In the blink of an eye, the morning was over.
At noon, the elder who was giving the lecture told everyone to have lunch and rest.
During this time, if you have any questions about the knowledge taught in the morning, you can ask him.
Chen Mu naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass, and immediately asked several questions that had been bothering him for a long time.
" Elder Fang, since all things in heaven and earth are divided into the five elements, what is the connection between the five elements and space?"
Everything has two opposing sides. Between these opposing sides, is there chaos? And how should we understand this chaos?
Elder Fang was giving the lecture, was able to answer a few simple questions at first, but as Chen Mu asked more and more detailed questions, he eventually became speechless.
In terms of the level of a talisman master, he was indeed much higher than Chen Mu, but in terms of the principles of analyzing all things through runes, he was actually not much better than Chen Mu.
He could sense that Chen Mu wasn't asking questions blindly, but rather asking targeted questions after gaining some understanding. However, he had his own areas of expertise, and he genuinely didn't know the details of what Chen Mu was referring to.
"Ahem! Chen Mu! These questions of yours... to be honest, I haven't really investigated them in depth. If you really want to understand them, I suggest you consult Elder Ming."
" Elder Ming? He's an elder of the Talisman Rune Hall?"
"Yes! Elder Ming is the most knowledgeable person about runes in our Talisman Rune Hall."
Unfortunately, his Divine Soul was severely damaged years ago and has not improved at all in recent decades. Nowadays, no new disciples are willing to become his disciples, so he is too lazy to come here to give lectures.
"Then, Elder Fang, how can we find Elder Ming?"
Elder Fang took out a map from his storage ring, unfolded it, and pointed it out to Chen Mu.
"He lives in this location, but his temperament has become increasingly eccentric over the years. If he doesn't want to see you, you don't need to worry about it."
Seeing Chen Mu nod knowingly, Elder Fang put the map away.
"I can see that you have a deep understanding of the Five Elements Runes. This is a very complex field, and I don't think I can offer you much help in this area."
However, if you're willing, I can also take you as my disciple. I specialize in support runes, and many of the Rune Artifacts in the pavilion are my creations. You can come to me anytime if you're interested."
"Thank you for your appreciation, Elder Fang!"
Chen Mu bowed slightly to express his sincere gratitude.
After the two finished their conversation, Elder Fang continued his lecture, while Chen Mu thought for a while and decided to go find Elder Ming, whom Elder Fang had mentioned.
After a morning of learning, he realized how important it is to have a mentor. If he had a mentor who could answer his questions at any time, the learning efficiency would definitely be much higher than listening to lectures like this.
Following his memory, Chen Mu left the Talisman Rune Hall and headed towards the mountain where the elders lived.
Along the way, the mountains and rivers are beautiful and the scenery is pleasant. Cranes and mythical beasts often pass by, Heaven-Questioning Pavilion a truly blessed place.
More than an hour later, Chen Mu finally arrived at his destination, in front of a huge courtyard.
The courtyard gate was open, but the elders' residences here were protected by arrays, so Chen Mu dared not rush in. Instead, he bowed in front of the gate and shouted loudly.
"Disciple Chen Mu, introduced by Elder Fang, has come to pay respects to Elder Ming!"
Chen Mu shouted, but no one responded.
After a long while, Chen Mu had no other choice but to repeat what he had just said.
Boom!
This time there was finally a response; a huge wooden plank rose from the ground and blocked the entrance to the courtyard.
This is... chess?
Chen Mu examined the pattern on the wooden board closely and discovered that it was actually a chess endgame.
In an instant, he realized that this was a test from Elder Ming.
He frowned. Although he had played chess before, he wasn't exactly an expert, so he had no choice but to give it a try.
Bang!
He used his Divine Soul to move the chess pieces in the pattern in front of him.
Soon, the opposing chess pieces also moved.
Clang, clang, clang!
The chess game continued for over an hour, and finally, with a bang, Chen Mu's challenge on the chessboard failed, and the patterns on the board changed, returning to their original state.
He frowned, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
The prolonged Divine Soul battle had placed a tremendous strain on his Divine Soul, and he no longer knew whether he could sustain himself for the next game.
"Thank you for your Elder Ming! Please allow me to go back and think about it for a couple of days. I will definitely come to visit you again in a few days."
Chen Mu cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, then turned and left Elder Ming's courtyard.
On his way back to his residence, Chen Mu kept thinking about how to solve the problem. He had already figured out a solution, so he decided to go to the material exchange center.
The Material Exchange Center is where Heaven-Questioning Pavilion sells various Spiritual Power materials. Spirit Stone are not accepted here; instead, Heaven-Questioning Pavilion contribution points are required.
Of course, you can also exchange Spirit Stone for contribution points with the academy here, but the exchange rate is extremely low, so it's better to buy and sell contribution points privately with some disciples.
The academy doesn't interfere with the private trading of contribution points. After all, there's only so much contribution point; once you've used it, you have to contribute to the academy in exchange for resources.
However, the 10,000 contribution points Chen Mu had earned in the previous ranking competition were enough to exchange for quite a few things. He didn't spend the Spirit Stone, but instead made a large purchase, filling his storage ring to the brim, before returning to his residence.
That evening, Chen Mu was carefully adjusting a strange instrument he had just tinkered with.
Chen Mu gave this device a name: the Chess Position Solver.
It was built using the previous Multifunctional Analyzer as a framework, discarding the unnecessary functions and retaining only the core function of the simulation space.
In his previous life, Chen Mu had heard news of many chess masters being defeated by AI programs. He even searched for some of the algorithms used by chess programs and thus gained some understanding of them.
In fact, it is not difficult to create an intelligent program that can solve chess problems; computers are best at calculation.
For games like chess with fixed rules, once all the rules are input and converted into an algorithm, the computer can calculate all the possible outcomes and ultimately provide the solution.
However, there is a difficult bottleneck to overcome: every move in the game has countless possibilities, and with his current Rune Core No. 2, he is far from being able to calculate every single one.
Fortunately, Chen Mu is not trying to solve all the possible outcomes of chess, nor is he playing against someone; he is simply solving endgame puzzles.
Solving endgame puzzles is relatively much easier. They have far fewer variations, and with careful calculation, they can always be solved given enough time.
He rewrote the logic algorithm of the previous simulation space, changing it to the rules of a chess game, which reduced a lot of work.