Chapter 1096: Elimination

Qinglong narrowed his eyes at Qixia.

"You're adding rules...?"

"You haven't even practiced this game, and you're trying to interfere with the rules?"

"Is that a problem?" Qixia retorted. "Let's just add some more variables to this game."

After speaking, Qixia glanced at Xuanwu behind Qinglong and noticed she seemed distracted. He cleared his throat and asked,

"Referee, is that okay?"

Qinglong's face showed a hint of displeasure at the question. "This game is my design. I'm the referee."

"No, you're clearly a participant in this game," Qixia said. "How can a participant also be the referee?"

Xuanwu heard Qixia's words and found them quite reasonable, so she nodded and said,

"Being your own referee isn't fair."

Qinglong paused for a moment, then nodded. "Since the referee has spoken, go ahead and add the rules."

Qixia replied, "We're still going to use all the previous 'characters' to break them down and reassemble them into new 'characters', right?"

"Yes."

"Then I have an idea," Qixia said. "Let's each designate one 'character' that can't be used and remove it from the game. In the upcoming character assembly round, we won't be able to use the removed 'character'. But to add some variables, we won't tell each other which one we've removed."

Everyone present fell silent and looked at him, including Qinglong and Xuanwu, who didn't quite understand what Qixia meant.

"You don't even know what 'requirements' are in that box, and you want to add this rule right now?"

"Um." Qixia nodded. "What do you think?"

Qinglong's eyes flickered quickly as he pondered the possibilities. It felt like this might be some kind of trap, but if he refused now, it would hurt morale.

Besides, the referee had already agreed.

"Whatever," Qinglong said. "Go ahead and designate. Which 'character' do you want to remove next?"

"I'll take Xuanwu to pick," Qixia said. "Xuanwu doesn't seem to recognize characters, but she'll at least know it's a 'character'. We'll each go to the pile of 'characters' and select one, then hand them both to Xuanwu."

Qinglong considered Qixia's proposal. Since Xuanwu really didn't recognize characters, even she wouldn't know what 'characters' the two sides had removed. Overall, the request seemed reasonable.

"Alright," Qinglong nodded. "You go first."

Qixia said no more, turned, and walked toward the nearby pile of 'characters', with Xuanwu following closely like a statue standing beside him.

Then, with his back to Qinglong, Qixia bent down and rummaged through them, making a rustling sound.

Under the watchful but unclear gaze of the others, Qixia selected a 'character', held it up in his hand, and presented it to Xuanwu.

Xuanwu paused for a few seconds, then reached out from her dark hair and took the 'character' from Qixia's hand.

Qinglong watched all of this and couldn't help but feel that Qixia's idea had some flaws.

In this removal round, Qixia was selecting first, and he would go second, so theoretically, when he went to look through the pile, he would know which 'character' Qixia had taken.

Even so, Qinglong still didn't understand why Qixia wanted to add such a pointless rule.

After Qixia finished selecting, Qinglong stepped forward, bent down, and quickly counted the 'characters'. Soon, he noticed something odd.

The number of 'characters' seemed unchanged.

Aside from the one that had been taken—a *bīng*—there were still thirteen 'characters' here.

Qinglong suddenly sensed something was wrong. He bent down, preparing to reach in and look.

At that moment, Qixia turned his head and gave Chen Junan and Qiao Jiujin a meaningful glance.

The two immediately understood what Qixia meant.

"Whoa~~~~~~~"

Then came the sound of wild geese flying overhead.

"Junan! What's wrong with you?! Are you in too much pain? You have to stay strong!"

"Damn, I think I've gone blind, Old Qiao, come check for me!" Chen Junan shouted. "Is that guy afraid of losing too badly and now trying to find clues in the pile of 'characters'? Am I seeing things?!"

"Junan! You're not blind!" Qiao Jiujin shouted back. "He's really looking at the 'characters'!"

"Oh my god!" Chen Junan slapped his forehead. "I really hope I was seeing things. The great Qinglong is actually playing for real with us? Not only is he calling the shots and cheating, but now he's playing straight up! Old Qixia, you're out of your mind!"

"You're out of your mind!"

Qinglong frowned at Qiao Jiujin and Chen Junan's comments, feeling his composure disrupted.

Why hadn't the number of 'characters' decreased?

The 'characters', scattered into various radicals and tangled with messy chains, made Qinglong feel even more chaotic.

If the number really hadn't changed, that meant before Qixia selected a 'character' and handed it to Xuanwu, there had been exactly fourteen 'characters' here.

When had an extra one appeared?

He had overseen the entire game from the high platform, but as a *līng wén* rather than a *līng shì*, had he overlooked some key information?

He had seen with his own eyes that even Zhang Lijuan hadn't successfully created a 'character' on site; the one in front of her had been swapped by Qixia. So how had this happened?

"Old Qixia! Don't worry, just go!" Chen Junan shouted desperately. "We'll pass on your heroic spirit for generations!"

"You have to stay strong, Junan!" Qiao Jiujin added. "You still have to tell them about Qinglong's heroic spirit!"

"Can I even say it?!" Chen Junan retorted. "He's a god, after all."

"You can! He's just a heroic god who's bullying us!"

The noisy voices continued in the distance, and Qinglong felt his mind growing more turbulent.

Though those two were just babbling nonsense, what they said wasn't entirely wrong.

What was he afraid of...?

Afraid of an extra 'character' that Qixia had somehow produced?

Afraid of losing to Qixia?

Or afraid that Xuanwu could really kill him?

Even if he lost this game and Xuanwu went berserk on the spot, he couldn't possibly be suppressed by her power.

"Pathetic," Qinglong said. "Without realizing it... I've actually started taking this seriously."

He casually picked up a 'character' from the ground—an *xiàng*—turned around, and handed it to Xuanwu.

"This one."

Xuanwu hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took the 'character'.

At that moment, Qixia raised the corners of his mouth. All the setup was complete; now it was just about the rules.

He and Qinglong stood in front of the display screen, and Xuanwu reached into the wooden box, rummaged around for a bit, and finally pulled out a slip of paper.

This slip was the rule for the first round of character creation.

Xuanwu looked at the paper in confusion for a long time, then helplessly handed it over to Qinglong.

Qixia stepped forward and leaned in to look. Written on the paper was:

"The one with the most strokes wins."