Chapter 8: Skillful Use of Rules, Pythagorean Theorem

With a single sword stroke, Ye Rong's heart turned cold, and he rolled away awkwardly from his original position.

Regardless of how unsightly his posture was, preserving his life was of paramount importance – plus, there were no other people in the Cave of Langhuan.

"Huh?"

Only after standing up did Ye Rong realize that the Yuzu Wood Puppets hadn't pursued him. Instead, they were dragging their heavy steps and dividing themselves into two groups, trying to approach him by bypassing the bookshelves.

"What's going on? Based on the AI performance of the Yuzu Wood Puppets just now, they shouldn't be this stupid. Such a big hole couldn't have gone unnoticed. Why wouldn't they just come straight here and go around such a long way to encircle me?"

Ye Rong was puzzled, but he was grateful for the current situation. If the Yuzu Wood Puppets had come straight through the gap he had created in the bookshelf, he would have been in real trouble by now.

With the puppets at a distance from him, Ye Rong used a fire spell on one of them and fought them up close. When he had no place to retreat, he somersaulted back through the broken bookshelf to his previous path.

Then, something strange happened. The faint red light in the eyes of the Yuzu Wood Puppets flickered rapidly as they once again bypassed the bookshelves from both ends to encircle Ye Rong.

"I get it! So that's how it is!"

Ye Rong's heart jolted, and he excitedly yelled out with a swing of his fist.

He had finally found the weakness, or rather, the design flaw in the seemingly invincible Yuzu Wood Puppets.

The creator of the Cave of Langhuan had given the puppets specific instructions to protect the bookshelves inside the stone hall. Although there was nothing left on the bookshelves and they had even been shattered by Ye Rong, the puppets were still adhering to their instructions.

If Ye Rong tried to go through the bookshelves directly, their limited AI would see it as a destructive act, which was absolutely prohibited. In other words, no matter what happened, the Yuzu Wood Puppets would never destroy or even pass through the original positions of those bookshelves.

This loophole could be something that Ye Rong could exploit, especially since he still had the long-range attack method of fire spells.

With this guess in his mind, Ye Rong came up with a plan within moments.

Using his blood to cast fire spells at one of the puppets, he quickly damaged its armor. As the puppets encircled him again, he crashed into another rotten bookshelf, breaking it as well.

Sure enough, all the Yuzu Wood Puppets stumbled and stopped in place. After pondering for a while, they turned around and tried to encircle Ye Rong again by bypassing the two ends of the bookshelves.

Taking advantage of this, Ye Rong constantly darted between the few rows of bookshelves. After releasing a few fireballs, he would make a move, leaving the Yuzu Wood Puppets helpless against him, as they could only foolishly encircle him by taking the same route as before.

Though the fire spells had little damage on the Yuzu Wood Puppets, Ye Rong's relentless targeting of a single puppet had an effect.

Five minutes later, the first Yuzu Wood Puppet fell.

Killed a broken Yuzu Wood Puppet and gained 120 experience points.

"The experience is quite rich!"

Now Ye Rong was so relaxed and at ease, as if he was touring a park. He even had the leisure to pay attention to the amount of experience points he had gained.

As the number of Yuzu Wood Puppets decreased, Ye Rong's task became even easier. However, after killing all six Yuzu Wood Puppets, besides gaining 720 experience points, there was no other loot.

After Ye Rong meticulously swept through the stone hall, the thick dust made him sneeze a few times. Other than the ancient, empty bookshelves, there was nothing of value.

Finally, Ye Rong touched a protruding handle on the stone wall and pulled it hard in the direction it followed.

Click—click—click

On the smooth stone wall, sudden clicks rang out. Ye Rong didn't know what kind of mechanism he had triggered, but a stone door automatically opened.

Ye Rong boldly stepped in as the stone door opened. Inside was another world – a spacious hall.

Countless torches were lit on the walls, making the hall bright and devoid of any dark corners. In the center, a series of bluestone stairs gradually ascended, leading to a huge white jade table at the top.

Ye Rong slowly took small steps forward. This was his first time in an Immortal's Cave Mansion, and he didn't know what traps or tricks awaited him. He couldn't believe that the Yuzu Wood Puppets were the only test.

Cautiously stepping on the bluestone stairs, Ye Rong climbed thirty-nine steps without anything happening.

"Is this round of the test...it?"

Ye Rong rubbed his nose. He had already seen that the white jade table was actually a giant chessboard. However, instead of black and white chess pieces, there was a layer of flowing water.

Under the flowing water, there were chess pieces, but they weren't placed like regular chess pieces. Instead, they were arranged in a rectangle.

A jade disc floated in the center of the rectangular pattern, wavering unsteadily.

Ye Rong counted and found that the rectangular pattern had eight pieces in length and six in width. Apart from that, the jade chessboard was empty.

"Please insert the correct number of chess pieces to start the game."

The deep and mechanical electronic sound echoed in Ye Rong's ears, followed by a sudden and single sentence. Nothing else.

"Come on, there should be a hint for me!"

This broken system suddenly threw out such a sentence without any reasoning. Ye Rong didn't know what strange ideas the game designers at Sheng Feng had come up with, creating all these weird and quirky puzzles to tease the players. Was this purely a guessing game?

Ye Rong grabbed a handful of chess pieces from a cup on the edge of the jade chessboard and hesitated as to how many to throw in.

Six pieces, eight pieces, a rectangle...

After looking at it twice, a few numbers lingered in Ye Rong's eyes, and an idea suddenly crossed his mind.

"It turns out to be so simple! I leaned too far earlier!"

Ye Rong took ten chess pieces and threw them one by one into the jade disc, waiting for any changes on the chessboard.

Rectangle, 6, 8 – when these elements come together, the number 10 naturally emerges: six squared plus eight squared equals ten squared; a rectangle with a length of 8 and a width of 6 has a diagonal ratio of 10.

This was the simplest Pythagorean theorem that anyone could think of if they followed the correct line of thought.

Although Ye Rong had made a complete deduction, he was still tense as he watched the chessboard, as this was only his own guess and not necessarily the correct answer.

The chessboard trembled, the water flowed, and the entire jade chessboard was turned around. Ye Rong, excited, swung his fist.

According to the experience of internal testers, if one failed any part of the Immortal's Cave Mansion, they would be immediately teleported out, without even a chance of redemption or compensation.

With the chessboard fully turned, a Cold Light Sword and an Azure Talisman were revealed.

Elatedly, Ye Rong took a couple of steps forward. This was the reward of the Cave of Langhuan, and he had passed the test.

PS: I'm rolling over and begging for recommendation tickets!