Chapter 42 (1/2)
In Prince Runan’s Residence, Xiao Lin, Prince Runan, was resting on his armchair.
“My lord… someone asked to see you!”
A soldier came in a hurry.
“Nobody can see me when I’m resting. You do know my rule, right…?”
Xiao Lin slowly opened his eyes; an intimidating aura began to spread out.
The Abyssal Ocean Kingdom had four Great Generals and Prince Runan was one of them. His responsibility was to defend the southern border of the country. Every year, he only had a month’s leave to spend with his family in the capital.
He would normally decline all visits when he was enjoying his holiday.
“Yes, sir!” The soldier lowered his head and said, “However, the visitor says that he was instructed by Seniors Qiao Zimu and Dong Yingquan…”
“Senior Qiao and Senior Quan? What do they want?”
Frowning, Xiao Lin was slightly puzzled.
They were famous and very capable in Green Abyss, but they had never been close friends of his, except for their interactions when they worked on questions or studied new laws together.
Why did the two of them send someone to his house?
“Let him in!”
Although dissatisfied, Xiao Lin would rather not piss off the two esteemed seniors.
Soon, a young man approached him and knelt before him. “It’s my privilege to meet you, my lord! I’m here at the behest of Senior Qiao and Senior Quan, who wondered if they could borrow your Marching Flag!”
Grimly, Xiao Lin narrowed his eyes. “Do you know what the Marching Flag means?”
The young man said, “The Marching Flag is a national treasure built by His Majesty himself. It can calculate data quickly and automatically! Senior Qiao and Senior Quan are verifying the top-tier question left by the Ninth Princess in the Empyrean One Pavilion, but they’ve met some difficulties during their calculations. Therefore, they’re hoping that you could help them with the flag, my lord!”
“They’re verifying the top-tier question?”
Shocked, Xiao Lin quickly stood up in disbelief. “Are you implying that someone worked it out?”
He had seen the Ninth Princess’s question, but he was clueless after studying it for months and had to give up.
He thought nobody in the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom could work it out, but an answer was already being verified.
“Yes… Someone is answering it, but we don’t know if it’s correct!” The young man nodded.
“That doesn’t sound right…” Dazed for a moment, Xiao Lin thought about something and frowned. “Senior Qiao is best known for his abilities in mental calculation. Dong Yingquan is an expert of arithmetics, too. Now that they have joined hands, even though they can’t work out the question, they should certainly be able to verify the answer, shouldn’t they?”
“My lord… The answer was too complicated and too fast for Senior Quan to verify, so he invited Senior Qiao. However, Senior Qiao couldn’t keep up with the guy even with the help of an abacus. Instead, he was heavily hurt and spewed blood…” The young man smiled bitterly.
Xiao Lin was stiffened.
Even he admired Qiao Zimu’s abilities in mental calculation. Currently, not even Qiao Zimu could keep up with the guy’s steps while using an abacus…
“Could it be true?”
“Lead the way!”
Waving his hand, Xiao Lin stopped talking and followed the young man. They reached the Empyrean One Pavilion ten minutes later.
The previously empty Empyrean One Pavilion was jam-packed with hundreds of people at the moment.
“Level-one Mage, Bai Ding; Master of Abacus, Huang Muxiang; specialist of the Moya Formula, Wang Yuanhai… Well, well…”
Xiao Lin did not know what to say and his eyelids shivered.
Everybody in the room was familiar to him. They were all renowned people of the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom whose position and abilities were high. Most of them were always training in seclusion, and he could barely get a chance to meet them. However, they had all gathered in one place…
Had the top-tier question really been answered?
He looked over, only to see that everybody in the room was calculating fast with paper and brushes.
Senior Quan, who was in front of everyone, was giving orders. “We’ll split the steps. Bai Ding, you will confirm the first formula. Huang Muxiang, the second… Tell me the result when you’re done!”
Soon, everyone offered their results.
