Green Gourd Sword Immortal - Chapter 20: The Wager Duel
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-
Although Liang Yan greatly desired this Barrier-Breaking Pill, at this moment he couldn't help but hesitate. One had to know that the value of a Barrier-Breaking Pill was around eighty to ninety spirit stones. Soaring to two hundred sixty was already an utterly outrageous price. Not only would he become a wronged big-head, it would also easily draw others' covetous peeking.
Liang Yan deeply understood the principle that wealth does not show white. He was only an ordinary Miscellaneous Duties Disciple; being able to take out more than a hundred spirit stones was already his limit. If he bid any higher, he'd probably attract the attention of those with intentions.
And most crucially, this white-clothed woman had worn an indifferent look from the start, as if saying: "Bid whatever you like; if I don't raise, count me as losing." How could this not make Liang Yan gnash his teeth in hatred?
After hesitating again and again, Liang Yan ultimately still didn't bid. That black-faced man clearly also hadn't expected a single Barrier-Breaking Pill to be bid up to such a price; he wore a look of beaming joy. After counting down three times, he announced that the Barrier-Breaking Pill belonged to the white-clothed woman.
The bidding for this Barrier-Breaking Pill was like a small interlude, causing the crowd below to discuss it noisily, and at the same time pushed the auction's atmosphere to a small climax.
Unfortunately, Liang Yan had no interest at all by now. He glanced at that woman; though somewhat unwilling, he was also helpless. He could only sullenly give up and leave alone.
The next day Liang Yan returned to the sect with Lin Fei. Lin Fei was in great spirits, praising Liang Yan without end along the way, saying his formations were truly extraordinary, that this auction assembly had not had a single mishap, and that he would record a great merit for him, and so on.
Although Liang Yan superficially forced himself to respond, inwardly he was extremely disappointed. The biggest goal of this trip had not been achieved; the next opportunity would likely have to wait until three years later.
After returning to the sect, Liang Yan once again entered a self-forgetting cultivation mode: working and reading during the day, cultivating all night at night.
Thus another two months passed.
During these two months, Liang Yan tried every method to attack the bottleneck, even using some hearsay side doors and crooked paths.
But his own aptitude was like an invisible shackle, making him unable to break through no matter what.
That afternoon, after Liang Yan completed the tasks of a Formation Meridian Miscellaneous Duties Disciple, for the first time ever he didn't go to the Repository of Scriptures to read, but instead wandered aimlessly alone within the valley.
He had failed to charge the realm countless times, and unknowingly a demonic obstruction had arisen in his heart.
He only felt: 'The great Dao of heaven and earth is truly heartless. No matter how hard you try, in the end it is difficult to oppose this fated matter.'
Liang Yan, full of thoughts, unknowingly walked into a bamboo forest.
He strolled at random with no sense of direction, and didn't know where he had arrived.
Suddenly he heard the sound of stones knocking from deep within the bamboo forest.
Driven by curiosity, Liang Yan followed the sound deeper into the forest.
When he found the source of the sound, he discovered two people standing there.
One was dressed in blue-green clothes with white hair, his face rosy like a youth; the other was a tall, thin middle-aged man with a sallow, waxy face.
On the ground between the two was a straight cut like knife-carved, nineteen lines vertically and horizontally each—it was unexpectedly a Go board.
The blue-green-clothed youth waved his hand and sliced off a small section from a nearby bamboo stalk, then rubbed it in his hand. After a bit of firelight rose, he threw it toward the ground board. That small bamboo section was burned charcoal-black; landing on the board, it became a black stone.
That tall, thin middle-aged man raised his hand and drew a stone from the ground into his hand.
He likewise rubbed it, and when he threw it onto the board it was already crystal-clear and exceptionally white and smooth—it became a white stone.
At this moment the board was already covered with black and white; clearly this game's slaughter had reached a white-hot stage. Both men pondered for a long time, only placing a stone after quite a while.
Liang Yan had nothing to do either way, so he also watched the battle from the side. When he was young he was clever and sharp, and had once learned to play Go from a teacher at the town's Go academy.
In less than two years he had defeated the Go-teaching teacher so badly he lost utterly. But after all he was young and loved to play; he never learned anything for long, and often gave up halfway. Later he found other fun amusements, and tossed Go-learning to the back of his head.
He watched before the board for quite a while, only feeling that every stone the two placed was unimaginable, completely overturning his former understanding.
By the end, the more they played, the less he understood.
Liang Yan was always proud by nature, and simply didn't consider the possibility that these two's Go skill was far above his own. Instead, he felt: 'These two are probably just two stinky Go baskets who learned halfway and are playing wildly.'
