The work of the Go master

Growing peach trees in the courtyard of an apartment building is incredibly luxurious.

Because of the presence of cherry blossoms in the area, peach blossoms, which are similar in color, are not as popular. Using peach trees as the centerpiece of the temple here is quite unconventional.

[Spiritual Object: Rare Peach Tree]

May all students thrive.

[Learning efficiency +20%]

This must be the origin of the name Peach Blossom Studio.

"This peach tree is actually quite famous in our Go world. It's called the Zhenlong Peach Tree. It's said that folding fans made from its wood can bring unexpected good luck to Go players. If the folding fan also had Mr. Hanno's signature, it would be even more effective." The dormitory manager noticed that Ke Zhiguang was observing the peach tree and explained with a smile.

What a coincidence! He happens to have a similar fan in his hand. Could it be made from the wood of this tree?

Wait, if I remember correctly, the folding fan had a cherry blossom sash attached to the end, right? Did I misread it?

Who knows what Harushima Kashima is thinking?

But seeing this tree, Ke Zhiguang had a little idea: maybe in the future he would like to do a gathering task, take a shovel and rub it on the tree to collect some materials.

"Don't get any weird ideas. If you're found to have any ill intentions toward this tree, you'll be invited for a chat by the cultural relics bureau."

"I understand, I understand."

Stepping onto the comfortable carpet, I arrived at the third floor, entered the corridor, and walked deeper into the building. The sound of chess pieces falling came from the door of the room next to me, accompanied by a ticking sound.

"Is everyone in the dorm now?" Ke Zhiguang naturally assumed this was the dorm.

"Everyone has finished their daytime classes and is now returning to their rooms from the Go academy to rest. However, since the professional ranking tournament is about to begin, everyone is naturally working very hard and will not let any available time go to waste."

With the help of the X-ray vision device, Ke Zhiguang could actually see that there were indeed people inside.

They're still in pairs, meaning there are double rooms inside.

However, there are also some single rooms.

Hopefully, the next room, number 336, will be a single room.

Scanning around, I found that everyone was no pushover; they all started with green question marks, meaning that Manager Lin Ying's approach was just basic.

This is exactly what Ke Zhiguang wanted to see.

Although yesterday, at first glance, he and Manager Lin Ying seemed to be evenly matched, in reality, it was because Ke Zhiguang forced himself to use the methods of medieval Go to deal with it. It could be said that he was just playing along out of interest. If he had really used his full strength from the beginning and played the game seriously according to his own pace, Manager Lin Ying would have been easy to defeat.

Thinking about it this way, Zezi is still better than the store manager, so giving Zezi an orange rating shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

Besides the green ones, he could also see some competitors marked in yellow, which were of medium difficulty.

Just as I was thinking this, an orange halo appeared from the opposite side.

Chapter Twelve: Those who are not afraid of death, feel free to move in.

The ominous orange hue immediately put Ke Zhiguang on his guard.

He was a man with a rounded hairstyle and round glasses, ordinary in every way. This kind of person would be perfect for being thrown into a high school student council to serve tea and water to the beautiful female president.

As they brushed past Ke Zhiguang, their eyes met.

Ke Zhiguang saw it; an unfriendly gaze came from behind his thick glasses, but only for a moment, and the two passed each other by in the next instant.

She has good eyesight and was promoted from a general assistant to an accounting secretary or similar position.

Because he ran into Ghost last night, he now habitually tries to embody the ghost in every seemingly strong person.

But that person just now shouldn't be him; their aura was too different.

"What's the name of that bespectacled student from the hospital?" Ke Zhiguang asked.

"You have a good eye. You spotted the strong one at a glance. His name is Tamura Shintaro. He is one of the four strongest students in our Peach Blossom Abode. Everyone calls these four the Four Heavenly Kings." The dormitory manager replied with a smile.

Hmm...

As is well known, there are usually five people in the Four Heavenly Kings.

Anyway, these five people... well, let's just say four. These four should be the next challengers.

"This year's professional ranking tournament is exceptionally brutal. It is estimated that more than 2000 people will participate, reaching a record high, but only 100 people will be able to successfully achieve professional ranking."

"I think the probability is quite high. It's much easier than getting into a prestigious university. The acceptance rate of top universities must be much stricter than this," said Ke Zhiguang. "You can't calculate it like that. The more than 2000 people who participated in the professional ranking competition were also carefully selected. They were the top 2000 people. Even with such top-tier participants, there is still a large round of selection. In the end, only the very best of the best will enter the professional path. If you calculate it this way, the difficulty of successfully achieving professional ranking is no less than getting into the University of Tokyo."

