“Senior Sister, this… Derivation Array that we are building right now; what does it do?”
“I… don’t exactly know. I’ve never come across anything quite like this. However, based on what I’ve understood from reading the instruction manual that I was given, it works something like an abacus.”
“An abacus? What’s an abacus?”
“It is a wooden box of sorts fitted with moving beads. It was invented by the people in the East, a long time ago, to be used for simplifying large number calculations.”
“How it works is that a certain value is assigned to a certain bead in a certain position; you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide by moving the beads according to a certain pattern, and the resulting configuration at the end of the process will be your answer.”
“In effect, it’s basically taking large and confusing numbers and breaking them into singular units. This makes them easy to calculate, saving you a lot of time and effort and reducing the odds of a mistake.”
“So… this Derivation Array… it basically is taking the large problem (the unknown cure) and breaking it down into simpler units which will then be sent to the beads (cultivators) to process. After processing, the result is once again sent back into the Derivation Array and…?”
“Young Master Wuzhi, who will be standing at the centre of the array and acting as its main processor, will receive all results and collate them until the final answer forms.”
“Amazing! Who was it that came up with such an amazing formation?”
“I… do not know. Like I said before, this is my first time seeing something like this.”
“Could it be that Young Master Wuzhi invented it?”
“Impossible! How could that be possible? The formation is so profound yet simplistic that it surely must be the work of generations of geniuses! Hell, I don’t believe that even the Star, ‘Son of the Heavens’ Mu Yuelong could invent something like this!”
“Huh? Then how come we’ve never heard of it before?”
“Perhaps… Young Master Wuzhi received it from an undiscovered inheritance?”
“Wow! Talk about heavenly luck. As expected of a progeny of the Mu Household; the founders of the [Luck Path].”
“That’s enough chatting. We need to get moving now. The Derivation Array needs to be finished by tonight!”
The two disciples put aside their chatter and focused on their task. Just like thousands of others around them!
Three days had passed since Wuzhi’s research had begun. He now had less than a hundred and twenty hours to live. Time was extremely pressing.
The Derivation Array HAD to be used tonight!
---
Somewhere within the grounds of the Sacred Snow Heart Sect.
Carried by his aunt, Wuzhi was unsteadily dragged toward the designated spot on the freshly completed Derivation Array. His pale was lusterless and dry and his eyes sunken like dark wells. Even his glimmering argent orbs hung glimmerless and overcast.
Aunt Mingxi looked over and gazed at him with anxious and worried eyes. “Are you certain that you have to do this now? Why not take a short break? It will do you some good.”
Wuzhi weakly shook his head. His chapped lips flapped as he hoarsely spoke, “There’s no time. I have to run this now so that the pool of possibilities will shrink, giving us more time to run experiments.”
“Must it be you on the array? Can we not have someone else do your role? Like Collette? That girl is a little naïve and frequently gets overexcited but she’s got a good head on her shoulders and is very talented.”
“Talent has nothing to do with this, Aunt Mingxi. I’m the only person who knows how to properly operate this formation. It has to be me.”
He then shook his head and said, “Don’t make me talk. It’s tiring me out.”
Chu Mingxi swallowed the complaints and worries that she was about to pour out. She gave another glance at her nephew before sighing and looking away.
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‘Oh Heavens! Why must this child’s life be so hard?’ she bemoaned.
The duo arrived at the center of the formation where Wuzhi was made to sit in a designated spot. After making himself comfortable, he turned toward his aunt and imperceptibly nodded his head.
Aunt Mingxi returned the nod and flew away. Arriving outside the formation in a flash, she bellowed. “All disciples are to take their designated spots within the Derivation Array!”
“Remember! You will feel a foreign energy prod at your mind when the formation becomes active. Do not resist this force and allow it to enter your mind. It will give you the data that requires processing.”
“Once you are done, imprint the message ‘Finished’ on the foreign energy for it to retract with the processed data. Wait for a moment and the next strand of foreign energy will arrive. Repeat this process until the formation shuts down.”
“Is everyone in place? Alright. Activating the formation in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FORMATION ACTIVATED!!”
A mystical light instantly rose up from the inscribed ley lines on the ground, sinking Wuzhi and a few hundred of the female disciples of the Sacred Snow Heart Sect into a cloud of ethereal mist and light.
---
Inside Wuzhi’s ‘World Within.’
Wuzhi’s psychic avatar floated in the air surrounded by a dense halo of bluish-gold light. The spherical halo routinely pulsed and contracted akin to a beating heart, occasionally sending waves of light into the fractured skies above.
