Chapter 8: Cleverly Using the Rules, the Pythagorean Theorem

Yijian’s sword slashed through the air, and Ye Rong’s heart turned cold. He rolled away from the spot in an awkward manner.

No matter how unbecoming his posture was, it was still more important to save his life. After all, there was no one else in this Langhuan Jade Cave.

“Huh?”

After Ye Rong stood up, he realized that the teak puppets had not chased after him. Instead, they dragged their heavy steps to split into left and right groups, seemingly intending to approach him by going around the bookshelves.

“What’s going on? Based on the AI the teak puppets showed earlier, they shouldn’t be this foolish. It’s impossible for them not to see such a big gap. Why aren’t they coming straight through and taking such a long detour to flank me?”

Ye Rong couldn’t figure it out, but since the situation was in his favor, he didn’t dwell on it. If the teak puppets had chased him directly through the gap he had made by crashing into the bookshelf, he would have been in trouble.

The teak puppets were still quite far from him. Ye Rong first aimed a Fire Talisman at one of them, striking it repeatedly. As they drew near, he exchanged a few hard blows with them until he had no room to retreat. Then, with another roll, he slipped back through the damaged bookshelf into the previous passage.

A strange scene unfolded: the weak red light in the teak puppets’ eye sockets flickered rapidly. They once again took the detour, approaching Ye Rong from both ends of the bookshelf.

“I get it now, that’s how it is!”

Ye Rong’s heart leaped, and he punched the air excitedly, letting out a shout.

He had finally found the weakness of these seemingly invincible teak puppets—or rather, a flaw in their design.

The master of Langhuan Jade Cave had clearly programmed these teak puppets with one instruction: to protect the bookshelves in the stone hall. Even though the bookshelves were now empty and even shattered by Ye Rong, the puppets still followed this command.

Following Ye Rong’s path and going directly through the bookshelf would, in their limited AI’s view, undoubtedly damage the bookshelf, so it was absolutely forbidden. In other words, no matter what happened, the teak puppets would never damage the bookshelf or even pass through the original position where the bookshelf stood.

This was exactly what Ye Rong could exploit, especially since he had the Fire Talisman as a long-range attack.

With this guess in mind, Ye Rong quickly formed a plan.

The Fire Talisman drained health. After aiming at his target and attacking for several rounds, he blasted a piece of wooden armor off one teak puppet’s chest. When the teak puppets once again surrounded him from both sides, Ye Rong crashed forcefully into another decayed bookshelf, breaking it as well.

Sure enough, all the teak puppets froze in place, as if thinking it over, before turning around to flank him again from the ends of the bookshelves.

Ye Rong used this to his advantage, continuously weaving through several rows of bookshelves. Every time he cast a few fireballs, he took a step back, leaving the teak puppets helpless against him even though he was right there. They could only foolishly take the long way to surround him.

The Fire Talisman did little damage to the teak puppets, but by persistently targeting the same monster, Ye Rong eventually achieved results.

Five minutes later, the first teak puppet fell.

After killing the damaged teak puppet, he gained 120 Experience Points.

“The experience is quite generous!”

Ye Rong was now completely at ease, as if strolling through a park or an amusement park. He even had the leisure to check how much experience he had gained.

As the number of teak puppets decreased, Ye Rong found it even easier. Unfortunately, after all six teak puppets were killed, aside from giving him 720 Experience Points, they dropped nothing.

Ye Rong carefully scanned every inch of the stone hall. The thick dust made him sneeze several times, but aside from the old, empty bookshelves, there was nothing of value.

Finally, Ye Rong’s hands felt a protruding handle on the stone wall. He pulled it firmly in the direction it allowed.

Crack—crack—crack—

The smooth stone wall suddenly made cracking sounds. Ye Rong didn’t know what mechanism he had triggered, but a stone door automatically rose.

As the stone door opened, Ye Rong stepped inside fearlessly. Beyond it was another world—a bright, spacious hall.

Countless torches were fixed on the walls, illuminating the entire hall so brightly that not a single dark or dirty corner remained. Directly ahead, stone steps made of blue stone gradually rose, leading up to a massive white jade table at the top.

Ye Rong moved forward slowly with small steps. This was his first time entering an Immortal’s Cave Abode, and he had no idea what traps or hidden dangers might be waiting for him. The Immortal Mansion Key was famous during the Closed Beta, and he didn’t believe that a few teak puppets were the entire test.

He cautiously stepped onto the blue stone steps. Even after Ye Rong had climbed all thirty-nine steps, nothing changed.

“Is this the test for this round?”

Ye Rong rubbed his nose. He had already seen that the white jade table was actually a huge chessboard, but instead of black and white pieces, a layer of clear water flowed over it.

Beneath the water, there were also chess pieces, but they weren’t arranged for a normal game. Instead, they were arranged in a rectangle.

In the very center of the rectangular pattern, a jade disc floated, swaying gently.

Ye Rong counted: the rectangle was eight pieces long and six pieces wide. Aside from that, the jade chessboard was empty.

“Please input the correct number of chess pieces to start the game.”

A low, mechanical electronic voice sounded in Ye Rong’s ear. That was the only abrupt message; there was nothing else.

“Come on, where’s the hint? There should be at least some hint!”

This stupid System suddenly popped up with such a vague statement. Who knew what the game designers at Shengfeng were thinking, always coming up with these weird puzzles to mess with Players. Was this just a pure guessing game with numbers?

Ye Rong grabbed a handful of chess pieces from the cup at the edge of the jade chessboard. He held them in his hand, unsure how many to input.

Six pieces, eight pieces, rectangle…

He looked over the arrangement a couple more times. The numbers lingered in his mind, and suddenly, an idea struck him.

“So it’s that simple! I was overthinking it earlier!”

Ye Rong counted out ten chess pieces and dropped them one by one into the jade disc, then waited quietly for the chessboard to change.

Rectangle, 6 and 8—when these elements came together, the number 10 naturally came to mind: 6 squared plus 8 squared equals 10 squared; for a rectangle with a length of 8 and width of 6, the diagonal is 10.

It was the simplest Pythagorean theorem—anyone could figure it out if they thought in the right direction.

Although Ye Rong had made a complete deduction, he still watched the chessboard nervously. After all, this was just his own reasoning, and he couldn’t be sure it was the correct answer.

The chessboard shook, the water flowed, and the entire jade chessboard began to flip and move. Ye Rong excitedly pumped his fist.

Based on the experiences of Closed Beta Players, in an Immortal’s Cave Abode, if you failed at any step, you would be immediately teleported out without any chance to make up for it.

The chessboard completely flipped over, revealing a gleaming, cold longsword and a sky-blue paper talisman.

Ye Rong took two excited steps forward. This was the reward from Langhuan Jade Cave—he had passed the test.