Chapter 44: Main 9

The instant Zhou Yun realized the meaning of that string of numbers, he felt a flood of complex digits surge within the depths of his mind.

These digits wove into a constantly shifting vortex, intertwining into layers of networks that wrapped around his consciousness, around his soul.

All numbers change; all numbers are nine.

Zhou Yun gritted his teeth against the dizziness flooding his skull and leaned heavily against the wall.

Corruption—corruption from Chaos.

Zhou Yun was cautious, always wanting to unravel the secrets within Nama Karl, for only then would he feel at ease.

But he had overlooked that Chaos was not merely the god of deceit and secrets.

Curiosity, exploration, wisdom, and decryption—these too were His domains.

When you cannot solve Chaos’s riddle, you may already be ensnared by His corruption.

When you solve Chaos’s riddle, you may still be ensnared by His corruption.

The string of numbers Nama Karl wrote was not itself corrupt, but uncovering its mystery brought corruption.

In this scheme of Chaos, wisdom and thought are dangerous; stupidity and ignorance are safe.

This corruption came swiftly and stealthily, for it did not arise solely from without—it arose from Zhou Yun’s own thinking.

Zhou Yun even suspected the room had been imbued with some ability to accelerate thought, for since entering, his mind had grown clearer and clearer.

He had been goaded into solving the mystery of those numbers—and thus had been corrupted by Chaos.

Not just Zhou Yun, but the children who had studied in Nama Karl’s home.

They, too, had surely solved the mystery of those numbers and suffered the same corruption.

“Fucking blue-haired bastard,” Zhou Yun cursed Chaos.

His neural pathways tightened; corruption was slowly seeping into his consciousness.

He saw the winged figure within the white light at his corner trembling its wings, blocking the tide of vortex-like numbers.

He also saw beneath his feet.

In the reflection of the Warp, his essence flickered in and out of visibility.

“Zhou Yun?”

Leina stared at Zhou Yun beside her, terrified.

The moment they stepped out of the study, Zhou Yun froze in place, his soul entangled with a profane surge of psychic energy.

These psychic forces twisted and shifted endlessly, pouring into Zhou Yun from the Warp, interweaving with his soul.

It was corruption!

Zhou Yun had been ensnared by some force of corruption!

How? How could he suddenly be corrupted? Was it Nama?!

“He has solved the riddle the Lord left for mortals, and thus come to know the Lord’s wisdom of endless change.”

A gentle, aged woman’s voice sounded behind Leina.

Leina turned toward the study.

The lamp on the desk had ignited, its white-blue light illuminating the room.

It also illuminated the elderly woman—her skin slightly darkened, her hair coiled in silver-gray, draped in a pale blue robe.

In her hand she held a cheap notebook with a black hardcover, its cover inscribed in pale-blue ink with the string of numbers.

387, 420, 489.

“Nama Karl?!”

Leina whispered the name of the woman before her, syllable by syllable.

Seeing the scene, she understood at once.

Zhou Yun’s caution had been right—this woman, who had once taught her, was a profane heretic!

“Leina, you are still so dull.”

Nama Karl looked at Leina with near pity.

“Before you entered the Upper Nest, the Lord revealed your existence to me through mathematics and calculation.”

“So I resolved to grant you the same blessing as mine.”

“Only by solving the Lord’s riddle can one behold the blessing of endless change—and yet you are too dull to even remember this sacred string of numbers.”

Nama Karl turned her gaze to Zhou Yun behind Leina.

“He is wiser than you, and more cautious—he sensed the sacredness of those numbers.”

“When he comprehended the exalted meaning of the sacred digits, the Lord granted him His blessing.”

Those numbers—Leina felt ice in her heart.

The numbers were a trap; the digits themselves were not profane, but unraveling their meaning brought corruption.

Thought—excessive thought—was itself dangerous.

“You have betrayed the Emperor!”

“Nama Karl, have you forgotten your husband? Have you forgotten your husband who died for loyalty?!”

Leina’s voice rose sharply, her hypnotic tone surging with immense psychic power toward Nama Karl: “You must repent!”

Nama Karl trembled slightly, yet her face was filled with sorrow.

“You are still so foolish. All of you are the same.”

“The Emperor is merely a withered corpse upon a throne—unchanging, immovable.”

“What does faith in him grant you? Only impulse, ignorance, blind loyalty, and stupidity.”

“You blindly worship him, even abandoning reason.”

“You chase superstitious omens, yet refuse to trust the results of mathematical calculation.”

“My husband was as foolish as you—his sacrifice meant nothing; without him, the Greenskins would never have invaded the Underworld System.”

As she spoke, Nama Karl’s face glowed with reason and wisdom.

In her eyes, infinite numbers spiraled and transformed.

“I am different. I did not blindly worship the Lord—I found Him through complex, rigorous calculation.”

!. Read

Nama Karl opened the notebook, revealing formulas and calculations too complex for Leina to comprehend.

“See how beautiful mathematics is—everything can be explained by it, and mathematics itself endlessly reinterprets all things.”

“If there truly is a god, He must dwell within these ever-shifting numbers.”

“I spent decades calculating, differentiating, solving—until at last, among infinite digits, I found Him.”

Nama Karl pointed to the notebook, to the countless equations.

In every equation, the final answer was the same: 9.

All answers are nine!

“Do you see, Leina?”

“The Lord = 9!”

Nama Karl pointed to the digit nine, as if trying to make Leina realize something, as if hinting at an answer hidden within.

Perhaps she hoped to subtly prompt Leina to instinctively guess the secret of the numbers, and thus be corrupted too.

But Leina did not understand.

“I don’t care what you say! I don’t understand it!”

Leina’s fury reached its peak; flames nearly erupted from her eyes.

Her psychic energy surged violently with her emotion.

The air around them turned cold as winter; Leina raised her arm and brought it down hard.

“Lightning!!!”

A Warp lightning bolt tore through the room, igniting the papers covered in equations, crashing onto Nama Karl’s chest.

“Aaaahhhhh!!!”

Nama Karl screamed a inhuman cry, her body convulsing as she collapsed to the floor.

“You actually struck me?! I taught you! When you were a child! Alongside many other children!”

“You cannot! On what grounds?! Leina, have you forgotten your childhood?!”

“Traitor! Heretic! Profane!”

Leina roared, flames ignited from the Warp, her psychic energy coalescing into a sledgehammer that crushed down upon Nama Karl.

Nama Karl reached for the notebook covered in numbers, as if seeking protection from it.

But Leina gave her no chance.

“Don’t you dare move!!!”

Recommendation: Ming Dynasty: Father, I Never Meant to Be Li Shimin

Veteran author, veteran artist—he excels at political and historical fiction in the other section; he himself was a Level-8 official in his twenties.

(End of Chapter)