"I've finished it."
In just one hour, Jiang Yuebai finished the fifty-page question set and handed it in with a frown, not knowing whether he was dissatisfied with the answer or was stumped by something.
Seeing this, the middle-aged female cultivator who came to get the question set consoled him, "Don't worry, fellow Daoist. This question set is indeed a bit difficult. As the chief elder of the Secret Academy who is in charge of all the books and techniques of the Zhuge family, I can't possibly answer all of them correctly. This is just to fully understand your strengths and weaknesses, and it won't affect anything."
"Um."
Jiang Yuebai nodded blankly, as if he was thinking about something. His left and right hands were shaking slightly, his brows were furrowed even tighter, and finally he simply took out a booklet and picked up a pen to write quickly.
Zhuge Hongjian from the Secret Academy smiled and didn't care. He took the question set to the other four elders for judging.
Besides her, those who came here today included the great elder Zhuge Xiu of the five major mechanical academies, the great elder Tie Wanjiang of the Armormaking academy, Zhuge Yi of the Cartography academy, and the supreme elder Zhuge Jing specially invited by the head of the family Zhuge Shou.
There are seven supreme elders in the Zhuge family, but six of them are like the Zhuge family's ancestor Lianxu. When there is no major crisis, they concentrate on cultivation and don't care about trivial matters. Only Zhuge Jing will help the head of the family deal with the affairs of the Zhuge family.
The grand elders of each academy, including the heads of the families, have always been Nascent Soul cultivators. No matter whether they have the surname Zhuge or not, the grand elders are all capable people. Even if other elders are capable of challenging them, they can replace them at any time.
The treatment of becoming an elder of each academy is far better than that of ordinary teaching elders and guest elders. The reward of being able to obtain a copy of the Zhuge family's secret method alone is enough to drive everyone crazy.
The four elders separated the question sets and each marked the parts they were good at. At the beginning, they marked the basic questions and answers smoothly, until the last part, when they couldn't help but pause.
"Hiss—How come this argument... "I don't understand it
The chief elder of the Machinery Institute, Zhuge Xiu, had a gloomy face and his mustache was about to be pulled off.
"Great! The formation diagram can be split up in this way!" I've learned something!
Zhuge Yi, the young chief elder of the Cartography Institute, narrowed his already small eyes and examined the paper excitedly with his face almost pressed against it.
"What the hell is this? Wrong, wrong, wrong, all wrong!"
Tie Wanjiang, who had a straightforward temper and a loud voice, swept his red pen around, leaving glaring red lines on the test papers.
"What's wrong?"
The word "wrong" irritated Jiang Yuebai. She raised her head and looked at Tie Wanjiang, who had a muscular body and bronze skin.
Tie Wanjiang was correcting the part about weapon refining. He was also the strongest weapon refiner in the entire Zhuge family and even in the Jiuhe Realm. He had been in charge of the Guanjia Academy for more than fifty years. The Yanjia he made was directly supplied to the front line of the Taiwei Star Alliance to defend against the demons. It has always been well received and in short supply.
Tie Wanjiang looks stupid, but he has a hobby, which is collecting various equipment refining diagrams. No matter how difficult the diagram is in his hands, as long as he finds all the necessary materials, he can refine it perfectly.
Tie Wanjiang slammed the question set on the table, his calloused fingers almost poking through the paper.
"These refining steps are totally wrong! Silver Frost Bamboo is hard and cold in nature, and it needs to be burned for six hours to extract the bamboo essence. What is this thing you dissolved in Purple Jade Grass Dew? Grass dew belongs to water, and once the Silver Frost Bamboo is put in, everything will be frozen!"
"And these later ones, without so many steps, not following the methods summarized by the predecessors, how can you guarantee the quality and success rate of refining equipment?"
Tie Wanjiang's voice was so loud that the head of the family, Zhuge Shou, and the supreme elder, Zhuge Jing, who were drinking tea and talking about things, stood up and walked over to see what was going on.
Mo Baichun and Zhuge Zigan were also attracted, and several people surrounded Jiang Yuebai and Tie Wanjiang.
Jiang Yuebai stood up slowly, not angry, but asked, "May I ask this senior brother, where did the weapon refining methods of the predecessors come from? The weapon refining techniques in ancient times were so crude, how did they develop to such a sophisticated level today?"
"Before you question my method, you should at least try it according to what I wrote and make sure it doesn't work before you say it's wrong. Not everything in this world remains unchanged. As people get smarter, plants and trees will also evolve. In the past, nothing could survive where the silver frost bamboo grew, but I don't know when the purple jade grass took root in the silver frost bamboo forest."
"Brother, have you ever thought about why? That's because the Purple Jade Grass has evolved a new ability. It is not afraid of the coldness of the Silver Frost Bamboo, and it devours the nutrients of the Silver Frost Bamboo very aggressively, making itself stronger and stronger. Under the laws of nature, all things are interdependent and mutually exclusive. This Purple Jade Grass is the nemesis of the Silver Frost Bamboo. If you don't believe it, go and try it and you will understand!"
Tie Wanjiang still stiffened his neck in disbelief. Zhuge Shou had already asked the great elder of the Secret Academy, Zhuge Hongjian, to go and fetch the Silver Frost Bamboo and Purple Jade Grass Dew.
