With each statement from the three chief stewards, the corresponding places on the map on the wall would brighten, and the degree of brightness varied.
Tang Thirty-Six stood in the corner and listened, his expression growing more and more solemn. He could not understand the data in these reports, but he could sense the atmosphere.
The Tang Second Master gazed at the gradually brightening spots on the map. He was not at all nervous, nor did he grow more relaxed as time passed.
To him, this seemed like a very ordinary job.
After some time, the reports of the three chief stewards came to an end. The Tang Second Master looked at the map, his brow creasing. Somewhat dissatisfied, he said, "The progress is still a little slow."
The clattering of the abacus beads could be heard from outside the room. The sound of several hundred abacuses being pulled simultaneously mixed together was truly not pleasant to listen to.
A chief steward said, "In this year of preparation, we can only obtain a few rough numbers. The true calculations will only begin tonight. It's truly impossible to go any faster."
The Tang Second Master looked at the accounts outside the room, their heads bent over their tables and constantly pulling out the beads on their abacuses. He said, "At most, we still have an hour."
The chief steward replied, "I will keep an eye on them."
"Just keeping an eye on them isn't enough." The Tang Second Master stared into the chief steward's eyes and said, "All of you go as well. In addition, give me an abacus."
In a short while, the abacus and a large pile of files were brought in.
The Tang Second Master ignored Tang Thirty-Six standing in the corner. His right hand flipped through the files while his left hand constantly plucked at the beads on the abacus. Every once in a while, he would pause to make a mark on the file.
Compared to the accountants outside the room, his speed did not seem particularly fast, but each of his movements was exceptionally clear. The speed at which his right hand flipped through the scrolls and the speed at which his left hand calculated, combined almost perfectly with a rhythm that was difficult to explain. Looking at the small mountain of scrolls, he quickly finished calculating.
A subordinate brought in a second pile of files from outside the room.
Not long after, he finished calculating again.
Only now did the Tang Second Master take a moment to rest. He picked up the teapot that had long since gone cold and slowly took a sip.
To carry out such a vast amount of calculations in such a short amount of time caused his face to turn somewhat green. This was because he had consumed too much of his spiritual sense.
"If Xu Yourong were to use the Fated Star Plate to perform her calculations here, she should be able to calculate twice as fast as I am."
The Tang Second Master tiredly set down the teapot and said, "But if Wang Po were still our clan's accountant, there would be no need for me to work so hard."
At this time, there were only him and Tang Thirty Six in the room, so these words were naturally meant for Tang Thirty Six.
"Our clan does business, and when doing business, we can't suffer losses. When the Old Master had Wang Po leave Wenshui, this business deal was too much of a loss."
Tang Thirty Six knew that Second Uncle was warning him not to drag down the family business for Chen Chang Sheng and the Tradition Academy.
"When Wang Po left Wenshui, wasn't it because you, Second Uncle, were narrow-minded and disliked him, so you did everything you could to force him away?"
He looked at the Tang Second Master and mocked.
The Tang Second Master calmly gazed at him and said, "Shut your mouth. I still have many things to do today, so I'm not in the mood to play these childish games with you."
The results of the calculations of hundreds of accountants were continuously gathered in the small room, and then arranged into the simplest sentences.
Whether a certain place in the capital could be confirmed or not, and how strong it was, were just these two matters.
More and more dots of light appeared on the map on the wall, gradually linking together into a line. Ultimately, it became an indecipherable design.
Tang Thirty Six stood in the corner, gazing at this design. He faintly recalled that when he was small, the Old Master had held him on his knee and told him stories from long ago, and he seemed to have mentioned something related …
But what was it?
Finally, all the calculations were completed. The annoying sound of the beads clashing against each other outside the room was no longer heard. Only the extremely tired sighs of the accountants and the painful groans of their arms could be heard. Tang Thirty Six even saw that two accountants even fainted because of the mental exhaustion.
The Tang Second Master once more walked up to the stone wall and gazed at the design on the map. His two brows slightly rose as he took out an object from his sleeve.
Countless rays of light shot out from this object and fell on the map of the capital, also forming a design.
