Chapter 74: The Moment of Showing Off: The Prestige of the Sword Sect Chief

Shen Yan was leaning against the door of the alchemy room, the space ring on his right ring finger still glowing with a blue light, like a power bank that had just finished charging. He had just adjusted the last pill furnace dancing in the square back to its normal rhythm when a notice popped up on his phone screen: 【External spiritual pressure fluctuations approaching rapidly, hostile intent detected】.

Before he could put away his phone, a figure in dark robes had already arrived on a cloud, landing on the bluestone steps in front of the main hall of Medicine Valley. The hem of his robe fluttered, and his aura was imposing.

“Shen Yan.” The man’s voice was as cold as iron pulled from an ice cellar. “You have manipulated three hundred pill furnaces with mechanical arts, mass-producing pills and disrupting the order of cultivation. Do you admit your guilt?”

The Medicine Boy was so startled that his hand trembled, nearly dropping his abacus on his foot. Pei Yue walked over slowly from the side, standing next to Shen Yan, her brow slightly furrowed, but she did not speak.

Shen Yan, however, smiled, stuffed his phone into his pocket, and said lazily, “Oh, which department sent you to investigate me for tax evasion?”

The envoy’s expression darkened. “I am the Law Enforcer of Mystic Gate, sent by the Sect Master to question you. Relying on external objects and using programs to refine pills—isn’t this a departure from the true path? If everyone follows your example, won’t it lead to rampant artifice and the collapse of the orthodox way?”

“Orthodox way?” Shen Yan raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t Mystic Gate also use formations to assist in alchemy? Don’t you also emphasize stroke order when drawing talismans? How come my method is called ‘mechanical arts,’ while yours is called ‘Heavenly Dao enlightenment’? You’re quite skilled at double standards.”

The Law Enforcer snorted coldly. “Enough with your glib tongue! Today, I challenge you to a scholarly duel—using the Nine Chapters Algorithm to test your mental calculation skills. If you lose even one question, you must publicly destroy all your alchemy programs and never use such unorthodox methods again!”

Shen Yan tilted his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly grinned. “Fine, I’ll accept both scholarly and martial duels. But…” He paused, lightly tapping the tip of his finger on his phone screen. “I have a suggestion—let’s not compete on who calculates faster, but on who calculates more accurately and can optimize the algorithm. How about that?”

“Arrogant!” The Law Enforcer laughed in anger. “Good! I’ll make sure you lose convincingly! First question: There is an unknown number of objects. When counted in threes, two remain; when counted in fives, three remain; when counted in sevens, two remain. What is the number?”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Shen Yan pointed a finger, and a stream of golden code suddenly appeared in the air, cascading like a galaxy and rapidly arranging into a formation. The title read clearly: “Nine Chapters of Mathematics · Dynamic Optimization Edition.”

“The answer is twenty-three,” he reported casually, then added, “But your question is redundant. Actually, you could use the Chinese Remainder Theorem preprocessing module to reduce the calculation load by two-thirds. Want me to write an automatic solving function on the spot?”

The Law Enforcer’s pupils contracted.

Before he could react, the second question was already posed: “Chickens and rabbits are in the same cage. There are thirty-five heads and ninety-four legs. How many of each?”

“Twenty-three chickens, twelve rabbits.” Shen Yan didn’t even pause, but instead frowned. “Wait, there’s a problem with this data—rabbit legs are counted as four, but you didn’t consider mutated individuals. What about that three-legged Fire-Scaled Rabbit from the black market auction last month? Should we include it in the sample library? Let me add an outlier filtering module for you.”

Golden code cascaded through the air like a waterfall, not only providing the answer but also generating a statistical model with weighted analysis.

The Law Enforcer began to sweat on his forehead.

For the third question, gritting his teeth, he increased the difficulty: “Heavenly Mechanism Calculation·Jiazi Volume: Predict the gathering and dispersion of clouds over the Eastern Ridge at the third quarter of the hour of Chen tomorrow morning, requiring precision down to the inch and centimeter of the location!”

