There were three kinds of chess players.
The first kind did not know how to scheme. Their eyes were not on the whole board, but only on one corner.
They were beneath notice.
The second kind knew how to scheme. Though they could survey the entire board, they did not understand the details. They lacked all inspiration and never made brilliant moves.
They had crossed the threshold.
The third kind had mountains and valleys in their hearts, balance and orthodoxy, strangeness and cunning. They understood the entire board as clearly as their own minds. From the instant their first piece landed on the board, with hidden threads stretching a thousand miles beneath the surface, they knew they wanted to win and how they would win. They had truly entered the hall.
Zong Cheng belonged to the third kind—or rather, he had completed his transformation from the first kind to the third.
When he had first emerged from underground, he had been the first kind of chess player. He had done many foolish things and left behind many hidden dangers.
Back then, he had no teacher. He was just a fresh account that had crawled out of an underground base, ignorant of human affairs and unable to manipulate the board.
Later, he had suffered a huge setback under the identity of "Liu Yue." He had thought that controlling an army would be enough to stand on equal footing with the corporations, but it had not been so easy.
Thus, Zong Cheng had slowly accumulated lessons from several centuries of experience and finally turned himself into the third kind of chess player.
Sometimes, he felt that the world was unfair. Certain members of the Qing clan could master the arts of strategy and maneuvering in little more than a decade, or even