I Really Didn’t Mean to Play Go!
Chapter 154: The So-Called "Divine Move"

Yu Shao instinctively glanced at Zhou De, who quickly waved his hands, making it clear—I'm out. You two go ahead.

"Alright."

Seeing this, Yu Shao nodded and agreed. He walked over to the board, pulled out a chair, and sat down opposite Xu Zijin.

"I didn't expect you to show up at school. I thought you weren’t coming back."

"There's still a week until the Flame Inheritance Match, and I had nothing else to do. Besides, I haven't been back to school for a year."

Xu Zijin shook her head, then reached into the Go box, took out a stone, and placed it on the board.

"Let’s determine turn order."

The two quickly went through the guessing turn order process. Yu Shao took Black, while Xu Zijin played White. After exchanging formal bows, the game began.

Seeing the game start, Zhou De pulled up a chair and sat on the side, watching.

Not long after, Chen Jiaming arrived at the activity room, bringing along Xue Ming and a first-year male student.

"Huh?"

Upon seeing Xu Zijin playing against Yu Shao, Chen Jiaming was slightly taken aback.

"Xu Zijin?"

Recovering from his surprise, he took a deep breath and quickly stepped closer to the Go board, taking a seat beside Zhou De to spectate.

"Is that the legendary Senior Xu Zijin?"

Xue Ming exchanged glances with the first-year boy, both seeing the same astonishment on each other’s faces.

Without hesitation, they walked over and stood at either side of the board, turning their full attention to the game.

The once quiet activity room was now filled only with the sound of stones being placed on the board.

As they watched, everyone became more and more engrossed. Expressions of awe appeared on their faces, and before they realized it, their entire focus had been drawn into the unfolding battle.

With each stone placed, time ticked by.

Then, Xu Zijin picked up a white stone and played her move.

Tak.

Row 7, Column 12—Dig! 

"Dig here?"

Seeing the move, Chen Jiaming’s eyes widened in shock, startled by the sudden and sharp aggression behind the move.

"I didn’t see that coming at all. This move directly cuts through Black’s shape, forcing Black to respond!"

"Does Black hane? But if White clamps, Black might be forced into a bad shape. Then, should Black jump? No… that doesn’t seem great either—there’s a chance White could force Black into an empty triangle on the left side."

"I honestly can't think of the right response here."

Yu Shao, too, did not immediately respond as he usually did. Instead, he stared at the board, falling into deep thought.

Even so, Xu Zijin remained completely focused, her gaze locked onto the board, waiting for Yu Shao’s next move.

"Click."

After a long pause, Yu Shao finally reached into the Go box again. The stones inside clattered softly against each other.

The next moment, he pulled out a black stone and gently placed it on the board.

Tak!

Row 9, Column 10—Peep! 

"He… peeped?!"

Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.

Among all possible responses, hane and jump were the conventional moves for Black in this situation. But a peep? That was far too subtle.

And yet, it felt like there was something deeper hidden within it.

What exactly was Black’s follow-up after this peep?

No one could see it.

Not a single person in the room could predict what Yu Shao was planning.

That, in itself, was terrifying.

Xu Zijin’s expression tensed. She unconsciously clenched her jaw, her eyes never leaving the board, not even for a second.

Minutes passed. Five, six… Finally, she made her move.

The room remained silent, save for the crisp sound of stones being placed.

Yet, on the board, the battle had become a fierce and breathtaking struggle.

Tak. Tak. Tak...

Then, after what felt like an eternity, Yu Shao picked up another black stone and placed it on the board.

Xu Zijin, who had been reaching for another stone, suddenly stopped.

Instead of continuing, she slowly closed her eyes and lowered her head.

"I lost."

Silence.

A deep, unbroken silence filled the room.

Everyone stared at the board, mouths slightly agape.

Even Zhou De was utterly stunned.

With his current level, he could actually understand this game—and that realization left him speechless.

"That was…"

Xue Ming swallowed hard, his voice full of awe.

"That was incredible."

Yu Shao silently looked at the board, saying nothing.

He hadn't expected Xu Zijin to play at such a high level.

A year ago, she was still far behind Zheng Qin. But if today’s Xu Zijin were to face Zheng Qin from back then… Zheng Qin might not stand a chance.

"I’ve improved… haven’t I?"

Xu Zijin looked up at Yu Shao and asked.

Hearing this, Yu Shao slowly shifted his gaze from the board to her, nodding as he corrected her:

"Not just improved—a lot stronger."

"That dig you played was excellent."

After a moment of thought, Yu Shao continued,

"However, you didn’t fully utilize its potential."

Everyone froze.

Xu Zijin hesitated, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

"I didn’t fully utilize the dig?"

"Yeah."

Yu Shao nodded and pointed at the board.

"The reason I took so long to respond was because I was considering—if you had maximized that move's impact, how would I have countered it?"

