Zheng Yingxiong’s nose twitched slightly, actually catching a trace of “hesitation” scent from Qi Xia’s direction.

But this trace of scent disappeared completely in a moment, replaced only by caution.

Zheng Yingxiong couldn’t help but look at Qi Xia with puzzlement. The phrase “the one occupying the largest ground area wins” had actually made Qi Xia feel hesitant again…?

Could it be that he had never been confident about winning this game…?

Zheng Yingxiong recalled the scene when he had previously played the “Lunar Month” game with Qi Xia. According to Zheng Yingxiong’s speculation about Qi Xia, if they played consecutive games with the same rules, Qi Xia should figure out the game rules in the first round, find the solution in the second round, and be able to break through in the third round.

Now the third round would also be the decisive round. Where exactly did this trace of “hesitation” scent from Qi Xia come from?

Zheng Yingxiong turned his head to look at Xuanwu, knowing the problem could only lie with the referee.

After all, the more common sense knowledge was required, the stranger Xuanwu’s judgment would be.

“Qinglong, the rules are getting more and more abstract.” Chen Junnan pointed at the slip of paper in Xuanwu’s hand and said, “How do you calculate ground area? Should we include the shared common area?”

The others also carefully pondered this rule, feeling it still wasn’t much different from the second round. Since both people could only provide one “character,” the concept of “area” was usually vague.

For example, if one person gave “mound” (丘) and another person gave “forest” (林), although both “characters” occupied large ground areas, there was no way to specifically state exactly how much area they occupied, nor was there a way to prove that the area they listed was definitely larger than the opponent’s.

So ultimately they would fall into the debate of the second round. It specifically depended on how Xuanwu judged. Whoever she thought was bigger would win this round’s victory.

Therefore, there were truly too many factors to consider in this “Cangjie Chess.” Besides following the rules, they also had to consider including “Soldier,” then guess Xuanwu’s cognition. Only by meeting all these conditions was there a possibility of winning.

Chen Junnan thought for a long time, only feeling that this time the two should only provide “mound” and “forest.” After all, Qi Xia could find a way to put together two “wood” (木) characters, but Qinglong could not, so these two characters were most likely the final answer.

Qinglong would provide “mound,” while Qi Xia would provide “forest.” This was currently the most enormous thing Chen Junnan could think of.

Qinglong then stepped forward and pondered for a while, saying: “I’ll go first this time too.”

“Called it.” Chen Junnan replied, “You’re not willing to take even the slightest loss.”

Qinglong completely ignored Chen Junnan, instead turning his head to look at Qi Xia: “Do you dare?”

“No problem.” Qi Xia nodded. “I’ve already yielded twice. If I don’t yield the third time, it would be meaningless.”

“What do you mean by meaning?”

“I said it before, I’m holding back.” Qi Xia answered.

“But I don’t think so.” Qinglong shook his head. “The ‘father’ in the second round was obviously something you thought up on the spot. Although you say you’re ‘holding back,’ you’re not confident you can definitely win, right? I’ve never seen anyone hold back when they’re not confident.”

“I’m indeed not confident, but I still have to hold back.” Qi Xia said. “Don’t you want to win against me honorably through gaming in a single game? If I yield to you three consecutive times and you still don’t win, then what will you do?”

“Heh…” A vein on Qinglong’s forehead twitched slightly. “What a nice way of putting it, ‘yielding to me three consecutive times.'”

“The facts appear to be this way.” Qi Xia nodded.

“But for many things in this world, no one will remember the process, they’ll only remember the result.” Qinglong said. “In your view, it’s yielding to me for three consecutive rounds, but once you lose, all this holding back will become a joke. People will only remember that I won and won’t care about the process.”

“So this is also a gamble.” Qi Xia said. “‘Holding back’ is just me raising my stakes. Once I win, these stakes will make your defeat even more crushing. At that time, everyone will know that you, the mighty Qinglong, lost the game when I held back three consecutive times.”

“Using ‘holding back’ to raise stakes…?”

“And just as you said, no one will remember the process. Even if I really lose, no one will care that my failure was because I held back. To the world, you’ll just have an ordinary win, because you’re Qinglong, so you should have won anyway.” Qi Xia said. “But if I win, I’ll obtain better rewards. This is the stake I’ve placed.”

Qi Xia concealed the latter half without saying it—actually, even Xuanwu was part of his stakes.

After hearing this, Qinglong paused: “Worthy of being you… For normal people, the moment to determine victory or defeat in a gamble is usually at the end, but for you… a gamble can be laid out from the moment of ‘placing bets.'”

“Perhaps there are even earlier times.” Qi Xia answered. “I can lay out plans before even placing bets.”

“Is that so…” Qinglong knew Qi Xia was hinting at something, so he said, “I know you’ve been making your own little moves all along. No matter how early you laid out plans this time, it doesn’t matter. I only need you to be able to kill Heavenly Dragon. I can even forgive all your impolite behavior for this.”

“I’m working hard on it.” Qi Xia replied.

“I’ve reminded you countless times that you must tell me before killing Heavenly Dragon.” Qinglong laughed angrily. “I don’t want anything to go wrong with this deal at the last moment.”

“But you’re currently trying to find a way to kill me.” Qi Xia said. “If I die…”

“From my understanding of the current situation, even if you die, the plan can’t possibly stop.” Qinglong said. “As long as the remaining people act according to this directive. You and I both want Heavenly Dragon’s life. This is the only link between us.”

“We’re both using borrowed knives to kill.” Qi Xia said. “Let’s see who can ultimately keep the knife in their own hand.”

After pondering, Qinglong stopped speaking and walked straight toward the back of the giant wall.

Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin raised their heads to stare seriously at the screen, but Qinglong didn’t arrange the “character” for a long time.

Qinglong lowered his head with a heavy expression. In his hand he was holding a “mound” (丘).

At this moment his mood was also very troubled. When he had designed the life-betting rules before, he had planned for every situation, but why hadn’t he thought ahead that the referee was “Xuanwu”?

A referee who didn’t even have a concept of what “father” was—how would she make the following judgments?

So to win this game, using “mound” had great difficulty. After all, Qinglong couldn’t predict Qi Xia’s creation.

“I can only start from Xuanwu’s background…” Qinglong narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, “For her… what is the biggest thing in her memory?”