Chapter 1028: Giant Clam

“Surrounding Jin Yuan Xun, that kid…” Chen Jun Nan seemed a bit puzzled by the statement. “Lao Qi… you might not know, but that kid is impossible to surround…”

“Now we can surround him,” Qi Xia said. “Xu Liu Nian has already obtained the ‘Hui Xiang’. If she returns to the ‘Bei Zhan Qu’ and shares this method, others can gradually gain ‘Hui Xiang’ too. At that point, with Jin Yuan Xun holding the ‘Zu’, he’d be unbeatable, and we’d never catch him.”

“Damn… is it that serious?” Chen Jun Nan said. “When I came back, I saw Lao Qiao standing by the riverbank basking in the sun. I called out to him to join me.”

“He has his own battles to fight,” Qi Xia said. “You go ahead with the ‘Gong Xin’.”

“Alright…” Chen Jun Nan nodded.

“By the way,” Qi Xia asked, “when you crossed the river with the ‘Bao’, did anything strange happen?”

“Strange things…?” Chen Jun Nan knew exactly what Qi Xia was getting at. “I’m just an ‘outer trade Bao’, but on the way, no one warned me about ‘breaking the rules’. Those two guys watching from above didn’t make a move either, so I guess that rule doesn’t exist?”

“If it doesn’t exist, that would be great,” Qi Xia said. “Quan Tou is the ‘Xiang’. Once he and Zhang Shan settle their fight, he can join you in ‘Gong Ren’. But…”

“Are there still concerns…?” Chen Jun Nan asked. “I just scouted around, carrying a ‘Bao’ on the other side for a while, and nothing happened. Could ‘Bao’ really cross the river?”

Qi Xia still felt something wasn’t right.

“Crossing the river” – such an obvious trap. The pit was dug, the cover laid out, and people had even fallen in, but there were no spikes inside.

This wasn’t like Qing Long’s style at all.

He and Chu Tian Qiu had been on guard against this seemingly non-existent rule, but Qing Long and Di Long acted as if they’d completely forgotten about it.

Thinking from another angle, if “breaking the rules by crossing the river” really had consequences, how would they manifest in this game?

Generally, all “Di Ji Cai Pan” might hide some rules, but they always explain the conditions for triggering “sanctions” before the game starts. Otherwise, if someone dies without knowing why, it’s no different from one-sided slaughter.

Since Di Long didn’t explain at the beginning that “breaking the rules by crossing the river” would lead to “sanctions”, that means even if there are consequences, they aren’t death.

“Wait…” Qi Xia suddenly thought of something.

This game might seem to have a vast field, but players mostly only interact with two game props.

One is the “Zi”, and the other is the “Men”.

Since nothing changed with the “Zi” when crossing the river illegally, the issue must be with the “Men”.

“I’ve got it… so that’s how it is,” Qi Xia said. “Just crossing the river alone won’t cause any problems…”

“Hmm? Then where’s the problem?”

Qi Xia organized his thoughts and continued, “Chen Jun Nan, if you plan to keep ‘breaking the rules by crossing the river’, go check inside the ‘Men’.”

“Inside the ‘Men’?”

“I suspect the ‘Men’ will change…” Qi Xia’s expression grew serious. “Earlier, when both sides opened the ‘Men’ to scout, we were only checking our own territories, which made us think the ‘Men’ only contain Ren Ji ‘Sheng Xiao’. But we overlooked something – the other side of the ‘Men’ can change. These ‘Men’ don’t just lead to fixed rooms.”

“Oh my god…” Chen Jun Nan’s eyes widened after hearing this. “Are you saying the ‘one who opens the door’ affects ‘what’s inside the door’?”

“It’s just my guess,” Qi Xia said. “Besides that, there shouldn’t be any other ‘punishments’. Once a ‘chess piece’ that shouldn’t cross the river does so and triggers the ‘game inside the door’, the contents of the door will change.”

“Got it!” Chen Jun Nan said. “Then I’ll go scout it out alone first.”

Qi Xia nodded and took the “Che” from Zheng Ying Xiong.

“Lao Qi,” Chen Jun Nan said, “the other side hasn’t used the ‘Che’ to score, so you write it first. After that, I’ll find a way to hide the ‘Zi’ in my mouth so they can never find it.”

Qi Xia looked at the “Che” for a moment, not quite understanding why Chu Tian Qiu hadn’t used it to score.

But soon, he realized the issue.

The difficulty wasn’t with the “Che” itself, but with its homophone.

“Chu Tian Qiu, I remember you’re a biology PhD. How could you not think of this?”

Qi Xia placed the “Che” on the “Feng Huang Xian Shu Tai” and then wrote a homophone:

“Zuo”.

“What character is that?” Chen Jun Nan stared at the character Qi Xia had written for a long time. “Is it also pronounced ‘Che’?”

“It’s the ‘Zuo’ from ‘Zuo Qiao’, a fairly common type of shellfish,” Qi Xia said. “As long as the ‘Zi’ can form a word, I’m likely to recognize it.”

“You’re the expert…” Chen Jun Nan said.

“Zhang Lv Shi, give me your ‘Huo’ too,” Qi Xia said. “‘Bao’ has already been used, so we need your ‘Huo’ now.”

Zhang Chen Ze nodded and pulled the “Pao” from his shirt pocket.

“This game is way too unfair,” Zhang Chen Ze said. “The other side has two ‘Zi’ that can be split into three parts. Not only can they score more points from the start, but their personnel arrangements are also more flexible than ours.”

“Oh?” Qi Xia asked casually while disassembling the “Pao” in his hand. “How so?”

“If earlier Chen Jun Nan could have carried a ‘Bao’ and a ‘Jin’ to move around, I wouldn’t need to carry the ‘Huo’. It’s too dangerous. Just leave it with you, and I’ll only take a ‘Bao’.”

“I see, that makes sense,” Qi Xia nodded.

“Now we’re really on the defensive,” Zhang Chen Ze added. “This game seems designed from the start not to let us win.”

“No,” Qi Xia said. “I think it’s the opposite.”

“What?”

“Although the other side has two ‘Zi’ that can be split into three parts, they’re also more afraid of having them stolen,” Qi Xia explained. “On our side, whether it’s the ‘Pao’ or the ‘Shuai’, losing them wouldn’t be a big loss and would actually increase our margin for error.”

Chen Jun Nan thought about it and agreed. After his own “Shuai” was taken by the other side, it could only form “Shuai” and “Jin”, with no other possibilities.

But if they could snatch the other side’s “Zu” or “Jiang”, it could instantly widen the score gap.