His brows knitted tightly. After watching for a while, he finally couldn't resist saying from the side: "White playing this is wrong—it'll let black kill in all directions!"
As soon as he said this, he felt it was improper. As the saying goes, "Watching Go without speaking is a true gentleman." Although he asked himself and knew he wasn't any gentleman, he still shouldn't do this kind of thing that ruined others' Go mood.
Liang Yan anxiously raised his head and looked toward the two, but saw the two still frowning tightly, staring closely at the board before them, as if they simply hadn't heard Liang Yan speak.
'Could these two be deaf?' Liang Yan cursed inwardly. 'But that's fine too. Since they didn't hear, then just count it as me not having said it.'
Who knew that just when his heart relaxed, a voice suddenly came from the side: "Hehe, laughing me to death. Where did this wild mountain boy come from, pretending to understand here?"
The voice was crisp and pleasing, yet it was a woman's voice.
Liang Yan turned his head and saw, not far behind him, a white-clothed young girl standing there, with a slender figure and skin white as snow. Especially that face and features, carved from powder and jade, like an unmatched precious treasure.
The young girl was clearly looking at him with a face full of smiles, yet Liang Yan saw obvious mockery and ridicule on that smiling face.
'Why does this voice sound so familiar?'
Liang Yan wondered inwardly, then suddenly remembered something. 'Right! It's her!'
So this young girl was none other than the masked woman who had stuck in a foot at the auction that day and snatched away Liang Yan's Barrier-Breaking Pill.
The young girl seemed to have recognized him too, and laughed: "So it's you—the poor boy who overestimated himself that night and competed with me for the Barrier-Breaking Pill."
Since meeting him, this young girl had called him wild boy on the left and poor boy on the right. Even if Liang Yan were made of mud, he'd have risen with three parts anger.
He couldn't help retorting, "I thought who it was—so it's a village woman. Nowadays even a rural village woman understands attaching to elegance, imitating others and watching Go?"
"You!" The young girl gave a delicate scolding, and a red flush surged onto her face.
But her eyeballs turned, the loss-of-composure expression on her face vanished in an instant, and she recovered her previous smiling appearance, saying: "What? I said a couple words to you and you're still unconvinced? Do you know who those two are, that you show off your three-legged cat Go skill here?"
"Oh? Then you tell me who these two are?"
"Listen well. These two are my sect's Way of Go Inner Sect disciples: ranked first, First Senior Brother Lei Hao, and ranked third, Senior Brother Xu Xian!"
'Inner Sect disciples!'
Liang Yan was startled inwardly and couldn't help looking toward the two. He saw the two still staring tightly at the board between them, as if they hadn't noticed the two people here at all.
"No need to look. Senior Brother Lei and Senior Brother Xu have already entered the mind-Go stage of the Go dao; they won't notice you."
His inner thoughts were seen through by her, and Liang Yan couldn't help blushing bright red. But he resolved to tough it out to the end: "Even Way of Go Inner Sect senior brothers will occasionally make mistakes, right? Go is a thing that's all about the player being muddled and the onlooker being clear, isn't it?"
After hearing this, the white-clothed young girl actually couldn't hold back a laugh, and clutched her belly laughing.
"The onlooker you speak of, you mean this stinky Go basket yourself?"
Liang Yan's face turned iron-blue from her laughing, and he said indignantly: "You don't understand anything at all, what right do you have to call me a stinky Go basket!"
The white-clothed young girl finally managed to stop laughing, then followed his words: "Fine. Since you say I don't understand anything, how about you and I have a wager duel in Go?"
Liang Yan was stunned, not expecting her to actually challenge him. But since it concerned dignity, of course he couldn't retreat. He immediately puffed out his chest and said: "Then let's compete. But first, what's the stake?"
"If you win, I'll give you that Barrier-Breaking Pill. But if you lose, you must respectfully kowtow three loud times to me and call me Grandaunt three times!"
"No!" Liang Yan refused without even thinking. It concerned the dignity of his family; Liang Yan couldn't possibly agree.
"You!" The white-clothed young girl hadn't expected him to refuse so cleanly, and was choked for a moment. But her eyeballs turned, and she said with a smile again: "Changing the stake isn't impossible either. How about this: I heard Martial Uncle Lin say you understand a little of the skin and fur of formations. As long as you teach me a few formations, then the stake can be changed to 'respectfully call me Senior Sister three times' and that'll do."
"Deal!"
Liang Yan this time didn't hesitate at all. He had long been gnashing his teeth; as the saying goes, new grudges and old hatreds settled together. This time he was determined to viciously sort out this young girl on the Go board.
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-