Chapter 42 – No Need to Know the Height and Thickness of Heaven and Earth
Bang!
Huge stacks of scrolls came crashing down.
The documents rose from the ground, piling up like mountains.
Lu Jing opened one of them with a trembling hand.
With just one glance, he was assaulted by the sight of circles, squares, and densely packed calculations. His eyes immediately ached, his head spun, and his stomach churned.
“This… this is…” Lu Jing snapped the scroll shut with a smack and shot to his feet. “What the hell is this stuff?”
“The Sun and Moon Record Tables.”
Zuo Yuesheng explained while fanning himself with his hand.
“They record the length and angle of the sun’s shadow in the morning, noon, and evening during each solar term of the year, as well as the moon’s shadow. These are from Ru City, and the surrounding seven… eight… however many cities it was.”
“Didn’t we say we were going to investigate the celestial orbit, get justice, and see which bastard dared to plot against them?” Lu Jing asked, his face a mask of horror. “Why are we messing with this deadly stuff?”
He had a very bad feeling.
Right now, they were all on the Heavenly Snow Flying Ark.
Driven by some complex emotions, they had repaired the teleportation array and left right after the sunrise and rainfall in Ru City. The array had transported them to the Southern Underworld, the location of the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s main headquarters in the southeast of Qing Province. The Southern Underworld wasn’t a single city but a general term for the region where the main pavilion was located, encompassing dozens of cities directly under the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s control.
After entering the Southern Underworld, they still had to travel for two more days by flying boat to reach Qiwu, the “land of sunset” that Zuo Yuesheng had mentioned.
Only upon reaching Qiwu would they have truly arrived at the main pavilion of the Mountain Sea Pavilion.
After boarding the flying boat, Zuo Yuesheng had gathered everyone and announced, “The operation to investigate the celestial orbit has officially begun!”
“We’re messing with this stuff to investigate the celestial orbit,” Zuo Yuesheng retorted matter-of-factly. “How else did you think we were going to do it?”
“How to… uh… isn’t it…”
Lu Jing stammered, then asked tentatively.
“…by kicking down doors with a saber?”
This was the essence he had distilled from years of reading tales.
—Isn’t that how all the stories go? A certain hero sees an injustice and draws his saber to help.
“Ah, Lu Shiyi, this is where you’re lacking,” Zuo Yuesheng said with great enthusiasm. “Before a great hero draws his saber to help, there’s definitely an investigation process, right? The storyteller in the tavern or teahouse isn’t going to tell you in painstaking detail how many times the hero had to squat by a wall or eavesdrop on pillow talk to find the real culprit, is he?”
Lu Jing was speechless.
He had never actually considered that.
In fact, after his heroic declaration to “investigate the celestial orbit,” his mind had been filled with images of immediately drawing his saber, kicking down the gates of Kongsang, fighting the Taiyu Clan for three hundred rounds, and finally beheading their leaders and slaughtering their dogs.
“That’s where you’re wrong!” Zuo Yuesheng slapped his shoulder forcefully. “Investigating the celestial orbit is a troublesome job. Although we all know the orbit was altered by that bunch of bastards from the Taiyu Clan, we need evidence before we can kick down their door.”
“See!”
With that, Zuo Yuesheng gestured toward the vast sea of Sun and Moon Record Tables.
“That bunch of bastards from the Kongsang Hundred Clans never published the specific details of the sun and moon’s orbit. We have to use the `Celestial Calculation` and the Sun and Moon Record Tables to calculate the original trajectories of the sun and moon in the Ru City area. Only after proving that Ru City was supposed to have rain and sun can we say they altered the orbits. After that, with a little more effort, we might be able to calculate the angle of deviation of Ru City’s celestial orbit and trace it back to a specific region… That way, when we kick down their door to investigate, we won’t be fooled by those bastards from the Hundred Clans. Otherwise, even if the Hundred Clans opened up the Time-Year Plate on the Fusang Tree, it would be useless if we couldn’t understand it, right?”
“And we’re supposed to calculate all this with just the few of us…”
Lu Jing’s voice was as thin as a thread.
“Of course—not,” Zuo Yuesheng said with a nonchalant expression. “Once we get to the Mountain Sea Pavilion, we can have our elders do the calculations… But, well, there’s a problem. Back then, the Hundred Clans were forced by the immortal sects to publish the `Celestial Calculation`, and they did so reluctantly. They wrote the formulas to be as difficult to understand as possible. Plus, observing the sun and moon’s shadows is incredibly complicated, so the only ones who can understand the celestial orbit are a bunch of old, stubborn geezers… and then… and then, uh…”
Lu Jing understood.
—As a fellow profligate, he had rich experience with the Medicine Valley elders giving him the “out of sight, out of mind” treatment.
Based on Fatty Zuo’s past behavior, those elders probably didn’t have much respect for their Young Pavilion Master… If Zuo Yuesheng went directly to them and asked them to calculate the celestial orbit, he likely wouldn’t be met with a pleasant reception. And considering the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s attitude toward the Ru City affair for the past hundred years…
Nine times out of ten, they would dismiss it as the reckless nonsense of a young brat who didn’t know his place.
