Travel through the heavens

On the second day, the four of them got together and first went to pick up the three horses that were fostered in a farmer's home at the foot of Mount Songshan. They then went to Dengfeng City to buy a horse for Xiao Yuanshan and headed southeast.

After traveling for a few days, they arrived in Runan. After resting for a night, according to the decision that had been discussed, Xiao Yuanshan and Xiao Feng continued to head southeast to Suzhou to gather information first, while Fang Muye and Duan Yu, master and apprentice, turned to go to Leigushan.

After riding for more than an hour, they reached the mountain path of Leigushan Mountain. As they continued to go down, the terrain became higher and higher, and the path became steeper and steeper. Finally, the horses could no longer climb the mountain.

Fang Muye and Duan Yu then tied up their horses in the mountains and started walking. In less than half an hour, they arrived at a place where they saw dense bamboo shades and quiet scenery. Beside the mountain stream, there was a pavilion built with giant bamboos. The structure was elegant and ingenious. The bamboo was the pavilion and the pavilion was the bamboo. At first glance, it was hard to tell whether it was a bamboo forest or a pavilion.

After sitting down in the pavilion, Fang Muye said in a loud voice: "Fang Muye pays respects to Mr. Congbian. I heard that you set up the 'Zhenlong Chess Game', so I came to pay you a visit."

The sound was condensed and did not dissipate, spreading straight into the depths of the mountains.

Not long after, two men came running up the mountain path. When they arrived in front of the pavilion, they first bowed to Fang Muye and Duan Yu, then stood up, uttering something incoherent and gesticulating loudly. It turned out that both of them were mute.

Fang Muye roughly understood their gestures, stood up, smiled slightly, and said, "Please lead the way."

The two men showed joy on their faces, bowed to Fang Muye and Duan Yu, then turned around and led the way.

After passing through the bamboo forest, they entered a valley full of pine trees. The mountain wind blew past, and the pine trees rustled like waves. The four of them walked for a mile in the forest and came to three wooden houses.

At this moment, a short, thin and shriveled old man was standing in front of the wooden house. He was the "Mr. Smart and Eloquent" Su Xinghe.

Fang Muye and Duan Yu walked up to him, clasped their fists and bowed, saying, "Fang Muye (Duan Yu) greets Mr. Congbian."

Su Xinghe smiled and bowed to the two of them, but said nothing.

Fang Muye naturally knew why he didn't speak.

At that time, Li Qiushui had an affair with Ding Chunqiu, and the Tianshan Tonglao reported the secret to Wuyazi. Wuyazi was furious and wanted to kill Li Qiushui to vent his anger. Li Qiushui had no choice but to fight back. At this time, Ding Chunqiu arrived and suddenly attacked Wuyazi. In the end, the two of them worked together to knock Wuyazi into a deep valley.

Ding Chunqiu was about to take more action, but Li Qiushui stopped him out of consideration for their friendship. Just then, Su Xinghe came to rescue him. However, Su Xinghe's martial arts skills were delayed due to his studies in chess, calligraphy and painting, so he was no match for Ding Chunqiu and was injured after a fierce fight.

In the crisis, Su Xinghe used the art of Qimen Dunjia and was in a stalemate with Ding Chunqiu.

Ding Chunqiu was unable to break the formation and take Su Xinghe's life. He originally wanted to learn the secret techniques and magical books of the Xiaoyao Sect from Su Xinghe. In addition, Li Qiushui dissuaded him, so he did not kill him. He just forced Su Xinghe to swear a poisonous oath to never speak of anything for the rest of his life.

Su Xinghe endured the humiliation and pretended to be deaf and dumb from then on. He expelled his former disciples and established the "Deaf and Dumb Sect" to deceive people.

Although Su Xinghe did not say anything, he was very happy when he saw that Fang Muye and Duan Yu were both handsome and elegant.

The Xiaoyao Sect has always only accepted handsome men and beautiful women as disciples, and Fang Muye and Duan Yu's appearances are perfectly suitable.

"I wonder how good they are at chess. Can they crack my master's chess game?"

Thinking of this, Su Xinghe made a gesture to lead the way, walked to a large bluestone under a big tree in front of the house, and sat on the right.

Duan Yu glanced at Fang Muye, then walked over and sat down to the left of Qingshi.

