Qinglong kept toying with the character “mound” (丘) in his hand, beginning to carefully consider this round’s rules from Xuanwu’s perspective.

It was quite laughable when he thought about it. For so many years, when formulating rules, he never needed to consider the participants’ circumstances, but now he had to consider Xuanwu’s life.

Was there something… that had once made Xuanwu feel extraordinarily enormous?

At least it wasn’t “mound.” Xuanwu might not even know what “mound” meant.

This thing had to be even more enormous than “mound,” not physically large, but psychologically large.

As long as it existed, once Xuanwu fell into it, she could never escape. Even if others could walk out, Xuanwu never could.

Xuanwu was born in it, grew up in it, died in it.

In her heart, this character was more terrifying than “rice.”

Qinglong pondered for a long time and finally had an answer.

It was an answer that only Xuanwu would consider “correct” upon seeing it. In Xuanwu’s heart, it was definitely larger than “mound.”

Thinking of this, Qinglong picked up a “wood” (木) character and gently placed it on the “Phoenix Book-Carrying Platform.”

After seeing “wood,” the people outside began to think rapidly, judging Qinglong’s creation result.

Chen Junnan also discovered that what Qinglong wanted to create didn’t seem to be “mound.”

After a moment, an “inch” (寸) character from “General” slowly appeared. Qinglong’s final answer for the last question was—

“Village” (村).

“Village.” Chen Junnan replied. “The ‘village’ from ‘villages, towns, and counties.'”

“‘Village’…” After hearing this, Xuanwu’s eyes flickered as she said, “‘Village’ is truly so large…”

“Tsk…” Chen Junnan was slightly stunned after hearing this. “Village is big?”

“This…” Qiao Jiajin also scratched his head. “Junnan boy, how big is the largest village in the world?”

“How the hell would I know?” Chen Junnan frowned, always feeling that Qinglong had given a very absurd answer.

How big could “village” be? Would it be bigger than “mound”?

From certain perspectives, when comparing the size of something like a “mound” with something like a “village”… one couldn’t immediately see which had the larger area.

After all, “mounds” had different sizes, and “villages” had prosperity and decline.

If these two things were to determine victory or defeat, one relied on Chen Junnan’s tongue, and two relied on Qiao Jiajin’s thinking.

Chen Junnan felt he should brainwash early, so at this moment he opened his mouth and asked: “Big sister, villages aren’t that big. Did you see wrong?”

“‘Village’ is too large…” Xuanwu said. “I’ve never left the ‘village’… There’s ‘rice’ in the ‘village.’ ‘Rice’ is very important, but I don’t have a ‘father’…”

“Wait a minute!” Chen Junnan felt his brain was a bit overloaded. “Are you playing connect-the-dots with me here? We’re talking about the area of ‘village’…”

“Isn’t it large?” Xuanwu turned her face, revealing a glimpse of her face through her hair. “I can’t walk out… I’ve never been able to walk out…”

After hearing this, Tiantian calmly extended her hand and gently brushed the hair by her ear.

Her eyes flickered as she said softly: “‘Village’ is indeed very large. Some people are trapped for their entire lives, but ‘village’ is also not that large. As long as you want to leave, you can definitely leave.”

“Is that so…?” Xuanwu was stunned. “As long as I want to…?”

For the first time, Zheng Yingxiong clearly smelled the scent drifting from Xuanwu’s body. It was “sorrow.”

Only then did Chen Junnan realize the situation on site seemed not quite right. Tiantian and Xuanwu seemed to have fallen into some emotional low point, but he didn’t know where this low point came from.

Thinking of this, Chen Junnan hastily reached out and tugged at Lawyer Zhang: “Sister Zhang! What’s the situation now? Do you want to help persuade them? I’m a bit at a loss here. What’s with ‘village’?”

Zhang Chenze’s eyes turned cold: “I don’t want to discuss this issue.”

“Huh…?”

Chen Junnan was stunned for a long time, truly not knowing what had happened, and could only fall silent in this strange atmosphere.

Qinglong walked out from behind the screen, then raised his eyes to look at Xuanwu’s state. He then felt slightly relieved and stood to one side of the crowd.

Seeing this state, Qi Xia couldn’t help but blurt out a question that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time, so he asked Qinglong: “Qinglong, what are other people’s suffering to you?”

“Oh?” Qinglong raised his eyebrows. “Suffering is suffering. What else could it be?”

“Is something like ‘other people’s suffering’ a magic weapon you use to achieve victory at critical moments?” Qi Xia asked.

“This question is interesting.” Qinglong said. “Never mind ‘suffering’—as long as it can make me feel comfortable, everything is my magic weapon for victory.”

“Good, reasonable.” Qi Xia nodded, then stopped paying attention to Qinglong and came to the back of the screen.

He picked up a pile of “characters” on the ground and threw his “Pawn” (卒) among them.

The current situation was indeed somewhat unfavorable.

Qinglong was creating “characters” according to the “rules” each time, but Qi Xia was thinking according to the “characters” Qinglong created each time.

So the time left for him each round was not much.

Based on the existing situation, Xuanwu thought “village” was large because she had never left the village her entire life, and she had no parents, having suffered from hunger since childhood.

“No wonder you’ve always wanted to die…”

For Xuanwu, the desire to seek death had perhaps already reached its peak before entering the “Land of Finality.”

Unfortunately, after she died, she came to this place, and because of “immortality,” she became eternally undying here.

She always wanted to die, but would never die.

This was the first time Qi Xia clearly felt that “eternal life and immortality” was such a sorrowful thing.

In that case… for someone like Xuanwu, which “character” could be larger than “village”?

Unfortunately, the character “village” was like a completely enclosed cage. It pressed down on Xuanwu, obscuring all her vision.

Even if Qi Xia could form mountains, rivers, lakes, seas, the firmament, or the universe—existences that completely overwhelmed “village” in physical meaning—they might not necessarily be larger than “village” in Xuanwu’s heart.

Thinking of this, Qi Xia could only hastily interrupt his train of thought and begin considering another possibility. Was there any way to make Xuanwu temporarily leave “village”…?

As long as a certain “character” could break through the boundaries of “village,” he could thoroughly win this game.

The crowd waited in front of the screen for a long time. Based on the previous experience, no one spoke.

After a moment, a “wood” (木) character appeared on the screen.

At this moment, everyone frowned one after another. Both Qinglong and Qi Xia started with the character “wood.” It seemed the answers wouldn’t differ too much.

After a moment, another “wood” appeared on the screen.

“Forest” (林).

This time, the crowd was once again silent as cicadas in winter, but this silence was very different from the last time.

They weren’t shocked by Qi Xia’s answer. They only felt that Qi Xia seemed about to lose.

Comparing “forest” with “village”… although it was difficult for normal people to distinguish which was truly larger, for Xuanwu, “forest” didn’t seem that important.

“Ha…” Qinglong slowly opened his mouth at this moment. “Qi Xia, oh Qi Xia… even the largest forest in the world cannot be larger than the ‘village’ in Xuanwu’s heart.”

But Qi Xia didn’t stop moving after creating “forest.”

He took down an “evening” (夕) from “General” and carefully placed it below “forest.”

Perhaps only this way… could he take a gamble on that faint possibility.

“Dream” (夢)!