The two designs overlapped one another, their outlines roughly the same, but there were some minute differences and also differences in brightness.
"Has it changed greatly?" the Tang Second Master asked.
Tang Thirty Six froze, thinking, I've never seen these two designs, so how can I know the answer? And change … what sort of change is this?
"It's already been one thousand years, so the change naturally won't be too small."
An elderly voice rose from the shadows of the room. An elder dressed in a cotton jacket appeared there.
Tang Thirty Six looked at the elder and asked in shock, "Great Guardian, you're also here?"
The elder nodded and walked to the Tang Second Master's side. Gazing at the two designs on the map that seemed about to merge together, he said, "Fortunately, it can be resolved."
Tang Thirty Six could no longer suppress his curiosity. Walking over, he asked, "Just what sort of map is this?"
"These two are both Imperial Designs of the capital. The one calculated tonight is of the present, while the one Second Master just took out is from one thousand years ago."
The old Guardian from the Wenshui Tang clan explained.
The Tang Second Master replied, "The changes of the capital over the past one thousand years are contained in these two maps. This is history."
Hearing this, Tang Thirty Six once more gazed at the designs on the wall, and he naturally felt many different things.
"Only our Tang clan can see the changes of this period in history, because our Tang clan exists in history. At least in the history of the capital, we have been around longer than anyone else, even longer than the Chen Imperial clan. Thus, our Tang clan has more than enough reason to return to the capital. You must understand the necessity of reverence for history."
The Tang Second Master looked at him and said, "If you don't even understand this, how can you be worthy of the surname Tang?"
These words were an answer to the question he had asked Tang Thirty Six at the very beginning: what did the Tang clan deserve the most reverence for?
It was not money that could allow one to ascend to the gods, nor was it the countless noble clans, monasteries, and ministries that spread across the continent or even deep into Xuelao City. It was the incomparably long history that the Tang clan possessed as the head of the Four Great Clans.
Logically speaking, Tang Thirty Six should have had some sort of reaction to these words, but he was thinking about something else, and then he thought of something else. His face suddenly paled.
He remembered what these two designs on the map, one thousand years apart, were.
Yes, it was the Imperial Design.
Just as the Great Guardian had said.
Very few people in the world knew of the Imperial Design's existence, but when he was a child, he had heard about it while sitting on the Old Master's knee.
It was the greatest secret of the Great Zhou Dynasty's capital, and also a Daoist array of terrifying power!
Just what did the Wenshui Clan want to do? He gazed at the map of the capital on the wall, countless waves surging in his mind. Was there a need to make such a ruckus tonight?
The Tang Second Master and the Great Guardian were also looking at the map.
All the lines on these two Imperial Design maps, separated by one thousand years, pointed to a certain place on the map.
It was at the place where the gazes of the three people in the room rested.
A little north of the center of the capital was the Imperial Palace.
The Tang Second Master indifferently said, "As expected, the array pivot is there."
The Great Guardian sighed, "So the array pivot was still there."
"After Taizu ascended to the throne in front of the Mausoleum of Books, he began to modify the Imperial Design. Later on, Taizong and Emperor Xian did not stop either."
The Tang Second Master looked at the map of the capital and said, "The place that was modified the most, besides the North Li of Achievement and the Luo Canal, was the array pivot deep within the Imperial Palace."
The Great Guardian gazed at the bright specks of light on the second Imperial Design and said, "It now seems that those rumors from back then were all true. Taizong built the Lingyan Pavilion so that the array pivot, which was the most important and also the most vulnerable to attack, could be transformed into the most dangerous Heavenly Slaughter Array, specifically aimed at experts of the Divine Domain."
The Tang Second Master said, "Father said that if Emperor Taizong really did manage to cultivate the Heavenly Slaughter Array, experts of the Divine Domain who wanted to force their way in would only be met with death."
The Great Guardian silently gazed at that place for a very long time, then said, "I will try to see if I can sneak in."
Tang Thirty-Six was shocked again when he heard this conversation from behind.
The Great Guardian's cultivation was unfathomable. Many years ago, he was only half a step away from the Divine Domain. He was the Wenshui Tang clan's last trump card besides the Old Master, and now he was also going to move?
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