Chapter 727: The Chessboard
Chapter 727: The Chessboard
September 25, 2017
Bing Province, Northern Sealed City, within a certain manor.
A young man, appearing to be in his early twenties, dressed in a long purple scholar's robe, held a cup of tea in one hand and sat quietly, his eyes fixed on something before him.
In front of him was a low table with a half-finished game of Go. In this game, a large area was covered by white stones, with only about a dozen black stones scattered across the board.
Even someone unfamiliar with the game would know that this was not an ordinary game of Go.
To an uninitiated observer, the board would seem like a mysterious puzzle, but to this young man, it was the chessboard where he and Xi Zhicai, the strategist stationed in Northern Sealed City, were engaged in a strategic battle.
Since his arrival in Bing Province, he had spent nearly a year preparing for this game, investing a great deal of effort to ensure its success.
Now, his chessboard was in motion, and the fruits of his year-long labor were coming to fruition. The strategic contest between him and Xi Zhicai had officially begun.
However, the beginning of this contest did not bode well for him. The young man frowned, took a sip of tea, and then, with a green flash from the ring on his finger, removed another black stone from the board.
This black stone represented the thousand-strong group of Lone Warriors attacking Flame Yellow Mountain Fortress. In the young man's eyes, this was a brilliant move, a casual maneuver that could easily gather these warriors to fight for him, a small investment with a substantial return. It was a stroke of genius, but unfortunately, it had failed.
The failure of this move caused the young man's frown to deepen. He not only regretted the loss of this brilliant move but also sensed something amiss with it.
"It seems that guy is even more formidable than I anticipated! But the game has just begun!" The young man muttered softly, his eyes narrowing involuntarily.
After speaking, he fell silent, gazing intently at the chessboard without uttering another word.
He remained seated for half a day, not moving an inch from the room, his eyes fixed on the chessboard, almost without any other movement.
During this half-day, he repeatedly removed black stones from the board, each time with a green flash from his ring, indicating that although he sat in this room, he was well-informed about the external situation and had full control over his chessboard.
Throughout this half-day, his frown never relaxed, especially as he continued to remove black stones from the board.
Each black stone represented his efforts and his strategic moves against Xi Zhicai.
He had thought that the chessboard he had meticulously prepared for nearly a year would be effective once it was set in motion, and that every stone could rival the chaotic Lu Hai Kong in Bing Province. He believed that even if it couldn't completely destroy Lu Hai Kong's power, it would at least severely weaken him.
However, when his chessboard was fully operational, he discovered that not a single stone could achieve its intended effect.
In this moment, a rare sense of defeat welled up within this young man who had always been confident.
This feeling of defeat had been building and spreading since the moment he laid out his chessboard, never diminishing, and it showed no signs of stopping.
The young man sat in the room for two whole days, during which he barely drank a drop of water.
The once enthusiastic young man now had a face filled with gloom, especially when he picked up the last black stone on his chessboard. At that moment, the empty teacup in his hand slipped from his grasp and shattered on the ground.
By now, the chessboard was entirely covered in white stones, replacing the black ones that had once occupied their places.
Looking at the pure white chessboard before him, the young man couldn't help but reveal a hint of ridicule.
"I considered him a worthy opponent, but he treated me as a pawn from the very beginning. How ridiculous!"
Who was this young man? In fact, when he removed the third black stone from the board, he had already vaguely understood what was happening, but his subconscious refused to accept it until he removed all the black stones. Only then did he reluctantly acknowledge his suspicions as reality.
From the very start, from the very first move, he had already exposed himself.
But his opponent had never intended to remove him from the board. Instead, they had encouraged him, allowing him to prepare and struggle for a whole year to set up this chessboard.
When he felt his chessboard was fully prepared and he was ready to make his move, his opponent had been waiting for that very moment.
"Using me as a pawn, he united the aristocratic families and various forces in Bing Province. Once I gathered them, he struck, eliminating the unruly elements one by one. What a top-notch historical strategist!"
The young man's face was filled with self-ridicule as he laughed coldly and stood up.
