Chapter 529: The Sun-Making of Grand Emperor Heaven
In midair, the two halves of the demon general’s body fell. Not yet completely dead, they could still twitch a few times upon hitting the ground.
After all, he was an expert at the Celestial Being realm, and with four heads, Qin Mu had only used the Lunar Jade Eye to slice him in two. With his powerful vitality, he couldn’t possibly die instantly.
His four heads glared fiercely at Qin Mu, but gradually, their breath faded away.
All around, the many Grand Emperor Heaven cultivators’ astonished expressions had yet to fade. They stared blankly at this big boy who, amidst the bloody battlefield, was still absorbed in his own calculations.
That vicious demon general just now was a great expert at the Celestial Being realm, a renowned young powerhouse among the demon race, with unfathomable strength. If he had made a move, perhaps a hundred or so people on the altar would have died, and even then, they might not have been able to stop him.
“Who is this person?” a Grand Emperor Heaven cultivator asked in a low voice.
Someone nearby said, “A disciple of the Demon God Furi Sun. Among the Celestial Being realm experts of the demon race, he ranks seventh, hailed as a powerhouse who could grow into a True Demon. He is Furi Sun’s most beloved disciple…”
“No, I’m asking about him.”
“Don’t know…”
…
The long-braided girl pulled Qin Mu up, smiling, “You killed Fuyu Xiao. This guy holds a high position among the Celestial Being realm of the demon race. You’ve made a great contribution!”
Qin Mu glanced at the corpse, surprised, “His status is that high? No wonder he was so strong. If I hadn’t learned a move from the Woodcutter Saint, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand even one of his attacks.”
He crouched down again and continued his calculations.
The long-braided girl looked at the jade eye beside him, puzzled, “How did you kill him? This eye is…”
“This jade eye was probably refined by a god from the Sovereign Era, who built a formation on the moon to use its light for illumination.”
Qin Mu calculated absently, “Fuyu Xiao had four heads. Four heads controlling the body simultaneously would cause conflicting thoughts. Facing sudden events, his four heads wouldn’t need to separately control his body; his reaction should be muscle memory. I only needed to calculate his muscle memory response based on Fuyu Xiao’s divine abilities and techniques, figure out how muscle memory would affect him in a crisis, and then I could predict his movement trajectory. Then I activated this Lunar Jade Eye. The moment he leaped into the air, he would crash into it himself and kill himself.”
The long-braided girl’s eyes widened, staring at him in shock. He crashed into it himself and killed himself?
Mathematics could be used like this? How did he calculate that?
“Are there any experts in mathematics here?”
Qin Mu opened his Taotie pouch, and the calculation spirit weapons flew back into it with a rustle. He frowned, “Building a World Bridge requires a massive amount of calculation. If I do it alone, I estimate it would take about half a year to calculate the sacrificial spiritual energy conversion equation, derive the spiritual energy migration equation, and then establish the spatial mathematical model for the bridge spanning two worlds.” Note ①
All around, there was silence.
After a moment, the long-braided girl said hoarsely, “What did you just say… cheng?”
“Equation. ‘Fang’ means parallel, ‘cheng’ means vertical arrangement. An equation is used to solve for yuan… Yuan? Not primordial qi. You don’t know what yuan is? Yuan means unknown, used in mathematics to represent an unknown number.”
Qin Mu looked up and saw the expressions on her face and those of the surrounding Grand Emperor Heaven cultivators. They looked as if they were listening to a heavenly scripture. A bad feeling arose in him, and he probed, “You don’t have the Ten Mathematical Classics here? What about the most basic Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art… You haven’t studied that either? Then what about the Supreme Mystery Mathematical Classic? You haven’t studied the Plain Girl Mathematical Classic either? You must have at least studied the Celestial Cycle Array Equation, right? That’s about calculating celestial phenomena!”
The surrounding crowd shook their heads in confusion.
The long-braided girl said, “What’s the use of studying mathematics?”
Others nodded, laughing, “We’re on the battlefield every day, killing. Who has time to learn that? The fastest way to improve strength is to train hard, learn divine abilities, and comprehend techniques!”
Qin Mu said indignantly, “Don’t you calculate celestial phenomena? You should at least calculate the movement trajectories of the stars in the sky, right?”
The crowd looked at him with strange expressions. Qin Mu wondered why they made such faces. Suddenly, a cultivator said, “There are no stars in the sky. What is there to calculate?”
Qin Mu was stunned. He looked up at the sky.
The sky of Grand Emperor Heaven was pitch black, with only one and a half suns hanging there. The reason there was only half a sun was that the sun was indeed only half!
Qin Mu even saw some grand-scale buildings on the incomplete part of that half sun, though they were not finished. This half sun seemed to have been constructed, not naturally formed!
What made him most speechless was that the two suns in the sky weren’t even round!
When he had come last time, he hadn’t seen the sun—it must have been night. This time, he saw the suns of Grand Emperor Heaven, but not only was there one and a half suns, they weren’t regular spheres. Some parts were square, some elliptical, and some places were crooked!
Qin Mu wished he could fly up into the sky and smooth out those two suns!
Even the celestial phenomena in Eternal Peace were fake, all arrays of formations. But the gods and demons who built those arrays to deceive the world were very meticulous. Both the sun and moon were very round, leaving no flaws.
Even the stars, constellations, and the Milky Way in the sky were made very realistically, fooling the Daoist priests for twenty thousand years. When Lin Xuan, the Daoist leader, discovered this secret, his Dao heart collapsed directly.
