Chapter 578: Holding White Stones, First Move at Tianyuan! (First of Three!)

【The ninth game begins!】

【In the woman's exquisite eyes, there was now an added measure of composure and calm.】

【Her style of play had transformed once more.】

【Her style was heavy, avoiding direct confrontation, emphasizing stability and endurance, advancing the game with steady, methodical positioning.】

【Su Yun understood: this time, Princess Kangle had decided to win this game through pure, orthodox strength.】

【She abandoned clever opening patterns, playing instead with bold, expansive energy—utterly unlike the previous two games, where midgame battles had culminated in the ferocious "hundred-point kill."】

【The woman placed her stones slowly, each move deliberate and unhurried, finally bearing the bearing of a master.】

【Su Yun watched her board and could not help but feel a flicker of reverence.】

【Princess Kangle had finally taken this seriously—a first-rank Shen-level player was now truly revealing her strength. How terrifying.】

【Su Yun merely immersed himself in the game and felt the woman's moves were impossibly steady, as if each stone bore the weight of deep deliberation, leaving no visible flaw.】

【He could not help but marvel: his grandfather's final disciple had already surpassed ninety-nine percent of all players under heaven.】

【Xie Xuan watched from the side; after only forty to fifty moves, he concluded the woman's skill might already exceed the Minor Master realm.】

【She now bore the aura of a true master.】

【How would Xie Guan respond?】

【You placed your stone slowly; both players had slowed their pace.】

【This time, you focused on securing territory, repeatedly gaining advantage in the corners.】

【As the game progressed, White's advantage began to show; building on prior gains, White surged forward against the Black formation, adopting the posture of a major diagonal counter.】

【Black struggled to defend; the upper White formation remained unscathed.】

【The lower Black formation was breached from within, its strength drastically reduced—White was now calmly securing a living area right inside Black's own territory!】

【Xie Xuan sucked in a sharp breath. The woman's skill was too formidable—if he were in her place, he would have already lost and resigned.】

【Who exactly is this woman? How could her skill be so extraordinary?】

【He had lived in Bianjing for years, yet this was the first time he had faced such a powerful opponent among his peers.】

【If she set up a board at Xixiang Pavilion, she would be famed throughout Bianjing within months.】

【Bianjing had many who loved Go.】

【Yet Xie Xuan scoured his memory: among the imperial family of Bianjing bearing the surname Chen, no such person existed.】

【He had never heard of anyone who dressed so unconventionally as a woman disguised as a man.】

【The situation grew ever more tense, gripping the heart!】

【The entire board was nearly exhausted of space; only a few points remained.】

【Su Yun had already concluded: Xie Guan's defeat was inevitable.】

【Even if Xie Guan had won four in a row, he could still be proud.】

【Yet Su Yun still stared intently at the board; already over a hundred moves had been played.】

【Xie Guan's Black stones were mired in defense, unable to mount any further offensive.】

【In the lower Black formation, White was attempting to break through the border blockade, aiming to utterly destroy Black's position and seize the central territory.】

【By conventional logic, Black should block from above—but if he played too cautiously, he would lose the entire board!】

【Su Yun grew anxious: White's upper formation stood like an unshakable fortress, while White stones below were already eager to shatter the barrier and split Black's position in two.】

【If Black tried to surround and cut off White, several "wells" could not be fully extinguished.】

【On both flanks, White had already solidified its positions; Black could find no secure base for its main force.】

【At this moment, Black was surrounded on all sides, unable to mount an effective counterattack.】

【The woman lifted her gaze slightly, her eyes filled with anticipation, waiting for your response.】

【Xie Xuan lifted his teacup slowly, sipping with care. The cheap tea was harsh at first, yet unexpectedly carried a faint aftertaste of sweetness that lingered on his lips.】

【Though harsh on the tongue, it was drinkable.】

【He rarely drank such tea and found it novel.】

【You took a Black stone and placed it calmly, as if detached from the battle, the crisis merely a scene across the board, unrelated to you.】

【Now!】

【Xie Xuan's face had lost its usual sneer and mockery; to reach this point, you had already achieved the extraordinary.】

【Yet what a pity!】

【Your defeat is certain. You are about to lose.】

【Xie Xuan felt a flicker of satisfaction—you could not reverse your decline.】

【Perhaps you won the earlier games by luck; this game reveals your true strength.】

【You are outmatched. There is nothing to be done.】

【Su Yun scratched his head in frustration; Xie Guan's defeat was sealed. He "could not fathom it" and could do nothing but watch helplessly, unable to decipher the woman's moves.】

【In Go, countless transformations occur; when orthodox strength overwhelms, one feels utterly powerless.】

【The way of Go is not like studying books—it cannot be mastered by mere effort; it demands extraordinary talent.】

【Talent separates the mediocre from the national master. My grandfather, once in a back alley, learned solely by watching games; by eight or nine, he had no rivals in his region. After nineteen, few could even face him.】

【You placed your stone slowly, as if blind to the "flames of war" on the board.】

【The Black stone settled gently on "the center point, one point above the tianyuan."】

Su Yun's eyes filled with confusion; he watched your quiet movement and thought to himself: Why place it here? This seems irrelevant to the bigger picture!

