Chapter 1096: Elimination
"You're adding a rule...?" Qinglong squinted at Qixia. "You haven't even tried this game out yet, and you want to interfere with the rules?"
"What's wrong with that?" Qixia countered. "Let's add more variables to this game."
After saying this, Qixia glanced at Xuanwu, who stood behind Qinglong, and noticed that she seemed to be lost in thought. So he cleared his throat and asked again:
"Referee, is that allowed?"
Qinglong's face showed a hint of displeasure upon hearing this. "I designed this game. I'm the referee."
"No, you're clearly a participant in this game," Qixia said. "How can a participant also be the referee?"
Xuanwu found Qixia's words quite reasonable, so she nodded and said, "Being one's own referee isn't compliant."
Qinglong paused for a moment, then nodded. "Since the referee has spoken, go ahead and add your rule."
Qixia then said, "We should still be using all the previous 'characters' to break down and piece together new 'characters,' right?"
"Yes."
"Now, I have an idea," Qixia said. "Each of us designates a 'character' that cannot be used, removing it from this game. The following 'character' assembly rounds won't be allowed to use the eliminated 'character.' But to increase the variables, we won't tell the other which 'character' we've removed."
Everyone present fell silent and looked at him, including Qinglong and Xuanwu, neither of whom understood Qixia's meaning.
"You don't even know what the 'requirement' in this box is yet, and you want to add this rule directly?"
"Mm." Qixia nodded. "What do you think?"
Qinglong's eyes flickered rapidly as he considered the possibilities. He felt that this might be some kind of trap, but if he refused here, his morale would take a hit in the following rounds.
Besides, the referee had already agreed.
"Whatever," Qinglong said. "Go ahead and designate. Which 'character' do you want to remove first?"
"I'll take Xuanwu to pick," Qixia said. "Xuanwu doesn't seem to recognize characters, but at least she'll know it's a 'character.' We'll each pick from that pile of 'characters' and then hand them over to Xuanwu."
Qinglong considered Qixia's proposal. Since Xuanwu genuinely couldn't read, even she wouldn't know which 'characters' were eliminated by either side. Overall, the requirement seemed reasonable.
"Fine," Qinglong nodded. "You go first."
Without another word, Qixia turned and walked toward the pile of 'characters' not far away. Xuanwu followed closely, standing beside him like a statue.
Then, with his back to Qinglong, Qixia bent down and rustled through them, making a "shuffling" sound.
In the blurry view of the onlookers, Qixia picked a 'character,' held it up in his hand, and raised it in front of Xuanwu.
After a few seconds, Xuanwu reached out from beneath her dark hair and took the 'character' from Qixia's hand.
Qinglong observed all of this and couldn't help feeling that Qixia's idea seemed a bit flawed.
This 'elimination' round had him go first, and himself second. In theory, when he went to look through the pile of 'characters,' he would know which 'character' Qixia had taken.
But even so, Qinglong still didn't understand why Qixia would add such a useless rule.
After Qixia finished picking, Qinglong stepped forward and quickly counted the 'characters' with a downward glance. He soon noticed a strange problem.
The number of 'characters' didn't seem to have decreased.
Aside from the one 'Bing' that had been taken away, there were still thirteen 'characters' here.
Qinglong immediately sensed something was wrong and bent down, ready to reach in and sort through them.
At that moment, Qixia turned his head and gave Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin a highly suggestive look.
The two instantly understood Qixia's intent.
"Whoa~~~~~~~"
Immediately afterward, a sound like a wild goose flying across the sky rang out.
"Jun Nan Zi! What's wrong with you?! Are you in too much pain? Hang in there!"
"Little master might be going blind! Old Qiao, take a look for me!" Chen Junnan yelled. "Some old bastard is afraid he'll lose too badly, and now he's trying to find clues in a pile of 'characters'—am I blind?!"
"Jun Nan Zi! You're not blind!" Qiao Jiajin shouted as well. "He's really looking at the 'characters'!"
"Damn it!" Chen Junnan slapped his forehead. "Little master really wishes he was seeing things. The illustrious Qinglong is actually playing for real? Not only does he blow the whistle unfairly and cheat, but now he's actually playing for real! Old Qi, you've lost your mind!"
"Lost your mind!"
Qinglong frowned upon hearing the comments from Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan, and his composure began to waver.
Why hadn't the number of 'characters' decreased?
The various 'characters' scattered into their separate radicals were tangled together with messy chains, making Qinglong feel even more confused.
If the 'characters' really hadn't decreased, that meant before Qixia picked one and handed it to Xuanwu, there had been a full fourteen 'characters' here.
When had an extra one appeared?
He had roughly observed the entire game from the high platform, but after all, he was an 'Ear of Spirit,' not an 'Eye of Spirit.' Could he have misread some important detail?
He had seen with his own eyes that even Zhang Lijuan hadn't managed to successfully forge a 'character' on the spot—the 'character' in front of her was swapped by Qixia. So what was this all about...?
"Old Qi! Go ahead and do your thing!" Chen Junnan shouted heartily. "We'll pass down your heroic style from generation to generation!"
"Stay strong, Jun Nan Zi!" Qiao Jiajin added. "You're going to tell them all about Qinglong's heroic style!"
"Can little master really tell that?!" Chen Junnan shot back. "He's a god, after all."
"Sure! A god who knows how to bully us!"
The clamorous voices kept ringing out from a distance, and Qinglong felt his state of mind growing more and more unsettled.
These two were being disruptive, but what they said wasn't wrong.
What was he so afraid of...?
Afraid that Qixia had somehow produced an extra 'character' out of nowhere?
Afraid that Qixia might actually win this game?
Or afraid that Xuanwu really could kill him?
Even if he lost this game and Xuanwu went berserk on the spot, there was no way Xuanwu could suppress him with force.
"Ridiculous," Qinglong said. "Without realizing it... I've actually gotten serious."
He casually picked up an 'Elephant' from the ground and turned to hand it to Xuanwu.
"This one."
Xuanwu paused for a moment, then reached out and took the 'character.'
At that same moment, Qixia curled the corners of his mouth. All the "setup" had been completed. Now it was up to the "rules."
He and Qinglong took their positions in front of the display screen. Xuanwu reached into the wooden box, rustled around for a bit, and finally pulled out a slip of paper.
This slip was the rule required for the first round of character assembly.
Xuanwu stared at the paper in confusion for a long time, then helplessly handed it up to Qinglong.
Qixia stepped forward and leaned in to look. The paper was clearly written:
"The one with the most strokes wins."