Chapter 637: Two Imperial Maps, a Thousand Years Apart
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As the three chief stewards spoke, the corresponding locations on the wall map would brighten, each with varying degrees of luminosity.
Standing in the corner, Tang Thirty-Six listened, his expression growing increasingly grave. He couldn't understand the data in these reports, but he could sense the atmosphere.
Tang Family's Second Master looked at the gradually brightening spots on the map, neither particularly tense nor more relaxed as time passed.
To him, this seemed like nothing more than an ordinary task.
No one knew how long it took before the three chief stewards finished their reports. Tang Family's Second Master gazed at the map, frowned slightly, and said with dissatisfaction, "The progress is still too slow."
The clattering sound of abacus beads came incessantly from outside the house. The noise of hundreds of abacuses being flicked simultaneously, mixed together, was hardly pleasant to hear.
One chief steward said, "This year of preparation could only yield some rough figures. The real calculations only began tonight. There's simply no way to go faster."
Tang Family's Second Master looked at the accountants outside, heads buried in their work, endlessly flicking abacus beads, and said, "At most, half an hour remains."
That chief steward replied, "I'll keep an eye on them."
"Just keeping an eye isn't enough." Tang Family's Second Master stared into the steward's eyes and said, "You all join in as well. Also, bring me an abacus."
Before long, an abacus and a mountain of ledgers were brought in.
Tang Family's Second Master paid no attention to Tang Thirty-Six standing in the corner. His right hand flipped through the ledgers while his left hand continuously flicked the abacus beads, pausing only occasionally to make marks in the records.
Compared to the accountants outside, his speed didn't seem particularly fast, but every movement was exceptionally clear. The rhythm of his right hand turning pages and his left hand calculating merged in a nearly perfect, inexplicable cadence. The ledgers, piled like a small hill, were soon finished.
A subordinate brought in a second stack of ledgers from outside.
Not long after, those were finished too.
Only then did Tang Family's Second Master take a brief rest. He picked up the already cold teapot from the table and took a slow sip.
In such a short time, performing such a massive volume of calculations, his complexion had turned somewhat pale—a sign of excessive mental strain.
"If Xu Yourong were here with the Fate Star Disk to perform deductions, she could probably finish twice as fast as me."
Tang Family's Second Master set down the teapot wearily and said, "But if Wang Po were still working as our family's accountant, why would I need to work so hard?"
At this moment, only he and Tang Thirty-Six were in the room, so these words were naturally directed at Tang Thirty-Six.
"Our family is in business. In business, you can't afford to lose. The old master's decision to let Wang Po leave Wenshui back then was a terrible loss."
Tang Thirty-Six knew that his second uncle was warning him not to drag the family business down for the sake of Chen Changsheng and the National Academy.
"Back then, Wang Po left Wenshui. Wasn't it because you, Second Uncle, were petty and couldn't stand the sight of him, scheming every way to force him out?"
He looked at Tang Family's Second Master with a hint of sarcasm.
Tang Family's Second Master stared at him calmly and said, "Shut your mouth. I still have many things to do today. I'm not in the mood to play these childish games with you."
The calculation results from hundreds of accountants were continuously gathered into the small room, then condensed into the simplest statements.
Two things: whether a certain location in the capital could be confirmed, and how strong it was.
The glowing dots on the wall map grew more numerous, gradually connecting into lines, and finally forming a pattern whose meaning was unclear.
Standing in the corner, Tang Thirty-Six looked at that pattern and vaguely recalled that when he was a child, sitting on the old master's lap listening to ancient tales, something related seemed to have been mentioned…
But what was it?
Finally, all the calculations ended. The irritating clatter of abacus beads from outside ceased entirely. Only the exhausted sighs of accountants and the groans of sore arms could be heard. Tang Thirty-Six even saw two accountants collapse unconscious from sheer mental exhaustion.
Tang Family's Second Master walked again to the stone wall, looked at the pattern on the map, raised an eyebrow slightly, and reached into his sleeve to retrieve something.
Countless beams of light projected from that object onto the capital's map, also forming a pattern.
