Chapter 1156: 906
At this moment, Zemir was rubbing his temples, staring at a huge piece of white paper in front of him. The paper was magically pieced together, and it was covered with extremely sloppy formulae and runes. Amid these symbols, there were even crude drawings of adorable little animals, obviously the handiwork of Ruosha who else would scribble such things at times like these.
He could understand any isolated segment of the paper if he looked at it separately. However, Sasa had clearly used an exceedingly clever method to combine these formulae into one whole new and very complex formula that even Zemir couldn’t decipher. He had thought about asking the chief researcher, Zuo La, for help, but neither Lily nor Sasa would ever allow them to take the paper away. However, if they didn’t take it away, it wouldn’t be long before Lily completed the calculation and immediately destroyed the incredibly complex computation.
What to do?
Speak up directly?
It was indeed too awkward for him to admit that despite being a mentor, he couldn’t grasp what his subordinates were researching; this was a sensation Zemir had never experienced before. Ever since Lily and Sasa arrived, he had been acutely aware of this feeling daily. Especially the way Lily and Sasa didn’t seem to consider him at all, leaving him completely at a loss. The reason was simple: they were too strong to oppose.
Sasa, who had just finished a series of research, suddenly stretched and said to Lily, "Sister, I’m very tired. Let’s rest for a bit."
Lily nodded, affectionately replied, "Alright, let’s grab something to eat and then take a short nap."
Sasa turned to Lily with a sweet smile and said, "Today I want to eat that sweet little pudding!"
But Lily answered, "You can, but you can only have one, or it will spoil your teeth."
Sasa immediately pursed her lips and fixed Big Eyes on Lily with a watery gaze. With no other choice, Lily petted Sasa’s hair and said, "Two at most! I won’t give in any more than that!"
Sasa jumped for joy, "Yay! The best sister ever!"
Then Lily approached Zemir and said, "We’re going to rest for a bit. That formula isn’t finished yet, please watch over it for me. Make sure it doesn’t get into the hands of those not strong enough who might try to meddle with it."
Zemir immediately patted his chest, promising that such a thing would never happen!
After seeing the sisters off, Zemir’s heart began to race—yes, this was the opportunity!
Ah, just leaving it here like this, after all, is not safe. It’s better if I keep it safe.
Zemir thought to himself, then carefully folded up the giant piece of paper, stashed it in his private space, then looked around anxiously. Realizing no one had seen him, he hastily left the area.
Meanwhile, Isrile, strolling along the bustling restaurant road, smirked softly, "As expected, that Zemir really did take our blueprint."
Ruosha pouted, "Ever since he saw that blueprint, Zemir’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out. It was so blatantly obvious."
"Is it okay to just give them that blueprint like that? Won’t it cause their technology to suddenly burst forth?" Isrile inquired.
Ruosha laughed, "It’s not that simple. The formula is very complex. To grasp the meaning inside, he’ll have to solve several difficult problems first, and I guess they simply don’t have that strong a knowledge base."
"Don’t underestimate them; what if they really do have it?"
"So what if they do? Even if they manage to work it out, so what? It’s just a superficial formula - understanding what that formula really is about is still a long way off!"
The sisters paid no mind to the other party, leisurely heading to the restaurant for a meal, while on the other hand, Zemir was nearly scared to death. He rushed to a secret room where a group of researchers including Zuo La were already waiting. They had seen the huge formula created by Lily and Sasa but, having only caught a fleeting glimpse, couldn’t understand it at all. Recently, Zemir had copied down parts of the formula from memory.
However, just like Zemir himself, these copied fragments were actually useless on their own because they seemed simple when viewed separately but the meaning they conveyed when combined was a mystery.
This was why these normally haughty senior researchers were all gathered here, patiently waiting for the results from the two girls.
Zemir entered, shut the door, locked it and amid expectant gazes from everyone, he approached the central round table. He took a deep breath, carefully checked the table for any filth to ensure the blueprint wouldn’t be tainted in any way, and only then did he take out the blueprint from his private space and announced in a grave voice, "We have about three hours. I suggest we immediately make an exact copy of this blueprint, not missing even the children’s doodles as they might be a unique form of encoding."
