I Take Life Very Seriously 89. Mastering the Second of the Two Cosmic Hexagrams, Part 2

What? The function has been reversed? Isn’t the Heaven gate supposed to absorb the energy of heaven and earth? It should be the inlet, not the outlet. If it is to become an outlet, whose energy will it release? Unless a supreme energy source stands in that position.

Beside Zhang Yidao, Xiao Nuxia’s consciousness asked in confusion.

“Hahaha... So you finally have some insight!” Zhang Yidao laughed when he heard that, then asked her, “Guess who will become the energy source at the Heaven gate. You will never guess it, never!”

“Nonsense! If I could guess, would I still need to ask you here?”

“Let me tell you,” Zhang Yidao said with deliberate mystery. “The energy source is the demigod who invaded our Earth.”

“What?! If that’s the case... isn’t that just letting Zhang Mingjing absorb their energy?”

“Exactly! I want the demigod to supply energy to the entire Eight Trigrams formation. After Zhang Mingjing absorbs his energy and distributes it evenly to the other six trigram positions, that demigod’s power will be split apart. He’ll be weakened and drained. By then, wouldn’t it be child’s play to destroy him?”

“I don’t understand,” Xiao Nuxia said in bewilderment. “How can you do that?”

Zhang Yidao smiled and explained, “The mission of every Eight Trigrams arrangement is to keep the energies of the various trigram positions in a continual balance of mutual generation and restraint. But if I place the demigod in the Heaven trigram, then the energy at that position will suddenly surge and fall out of balance. At that point, the formation’s self-regulating mechanism will be activated and automatically divert the excess energy from the Heaven trigram to the other positions, because only in that way can balance be restored. And then I’ll use the art of mystic gates and heavenly stem formations to accelerate the process. I guarantee the demigod will be exhausted in no time.”

Only then did Xiao Nuxia understand. She sighed. “So this excess energy being divided up is the demigod’s own power. Is that the way of Heaven, replenishing what is lacking and diminishing what is in excess?”

“Exactly! The Eight Trigrams are the way of Heaven. You’ve followed me for so long and finally developed some culture, hahaha!”

“Get lost.”

“So all I have to do is keep the Heaven position locked onto the demigod, and his energy will keep being distributed by the Eight Trigrams formation to Zhang Mingjing and the others.”

“And after it’s all been distributed?”

“Then I kick that demigod out of the Heaven position in the formation. By then his energy will already have been cut down by more than half. He can just wait to be dealt with by Zhang Mingjing!”

...

Zhang Yidao told Zhang Mingjing about his new insight.

Because Zhang Mingjing had never been very receptive to the Eight Trigrams and had always, deep down, regarded them as little more than superstition, he could not truly appreciate the subtleties of what he heard, nor could he wholeheartedly accept it. But the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model surprisingly praised it highly upon hearing it.

Zhang Mingjing could not understand this, so he asked the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model, “Do you really understand what Zhang Yidao means? I don’t believe it.”

“Of course I understand. Who do you think I am? I am a thought model from the fifth-dimensional space. How could I not understand knowledge from your three-dimensional world?”

“Get out of here. Forcing a demigod to remain at the Heaven gate until he loses his energy on his own—how is that not superstition?” Zhang Mingjing still found it hard to accept.

At that, the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model explained, “Don’t underestimate the Eight Trigrams. You already experienced their power in the last battle. In truth, the most remarkable thing about them is not prediction, but that they are a perfectly elegant algorithm of rise and decline. Its mechanism is to maintain energy balance among the trigram positions. Once one position becomes excessively strong or too weak, the Eight Trigrams activate the principle of mutual rise and decline, bringing all energies back into balance. So what Zhang Yidao says is certainly entirely feasible. And since it is an algorithm, its operation can also be accelerated. It is absolutely possible to use the formation to weaken the demigod’s power rapidly.”

“Even if it works, is it more impressive than my Star-Sucking Fist?”

“Of course not. The Eight Trigrams are directly connected to the multidimensional energy of the entire universe. If used skillfully, they can rely on the multidimensional computational power between heaven and earth. As for your Star-Sucking Fist, though it also draws on the computational power of the web of destiny, it uses only a tiny portion of it. How could it compare? It is not even a small wizard in the presence of the great one; how could it rival him?”

“Damn it. The way you say it, Zhang Yidao sounds like he has more cultivation potential than I do.”

“Ha ha ha. Perhaps when the Heavenly Secret System was implanted into him, it really could have given rise to an entirely new science.”

...

Whenever the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model had a thought, all the information it knew would synchronize to the consciousness of the elders in the fifth-dimensional space, so they had also been closely following the matter of the Eight Trigrams.

Today, after hearing about Zhang Yidao’s new insight, they looked at one another and fell silent for several seconds.

Then Elder A spoke first. “Do you still think this Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model can never one day overturn our order system?”

One elder asked, “Then what do you think we should do? Should we really choose a moment and erase it together with Zhang Mingjing?”

“For the sake of our order and our honor, that is also the only choice.”

Another elder said, “If that happens, who in the future would still be willing to contribute their thought models?”

