Chapter 686: Measuring Experimental Data

He had tested it many times in Panlong City, and it was very accurate even when calculating backward from the stars in the sky. As Xu Shichu said, this formula could not only calculate the trajectory of the Tianluo stars, but the Big Dipper's nine stars were all included. But tonight there were no stars or moon, and the night sky was like a blank curtain, which was a test of He Lingchuan's skills.

Of course, he didn't dare to complain; who could guarantee that the day of the actual operation would be a clear starry sky? What if it was this kind of cloudy weather? Zuoju looked at him sideways; as a fire monster, its tone was cold: "Are you capable or not?"

Whether I'm capable or not is not for you to decide. He Lingchuan hissed at it: "Don't make noise, mental arithmetic is not my forte."

If only Sun Fuzi were here.

"Fly back five zhang, yes, yes, and then sink, it should be here!"

Just under the gaze of the three, the small bat in the air suddenly spun and flew to the side involuntarily, sliding out more than ten zhang away.

"Eh?" Dong Rui controlled it to stabilize its figure, circled, and flew toward that place again.

Once again, the small bat was pushed away by an inexplicable force.

It soon flew down and returned to its master's side.

Dong Rui communicated with it for a while, and then said to He Lingchuan: "There seems to be turbulence there; birds will be rolled away as soon as they get close."

High altitude often had air currents, which birds used to fly.

"Could it be right there?" He Lingchuan thought for a moment, "Change direction and try again."

This time the small bat flew from the west side, and sure enough, after approaching the place, it was rolled away by the air current again.

"This air current is fifteen zhang (more than 40 meters) above the mountain peak, but the horizontal diameter is at least several tens of zhang. Is this reasonable?"

Zuoju pondered: "Outside the array eye of the Spirit Gathering Array, there is an attached whirlwind array? Why wasn't it mentioned in your intelligence?"

In the memory of the Shao Jian of the Ministry of Works, Zaifu Kua, there was no whirlwind array outside the array eye at all, "Maybe it was added later by the Tiangong?"

"It pushes away irrelevant things, otherwise if birds fly over and hit it, wouldn't it be embarrassing? It would also expose the location of the array eye." He Lingchuan let out a breath, "Birds often encounter air currents, so they probably don't find it strange. Besides, the array eye moves frequently, and it won't be here tomorrow. Of course, these are just speculations; it's best to confirm it again."

"What method to use to confirm?" Zuoju twisted its head, "Should I throw a few big fireballs up to test?"

"Don't!" Its attacks were always full of sound and light effects, He Lingchuan hurriedly stopped it, "Are you afraid others don't know we are hiding here?"

"You can lie lower." It was the local mountain marsh; what was wrong with throwing a few fireworks into the sky to play? Seeing Zuoju eager to try, Dong Rui couldn't help but say: "If you hit it, the Tiangong will know. How can we launch a surprise attack later?"

The fact that the array eye of the Spirit Gathering Array was no longer hidden in the void was a taboo of the Tiangong. No matter how Zuoju knew it, it would likely arouse their vigilance.

This mission itself was not easy to do; could you not add difficulty at this time? Zuoju had originally grabbed a fireball in its hand, and upon hearing this, it pressed it out with a puff: "Then you say, what to do?"

It turned out this fellow was just cunning, not smart. He Lingchuan knew in his heart, and immediately said: "You have managed Xushan for more than four thousand years; can you influence the weather here?"

"Heh." Ordinary mountain marshes could, and this Xushan was its main body; it could call the wind and rain here at will, "A piece of cake."

"Then you summon a hailstorm, the finer the ice shards, the better."

Dong Rui gave him a secret thumbs up. The other party's main body was rock fire, which should be the most hated of rain, yet you actually wanted it to summon a hailstorm.

To which Zuoju did not resist at all: "No problem. It just rained tonight." And it was cold.

Volcanic eruptions often caused hailstorms and heavy rain, and besides, it was a great demon of several thousand years; was it afraid of a little rain?

He Lingchuan heard it clattering all over.

This kind of monster didn't use its mouth to chant, but its whole body of rocks collided, making a specific frequency of impact sound, not pleasant, but as rhythmic as percussion.

This kind of impact also drove the mountain peak to vibrate slightly, equivalent to a magnitude 3 or 4 earthquake.

Of course, Zuoju also knew that the movement couldn't be too big, so as not to alarm the Tiangong, so the earthquake range was limited to this low mountain peak.

Afterward, it bowed to the sky like a human, arms stretched forward, palms facing up, each scooping a bit of gravel.

With a swoosh, a strong wind swept over, and the gravel in its hands disappeared instantly.

The wind was strong, almost blowing people into the sky. The guards on Mount Tianji hurriedly hid in the tree holes of the Asking Tree.

Ten breaths later, the strong wind stopped, and small hard objects began to fall from the sky, clattering on the rocks and trees.

He Lingchuan's face was also hit a few times, and when he reached out to touch it, it was small ice shards that were cold and hard, melting as soon as they were covered by hand temperature.

Hail had arrived.

According to Zuoju, summoning strong winds and heavy rain was simple, and egg-sized hail was even less of a problem; instead, it was the most difficult to control the scale of these young ice shards that were not much larger than raindrops.