But Grand Emperor Heaven was different. Even those one and a half fake suns were made very sloppily!
Qin Mu’s mind was blank. He shook his head. The impact of this scene on him was even stronger than when he first saw the Sun Ship. Of course, one was the shock of divine craftsmanship, and the other was the shock of sheer carelessness!
“Not a single star. You really don’t need the Celestial Cycle Array Equation…”
Qin Mu nodded repeatedly, and couldn’t help but miss Dragon Qilin. He thought to himself, “The mathematical skills of the cultivators in this world won’t be very high. If only I had brought Fatty Dragon here, I could have been much more relaxed…”
The cultivators of this world, due to the constant demon invasion and daily battles, had to continuously improve their strength to survive. The best way to improve was to diligently cultivate divine abilities, temper their bodies, and strengthen their spirit weapons.
Mathematics wasn’t very important to them. It was extremely tedious and didn’t significantly boost strength. So, generation after generation, their mathematical skills declined.
More and more Grand Emperor Heaven cultivators arrived at the altar. The altar was a high ground, offering a commanding view. These cultivators took out longbows, bent them, and shot downwards. Arrows of light streaked across the battlefield, killing demons one by one.
Others activated knife pellets or sword pellets, attacking the battlefield from afar.
“How did you build this altar?” Qin Mu suddenly thought of a key point and asked urgently.
The long-braided girl was also skilled in archery. She drew her bow and shot enemies, saying, “The altar has existed for a long time. My father said it was left in Grand Emperor Heaven twenty thousand years ago. If Grand Emperor Heaven could no longer hold out, they could use the altar to awaken a divine saint teacher to come and help. Now, Grand Emperor Heaven can no longer hold out, so the gods and demons of Mingyi City buried the altar in the center of the battlefield, using the fallen as sacrifices, offering enough flesh and blood…”
Her face darkened. Many of the fallen were Grand Emperor Heaven cultivators.
“The altar was left twenty thousand years ago.”
Qin Mu looked into the distance at the Woodcutter Saint, who had already fought far away. The battle there was even more intense; the Woodcutter Saint was destroying the enemy camp!
“The altar should have been left by the Woodcutter Saint himself, so that Grand Emperor Heaven could summon him when they couldn’t hold out. Then his purpose is to buy time for Eternal Peace…”
Qin Mu set up the Lunar Jade Eye, adjusted its direction, and beams of light shot out from the jade eye, killing demon experts.
The Lunar Jade Eye had a longer range and greater power than the arrows of other cultivators. It killed demon elites one by one. Qin Mu targeted the demon generals. Once the generals died, the demons had no leader and no command, making it hard for them to form a numerical advantage.
Even so, more and more demons surged toward the altar. Everyone had no time to shoot at distant demons; they could only shoot at those below the altar.
Below the altar, corpses piled up like mountains. Dark masses of demons still surged forward, about to attack the altar.
Qin Mu put away the Lunar Jade Eye, grabbed his sword pellet, and defended the altar in close combat. Both sides fought a bloody battle on the altar’s top. The demons were exceptionally brave and fearless. Even though the Grand Emperor Heaven cultivators were highly skilled, they could barely hold off the assault.
Beside Qin Mu and the long-braided girl, cultivators fell one after another. Even Qin Mu and the girl were in constant danger, nearly dying several times under enemy attacks.
The number of their own on the altar dwindled rapidly, soon leaving only twenty or thirty people. Suddenly, earth-shattering shouts came from afar. Then, the demons surging toward the altar seemed to receive some signal. They rapidly retreated, fleeing madly back the way they came.
Everyone on the altar breathed a sigh of relief, gasping for air, and collapsed to the ground, covered in blood.
Behind them, loud horn and drum sounds rang out. Tens of thousands of troops from Mingyi City charged out, pursuing the fleeing demon army.
The long-braided girl struggled to stand, wanting to join the army in chasing the demon stragglers, but her legs were weak, so she had to sit back down.
Qin Mu watched the Mingyi City army surging into the distance. Suddenly, he remembered something and said, “We’ve fought side by side twice, risking life and limb, but we haven’t exchanged names. My name is Qin Mu. Qin is the character for pounding grain with both hands holding a pestle, Mu is the character for a shepherd herding cattle. What’s your name?”
The long-braided girl lay in a pool of blood, looking at the one and a half suns in the sky, catching her breath. She said, “My name is Sang Hua. Sang is the character for many trees, Hua is the character for woman and painting. That day, I said a lot to you, but you didn’t hear a word. Luckily, you were by my side, or I wouldn’t have made it through that battle. I couldn’t have held out that long. Guess!”
She turned her head, revealing two small dimples: “What did I say to you?”
Qin Mu shook his head: “We were separated by two worlds. I couldn’t hear a thing.”
Sang Hua looked up at the sky again: “Look, the sun is so big. Our Grand Emperor Heaven originally had no sun. These two suns were built by the god of Grand Emperor Heaven, leading us. We called that god the Sun-Maker. Unfortunately, the second sun wasn’t finished when the Sun-Maker god was killed by a demon god… The sun is magnificent, isn’t it?”
“Mm, magnificent…”
Qin Mu answered against his conscience, then asked curiously, “What did you say to me that night?”
— Note ①: The term “equation” (fangcheng) appears in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. “Fang” means parallel, “cheng” means vertical arrangement. The character “yuan” in a three-variable linear equation represents the unknown. The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was likely compiled around the early Western Han Dynasty or the Warring States period.