Taking advantage of this gap, Zhuge Xiu, the chief elder of the Institute of Machinery, who just couldn't understand Jiang Yuebai's argument, came to Jiang Yuebai with the collection of questions.
"What do you mean here?"
Jiang Yuebai glanced at it and said, "Actually, I have some doubts here, so my answer is not very rigorous. I would like to ask, brother, why does the angle of rotation of this rotating crossbow have to be so large? Although the larger the shooting angle, the wider the coverage area, but the force will be seriously dispersed, resulting in insufficient momentum. Can the shooting angle be reduced a little, for example..."
Jiang Yuebai spoke eloquently and expressed her ideas clearly. Zhuge Xiu stroked his moustache and nodded frequently as if he was thinking about something.
"It sounds feasible, but the science of mechanisms is very sophisticated and involves mathematics. Junior sister, wait a moment, let me calculate it first."
"This junior sister, hehehe."
Zhuge Yi, the chief elder of the Cartography Institute, who had a young face and particularly small eyes, came close to Jiang Yuebai, almost hitting his forehead against Jiang Yuebai's face, so Jiang Yuebai quickly stepped back.
Zhuge Yi narrowed his eyes, "I'm sorry, I've been working at my desk for many years drawing the structure diagram of Yanjia, so my eyes are not very good. My sea of consciousness was damaged in my early years, and my spiritual consciousness is not very sharp and I can't see things with the help of external objects. Junior sister, please don't blame me. I want to ask, what is the basis for the junior sister's question, what is the basis for splitting the formation in this way?"
Jiang Yuebai pressed down the question set that Zhuge Yi was about to throw at her face, and took a look. It was to split a complete talisman array into five parts, then draw them on five mechanisms, and finally piece them together to form a Yanjia. In order to ensure that the talisman array can run smoothly, the disassembly method must be cautious.
Jiang Yuebai said as he took something out of his storage ring, "This is not my technique. It was taught to me by an elder of mine. She is extremely gifted in formations, and I have only learned the basics."
Jiang Yuebai looked through the notes he had taken when he consulted Zhao Fuyi before, and pointed them out to Zhuge Yi, "Look, the entire disassembly and demonstration process is recorded here. There is also a video of the verification process in this image jade, you can take a look, brother."
"Okay, okay, thank you very much."
Zhuge Yi took Jiang Yuebai's booklet and held it against his face to read.
"Brother, be careful with your saliva! That's my treasure!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Zhuge Yi hurriedly moved the booklet away.
Zhuge Yi walked away, and Zhuge Xiu, who had a moustache in the agency courtyard, called Jiang Yuebai again.
"Junior sister, come here for a moment. The shooting angle you changed doesn't work."
"Let me see... Brother, your calculation is wrong. It should be... this number!"
"How did you calculate so fast!"
“Isn’t this simple?”
"Simple... huh?"
The head of the family Zhuge Shou and the grand elder Zhuge Jing were watching this scene from the side and both laughed and shook their heads. It was clearly an assessment of Jiang Yuebai, but how did it turn into a debate between them
Moreover, Jiang Yuebai and Zhuge Xiu have now deviated from the topic, from mechanical arts to mathematics. Jiang Yuebai has also changed from being the person being tested to being the one who teaches Zhuge Xiu and sets the questions for him.
Facing the mathematical questions raised by Zhuge Xiu, Jiang Yuebai answered them easily and applied them to other situations, which made Zhuge Xiu nod frequently. They discussed back and forth, but several times, Zhuge Xiu could not answer Jiang Yuebai's questions, which was quite embarrassing.
During this period, Zhuge Yi kept asking Jiang Yuebai questions about the two talisman formations. Jiang Yuebai could answer them fluently, but as she answered, her bizarre ideas confused Zhuge Yi again.
"Fellow Daoist Wangshu has such profound knowledge!"
Zhuge Zigan exclaimed in surprise, and Mo Baichun also had a dazed look on her face. Her cognition was refreshed by Jiang Yuebai once again. She now remembered the "big talk" Jiang Yuebai had said before, and she was shocked to realize that it was the truth.
With this amount of knowledge, she can easily deal with the two great elders of the Zhuge family's mechanisms and talisman formations. Maybe there is really nothing in this world that she cannot learn.
What on earth did this little girl eat to grow up
Upon seeing this, the supreme elder Zhuge Jing also admired Jiang Yuebai very much.
"If this person can stay in the Zhuge family for a long time, it will be a blessing for the Zhuge family!"
Zhuge Shou nodded in agreement, but looking at the current situation, he was afraid that an ordinary guest elder contract would not satisfy Jiang Yuebai and would not be important enough.
"Master, the Silver Frost Bamboo and Purple Jade Grass Dew are here."
At this time, Zhuge Hongjian came in from outside with a storage bag in his hand.
The stubborn Armor Institute elder Tie Wanjiang stood up from his chair, strode up to Zhuge Hongjian and snatched the storage bag.
He just didn't believe that he, the number one weapon refiner in the Jiuhe Realm, would be wrong!
See you tomorrow~
(End of this chapter)