Qiao Jiajin stared at the door in silence for a while, then turned around and returned to the “Preparation Zone.”

He felt he needed to report the situation to Qi Xia immediately. Not only had Han Yimo gone into a “one-on-one” with Wen Qiaoyun, but their rightmost “path” was also blocked. After all, the doors in all four directions were completely closed and wouldn’t open until a victor was decided.

Qi Xia was writing on the wall, having already calculated over a dozen possible combinations.

“Liar,” Qiao Jiajin called out.

Qi Xia turned around and saw Qiao Jiajin alone, then as if he had seen nothing at all, turned back to continue writing and asked softly, “Did you encounter Yan Zhichun or Wen Qiaoyun?”

“Wen Qiaoyun,” Qiao Jiajin answered. “You knew again?”

Qi Xia nodded: “Fists, when Chu Tianqiu, Earth-Dragon, and I came to the game venue earlier, you were standing in small groups talking. Do you remember who was talking to Han Yimo at that time?”

“Huh…?” Qiao Jiajin thought for a moment after hearing this. “Now that you mention it… it seems like it was Doctor Zhao.”

“That’s right then,” Qi Xia said, one hand against the wall while the other lightly stroked his chin. “Han Yimo isn’t one of our own people. Whether he loses or wins doesn’t matter.”

“Not one of our own…?”

“Han Yimo was fine before entering,” Qi Xia said. “But after the game started, he suddenly became tense. I feel that during this time he accepted some unknown hidden task, like ‘kill Qi Xia’ or something…”

“So that’s how it is…” Qiao Jiajin nodded after hearing this. “No wonder I felt his expression was strange—that’s the kind of expression you only see on the face of a subordinate betraying their boss.”

“When two armies clash, there must be ‘spies,'” Qi Xia said with a smile. “I just forgot who Chen Junnan was talking to at the time.”

“He…” Qiao Jiajin was startled. “Handsome Guy seemed to be with…”

“Forget it, consider it a surprise for me,” Qi Xia said. “From the current situation, Han Yimo is the opponent’s person, yet he ended up fighting with Wen Qiaoyun. It seems neither Chu Tianqiu nor Wen Qiaoyun knows about this. We’re not at a loss.”

“So I gave him ‘Horse,'” Qi Xia said. “Han Yimo carrying ‘Horse’ is currently the optimal solution. I calculated that ‘Horse’ can form very few ‘characters’—perhaps only some obscure characters I can’t read. If it’s lost, it’s not too regrettable.”

“Is that so…” After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin looked at the wall. “Liar… are you about to form all the ‘characters’?”

“That’s right… but I feel something’s strange,” Qi Xia said with furrowed brows. “If I calculated correctly… these ‘characters’ should be somewhat difficult to form into twenty-eight, but there are too many specific possibilities. I still need some time.”

“Oh…”

“Give me what you have on you first.”

Qiao Jiajin nodded and pulled out the “character” from his body—it was “相” (Xiang).

Qi Xia pulled “相” from his hand, separated the pendant into two halves, then placed them respectively on the “Phoenix Holding Book Platform.”

He received “木” (Wood) and “目” (Eye) in succession, and finally combined the two radicals together to form “相.”

So far, Qi Xia’s team had assembled four “characters”: “兵” (Soldier), “木” (Wood), “目” (Eye), and “相” (Xiang).

He thought for a moment, then picked up two radicals and tried once more: “木” (Wood) and “兵” (Soldier).

“Damn…” Qiao Jiajin was slightly startled after seeing this. “Liar… can this form a ‘character’?”

“I can’t say for sure…”

Unfortunately, he had never read through a complete dictionary. He just vaguely felt that the “wood radical” and “兵” should be able to form a “character,” but the pronunciation was worth pondering.

Right now, he had neither tools nor internet access. If these two radicals could truly form a “character,” he could only take a guess.

The “Phoenix Holding Book Platform” absorbed the two radicals, and the screen below trembled, finally displaying:

“Character prototype ‘梹’ received. Please write a homophone.”

“There really is this ‘character’…” Qiao Jiajin widened his eyes looking at the display screen, then turned to ask Qi Xia, “This character is so strange…”

Qi Xia stroked his chin, carefully considering the current situation.

If the rule of writing “write a homophone” was to prevent people from randomly guessing, then naturally the homophone couldn’t be written incorrectly. Even if they really accounted for accidental miswriting, they definitely wouldn’t allow too many mistakes.

However, characters containing the “兵” component often had pronunciation variations.

Like “浜” would be read as “bāng,” “賓” would be read as “bīn,” and some characters would directly be pronounced as “bīng.”

In that case, how should this “梹” character be read?

Qi Xia recalled all the books he had read, yet this character had never appeared, making him somewhat hesitant.

If he guessed the pronunciation of this character correctly, he could create another “character” and the team would gain five points. But if he didn’t guess correctly… what would the consequences be?

Would the “character” be confiscated?

Qi Xia became increasingly uncertain about the current situation. He only regretted that he should have taken the time to read through a complete dictionary.

“Liar, are you okay?” Qiao Jiajin watched as Qi Xia kept thinking and could only ask, “Doesn’t this character just have one pronunciation?”

“One pronunciation…?” Qi Xia furrowed his brow. “Are you sure…?”

“Yes,” Qiao Jiajin nodded.

Qi Xia was about to speak but suddenly thought of something, then sighed helplessly and said, “Fists, read ‘small soldier’ and ‘guest’ for me.”

“Small bin, guest bin,” Qiao Jiajin said. “Is there a problem?”

The air was silent for three seconds.

Qi Xia slowly reached up to support his forehead, thinking no wonder Qiao Jiajin would think this character only had one pronunciation.

He didn’t recognize the “浜” in “Shajiabang,” and couldn’t distinguish between front and back nasal sounds. Three different pronunciations became muddled into one in his mouth.

If he were the “Commander” for this round, perhaps they could just surrender right now.

Wait… although Qiao Jiajin was guessing, maybe luck was also part of it?

“Fists…” Qi Xia turned his head and said, “I’ve always felt your luck is very good, at least better than mine.”

“My luck is good…?”

“Yes, so I choose to follow your line of thinking this once.”

Qi Xia pondered for a few seconds, then reached out and wrote the character “賓” on the screen.

He stared at the screen somewhat nervously, only hoping he wouldn’t start off poorly. What words “梹” could form didn’t matter—what mattered was that it must be pronounced as “bīn.”

A few seconds later, the screen flickered, and four clear characters appeared:

“Creation Successful.”