"Judging by the moves that followed, it’s clear you played that dig by intuition rather than calculation."

Yu Shao adjusted the stones on the board as he explained,

"The dig was an excellent move in the local fight."

"But its true power wasn’t just in that local skirmish. What made it truly problematic for me was that, after playing it, White gained an opportunity to expand into the center."

"However, after my peep, you got too fixated on the local battle and placed too much importance on that area. If you had seen the bigger picture, you could have sacrificed those stones."

"Had you abandoned that area and expanded into the center, White’s influence would have surged. At that point, I would have had no choice but to invade and fight for survival."

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell into an even deeper silence.

Everyone was shaken.

Chen Jiaming, in particular, was left completely speechless as he stared at the board.

He had only seen the dig as a way to disrupt Black’s shape and apply pressure. He had never even considered how it could impact the game on a global scale.

"Wait…"

Chen Jiaming suddenly froze, his gaze shifting back to the moment after the dig—the instant where Yu Shao had played the peep at Row 9, Column 10.

At this moment, that lone black stone on the board shimmered like a distant star—brilliant and radiant.

"Considering the whole board, this peep move not only stifled White’s counterattack… but also, to some extent, hindered White's expansion into the center!"

Chen Jiaming felt a storm surging in his mind. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself.

"No wonder I couldn’t understand it at the time… It’s because Yu Shao wasn’t just looking at the present—he was looking at the future, at the whole board. Meanwhile, I was only seeing the local fight!"

"Now that I think about it, this peep… it’s a move that is—"

"Absolutely unique! A perfect tesuji, one and only!"

And it wasn’t just Chen Jiaming who realized this.

Xu Zijin, too, was staring blankly at the board, unable to utter a single word.

The dig she had played was indeed a phenomenal move, not just for that local fight but for the entire board. One stone had set off ripples across the whole game.

But she had failed to recognize its deepest potential, failing to seize the full opportunity it created. Instead, it was Yu Shao who had grasped its hidden essence and responded accordingly.

"What about here, then?"

Suppressing the emotions swirling in her heart, Xu Zijin pointed at the board and asked,

"After your throw-in, I was captured. Was that a mistake? Should I have extended it instead?"

"That’s hard to say."

Yu Shao thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Capturing would have made the position more stable, but extending was also a good option. It would have made the game sharper and more complex. If you wanted to create a complicated battle, extending was definitely the better choice."

Hearing this question, Yu Shao couldn’t help but feel a bit reflective.

If an AI were here, it might be able to determine which choice had a slightly higher win rate. But for a human, it was impossible to say definitively.

To Yu Shao, both options were reasonable in their own ways.

This was what made AI so terrifying.

To human players, in any given position, there might be multiple viable moves, each with its own logic. But AI could always find the single best answer.

Even if the win rate difference between two moves was just one percent, AI would consistently take that one-percent advantage every move. And in the end, even if a human made no outright mistakes, the game would somehow tilt completely in AI’s favor.

And that’s not even considering how insanely difficult it was to play an entire game without a single mistake.

Still, Yu Shao didn’t believe AI’s win rate calculations were always 100% correct.

In his previous life, nearly every board game had been solved by AI. But Go was the one exception—it had never been fully cracked.

Even with all its computing power, AI could only approximate the right answer through endless calculations.

Since Go remained unsolved, AI’s assessments couldn’t be taken as absolute truth. They were mostly correct, but not entirely infallible.

And that tiny margin of error—that was humanity’s last glimmer of hope.

If, someday, someone could play that one move…

Then perhaps, that move could be called—

"The Divine Move."

"But after you captured the stone, your attachment move felt a bit slow."

Shaking off his thoughts, Yu Shao shook his head and continued,

"Instead of attaching, I think peeping would have been a more solid choice."

"After I played the attachment, I also had the same feeling." Xu Zijin nodded.

"If I had peeped instead… What about a small knight’s move?"

She thought for a moment and asked,

"If I played a small knight’s move afterward, it would create a balanced exchange on the right side. That should guarantee sente, right?"

"A small knight’s move? That actually sounds pretty good."

Yu Shao raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. He thought for a few seconds before nodding.

"But after the small knight’s move, the board would scatter a bit. I might consider pressing down at that point."

The two of them continued reviewing the game, analyzing each move in depth.

Zhou De and the others were listening intently, their minds growing more and more shaken with every passing second. Many of their previous confusions were gradually clearing up.

Chen Jiaming, too, sat quietly, watching the review unfold.

He couldn't calm the excitement in his heart.

After the Flame Inheritance Match, Yu Shao would officially step into the professional Go world.

And Chen Jiaming couldn't wait to see just how far Yu Shao would go on this path filled with prodigies.

"Now that I think about it…"

A sudden thought struck him, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"I guess that makes me Yu Shao’s only Go instructor, huh?"