There are nineteen vertical and horizontal lines on the bluestone, with a chessboard engraved on it. There is a chess game on it, with nearly two hundred chess pieces on it, black and white facing each other, and both the black and white pieces are shining.

Su Xinghe still had a smile on his face, said nothing, raised his right hand, and motioned Duan Yu to go first.

Duan Yu had studied the theory of chess for several years. When he was obsessed with it, he spent the whole day playing chess with Mr. Huo in the accounting office.

He was extremely talented. In just one year, he went from being given a four-piece handicap to giving Mr. Huo three pieces. His chess skills were already considered a master in Dali.

At this time, I looked at the chessboard carefully and pondered for a moment. I couldn't help but feel more and more frightened. But I saw that this game of chess was extremely complicated, with disasters within disasters, both coexistence and immortality, counterattacks, and gathering of energy. There were expeditions and solutions, and there were many changes. It was really impossible to predict what the outcome of this game would be.

After watching for a long time, Duan Yu felt dizzy and nauseous. He quickly retracted his gaze so that his eyes would not touch the chessboard again.

After a pause, Duan Yu picked up a white piece from the chess box with his right hand, and couldn't help but think of the conversation between him and his master when they went up the mountain.

Fang Muye said: "Yu'er, there is a 'Zhenlong chess game' in the Tianlong Diya Valley of Leigu Mountain. I brought you here this time so that you can solve it."

Duan Yu said happily: "That's great, I love playing chess the most."

Fang Muye said: "Don't be complacent. This 'Zhenlong chess game' has been set up for nearly thirty years. There are countless talented and intelligent people in the world, both good and evil, but no one has been able to crack it. Do you know why?"

Duan Yu thought for a moment and said, "'Zhen Long' has always been a difficult problem in Go. It was deliberately set up by a Go master to be difficult. It is not a formation created by two players playing against each other. Therefore, life, death, or disaster are often extremely difficult to predict. I think the senior who set up this game must be a master. If a master does not appear, no one in the world can solve it."

Fang Muye nodded and said slowly, "What you said is not wrong. Although this chess game is extremely difficult, it is not only difficult in terms of the way of playing chess, but also in terms of the human heart. The 'Zhenlong chess game' in Tianlong Diya Valley is ever-changing and varies depending on the person. Those who love money make mistakes due to greed, and those who are easily angered make mistakes due to anger. The chess game is originally entangled in gains and losses, and it is impossible to crack it. You need to not focus on life and death, and even less on victory and defeat, in order to find a way out."

"The secret of the game is that the white pieces must first kill a large part of the coexisting pieces, so that the subsequent wonderful moves can be generated endlessly. There are inherent methods of 'counterattack' and 'reverse boots' in chess, where you deliberately kill yourself and let the opponent eat a few pieces, and then gain the upper hand. However, the number of pieces that are killed is at most eight or nine, and there is absolutely no reason to give away dozens of pieces in one go. This kind of 'not wanting to coexist' and 'squeezing yourself to death' is indeed a strange change in Go that has never been seen before. No matter how superb and divine a master you are, you will never think of going down this path."

"Who can avoid the desire to win or lose when playing chess? What they think about is always how to escape from trouble and survive. No one would ever deliberately think about dying. If you can't comprehend this, I'm afraid that even in a thousand years, no one will be able to solve this 'Zhen Long'."

Thinking of this, Duan Yu couldn't help but look at Fang Muye who was standing next to him.

Seeing that his master was looking at him kindly with eyes full of trust, Duan Yu was immediately refreshed, his eyes lit up, he looked at the chessboard again, and then placed the white piece he had been holding in his hand for a long time on a white piece that was already surrounded by black pieces.

In this part of the chessboard, the black and white pieces surround each other, and both sides have no eyes, with only two public qi left. If the black pieces want to collect qi and fill one qi, the white pieces can eat up all the black pieces with one piece; if the white pieces want to collect qi and fill one qi, the black pieces can eat up all the white pieces with one piece. This is called "shared survival" or "double survival" in Go. The so-called "neither this dares to go first, and neither dares to go first", and both sides can only stop.

Duan Yu made a move in this big chess game and collected his energy, which meant that he offered his large piece of living chess to Su Xinghe to eat. If Su Xinghe did not eat the white chess, his black chess would be eaten by the white chess, so he had to eat it.

