Chapter 780 — The Magnetic Earth Mother
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
This time, when he came to Taihuang Heaven, he saw any number of strange structures: pillars forged of dark bronze, hollow within, some long and some short, some thick and some thin. The long ones stood several hundred zhang high, the match of mountain peaks; the short ones were scarce a chi.
Several hundred pillars rose within the elemental magnetic anomaly points, and the border between Taihuang Heaven and the Desolate Ruins held the greatest number of anomaly points of all; of such installations there were twenty or thirty, a truly magnificent sight.
Within every elemental magnetic anomaly point, divine ability users with paper and brush in hand surrounded the bronze pillars, recording the data produced by the magnetic reactions of the anomaly points, which was then sent to the nearby divine cities of Taihuang Heaven to be sorted.
Pang Yu the True God, Sang Ye the Revered God and the others had rebuilt Taihuang Heaven and raised several divine cities, where the people multiplied and thrived; and for this derivation of elemental magnetic runes, Grandmother Zhu had borrowed no small number of divine ability users from Taihuang Heaven.
Taihuang Heaven's attainments in the arts of calculation had once been wretched indeed, but after the two realms were opened, the divine ability users of Taihuang Heaven had gone into Jingping to study the arts of calculation, and by now there were many among them skilled in reckoning.
When Shen Mu came into the city, he saw Grandmother Zhu buried head-down amid mountains of paper, with a hundred or so scholars sorting the data sent in from the various anomaly points, and all manner of computation elemental soldiers clattering away without pause.
And on the walls were branded more than a thousand wondrous runes, flickering bright and dim, faintly giving off elemental magnetic power.
"There is only the last rune left."
Xu Shenghua studied the brands upon the wall and said in amazement, "Grandmother Zhu's speed is truly remarkable!"
Scarcely had he spoken when Grandmother Zhu's laughter rang out: "Done at last—it is calculated!"
The beautiful woman sprang to her feet, came before the wall, and her vital essence surged, transforming into the final rune, which she branded upon the wall.
Shen Mu stepped forward and studied the elemental magnetic runes upon the wall, and could not help but be moved, praising, "Granny, the cataloguing of these more than one thousand nine hundred runes is a merit beyond measure!"
Only then did Grandmother Zhu notice them, and she said in delighted surprise, "When did Shen'er arrive? You have not come to see me for many a day! Four parts of the credit for these runes is yours, and the other six parts Xu Shenghua and I split between us. Xu Shenghua worked out more than a thousand elemental magnetic derivation equations. What I sorted out was only a small share."
Xu Shenghua made a modest noise and glanced at Shen Mu.
Shen Mu smiled. "I derived the first few equations, and Brother Xu carried on along the road I opened, and did very well indeed."
Xu Shenghua gave a muffled snort.
Shen Mu's words might smack of self-praise, yet they were the plain truth.
Shen Mu had discovered the mystery of elemental magnetism, and had pioneeringly set down several of the most fundamental elemental magnetic equations, and then handed the task of deriving elemental magnetic runes to them.
Shen Mu was the pathbreaker, they the perfecters, and so Shen Mu took close to half the credit.
"Granny, now that the elemental magnetic divine arts have been sorted out, can one comprehend elemental magnetic divine arts from them?" Shen Mu asked.
"We can give it a try!"