novelraw Chapter 179: Equal Exchange
Chapter 179: Equal Exchange
Sharky frowned. Is the mechanism still not fully activated? He tried to move the pillars, but discovered that even though they couldn’t be moved at all, they could be rotated. Furthermore, when one was rotated, it would also make some of the other pillars rotate as well.
"So that was it..." Sharky realized what was happening, but he frowned soon afterward. Even though he had a rough idea of the solution, he didn’t know what kind of conditions the pillars had to satisfy. Many of the characters on the stele had already been missing.
Zhao Ruizhi suddenly laughed loudly. "So that was it! The heavens are on my side after all! Little bastard, you’ve already lost your value to me!" He gave Sharky a malicious look, as if he would attack at a moment’s notice. He hadn’t even made that vow anyway, so he didn’t have anything to worry about.
Sharky remained completely calm, as if he had expected as much. "I advise you not to burn your bridges so quickly. Even if you know the correct pattern, you can’t open this mechanism without me." He had already realized that since he had found part of the solution on his way here, how could those people not have found anything? They had definitely found their own answers.
Zhao Ruizhi hesitated. He didn’t immediately take action and instead ordered He Li, "Match the diagrams based on the stele inscriptions we found in those ruins." He had already made his decision to castrate Sharky as soon as He Li solved the mechanism.
"Absolutely!" How could He Li give up such a great chance to make some contributions? He quickly rushed over and recalled the inscriptions on the stele. Sure enough, there were dark clouds, a heavenly gate, a great sun, a golden palace, and other such diagrams.
He just had to match up the diagrams. Unfortunately, whenever he matched up two of them and tried to match more, the ones matched already would start rotating and mess up the order. He tried all sorts of different things, but unfortunately, he couldn’t figure it out at all. He broke out into a cold sweat.
Zhao Ruizhi, having seen He Li fail, walked over and pushed him aside. "Trash. You couldn’t even take care of something so easy."
After saying so, he began to rotate the pillars himself. Four of them were soon matched, as he paid close attention the entire time. But when he worked on the last two, he discovered that no matter what he did, it would ruin the other pillars that he had already correctly matched. He frowned. He tried a few more times, but he just couldn’t match all six. He also ended up quite helpless.
He Li had to hold back his smile. He thought to himself, What are you cursing at me for? I thought you were formidable or something, but this is it? Of course, there was no way he would ever say these things out loud.
Zhao Ruizhi couldn’t keep up his calm exterior anymore. He turned around and looked at Sharky. "You said earlier that you could activate this mechanism?"
"But of course," Sharky said proudly.
Zhao Ruizhi harrumphed. "In that case, you do it. If you can’t do it, I’ll immediately make you understand what regret means."
Sharky shook his head. "You’ll immediately kill me if I help you with this mechanism. I’m not that stupid."
Zhao Ruizhi said seriously, "Don’t worry, there are so many here to serve as witnesses. I promise I won’t kill you as long as you activate this mechanism."
"Your word is as good as a fart. You were just about to lash out a moment ago." Sharky sneered.
Zhao Ruizhi was angered by Sharky’s words. It had already been a long time since anyone had dared to speak to him like this.
But for the sake of obtaining what he really wanted, he endured his anger and said, "I can make a vow if you don’t trust me."
Sharky shook his head. "This dungeon’s elements are unstable. A vow might not work."
Zhao Ruizhi was shocked. After all, only someone like him could sense the abnormalities in the world. How had this fellow noticed that? "You’re refusing this and that, so what do you want?" he snapped, annoyed.
Sharky said, "Let’s not talk about oaths, but rather interest. There will be all sorts of mechanisms to solve in this dungeon, and you’ll need me to solve almost every one of them. We’ve only finished the first floating continent; there are two more to come."
"That grand palace will definitely have all sorts of even more complex puzzles. If you injured me beforehand and I couldn’t help you with any of the mechanisms to come, causing you to fail to obtain the immortality you’ve sought out for so long, wouldn’t that become your life’s greatest regret?"
He obviously wouldn’t trust the emperor that easily, but he had to temporarily appease him. Similarly, he also wanted to reach the highest palace, and obtain the Watchhard DNA.
"But this is an exchange of mutual interest. Since I’m helping you obtain eternal life, what can you offer me?" Sharky asked.
Zhao Ruizhi’s face darkened. "Didn’t I promise to let you live? I’ve already given you that, yet you want more?"
"Isn’t this life of mine a bit too insignificant compared to eternal life?" Sharky looked as if he didn’t care at all. "I’m not interested in getting scammed like that. We can all just die here if you want."
He Li was starting to even feel some admiration. This kid really was something! He was gambling with his very life here! He wished he could negotiate with the emperor as well, but he would lose confidence whenever they faced each other.
Catherine bit her lips tightly. Even though her rationality told her that the emperor would probably agree because of his obsession with immortality, she was still worried. She was extremely curious what Sharky would ask for.
"Fine, I’ll just treat you leniently then. What do you want?" Zhao Ruizhi planned to appease this fellow first, to have him help with acquiring immortality. Then, he would slowly settle things afterward.