Su Xinghe has studied hard for thirty years, and although he has not been able to fully understand the "Zhenlong Chess Game" that Wuyazi spent three years setting up, he has already thoroughly understood the ever-changing aspects of this game and knows every move by heart. No matter how the opponent makes a move, he cannot go beyond the scope that he has already understood.

However, Duan Yu's move was beyond his expectations. In the game of chess, there has never been such a suicidal act. Once the white piece died, the entire white side was about to be wiped out.

Su Xinghe could not help but get angry: "Nonsense, it's just nonsense. This young master is so angry that he kills his own white chess piece. How can you play chess like this? Anyone who knows a little about chess would never make such a move. It's like drawing a sword and committing suicide. Could it be that he doesn't understand chess at all? Forget it, forget it. My master has ordered that anyone can join the game. Since he has joined, I will play with him. If he can't crack it and suffers the consequences, it will be his own fault."

Su Xinghe glanced at Duan Yu. At this moment, there was no other way but to place a black piece at that place, removing the white piece that Duan Yu had squeezed to death from the chessboard.

Duan Yu looked at the chessboard again and couldn't help but smile.

Just as the master said, after I gave my large piece of white chess to Mr. Congbian, the situation suddenly became brighter. Although the black chess had a great advantage, the white chess had room to maneuver. I no longer had to worry about the life and death of the large piece of white chess as before. I was no longer constrained by my own white chess and was able to move freely and form a formation to pursue the situation.

He reached into the box, took out a white piece, and placed it on the board, the spot where he placed it was exactly the empty space that appeared after the white piece was removed.

Su Xinghe suddenly frowned, as if he saw a wonderful change in the chess game. He had never dreamed of this new situation. He thought Duan Yu was making random moves and destroying himself, but he never thought that he was actually burning his boats and rising again after the fall.

His face showed a mixture of joy and admiration, as well as anxiety and worry. His two long eyebrows kept moving up and down. After thinking for a long time, he decided on a black move.

Duan Yu's chess skills were already very high, and now the sky was wide open, giving him plenty of room to display his skills. He responded to each move with many ingenious moves, and after counting, he had already eaten two small black pieces in succession, and the situation on the chessboard had changed greatly.

At this time, no matter how the black chess piece responds, the white chess piece will eat up a piece. But if the black chess piece leaves a way to survive, then the white chess piece will break out of the encirclement. At that time, the world will be different and it will be impossible to do anything to it.

Su Xinghe pondered for a while, then responded with a black chess move with a smile. Duan Yu did not need to think and also placed a piece with a smile.

Looking at the chess game again, the white pieces have already won a great victory, and Duan Yu has already solved this "Zhenlong chess game".

Su Xinghe looked at Duan Yu, and he did not seem to be disappointed after the defeat. Instead, he was full of smiles, bowed his hands, and suddenly spoke: "Mr. Duan is a natural talent, which is cause for celebration. My master set up this game, and no one has been able to solve it for decades. Mr. Duan solved this Zhenlong, and I am very grateful to him."

Although Duan Yu didn't know why the 'deaf-mute gentleman' suddenly spoke, he still hurriedly returned the greeting and said modestly: "I was lucky to do this, and it was all thanks to the elder's love. I am ashamed to accept the praise from the old gentleman."

The elder Duan Yu was referring to was Fang Muye, but Su Xinghe thought Duan Yu was being modest and that he, as an elder, was showing some mercy. He was even more delighted, "This Mr. Duan is not only handsome, but also so humble and polite. Not bad, not bad!"

Su Xinghe stood up with a smile on his face, walked to the three wooden houses, extended his hand to greet the guests, and said, "Mr. Duan, please come in!"

Duan Yu saw that the three wooden houses were built in a very strange way, without any doors. He didn't know how to get in, and stood there for a while, at a loss. At this time, he heard the voice of his master ringing in his ears: "There is no door in the wooden house, just dig one out."

Duan Yu was delighted when he heard this. He immediately raised his right hand and slapped the wall two meters away.

But with a "crack", a hole in the wall of the house was immediately created in the shape and size of a door, which made Su Xinghe's eyes flash with a divine light.

He couldn't help but admire in his heart: "Young Master Duan not only has profound internal strength, but also has such delicate and subtle control over his strength. He is truly a young talent. My teacher's wish has come true!"