The Chess Dao competition was held in a bamboo grove on Jinao Island.
The bamboo stalks were lush and green, their leaves rustling in the wind.
Chess tables were arranged unevenly along the terrain of the grove. Black and white stones rested in glossy ceramic jars, and the sound of stones being placed drifted through the bamboo shadows, blending with the wind.
Taihao held the white stones. He pinched one between his fingertips and hovered it above the chessboard for a long while without placing it.
Jin Ling sat across from him, a woman with cool, refined features.
The two had already been playing for half an hour.
Black and white stones tangled across the board like two constricting pythons locked in a deadly struggle, neither willing to let go.
Jin Ling placed a stone, and Taihao's brow twitched.
That black stone landed three intersections to the left of Tengen, cutting off the connection between his two great dragons. An ordinary person's heart would have leaped at the sight.
Taihao did not react. He placed the white stone he had held suspended for so long in the lower-right corner, then lifted his teacup and took a sip.
Jin Ling's pupils contracted slightly as she realized something was wrong.
That move seemed insignificant, but it concealed killing intent.
The white stones had formed an invisible trap in the lower-right corner. If the black stones did not reinforce it, the entire lower-right corner would be swallowed within thirty moves.
She examined the board again, a thin sheen of sweat forming on her forehead.
Taihao's stones did not follow conventional patterns. Every move landed somewhere she had not expected, like invisible silken threads that entangled, trapped, and divided Jin Ling's stones.
On the high platform, Yuanshi's gaze fell upon the water screen displaying