Chapter 128 - Guan Jiu
The Northern and Southern Weiqi Kings were originally going all out to solve the endgames before them. But suddenly, a voice was transmitted directly into their ears!
Hearing the instructions, the faces of the two immediately changed as they raised their heads to look up!
"Master, what"s wrong?"
"Master, do you need something?"...
Their a.s.sembled disciples asked curiously. However, the two weiqi kings simply ignored them. Both of them raised their heads together, looking at Gu Hai.
Earlier, the two were playing with rapt attention, and as such, both were reluctant to do so much as throw him a glance when Gu Hai had first arrived. But when they heard Ninth Young Master"s instructions, they threw away everything at hand at once.
At this moment, five endgames were once again placed before Gu Hai. However, this time, Gu Hai wasn"t in a hurry to solve them. On the contrary, he was raptly studying each endgame and slowly playing his moves.
Gradually, the Northern and Southern Weiqi Kings made their way over to the front of the crowd around Gu Hai.
Their disciples and servants were intrigued at this odd behavior. However, the two weiqi kings paid no heed to their curiosity. Under the gazes of over a thousand cultivators whom Gu Hai had brought, they arrived before Gu Hai"s weiqi boards.
Everyone was looking at the two weiqi kings, bewildered. Gu Hai also raised his head to look at the two.
"Mister Gu!" the Southern Weiqi King respectfully greeted Gu Hai.
"Greetings, Mister Gu!" the Northern Weiqi King also greeted Gu Hai respectfully.
Both were in Nascent Soul Stage, while Gu Hai was just in the Xiantian Stage. Such politeness truly confused all the cultivators in the vicinity.
Has Gu Hai"s reputation already become so big? Sure, he can arrange a 28x28 Heaven and Earth Grand Array, and he has killed countless Song Jia Sect disciples, but his cultivation is still lacking compared to Nascent Soul Stage cultivators...
The two weren"t respectful to Gu Hai because of his fame, but because of the heavy importance given to him by the Ninth Young Master. The duo had naturally heard that the Ninth Young Master was paying attention to Gu Hai, and he was far more attentive to Gu Hai than to them!
"Oh? Southern Weiqi King, Northern Weiqi King! I wonder what advice the two of you have for me?" Gu Hai asked, puzzled.
"My humble self isn"t worthy to give any advice, this lowly one is just eager to compete with Mister Gu in weiqi!" the Southern Weiqi King replied earnestly.
"This lowly one also earnestly requests Mister Gu"s grand instructions!" the Northern Weiqi King also asked earnestly.
"Uh?"
"The Southern Weiqi King and Northern Weiqi King want to challenge Mister Gu?"
"Impossible! The two weiqi kings are already famous, why would they want to challenge Gu Hai?"...
All the cultivators in the vicinity looked shocked.
Not too far away, Ding Tong, who had not gone far, also had an astounded look on his face.
The arrival of the Southern Weiqi King and Northern Weiqi King was already strange, and now they actually wanted to challenge Gu Hai?
Should I report this to Aunt?
Instead of leaving, Ding Tong remained watching from the edge.
Nearby, the Butcher King also stopped playing. Sitting in the distance, he began to watch curiously. Right next to the Butcher King sat a black-robed figure. Judging from the contours of the figure, it was a woman. She was hugging the Butcher King"s arm, and looked afraid.
The Butcher King appeased the black-robed female a bit before he continued gazing in Gu Hai"s direction.
Gu Hai stared at the two weiqi kings, a sliver of surprise flas.h.i.+ng past his eyes. He was trying to figure out what these two really wanted.
The two kings looked at one another. Their eyes were filled with a combative spirit, mixed in with a slightly anxious look.
Gu Hai smiled slightly and said, "How about this, we are all here to solve the endgames. I solved a hundred or so endgames earlier, and discovered that there isn"t much difference in the difficulty of each endgame, how about we use these endgames to compete?"
"Alright!"
"Please!"
The two weiqi kings agreed, satisfied with his proposal.
Gu Hai nodded to the two of them and then, without paying further attention to them, he continued solving another five endgames placed before him.
After seeing Gu Hai"s performance, the two weiqi kings also followed suit. They asked their disciples to place five games before them. Gu Hai hadn"t finished his games, so the two weiqi kings also didn"t look at their weiqi boards.
