Chapter 1097: Rare Characters

“Most strokes…”

Qinglong murmured, then turned to look at Qixia.

“Let me restate the rules one last time,” Qinglong said. “The character we create must use either ‘丘’ (hill) or ‘八’ (eight), or both components combined, and then we’ll see whose character has more strokes.”

Qixia nodded after listening: “Got it. Who goes first?”

Qinglong lowered his head in thought for a moment. All possible combinations of characters were fixed, meaning the character with the “most strokes” would likely be unique. Therefore, it was best for him to act first.

Zhang Chenze, Tian Tian, and Han Yimo, who were watching from the sidelines, began tracing strokes in their palms upon hearing the rules.

Creating a character that included part of the character for “soldier” (兵) and had the most strokes didn’t seem difficult. But both of them had just removed a character from the game—could Qixia have something in mind?

“I’ll go first,” Qinglong said.

Qixia nodded and stepped back.

Qinglong turned to Xuanwu and said, “Bring me all the characters. I need some time.”

Xuanwu immediately vanished from her spot and reappeared beside the pile of characters. She picked them up and disappeared again, reappearing at Qinglong’s side.

“Hey,” Chen Junnan interjected, “Xuanwu Senior is the referee. Surely she wouldn’t hide any characters at a time like this?”

Xuanwu paused after hearing this: “I don’t have anywhere to hide them.”

“Uh…”

Although many things about the “End of the World” often left Chen Junnan baffled, this time was particularly confusing. Xuanwu wasn’t wearing a single piece of clothing, relying solely on her hair to cover herself—how exactly could she hide any characters?

“My apologies, Senior.”

Chen Junnan awkwardly chuckled a few times before falling silent.

Qinglong took all the characters and went behind the wall. Qixia and the others looked up at the front display screen.

Soon, the character for “stone” (石) appeared on the screen. Qixia reached up and touched his chin, seemingly realizing that Qinglong had used the radical of the character for “cannon” (砲) first, making his answer quite obvious.

Next, the character for “士” (shi) appeared beside “石.”

A few seconds later, the character “士” (shi) rotated to transform into the character “干” (gan). Then, the screen lit up with the character “八” (ba).

After rotating, “八” became “丷.”

Combining the components “stone” (石), “dry” (干), and “eight” (丷), the character for “bang” (砰) appeared on the screen.

“Ten strokes,” Zhang Chenze said.

“Not enough,” Qixia replied.

Qixia knew Qinglong’s thinking wouldn’t be so limited.

After all, when asked to create a character with the most strokes using either the complete character for “soldier” (兵) or a part of it, most people’s initial instinct would be to use the entire “兵” character.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the character “Bang” disappeared from the screen, as if Qinglong was revising his answer.

This time, the wait was slightly longer. After a full ten seconds, the character for “wood” (木) appeared on the screen.

Soon after, the character “兵” appeared beside “木,” forming the character “梹” (bin), which now clearly displayed on the screen.

“Eleven strokes…” Zhang Chenze said, looking at the screen. “Can it be more?”

Qixia didn’t speak but simply shook his head.

Qinglong tried again, changing his answer to “mi” (眯). However, everyone soon realized that this character also had eleven strokes.

“This old guy has already hit his limit, right?” Chen Junnan quietly asked beside him.

“Hard to say,” Qixia replied. “After all, it’s a best-of-three game. No one would reveal all their tricks in the first round.”

After settling on “Mi” as the answer, Qinglong sighed and slowly emerged from behind the wall. “That’s it then.”

“You won’t try again?” Qixia asked.

“I’d like to see how you plan to try,” Qinglong smiled. “The characters are right there. Do you have a better idea?”

“Maybe.”

“Then I’ll be waiting to see,” Qinglong nodded.

Qixia glanced at everyone, then walked behind the massive wall.

He looked around the setup and found it similar to the previous “preparation area”—a “Phoenix Carrying Book Platform” for placing characters and a “display screen” for handwriting.

But this time, there was a significant advantage to the game: they didn’t need to write homophonic characters. In theory, they could win using obscure characters. Yet this time…

Everyone stared at the massive display for a long time, until Qinglong finally grew impatient: “What is it, Qixia? Are you going to forfeit directly?”

As soon as those words fell, a character appeared on the screen.

“Eye” (mu).

Seeing this character, Qinglong couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

The “目” radical didn’t contain much of the “兵” character. Could Qixia’s final answer still be “眯” (mi)?

“Do you want a tie?” Qinglong asked again.

Qixia didn’t answer but, after a few seconds of silence, placed another “mu” (wood) on the screen.

Everyone watching was puzzled by this move.

Was Qi Xia attempting to form the character “相” (xiang) by combining “木” with another “木”?

Before anyone could figure it out, Qixia rotated “目” into “罒” and combined it with “木” to form the character “䍒.”

“Dang it!” Qiao Jiajin said. “I know this character!”

“What is it?” Chen Junnan turned to him. “You know it?”

“I do,” Qiao Jiajin nodded seriously. “It might be pronounced ‘Lin,’ since it’s four ‘mu,’ so it should be pronounced ‘Lin.'”

“Sounds reasonable,” Chen Junnan nodded.

However, after witnessing this, Qinglong frowned and said, “Qixia… did I not explain the rules clearly enough?”

“What’s wrong?”

Qixia’s voice came from behind the wall.

“The new character must use either the entire ‘兵’ or part of it,” Qinglong said. “Which part of ‘兵’ did you use in this obscure character?”

He paused, then shook his head: “Besides, your character only has nine strokes. Even if I gave you some leeway, it couldn’t be this much, could it?”

“I’m not giving you any leeway at all,” Qixia said. “How about this then?”

A few seconds of silence passed before the massive screen lit up again.

The structure of “䍒” began to change. The “木” at the bottom started shifting leftward, looking extremely strange.

As everyone looked on in confusion, another “wood” character suddenly appeared on the screen.

After a brief transformation, the original “䍒” had now become a new obscure character—

“Shen.”

Seeing this, Qinglong and everyone else present widened their eyes in shock.

“What…?” Qinglong was stunned. “Are you trying to fool me with obscure characters? Did your character even use any part of ‘兵’?”

“Coincidentally, it really did,” Qixia said.

“You…”

Qinglong was momentarily at a loss for words. He quickly turned to Xuanwu, who understood his meaning and immediately went behind the massive wall to verify whether Qixia’s combination violated the rules.

A few seconds later, Xuanwu said, “No violation detected. Half of ‘Bing’ was used.”