The Latecomer Takes the Lead

Ever since character-splitting couplets came into being, they had counted among the first-class challenges of paired lines.

One had to split characters, keep the lines balanced, and preserve their artistic conception. Given time to ponder carefully, it might still be manageable, but with a time limit added, it became an extreme test of wit.

Cui Yunqi could not help thinking, If it were me, how long would I need to compose the matching line?

Yes, there was a time limit for answering questions in Scoop the Moon.

The Jade Plate-like Moonlight Sprite spiraled lightly over the lake, giggling. "Chen Xu, you only have ten breaths. If you cannot answer within ten breaths, it counts as a wrong answer."

Ten breaths!

Chen Xu felt his scalp tingle. Before he had begun Scoop the Moon, the little sprite had never said there would be a time limit.

At that moment, he instinctively glanced at the Cauldron Scripture.

On the heavenly book's panel, his Likes had been increasing in scattered increments.

The current data was:

[Accumulated Likes: 613]

[Free Attribute Point: 16]

[Firework Value: 256]

Although he had previously spent two Free Attribute Points, his remaining points had increased rather than decreased.

Chen Xu could add several more attribute points to his Divine Soul at any time, using the sudden surge in points to greatly improve his thinking efficiency in a short span of time.

But was that reasonable?

These attribute points, once added to his body, had permanent effects.

Chen Xu's Divine Soul attribute had already reached 26 points, more than double his initial attribute!

Logically speaking, with such an enormous increase in Divine Soul, his mental abilities should have far surpassed what they once were—perhaps even reaching an extraordinary level.

Take Vital Blood as an example. Chen Xu's Vital Blood had now reached 24 points, allowing him to split bamboo with his bare hands and leave the broken edges smooth.

His strength was at least two or three times greater than before, and when he used the Wood Chopping Saber Technique, his power ran deep and long, his endurance abundant.

Yet regarding Divine Soul, the substantive changes brought by the increased attribute were not all that obvious.

On careful thought, perhaps the vast difference came first from Vital Blood being easier than Divine Soul to understand and grasp, and second from Chen Xu having learned the Wood Chopping Saber Technique. Through that saber technique, he had truly gained control over his own strength.

To a certain extent, he had genuinely understood what Vital Blood was!

Then what was Divine Soul? Did he understand it?

Chen Xu recalled all that he had experienced while learning Fire Control. When his mind settled, he had vaguely seemed to sense a mysterious power surging and pulsing between his brows.

When heart joined intent, and breath joined essence.

Thus, see the treasures within one's body, and take command of the treasures within one's body!

Chen Xu suddenly felt as if he had caught that glimmer of spiritual light within his soul.

In an instant, the heart could race a thousand miles; in a moment, it could hold hundreds of millions of thoughts.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

In reality, just as the Jade Plate counted to the sixth breath, Chen Xu suddenly raised his eyes and said, "Where water has insects, it turns turbid; where water has fish, it becomes fishing. Water, water, water—the rivers, streams, lakes, vast and boundless. My matching line is..."

"Below wood lies root; above wood lies tip. Wood, wood, wood—the pines, cypresses, camphor trees, a dense forest."

After finishing, he frowned.

He sighed inwardly, feeling that although his matching line could be called balanced, its artistic conception still fell somewhat short.

Behind him, however, cold sweat streamed down Cui Yunqi's face.

Within six breaths, he too had thought of using wood as the basis for splitting the characters.

But what he had devised was not as balanced as Chen Xu's. He had only managed half a line: "Without wind, wood withers; wood growing with a ghost becomes a locust tree. Wood, wood, wood..."

Before he could think of the second half, Chen Xu had already answered successfully.

Chen Xu took another step forward, bent down again, and scooped up another little moon.

Cold sweat poured from Cui Yunqi. Suddenly gritting his teeth, he reached into his sleeve pouch, took out a tiny pill, and swallowed it in one gulp.

His father's instructions surfaced in his mind. "Yunqi, when you go to Jichuan, based on my understanding of that old friend, if you are not the most outstanding one, he will certainly refuse to see you.

"But our Cui family needs him. We need you to meet him. The situation is turbulent now. Evil Path practitioners appear everywhere, while demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends wreak havoc all around. The chaotic age predicted forty years ago by that Great Confucian may be about to arrive!

"Your little aunt is facing many hardships in the palace as well. He, Zhou... he is not in Yujing, yet he has gone south to Jichuan. There must be something suspicious about this."

When Cui Yunqi had set out, he had been brimming with confidence and said proudly, "Father, in mere Jichuan, what younger generation could possibly compare to me?"

He had never believed that anyone could surpass him and meet Mr. Zhou.

He could never have imagined that some inexplicable, shabby scholar who knew not where he had emerged from would walk ahead of him.

As the pill entered Cui Yunqi's stomach, he immediately felt the essence and energy throughout his body boil. Amid the scorching heat was a strange, refreshing coolness that shot straight into his mind.

Cui Yunqi promptly bent down and scooped up a little moon.

Moonlight turned into four characters in his palm: "called to oppose people's."

Cui Yunqi furrowed his brow in thought. Before long, his exceptionally quick mind let him realize that this seemingly nonsensical line was actually a phrase from The Great Learning, stripped of its beginning and end: "This is called opposing people's nature."

This was a fill-in-the-blank question. It did not seem difficult, yet calling it simple would be wrong—the question had been set with real cunning.

Fortunately, Cui Yunqi had thought of the answer. He immediately said confidently, "This student answers: What good people hate, evil people like; what evil people hate, good people like—this is called opposing people's nature..."

After answering correctly, he stepped forward, then looked up again at Chen Xu ahead of him.

He saw that the shabbily dressed young man had somehow pulled a full thirteen steps ahead of him!

Clearly, Chen Xu had already been ten steps ahead of him, then had taken another three steps just now. He had now surpassed him by far.

But Cui Yunqi's confidence had returned. He muttered, "A gentleman conceals his tools within himself and waits for the right moment to act. The latecomer takes the lead! What are a mere dozen or so steps behind?"

With that, Cui Yunqi immediately bent down and scooped up another little moon.

This time, what he drew was another calculation problem.

Cui Yunqi rapidly calculated on his fingers, quickly obtained the correct answer, and took another step forward.

Chen Xu, ahead of him, had also just scooped up another moon. The moon became a line of text in his palm. This time, Chen Xu had also triggered a mathematics problem.

Yet upon seeing the problem, Chen Xu froze.

Because this was actually a...

It read: "Once, Grand Void Daoist forged the Yin Yang Twin Jades into pendants. The yang pendant resembled the Li Trigram, hollow within and square without, with a winding path hidden inside; the yin pendant was shaped like the Kan Trigram, its linked rings clasping one another, a nine-turn chain...

This seemed to be an 'artifact-refining problem'?

No, it was not.

Chen Xu continued reading carefully. "Yin and yang interweave; the two pendants overlap in intricate forms, naturally resembling a complete taiji embracing a circle. If one wishes to separate yin from yang without damaging the jade's quality or breaking the mechanism, how should it be solved?"

This—this was clearly a topology problem!

Topology in mathematics, the devilish branch of advanced mathematics.

Once upon a time, topology had been the nightmare of countless students. Though Chen Xu had been a science student in his previous life, he had feared topology too.

He had never imagined that topology would appear within the moons of a mythic world as well.

Just then, the familiar crisp, bright child's voice rang beside his ear again. "This problem accords with the Daoist principles of yin and yang and contains the path of cultivation. Mister said that whoever scoops up this question shall be granted a quarter of an hour."