Chapter 1097: Rare Characters

"With the most strokes..."

Qinglong murmured, then turned to look at Qixia.

"Let me reiterate the rules one last time," Qinglong said. "The characters we create must incorporate 'Qiu' and 'Ba', either one or both parts, and then we'll compare to see who has more strokes."

Qixia nodded after listening. "Got it. Who goes first?"

Qinglong lowered his head and thought for a moment. The possible arrangements of these characters were fixed, meaning there was likely only one with the most strokes. So, it was best for him to go first.

Zhang Chenze, Tiantian, and Han Yimo, who were watching from the side, all started drawing with their fingers in their palms when they heard the rules.

It sounded easy to create a character that included part of 'Bing' and had the most strokes, but the two of them had just eliminated one character from the game. Did Qixia have some plan?

"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 disappeared from the spot after hearing this, instantly reappearing by the pile of characters. He bent down, picked them up, and vanished again, reappearing next to Qinglong.

"I mean..." Chen Junnan interjected, "Xuanwu, as the referee, you wouldn't hide any characters at a time like this, right?"

Xuanwu paused. "I have nowhere to hide them."

"Uh..."

Though the "Zhong Yan Zhi Di" had left Chen Junnan baffled many times, this was especially confusing. Xuanwu wasn't wearing any clothes, just covered by her hair, so how could she hide characters?

"My apologies, miss," Chen Junnan said awkwardly, then fell silent.

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

Soon, a "Shi" character appeared on the screen. Qixia stroked his chin—it looked like Qinglong had started with the radical from "Pao". His answer was obvious now.

Next, a "Shi" appeared beside it.

A few seconds later, the "Shi" rotated into a "Gan", and then "Ba" lit up on the screen.

"Ba" rotated into "丷".

When "Shi", "Gan", and "丷" combined, a "Peng" character appeared on the screen.

"Ten strokes," Zhang Chenze said.

"Not enough," Qixia replied.

Qixia knew Qinglong's thinking wasn't that limited.

After all, when it came to using the 'Bing' character or part of it to create one with the most strokes, most people's first instinct was to use the whole 'Bing'.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the "Peng" disappeared from the screen—it seemed Qinglong had changed his answer.

This time, they waited a bit longer—about ten seconds—before a "Mu" appeared on the screen.

Quickly, a "Bing" appeared next to "Mu", forming a "Bin" character that displayed prominently.

"Eleven strokes now..." Zhang Chenze said, staring at the screen. "Can it get more?"

Qixia didn't speak; he just shook his head.

Qinglong tried again, changing the answer to "Mi", but everyone saw that it still had eleven strokes.

"This old guy must be at his limit, right?" Chen Junnan whispered.

"Hard to say," Qixia replied. "It's a best-of-three game, so no one would use all their tricks in the first round."

Once the answer settled on "Mi", Qinglong sighed and slowly emerged from behind the wall. "That's it."

"Not going to try again?" Qixia asked.

"I'd like to see what you have in mind," Qinglong said with a laugh. "The characters are right there. Do you have some brilliant idea?"

"You never know."

"Then I'll wait and see."

Qinglong nodded.

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

He looked at the setup and saw it was similar to the "Preparation Area" before—a "Feng Huang Xiang Shu Tai" for arranging characters and a display screen for writing.

But this game had a big advantage: they didn't need to write homophones, so theoretically, obscure characters could win. This time, though...

Everyone stared at the huge display screen for a while until Qinglong grew impatient. "What's going on, Qixia? Are you planning to concede?"

As soon as he spoke, a character appeared on the screen.

"MU".

Qinglong frowned at the sight.

There weren't many characters that included part of 'Bing' beside "Mu". Was Qixia's final answer still "Mi"?

"Do you want a tie?" Qinglong asked.

Qixia didn't answer. After a few seconds of silence, he added a "Mu".

Everyone was puzzled.

Was Qixia trying to form a "Xiang"?

Before anyone could figure it out, Qixia rotated "Mu" into "罒" and combined it with "Mu" to form a "?".

"I'm impressed!" Qiao Jiujin exclaimed. "I know this character!"

"What is it?" Chen Junnan turned to him. "You recognize it?"

"Yeah." Qiao Jiujin nodded seriously. "It might be read as 'Lin'. Four 'Mu's, so it sounds like 'Lin'."

"Makes sense." Chen Junnan nodded.

But when Qinglong saw this, he furrowed his brow and said, "Qixia... did I not explain the rules clearly?"

"What do you mean?"

Qixia's voice came from behind the wall.

"The new character has to use all of 'Bing' or part of it," Qinglong said. "Which part did you use in this obscure character?"

He paused, then shook his head. "Besides, your strokes only add up to nine. Even if you're going easy, that's too much."

"I'm not going easy," Qixia said. "How about this instead?"

After a few seconds of silence, the screen flashed again.

The structure of "?" started changing, with the bottom "Mu" shifting left continuously—it looked extremely odd.

As everyone watched in confusion, another "Mu" suddenly appeared on the screen.

After a brief change, the original "?" transformed into a new obscure character—

"Li".

Qinglong and everyone else stared wide-eyed.

"What..." Qinglong was stunned. "Are you trying to trick me with an obscure character? Does this one even use part of 'Bing'?"

"Coincidentally, it does," Qixia said.

"You..."

Qinglong was at a loss for words. He quickly turned to Xuanwu, who understood and walked behind the massive wall to verify Qixia's combination for any violations.

A few seconds later, Xuanwu said, "No violations. It uses half of 'Bing'."

(From Wuhan, I rushed straight to Chongqing after a day's travel, so the update is late. Sorry for the wait, everyone.)