Gathering their answers, Senior Quan read for a long time and took a deep breath. “Very good. This part is correct. Let’s work harder. We’ve already confirmed one percent of all the steps!”
“The most famous arithmetic masters in town have calculated for such a long time, and they’ve only covered one percent?”
Xiao Lin trembled, unconvinced of what he had seen.
“Who wrote the answer?”
Unable to hold back anymore, he squeezed into the crowd and saw the young man writing on the wall.
The young man wrote so fast that he had written a couple of steps while Xiao Lin was drawing near.
One step required the confirmation of so many people, yet the guy wrote four in less than one minute.
Xiao Lin’s face was livid
As a Great General and one of the best level-one Martial Artists, he had a deep knowledge of arithmetics. Otherwise, he couldn’t have served as the commander of an army.
However, he couldn’t understand the answer, either. No more than the others could!
That was too unbelievable!
“My lord, you’re finally here…”
Seeing him, a miserably pale Senior Qiao approached in a hurry.
Qiao Zimu’s health seemed to be at less than half of what it was when he arrived. He was down and his hair was a mess. He seemed to have aged ten years after only half a day!
“I’ll calculate and deduce with the Marching Flag now…”
Without any hesitation, Xiao Lin laid the chess board he prepared on the ground. Countless tiny flags wandered quickly under the boost of magic, manifesting rows of data.
“The Marching Flag is truly good…”
Everybody was relieved once they saw the data.
Senior Qiao was the best mental calculator in the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom, but abacuses calculated faster than minds. Above the abacuses was the Marching Flag!
It was basically a computer, similar to those that Shen Zhe used to know!
“The first step is correct!’
“The second step is correct!’
“The third step is correct!’
…
“The fifty-seventh step is correct!”
…
As the announcements echoed faster and louder, the plump girl at the counter shivered with pale lips.
She wasn’t a genius, but the princess couldn’t have sent her there because her grades were bad…
The steps written by the guy she had mocked and derided couldn’t be calculated by so many masters!
“How did he do it?”
“Did he intentionally give a wrong answer just now?”
Her body trembled.
He was answering the question so fast that even Senior Qiao and dozens of other famous experts couldn’t keep up with him. It was challenging even for Prince Runan’s Marching Flag.
Nobody would’ve believed that he couldn’t answer the simple question just then if he had such rapid calculation abilities!
So, the only explanation was that…
He did it on purpose!
However, she took it as a serious answer and really thought that the guy was being pretentious. She made a fool of herself!
“Maybe… He can really solve this top-tier question… I need to inform the Ninth Princess right now!”
She had thought that the guy was there to stir trouble, but as more experts confirmed the correctness of his steps, she finally understood that the guy was truly capable of answering the question!
Although the princess was the one who came up with the question, she was the princess’ maid, so she knew very well that the princess had never been able to solve it!
If the princess couldn’t solve it, how good must the young man be to work it out?
She had to inform the princess as soon as possible!
She returned to her room and sent an envoy to the royal palace. After it was done, she looked at the young man in a long cloak again.
His brush finally came to a stop.
“That’s all of it…”
Shen Zhe heaved a sigh of relief.
It was truly not easy to obtain an herb…
Thank god his body had reached the eighth stage and illuminated two stars. Otherwise, he would’ve been exhausted copying the answer!
Nothing was simple.
He didn’t know that copying homework could be so troublesome.
He rubbed his sore hand while his mind was filled with complex feelings. Suddenly he noticed hundreds of people in the room; all of them were gazing at him so passionately, as if they were going to tear his head apart and see what was inside.
Shen Zhe stepped back and almost cried out aloud.
The last incident wasn’t over yet, and the potential crisis was still looming before him. His plan was to get the herb in a low-key way, repair his damaged veins to continue illuminating the stars and increasing his strength…
But things didn’t quite go as he had planned.
He had specifically counted when he entered the Empyrean One Pavilion. There were a dozen people and a handful of cats and kittens.
Where were the hundreds of strangers from, and when did they come?