Demoness, where are you Fleeing to? -
Chapter 246 - 212: You should also try mine (5300 words per - ) _1
Chapter 246: Chapter 212: You should also try mine (5300 words per Chapter) _1
"A duel?" Li Xuan looked at this man; then, he grinned with ill intensions. "Sure thing! But should we put something on the line?"
He thought, Master Xuanchen was willing to bring out real gold and silver. Song Zian didn’t have anything, yet wanted to step on his face?
But Song Zian was a confident man. With no hesitation, he pulled something from his sleeve and handed it to Yue Qianqian sitting next to him. "This is a folding fan passed down by the great scholar Huang Shangbin from the early Jin dynasty, inscribed with ’The Song of Integrity’ hand-copied by Huang Shangbin himself! I’ll use this fan as a stake. Now, I don’t know if Duwei Li dares to bet?"
At this moment Li Xuan’s whole "Sacrifice" suit tingled with vibration. Even the Wenshan Seal hidden in his sleeve shivered uncontrollably.
Li Xuan thought to himself: it’s finally here. The old storekeeper at Treasure Tower said there were not that many things to pile on him. Now a good piece has appeared, hasn’t it?
The crown jewel of the ’Sacrifice’ Suit is right in front of him!
He was exceedingly familiar with the name Huang Shangbin; he was, after all, the first scholar to get six top scores in examinations throughout history. His character was upright and honest; not only did he dare to confront Emperor Taizong when he was in power as the Prince of Yan, but he also committed suicide by drowning with his wife and daughter after the Jingnan Incident.
After the death of Emperor Taizong, The Court had several times debated ennobling Huang Shangbin in recognition of his loyal and upright services. Even the Emperor agreed to this, but the ministers were unable to reach a decision because they argued over whether to posthumously name Huang Shangbin Wen Zhong or Wen Zhen.
The power and value of this fan probably surpassed that of Shaobao’s scroll. The latter was hard to make use of, but this fan could be flaunted around at any time.
Song Zian, sitting in front of him, truly lived up to the reputation of his surname, Song.
"Deal!" Li Xuan quickly accepted the challenge and thought for a moment. "This item is priceless, and I can’t value it precisely. I also can’t bring out an item of comparable value. On my side, I only have various silver and gold tickets, worth about 170,000 taels of patterned silver. I wonder if Song would be willing to accept?"
He saw Song Zian nod and say ’fair’, so he stuffed the stack of tickets he held into Yue Qianqian’s hands too.
She looked at him, her eyes full of concern.
Li Xuan immediately felt a warmth in his heart, knowing that his human-shaped encyclopedia was on his side. Then he winked flirtatiously at Yue Qianqian and climbed onto the stage.
By this time, Song Zian had already taken a seat in front of Wang Jing. Li Xuan followed suit and greeted Wang Jing with a fist-palm salute: "Li Xuan of the Liudao Division greets Brother Wang!"
" Duwei, you are too polite." Wang Jing lifted his sleeve and pointed to the chessboard in front of him. "Please take your seat. I have three riddles in this challenge. If you are a practitioner, you can add difficulty to the third riddle. Of course, the stakes will change then; I will give a ’Zhixuan Elixir’ from the Heavenly Master’s Mansion of Longhu Mountain as a prize after both of you successfully solve the riddle."
Li Xuan nodded, silently placing his chess pieces on the board, placing them quickly as if not giving a second thought to strategy.
The first two riddles Wang Jing presented were different from those of Song Zian. The first was a technique problem, and the second was an officer problem, both of them deceptively simple, but filled with traps. They were difficult to solve if one was not at least an amateur third or fourth dan.
But in his past life, as a hardcore homebody, one of his most significant hobbies was Go. Helpless, broke, and bored, he turned to the board.
His skill, though only around amateur fifth dan, had been sharpened through numerous practice problems.
In contrast to the ancient times, in his era of information explosion, there were thousands of problem collections. He had studied and researched practically all the problem collections from China, Japan, and Korea like Fayang Theory, Mysterious Chess Classic, Ghost Hand, Devil Hand, Officer Chart, etc. As for technique problems and officer problems, there were countless more.
Of course, he had no time to solve all of them, so most of the time, he directly looked at the answers and then memorized them.
If this ’Chess Master’ in front of him had directly challenged him to a match, Li Xuan may not have been so confident. But since it was just solving problems, it was like he was getting money for free.
Possibly sensing Li Xuan’s speed, Song Zian’s face subtly changed, and he also sped up his pace.
However, the first to solve these two problems was Li Xuan. When he pushed his chessboard away, dots of cold sweat had already appeared on Song Zian’s forehead. "This can’t count as me losing. The two problems he gave me were much more difficult."
After stepping onto the stage, Song Zian had realized how extraordinary Wang Jing’s problems were. They seemed straightforward and solvable for anyone who had a basic understanding of chess, but in reality, they were laden with traps. So, after failing once, he had launched a second challenge.
Seeing this from below, Master Xuanchen couldn’t help but furrow his brows: "This guy, could it be that he hasn’t fallen for the trick?"
Wang Jing had invested much thought into the chess problems for the first two rounds.
Master Xuanchen had feared that Li Xuan, as rumored, was ignorant and incompetent, so he chose these seemingly simple but deadly tricky puzzles to entice him onto the stage and then humiliate him thoroughly.
If Li Xuan couldn’t even understand the basic technique and officer problems, how could he share the same interests with Miss Xue?
But from what it looked like, Li Xuan seemed to have some skills in this Go game.
However, Master Xuanchen’s expression quickly composed, and he thought to himself that it was good even if Li Xuan had solved it. Otherwise, Wang Jing’s carefully planned program could not be executed on Li Xuan.
The next round with added difficulty was designed to reveal Li Xuan’s true colors.
At this point, Wang Jing on the stage was staring at Li Xuan with a touch of surprise. "Congratulations, that is indeed the correct solution for the second problem. Now, Duwei Li, you can use the normal method to solve my third riddle, or you can follow our rules made for practitioners — "
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