First place

The damn, accursed Go board. Lex saw no resolution in sight, and he saw no way to keep himself safe from its influence. Lex had a very powerful cultivation technique, and he was confident in saying that it was likely the best, if not close to being the best one in the universe.

Yet the Go board could find flaws in even that, causing him cultivation deviations whenever the Rook piece was used. To be honest, Lex appreciated the opportunity to refine his strength further, but the timing of it was not the best. In fact, Lex suspected that his opponent had some way of detecting the most inopportune moment for Lex to use it.

He had originally been hoarding beads in the hope that he could somehow transform them into a Rook piece of his own. Now he'd changed his strategy. He was going to place as many beads on the board as possible, even if that made him vulnerable to more attacks. The reason was that with each bead placed, he'd learn a little more about the game.