Solving the Puzzle and Passing the Test (1)
The Ghost Shadow figure opposite in the An Hei changed his expression, slammed his folding fan shut, and said in a ghostly voice, "Young man, you'd better think this through. If you can't answer or answer incorrectly, I will extract a part of your soul and spirit, and you will have to stay here until you answer this question."
Upon hearing this, Li Wei was furious. He thought to himself, "What kind of ghost is this? It's so domineering! If you can't answer the question, you'll lose a soul or a spirit. What kind of logic is this?"
Seemingly anticipating Li Wei's thoughts, An Hei said without turning his head, "Don't be impulsive, and definitely don't attack it. Otherwise, you'll turn into a mindless idiot. Just look at those guys around you with their blank stares. To reach the final level, you have to answer the ten questions posed by the Book Immortal."
Upon hearing An Hei's words, Li Wei withdrew half of his true energy. At the same time, he thought to himself how close he had come to disaster. No wonder even someone like the Ghost King was trapped here. He must have had a part of his soul and spirit extracted because he couldn't answer the question, which is why he looked so lost.
The others were the same, and those with blank stares, like dead men, probably didn't believe in the evil spirits and wanted to use force to get through, which is why they got themselves into trouble.
Then the ghostly scholar gave a sinister laugh, seemingly in disbelief, and said coldly, "My eighth question is a riddle in poetry, created by a woman: 'Lowering the beaded curtain, I burn incense to divine the future. I ask Heaven, to whom has my beloved fallen? I hate that my beloved has no true feelings, yet I cannot give up. I will suppress my words! Our friendship is not bad, but stained black, I cannot utter a single clear word. Clearly a perfect pair of lovers, yet they were cut apart by a knife. I am left exhausted and weary. Upon reflection, both my words and my heart are false.' Well, since you have the answer, then tell me!"
The ghostly scholar stared intently into the An Hei with his eerie eyes, seemingly completely disbelieving that the other party could guess the answer to the riddle.
Before An Hei could speak, Li Wei's head exploded. He thought to himself, "What the hell is this riddle? It's too difficult!" Just from the poem, it seemed to be a poem of heartbreak. It read fairly smoothly, but Li Wei knew that he could at most appreciate the poem and experience its meaning. But to guess the answer hidden in the poem would be less satisfying than killing himself.
Even he himself found the poem riddle completely baffling; could An Hei possibly solve it?
Li Wei expressed deep skepticism about this.
If An Hei couldn't answer, wouldn't he also have a soul and spirit extracted? Thinking of this, Li Wei felt inexplicably nervous and quickly focused his attention on An Hei.
Faced with the ghost scholar's sneer, An Hei said in a deep voice, "This poem looks like a woman's unfeeling words. In fact, each sentence contains a number, and the ten sentences are written from one to ten. The first sentence: burn incense under the bead curtain to perform divination, and remove the "div" from "" to get "one"; the second sentence: Ask the sky, whose home will Nong's son fall into?, "Heaven" The missing word "" means ""; the third sentence: I hate Wang Lang without any sincerity,"" and "" are "three"; the fourth sentence: I can't stop, "stop" removes "neng" and it is "four"; the fifth sentence: I press my mouth, and "I" is gone, the mouth is "five"; the sixth sentence: The friendship between words is not bad, "bad" means "" ", "Jiao" is removed from "", which is "six"; the seventh sentence: It is difficult to speak an innocent word when it is dyed into soap, and the white color is removed when it is dyed black (soap: black), "zao" is removed from "white", which is "seven"; the eighth sentence: It is clear that a pair of good mandarin ducks were cut off by a knife, and "fen" cut off the lower part is "eight"; the ninth sentence: The slave was exhausted and his hands were exhausted, " "Throw" without the hand (touch) is "nine"; the tenth sentence: If you think about it carefully, both the mouth and the heart are false, and "thinking" without the "mouth" and "heart" is "ten". A total of ten numbers from one to ten are cleverly arranged in a love poem with excellent words and easy to understand. It is indeed very clever, but I don't know, am I right?"
His An Hei, inky eyes were fixed on the Book Immortal opposite him as he spoke, his voice unusually calm, while the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, clearly indicating his extreme confidence in his answer.
"Great!" Li Wei exclaimed. If he was completely baffled by the riddle at first, An Hei's explanation made him feel like the clouds had parted and the sun had been shrouded in darkness. Without a doubt, An Hei had answered the question An Hei. Li Wei had to give An Hei a thumbs up, thinking to himself that this kid was amazing. He could even answer such a difficult and obscure riddle fluently. If it were him, he definitely wouldn't have been able to answer it.
The ghostly scholar, also known as the Book Immortal, looked astonished, clearly not expecting the other party to be able to answer such a difficult riddle. His expression clearly told An Hei that he had answered the question correctly.
"Good, you're not bad, you're very good. I've been here for a hundred years, and you're the first person to answer the eighth question. Just like I said before, as long as you answer the last two questions, I will open the passage to the next level."
