Chapter 1098: An Important Thing
"Half a 'Bing'..." Qinglong's expression darkened noticeably. "Xuanwu... are you lying to me?"
"No. I do not lie." Xuanwu shook his head, his long hair swaying with the motion.
"Then you can't read," Qinglong said. "You don't even recognize the character 'Bing,' so how do you know Qi Xia only used half of it?"
"I don't recognize 'Bing,' but I recognize half a 'Bing,'" Xuanwu replied in a cold, clear voice.
Qi Xia found it laughable. Within the bounds allowed by the rules, even Xuanwu would stand on his side.
"I don't believe it," Qinglong said. "I want to come over and see for myself."
"How dare you," Xuanwu snapped coldly. "There is no such rule."
"You..." Hearing Xuanwu's words, Qinglong's eyes instantly filled with killing intent.
But Xuanwu seemed completely oblivious, staring back at him with an equally icy gaze.
"Today, here, I am the referee," Xuanwu said. "Follow the rules."
"Have you gone mad?" Qinglong asked. "Do you know the consequences of speaking to me like this?"
Xuanwu was silent for a moment, then spoke: "The consequences are grave either way."
"'Either way'...?"
"If I fail to perform my duties as referee, the consequences are grave. If I defy you, the consequences are also grave," Xuanwu said. "But you said that this time, I may defy you."
Qinglong wanted to rush up and remind Xuanwu who the true 'God' was here, but if he did, the game would end prematurely, and the 'Life-or-Death Gamble' would be invalidated.
For the first time in all his years of doing as he pleased in the 'Land of the End,' Qinglong realized how unpleasant it was to be constrained by the 'rules.'
"Qinglong has lost his touch," Chen Junnan muttered quietly to Qiao Jiajin. "That 'Bing' character was picked out by Sister Xuanwu herself. Even if she can't read, she knows what she picked, right? She'd know at a glance if it was used or not."
"Yeah, yeah. He's off his game."
A flicker of anger crossed Qinglong's face, but he still couldn't figure out how Qi Xia had managed to piece together that strange character 'Lin'.
This bizarre 'character' not only had no known pronunciation, but it also didn't appear to contain any part of 'Bing.'
"'Two Trees'..." A strange gleam passed through Qinglong's eyes. Could it be that there were now two 'Xiang' characters in the pile?
After confirming the answer, Qi Xia quickly removed all the 'characters' from the 'Phoenix Carrying the Writing Platform' and walked over to the massive wall.
"So, Qinglong?" Qi Xia asked. "The outcome of this round is clear for all to see, isn't it?"
Xuanwu gave a slight nod. "Your 'character' looks more complicated, so it has more strokes."
"Then can I take that as 'the referee says I win'?" Qi Xia stared at Qinglong.
Qinglong nodded reluctantly. The rules were too obvious to argue over any further.
"You win," Qinglong said. "Best of three. Let's start the second round."
Xuanwu nodded and walked over to the wooden box to draw the second rule.
He extended his pale gray arm into the box, rummaged around for a moment, and pulled out another slip of paper.
This time, he didn't bother reading it himself. He simply unfolded it and showed it to everyone.
The others tilted their heads when they saw the slip. Xuanwu was holding it upside down.
Chen Junnan squinted at it for a moment and muttered, "Whatever is more important to humans wins?"
Seeing everyone tilting their heads, Xuanwu seemed to realize his mistake and turned the paper around.
Everyone straightened their necks and found that the sentence was exactly what Chen Junnan had read.
"Pretty abstract..." Lawyer Zhang said beside him. "Something more important to humans?"
Tiantian paused for a moment before asking, "Does that mean physical objects... or something spiritual?"
"Either works," Qinglong answered for Xuanwu. "As long as the 'character' we create can be considered important to humans, it qualifies. The one that's more important wins. But the rule is: only one 'character' can be used, and it must still contain part of 'Bing.'"
Hearing how difficult the rules had become, everyone fell silent.
Only one 'character' could be used. Its meaning alone would decide the winner. And that 'character' still had to contain all or part of 'Bing.'
"You're outright cheating," Chen Junnan frowned. "You've probably thought through all these rules a hundred times, haven't you? How's Old Qi supposed to play against you hearing them for the first time?"
"My apologies," Qinglong said. "What's done is done. Besides, I'll go first again."
He turned to Qi Xia, a mocking smile on his face. "Any objections?"
Qi Xia knew this was obviously a trap.
There were already very few 'characters' that contained 'Bing.' Even fewer met the requirements. In other words, this difficult problem might only have one solution.
If Qinglong went first, the odds of Qi Xia losing would skyrocket.
But at this point, only this would constitute a true gamble.
Faced with the possibility of losing, he would be forced to tap into his potential and grow once more.
"No problem," Qi Xia said. "You go first."
Qiao Jiajin could already tell the game was rigged and quickly tried to stop him. "Don't, Brother Swindler. Didn't he go first last time? You should go first this time."
"It's fine," Qi Xia said. "Consider it me going easy on him."
"Arrogant." Qinglong smirked, walked over to the giant wall, and began sorting through the various 'characters' on the ground.
He quickly made his choice. On the screen, he placed a 'Wood.'
A few seconds later, he placed two small dots on top.
The character was 'Rice.'
"Son of a bitch..." Chen Junnan cursed when he saw it. "Old Qi... do you see how much of a cheat this old bastard is?"
Qi Xia nodded. Qinglong's choice was undeniable. 'Rice' represented 'food,' which was obviously extremely important for human survival. It was likely the one and only ultimate answer.
After all, there were far too few 'characters' that contained 'Bing' and met the requirements.
"First of all, I don't accept this!" Chen Junnan quickly explained to Xuanwu. "Yeah, the 'character' on his screen is 'Rice,' but I don't think it's all that important. I can get full just eating meat and vegetables."
"Yeah, yeah. I can get full drinking booze," Qiao Jiajin nodded along.
"And at worst, I can have some zhajiang noodles or fried dough rings with soy milk. Little Master here doesn't recognize 'Rice.'"
"Yeah, yeah. Curry fish balls and bowl-cut shark fins are fine too. 'Rice' is out."
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly.
Upon hearing the answer, Xuanwu looked up at the giant 'Rice' character on the screen, as if memorizing its shape. After a few seconds, he spoke slowly:
"'Rice'... is indeed very important to humans."