Very soon, Gu Hai had finished another five endgames. Some of the cultivators quickly helped Gu Hai and brought five more endgames down.
"Mister Gu, do you want to take a rest?" the Southern Weiqi King asked.
"No need, let"s start!" Gu Hai slightly smiled and replied.
"Alright!" the Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King obliged readily.
Immediately after, all three of them looked at their respective weiqi boards together.
Gu Hai wasn"t disturbed or anything by the compet.i.tion. His speed remained the same as before. Just as before, he was still pondering over the weiqi game conception; he wasn"t just solely playing to solve the game, nor was he playing for speed. His speed in placing the pieces was still extremely uniform.
Tok...Tok...Tok...
In contrast, the Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King were placing the pieces in a hurry. Solving five endgames at the same time was indeed far more difficult than solving one game after another like before. However, the two wanted to win. Compared to before, they were making their moves hurriedly and impatiently. They needed to concentrate even harder now.
While the two placed their pieces in a hurry, many cultivators in the vicinity watched everything with rapt attention.
"This is good!" Ding Tong, who was still standing far away, smiled when he saw the compet.i.tion.
After the time it takes to burn a joss stick...
Tok! The Southern Weiqi King had solved an endgame.
Tok! The Northern Weiqi King had also solved an endgame.
Gu Hai, still with his own pace, continue to place the pieces.
Having solved an endgame each, the two weiqi kings were extremely excited. They turned their gazes at the other four endgames before continuing to place their pieces.
While making their moves, drops of sweat slowly emerged on the foreheads of the two weiqi kings. After all, the games became more difficult as they progressed.
At the end, their eagerness had an effect, they had solved four endgames. Now, there was still one endgame left. In contrast, Gu Hai had still not solved any endgames.
The two weiqi kings spared no effect to solve the last endgame.
Tok! Tok! Tok! Tok! Tok!
Gu Hai gradually placed five pieces.
"Mister Gu has solved five games at the same time!" someone cried out in shock.
Tok! Tok! The two weiqi kings successively placed their pieces.
"Southern Weiqi King has solved it! Nother Weiqi King has solved it!"
The three had solved five weiqi games at almost the same time!
The Ding Long Clan disciples immediately awarded them their spirit stones. Meanwhile, other cultivators quickly picked five more endgames for each to complete.
The Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King were immersed in their weiqi boards once more.
Gu Hai, on the other hand, glanced at the two. He found it even more strange. Why are the two forcing themselves to compete with me? They are even sweating profusely...
Shaking his head, Gu Hai focused his gaze at the five endgames before him.
"Who do you think is going to win?"
"Southern Weiqi King! He is attacking more fiercely!"
"I think it"s going to be Northern Weiqi King, he is solving the game more thoroughly!"
"No, I think it will be Mister Gu, he is most calm and collected!"...
In a nearby attic, Ninth Young Master narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Young Master, can the Southern Weiqi King and Northern Weiqi King win?" a subordinate asked, curious.
"They have already lost!" Ninth Young Master said with a sigh, shaking his head.
"Ah? But the game has just started!"
"It has just started, but take a look at the three of them, what kind of expressions do they have? The Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King look so desperate, sweat is even trickling down their foreheads. And look at Gu Hai, there is no change in his expression from beginning to the end, none whatsoever!" Ninth Young Master pointed out calmly.
"But...!"
"Southern Weiqi King and Northern Weiqi King are only looking at its form, they aren"t looking at its concept. Gu Hai"s earlier words already explained that the difficulty of these weiqi games isn"t much different. In other words, he had already seen through the weiqi intent of these games!" Ninth Young Master explained calmly.
"Weiqi intent?"
"The three thousand endgames are just one game of weiqi, that"s all. The two weiqi kings have still not realized this, adding more to their hards.h.i.+ps! Gu Hai is playing far too well. Although he is solving the endgames, a larger part of his attention is focused on studying these endgames. What a strong perception!" Ninth Young Master praised him in a deep voice.
Hearing this, his subordinates looked shocked.
"Look, Gu Hai has been solving the endgames just like he is now, calm and collected. But look at Southern Weiqi King and Northern Weiqi King, they...!" Ninth Young Master narrowed his eyes.
Sure enough, Gu Hai was still calm and collected. On the other hand, it was getting harder and harder for the two weiqi kings. They appeared to be slowing down, albeit reluctantly. However in this compet.i.tion, they could not afford to slow down, they could only be faster, faster, and faster!
