Change

Mingyao was ecstatic as she gazed at the face before her. She had so many questions, and the only person who could answer them was standing right in front of her. The questions flooded her mind.

How would she reclaim her grandmaster status? Why had she turned into a girl? When would she become male again?

She eagerly wanted to ask, but before she could speak, the master hushed her.

"First, we must finish the game," he said, pointing to the weiqi board before them.

Mingyao sighed as she looked at the board. She could see everything around her clearly, but that didn't mean she would win, did it? She reached into her bowl, picked up a black stone, and was about to place it when her hand faltered. Her mind raced through the possible implications of her move, and she froze.

Her master noticed.

"Don't be afraid to make a move. It is okay to be cautious, but to stop is to stagnate. Better to fail and grow than to stop and remain still."

A gust of wind whispered through the trees, rustling the silk of her robes. Mingyao turned her gaze to her master. She had heard his words and wanted to follow them, but this was her life at stake. Who knew how long she had before the lightning would take her life?

Her gaze returned to the board, tracing the constellation of stones before her still contemplating her next move, but then, to her surprise, something caught her attention—The position of the stones had changed.

"Why did the entire game shift?" Mingyao asked, but—

Silence.

The quiet stretched, thick as mist. She looked back at the board, clenching the stone in her hand, her nails digging into her palm as she studied the new pattern. Her mind working frantically. She was searching for the most optimal move.

Then, she froze again.

Yes, she could see how to move forward, but what was stopping the board from shifting again? What if the stones changed colors? What if an entirely new game appeared before her? She saw no clear way to win. Caught in hesitation, she found herself paralyzed by uncertainty.

"As I said, the answers are in front of you," her master's voice cut through her racing thoughts.

He lifted his chin, eyes tilting toward the sky."This is a trial from heaven, so it follows that heaven holds the answers."

Mingyao followed his gaze. The stars stretched above them, luminous veins of silver threading through the darkness. The patterns were intricate, endless. Her brows knit together. What was she supposed to see?

"Don't only look at heaven," the master continued. "The answers are in heaven. But the answers to those answers lie on earth. Heaven and earth work in harmony."A chill licked at her spine. Heaven and earth? She swept her eyes across the board, then to the ground, then back to the sky. Still, nothing. No revelation. Why did her master always have to be so cryptic?Then the air shifted.

A fierce wind howled through the night, slashing across her skin. The temperature plummeted. Ice forming at the edges of the board, crawling outward, devouring the grass. Her breath turned to mist.

She turned sharply.

The pieces had shifted again.

Mingyao let out a long sigh, frustration tightening her chest. How was she supposed to win a game that kept changing? She leaned back, returning her stone to the bowl. Maybe she didn't have to play at all.

Lightning struck.

The world shattered in white-hot no cold agony. Cold fire seared her veins. Her body arched, convulsed. Her vision faded to black, her hearing dulled. The sky, the earth, her own senses—ripped away. Everything dissolved into black. 

Silence. Total, absolute silence.

Her limbs refused to move. The emptiness pressed in, thick and suffocating. There was nothing. No board. No master. No stars. Just her, and the void that threatened to swallow her whole.

She waited for the feeling to pass, as it always did. But this time, it didn't.

She was trapped.

Then—

Light.

A sliver of radiance, thin as a blade, split the darkness.

She moved toward it. Slowly at first, then faster. She walked, then ran. No matter how hard she pushed forward, the light remained just out of reach. But she didn't stop. She couldn't.

At last, she reached it.

Standing beneath the beam was a weiqi board.

Again? she thought.

But before she could question it, the board shattered apart, and in its place, countless new boards formed, stretching endlessly into the distance. She stared, eyes wide.

What did this mean?

She turned to the first board and watched as the stones moved, piece by piece, until they stopped—forming a puzzle. She stepped to the next board, and slowly, stones appeared, mirroring the first before locking into a different puzzle. The next board did the same. And the next. Board after board, each playing out its own game before freezing at a puzzle.

The void pulsed with infinite games, infinite outcomes.

Mingyao's mind spun with questions.

A whisper cut through the dark.

"Young Prince."

The void wrenched, twisted. Mingyao gasped. The endless boards vanished. The abyss unraveled. When she blinked, her master sat before her once more.

Mingyao gazed at his face. It was still his, unchanged, but everything else around her had vanished.She lowered her gaze to the weiqi board. Her pulse quickened. The stones had formed the puzzle from the void.

Studying it closely, she spotted a possible solution. Amused, she placed her stone down. Her master responded exactly as she had predicted. Encouraged, she placed another stone, and once again, he answered accordingly. This pattern continued until the puzzle was solved.As the final move was played, the board trembled. The stones on the board shifted, rearranging themselves into a new puzzle. The void crumbled.Water.

She was seated atop an endless expanse of water, her master opposite her. The surface rippled beneath her touch—fluid, yet solid. Above them, the stars burned. One cluster glowed brighter than the rest.

"You have begun to grasp the essence of this game," her master said.Mingyao was confused. What essence was she grasping? She hadn't changed—only the game had. Though uncertain, she chose not to question it. Instead, she turned her focus to the next puzzle, solving it as she saw fit.Mingyao set down another stone. Slowly solving it's question once she had answered its question—

The water faded.

Mountains rose around them, peaks wreathed in mist. The glowing cluster of stars shifted. The open sea was gone; now they were playing atop a mountain. 

A pattern.

She pressed her lips together, mind racing. Could it be?

She needed to be certain. She proceeded to solve the next puzzle, answering its question anticipating another transformation.Just as she expected, the field of mountains melted into a lush meadow. Her heart swelled with excitement. She had cracked the code. Looking up, she noted the position of the glowing section in the sky.

Now that she understood what was happening, confidence surged through her.

The game was following the transformations of the Eight Trigrams. How had she not realized this sooner? Her master was, after all, a divination expert.

Only four trigrams remained: Zhen (Thunder), Li (Fire), Dui (Lake), and Qian (Heaven). If she followed the remaining sequence, would the game finally come to an end?