Unsheathed

”Shall we guess stones then?” Lin Junbi asked.

”You’re such an exceptional Go player; are you sure you don’t want to give me a three-stone advantage, Young Master Lin?” Cui Dongshan asked. ”That way, once you win, you’ll have bragging rights on top of a copper coin.”

Lin Junbi reached into a jar to pull out some Go stones as he sighed with an exasperated expression. ”Do you have to be so shameless all the time? I understand that we’re both cultivators, but can we not at least follow the rules of the mortal world when it comes to guessing stones?”

Cui Dongshan was leaning over the Go board with his eyes wide and his ears peeled, clearly intending to gain an advantage in guessing stones. Lin Junbi had ways through which he could conceal the sound of the Go stones clacking against one another, but he was unable to glean Cui Dongshan’s cultivation base, and if the latter were an earth immortal, then it wouldn’t even matter.

Cui Dongshan sat back down with a sheepish expression.

Lin Junbi had undoubtedly come out on top in that brief exchange. By following the rules and setting an example, he had forced Cui Dongshan to also follow the rules with him, even if the latter was an immortal of the Upper Five Tiers. The mental warfare had begun even before the commencement of the game, and Jiang Guancheng and the other bystanders were very impressed.

In order to ensure ”fairness,” Cui Dongshan proposed that they toss a lesser heat coin instead to decide who would get to play first. As luck would have it, he guessed right and would get the first move.

Yu Juanfu couldn’t help but shake her head in exasperation and dismay upon seeing this.

The game began, and Lin Junbi played an opening from the Little Peach Blossom Spring Manual, which was a very rare and obscure Go manual.

What was great about this opening was that it led to aggressive positions and fast games. It had been proven to be subpar opening at the very highest level, but it was certainly still very much playable among less accomplished Go players, and the fact that the Go manual was so obscure also presented an element of surprise.

Lin Junbi made his moves at a moderate tempo, while Cui Dongshan continued to play his moves instantly, as if he were absolutely assured of his victory.

Lin Junbi intentionally made a few mistakes on several key moves, and even so, he only lost after over 230 moves had been made.

There was only a single copper coin on the line anyway, and Lin Junbi was certainly not such a fool to believe that someone like Yan Lü would be grateful to him for winning this game.

Since when had it fallen upon someone like him to defend the reputation of the mighty Yan Clan?

Only by losing by a slim margin and making it appear as if he had done everything in his power, but was still defeated, would Yan Lü feel some gratitude toward him, but even then, it still wouldn’t be too much.

After his resignation, Lin Junbi smiled and said, ”I don’t have a copper coin on me right now, but rest assured, I’ll personally go out to borrow one once I return to the city, and I won’t stop until I’ve managed to get one. It’s up to you whether you’d like me to personally deliver the copper coin to you, or have someone else deliver it in my stead.”

Cui Dongshan gently exhaled as he examined the final board position. He had only won by a tiny margin.

He then smiled as he turned his gaze to Lin Junbi and said, ”You must’ve secretly read the Little Peach Blossom Spring Manual. No wonder you were able to negate my opening when no one else I’ve ever played has been able to.”

Lin Junbi wasn’t bothered by Cui Dongshan’s gloating.

”Unfortunately, I can’t follow you around all the time to see if you’re going to personally borrow the money from others,” Cui Dongshan sighed. ”I wish I could constantly follow you like a lapdog, but I wasn’t taught by the Yan Clan, so I can’t quite pull it off. However, as for whether you personally deliver me the money or not, I have an idea on that.

”If I win the second game, then I’ll allow you not to have to personally deliver the money to me. Instead, you can get Big Sister Yu to do that for you. However, if you win... Well, that’s not going to happen, so we don’t have to even entertain that possibility.”

Lin Junbi packed the Go stones away, and he was just about to stand up when he noticed that Cui Dongshan was sitting on his copy of the Exultation Pavilion Go Manual, as if he were using it as a cushion.

Lin Junbi’s expression still remained unchanged.

The author of the Go manual was Mr. Lu Xi, the second-best Go player in the Shaoyuan Empire. The one who occupied the top spot was naturally Lin Junbi’s Dao mentor, the imperial preceptor of the Shaoyuan Empire.

However, Lin Junbi had played many sparring games against Mr. Lu Xi, and he considered the latter both a mentor and a friend.