At that, another elder complained, “By your logic, we’d have to tolerate this Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model running wild as it pleases?”

“It isn’t running wild at all. That’s far too exaggerated.”

“It absolutely cannot be allowed. We must heighten our vigilance toward this Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model.”

“Indeed!”

The elders began discussing it again, but in the end they still reached no consensus.

...

Zhang Yidao’s new insight was eventually accepted by Zhang Mingjing, though he still remained half convinced and half doubtful.

The next day, above the North Pole, a space as large as a basketball court twisted violently, and then a tear split open within it. What followed was a scene too strange to be fully captured in words.

The moment the rift opened, a beam of light shot out and landed on the ice...

Some twenty minutes later, a demigod appeared, fat in build yet only one point seven meters tall.

He wore battle armor in brown and red, but his belly was so huge it looked like that of a top-tier beer drinker, so the armor seemed too small. There was no armor between his waist and chest, but because of that, that area was in fact the most heavily defended of all. As the saying goes, easy to defend and hard to attack.

According to the data transmitted back by Little Overlord, the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model quickly calculated that this man was indeed the strongest among the demigods who had come to Earth.

At this time, Catherine, Jamie, and the Two Pets had not yet fully recovered. If Zhang Mingjing alone, together with the three satellites, were to fight him, it would certainly be a brutal battle with no easy conclusion. So the Fifth-Dimensional Space Thought Model reminded Zhang Mingjing, “Ask Zhang Yidao whether this Eight Trigrams formation can work with just you and the three satellites on it.”

So Zhang Mingjing asked.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Yidao said, “Damn, it’s fine even if nobody’s on it!”

As soon as he said that, Xiao Nuxia on the side sharply warned, “Don’t forget the lesson from last time. This time, don’t lose the stronghold through carelessness again.”

“Ah!” Zhang Yidao immediately changed his tone after being warned. “It’s better to have someone at the trigram positions. First, it can restrain that demigod and let me keep him trapped at the Heaven gate; second, once I’ve drained most of his energy with the Eight Trigrams formation, you can kill him at once; and third, it’s always better to have people at the positions. The battlefield changes in an instant—who can say when help might be needed?”

So Zhang Mingjing set out.

An hour later, Zhang Mingjing met the demigod over the Pacific Ocean.

Zhang Mingjing asked, “Will you give your name?”

Unexpectedly, this demigod was quite straightforward this time, even a little cordial, which surprised Zhang Mingjing. He heard him say, “My name is Wine Great. You’re the Taoist called Zhang Mingjing?”

“That’s right. You did your homework, I see.”

“Get out of here. Several of my companions were killed by you people. How could I not study you in advance?”

Zhang Mingjing merely smiled. Though he was not certain whether Zhang Yidao’s Eight Trigrams formation would work, he saw that this demigod called Wine Great had already entered the Heaven position.

As soon as Wine Great entered the Heaven position, he immediately felt that something was wrong. He could not help complaining, “It feels like someone is stealing my energy.”

At that point, the space-and-time monster code within him naturally had to speak.

And it said, “Someone is stealing both your energy and mine.”

“Damn! Where is this person? ... Could it be that Taoist called Zhang Mingjing?”

“No, it isn’t him.”

“What?! There are other masters here? Why can’t I read his information?”

“It may not be a person. It could also be a machine.”

“A machine! ... Could it be the three satellites in the sky?”

“No.”

“Then what exactly is stealing our energy?”

“I don’t know. But based on the information sent back by the daytime and nighttime demigods, do you think it might be some kind of formation stealing energy?”

“A formation!” Wine Great hesitated for a moment, then quickly changed position to test it.

Only then did he discover that whenever he changed position, Zhang Mingjing changed position as well.

He kept shifting rapidly, more than a dozen times in a row. At last he realized that each time Zhang Mingjing moved with him, their relative positions always seemed to lie on the diameter of a circle.

He finally confirmed, “It should be a formation stealing our energy.”

“Damn it, that’s infuriating!” the space-and-time monster code roared within him, then asked Wine Great, “Think of a way to stop this quickly. I’ve calculated that the energy is flowing out faster and faster, but I don’t know where it’s going.”

“For this formation, besides the position occupied by Zhang Mingjing, there must be other positions too. But their locations are invisible. If I can’t find them, I can’t break the formation.”

“Then what do we do now?” The space-and-time monster code sounded very anxious.

“Only retreat.”

“Retreat! ... Hmph! Impossible.”

“Eh? Didn’t you say that if we couldn’t win, we could go back?”

“That was only a trick to get you here!”

“Ah... you’re way too much! So shameless.” Wine Great said furiously.

“Since it has come to this, stop being angry and find a way to break out!”

Wine Great finally held it in, then said, “It must be that this formation has fixed me in a certain position. This position is absorbing my energy, so...”

No sooner had he spoken than a thunderous sonic boom rang out, and Wine Great had already shot toward Zhang Mingjing at supersonic speed. He thought that by drawing closer to Zhang Mingjing, he might break free of the position assigned to him within the formation.