Chapter 169 — The Holy Sovereign's Penchant
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Teleportation Divine Art is in truth a divine art founded upon the arts of calculation: for a different direction, a different destination, a different distance, a different space, one must reckon a different ordering and rule among the runes. Every time a teleportation point is established, a vast amount of computation is required. Computation — and what is meant by "operation"?
Operation is the sequence, the evolution, the transformation, the law of rune formations; only when there are sequences, evolutions, and transformative laws of rune formations does "calculation" exist.
The abacus is the most elementary form of all computation: the shifting of the upper beads and the lower beads represents the simplest formation sequence.
To refine the Teleportation Divine Art into a treasure is to drive the reckoning by the rune-changes and formation-changes branded into the treasure; it is ten thousand times more complex than reckoning with the upper and lower beads of an abacus, and may be regarded as a vast, three-dimensional abacus of heterogeneous construction. If one would wield this divine art on one's own, one must be able to adjust the algorithm at any time and in any place, and to seek out the secret of teleportation from amid runes of every chaotic complexity. With only ten volumes of the Calculation Classics, there was no deriving a formula of such complexity.
And so Shen Mu felt that he needed more profound texts on the arts of calculation before he could ever wholly master the Teleportation Divine Art. "The profound Calculation Classics — the Array Origin Hall of the Grand Academy ought to teach them. The Array Origin Hall teaches formations, and formations require the reckoning of the arts of calculation.
Perhaps the Dao Sect has such Calculation Classics as well, and loftier ones. .
.
" Shen Mu suddenly thought of Lin Xuan, the Daozi of the Dao Sect.
When Lin Xuan Daozi executed One Point Piercing the Vast Motion, and Yin and Yang Repeating Within the Two Modes, he had brought to bear techniques of calculation of the most intricate kind. Yin and Yang Repeating Within the Two Modes required an immense amount of calculation; without a powerful capacity for reckoning, it would be well-nigh impossible to compute the changes of one's moves within so short a time, and to compute the exact position of Shen Mu's weakness. "Without profound Calculation Classics, there is no way I can master the Teleportation Divine Art now.
As it is, I know the how but not the why. Better to refine a teleportation treasure first.
" Shen Mu steadied his heart and gave himself wholly to refining the treasure. Whether one refines a teleportation banner or a teleportation robe, cloth is needed; he had only a single set of brocade robes left about him, so he could only start with the brocade. And to refine his own Six-Winged Golden Silkworm brocade into a teleportation robe, he would first have to draw out thread — to pull several dozen strands of golden silkworm silk from the garment, to weave formation patterns with that silk within the robe, and to brand runes upon it with yuan qi.
From childhood he had studied tailoring under Grandma Zhu, and had even dabbled in embroidery; this was no difficulty for him. "Tell me — can the Holy Cult Master leave Shenglin Mountain by his own strength?
" The three Cult-Guarding Heavenly Kings had not yet left Shenglin Mountain, precisely so that Shen Mu should not be stranded in this place. The three elders looked toward the Floating Light Hall.
Heavenly King Lu, stroking a wisp of goatee on his chin, said, "Refining a teleportation treasure is no simple matter. Our Holy Cult's teleportation methods might well be called the most headache-inducing of all divine arts. " Heavenly King Yu nodded, deeply in accord: "The teleportation methods demand far too much of the arts of calculation.