Cui Dongshan pulled the Go manual out from under his bottom, then chuckled, ”What an absurd Go manual this is! If you’re truly foolish enough to follow its teachings, then you’re going to be quickly placed on the fast track to becoming the worst Go player alive! Having said that, I must commend Mr. Lu Xi for his selfless nature.

”He’s published a Go manual denoting to everyone precisely what not to do if you want to become a better player, even at the cost of damaging his own reputation. Please introduce me to him at some point, Young Master Lin. I don’t think there’s ever been a Go player as selfless as him, and I doubt anyone will match him in the future.”

Lin Junbi raised a hand to discourage the torrent of abuse that all of the bystanders were about to hurl at Cui Dongshan.

Clearly, Cui Dongshan had come here with the intention to provoke. He had already almost goaded Yan Lü into lashing out at him, so everyone would only be playing right into his hands if they fell for his provocation.

Cui Dongshan casually tossed the Go manual off the city wall, then mused to himself, ”If those imbeciles from the Savage World pick up that Go manual, they’ll be sure to understand it right away, and if they follow its teachings, then all of them will end up dead before too long. That Go manual may well be the key to saving the Sword Qi Great Wall and the Majestic World!”

Lin Junbi remained composed in spite of Cui Dongshan’s blatant provocation, smiling as he proposed, ”Let’s play another game. What should we bet on this time?”

”Let’s go big this time and put a snowflake coin on the line!” Cui Dongshan answered. ”How about we each pose a life and death problem for one another in alternating fashion, and the first person that’s unable to solve a problem will be the loser. Seeing as I won the previous game, it’s only fair for me to give you an advantage and let you go first.

”If I get stumped by your first problem, then I’ll eat my words and immediately jump down from the city wall to recover that priceless Go manual from the clutches of the great demons below, even if it costs me my life! However, if I win, then you’ll owe me a snowflake coin on top of that copper coin.”

”No, I don’t like the idea of exchanging life and death problems,” Lin Junbi refused with a shake of his head. ”Let’s continue to play normal games of Go instead.”

Clearly, he didn’t want to fall into Cui Dongshan’s tempo.

A hint of surprise appeared on Cui Dongshan’s face.

Lin Junbi didn’t dare to grow complacent. He could tell that Cui Dongshan’s Go skills were definitely far superior to the likes of Yan Lü, perhaps even on par with his senior brother, Bian Jing. As for just how skilled a Go player Cui Dongshan, that was still yet to be seen.

Before Cui Dongshan had a chance to raise any objections, Lin Junbi extended a hand and said, ”I’ll guess the stones this time.”

He intended to play a second game to gauge the extent of Cui Dongshan’s abilities.

Once again, the outcome of this game didn’t really matter. He didn’t care about winning or losing, and as was the case with the Yan Clan, a first-rate Go player on the Middle Earth Divine Continent like Mr. Lu Xi certainly didn’t need someone like him to defend his honor.

The second game featured many long thinks from Lin Junbi, and just like the first game, the outcome was decided by a very thin margin.

Lin Junbi continued to stare at the board long after the game was finished.

Cui Dongshan’s final three moves had all been brilliant moves. For those final three moves, he had adopted a completely different style from the one that he had displayed throughout the game, and it was as if he had been possessed by a far stronger player with a massively contrasting play style.

Lin Junbi was caught completely off guard, and after the longest think of the game, he finally resigned.

Cui Dongshan wore a rather perplexed expression as he analyzed, ”I can tell that you’ve analyzed the sixth position in the Iridescent Cloud Go Manual extensively. Even if the outcome is still very unclear, you would’ve still had chances after weathering the current storm, so why didn’t you play it out? Were you holding back? If you keep playing like this, you’re going to be nothing more than a walking charity for me!”

”Do you really not know, or are you just playing dumb?” Lin Junbi sighed.

Cui Dongshan burst into laughter, then said through his mind’s lake, ”Of course, I’m aware that you intentionally lost these two games to lull me into a false sense of complacency. Then, once I challenge you for a third game with even higher stakes, you’re going to crush me and win back everything all at once with interest, right? It seems like you’re not only a great Go player on the board, but also very calculating off the board as well, Young Master Lin!”

Lin Junbi didn’t deny Cui Dongshan’s accusations; instead, he smiled as he proposed, ”Let’s bet a lesser heat coin for this third game. I will be going all-out this time.”