The two patterns overlapped. Their outlines were roughly the same, with only minor differences in certain details and varying brightness.
"Is the change significant?" Tang Family's Second Master asked.
Tang Thirty-Six was momentarily stunned, thinking he hadn't seen the two patterns before, so how could he know the answer? And change… what change did he mean?
"A thousand years have passed. The change naturally won't be small."
An aged voice sounded from the shadows of the room. An old man in a padded jacket appeared there.
Tang Thirty-Six looked at the old man in surprise and said, "Great Supplicant, you're here too?"
The old man in the padded jacket nodded to him, walked over to Tang Family's Second Master, looked at the two patterns on the map that seemed about to merge, and said, "Fortunately, it can be resolved."
Tang Thirty-Six could no longer suppress his curiosity. He walked over and asked, "What kind of map is this?"
"Both are Imperial Maps of the capital. The one calculated tonight is the current map. The one Second Master just took out is from a thousand years ago."
The old Supplicant from the Tang family of Wenshui said.
Tang Family's Second Master said, "The changes in the capital over a thousand years are contained in these two maps. This is history."
Hearing this, Tang Thirty-Six looked at the pattern on the wall again, now with many different feelings.
"Only our Tang family can see the changes in this history, because our Tang family exists within history itself. At least in the capital's history, we are more ancient than anyone else—more ancient than the Chen royal clan. So our Tang family has ample reason to return to the capital. You must learn to revere this historical inevitability."
Tang Family's Second Master looked at him and said, "If you don't even understand this, how are you fit to bear the surname Tang?"
These words answered the question he had asked Tang Thirty-Six at the very beginning—what should the Tang family most revere?
Not money that could move the gods, not connections that spanned countless aristocratic families, mountain gates, government offices, and even reached into Snow Old City, but the incomparably long history that made them the foremost of the Four Great Families.
Logically, hearing this, Tang Thirty-Six should have had some thoughts. But at that moment, he was thinking about other things. Then he remembered something, and his face turned pale.
He remembered what the two patterns on the map, separated by a thousand years, were.
Yes, they were Imperial Maps.
Just as the Great Supplicant had said.
Few in the world knew of the Imperial Maps' existence, but he had heard of them as a child on the old master's lap.
That was the greatest secret of the Great Zhou Dynasty's capital, and also a terrifyingly powerful Dao formation!
What exactly did the Wenshui family intend to do? Looking at the map of the capital on the wall, countless stormy thoughts surged in his heart. Was it necessary to create such a commotion tonight?
Tang Family's Second Master and the Great Supplicant were also looking at that map.
All the lines in the two Imperial Maps, separated by a thousand years, pointed to a certain place on the map.
At that moment, it was exactly where the gazes of the three people in the room fell.
North of the center of the capital's map—there was the Imperial Palace.
Tang Family's Second Master said coldly, "The formation's pivot is indeed there."
The Great Supplicant said with emotion, "The formation's pivot is still there after all."
"After the Grand Ancestor ascended the throne before the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, he began to modify the Imperial Map. Later, the Illustrious Ancestor and the Former Emperor never stopped either."
Tang Family's Second Master looked at the capital's map and said, "The most heavily modified areas, aside from the line along the Luo Canal in Jian Gong North Lane, are the formation's pivot deep within the Imperial Palace."
The Great Supplicant looked at the bright spot on the second Imperial Map and said, "It seems the rumors from back then were all true. The Illustrious Ancestor built Lingyan Pavilion to turn the most important and vulnerable formation pivot into the most lethal Heavenly Intent Killing Formation, specifically targeting experts in the Divine Domain."
Tang Family's Second Master said, "Father once said that if the Illustrious Ancestor truly completed the Heavenly Intent Killing Formation, even a Divine Domain expert trying to force their way in would only find death."
The Great Supplicant stared at that spot in silence for a long time, then said, "I'll try to see if I can sneak in."
Tang Thirty-Six, listening from behind, was shocked once again.
The Great Supplicant's cultivation was unfathomable. Years ago, he was only half a step away from the Divine Domain. He was the Tang family's last divine guardian besides the old master. Was he really going to be deployed as well?