Chapter 776, Part 1: Profound and Mysterious
Translator: Pika
Xie Xiu was completely devastated. He thought to himself that he had always treated Zu An as an equal. Even if his big sister ended up dating this man, he still wouldn’t call him uncle, but brother-in-law, right?
However, he didn’t sell out his big sister in the end. Under his master’s intimidating look, he could only unwillingly say, “Uncle…”
Zu An roared with laughter. “Oh my, we’re already so close; there’s no need for that.”
Xie Xiu had a resentful look on his face. Why didn’t you freaking say that beforehand!? You’re doing this on purpose… I’m going to rat you out to my big sis later. You can forget about becoming my brother-in-law! Hmph!
Hei Baizi didn’t care about how Xie Xiu was feeling right now at all and instead looked eagerly at Zu An. “Mr Zu, let’s play a round. Anyone who can create five-in-a-row must be incredibly skilled. It’s been so long since I’ve met my match, so my hands are already itching.”
Zu An could only give Jiang Luofu a pleading look. Jiang Luofu said, “Fifth brother, I still need to bring him to see our master.”
Hei Baizi said, “Don’t worry, I won’t take too much of your time. True experts only need a few moves to understand the other’s skill. With Sir Zu’s skills, he might crush me with just a few moves.” Even though he sounded humble, his eyes told a different story. He refused to believe that anyone could defeat him in such a short amount of time.
Jiang Luofu asked impatiently, “If you love playing Go so much, why don’t you ask junior sister to play?”
Hei Baizi’s entire body trembled when he heard the words ‘junior sister’, revealing a similar expression to Xie Xiu’s. It was as if he had heard something terrifying. “No way, I won’t play with that little monster. She’s not human!” he exclaimed out of lingering fear.
Zu An gave Jiang Luofu a confused look. “Junior sister?”
Even Xie Xiu became excited. What kind of person could scare the Go Saint so badly? I definitely have to get close to her and make her torment Hei Baizi, to let him have a taste of my misery.
Jiang Luofu smiled. “Junior sister spends most of her time studying astronomical phenomena and fortune-telling. She has the ability to discern the future’s fortune and misfortune.”
“The future? Isn’t that a bit too powerful?” Zu An was shocked. In all of those novels and shows he had watched, all abilities that could foretell the future had glaring faults. Sometimes, knowing the future wasn’t even a good thing, and would instead cause all kinds of tragedies…
Jiang Luofu replied, “Of course, it isn’t the far future. Junior sister’s ability is limited; she can only roughly predict the future within a short time frame. Though if she used it to play Go…”
Hei Baizi’s face turned overcast. “Whenever I play with her, she knows what I’m going to do ahead of time, so she deliberately plays to counter me. It really is frustrating.”
“But that’s not the most important part, right? You’ve never won against her,” Jiang Luofu said ruthlessly.
Hei Baizi’s face turned red. “She’s not playing Go, she’s cheating! How is playing against her any fun? Sir Zu over here is much more interesting.” He waved his hands afterward. A myriad of light rays appeared in the air, and then black and white chess pieces appeared around them.
Jiang Luofu’s expression changed. She said to Zu An with a bitter smile, “You should just play a round with him. He’s already turned the surrounding area into a prison. Looks like there’s no way to leave unless you play with him.”
Xie Xiu’s eyes lit up. This is great! I’ve even begun to question life after playing with him all day. I can’t help but feel like master is a crazy old fart who only knows how to play Go. He’s never taught me a single useful thing.
If I can learn this trick from him one day… If I see a girl I like, I’ll just trap them with this and force them to play chess with me. Yup, with my looks and charm, I can make them fall in love with me in the time it takes to play a single round.
But definitely not Go. I want to throw up whenever I even think of Go.
Xie Xiu was excited, but Zu An was instead conflicted. He hadn’t expected this guy to be such a chess addict. He sensed his surroundings with his ki. There was indeed a seal around them, and his ki couldn’t leave at all.