The Book Immortal's expression was extremely hostile. With a wave of his ghostly hand, a pile of things appeared on the stone platform. Upon closer inspection, they were twelve cloth bags, bulging and clearly full. Besides the bags, there was also a scale used by a vendor to weigh the items. The Book Immortal then said coldly, "This is the ninth question. Here are twelve bags, each containing gold beads of the same size. However, one bag contains fake gold beads..."
An Hei stood up and opened the twelve bags. Sure enough, each bag was filled with gold beads, hundreds of them in each bag. However, with the naked eye, it was impossible to tell which bag contained fake gold.
Seeing this, the Book Immortal revealed a triumphant smile and said, "There is only one way to distinguish between real and fake gold beads, and that is by weight. A real gold bead weighs twelve zhu, while a fake one is lighter, but still weighs ten zhu. All you have to do is use that scale over there to find that bag of fake gold beads for me!"
Hearing this, An Hei breathed a sigh of relief, and Li Wei roughly understood what the Book Immortal meant. The 'zhu' mentioned by the Book Immortal was an ancient unit of weight. Li Wei knew that 24 zhu weighed one liang, and 16 liang weighed one jin. Knowing that a real gold bead was 2 zhu heavier than a fake one was enough.
With that scale, you can simply take one gold bead from each bag and weigh them one by one to find the fake one. Could there be anything simpler than that?
Thinking of this, Li Wei felt relieved, realizing that the question was far too easy. However, the Book Immortal then let out a cold laugh.
Both An Hei and Li Wei felt a chill run down their spines upon seeing this.
"I want you to use that scale to find the fake gold. Do you think you can find it by weighing it twelve times at most? Do you think it's that simple?" The Book Immortal laughed wildly, and his expression made Li Wei want to punch him hard.
"The ninth question requires you to find the bag of fake gold beads in only one weighing, and you have only one incense stick's time. How about it, can you do it?" The Book Immortal said, a wicked glint in his eyes.
Only one weighing allowed? And a time limit?
Li Wei was immediately taken aback; this was indeed a difficult problem. Of the twelve bags of gold beads, only one was fake, and apart from the weight, it was impossible to distinguish between the real and fake. And because there were twelve bags, the probability of finding the fake gold beads in one weighing was one in twelve, which was an extremely small probability.
So what should we do?
Li Wei was thinking, and so was An Hei. The Book Immortal sat on the ground with a smug look on his face. Before this, the Book Immortal had prepared a lit incense stick. Time passed by, and the smile on the Book Immortal's face grew wider, while An Hei frowned, clearly still thinking of a solution.
Sometimes a minute feels like an eternity, while other times it passes in the blink of an eye. The incense had almost burned out, and An Hei still hadn't come up with a way to find the fake gold bead with just one weighing.
Li Wei was frantically scratching his head in frustration, but the more anxious he became, the less he could think of a solution. Especially since Li Wei firmly believed that An Hei was smarter than him; if even An Hei was powerless, what could he do?
Finally, the incense stick burned to the bottom and would go out in a moment. An Hei's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of a way. However, the incense stick went out first, and An Hei's expression changed. He wanted to say something, but two streams of light suddenly shot out from his body and entered a book under the feet of the Book Immortal.
"What a pity, you failed!"
The fairy in the book revealed a happy expression, but when he looked at An Hei, his eyes were glazed over, and he stood there motionless, just like Xue Yannina and the others.
Seeing this, Li Wei's expression changed drastically. He thought to himself, "Is this what it looks like after one's soul and spirit have been taken away? No wonder even a being as powerful as the Ghost King fell victim to this." In this Book Immortal cannot be attacked, and those who cannot answer the questions will have their souls forcibly taken away. There is no difference between the strong and the weak here. In this trial, only those who can answer the questions are considered strong.
After absorbing the An Hei soul, the Book Immortal looked smug and made a move to return to the ancient book. Li Wei, seeing this, couldn't let it leave and quickly stopped it. If this guy ran away, wouldn't all of them be doomed?
"What, you want to answer the questions too?" The Book Immortal glanced at Li Wei after hearing Li Wei obstruction, and asked with interest.
Li Wei nodded. What could he say at this point? If he could kill this Book Immortal with a single palm strike, that would be ideal, but he couldn't. He had no choice but to follow the rules of the game.
"Alright, just like them, if you can answer the remaining two questions, I will let you pass through here. If you fail, I will take one of your souls and one of your spirits. Do you agree?" the immortal in the Book Immortal asked in a deep voice.
"I have one more condition!" Li Wei hurriedly said, "If I lose, you may take all my souls, but if I am fortunate enough to win, please return all their souls."
"This!" The Book Immortal hesitated, but was also tempted. To be able to collect a person's entire soul was quite a feat for him.
Seemingly extremely confident in his answer, the Book Immortal finally gritted his teeth as if making a firm decision and said, "Alright, I agree!"
And so, the rules were set.
"Then, I'll give you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to answer this ninth question!" the Book Immortal said confidently. He seemed convinced that Li Wei could not possibly find the bag of fake gold beads after only one weighing.
Li Wei's next action greatly surprised the Book Immortal. Li Wei waved his hand and shouted, "I've thought of a way!"