If the force was too great, it was easy to trigger the defensive array attached to the array eye.

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui looked up at the sky: "See any abnormalities?"

"No."

A quarter of an hour later, the hail stopped.

Dong Rui seized the time and wanted to drive the bat demon puppet into the sky again.

Zuoju shook its head: "No need. The volcanic gravel I handed over to the strong wind to take to the sky is currently suspended in the middle of the turbulence, motionless, and I can sense it!"

It mixed the tiny gravel with the hail and dropped it toward the turbulence. That was equivalent to a small part of its body, and it knew where it fell.

This was the convenience of the landlord, which others couldn't envy.

He Lingchuan couldn't help but snap his fingers: "Great, my algorithm is correct; the array eye is indeed there!"

Being able to accurately calculate the location of the array eye meant their mission was one-quarter successful, a remarkable progress! "The defensive array was not activated either." Otherwise, the gravel wouldn't have fallen into the array eye. This confirmed their previous idea that objects with too small a volume and too light a mass falling in wouldn't be judged as an attack by the defensive array.

Although there was turbulence protecting the array eye, the wind direction was blowing in all directions. Tiny things like gravel wouldn't necessarily be completely blown away; spinning a few times, and colliding with the hail a few times, actually had a very small chance of penetrating the turbulence and falling into the array eye.

"But there is turbulence around the array eye, how do you get close?" Dong Rui raised a question, "Is there a way to get through?"

He Lingchuan rubbed his hands: "Might need a magic treasure to repel the wind."

When a problem arises, it must be solved. This was the significance of the test flight.

Zuoju immediately said: "A small matter, I have a Wind-Fixing Bead here, obtained by killing a warlock 2,700 years ago. Nourished by my spiritual energy, it has never failed."

He Lingchuan was overjoyed to take it, seeing that this bead was only the size of a quail egg, with fine spots on the surface, not as translucent as a pearl.

As soon as the bead was in hand, the wind blowing around him was indeed very weak.

"You have to calculate the timing accurately before taking it out." Zuoju reminded him, "You can't wear it all the time, otherwise the bat you are riding won't be able to fly."

It was a Wind-Fixing Bead, after all; how could winged guys fly without wind?

"Just one?" He Lingchuan was dissatisfied, "At least two are needed."

"..." Zuoju really wanted to slap him to death, "Do you think this is an artificially farmed pearl, available whenever you dissect? This Wind-Fixing Bead in your hand, if taken to an auction, would fetch at least ten thousand taels of silver."

He Lingchuan chuckled, ten thousand taels for a Wind-Fixing Bead? This fellow really dared to say it. If it weren't for a special purpose, who would be so big-headed to spend this money? "One is indeed not enough." He said solemnly, "Pure technical discussion."

Zuoju said impatiently: "Then you scrape some powder off the bead and make do with it!"

"... This works too?" And you said it wasn't a pearl? "I've tried it, but the Wind-Fixing Bead powder scraped off can only last for two hours."

He Lingchuan let out a breath: "Enough."

Powder was better, lightweight. But how idle was this old thing usually to think of scraping powder for the Wind-Fixing Bead?

"We still have to test the radius of the turbulence." After all, you couldn't see anything after going to the sky; if his timing for using the Wind-Fixing Bead was wrong, he and the bat would be smashed directly onto the defensive array.

"Leave that to me." Zuoju was full of confidence, "I'll play with it."

It was the local mountain marsh, with plenty of time and energy, and could slowly test and correct.

Since Zuoju took on this errand, Dong Rui let the small bat go to the sky again, measuring its actual size by approaching the array eye from different directions. Of course, not too frequently, so as not to be discovered.

The demon puppet went to the sky more than ten times, taking a total of more than two hours.

"This thing is round." After many tests, He Lingchuan could basically judge, "Including the surrounding air currents, the diameter is about thirty zhang."

Then Zuoju's task was to measure the "thickness" of the air current, to facilitate He Lingchuan's control of the timing of the Wind-Fixing Bead.

After recording the data, the two went down the mountain.

This time Zuoju led them on another path, leaving from an underground valley.

This was an underground waterway washed out by the creek for many years, and later the creek changed its route, so this became an underground dark valley; looking down from the top of the mountain, it couldn't be seen at all.

Walking here, Zuoju suddenly stopped: "The gravel has been cleared."

He Lingchuan had been calculating the time, and at this time said: "About two quarters of an hour." Strictly speaking, it was 33 minutes.

"The gravel is too fine, probably not manually cleaned, maybe the cleaning array was activated." He smiled, "This array is not that diligent." The interval between each activation was quite long.

How many arrays did the Heavenly God add to the array eye later? In the memory of the old official Zaifu Kua, there were no such messy arrays at all.

He Lingchuan suddenly remembered one thing and wanted to ask Zuoju: "By the way, has there been any movement in the Star-Plucking Tower these days?"

"No, as usual." Zuoju had a guilty conscience, of course, it would pay double attention to the Tiangong.

"Have any unusual people come up?"

This time Zuoju thought for a while before saying: "Oh, right, the Qingyang State Preceptor went up the mountain this morning."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 687 =====