After those black stones were captured, a conspicuous empty space opened up on the board.
That group had originally been the most tangled, most constraining part of the endgame problem.
Wedged between Black's great dragon and White's thick formation, they could neither live nor be abandoned, because abandoning them meant surrendering a large stretch of territory.
Every player who had tried to solve the position, himself included, had devoted their efforts to saving those stones.
Anyone with even a little knowledge of Go would have considered this the difficulty upon seeing such an endgame problem.
By now, quite a few cultivators had gathered around the stone pavilion.
Some were guests who had already been strolling through Go Valley and were drawn over by the little incident earlier; others were Go Dao enthusiasts who had come expressly after hearing that Hall Master Lianjie was solving an ancient endgame problem here.
Now, quite a few of the watching cultivators seemed to have discerned the secret as well.
Ding Jingsheng and Hall Master Lianjie exchanged a glance.
Neither spoke, but both reached for the stone bowls at the same time.
Black stones and white stones landed in turn.
All the previous moves intended to rescue Black were overturned.
In their place came an entirely different path, without timid patching that looked anxiously ahead and behind, without the tangled hesitation that bound their hands and feet.
After sacrificing those stones, Black's great dragon instead broke free of its shackles and became nimble.
Heaven and earth suddenly opened wide.
Eight or nine moves later, Hall Master Lianjie's hand, holding a white stone, stopped in midair and remained there for a long time.
Then he returned the white stone to its bowl.
"Cast into certain death, only then to find life."
Ding Jingsheng slowly uttered those