645 Life Is Like The Go Game; The Start Is The End. (1/2)

Sir Bi shut his eyes and spoke slowly, ”I was confident thatI could win then, but I didn't dare act so brazenly, so I answered, 'What about best of seven games?'”

”The person sitting opposite me said with a laugh, 'You are the Go Saint of this generation, unparalleled in Tianxuan for years; naturally, you would have your unique skills. However, I have immersed myself in this art for more or less a millennium… The outcome isn't fixed in stone – let us do best of nine games. There isn't much going on anyway – we can afford to waste some time.”

”I agreed with a nod, and even planned to win four games out of the nine, so that my opponent could win one game to save face.”

”What I didn't think of, however, was not only did each game take an unusually long time, it became consecutively longer as we played through our nine games. The first game took an entire day and I won with half a point of territory.”

”Throughout the game, I knew that my opponent was not weaker than me at all – he could even have been a Go expert who was much stronger than I was. So I became much more careful. As for my opponent, he probably underestimated me a little in the first game, causing his loss. He became more cautious in the second game as well. Overall, we were both overly reserved in our first game – we didn't do our best!”

”The second game took seven days to complete. Ultimately, I lost with a point of territory. Despite losing, I wasn't upset. I felt only gratification. It was an exchange between ace Go players. It took some time, it was exhausting, but it was still only physical fatigue. I lost the game, but I didn't lose a single bit of competitiveness. I even thought my art had improved a little.”

”After the second game, I took a three-day-rest before starting the third game… When it came to the ninth game, the tiebreaker, both sides gave their all. Each step was basically made after a meticulous thought process and the piece was then set delicately. Each step took us at least a few days to ponder upon. When it came to the last game, our ninth game, I realize that it had been a year since we started the first game!”

One year? The trio was speechless as they looked at each other.

They had used a year just to play nine games. This was truly unheard of!

”After the ninth game was done, my opponent was terribly delighted, saying that my Go skills were as good as the rumors made them to be; it was excellent and unique. Then, he asked me to have a look at an incomplete game, passing over a book.”

Sir Bi tapped the manual in his hand, smiling meaningfully, and said, ”I believe you must have connected the dots by now… You are right - this is the very same book! I remember very clearly that one of the pages in this playbook had a chipped corner and below this corner… it's a knockout threat in the same place where the first game manual is.”

As he spoke, he flipped the pages and reached the page – indeed it was a double knockout on the upper right corner of the game illustration. Both sides wanted to remove each other's stone and were only a move away from forcing the opponent into a deadlock, a step before achieving victory.

The chipped location was right where a black stone had been placed securely.

”This knockout threat entails the overall victory, and is the only knockout threat that matters in the entire game.”

Sir Bi said, ”When he handed me this playbook, he said, 'It has been many years since I had this manual, but there hasn't been a solution all along. No one even knows how to make a move in the first game. Your skill is exquisite and is most likely paramount in this world. You are certainly qualified to analyze this game. Come, let us study it and see if there'll be any breakthroughs.'”

”That was my first time seeing this playbook.”

Sir Bi took a deep breath and exhaled. Unable to calm the turmoil in his heart, he inhaled deeply again, a blew his breath out.

The trio was stupefied.