Chapter 341: Stone Chamber Of Immortals (V) Quadruple Ko


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First Commandment of Weiqi’s Ten Commandments

Greed does not succeed.

As Chen Mo anticipated, his steadfast approach to victory finally passed the opponent’s first checkpoint. He had also seen the trap in the chessboard. If he had blindly charged forth, he would have lost everything.

Fortunately, he had originally researched the Gate of All Wonders. People who had researched chess before naturally knew the logic of the Ten Commandments. This was originally the chess wisdom that a chess sage accumulated over countless matches and a lifetime of effort. In Star World, extremely few people were able to completely know them. If not for the fact that Chen Mo still remembered them, he honestly would be a bit unable to pass this trial.

However, the First Commandment was merely a small demonstration. The true trial was still to come.

The Second Commandment was called “Be unhurried to enter enemy territory,” meaning that one should slowly enter the opponent’s formation and not attempt to achieve instant success in a single blow. To be frank, Chen Mo understood the logic, but the opponent’s test would never allow him to act as he pleased.

Chi Xuzi was a bit surprised that Chen Mo passed the First Commandment, but that was all. In any case, a man able to solve the Supreme Ultimate Diagram had some skill. If he did not even have this kind of insight, then he did not have the qualifications to enter the Without Ultimate Realm.

“Weiqi Ten Commandments – Second Commandment.”

“Be Unhurried To Enter Enemy Territory1 – Activate!!”

The woman shouted.

Chen Mo already made his mental preparations, but the scene that suddenly occurred still caught him by surprise. All of the pieces in the starry sky formed a tubular passage, as if a tunnel was constructed between the two of them, very much beckoning him to enter.

Chen Mo entered the tunnel, and a flood-like suction firmly drew him in. Originally, he had planned to probe enemy territory carefully, push his way through slowly, but when he looked now, he basically did not need to do this. This chess path was enough to slowly pulverize him first.

Don’t panic.

The most important thing in chess is mentality.

Calm!

Chen Mo activated the Bodhi Soul Technique. A bodhi tree sprouted behind him, growing into an enormous tree that reached the sky, releasing a jadeite light in this boundless cosmos.

But the pressure did not decrease at all.

“The calmer you are, the faster you will lose. When this ‘boundary’ passage completely leads to This Immortal, that is when your Divine Soul will be vanish into thin air.” Chi Xuzi’s words reached his ear.

The tunnel that the black and white pieces currently interwove to form was slowly closing. Powerful pressure nevertheless made it difficult for Chen Mo to even move an inch. If he was only blindly resisting, then his ending would be as Chi Xuzi said.

But rushing would contrarily make him fall into Chi Xuzi’s trap.

Reworded in a slightly more abstract fashion, “be unhurried to enter enemy territory” meant that if you wanted to attack someone, do it slowly, not in a rush; he could not be eager in encroaching on the enemy. Chen Mo took a deep breath. The Black Turtle manifested from his body. Black Turtle Marks appeared on his skin, and the pressure on his body suddenly lessened.

The Black Turtle possessed indomitably formidable abilities. It was able to resist even Chi Xuzi’s “Chess Pressure.”

“Black Turtle?” Chi Xuzi was astonished to witness the Black Turtle’s emergence.

Even in her domain, the Four Great Holy Beasts were existences she could not look down on. The woman’s smile seemed to become increasingly ruminating. Her calculating gaze was increasingly deep. “This truly is too good, but to rely only on the Black Turtle to break free of the pressure, you will not pass this checkpoint.”

This will not work.

If he merely counted on an escape technique, he would be too late to catch up with the boundary that the chess pieces formed. By then, he would still be on the road to doom, but to exhaust all his strength to rush forth definitely was the last resort. 

Chen Mo glanced at the arrangement of the chess pieces, and an idea immediately formed in his mind.

His Divine Intent moved.

The white pieces in the tunnel suddenly fluctuated. Embedded among the shifting black pieces, the black pieces that were currently solidifying the “boundary” suddenly stagnated and stopped their speed. Then, without needing any magic energy, they shattered and vanished.

“Ko?”2

When Chi Xuzi saw what this was, her mind could not help but be very impressed with the intelligence of the man in front of her.