Cui Dongshan shook his head vigorously as he declared, ”I can’t lose this lesser heat coin that Big Sister Yu gave me! You can choose any other one; it’s not like I have any more anyway!”

He then turned to Yu Juanfu and yelled, ”Don’t worry, Big Sister Yu! Even if I lose everything, I’m going to defend this precious lesser heat coin with my life!”

Yu Juanfu pretended not to have heard him.

”There must be something wrong with him!” Zhu Mei murmured to herself.

”Speak up, little girl!” Cui Dongshan yelled. ”The disciples of the Scholarly Sage’s branch never get angry at people for insulting us to our faces, and if their insults are warranted, we’ll even praise them! However, if we overhear you badmouthing us behind our backs, then you’re going to be cursed for life! Everything you eat will taste like shit, and every time you set foot outside, you’ll be struck by lightning!”

Zhu Mei scooted a little closer to Yu Juanfu with a fearful look on her face.

”If you lose, you can give me any lesser heat coin that you like,” Lin Junbi said with a smile.

”Let’s raise the stakes a little further,” Cui Dongshan suddenly proposed. ”If I win, then you have to give me your Iridescent Cloud Go Manual as well.”

”Sure,” Lin Junbi agreed with a nod.

For the third game, Lin Junbi played the first move.

He gained a huge advantage out of the opening, and by the middle game, he was already close to victory, yet Cui Dongshan was almost able to force a draw by triple-ko loop. Lin Junbi’s expression remained unchanged, but internally, he was finally beginning to feel a little frustrated.

The game wore on for over four hundred moves, and it had become so complex that none of the bystanders was able to anticipate the outcome.

After making another move, Lin Junbi heaved a faint sigh of relief.

A grim look appeared on Cui Dongshan’s face as he picked up a stone before leaning forward, and Lin Junbi was confident that his victory was assured.

However, Cui Dongshan suddenly leaned back, then began waggling his shoulders at Lin Junbi as he jeered, ”Ha! You thought I’d play there, didn’t you? Well, guess what? I’m not gonna do it. How does that feel? You must be furious, right? Haha! I’m a genius!”

All of the bystanders were completely dumbstruck, as was Lin Junbi himself.

After taking some time to taunt Lin Junbi, Cui Dongshan set his stone down elsewhere on the board, then declared, ”Alright, that’s it for today. I’m already very pleased to have won three games in a row against Lin Junbi of the Shaoyuan Empire.”

”I lost,” Lin Junbi graciously conceded with a smile. ”I owe you a copper coin, a snowflake coin, and a lesser heat coin. I’ll personally bring all three to you once I have them.”

”You sound very casual about all of this, like you don’t care about the outcome at all,” Cui Dongshan suddenly sneered. ”You think we’re actually evenly matched just because I humored you for four hundred moves? I’m just playing around with you, but I bet you can’t even tell. How about this? For the next game, I bet that I can beat you within eighty moves!”

”Oh?”

Lin Junbi raised an eyebrow with an intrigued look in his eyes.

Cui Dongshan instantly reverted to his joking demeanor as he chuckled, ”Did you really believe me? I just wanted to gloat a bit after winning three games in a row.”

At this point, everyone had already come to realize that Cui Dongshan was an exceptional Go player, and this realization was particularly infuriating for Yan Lü.

Aside from Bian Jing, he was the one closest to Lin Junbi in terms of Go ability, and it had become abundantly clear that he had severely underestimated Cui Dongshan.

In the wake of this revelation, a hint of fear had arisen in his heart. Of course, the primary emotion that he felt toward Cui Dongshan was still resentment, but it had now been tinged with fear at the possibility that he had just made a formidable enemy.

Cui Dongshan gave Lin Junbi a dismissive wave and said, ”Make sure to deliver me my money. As for whether you personally deliver it or not, that doesn’t really matter to me. What are you still sitting here for? Do you want to lose more money to me? I’ll pass. If you keep making donations to me, I’m going to start feeling bad. I could never be friends with someone as generous as you. It’ll keep me up at night, knowing that I took advantage of someone so good and generous for monetary gain.”

Lin Junbi heaved a faint sigh.

Those three games were all worthy of going down in history in the Shaoyuan Empire, so this was an acceptable outcome for him.

Meanwhile, Cui Dongshan was packing away the Go stones in a completely classless manner, carelessly tossing the stones back into their jars without any care or regard.

