In liubo chess, there are two types of pieces: one called “scattered” and one called “eagle.” There are five scattered pieces, but only one eagle piece. The scattered pieces are considered lowly, while the eagle is noble. The “Fang” position in the middle of the board is also called “Water.” In the “Water” there are two fish, yin and yang. To enter the “Water” and eat the fish, only the eagle piece can do it. The remaining scattered pieces cannot even enter the inner circle, let alone the “Water,” and can only wander around the outer perimeter.
If a scattered piece wants to transform into an eagle, there’s only one way: “To become an eagle and roar, call five whites,” which means throwing the rods to get five yang faces. At that time, the scattered piece transforms into an eagle piece and becomes qualified to enter the inner circle.
The old man asked: “How can you guarantee that you’ll throw five whites?”
Su Cen said: “If I can’t throw it, I’ll just go around the periphery a few more times. If I throw enough times, it will eventually come up.”
The old man snorted: “You might circle for a whole day and still not get in. Leaving it to fate and still thinking you can win against heaven? That’s a fool’s dream!”
Su Cen wasn’t annoyed, and just smiled helplessly: “Then what wisdom does the elder have to offer?”
The old man took a puff of his pipe, examining Su Cen through the hazy smoke for a while, “Why must you enter the big mansion? Why not wait for that kid to bring reinforcements and charge in together?”
Su Cen lowered his gaze and said: “We know nothing about the situation inside the big mansion. Even if Ling’er really brings people, they wouldn’t know where to start. And as long as the underground passages exist, they can act without fear. At worst, they can escape through the secret passages and find another isolated place to create another Lu Family Village.”
Su Cen’s expression suddenly became solemn, “So we must strike with precision. The Secret Door’s movements are mysterious, and this is the first time we’ve been so close to it. Someone must take the lead, coordinating from inside and outside, in order to capture them all at once.”
“Pawns generally don’t have good endings.”
Su Cen smiled: “There are plenty of precedents for pawns defeating those above them.”
The old man narrowed his eyes and was silent for a moment, but finally smiled, “Good lad, it won’t be in vain for me to pass on my skills to you.”
Su Cen immediately stood up and bowed sincerely to the old man: “Thank you, Senior!”
“You already knew I could throw the rods, didn’t you?” the old man said. “Yet you’re still here pretending and putting on this show of suffering.”
Su Cen smiled slyly, “Senior was able to bring Lu Xiaojiu out of the chess game and then go back to save us. You naturally have skill.”
“You didn’t consider what would happen if your act of suffering didn’t work on me?”
Su Cen sheepishly pulled out a bundle of hemp rope from behind him: “I prefer to use softness to overcome hardness, but if that doesn’t work, I’d have to use both hard and soft approaches.”
The old man was stunned by the bundle of rope, and a moment later burst into laughter: “I like you, young man!”
“But you should know,” the old man stood up and patted Su Cen, “neither force nor gentleness would work on me. I must think highly of you to be willing to teach you my skills.”
The old man put his hands behind his back: “Follow me.”
The last time they stayed at the old man’s house, they stayed in the storage room. They had never set foot in this main hall where the old man lived.
Seeing the inside of the room, Su Cen was startled. Books were everywhere—on the bed, the floor, the table—covering astronomy, geography, official histories, unofficial histories, strange tales, and legends. Even more eye-catching was a large table at the head of the bed, displaying a complete set of liubo chess.
The old man stood in front of the table, “What was your name again?”
“Su Cen, courtesy name Zixu.”
The old man smiled at Su Cen’s previous use of a false name and picked up the six rods, “Well then, my young friend Su, what combination do you want to throw?”
Su Cen was startled and said: “Five whites?”
The old man casually tossed, and exactly five yang faces showed up—the “five whites” needed to transform into the eagle.
Su Cen exclaimed in admiration: “Senior, that’s amazing!”
“You don’t need to flatter me,” the old man picked up the six rods. “I’ve spent a good part of my life researching these things. How much you can learn depends on your own fate.”
Two days later, a bell rang in the big mansion, and someone immediately reported that someone had entered the game at the Dui position.
The man in white smiled lightly, “They still dare to come.”
The man in black asked for instructions: “How many teams should we send this time?”
“The Master said we cannot harm his life,” the man in white suddenly smiled sinisterly, “but for a child, it’s always good to teach them a lesson.”
At the same time, Su Cen again entered the game from the front of Lu Xiaojiu’s house, nodding to the old man before descending step by step into the deep underground passage.
The old man watched Su Cen’s silhouette disappear into the darkness before turning to leave, heading to the designated ‘Zhang’ position to guard it, ensuring no one else would enter the game.
After a period of silence, the stone door slowly opened, leading to an even more unfathomable depth.
Upon entering the formation, Su Cen first methodically explored a few steps. First, to confirm that he was the only one on his side, with no other players interfering, and second, to gauge the opponent’s situation—how many forces they had, what attitude they held, and what attack strategy they employed.
Like during their previous entry, the opponent’s people had pursued them after just a few steps, indicating that the opponent didn’t take them seriously and had merely sent one piece to intimidate them.
