiguang saw.

This was the item that Yagami Kunikyo obtained from him after defeating him.

The story of "Rotten Axe Handle" is also a classic tale related to Go (the board game).

During the Jin Dynasty, a man named Wang Zhi went up the mountain to chop wood and saw two children playing chess. When the game ended, he realized that the axe he used to chop wood had rotted away. In the blink of an eye, decades had passed, hence the name "Rotten Axe Handle".