Several mages stepped forward, their spells at the ready, and began to create a Mirror Image of the contents from the original paper onto another identical sheet.
The magic was supposed to be quick, but the mages took half an hour, not wanting to miss any detail.
But soon, one of the mages furrowed his brows.
"Strange," said the mage.
"What’s the matter?" Zuo La asked.
"The three runes here can’t be copied over," the Mage said.
Zuo La walked over, glanced at it, and then lifted his hand. The rune in the palm of his hand flickered, and the runes on the paper flickered as well.
"Is this a magic marker?" Zuo La asked, surprised.
"Magic marker?" The mage responsible for copying was greatly taken aback. He hurriedly withdrew the copy he had just made, then cast a special magic on the original paper. Very soon, a dense array of runes and formulas materialized above what was initially a simple piece of paper!
"Six layers! This is actually a three-dimensional tower formula!"
The Mage said in amazement.
Almost simultaneously, the gaze of all the researchers was drawn to that extremely complex formula, or rather, the extremely beautiful formula. There was a saying in the academic discipline that a perfect formula must necessarily be a beautiful one, and this astonishingly complex formula before their eyes was also filled with beauty.
"What are you waiting for! Copy it down quickly!" Zuo La ordered in a low voice.
The people who had been intoxicated by it immediately sobered up. As researchers accustomed to complex formulas, they were deeply fascinated by it. But they were well aware that some things could not be delayed. Because copying a piece of paper was easy, copying this formula made up of magic, however, was extremely difficult.
Watching the mages get busy again, Zemir felt a sudden sense of unease, "Should be able to finish it, right?"
Zuo La’s lips quivered slightly as he said, "No matter what, it must be finished."
Isrile and Ruosha played their roles conscientiously. They honestly went for some snacks, then both ran off to sleep. After waking up refreshed, on their way back to the research room, they saw Zemir hurrying ahead.
"Mage Zemir, why aren’t you watching over my paper in the research room? What are you running around for?" Lily asked from a distance.
Zemir, however, continued walking forward as if he hadn’t heard her, even quickening his pace slightly.
"Strange, didn’t hear me?" Isrile muttered to herself.
"Probably pondering some difficult problem," Ruosha suggested.
"Maybe," Isrile agreed.
Zemir felt sweat almost trickling down his body; of course, he heard what Lily and Sasa said, but how could he dare to turn back and speak? Their paper was still in his private space! He managed to make it just in time by hurrying along, and during the journey, Zemir had practiced the lie he had pre-emptively fabricated countless times, just waiting for Lily and Sasa to inquire.
Behind him, Lily and Sasa weren’t moving quickly, mainly strolling leisurely, while Zemir secretly increased his pace even more. He was at his limit speed now, short of actually running. Arriving at the research room quickly, he carefully returned the paper to its original place, with not even the slightest crease out of place.
Only then did he finally relax.
Then, after a long, long while, Lily and Sasa were still nowhere to be seen. And after an even longer time, the two girls finally appeared, each holding a big bag of snacks.
"You..." Zemir was about to ask what they had been up to but immediately realized that doing so would imply that he had just seen them. So he absolutely couldn’t ask that.
"We are back, just now we saw you on the road and were originally going to follow you, but then my sister got a craving, so we went to buy some snacks," Lily said.
"Oh, is that so? I was so caught up in thought that I didn’t see you, sorry," Zemir said.
"Oh, it’s fine. As long as our paper wasn’t touched by anyone," Lily walked over and said.
"I did move it a few times." Of course, Zemir couldn’t say he hadn’t touched it, as he definitely had.
"Ah, that’s fine, just touching it won’t spoil it, as long as it hadn’t been stolen. After all, this thing is very complex!" Sasa came over, waving her hand, and a highly complex multi-layered formula appeared on the paper. Then Sasa waved her hand again, and even more formulas appeared above the multi-layered formulas!
"Haha, a three-layer composite formula, beautiful, isn’t it?" Sasa said happily.
There was yet another layer!
Zemir couldn’t have imagined that such a plain piece of paper could hide so many secrets! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please drop by qidian.com to cast your recommendation and monthly vote. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