Classmate Zuo Yueban had been shameless for so many years and caused so much trouble that he had long grown accustomed to this “well-deserved” treatment.
But this time was different.
This time, it wasn’t just Zuo Yuesheng who wanted to investigate the celestial orbit, but the Young Pavilion Master.
Zuo Yuesheng could be dismissed as a child fooling around, but the Young Pavilion Master could not, because he now carried the trust of an entire city.
Besides.
Before, when Zhou Ziyan was still around and Elder Tao Rong was still his teacher, the Mountain Sea Pavilion had done nothing. This time, a few profligate scoundrels—Lu Jing was self-aware enough about their reputation—were declaring they would calculate the celestial orbit… It sounded like a joke. No one would take it seriously, right?
“If they won’t help, they won’t help. Who cares,” Lu Jing muttered as he sat down. “We can calculate it ourselves.”
He sat down and opened the `Celestial Calculation`.
A moment later.
Lu Jing snapped the book shut again with a smack, his face looking as if he’d seen a ghost. “What the hell is this? Can a human being actually understand this?”
Could they really calculate the celestial orbit?!
“Are you saying I’m not human?”
The door to the flying boat’s compartment slid open.
Chou Bodeng stood at the entrance, a soft, silk-embroidered cushion in each hand, radiating the low pressure of someone who had just woken up. His dark eyes stared at Lu Jing.
Lu Jing… Lu Jing was even more terrified.
Chou Bodeng sauntered in lazily, tossed the cushions onto a soft couch, and then collapsed onto it as if he had no bones. He threw a piece of paper covered in formulas to Zuo Yuesheng, then pulled out a paper fan from somewhere, opened it with a shua, and covered his face. “You guys calculate the angles of the sun and moon’s orbits according to this first. Report the results to me when you’re done.”
Lu Jing creaked his head around to look at Zuo Yuesheng and mouthed a question:
—Can Young Master Chou really understand this stuff?
Zuo Yuesheng nodded affirmatively.
Lou Jiang, who had come in with Zuo Yuesheng, walked woodenly to another table in the room, sat down woodenly, and woodenly opened a Sun and Moon Record Table… Lu Jing shot Zuo Yuesheng a look, asking him what was wrong.
Zuo Yuesheng shrugged and whispered, “He’s taken a hit.”
Yes…
Although Lou Jiang was very reluctant to believe it, the fact was that among their group, the one who could understand the `Celestial Calculation` was not him, nor was it Monk Budu! It was Chou Bodeng! The pride of the current number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion had suffered an unprecedented blow.
“Amitabha, how virtuous, how virtuous.”
Monk Budu followed them in.
“Why is this bald donkey here too?” Lu Jing turned to Zuo Yuesheng. “This guy disappeared after the array broke that day. His whereabouts are suspicious. He should be locked up and interrogated under torture!”
“Amitabha,” Monk Budu said with his palms pressed together. “Benefactor Lu, this humble monk is currently employed to help with the calculations. For each volume calculated, the reward is three hundred taels of silver.”
Hearing him mention “a reward of three hundred taels of silver,” Zuo Yuesheng felt a pang of pain.
He couldn’t help it. Although Monk Budu couldn’t understand the `Celestial Calculation`, this bald donkey with his famous saying “Three Crossings and Three Non-Crossings” had arithmetic skills second only to his own. He was the best helper he could find at the moment…
“Calculate, then. Just calculate.”
Zuo Yuesheng felt helpless, feeling that the start of his grand heroic journey was fraught with setbacks.
There was Chou Bodeng, the flower of Taiyi, who would lie down if he could sit, and sit if he could stand. There was Lou Jiang, a somewhat reliable genius from his own pavilion. There was Lu Shiyi from Medicine Valley, whose life-saving skills were as watered-down as his cultivation. And there was this mysterious, money-grubbing bald donkey whose Buddha wouldn’t save the poor…
The poor, magnificent Young Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, preparing to do something big for the first time, could only assemble such a “spectacularly diverse” team.
Oh, and there was originally Ye Cang.
But that kid Ye Cang wasn’t very bright; he couldn’t even do addition and subtraction properly. He was kicked out of the orbit-calculating team and thrown onto the deck of the flying boat to practice his saber.
The clattering of abacuses filled the slightly cramped room, now stuffed with five people.
“The sun follows the second track, moves one degree; the moon moves eleven and three-nineteenths degrees…”
“Pass.”
“The sun follows the third track, north to the eastern green… the moon moves twelve degrees…”
“Pass.”
“The sun follows…”
“The degree is off. Record it.”
Chou Bodeng propped his head on one hand and lazily waved a feather fan with the other, lying bonelessly on the soft couch. A Phoenix Feather Cloak was draped over his shoulders as he languidly closed his eyes, occasionally issuing commands of “Pass” and “Record it” as if he were pronouncing life and death.