Sharky pointed toward Catherine. "I want her!"
Zhao Ruizhi erupted with rage. "You’re courting death!" A ferocious aura erupted from him. However, Sharky continued to stand in place, staring right back at him without a sliver of fear.
He Li was already beyond amazed. This kid really is amazing! Even I would kneel! Sharky and the crown princess have already done so many things to anger the emperor, and yet the emperor couldn’t cross the floating islands and do anything about it.
Now, Sharky is asking for the crown princess right in front of the emperor’s face? He was extremely curious as to how the emperor would reply.
Sharky calmly said, "You want eternal life, so I’ll help you. After you obtain eternal life, you’ll have endless women, so why do you have to cling to her? If you really aren’t willing, just kill us now. You can seek that fleeting eternal life yourself then."
Zhao Ruizhi’s expression changed several times. In the end, he coldly said, "Fine, but that’s based on the premise that you really can help me."
He had already made his decision. Once Sharky helped him enter that palace, he would instantly blast that guy to smithereens to vent out his resentment. He was no longer in the mood to slowly torment Sharky anymore.
"As expected, your majesty is generous!" Sharky laughed out loud. Then, he turned around and grabbed Catherine’s hand. "From now on, you’re mine."
Catherine was getting a bit dizzy. It all felt like an illusion, and yet it was all real. Her face was completely red. She opened her mouth, but she didn’t know what to say. She decided to just say nothing.
Zhao Ruizhi’s eyelids twitched. "Solve this mechanism first! Or else I’ll kill both of you right now!"
Sharky said with a laugh, "Relax, it’s easy enough."
He jogged over to the pillars and spun them around. He took mental notes of which pillars would rotate when he spun one pillar, and he spun all of them a few times. After testing out all of them, he wrote down a series of digits on the ground.
Zhao Ruizhi was getting impatient. "What the hell are you doing?"
Sharky shot right back, "What the hell do you know? This is called linear algebra! This is the culmination of a certain world’s wisdom."
"Linear algebra?" Zhao Ruizhi frowned. He didn’t even have time to feel anger. He thought, What kind of secret manual is this? Why haven’t I heard of it before?
Sharky confirmed the stele inscriptions with Zhao Ruizhi one more time. The ’Heavenly Gate’ was located in the corner of the twenty-eight constellations; the ’great sun’ was naturally the sun itself.
The ’Golden Palace’ historically referred to the palace courtyard where heaven and earth resided, while the Purple Forbidden Enclosure of the ancient celestial bodies was a residence within heaven and earth.
Sharky quickly cracked the secrets of the inscriptions. He just had to match them up to their proper positions.
This type of pillar rotating puzzle wouldn’t be too difficult to brute force if it were a simple one, but a mechanism as complex as the stele inscriptions made random testing pointless.
But even though the ancient puzzle was quite profound, it wasn’t too difficult for someone like him who had a college education. It was merely a linear algebra problem.
He gave each pillar a number, then recorded how the others spun according to the first pillar’s rotation. For example, if the second pillar didn’t spin, it would be 0. If the third spun once, it would be 1. If the fourth spun twice, it would be 2, and so on. He could then remember it as d1=[1,0,1,2...]t.
Zhao Ruizhi was completely lost as he watched Sharky write out symbols he had never seen before on the ground. He couldn’t help but give the others a few glances. He saw that whether it was Catherine, He Li, or anyone else, they all appeared stupefied, making him feel a lot better.
A while later, He Li couldn’t help but sneak a look at the emperor. He saw that the emperor was nodding slightly as he watched Sharky draw those weird symbols, as if it were making sense to him. He immediately felt admiration. His majesty is his majesty after all; he can even understand these things!
Sharky finally stood up after a while. "It’s done!" Then, he walked over to the stone slabs, spinning the pillars according to the answers he had calculated. Sure enough, all of the diagrams matched after he rotated them in order!
Another rumble emerged from underground as the mechanism began to activate. The stone slab mechanism lit up. Then, the light rose, illuminating the luminescent pearls. Rays of light shot out from the luminescent pearls, striking certain parts of the stone slabs. Those slabs then tilted slightly.
Then, something shocking happened. An extremely wide, bright yellow light slowly descended from the sacred mountain. It unfurled like a carpet, and soon reached the second sacred mountain.
Afterward, a similar carpet of bright yellow light emerged from the second mountain, traveling toward where the group was. It quickly stopped near the stone slab array, forming a transparent bridge of light between the islands.
Zhao Ruizhi gave Sharky a look. He wants to eliminate him, but he remembered what Sharky had said earlier. As such, he decided to wait for the time being, because in the future, there really might be situations where he needed Sharky.
After calming down his killing intent, Zhao Ruizhi was the first to step onto the bridge of light. He was careful at first, but he soon discovered that even though the bridge looked transparent and terrifying, it was like walking on sturdy ground. There was no need to worry about falling off.
"Is this one of the so-called methods of an immortal?" Zhao Ruizhi’s eyes burned with passion as he stared at the distant palace. His figure turned into a blur and he quickly arrived on the second island. He Li and the others quickly followed behind him.