But this time, after casting the rods four or five times and traversing half the outer circle, he still hadn’t encountered any of the opponent’s people. This meant that the opponent had deployed several teams this time, converging from multiple directions, intending to trap him in a dead position.
“Lu to the ‘Zhang’ position, Zhi blocks the ‘Qu’ position, two barriers control the rear,” the man in white looked at the white piece surrounded by several black pieces and raised the corner of his lips: “I thought he had some real skill, but it’s nothing special after all.”
Su Cen stood before the stone door, seemingly unaware of the danger behind it. He raised his hand and tossed, landing one gold face up, and the stone door slowly opened.
A direct confrontation!
The black-clothed man behind the door had a vicious scar across his face and wielded a sword half his height, with wolf-like eyes scanning Su Cen’s delicate neck.
Su Cen smiled and said: “According to the rules, you’re already dead.”
In liubo chess, if on the final move one encounters an opponent’s piece, the opponent’s piece can be directly placed in one’s prison.
So no matter whether you appear gentle as a breeze or fierce as a demon, within the game, you’re just a chess piece. And as a piece, you must follow the rules of the game. Su Cen had been at the “Jiu” position, and after one step he landed exactly on the “Zhang” position where the black-clothed man was stationed. According to liubo rules, this was already a dead piece.
The black-clothed man probably hadn’t expected Su Cen to be so calm. He had intended to scare Su Cen if not kill him, but saw that Su Cen simply ignored him and went directly to the stone door. Su Cen raised his hand, his fingers nimbly turning the bamboo rods as they fell, showing five yang faces.
Five whites!
The stone door before them slowly opened, no longer revealing pitch darkness. Instead, firelight surged through the stone passage, illuminating the vibrant wall paintings on the stone walls, a sight too dazzling to take in at once.
Su Cen stepped forward with composure.
The man in white tightly gripped the piece he had just lost, his lips gradually tightening: “This kid dares to trick me!”
Su Cen walked forward leisurely, looking at the wall paintings as he went.
The painting depicted a bird with brown feathers speckled with fine spots, a large broad head, and eyes that, unlike other birds, were positioned at the front of its head, facing forward—this was the king piece in liubo chess, also named the “eagle.”
In the painting, this eagle was soaring above the clouds, looking down at the earth, intently eyeing the black and white fish in the Two Polarities Water.
Walking further, the scene changed dramatically. Various forces surrounded and blocked the eagle, spreading a net to prevent it from descending to the water to eat the fish. The eagle circled repeatedly, unable to find a place to land.
In another change, the eagle spotted a gap, swooped down, and returned with a fish in its beak. The people below continued to fight valiantly, weapons in hand, directly pursuing it.
This was depicting exactly what happens after the eagle enters the inner circle. Unlike the simple line engravings on the outer perimeter’s stone walls, these paintings were richly detailed and lifelike, even conveying the intensity of the fierce competition through the wall art.
Being able to reach this point meant he had already succeeded halfway.
Over the past few days, the old man had imparted all his insights to Su Cen, though Su Cen knew he couldn’t absorb everything in just two or three days. So he focused on learning rod-throwing techniques, particularly mastering the “five whites” and “one white” combinations.
With these two techniques, he could attack when advancing and defend when retreating. He had anticipated that the opponent would try to surround him from the start, which was why he deliberately set a trap and eliminated one of the opponent’s pieces in one move.
After consecutively throwing a “one white” and a “five white,” the opponent must have realized they had been tricked. The path ahead would surely not be so smooth.
The man in white looked at the small white piece that had entered the inner circle with gritted teeth, wanting to tear it apart. He ordered through clenched teeth: “Change formation, two barriers to block his retreat, Du intercepts from the front, Zhi transforms into an eagle to pursue!”
He refused to believe that this person could escape such an all-encompassing net!
Several forces converged, surrounding the small “Jie” position. The man in white cast a “one white” and the corner of his mouth slowly curved upward, “Kill!”
The stone wall slowly rose, and the black-clothed man’s Phoenix Cry Sword hummed as if thirsting for blood. Without waiting for the stone door to fully open, he rushed in impatiently.
But in the next instant, he stood frozen in place, sweeping his gaze around before scratching his head: “Where is he?”
“How can this be?!” The man in white clutched the black piece, at a loss. “He never entered the inner circle at all; after throwing the five whites, he returned to the outer perimeter!”
“Right Hand,” the black-clothed man beside him asked softly, “what do we do now?”
After a moment of shock, the man in white dejectedly put down the piece in his hand, “We’ve already lost this round.”
At the same time, in a stone passage on completely the opposite side, Su Cen was strolling leisurely along the magnificent lights. He had anticipated that the opponent would try to surround and intercept him, so he never intended to engage in a prolonged battle. After feinting a move, he immediately turned back, choosing to advance through the outer circle. Only after ensuring he wasn’t being pursued did he enter the inner circle again.
As he walked further inward, a white light appeared at the end of the dimly lit passage.
In a dark room within the big mansion, there was a light “ding-dong” sound.
Someone had entered the “Water.”
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
![Flying Dust [Fei Chen]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9k.png "Flying Dust [Fei Chen]")
