Chapter 295: Chapter 294 – The method of searching within a specific area!
Translator: 549690339
In a quiet valley, the trees suddenly shook. Following this, countless birds sprang into the sky, flapping their wings fervently as they fled the area.
Within this forest, five people stood on a large, green stone, whispering amongst themselves.
“Everyone, report the situation on your respective ends…”
The first to speak was Du Gang. He was responsible for collating and analyzing the collected intelligence. This was their second direction of focus, the East.
Before he finished speaking, he shook his head and turned to Lan Zhize. “Wait a moment, Lan Zhize, you speak first. How is the situation on your side?”
Although they were perplexed by this, they stopped and waited for Lan Zhize to give his report.
Seeing this, Lan Zhize complied without a question. “I went west. As you requested, I primarily paid attention to the number of external trackers, the number of local warriors, and the conditions of any unusual powers…”
When Du Gang dispatched the other four, he specifically instructed them to pay attention to several different situations, which would aid in determining the whereabouts of the Heaven’s Mandate child.
For these bits of data, the other four were completely clueless. They simply could not understand them.
“The outsiders, there are eighteen in the west, twenty-five in the east, nineteen in the south, and thirty-three in the north. Could it be, the Heaven’s Mandate child is in the north?” Kou Yingwu, who had been silent for a long time as the team leader, shared his speculation.
Tao Xuanzhu, who was standing beside them, shook her head. “It can’t be that simple. Du Gang asked for plenty of data. This is only the count of outsiders; surely, it’s insufficient in determining the coordinates, isn’t it?”
Jia Xiangming muttered, “I just hope he isn’t playing us for fools.”
He said this not because he was asking for trouble, but rather because they had truly taken significant risks under Du Gang’s command, evading pursuit by a swarm of people after considerable effort.
At the center of them, Du Gang didn’t mind his comment; instead, he closed his eyes and fell into contemplation.
This was not posturing; he was actually deep in calculation.
All his attention was invested in derivation and calculation.
“Du Gang, have you found something? If not, we can check again next time. Aren’t the south and the west still unexplored?”
Tao Xuanzhu trusted Du Gang, believing that he wasn’t the type to bluff.
“Are you certain you don’t have any information??”
The situation was also dire for Lan Zhize. Although he’d put on a new set of clothes, there were still visible scars on his face and hands.
These injuries were inflicted by opponents of similar strength, so they couldn’t be easily healed.
Up to this point, it had become difficult for them to conceal their identities. After all, they were strangers in this world, and the locals had their eyes everywhere.
He frowned, “Among those who hunted me, several are upper-rank gods. They’re extremely powerful; two of them are at the Nine Tribulations God Spirit Level. This time, it’s a narrow escape; I would have been defeated if not for quick escapes…”
His cultivation level was only at Six Tribulations God Spirit. Moreover, he had only brought three deities along, and their powers couldn’t be fully manifested in the flesh.
At this moment, Du Gang, who’d been engrossed in his calculations, finally came out of his deep thought. His originally half-closed eyes slowly opened.
“The north is not the location of the Heaven’s Mandate child…”
He looked around at the varying expressions on everyone’s faces, showing a slight smile as he said, “The north is actually the location of their Seven Gods Palace. Hence, the number of unknown outsiders in the north is disproportionately high…”
Seeing he was fully alert once more, Kou Yingwu eagerly asked, “Du Gang, how is it? Have you found something? Do you have an idea where the Heaven’s Mandate child is?”
Although he didn’t doubt Du Gang like Jia Xiangming did, he was quite anxious.
As the strongest among them, he was faced with the highest number of pursuers.
Among them, there were four at the level of Nine Tribulations God Spirit, and a also considerable number of those who were at the Seven Tribulations and Eight Tribulations God Spirit levels.
Du Gang gave him a smile, saying, “I have a rough idea of where the Heaven’s Mandate child might be…”
Everyone was overjoyed at this, eagerly asking, “Where?!”
“In the northwest direction!” Du Gang exclaimed confidently.
Through careful examination of different sets of data and from various angles, he finally concluded that the so-called Heaven’s Mandate child resided in the northwest direction.
“That’s awesome!”
Kou Yingwu breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless of the outcome of this mission, he had given it his all. If the task failed, he was prepared for death.
Fortunately, there was still hope!
“Are you sure?”
Among them all, Jia Xiangming once again challenged Du Gang’s statement, but this time, no one rebuked him.
The reason was that they, too, wished to know whether Du Gang was bluffing or not.
Their main concern was completing the mission, and they didn’t care about anyone’s character. They wouldn’t be in contact for long anyway.
Du Gang did not show any signs of anger at this question.
He understood that if he were in their position, he too would have questioned the situation. Hence, he began to explain immediately.
“In my original plan, I thought I could determine the location of the Heaven’s Mandate child based on the number of outsiders or powerful beings…”
“However, I was mistaken. The power of this world’s will is weaker than I anticipated… Uh, or rather, it needs some kind of medium to transmit the information to humans, which results in the transmission not being particularly accurate or real-time!”
Initially, he believed the World’s Will could directly communicate with the humans, but he found out this wasn’t the case.
Those who were on their trail all behaved as if they had found a treasure.