"If he's managed to achieve this level, I reckon he must have one last trick up his sleeve. I wonder if that final move is about to be revealed?"
As the young man's cold words fell, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. At that moment, a young man in white appeared before him, his youthful figure illuminated by the moonlight.
"If I'm not mistaken, you must be Yue Ying, the leader of the Ghost Shadow Guard, right? I never imagined that the head of such a terrifying group of assassins under Lu Hai Kong's command would be a beauty of such breathtaking allure!"
When the young man saw Yue Ying before him, his eyes flashed with a sharp gleam. Despite the hint of defeat on his face, he showed no fear, and even carried a hint of nonchalance, as if he wasn't the least bit concerned that the woman before him could easily take his life with a single sword.
"Let's go. I believe he's waiting for me."
As the young man spoke, he stood up, ready to leave the room. But as he took his first step, he suddenly felt his legs go weak and limp.
Don't get the wrong idea; Yue Ying hadn't done anything to him. It was just that this 'weak scholar' had been sitting for two days straight without a drop of water, and his body was starting to give out.
Yue Ying looked at him coldly, and with a wave of her hand, two Ghost Shadow Guards appeared beside the young man.
The first thing these guards did was to thoroughly search the young man, even taking the ring on his finger. Only after confirming that they had searched everything did they escort him out of the room.
In the 1619 book, there is no mistake!
Escorted by the Ghost Shadow Guards, the young man was quickly brought to a room. The guards left him there and departed.
After all the Ghost Shadow Guards had left, the young man finally had a chance to examine the room.
The room he was in was simple, containing only a table and two chairs, with seemingly nothing else.
As the young man approached the table, his eyes narrowed, for on it was a chessboard identical to the one he had seen before.
Just as he was examining the chessboard, the room's door opened again, and Xi Zhicai entered, carrying 'Gungun'.
The young man spun around, and upon seeing Xi Zhicai, his eyes flashed with determination. "If I'm not mistaken, you must be Xi Zhicai, the strategist, right?"
Xi Zhicai nodded and placed 'Gungun' on the table before the young man. He looked up at the youth, "Nice to meet you. Should I address you as Changsun Hong or Xun Yi?"
"It doesn't matter what you call me now."
Changsun Hong shrugged and sat down at the table, his eyes fixed on Xi Zhicai as if trying to gauge the abilities of the man who had played him like a puppet.
"You're even more formidable than I imagined. I thought I could challenge you, but I never expected to be defeated so thoroughly."
Xi Zhicai shook his head. "You're exceptional, but I simply have access to more resources than you. If you had the same resources as me, I wouldn't have won so easily!"
Changsun Hong was taken aback for a moment, and then a meaningful smile appeared on his lips. "Why can't I feel happy about your praise?"
"Because what you seek is not my praise, but the sense of accomplishment from defeating me." Xi Zhicai paused, his eyes fixed on Changsun Hong. "What if I give you another chance?"
Changsun Hong laughed at Xi Zhicai's words. "It seems you've made your move on that person and failed, haven't you?"
Xi Zhicai nodded generously. "Yes, we took action against him soon after your meeting, but he managed to escape."
"So, you want to extract information about him from me? Or do you want to know what kind of surprise he has prepared for Lu Hai Kong?" Changsun Hong straightened his body, and the defeat on his face seemed to dissipate. He exuded confidence and arrogance, no longer resembling a defeated man.
"Hey, Xi Zhicai, I have a question for you. Do you truly understand the chessboard before you?"
Changsun Hong suddenly stood up, no longer appearing as disheveled as before. He pointed at a piece on the chessboard, "If you truly understand, you'd know that there's one more piece in this game, and it's the most crucial one I want to play!"
Before Xi Zhicai could react, Changsun Hong, who had seemed like a weak scholar, suddenly burst with incredible energy, transforming from a scholar to a martial artist in an instant.
At that moment, he sprang into action, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing before Xi Zhicai, his hand reaching out to grab Xi Zhicai by the neck.
(End of Chapter)
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