Chapter 668 (2/2)

The word was quite a mouthful. Surprisingly, it was printed in a blue color that could only be produced with very fine and expensive blue pigments.

“Take your time. It’s fine if you don’t understand. You’ll need to learn a lot of things in the future.”

Although the lighting in Roland’s room was relatively decent even without a candle, it was still not comparable to daylight. As such, Dispersion Star felt reluctant to read the book right away, as late night reading could more or less cause eye damage.

As an astrologer, he should well protect his eyes.

Nevertheless, Dispersion Star did not want to directly decline the king’s request and thereby infuriate him. So, he decided to just quickly skim it through and read more carefully tomorrow when there was adequate lighting.

His eyes, however, were glued to the contents after he read the prologue on the first page.

“To describe the orbits of objects with arithmetic formulas? To calculate the entire orbit with only a few key parameters?”

Next came several groups of intersecting straight lines, each of which constituted a coordinate system consisting of four planes. In each coordinate, there was a simple shape. Some were just diagonal straight lines, some a section of a curve, some ovals and others a combination of multiple curves. They looked nothing strange, but Dispersion Star’s attention was soon caught by the arithmetic formula next to the circle shape.

“That should be an arithmetic formula,” thought Dispersion Star.

The formula contained a plus mark and an equal mark, starting and ending with the same symbol. Dispersion Star did not have the faintest idea what the formula represented, but somehow he perceived the beauty of it. Every symbol possessed a unique charm and was in perfect harmony with the others.

Although each shape was distinct from each other and by no means display the same type of orbit (for example, a straight line and an oval), there was no noticeable difference between their arithmetic formulas.

An idea suddenly flashed across his mind uncontrollably.

“Is it possible that every shape in this world can be described with a corresponding arithmetic formula?”

The astrologer turned to the second page hurriedly in excitement.

…

By the time Dispersion Star closed the book, his neck was sore. Evidently, it had taken him more than an hour to read the whole book. Meanwhile, Roland appeared to be quite absorbed in his occupation. He was busy drafting the document on the desk and had not interrupted his reading.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I…”

“Done?” Roland looked up and smiled at the astrologer. “I bet there’s a lot you don’t understand.”

“Yes. I don’t recall any court mentors have taught you those… those symbols and formulas…” Out of ten court mentors, nine were from the Astrology Association. However, what His Majesty had written had totally blown his mind. “They’re very interesting, but I just can’t have a good grasp on these complicated formula conversions.”

“That’s because you haven’t learned equations. You’ve got to learn this in order to comprehend analytic geometry.” Magically, the king produced a stack of books from the desk and presented them to the astrologer, the titles of which were either in blue or green. All of the titles sounded weird and mouthful.

Dispersion Star’s hands started to tremble. “Can I take them back home?”

“Certainly.” Roland nodded. “Actually, I want not only you but also all the astrologers and the students in the association to learn them.” After a pause, Roland continued, “The second thing I want to let you know is that you don’t need to worry too much about the Bloody Moon. Once you fully understand everything in the books, the Astrology Association can play an irreplaceable role in the war against demons. These books mean to simply enlighten you. There’ll be something more profound and difficult coming next. By that time, you’ll not only be able to calculate the orbit of a moving object, but also that of every tree and every stone on the earth, every star in the sky, everything that you see on this planet. How does it sound like? Are you willing to accept the challenge?”

“Yes, I’d like to, Your Majesty!”

Astrologer of Dispersion Star gave an affirmative answer immediately, now completely elevated from the dejection he had sunk in when Roland had ignored his discovery of the Star of Extinction.

He now foresaw thousands of stars moved along the paths he calculated.

The young king, in the meantime, smiled. The smile was so strange that it reminded Dispersion Star of a hunter who watched an animal slowly falling into his trap.

“Awesome. But please don’t be discouraged. It’s going to be hard, and it’s perfectly normal that you come across some obstacles. I believe you’ll eventually get the hang of them.”