All the while, he was murmuring to himself, ”Man, it feels good to win three games in a row, but my opponent was too trash, so it wasn’t really satisfying at all. I only really get satisfaction from beating someone of a similar level of ability to myself. What a shame.”

He then suddenly turned his gaze to Lin Junbi and asked, ”What? Do you think I was just lucky? In that case, let’s play another game, but we’ll switch things up a little. What do you say? This time, we’re going to play a game that tests both our Go skills and our luck. Actually, I’ll go as far as to say that it’ll purely be a game of luck. You may not ever get another chance to play a game like this for as long as you live. Because it’s going to be a game of pure luck, we’re not going to bet any money or anything else on it.”

”What do you propose?” Lin Junbi asked.

”You decide the outcome of this game,” Cui Dongshan said with a smile. ”You tell Sword Immortal Ku Xia your predicted outcome in advance, and if you predict correctly, then you win regardless of whether I win or lose. As I said, it’s going to be a game of pure luck. Do you dare to play?”

Lin Junbi was very amused.

”Setting aside our respective Go abilities, I have faith in Sword Immortal Ku Xia’s character and your integrity as a gambler,” Cui Dongshan said with a smile.

”I don’t want to play a game like that,” Lin Junbi refused with a shake of his head.

”You’re right, it’s still a little boring, isn’t it?” Cui Dongshan mused. ”How about this then? Let’s take the third position out of the Iridescent Cloud Go Manual that you’ve studied so extensively. In that game, only fifty-six moves were played before one side resigned. How about we play out the rest of the game from the final position?

”You can play from the side of the White Emperor City Lord, while I’ll play from the side of his opponent, who resigned. What do you think? Just say yes! Look at Sword Immortal Ku Xia; he’s dying to get in on the action!”

Lin Junbi didn’t know what to say.

In his eyes, Cui Dongshan was undoubtedly insane.

The Iridescent Cloud Go Manual was considered to be the most sacred Go manual under the heavens because all of the games that it contained were played by the undisputed number one Go player in all the worlds. Furthermore, if his opponent were to leave White Emperor City, then he would also be considered invincible everywhere else.

The final position of the third game in the Go manual had already been studied in extraordinary detail by countless Go players, including even Lin Junbi’s master, and the timing of Cui Chan’s resignation alone, which had come not a move too late or too soon, made him worthy of the title of the second-best Go player under the heavens.

”I’m going to have to refuse,” Lin Junbi said with a shake of his head. ”As Go players, we shouldn’t insult such a sacred game.”

”You think you have what it takes to insult the Iridescent Cloud Go Manual?” Cui Dongshan sneered. ”You truly believe that your Go ability allows for that? Those two players may have been able to see the outcome after just fifty-six moves, but are you telling me that you know exactly what they were thinking and have calculated every single variation just as they have?

”If we continue from the final position, do you really think you have what it takes to protect the White Emperor City Lord’s advantage? What gives you the confidence to say that when you’ve already lost three games in a row?”

”I’ll play out the position with you, but I’m not going to tell Sword Immortal Ku Xia the outcome in advance!” Lin Junbi declared.

”Alright, in that case, let’s make another bet,” Cui Dongshan said with a smile. ”If I win this game, then for the next game, you have to tell Sword Immortal Ku Xia your predicted outcome in advance.”

”We’ll talk about that after you’ve won,” Lin Junbi scoffed.

Cui Dongshan was happy to oblige.

All the while, Sword Immortal Ku Xia was looking on with a concerned expression.

All of the other young swordsmen, including Jin Zhenmeng, who wasn’t even interested in Go in the slightest, were eager to see the outcome of this game.

”Everyone else, leave,” Cui Dongshan suddenly demanded. ”None of you are worthy of seeing this game. If you insist on watching, then each of you will have to pay me a grain rain coin.”

”I’ll watch!” Zhu Mei immediately declared. ”I’ll pay for Big Sister Yu as well.”

Cui Dongshan immediately put on an offended expression and exclaimed, ”Is that meant to be some type of joke?! If you’re a friend of Big Sister Yu’s, then you’re a friend of mine! I can’t accept money from you! What do you take me for, some shameless beggar?”

Many of the young swordsmen present were actually willing to pay the fee, but Ku Xia chased all of them away without giving them the option to stay.

In the end, the only two left were Yu Juanfu and Zhu Mei.