Chapter 1101: How to Win
Everyone then realized that Qiao Jiajin's verbal tactics had really worked.
Xuanwu's previously certain answer began to waver at this moment.
Between "father" and "rice" for Xuanwu… which one would be judged as victory?
Although Xuanwu only revealed one eye through her hair, that eye was filled with too much confusion.
In previous games, she could easily determine victory or defeat, but this time she simply couldn't come to a conclusion no matter what.
Since she was no longer "human," she naturally couldn't think from a human perspective.
But what should she do now?
"It doesn't matter," Qi Xia said to Xuanwu at this moment. "You don't need to listen to what others say. Just judge according to the answer you believe is correct."
These brief words were like a lifeline, pulling Xuanwu out of her contradictory feelings.
"The answer I believe is correct…" Xuanwu lowered her head and pondered for a moment.
After a moment, she slowly raised her head: "Draw."
"Draw…" Azure Dragon frowned and said, "Have you thought this through?"
Xuanwu nodded slightly, causing her hair to sway: "I've thought it through. I cannot judge this round, so both are valid."
"Whoa~~~~~~"
Chen Junnan suddenly spoke up loudly at this moment: "Old Qiao! Old Qiao! If I'm not mistaken, there's a little deity who has played two rounds of the game with us, but hasn't scored a single point, huh?"
"Yeah!" Qiao Jiajin nodded. "He looks pretty helpless."
Upon hearing these words, Azure Dragon's face turned cold. He could no longer tolerate Chen Junnan's mouth and instantly disappeared from where he stood.
Xuanwu's brow furrowed upon seeing this, and she also vanished from her spot in an instant.
The next second, Azure Dragon suddenly appeared in front of Chen Junnan, raising his palm to strike. Xuanwu immediately appeared beside Azure Dragon and grabbed his wrist.
Within a second, the two had already made their moves, but Xuanwu had saved Chen Junnan's life at the critical moment.
Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin, who was beside him, reacted and hurriedly stepped back, only then clearly seeing what was happening before them.
Xuanwu's actions seemed to have greatly angered Azure Dragon. He held still with his wrist caught, his entire demeanor turning gloomy.
A few seconds later, his wrist suddenly shook violently, actually forcing Xuanwu back several steps.
Xuanwu hastily retreated a few steps before finally stabilizing, then coughed lightly.
No one knew how much force Azure Dragon had used, but anyone could see that Xuanwu was not feeling well at the moment.
"Xuanwu…" Azure Dragon laughed in anger despite his fury, turning back to look at her. "Remember this moment. I will neither let you live nor let you die, only give you deeper torment."
Hearing this, a hint of panic showed in Xuanwu's eyes, but it quickly subsided. She said, "The game hasn't ended. Neither side may fight. Victory can only be decided through 'Cangjie Chess'."
Azure Dragon snorted coldly, flicked his sleeves, and went back to the enormous display screen.
Seeing him like this, the others exchanged glances.
It seemed that no matter how the game proceeded, Xuanwu could not escape punishment. If Azure Dragon won the third round, the game would still end in a draw, and there would likely be a fourth round as a tiebreaker.
But Qi Xia knew he couldn't afford to drag this into a fourth round and still win.
Azure Dragon would soon realize where the trick lay in this game. For Qi Xia to think he could win against Azure Dragon four times in a row using this method was utterly fanciful.
There was only one reason for his victory: the "pawn."
When Chu Tianqiu declared his surrender outside the "Cangjie Chess" arena, Qi Xia had taken the "general" from him and the "pawn" from Jin Yuanxun for insurance.
After thinking for a while, Qi Xia put the "pawn" into his pocket and placed the "general" into the pile of "characters."
Combined with the "advisor" that Tiantian had subtly created, the total number of characters in this game had not decreased.
Thus, Azure Dragon couldn't quickly identify which "character" was missing from the chaotic pile of radicals in the first place.
Now Qi Xia had Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin engage in "psychological warfare," making the truth that was already hard to discover on the spot even more blurry.
But Qi Xia also knew that Azure Dragon would eventually realize this problem. To be safer, he proactively proposed that each side remove one "character" without informing the other which one they removed. He then handed the "advisor" that Tiantian had crafted to Xuanwu.
This way, even if the other side discovered the "pawn" was missing, they would first assume it was the one he had removed, and absolutely would not realize that there was this elusive "advisor" in the game.
As Qi Xia had said earlier, as long as this "character" was not held in hand and closely examined, it would always be real.
Thus, Qi Xia used "eye" and "tree" to form "??."
Then he used the "ten" from "pawn" and the "eight" from "soldier" to form a second "tree," which together made "Shen."
Just as Xuanwu had said, the combination Qi Xia used contained half a "soldier."
In the second round, when Qi Xia was combining in his mind, he discovered that "ten" could be rotated into "乂." Then, adding "eight" could form "father."
But "ten" and "乂" still had different stroke counts, just highly similar shapes. The only concern was whether the "Phoenix Bearing the Writing Platform" could recognize such abstract characters.
He thought it was impossible to achieve the combination, but at a certain moment, Qi Xia recalled the "屮" that Chen Junnan had created.
Theoretically, the stroke counts of "屮" and "towel" were also different, just highly similar in shape. If "屮" could be recognized, then "乂" should be recognizable too.
Soon he found that his guess was not off. This game must have White Sheep's interference.
After all, even Azure Dragon hadn't noticed "乂," yet it could be received by the "Phoenix Bearing the Writing Platform."
From this perspective, the one who set the question and the one answering had fought to a draw; only Azure Dragon had been kept in the dark.
That was also how he and Chu Tianqiu realized how important the "pawn" was. The radicals "ten" and "lid" could form a vast number of "characters." If he could arbitrarily use all "characters" for combination, the "pawn" was almost omnipotent.
But Azure Dragon wasn't stupid. Once three rounds passed consecutively, he would surely discover that Qi Xia had used a "character" not present in the pile. If this round wasn't won, the "pawn" could no longer be used.
This would put Qi Xia in a completely passive position. Since Azure Dragon had already thought through multiple possibilities in advance, in a situation where both sides could use the "pawn," the best outcome Qi Xia could imagine was a draw, but there was a higher probability of consecutive defeats.
Thus, the third round had to be a victory, ending the game here and now.
"Now let's draw the rule for the third round."
After Xuanwu paused, she reached into the box and pulled out the final rule for the third round.
Several people looked closely and saw the note read:
"Whoever occupies the most area wins."