“Experiment #913,” a soft mutter sounded from within the spherical halo. “This should be it.”
The spherical halo contracted furiously, reducing to almost an eighth of its original size. Wuzhi’s form was revealed; his features were as immaculate and exquisite as ever. His eyes spilt with silver light, resembling the centres of two active forges.
The spherical halo continued to shrink in size, eventually becoming small enough to be contained within Wuzhi’s hands. Although much smaller than before, the spherical ball of light was much denser and concentrated with energy. Its expansions and contractions also hadn’t stopped and had instead grown deeper and more powerful.
Giving the growing cracks in the fracturing sky one final look, Wuzhi let out an inspired shout and lobbed the light ball towards the crumbling heavens. The sphere zipped past the distance and arrived before the black void near instantly, pausing for a moment before exploding into a furious storm of light.
The power of the explosion rocked the entirety of Wuzhi’s psychic world, impacting the floating scholar and causing him to fall onto the ground with a heavy impact; heavy to the point where he left a man-sized crater.
Meanwhile, up in the sky, the banners of silken silver energy that were released from the explosion of the sphere suffused themselves into the innumerable cracks and gaps. Then, the growing cracks stilled and another moment later, the gaping wounds began to rapidly heal! The gaps began to close and the holes showed signs of being filled once again.
Wuzhi looked at this scene from within the crater. A final, tired smile of relief floated on his lips and a quiet sigh escaped his mouth. However, not a few moments later, the smile on his lips froze and his relieved expression turned into one of horror.
The healing of the sky had stopped!
“No!” Wuzhi yelled, jumping out of the crater and landing on the solid ground beside it. “No! No! NOI NONONONONO!!!” Disbelief and panic coloured his entire self as his fingers grabbed onto his face; the force of which caused his nails to tear his flesh.
In the sky, a brackish energy of unknown nature steeped out from within the dense void behind the fractures and cracks in the heavens and began poisoning the silver light. The sliver of energy resisted futilely and within moments, the light that healed the cracks of the psychic world shattered and dissipated into the void.
It was another failed attempt.
“It cannot be! This cannot be! No! Impossible! How could this happen!? No! ItcannotbeItcannotendlikethis!Why!?Whhydidn’titwork!?WHY!?!” Wuzhi began to psychotically mutter with increasing fright and incoherence. His nails began digging deeper and harder into his flesh, leaving strips and trails of gore and blood.
“WHYDIDITNOTWORK!?ITWASMEANTTOWORK!!ITWASMEANTTOWORK!! ITWASMEANTTOWORK!!ITWASMEANTTOWORK!!ITWASMEANTTOWORK!! ITWASMEANTTOWORK!!”
He continued to scream the same phrase until the point of spitting out blood from his throat. Wuzhi then weakly fell on the wet mud and wriggled disgustingly, akin to a tortured worm. Innumerable fresh wounds covered his blood-soaked body. His nails had long splintered and broken and yet his fingers continued to dig into his own flesh with surprising sharpness and familiarity.
“no…” Wuzhi whimpered like a wounded pup. “…there is no time anymore… I’m going to die.”
“I’m going to… fail.” Bloody tears streaming down his face, Wuzhi closed his eyes. Fear of death came secondary while the real possibility of failing the duty bestowed upon him by the Heavens came first.
An absolute silence enveloped his world of psyche.
Time passed. A moment that felt both forever and instantaneous. It was a moment where Wuzhi had lost all hope and had resigned himself to a death of self. But, right after that singular moment passed, Wuzhi heard a voice. It was a faint, distant, and broken voice.
“he…lp…me…pl…eas…e…” The tone of the voice was so faint and soft that it was difficult to place the age and nature of the speaker. However, these facts did not matter to Wuzhi for he knew the exact identity and nature of that voice.
He knew that voice. And worse yet, he remembered its speaker with such impossible clarity that it was impossible for him to know about more about any other topic.
Wuzhi knew clearly what that voice entailed and the consequences of listening to it.
And yet, akin to a wandering sailor lured by the songs of the sirens, Wuzhi found himself crawling towards that voice.
“Madness. Utter madness. Madness. Utter madness,” repeated his lips; each iteration being startlingly similar to the previous.
“But perhaps, madness may be what I require to save myself…”
Before he knew it, he had arrived at the cold and unlit basement having the barred iron door with a small vent hole at its bottom. His bloodied hand reached up for the lock and hesitated for a minute as he regained an instant’s clarity.
“sa… ve.. me... and.. save… your… self…” offered the voice.
Wuzhi tugged at the lock and broke the door free.