Life is like a game of Go: there are only difficult positions, never hopeless ones. You never know which move will bring a turning point. The same is true of Go and of life. Li Kaixian, the Ming Dynasty's greatest Go player, is fascinated by the game from childhood. He goes from watching others play, to losing matches himself, to traveling to the Jixia Go Palace to study. Step by step, he rises to become a Go champion, competing across the provinces and then in tournaments abroad, until he reaches the summit of the world. After passing the imperial examination and becoming a jinshi, he disappears from his post. Then comes word that the Go champions of Japan to the east and Annam to the south have come to challenge him, and no player in the land can stop them...
