Take One Step Back to Take Two Steps Forwards
After playing out countless scenarios in his head, Mu Yu decided it was time he started experimenting for real. He willed a stone up and down onto a spot he chose, splashing up water without throwing the pieces on the board out of place and sinking a white stone.
“If you take my piece, I will break down your formation.” Go Soul slammed down a white stone, generating a big splash and sabotaging Mu Yu’s plan to come down the wing.
“H-here.” Mu Yu’s next move was devoid of confidence, leading to the choice revealing his weakness.
The water surface started to roil as a shark made its way to the surface and gobbled three of Mu Yu’s stones.
“It’ll be checkmate if you continue at this rate.”
Elder Leng wasn’t around to manipulate the contest for Mu Yu this time.
“Can we restart?”
Go Soul reset the board to before Mu Yu played his first move. However, the rock Mu Yu stood on sunk six metres.
“You will be out of chances once you sink to the bottom. The sharks will rip you apart once you sink, by the way. You will feel the full brunt of their attack.”
Mu Yu shuddered. He tried again along the other wing but sunk again. After sinking several more times, he figured out he was three tries away from game over. As for Go Soul, he hadn’t even started trying.
If only Shifu or Dad was here to teach me! There has to be way.
Mu Yu’s mind drifted off back to when Ku Mu brought him back to Ku Mu Valley from Floating Celestial Island and held him captive there.
“Gramps, can you sleep at night after killing so many people with your formations?”
Ku Mu glared at Mu Yu, who was hanging upside down for angering him. “I was merciful enough to cast them simply. They have no right to ask me for favours if they can’t pass such easy tests.”
“Merciful, you say, yet I never saw you leave any hints!” Mu Yu folded his arms and argued.
“If I didn’t leave an herb to neutralise the poisonous mist by the border, how did others get in? If I didn’t leave the vine there, you think you would’ve been able to escape the mirror formation? You think I’m keen on having corpses strewn in my valley? This isn’t a cemetery. They died because I wasn’t around. If I was around, I’d throw those overconfident morons out before they dirtied my place.”
Mu Yu finally realised he was in the wrong, yet he still questioned, “What about the fiend tree? You didn’t leave any hints there.”
“Did it attack you when you didn’t attack it? If you want to overcome its rage, you need to learn to take one step back to take two steps forward, plucking the celestial fiend fruit without trying to harm it. Everybody rushes to pluck the fruit as soon as they see it. They had it coming!”
Suddenly, Mu Yu had an epiphany back at the go board.
Wait a second… Take one step back to take two steps forward.
The majority of people were so busy fretting about the black side being in a crisis that they became fixated on protecting every black stone they had, therefore initiating with attack on the white stones was the first prompt to come to mind. Regardless of how they attacked, they’d end up losing. Everyone wanted to gain, but nobody wanted to look at what was sacrificed in order to gain. To win, the key was to take two steps back to take one step forward, meaning the black side had to be willing to make sacrifices in order to gain ground.
Examining the status quo again with a new perspective, Mu Yu stopped searching for ways to expand his formation. Instead, he observed that, because the black stones were split, the white stones were also split. Morale wasn’t forever on the incline, and it could be exhausted. The white side wanted to win in one fell swoop. Thus, luring the white side into wasting their morale on pointless captures until their morale wilted would be the turning point, where the black side could begin their counterattack. To that end, sacrificing unimportant black stones would direct the white stones elsewhere, essentially sacrificing a knight to protect the king.
“You made up your mind yet?” Go Soul calmly questioned.
Mu Yu: Would he have already thought of this? I’d expect him to given his level. Would this ruse work? Wait, no. If I place a stone there, he’ll choose to cut himself off. If he doesn’t go there, he’ll have given me a free move. That would prevent him obstructing my formation.
Mu Yu looked over his shoulder and heaved a black stone onto the water where he wanted then nervously declared, “Your turn.”
“You are giving me three stones with that move. Can you afford the loss in your quandary?”
“Less yap and more go. Show me what you got.”
“Why did you make that decision?”
“One step back to take two steps forward. I have no chance of winning if I don’t give up something.”
“If I continue blocking this zone, you’ll lose another three stones, won’t you?” Go Soul pointed to the board and smiled subtly.
Since Go Soul pointed a white ray onto a spot, Mu Yu pointed back with a black ray.
“I’ll take another three pieces if you go there. You will have lost nearly half of your stones if you occupy that spot. You sure you want to do that?”
Mu Yu: You make it sound as if I have any other ch-, hang on… If I lose half of my stones, my formation will be tight knit, while he will have holes everywhere in his formation. I’ll be a fish to water. I don’t need to worry about him!
“I’m sure. Very sure. This is my ticket to victory. Your move. Make it snappy so that I can win this already.”
Because Go Soul just kept staring at him, Mu Yu pestered, “Get a move on.”
“There won’t be a need for that. You resolved the crisis when you decided to sacrifice your stones. You’re one of the few who chose to accept a loss in order to regain ground,” replied Go Soul, wearing a proud look. “You’ve also set the record for the fastest win. It’s even more impressive when you factor in the fact that you’re new to go, hahahaha.”
Sharks surfaced to gobble up the stones, while Mu Yu felt his head jolt, returning him to his body.
Mu Yu opened his eyes to see an entire crowd watching him. He shrugged and went back to replaying the test in his head. He meandered to the door without concerning himself with the attention he held.
“H-he succeeded?” questioned Zhao Lianggong.
“In his dreams, he did. The formation tablet hasn’t even cr-,” scoffed Luo Feilong.
Crumble!
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