Chapter 1097: Rare Characters
"Most strokes..."
Qinglong muttered, then turned his head to look at Qi Xia.
"Let me reiterate the rules one last time," Qinglong said. "The 'character' we create must use 'Qiu' and 'Ba', or use both parts. Then we see whose character has more strokes."
Qi Xia listened and nodded. "Got it. Who goes first?"
Qinglong lowered his head and thought for a moment. The permutations of all the 'characters' that could be combined were fixed, meaning the character with the 'most strokes' likely had only one possibility. So making the first move himself was the best choice.
Zhang Chenze, Tiantian, and Han Yimo, who were watching from the side, all began tracing on their palms with their fingers as they saw this rule.
To create a character containing the 'Bing' radical with the maximum number of strokes sounded easy, but the two of them had just eliminated one 'character' from the game. Did Qi Xia have some plan?
"I'll go first," Qinglong said.
Qi Xia nodded and took a step back.
Qinglong turned to Xuanwu and said, "Bring me all the 'characters'. I need some time."
Xuanwu listened, then disappeared on the spot, reappeared instantly beside the pile of 'characters', bent down to pick them up, and then vanished again to reappear beside Qinglong.
"Hey..." Chen Junnan interjected, "Sister Xuanwu is the referee; she shouldn't be hiding 'characters' at a time like this, right?"
Xuanwu was taken aback. "I have nowhere to hide them."
"Uh..."
Although Chen Junnan often felt bewildered in the 'Land of the End', this time was especially confusing. Xuanwu wasn't wearing a single piece of clothing, her body completely covered only by her hair. How could she hide any 'characters'?
"My apologies, young master."
Chen Junnan laughed awkwardly and then fell silent.
Qinglong took all the 'characters' and went behind the wall, while Qi Xia and the others looked up at the display screen in front.
The screen quickly showed the character '石'. Qi Xia reached out and stroked his chin. It seemed Qinglong had first used the radical of '炮', so the answer he would give was obvious.
Then next to '石' appeared a '士'.
A few seconds later, '士' rotated and became '干'. Then the screen lit up with '八'.
'八' rotated and became '丷'.
'石', '干', and '丷' combined, and a character '砰' appeared on the screen.
"Ten strokes," Zhang Chenze said.
"Not enough," Qi Xia said.
Qi Xia knew Qinglong's thinking wouldn't be so limited.
After all, when learning that they had to use the character '兵' or a part of '兵' to create a character with the most strokes, many people's first reaction was to use the whole '兵'.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, '砰' disappeared from the screen, as if Qinglong had revised his answer.
This time, everyone waited a bit longer. After a full ten seconds, a '木' appeared on the screen.
Soon, '兵' appeared next to '木', and a character '梹' was now clearly displayed on the screen.
"Eleven strokes..." Zhang Chenze stared at the screen. "Can it be more?"
Qi Xia didn't speak, just shook his head.
Qinglong tried again, changing the answer to '眯'. Everyone noticed this character was also eleven strokes.
"This old guy has reached his limit, hasn't he?" Chen Junnan asked quietly from the side.
"Hard to say," Qi Xia replied. "After all, it's a best-of-three game. No one would reveal all their tricks in the first round."
After the answer settled on '眯', Qinglong sighed and slowly emerged from behind the wall, saying, "That's it."
"Not going to try again?" Qi Xia asked.
"I'd like to see how you intend to try," Qinglong said with a smile. "The 'characters' are right there. Do you have any more brilliant insights?"
"Who knows."
"Then I'll wait and see," Qinglong nodded.
Qi Xia glanced around at everyone and then walked behind the huge wall.
He looked at the layout, which was similar to the previous 'Preparation Area'—a 'Phoenix Carrying the Book Platform' for arranging 'characters' and a 'display screen' for handwriting.
But this game had a huge advantage: there was no need to write 'homophones'. In theory, he could use 'rare characters' to win. However, this time...
Everyone stared at the huge display screen for a long time. Finally, Qinglong grew impatient. "What's the matter, Qi Xia? Are you ready to admit defeat?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a character appeared on the screen.
'目'.
Seeing this character, Qinglong frowned.
There weren't many characters with the '目' radical that also contained a part of '兵'. Could Qi Xia's final answer still be '眯'?
"Are you trying for a draw?" Qinglong asked again.
Qi Xia didn't answer. After a few seconds of silence, he placed another '木' on the screen.
Everyone was puzzled by this.
Was Qi Xia trying to form '相'?
Before anyone could figure it out, Qi Xia rotated '目' into '罒', and combined it with '木' to form '? '.
"Bloody hell!" Qiao Jiajin exclaimed. "I know this character!"
"What the heck?" Chen Junnan turned to him. "You recognize it?"
"Yeah," Qiao Jiajin nodded seriously. "Probably pronounced 'Lin'. 'Four woods' so it's 'Lin'."
"Makes sense," Chen Junnan nodded.
But when Qinglong saw this, he frowned and said, "Qi Xia... did I explain the rules unclearly...?"
"What?"
Qi Xia's voice came from behind the wall.
"The new 'character' must use all or part of '兵'," Qinglong said. "Which part of '兵' does this rare character use?"
He paused, then shook his head. "Besides, your character only has nine strokes. Even if you're taking it easy, you can't be that sloppy."
"I'm not taking it easy at all," Qi Xia said. "How about this?"
After a few seconds of silence, the huge screen flickered again.
The structure of '? ' began to change. The '木' at the bottom kept shifting to the left, looking very strange.
While everyone was baffled, another '木' suddenly appeared on the screen.
After a brief transformation, the original '? ' had become a new rare character—
'罧'.
Qinglong and everyone present widened their eyes at the sight.
"What..." Qinglong was stunned. "Are you messing with me using a 'rare character'? Does your 'character' actually contain a part of '兵'?"
"As it happens, it does," Qi Xia said.
"You..."
Qinglong was momentarily at a loss for words. He quickly turned to look at Xuanwu. Xuanwu understood his meaning, turned around, and walked behind the huge wall to verify with Qi Xia whether his combination was against the rules.
A few seconds later, Xuanwu said, "No violation. It uses half of '兵'."
(I rushed non-stop from Wuhan to Chongqing and traveled all day, so the update is late. Sorry for the wait, everyone.)