“Ko” was a term in weiqi, and it was a high-level weiqi tactic, a phenomenon where two pieces could alternately take one another. Because the alternation could result in a never-ending game, it was termed “ko battle.”

Weiqi rules stipulated that in the event of a ko battle, when one side captured the other’s piece, the other side must first make a move elsewhere and their opponent respond before the other side could take that piece back, up until one side no longer had a ko threat. Then, the ko battle finished. Another name was “tied up in a ko.”3

Chen Mo used the “ko” to destroy the link of the black pieces and hindered the formation of the tunnel, giving himself a chance. Then, Chen Mo continued to walk towards his opponent without haste.

“Can you pass with just this?” Chi Xuzi snapped her fingers.

She started to set down black pieces.

Weiqi pieces were circular in shape, but if one used their imagination and spread them out, they were still like a vast game record. Watching his opponent’s moves, Chen Mo did not dare be neglectful.

The white pieces started a ko on the 8,000th move.

Chi Xuzi wrinkled her brow when she saw this. The black pieces she controlled could not very easily find the ko threat, and she mostly lost the ko threat.

Both sides made brilliant move after brilliant move. Chen Mo continuously used ko’s to break the tunnel, and Chi Xuzi endlessly responded by accelerating the formation of the boundary. This was not only a trial that amply revealed each other’s chess prowess, it was also a test of each other’s abilities.

Chen Mo used the body of the Black Turtle to mitigate the pressure of the boundary, making his chess moves even smoother, and increasing his composure. Although Chi Xuzi showed a calm appearance, her white piece ko threats were slowly becoming more and more ingenious.

All of a sudden, Chi Xuzi noticed something was not right.

After she displayed her brilliant moves with black, she already devoured the white dragon, bringing victory into her grasp and seizing the advantage. But the woman noticed that the entire board seemed very strange, outside her imagination.

In the game state, the lower half had a double ko. On the right side, there was a single ko, her own picnic ko, and there was still the opponent’s…all-dominating ko.

The four ko’s took shape. There was practically no possibility to put more pieces down. The boundary endlessly crumbled and reformed, falling into a death loop.

“This is a quadruple ko!!”

Chi Xuzi exclaimed.

A quadruple ko was also called a double ko,4 a bizarre game encountered once in a thousand years. When this ko appeared, the game definitely would end with no result.

“You actually are able to reach such a level.” The serene light in Chi Xuzi then ignited like a flame.

Then without any warning, relying on the quadruple ko, Chen Mo easily walked out of the “boundary.” When he emerged, the entire passageway collapsed, completely vanishing.

Weiqi Ten Commandments, Second Commandment, “be unhurried to enter enemy territory,” broken!

“Even I did not think that someone could use this method to traverse the ‘Be Unhurried to Enter Enemy Territory.’ Chen Mo, you indeed have the qualifications to inherit this ancient chess prowess and Star Energy. If you are able to steadily observe Our game, you can become Star World’s number one warrior. What a pity…” Chi Xuzi shook her head.

Althought Chen Mo used an extremely beautiful and perfect method to pass the Weiqi Ten Commandments; first two trials, Chi Xuzi was not gratified in the least.

Among the Ten Commandments, this was nothing more than the most average comprehension.

That Chen Mo was able to pass still was within her expectations.

The final few commandments were the most dangerous. They could not be passed simply by playing.

“Weiqi Ten Commandments, Third Commandment – Take Care Of Yourself When Attacking The Other!!”5

Chi Xuzi changed.

Suddenly, unstoppable Star Energy burst forth from the cosmos. This Star Energy pounced towards Chen Mo like a dangerous beast. Of the chess pieces, only a savage dragon’s slaughter remained.

In weiqi, a “dragon” was a fatal weak point. Defeat was practically inevitable once attacked. At this very moment, Chen Mo had become a dragon on the chessboard from Chi Xuzi’s perspective. Chen Mo could only deal with it, weary as he was, up until he was finally and thoroughly defeated.

“Let me see what other skills you have.”

Chi Xuzi murmured, all of a sudden somewhat eager.


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  1. 入界宜緩
  2. 打劫, in reality, this is just another term for “ko,” but since the phrase is a homphone for “knot,” I went a little creative.
  3. It really isn’t.
  4. 攻彼顧我

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