Chapter 7

Lin Yang is thirty-two this year. He is a well-known journalist at the Jiangzhou City TV station and also a Go enthusiast, holding an amateur 6th dan and having won second place in the provincial tournament, making him a well-known player in the Go community.

The work of a journalist is very demanding. After a busy day, Lin Yang returned home, ate dinner, and finished cleaning up. He was about to fall into bed to rest when his phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was his longtime Go friend, Sun Zhenghai, calling.

"Hey, why are you calling me so late? I'm about to fall asleep!" The two had a good relationship, so Lin Yang didn't hold back his complaints.

"Lin Yang, get on the forum right now, something big has happened!" Sun Zhenghai's voice on the other end of the phone was filled with excitement.

"What is it?" Lin Yang rubbed his extremely sleepy eyes and said nonchalantly.

"The Jilong Go puzzle has been solved!" Sun Zhenghai said each word with emphasis.

"Oh!" Lin Yang was still half-asleep and responded instinctively, but the next second his expression changed dramatically. He jumped up and shouted, "What? What did you say? The Jilong Go puzzle has been solved? Is that true?"

The Jilong Go puzzle is the "pillar post" of the Go Home forum. Since it was uploaded three years ago by a Go friend named "Loves Fish Tofu," no one has been able to solve it.

Lin Yang had studied this Jilong Go puzzle for a long time and had shown it to many of his other Go friends, but none of them could solve it. They all agreed that the white stones would always win, and the black stones would always lose, making it impossible to solve.

Lin Yang even visited the national Go master, Nie Qing, but even Master Nie Qing was speechless after seeing the puzzle, only able to laugh bitterly.

Since then, the Jilong Go puzzle has become increasingly famous, attracting more and more Go enthusiasts. The forum administrators of Go Home even pinned the post permanently and offered a reward of 100,000 yuan to attract more enthusiasts and increase the forum's traffic and fame.

Last year, during the national Go tournament, the Jilong Go puzzle was brought to the exchange meeting for many Go players to study together, but no one could solve it, not even the many professional 7th, 8th, and 9th dan players.

Since then, the Jilong Go puzzle has been rated as one of the seven unsolvable Go puzzles in history, and its fame has even spread to South Korea and Japan.

But, who would have thought that today someone would actually solve the Jilong Go puzzle? This news is truly shocking and hard to believe.

"It's true, absolutely true. Hurry up and get on the forum! Our Go Home forum is already completely buzzing!" Sun Zhenghai shouted.

"Okay, I'll turn on my computer and go to the forum right away!" Lin Yang was no longer sleepy. He rushed to the study, stark naked, and quickly turned on his computer.

He logged into the forum, entered his account and password, and directly jumped into the post about the Jilong Go puzzle.

At this moment, the forum administrators had used their authority to upload screenshots of each step Xiao Fan took to solve the Jilong Go puzzle, in order, to the first floor of the post.

At the same time, the number of replies to this post was increasing like a volcanic eruption, quickly surpassing 100,000, with no signs of slowing down, and it was even trending towards 110,000 or 120,000 replies.

The specific replies were as follows:

"Wow, what kind of god is this? He actually solved the Jilong Go puzzle, amazing!"

"His every move is flawless, too, too, too shocking, ah, I'm already wet!"

"The person who solved the Jilong Go puzzle has a really powerful name, Demon Emperor Xiao Fan!"

"Demon Emperor, please accept my knees!"

"Ah, my eyes, my 24K titanium alloy dog eyes are blinded!"

"Who is this Demon Emperor Xiao Fan? Last year, no one at the national Go tournament could solve it, but he did. Who is he?"

"Great masters have always been among the people!"

"Passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by, passing by...!"

"Damn, the upper floor is momentarily happy, the whole family ends up in the crematorium!"

"I'm just here for experience, filling in a few dozen characters, both helping the original poster and earning experience! Two birds with one stone! If I can get the second floor, I can even become familiar with everyone!"

"Breaking news, system bug, replying 'I am an idiot' in this post will automatically turn the original poster into an idiot!"

...

Lin Yang's eyes widened. He stared intently at the computer screen, carefully examining each screenshot of the Go puzzle, his expression becoming increasingly serious and excited.

So that's how it is, that's how it is. No wonder no one could solve it. Who would have thought that the black stones' last chance for survival was hidden in the final move?

Moreover, some of the moves were particularly brilliant, and the number of people who could think of them was very few. These moves were also interconnected, and one wrong move would ruin the entire game.

"Lin Yang, how is it?" At this moment, a message box popped up on Lin Yang's QQ, and Sun Zhenghai said.

"Amazing!" Lin Yang quickly replied, typing furiously, "Each move is deeply meaningful, especially the fourth, sixth, seventh, and twelfth moves. They are the finishing touches, the divine moves that turned the black stones' dead end into a living situation, ultimately digging out the only chance of survival and completely defeating the white stones."

"Great!" Sun Zhenghai also typed, "The solution to this Jilong Go puzzle can only be this one. Any other move would result in a dead end."

"Who is this person who solved the Jilong Go puzzle, with the ID name Demon Emperor Xiao Fan?" Lin Yang typed.

"I checked his ID information. He registered around 6:30 PM today, a new user!" Sun Zhenghai replied, "I tried to add him as a friend just now, but got no response!"

"I tried too, no response. He must be offline. It looks like we'll have to wait for him to come back online to find him!" Lin Yang said.

"Right, I really want to meet this master!" Sun Zhenghai sighed.

"By the way, I need to write an article quickly. This is a great piece of news!" Lin Yang suddenly became excited.

"Right, go ahead and get busy, bye!"

"Bye!"

With an extremely excited mood, Lin Yang opened his Word document and, without hesitation, forcefully typed a large headline: "Breaking News: The Jilong Go Puzzle Has Been Solved, Who Is the Solver?"

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