The other four were buried in mountain-high scrolls, one hand flipping through pages with a rustle, the other hand clattering the abacus beads, rapidly reporting tracks, degrees, and minutes. At first, they were worried that with four people calculating at once, Chou Bodeng wouldn’t be able to keep up. But as it turned out, Chou Bodeng was the most relaxed of them all.
—As his sleepiness gradually dissipated, he even found some melon seeds and started cracking them while he checked their work.
“The sun follows the second track, moves one degree…”
“Pass.”
In the next room.
Elder Tao listened silently to the sounds coming from the other side, the pipe in his hand long since extinguished. He closed his eyes, remembering what Zuo Yuesheng had said when he came to him alone to ask for the `Celestial Calculation`:
“Investigating the celestial orbit isn’t just for Ru City, it’s for the Mountain Sea Pavilion.”
“The sun and moon of Ru City have been altered for a hundred years, and the Mountain Sea Pavilion hasn’t said a word. That means the Hundred Clans will dare to alter a second city, a third… a city today, a city tomorrow. In a hundred years, a thousand years, how many cities will the Mountain Sea Pavilion have left?”
“If anyone can just casually alter the sun and moon of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, and if the Mountain Sea Pavilion continues to act like a coward, who will dare to believe in my Mountain Sea Pavilion in the future? Who will dare to join my Mountain Sea Pavilion?”
The clatter of abacus beads was as urgent as rain, and amidst the flying papers, the young men buried their heads in their bitter calculations.
The numbers were tedious, the celestial orbit long and slow.
***
Mountain Sea Pavilion main headquarters, Sea-Gazing Tower.
A middle-aged man in blue robes sat quietly by a low table, as if waiting for someone. The sound of the tide in the sea breeze was immense, coming and going in endless cycles.
Clack.
A saber with a black sheath and golden guard was placed heavily on the low table. The guard collided with the tabletop, making a clear sound.
“I’m glad it wasn’t placed directly on my neck.” The blue-robed man rubbed his nose, looking rather relieved. Anyone who saw his reaction would probably be very surprised—because he was the Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, Zuo Liangshi. “Not everyone can withstand the Gold-Inlaid Saber.”
“Then you should be glad that our Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor is alright.”
The newcomer was dressed in simple hemp clothes, with a gaunt face and a sparse goatee. He looked nothing like an “immortal of noble bearing” and was just a shabby old man. He even had a large wine gourd hanging from his waist… he was actually a drunkard.
“Otherwise, it wouldn’t just be me who came.”
Zuo Liangshi gave a bitter smile.
If anyone else had said that, it might not have been credible.
But the madmen of the Taiyi Sect…
Forget it, it was better not to think about it.
“I thought you would have arrived yesterday,” Zuo Liangshi said, filling a cup with wine for him. “Why are you a day late?”
“I made a trip to the Northeast Corner.”
The man in hemp clothes pushed the wine cup away and grabbed the wine pot directly, guzzling down a large mouthful without any ceremony. If Chou Bodeng were here, he would recognize this person as the Elder Jun whose phoenix tail he had burned.
The Taiyi First Saber, Jun Changwei of the Gold-Inlaid Saber.
“What were you doing in the Northeast Corner?” Zuo Liangshi frowned. “That’s the territory of the Hundred Clans. Don’t tell me your Taiyi Sect wants to start a fight with the Hundred Clans right now.”
“I verified a guess.”
Jun Changwei put down the wine gourd and looked directly into Zuo Liangshi’s eyes.
“Don’t you find it strange? The Hundred Clans used to be lackeys of Heaven Beyond Heaven, but they were never as obedient as they are now, doing whatever they’re told. Such a major event as the southern expedition against the Witch Clan, and the Hundred Clans agreed in just a few days, mobilizing with astonishing speed.”
“I thought it had something to do with him…” Zuo Liangshi had a headache. “He’s only been down the mountain for a few days, and he’s only been to two cities, and both cities had incidents.”
The thought that this person would soon be arriving at the main pavilion of the Mountain Sea Pavilion made Zuo Liangshi feel inexplicably nervous.
“…It is somewhat related,” Jun Changwei said calmly. “Or rather, because of the anomaly in the Northeast Corner, those guys from the Hundred Clans are now like wild dogs that have smelled blood, crazily circling and baring their teeth.”
Zuo Liangshi thought to himself, do you people from the Taiyi Sect have the right to call others “crazy”?
But he looked at the Gold-Inlaid Saber on the low table and didn’t say it out loud.
“I always feel that every time I see someone from your Taiyi Sect, there’s some earth-shattering event waiting ahead.” Zuo Liangshi took a deep breath. “I’m prepared… go on. What happened in the Northeast Corner? Why have the Hundred Clans gone crazy? And why is someone in such a hurry to kill him now?”
Jun Changwei did not disappoint his mental preparations at all. He simply dropped a bombshell that made Zuo Liangshi jump to his feet.
“What?!”
“The celestial orbit is out of control? Are you sure?!”