The dormitory manager continued, "Moreover, among the 100 spots that successfully qualify for the dan level, there will be 10 spots for the second dan. Our four top students from Peach Blossom Abode are fighting for these 10 second dan spots... Oh, and as far as I know, there will also be one extremely valuable third dan spot this year."

"Oh? There are these three sections too?" Ke Zhiguang's ears perked up.

From his casual conversations with Cang Yuqiao, he learned that the Go Academy was often very stingy when it came to awarding ranks. The few second-dan spots available each year were won through fierce behind-the-scenes battles among a group of big shots.

Of course, Ke Zhiguang didn't understand why these spots needed to be contested; he just decided to fight for them as he saw fit.

Pretend that this three-part structure was prepared for myself.

After turning a corner, the dormitory supervisor said, "That's room 336, the one you indicated."

Room 336 is located right at the end of the corridor, which gives people a very unpleasant feeling from a feng shui perspective.

Ke Zhiguang did indeed sense an unpleasant atmosphere, a stench that swept over him.

The dormitory supervisor noticed Ke Zhiguang's unease and gave him a mischievous, business-like grin: "Oh right, I almost forgot. Although no murders have happened here, this place might be worse for Go players than if a murder had occurred... According to past records, no student who has ever stayed here has ever successfully achieved a professional ranking."

The dormitory supervisor spoke her last words slowly and deliberately, her smile full of malice, but it was a smile tinged with malice.

this.....

That's so damn unlucky!

This is even more terrifying than a murder case!

The rent needs to be lowered a bit!

"This...is this really so weird?" Ke Zhiguang raised an eyebrow.

"Not only do interns fail to achieve a professional rank, but even professional players who have already achieved a professional rank immediately suffer a professional Waterloo after moving in. They start losing one after another and eventually drop several ranks. They can no longer afford the rent and have to move out. Over time, this place has become a haunted room with extremely low rent. The closer you are to room 336, the lower the rent for the other rooms."

The dormitory supervisor was still all smiles.

This is probably what they mean by "this land doesn't belong to me, you can decide what to do with it yourself."

Ke Zhiguang looked around and noticed that rooms like 335 and 334, which were close to room 336, had crosses and small yellow strips or other talismans for warding off evil spirits pasted on their doors.

Unfortunately, these are not spiritual objects and are probably useless.

"Didn't you ever think about exorcising it or something?"

"We did try that. We brought in professional shrine maidens to perform Kagura dances here, but it didn't work."

Humph.

That's because you haven't found the right person.

You should find the monks of Youxuan Temple and send a powerful dragon here; the effect will be immediate.

"Let's go in and take a look."

After a brief moment of panic, Ke Zhiguang also became interested, and a cat-like, reckless thought surged up within him.

Upon entering 336, there was no drop in temperature or dimming of light as is typically seen in storylines.

Conversely, because this room is located at the very end of the corridor, its unique location means it has excellent natural light and a comfortable temperature.

Moreover, this is the single room that Ke Zhiguang has been longing for, and the space is quite comfortable.

In Tokyo, where land is incredibly valuable, hotel rooms are often extremely small. The current room, number 336, is about the same size as a deluxe double room in China in my previous life, and it even comes with a kitchenette.

The furniture is indeed shabby, and we really need to clean up the room and fill it out.

This place should have been beautiful, but—something discordant has been revealed.

[Spiritual Object: The Cursed Room]

Luck -200

[Fatigue Acceleration]

[Decreased thinking ability]

[Grayness is accelerating]

In short, a series of negative buffs came down, making people tremble with fear.

This -200 luck score left Ke Zhiguang speechless.

The rapid pace of this balding is so alarming that it makes one's legs tremble.

Those who aren't afraid of death, just keep moving in.

this.....

Even the Demon Dragon's Duel Room in the Black Market is warmer than this!

"I wonder what your thoughts are, sir? Actually, I think this house is quite ordinary. I was just curious and slept here for a few nights, but nothing happened."

Perhaps it's because she's not a chess player; she just knows how to play chess at best.

Ke Zhiguang was at a loss for words.

The entire room was filled with spiritual objects.

If there really are ghosts, we can fight them off, but what about these spiritual entities?

Ke Zhiguang bit his lip and made a squeak sound, a sound of troublesome thinking.

This room is undoubtedly the place that the Peach Blossom Abode location card indicated to be "cautious" in.

So what does this have to do with Ghost-kun?

Could it be that Ghost King once lived here, and in the end, his symbolic spirit was destroyed by this house?

Ke Zhiguang stared at the ceiling of the room, starting a new round of imagining.

He wasn't imagining what had happened there; he was imagining what to do next.

Immediately, he frowned, imagining something.

Based on past experience, he had a feeling that this might be a mission.

If the quest panel were still active, it would definitely give a notification and issue a side quest to defeat the Ghost King, obtain a certain sacrificial item, and then purify the house.