Zombie Bodyguard

Chapter 1899 - 1896: How Does a Top Student Navigate the Formation?

"Why hurry? Let me check on the Heavenly Tribulation Sword first," Lin Tian didn’t rush to leave; he had long been looking forward to seeing the results after enduring so much thunderbolt energy, there had to be some gains.

Since this was the Zhang Family, naturally he couldn’t openly bring out the Heavenly Tribulation Sword. Lin Tian activated his super vision again, focusing his gaze on the metal wristband.

First, he saw that there were some peculiar patterns added to the metal wristband, resembling lightning, some kind of hieroglyph, or more like ancient runes.

This change in appearance must have resulted from absorbing thunderbolt energy, as these patterns didn’t exist before. However, Lin Tian wanted more than just a change in appearance; he needed an internal enhancement.

His penetrating gaze went deeper into the wristband’s interior, which was in a state of chaos; seemingly empty, yet full of things. It was Lin Tian’s first time using vision on the Heavenly Tribulation Sword, and he wasn’t sure what this situation meant.

Suddenly, a purple flame appeared from the chaos, traversing incessantly within it. Right after, a purple light flashed through, jumping continuously in the chaos like a purple electric sprite, elusive to be captured.

Is this...? Lin Tian’s mind sparked, instantly recognizing their aura; the purple flame represented fire power, and the purple light represented lightning. The purple flame and light traversed incessantly, sometimes colliding, sometimes separating, each collision triggering wondrous changes within the chaos.

Lin Tian couldn’t find words to describe these changes, but he could indeed feel them vividly.

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Lin Tian couldn’t say for sure; when it came to sword forging, he was a complete novice, even less knowledgeable than the Sword Spirit.

"Well, it should be a good thing. I can feel that the Heavenly Tribulation Sword is indeed enhanced, maybe you’ll be able to fly with it in the future," the Sword Spirit thought for a moment and said.

"Why don’t you test the sword’s power on the camphor tree, master?" the Sword Spirit suggested clumsily.

"Testing the sword is necessary, but not here. Wait until I acquire Jiang Chen’s Body for Xu Feibai and leave the Zhang Family. I always have this strange feeling, like there are eyes watching me, it’s very uncomfortable," Lin Tian said rather uncertainly.

And the "eyes" Lin Tian spoke of were actually two pairs; Zhang Ruyan and Zhang Heyuan still looked perplexed, the old man scratched his head, remarking, "Has Lin Tian been struck dumb, standing there motionless?"

"Humph, if he has been struck dumb, think about how you’ll explain it to that girl Lingyu!" Zhang Ruyan snorted, not giving the old man a pleasant expression.

The old man felt awkward for a moment, not knowing what to say; his eyes suddenly brightened as Lin Tian finally moved, refocusing their eyes back on him. Lin Tian wasn’t climbing trees anymore, but started wandering around the courtyard.

"Hehe, now the kid is thinking of finding an exit," Zhang Heyuan chuckled, then glanced at Zhang Ruyan and said with a laugh, "How about we place a bet, on whether he can find the exit or how long it’ll take him."

"Not interested. Him finding the exit doesn’t concern me," Zhang Ruyan replied indifferently, not even lifting her eyelids.

"Place a bet, it’s boring just watching like this," Zhang Heyuan seemed used to Zhang Ruyan’s cold demeanor, still smiling: "Whoever loses owes the other a favor, how about it?"

Zhang Ruyan’s eyes flickered slightly before she finally raised her head: "There are multiple exits to the maze formation, I bet he... finds one within an hour."

"An hour?" Zhang Heyuan’s eyes widened, raising his voice: "You must be kidding, it took you half a day to pass through when you first broke into it; it was already a family record, only Lingyu later matched you."

"However, you must understand, you and Lingyu were familiar with the family’s various formations from a young age, with excellent talent, enabling you to break through quickly. Lin Tian, an outsider unfamiliar with formations, is not even knowledgeable of basic formation knowledge; it’s lucky if he can exit the formation, let alone within an hour!"

Zhang Heyuan completely disagreed with Zhang Ruyan’s words, speaking quite excitedly, understandably as he himself took longer than Zhang Ruyan to clear the formation.

Zhang Ruyan gently brushed the silver-white strands beside her ear, calm and composed: "If you didn’t have expectations for Lin Tian, would you be wasting your time standing here?"

The old man paused for a moment, then nodded: "Alright, let’s go with your bet, don’t renege when you lose." Zhang Ruyan refocused her gaze on the cauldron, not even responding to the topic of reneging.

In the courtyard, Lin Tian circled a few times before stopping at the east Eight Diagrams Gate, the Sword Spirit promptly said: "Master, didn’t you enter from this gate before?"

Lin Tian didn’t answer the question but smiled faintly: "Do you know what permutation and combination is, or mathematical logic?"

"I don’t know," the Sword Spirit replied, confused.

"I’m not proficient in formations, but I know formations originate from Yijing Bagua, River Map, Luo Book; these are the intellectual crystallizations of Huaxia people, concealing extremely profound mathematical logic."

"The mathematical logic researched by modern people was already displayed in another form by ancient Huaxia. For example, the magic square recorded in River Map and Luo Book, where in a sequence matrix, the sum of numbers on any row, column, or diagonal are equal; such a property diagram is called a magic square."

"Magic squares include perfect magic squares and higher magic squares, although this is too complicated for you. Back to this maze formation, it definitely originates from Yijing Bagua, River Map, Luo Book, the maze is composed of courtyards, each with four gates."

"Each gate must connect to certain courtyards, involving permutations and combinations in mathematics, much like Go, where the combination of pieces can produce vast changes, changes that a supercomputer could calculate for hundreds of years without completion."

"Certainly, the Zhang Family’s maze doesn’t have such vast permutations because their land isn’t large enough for so many courtyards. Even with enough land, they can’t create Go-like massive permutations; if they could, they would be divine, which they are evidently not."

"As long as the maze’s permutations are limited, I can use exhaustive algorithms to find the correct path. The Zhang Family members also have to pass through this maze, hence, I can find the exit without exhausting all paths."

"I just need to walk randomly, mark the courtyards and gates I’ve traversed, then construct a model map in my mind and eventually find the exit," Lin Tian said confidently.

The Sword Spirit understood partially and asked doubtfully: "The theory I don’t quite understand, but this exhaustive algorithm requires potent memory and might take much time, right?"

"Memory?" Lin Tian chuckled, answering softly: "Memory is not my lacking point, plus if I move quickly, I won’t spend much time; memory, speed—I have both!"