Xuanwu stared at the strange pattern on the giant screen, her lips moved slightly as she asked softly: “This is…”

“Dream…” Chen Junnan replied. Although he said this, his heart felt somewhat uncertain.

Could this “character” truly win against “village”?

It wasn’t that Chen Junnan felt there was any problem with Qi Xia’s thinking, but rather the character “dream” (夢) seemed somewhat against the rules.

Now he could only hope Qinglong wouldn’t notice this kind of detail.

“Dream…” Xuanwu’s whole body trembled for a moment. After a while, she opened her mouth and said, “‘Dream’ is good… In ‘dreams’ there is everything. Only in ‘dreams’ can one walk out of the ‘village’…”

Qi Xia then walked out from behind the screen with a cautious expression. The third round had already concluded.

The expressions on both Qinglong and Qi Xia’s faces were somewhat unnatural, as if both had concerns in their hearts.

Rarely, neither of them opened their mouths to speak. They just stood beside Xuanwu, waiting for her judgment.

Just as Qiao Jiajin was about to speak at this moment, Chen Junnan reached out and held him back. He felt they couldn’t take the lead in conducting “psychological attacks” right now.

Chen Junnan knew that what Qi Xia needed to do was already done.

With Xuanwu as the referee, Qinglong had given an absolutely unsolvable answer—that is, starting from the opponent’s life obsession, he gave an answer that transcended physical meaning.

In any conventional situation, this game should have been lost, but Qi Xia’s thinking was crafty, providing the solution of “dream.”

Everything he could do had already been completed. Looking at all possibilities, only the character “dream” could make Xuanwu begin to hesitate.

But Chen Junnan knew this round was very different from previous rounds, because Qi Xia had violated the rules.

Perhaps there was also an extremely small probability… that both sides would directly end the game with victory going to the character “dream” when no one had any objections.

Xuanwu dragged her hair that reached the ground and slowly took a step forward.

“Village” and “dream”—for her, the answer seemed a bit obvious.

How could a “village” that could trap oneself match a “dream” with infinite possibilities?

But what she wasn’t used to was that no one was explaining to her which of these two characters was larger.

“‘Dream’ is good…” Xuanwu murmured to herself, as if she had already pushed the scales of this match toward Qi Xia.

“Wait…” Qinglong seemed unable to restrain himself and prepared to speak first.

Qi Xia and Chen Junnan looked toward him at the same moment, their expressions different from each other.

“Xuanwu.” Qinglong said. “Where is ‘dream’?”

“What…?” Xuanwu asked.

“You know where ‘village’ is, but do you know where ‘dream’ is?” Qinglong asked again.

At this moment, Chen Junnan’s brow furrowed. He knew Qinglong had ultimately discovered Qi Xia’s loophole. The situation would be somewhat dangerous next.

He turned his head calmly to look at Qi Xia, only to discover that Qi Xia’s expression was normal—he was only looking at Qinglong with cold eyes.

“Where is ‘dream’…” Xuanwu pondered aloud. “‘Dream’ seems to be in…”

Qinglong snatched the slip of paper from Xuanwu’s hand and unfolded it before everyone, saying: “The final rule of this game is ‘the one occupying the largest ground area wins,’ but ‘dream’ doesn’t exist in reality at all. How can it ‘occupy ground’?”

After hearing this, everyone turned their heads to look at Qi Xia. They originally thought Qi Xia would provide some insight, but Qi Xia only remained silent, then shook his head and said: “I truly hadn’t thought of this aspect.”

“…?” After hearing this, Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin looked at each other, feeling that Qi Xia’s state seemed somewhat off.

Was this “admitting defeat”?

“So is ‘village’ truly larger…?” Xuanwu blinked in confusion. “‘Dream’ doesn’t exist in the real world. Only ‘village’ exists… ‘Village’ occupies ground, but ‘dream’ doesn’t occupy ground.”

Qi Xia nodded: “Not much different from what I imagined. I also feel ‘dream’ isn’t quite appropriate.”

“Oh?” Qinglong raised his eyebrows. “So you’re saying you know you can’t win the third round?”

“More or less.” Qi Xia nodded. “After all, the ‘character’ you provided perfectly hit Xuanwu’s way of thinking. This exceeded my expectations. After all, I know nothing about Xuanwu and don’t know how she would judge.”

“Then you could also struggle a bit.” Qinglong said. “If I were you, after bringing out the character ‘dream,’ I could also have some arguments.”

“Is that so?” Qi Xia nodded ambiguously. “Perhaps when I saw your character ‘village,’ I was already defeated. What came next counts as a dying struggle. Saying more would all be sophistry.”

“Ha…” Qinglong slowly opened his mouth. “Qi Xia, oh Qi Xia… seeing you show this appearance, I truly feel indescribably happy.”

“What are you referring to?”

“Referring to your expression when admitting defeat.” Qinglong replied.

“But I feel I currently have no expression.” Qi Xia responded coldly. “Moreover, I haven’t lost. Even if you truly win this round, we’re still one to one.”

“So what?” Qinglong asked in return. “I know what ‘rules’ are in this box. From now on, I can hit Xuanwu’s life story every time, while you can’t say the same.”

“Is that so…?” Qi Xia nodded. “You think there’s still a lot of time ahead to slowly defeat me. You also think that up to now, this game is truly one to one… This is truly somewhat beyond my expectations.”

“Isn’t it?” Qinglong said.

“This time, at its root, I count as ‘failing to understand the question,’ but you ‘violated the rules.'” Qi Xia said. “I wonder, in Xuanwu’s eyes… how should people who ‘violate the rules’ during a game be judged?”

“You…?” Qinglong paused.

“The so-called ‘Qinglong,’ the so-called ‘god,’ is ultimately just an ordinary person who thinks he’s clever. But thinking about it, it makes sense. If you truly had extraordinary wisdom, you wouldn’t have let the ‘Land of Finality’ reach this state today.” Qi Xia said. “I’m curious to know… what was the order when you created ‘village’?”

“‘Village’ only needs two components. Does there need to be any particular order?” Qinglong asked again.

“What a ‘two components.'” Qi Xia nodded. “‘Wood’ (木) and ‘inch’ (寸), right? A simple ‘village,’ appearing in your hands just like that.”

Qinglong was about to respond but suddenly realized something, momentarily at a loss for words.

“You think you’re a ‘god,’ so no one can question any goal you achieve. You also subconsciously believe every path leading to ‘wood’ is reasonable.” Qi Xia raised his head to look at the “village” on the screen. “But you don’t know just how much effort we so-called ‘mortals’ spent trying to form this ‘wood.'”

“Qi Xia… you…”

“Every step we take is so cautious and careful. After all, if we’re not careful, we’ll face eternal damnation, so we’ve always been following the rules.”