"I'll first introduce myself to you I'm Ye Luoxue but you can just call me Luoxue what's your name"
Di Yusheng just looked at her
"Right." She suddenly realised then continued
"I came for a game of Go,"
Di Yusheng waited a while then asked. "That's all?"
"That's it."
She stepped inside as if the room were already hers to enter and took out a wooden board and two stone bowls.
His room was plain. A bed stood against the wall, neatly made. Beside it was a small wooden table and two chairs. The walls were bare. Afternoon light fell in through the window and lay across the floor in a pale square. Nothing in the room stood out. It was simply a room someone had been told to use.
Ye Luoxue set the board on the table and sat down.
Di Yusheng remained where he was for a moment. He felt helpless to this stranger not because she was stronger but because he suspected she might actually be insane.
Ye Luoxue opened the bowls and began sorting the black and white stones into place.
At last, Di Yusheng walked over and sat across from her.
Ye Luoxue pushed one bowl toward him.
"This is black. This is white. Black moves first."
Di Yusheng looked at the board.
Ye Luoxue placed a stone at one point near the corner. "You place stones on the intersections, not inside the squares."
She placed another. Then another beside it. Her fingers were steady. "Stones do not move after they are placed."
Di Yusheng nodded .
Ye Luoxue continued. "A stone lives through its liberties. These empty points around it." She tapped lightly beside one of the stones. "When all liberties are surrounded, the stone dies and is removed."
She showed him a simple capture.
Then she explained connected stones, then eyes, then territory. She did not rush. When a point needed repeating, she repeated it. When he asked a question, she answered it. Her voice stayed flat and even from beginning to end, as if she were reading out the rules of weather.
When she finished, she said, "Play."
Di Yusheng placed his first stone too close to hers.
Ye Luoxue looked at it, then placed her own.
A few moves later, she captured two of his stones and set them beside the board.
Di Yusheng watched carefully.
The game did not last long.
He lost.
Ye Luoxue reset the board.
Again.
The second game lasted longer. Di Yusheng avoided one mistake and made two new ones. Ye Luoxue removed another small group of stones and set them by her hand.
He lost again.
They played a third game.
Then a fourth.
The room grew quiet except for the soft clicks of stone on wood.
At first Di Yusheng's moves were stiff. He remembered every rule exactly as she had said it, but memory was only memory. The board was still strange. He placed stones with care, then watched them die. He guarded one side and lost the other. He followed one line too far and left an opening behind him.
Ye Luoxue corrected him only when he asked.
"If I play here?"
"You die."
"And here?"
"You lose fewer stones."
He moved there.
Another game passed.
This time he managed to take one of hers.
Ye Luoxue removed it from the board and placed it in the bowl without comment.
He looked at the space where it had been.
Then the next move came.
The light shifted across the floorboards. The square of sunlight climbed the table leg, crossed the edge of the chair, and slowly thinned. Outside, the noise of the sect rose and fell faintly in the distance, never reaching the room in full.
They kept playing.
Once, Di Yusheng stared at the board for a long time without moving.
The next game lasted even longer.
He still lost.
By then the sky outside had begun to darken. The pale light at the window had turned gray-blue. A servant somewhere in the outer paths struck wood to mark the evening hour.
Ye Luoxue looked out once, then at the board.
"That's enough for today," she said.
She began putting the stones back into their bowls.
Di Yusheng looked down at the board. Several white stones were still scattered across it. One black group in the lower left had nearly lived. Another had not.
"You're leaving?"
"Yes."
He watched as she closed the bowls.
After a moment, he spoke, "Why did you think I was lying about my name?"
Ye Luoxue picked up the board. Then she turned and walked out without replying.
Di Yusheng stayed seated for a while after she had gone.
The room was quiet again.
He looked at the empty table, then at the door, then back at the last pattern still faintly left in his mind.
In the Lin Clan,
Lin Xue sat cross-legged in his room, breath steady, qi circulating in measured loops through his meridians. The room around him was silent.
A knock came at the door.
Lin Xue opened his eyes.
"The Patriarch is calling for you," a voice said from outside.
Lin Xue rose at once and opened the door. "I understand."
He followed the messenger through the clan grounds.
The Lin Clan lived by demon slaying and demon investigation. That was how they survived, how they earned favor, how they stood in a world crowded by larger sects with deeper inheritances and more disciples to send into danger. They had less than those sects. Less manpower. Less name. Less reach. So what they had, they sharpened.
At ten years old, Lin Xue was already the most promising of the younger generation.
The Patriarch favored him.
Not everyone in the clan liked that but talent was not something to undermine.
Lin Xue entered the hall and bowed. "Patriarch."
The Patriarch looked at him and gave a slight nod. "Have you heard of the rumours of the possessed child?"
"Yes," Lin Xue said. "Di Yusheng. A cripple who recovered in one night and outran a cultivator without any cultivation he was found eating soil and dirt while his clothes had bloodon them."
The Patriarch folded his hands behind his back. "Someone has put up a bounty for the demon inside him. What do you think?"
Lin Xue lowered his eyes. "It is our duty to eradicate demons. But we must also do it wisely."
He had said those words once before.
In his last life, he had believed them fully. Their duty was to hunt demons. It was never their duty to rush to death for pride but now it was different he would not wish to die if it was avoidable but if dying could kill an extra demon he would do it gladly.
The Patriarch watched him. "Go on."
Lin Xue lifted his head. "I am willing to infiltrate Cloud-Step Sect and kill the demon myself. If anything goes wrong, I will bear the blame."
The Patriarch's expression shifted. It was slight, but it was there. "There is no need. I already refused the request."
Lin Xue did not speak.
The Patriarch continued, "Your courage is admirable. But this matter ends there the real reason i called you was on the a different matter a deacon from the Zhuming sect is coming to look for disciples you have the best chance of getting accepted but it's best to always be prepared."
Lin Xue spoke, "Patriarch, I'llhave a better chance if im able to slay that demon."
The old man looked at him.
Lin Xue went on, his voice steady. "If the Lin Clan fears even Cloud-Step Sect, then what meaning do our ancestors' teachings have? If we stop before a sect gate, then we were never fit to walk this path."
Silence settled in the hall.
The Patriarch studied him for a long moment.
Before him stood the child the clan had placed its hopes on. The one with the straightest sword-heart. The one who learned fastest. The one who never seemed to bend.
At last, the Patriarch said, "You will go under another name to avoid dragging the Lin clan into trouble."
Lin Xue lowered his head. "Yes, Patriarch."
"And if the matter is beyond you, you will withdraw."
Lin Xue paused, then said, "Yes."
The Patriarch let out a slow breath. "Then go prepare."
Lin Xue bowed once more and turned to leave.
Outside, the night air was cool.
He walked down the stone steps without pause, his sleeves barely stirring.
Above him, the lamps of the hall burned steadily.