Chapter 854 — Reunion with an Old Acquaintance at the Peach Blossom Spring
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
You imparted the Taiwei Calculation Classic to our Dao Gate; whatever accomplishments we now have are merely repaying that kindness.
" Shen Mu, Yutianzun, and the others settled in at the Academy, and Yutianzun followed his teachers to learn the various arts of calculation. The Dao Gate had any number of arithmetic classics, and Lin Xuan had brought back from Qingyuntian a boundless ocean of them; to master them all was no easy task. The study of calculation was exceedingly dry, yet it was the vitally important foundation of the whole system of divine arts and Daoist techniques.
Apart from a few divine arts such as the martial way, which made little demand on calculation, every other system of divine arts relied on it. What Lin Xuan had brought back from Qingyuntian were all macroscopic calculation arts—classics of the Celestial Court's Dao Gate, profoundly subtle and developed to the utmost limit.
The microscopic calculation arts, by contrast, had only just begun.
Though it was Shen Mu who had founded these arts, it was the Dao Gate that expanded them and carried them to glory. Daoist Master Lin Xuan and the others had already derived the Taiwei Calculation Classic to a degree beyond the comprehension of conventional calculation arts; they had even discovered that under microscopic conditions the grand laws of the macroscopic Dao all failed, and they had found a law whereby the microscopic could not be measured precisely.
Yet despite these phenomena, when the microscopic assembled into the macroscopic, the grand laws held sway once more—most marvelous. Shen Mu studied with an open heart and felt that although the Taiwei Calculation Classic discoursed upon the microscopic and answered the microscopic, its system was incomparably great and could be applied to every kind of divine art. It took him more than twenty days to absorb the Dao Gate's achievements and turn them into his own knowledge, and he could not help sighing with myriad emotions.
Daoist Master Lin Xuan had long since known just how acute Shen Mu was, so it came as no surprise to him that Shen Mu had mastered the Taiwei Calculation Classic in just over twenty days; but the old Daoists who had taught alongside him wore expressions of utter incredulity. Shen Mu went to look for Yutianzun. Yutianzun, that supremely perceptive being capable of all things, had this time encountered a bone too hard for even him to gnaw; the various arithmetic classics had worn him down to a withered state.
The Dragon Qilin, by contrast, was in high spirits, sitting in on lectures throughout the Academy's halls and profiting greatly. "Lan Yutian's perception is keen enough, yet in calculation he can be rated only as first-class aptitude—still no match for the Dragon Qilin," Lin Xuan said to Shen Mu.
"He will need considerably more time before he can master all the arithmetic classics of the Dao Gate. " "His strength is perception.
To him, calculation is only a tool in the pursuit of the Dao, and not important in itself. " Shen Mu sighed. "Daoist Master Lin, have you ever seen a peerless genius?
" Lin Xuan became wary.
"Are you preparing to be modest again? " Shen Mu shook his head.
"I count as a genius, too, but my strength lies in aptitude. In perception I am only a little better than you all, and because of my Overlord Body, so long as I am willing to work hard, I learn anything quickly.
Lan Yutian is different. He is closer to the Dao.
The Dao Ancestor created the calculation arts in order to analyze every great Dao under heaven; calculation is a tool for seeking the Dao. If a man is born intimate with the Dao, able to sense it clearly and comprehend it clearly, does he still need such a tool?
" Lin Xuan was dumbfounded for a moment.
He looked at Lan Yutian and saw him scratching his head and ears over a calculation problem, so vexed that sweat beaded across his brow.
"Where has Grandpa Blind gone?