The next morning, Liang Wen awoke to the sensation of being watched.
At first he thought it was another nightmare. Sleep had become a battlefield since arriving at Mount Heiwu. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the lower board beneath the Hall of Living Pieces. He saw the twisted bodies fused into the grid. He heard the grinding of bones that masqueraded as the clicking of Go stones.
But this time something was different.
The cavern dormitory was silent.
Far too silent.
Hundreds of contestants slept in rows of stone beds carved directly from the mountain. Yet no one spoke. No one coughed. No one shifted beneath their blankets.
Wen sat upright.
A cold feeling settled in his stomach.
One of the beds was empty.
The bed belonged to a merchant from the southern provinces, a nervous man who had spent most evenings muttering prayers beneath his breath.
The merchant was gone.
Not unusual.
People disappeared constantly in Mount Heiwu.
What unsettled Wen was everything else.
The blanket was perfectly folded.
The stone bed was spotless.
Even the small wooden cup the merchant carried everywhere had vanished.
It was as though he had never existed.
Wen rose and approached a nearby contestant.
"The merchant," he whispered. "Where is he?"
The man frowned.
"What merchant?"
"The one who slept there."
"There was nobody there."
Wen stared.
The response came too quickly.
Too naturally.
The contestant genuinely believed the bed had always been empty.
Across the dormitory, Mei Lian slowly sat upright.
Their eyes met.
Immediately, Wen knew she remembered too.
Fear passed silently between them.
Someone had disappeared.
And the mountain was erasing him from memory.
The warning bell sounded before either could speak further.
The deep metallic chime echoed through the mountain three times.
Every contestant immediately stood.
Nobody wanted to be punished for hesitation.
The dead servants arrived moments later.
Their movements were stiff and unnatural. Black stones protruded from their skulls like tumors. Their jaws hung open as they shuffled through the room.
One by one, they selected contestants.
When a servant pointed at Wen, his pulse quickened.
Another pointed at Mei Lian.
They were chosen again.
No explanation followed.
None was necessary.
Explanations did not exist in Mount Heiwu.
Only obedience.
The selected contestants were marched through winding tunnels that descended deeper into the mountain.
The air grew colder with every step.
The walls became smoother.
Older.
The stone no longer looked carved.
It looked grown.
As though the mountain itself had formed around something ancient buried inside it.
Eventually the tunnel opened into a massive circular chamber lined with mirrors.
Thousands of them.
Bronze mirrors.
Silver mirrors.
Black mirrors that reflected nothing at all.
The Collector waited at the center.
His patchwork face stretched into a pleasant smile.
"Welcome," he said.
Nobody answered.
The Collector seemed delighted.
"Today, the mountain wishes to know who you truly are."
His words sent unease rippling through the group.
The mirrors began to shimmer.
Wen found himself facing a tall bronze mirror framed by human vertebrae.
At first the reflection appeared normal.
Then it smiled.
Wen did not.
The reflection did.
Slowly.
Patiently.
Its grin widened beyond human limits.
"You are afraid," it said.
The voice came from the mirror.
Wen stepped backward.
The reflection remained still.
Its eyes locked onto his.
"You should be."
The bronze surface rippled.
A hand emerged.
His hand.
Identical in every detail except for the fingertips.
Each finger ended in a polished black Go stone.
The reflection pressed closer.
"So much of you already belongs to the board."
Wen stumbled away.
Around him, contestants screamed.
One woman watched helplessly as her reflection aged decades in seconds before collapsing into dust.
A young scholar struck his mirror repeatedly, only for his reflection to reach through the glass and drag him inside.
The mirror swallowed him whole.
Then became still.
As if nothing had happened.
Wen searched desperately for Mei Lian.
He found her standing before a silver mirror.
Her face had gone pale.
Inside the reflection stood a young man.
A handsome scholar wearing white robes.
He held Mei Lian's hand.
The reflected Mei Lian smiled at him with such warmth that Wen felt an unexpected ache in his chest.
Then the scholar began to crumble.
Stone spread across his skin.
His body shattered into black Go pieces.
The reflected Mei Lian screamed.
The real Mei Lian dropped to her knees.
Tears streamed down her face.
A memory struggled to surface.
A name.
A face.
Someone important.
Someone the mountain had stolen from her.
The Collector watched with fascination.
"Interesting."
His voice was almost scholarly.
As though he were observing an experiment.
The mirrors shattered simultaneously.
Darkness swallowed the chamber.
A single lantern ignited.
Then another.
Then another.
A path appeared.
Descending deeper underground.
Even the Collector looked uneasy.
That frightened Wen more than anything else.
Because until now, the Collector had seemed untouchable.
Fearless.
The voice that echoed through the darkness did not belong to him.
"The Faceless One wishes to play."
The servants immediately bowed.
The Collector lowered his head.
No one dared speak.
The tunnel ended in an ancient chamber covered in claw marks.
The damage was everywhere.
Walls.
Ceiling.
Floor.
Something had spent centuries trying to escape this place.
At the center sat a solitary figure in white robes.
Its face was smooth.
Featureless.
No eyes.
No nose.
No mouth.
Nothing.
Yet every instinct screamed that it was looking directly at them.
The pressure in the room became unbearable.
Several contestants collapsed.
One began bleeding from his ears.
The Faceless One slowly raised a hand.
A Go board emerged from the stone floor.
Three contestants were chosen.
A frightened girl.
A scarred warrior.
A young monk.
They were forced to sit.
The game began.
Nothing made sense.
Turns happened simultaneously.
Rules shifted without warning.
Captures reversed themselves.
The board seemed alive.
Changing constantly.
The first contestant lasted only minutes.
His body twisted violently.
Bones rearranged themselves beneath the skin.
His screams echoed through the chamber as flesh hardened into stone.
Moments later he had become a human-shaped Go piece.
Alive.
Conscious.
Unable to move.
The second contestant survived longer.
The board slowly consumed her shadow.
Without it, her body faded piece by piece until she disappeared entirely.
Only her voice remained.
Begging.
Crying.
Somewhere deep beneath the mountain.
The monk won.
Or what passed for victory.
The board declared him victorious.
Then removed both his eyes.
Blood streamed down his face as he laughed hysterically.
Alive.
Broken.
Rewarded.
The Faceless One seemed pleased.
As the contestants were escorted back to the dormitory, Wen noticed a strange symbol carved into his wrist.
A black mark shaped like a cracked Go stone.
Every survivor bore the same symbol.
Mei Lian stared at hers.
"What does it mean?"
No one answered.
The old scholar looked terrified.
That was answer enough.
That night Wen dreamed again.
He stood upon an endless Go board beneath a sky filled with eyes.
The stars watched him.
Judged him.
Far across the board sat something enormous.
A figure larger than mountains.
Its body resembled a cracked Go stone.
Thirteen empty thrones stood before it.
One by one, shadows began filling them.
A voice rolled across eternity.
"Continue surviving."
The board trembled.
Something vast moved beneath it.
Something imprisoned.
Something hungry.
"You are learning."
The voice grew louder.
"Become worthy."
Wen woke drenched in sweat.
Across the dormitory, Mei Lian sat upright.
Her face was pale.
Her breathing shallow.
She had seen it too.
And somewhere deep within Mount Heiwu, something ancient had begun to awaken.