【Xie Xuan set down his teacup and chuckled bitterly—apparently you've lost your composure, playing randomly.】

【The woman paused slightly, then continued placing stones; Su Yun and Xie Xuan noticed nothing unusual.】

【Only the servants who knew nothing of Go stole glances at the board, then at the two players.】

【Suddenly, one servant realized: the beautiful woman, after your move, had a faint blush on her earlobes.】

【After several dozen more moves, the situation shifted abruptly—the tide turned silently.】

【Black's stones in the center and upper board converged, while below, Black cleverly severed White's connection.】

【That seemingly insignificant stone had become the pivotal point of the entire sequence—its implications were exquisite beyond words.】

【Su Yun leapt to his feet, face filled with disbelief, exclaiming: "A truly brilliant move!"】

【Xie Xuan was equally stunned—it was like this!】

【That single point above the tianyuan had "commanded the entire board," guiding the whole game.】

【The woman exhaled softly, did not concede defeat—the board still held room for contest.】

【They continued placing stones; the game remained locked.】

【At move 325, Black won by three points.】

【The woman placed her final stone and, for the first time, looked directly at the boy with serious eyes.】

【The boy closed his eyes slightly, as if pondering or reviewing the game, then slowly opened them—his gaze held no trace of triumph.】

【The woman said nothing; they silently collected the stones.】

【Chen Jiuyan spoke slowly: "Please."】

【Su Yun licked his lips, heart pounding with excitement—he had won five straight. One more win, and he would claim victory.】

【Best-of-ten, six wins needed—victory was within reach!】

【This game had been absolutely brilliant; Su Yun had already recorded it in his game record.】

【Su Yun had a thought: he wanted to take it back for his grandfather to admire—his grandfather would surely praise this game endlessly.】

【His grandfather always held special regard for young talents who revealed brilliance on the board, showing them extra favor.】

【Su Yun studied Xie Guan again, increasingly convinced the boy was extraordinary—his poetry was brilliant, his calligraphy profound, and now his Go skill was transcendent.】

【He was a rare talent. My grandfather always said: the hardest thing to find in this world is genius.】

【He turned to Chen Jiuyan and saw her looking weary, her beautiful eyes bloodshot, fixed on the board.】

【Su Yun looked at his grandfather's final disciple, recalling how she had defeated him as a child, and for a moment, he did not know how to comfort her.】

【Xie Xuan's expression was complex.】

【You faced Chen Jiuyan's invitation and shook your head slowly: "In the first nine games, I always played Black—that gave me an advantage."】

【"This game, I play White."】

【The woman's hand paused over the Black stone container; she snorted: "You really think you can beat me!"】

【At this moment, Su Yun had already forgotten the original wager.】

【You had won five of ten games; one more win, and you would claim total victory—and the bet.】

【You looked at the woman's cool, beautiful face and smiled lightly: "Or are you afraid to play, Master Chen?"】

【"Hmph. What's there to fear? I just fear you'll lose too badly."】

【The woman took the Black stone container.】

【Su Yun was uncertain about the outcome of this game. Xie Guan's play in the later games had been truly unexpected.】

【In just nine games, his skill had risen from an initial estimate of sixth rank to nearly first rank.】

【Yet Chen Jiuyan possessed true first-rank strength—and had not yet truly unleashed it.】

【Now, with Xie Guan playing White and giving the first move, the outcome had become uncertain again.】

【The tenth game begins!】

【Chen Jiuyan stared at the Black stone in her hand, her gaze deepening; she lifted her eyes to you and asked: "What do you think Go truly is?"】

【You looked at the nineteen-line empty board.】

【The very center point is called "tianyuan"—the board's heart, symbolizing the origin of all numbers.】

From Tianyuan, two perpendicular lines divide the board into four quadrants, each occupying ninety points, mirroring the 360 degrees of the celestial sphere, in harmony with the principles of heaven and earth.

The black and white stones resemble the two poles of yin and yang.

The stones are round, the board square—this is heaven round, earth square.

Yet you have not yet given your answer.

The woman declared with self-assurance: "The board is the eternal starry sky; each stone placed is a star in the heavens."

"Placing stones upon the board is placing them upon the cosmos."

Su Yun's heart startled; he thought inwardly: "Here it comes!"

This princess had two obsessions since childhood: the art of go, and astronomy and stellar phenomena!

Chen Jiuyan skillfully fused the two, forging his own path of go.

Precisely for this reason, Grandfather took her as his final disciple and imparted to her all his knowledge of go.

The woman pinched a black stone between two fingers and slammed it down instantly.

It settled firmly upon the "Tianyuan" position.

Chen Jiuyan had already knelt with his legs folded beneath him—this was the proper posture for a duel against an equal opponent.

The woman's expression grew colder; she said solemnly: "The way of go is the Dao of heaven!"

Xie Xuan frowned in confusion; his first black move did not secure a corner but landed directly on Tianyuan.

What kind of strategy is this!

(End of Chapter)