Shen Yan shrugged. “Your so-called ‘Heavenly Mechanism’ is actually just a low-level recursive prediction model.” As he spoke, he called up Medicine Valley’s thousand-year prescription database, combined it with Spiritual Energy tide records, and in the blink of an eye constructed a spacetime weather prediction system.

“Tomorrow at the third quarter of the hour of Chen, seven degrees south of east on the Eastern Ridge, one hundred zhang from the peak, Spiritual Rain will fall, lasting eleven minutes and three seconds. The raindrops will have an average diameter of 0.8 centimeters and contain trace amounts of wood-attribute Spiritual Energy, suitable for accelerating the growth of herbs below the third grade.” After reporting the data, he added, “Should I place an order for some spirit plant seeds now to catch the rain?”

As soon as his words fell, the distant sky suddenly darkened. A cloud formation indeed began to drift slowly toward the southeast, its trajectory exactly as he had described.

The Law Enforcer’s face turned deathly pale, and he abruptly raised his hand. “Stop! Such a Divine Skill is absolutely beyond human capability! It must be demonic sorcery!”

“Demonic sorcery?” Shen Yan turned off the projection and leisurely pulled out his Alchemy logbook. “Would you like to see the transaction records for these three thousand seven hundred orders? The temperature, Spiritual Energy concentration, and pill formation time for each batch are automatically generated, with error curves on file. You can go check. If I dare to falsify them, I’ll refund the money and discard the furnace.”

He handed the log to the Medicine Boy. “Take this for the esteemed official to review, and while you’re at it, brew me a cup of tea. I’m exhausted.”

The Medicine Boy tremblingly presented the booklet. The Law Enforcer flipped through a few pages, growing more and more alarmed with each one—the data was rigorous, the logic airtight, utterly flawless.

Three days later.

At the entrance to the Mystic Gate mountain, Sect Leader Bai Guizhen watched the competition recording and immediately overturned the table. He grabbed an abacus and smashed it fiercely on the ground, sending fragments flying everywhere.

“This isn’t Cultivation! This is cheating!” he roared like thunder. “What mental calculation of heavenly mysteries? It’s all calculated by that damned phone! He’s not a cultivator at all; he’s a human-shaped calculator!”

Meanwhile, in front of Medicine Valley’s main hall.

Shen Yan was leaning against a stone railing, munching on candied hawthorn. Pei Yue stood beside him, holding a bowl of freshly brewed calming soup.

“Have a sip?” she offered it to him.

“No, I’m quite energetic right now,” Shen Yan shook his phone. “Just received a System Notice—【Acting Cool Successful, Reward: Facial Immunity to Attacks Buff, Duration Seven Days】. From now on, anyone who wants to kill me with a glare will have to ask my Firewall for permission first.”

Pei Yue chuckled softly. “You’re now the first person in the entire Cultivation Realm to win a scholarly debate by writing Code.”

“Of course,” he raised his eyebrows proudly. “While they’re still reciting incantations, I’ve already deployed automated Scripts. The true Dao isn’t in the scriptures; it’s in the line of Code with the highest operational efficiency.”

Pei Yue looked at him, her eyes glimmering. She suddenly took half a step closer and lowered her voice. “You know, before leaving, that Law Enforcer said something—’Bai Guizhen won’t let this go.'”

Shen Yan bit off the last hawthorn berry, spitting the seed with pinpoint accuracy into a spittoon three zhang away.

“If he comes, I don’t mind having another match,” he tossed the bamboo skewer aside. “Anyway, I have assets now. I can afford to lose.”

Pei Yue didn’t speak, only gently linking her arm with his, the tip of her finger inadvertently brushing against the pulse point on the inside of his wrist.

The two stood side by side, morning light spilling over their shoulders.

Suddenly, Shen Yan’s phone vibrated in his pocket.

He took it out and glanced at it. The screen glowed faintly, displaying a line of small text: 【Detected high-level data fluctuations, source: Jade Slip in the Library Pavilion】.

He stared at the words for two seconds, then slowly tucked the phone back into his pocket.

“Next, it’s time for a plot they won’t understand.”

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(End of Chapter)