Tok! Tok! Tok! Tok! Tok!
Gu Hai placed pieces on the five weiqi boards simultaneously.
The two weiqi kings also placed their pieces. In the end, they were able to solve the five endgames a bit later than Gu Hai.
"Continue!" Northern Weiqi King said impatiently.
The weiqi games were being solved in succession.
The audiences were staring at the weiqi boards, watching this fierce struggle between a dragon and two tigers.
In a flash, ten hours had come and gone.
In these ten hours, Gu Hai had solved two hundred endgames, and the Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King had also solved two hundred endgames each!
"Did you notice that Mister Gu is placing his pieces at the same speed every time, and the numbers of pieces he has placed are the same for each board?" someone suddenly pointed out, surprised.
"Ah? Ye...yes, it seems he is placing a weiqi piece on five boards at the same time!"
"It seems to be true! How is Mister Gu playing so uniformly?"
All the cultivators looked at Gu Hai in surprise.
And at this moment, the Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King, with their minds overtaxed, looked rather absent-minded. The hands clutching their weiqi pieces were trembling, giving the impression that they were mentally and physically exhausted.
"Master, you can"t go on like this!"
"Master, we can"t watch it anymore!"...
Their disciples were feeling anxious.
"f.u.c.k off!" "Shut up!"
The two weiqi kings shouted at their respective disciples before they continued playing the game, in spite of their fatigue.
All the cultivators could see that Gu Hai was in a dominant position. Obviously, the balance of victory had already tilted in Gu Hai"s favor.
The happiest person was Ding Tong. Six hundred games! In this compet.i.tion, six hundred endgames have been solved, and so quickly. If they keep on going, wouldn"t they...?
Blahg!
Suddenly, the Northern Weiqi King spurted out a mouthful of blood on the weiqi boards.
"Master!"
Hurk!
The Southern Weiqi King also followed suit and spat a mouthful of blood out on the weiqi boards in front of him.
Their disciples immediately rushed over to them anxiously.
The two weiqi kings, mentally and physically exhausted, were spewing blood; they were too tired and sapped out!
Gu Hai immediately stopped his hand holding a weiqi piece and said with a frown, looking at the two weiqi kings, "Are the two of you okay?"
The Northern Weiq King gave him a wry smile. "Mister Gu, you are good!"
"Weiqi is played for pleasure, two don"t need to put the cart before the horse! Thank you very much for letting me win!" Gu Hai said earnestly.
"Gu Hai, who the h.e.l.l do you think you are? It is not your turn to educate our Master!" the disciples from both sides roared angrily.
"Shut up!" the Southern Weiqi King and the Northern Weiqi King scolded their disciples immediately.
Their disciples were still scowling at Gu Hai.
"But Master...!" their disciples protested in worry.
"Your disciples are just unable to swallow this insult. that"s all! Gu Hai could have defeated you a long time ago, but he has been dragging this out, dragging it out until you were coughing up blood!" a voice rose from behind the two weiqi kings.
"Hmm?" Everyone turned their gazes to look, only to see a white-robed scion, with a folded fan in his hand, slowly walking over, followed by a group of gray-robed subordinates.
Seeing this young man, the Southern and Northern Weiqi Kings both had a change in their postures. Just as they were about to get up to greet him, the white-robed scion waved his hand, pressing the two down, and preventing them from speaking up while at it.
Gu Hai stared at the white-robed scion before him. Judging from the expressions of the two weiqi kings, it seems that they challenged me at this young man"s instigation!
"Mister Gu, my humble self has studied weiqi a bit. If you are up for it, how about you and I compete once? Also, give me an opportunity to help the two weiqi kings gain a little bit of face back!" the white-robed man proposed as he pursed his lips into a smile.
All the cultivators looked at the white-robed scion weirdly. Who the h.e.l.l is this man? Where did he come from? How preposterous, helping the two weiqi kings save some face?
"If you want to play weiqi, this Gu is more than happy to accompany you, it"s just that I don"t know how to address your Excellency!" Gu Hai replied, very curious now.
"My humble self is called Guan Jiu!" the white-robed scion smiled back.
Guan Jiu? The eyebrows of all the cultivators twitched as they tried to recall who he was. Who the h.e.l.l is this Guan Jiu? I have never heard of this man in the Thousand Islands Seas!
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