As if he sensed what Zu An was doing, Hei Baizi laughed and said, “I didn’t expect Sir Zu to already have such profound cultivation at your age. As expected, someone who’s excellent at chess will not be lacking in other areas.”
Jiang Luofu was speechless. Why do I feel offended for some reason?
Zu An began to think to himself. He couldn’t admit that he had no idea how to play Go, but he was worried that the other party might get angry if he said that. At that point, it would be hard to predict what would happen. This was the academy’s rear mountain after all, so it wasn’t wise to offend the libationer’s core disciple.
Of course, what was more important was not looking like an idiot. He really couldn’t bring himself to admit that he didn’t know how to play. When he saw how eager Hei Baizi was, and even Jiang Luofu seemingly looking at him with admiration, wouldn’t admitting that he didn’t know how to play be the end of his social life as he knew it?
His thoughts always moved quickly. He soon found a solution. He replied with a light cough, “How about this? There’s no point in playing Go. Let’s play five-in-a-row.”
“Five-in-a-row?” Hei Baizi frowned. He asked with a bit of hesitation, “Isn’t this a bit too easy?”
He admired Zu An for creating a new game, but that was only out of appreciation for his understanding of Go. He thought that Zu An’s skills in Go would definitely be extremely high, and that was why he could make such an interesting game.
However, as the Go Saint, he could still tell that five-in-a-row was pretty simple from a glance. It was only suitable for some beginner students or average people. Before a true Go expert, it really wasn’t worth mentioning.
Zu An said with a smile, “Even though this five-in-a-row seems simple, there are still many vicious strategies.”
“Oh?” Hei Baizi immediately became excited. “Then I really must see it for myself.”
If anyone else were to say this, he absolutely wouldn’t believe it. He might even spit in their face. But this person was the creator of the game, and he had already become a Go Saint in Hei Baizi’s mind. That was why he believed Zu An.
The two of them sat down in the gazebo. Xie Xiu tacitly helped them set everything up. Even Jiang Luofu stood off to the side, watching excitedly.
As someone who came from a distinguished clan, she naturally understood the game of Go. However, she wasn’t very interested in that game, and it was instead five-in-a-row’s simple rules that were more interesting. Now that she could see two Go Saints face off, furthermore in five-in-a-row, she wanted to see who would win and who would lose.
Her eyes shifted to Zu An's face. Then, she was momentarily distracted. When he was in Brightmoon Academy, this fellow had been a publicly acknowledged good-for-nothing. If not because she had accidentally learned that he had transcendent level aptitude, she might have thought the same thing, right?
Even though he did have transcendent level aptitude, he had been extremely weak back then. She could have killed him with just a single finger. Yet now, he had already grown to this level. His cultivation has almost caught up with mine! He even seems to have a lot of skill in all kinds of fields…
After all, regardless of whether it was Yin Shi, Wang Shuyang, or Hei Baizi, all of them were kings in their respective domains. If one could obtain recognition from any one of them, then they would already be doing extremely well for themselves. However, he had managed to dominate every single one of them? What the heck?
She now had an unprecedented feeling of confidence toward Zu An. She spoke to him through ki transmission, “Ah Zu, if you win against him, it’ll be much easier for me to get you a title.”
“A title…” Zu An had a weird look on his face. Sis, don’t you have too much confidence in me? I don’t even know if I can win, myself.
Xie Xiu walked over with the black and white tiles, and he placed the white tiles next to his master.
Hei Baizi frowned. After all, black went first, so the newer or weaker player would start black. He was worried that this would offend Zu An. But with his reputation as the Go Saint, wouldn’t it be way too embarrassing to start black? That was why he was quite conflicted.
Zu An saw through his distress and said, “Your distinguished self is already a renowned Go Saint, so you naturally have seniority over me. Of course I should start with black.”
He Baizi sighed in relief. He said with a smile, “Sir Zu is open-minded after all. Please!”
Now that he had the black pieces, Zu An felt much more confident. The reason he dared to play against the Go Saint was because five-in-a-row had a sure-win method. Furthermore, the premise was that you had to start black.
He calmly placed the black piece in the center of the board.