They even brazenly claimed, “We deserve to invade your world” and “Surrender and offer us your world.”
This led him to realize that these pursuers didn’t know where they came from and what their purpose was.
Thus, this implied his initial plan was incomplete. He adjusted his plan, including multiple areas of investigation and data collection.
Everyone, including the indigenous humans and creatures, and even the local environment or natural disasters, were included in the list of subjects to observe carefully.
This was based on his hypothesis that the World Will could control nature.
“What I later asked you to observe, including fauna and flora, environment, and some coincidental factors, could all be calculated through mathematical formulas.”
“Computing out the exact numbers is quite challenging, or rather, I don’t currently have the resources to execute calculations of such magnitude…”
“However, rounding off to the nearest whole number can suffice…”
With a satisfied smile on his face, he went on, “At the same time, we don’t need the final numbers. What we need are options. We have four directions: north, south, east, and west. We set up several options, each representing a potential location of the Heaven’s Mandate Child. Each option is assigned to a direction, and finally, the direction with the highest number of options…”
Everyone present understood some parts, while others puzzled them. But upon hearing the last sentence, their eyes lit up as they asked, “So the northwest, which you mentioned, is the direction with the most options?”
“Exactly!”
Du Gang nodded with a smile. “The northwest direction is quite unusual, with five more options than the second most popular direction, the northeast. This suggests that there’s a good chance the Heaven’s Mandate child is in the northwest.”
“That’s great!”
This time, everyone genuinely cheered.
They never thought they’d find people in such a way. In this regard, they felt enlightened.
Kou Yingwu excitedly asked, “What do we do next? We’re eager to move!”
He was itching to narrow down the location of the Heaven’s Mandate child and finish him for good.
Du Gang didn’t beat about the bush; he quickly pulled out a map and spread it in mid-air.
“In the northwestern direction of our current location, there are probably so many places…”
As he spoke, he quickly drew a forty-five-degree angle on the map with a black pen.
“According to the northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, and west, we divide the whole continent into eight regions…”
“The northwestern direction, occupying forty-five degrees, is considered an inner region, which is mainly where we will search for people next…”
Immediately after, he drew a ninety-degree angle with a blue pen.
“The blue area is considered an outer region. If we don’t find anyone in the inner area, we can expand our search into the outer region later…”
With his actions, everyone present was amazed, “Good job, Du Gang!”
“As expected of someone from the Ancient City!”
The people present were deeply moved, compared to the Ancient God, the name of the Ancient City left a deeper impression on them.
The Ancient City led the Tianji Pavilion and created the Primordial Daily and the rankings of Heaven, Earth and Human, along with the division of the entire continent’s powers and daily war reports.
Such news sources had lethal appeal to them, leading to their recognition of the name of the Ancient City, even though they lived in other regions.
Kou Yingwu nodded and quickly asked, “So, next, how do we further determine the Son of Destiny?”
“I was about to explain!”
Du Gang immediately took out a red pen and drew a red line at the center of the forty-five-degree angle in the northwestern direction.
“See this red line? This is the center line of the northwest. From now on, we will follow this direction, leaving our exposure points on this line…”
“Next, we will continue to test at different compass points, to determine the next destination…”
“The only difference is that this time, we are in control and can adjust our direction based on the feedback…”
“First of all, based on a forty-five-degree angle, we draw a circumscribed circle of a right-angled triangle in the initial region for the first direction judgment…”
“Then, using the elimination method to determine the direction, for example, if it’s to the northeast, we can adjust the red line to shift eastward, relocate the circumscribed circle, and every exposure test can determine a range of distance, narrowing down the test position…”
Suddenly, Du Gang began drawing multiple red circles on the map.
The content he relayed seemed very complex and cumbersome to everyone, especially because they hadn’t received nine years of compulsory education like those on Earth, and lacked understanding of basic mathematics.
Nonetheless, they could comprehend the meaning from the circles Du Gang was drawing.
“I see, you mean, we change circles every time we test?” Lan Zhize seemed to have grasped the idea.
Du Gang shrugged, “Pretty much, you can understand it as a multiple-choice question. Every test determines whether the Son of Destiny is within this circle, if not, we change the location for the next test. If he is, then we can proceed to the third phase…”
“I see!”
Everyone suddenly caught on and admired Du Gang.
“Awesome!”
“You’re really something!”
This time all four of them were genuinely impressed.
Initially doubting Du Gang’s capacity to lock on the Son of Destiny, they now had not a shred of doubt.
“So it’s like a ‘divide and find’ method?”
Laughing, Lan Zhize came up with a name for Du Gang’s method, “Using Du Gang’s red line to draw an area, encircle it, and we four will be responsible for testing. If the test result is positive, the Son of Destiny would be in the circled area. If not, we’ll encircle another area…”
Du Gang laughed lightly, “Not only that, what I have drawn is simply to help you understand. In reality, it does not require so many circles, the ‘circle’ we use to find people next is actually a straight line!”
Just when the four of them felt they had understood something, this statement again baffled them.
But Du Gang, developing an interest, started explaining to them, “Let’s assume that the position of the Son of Destiny won’t change!”
“In reality, the position of the Son of Destiny would not change in a short term, because we test every hour…”
“If his position remains unchanged, then the direction of our test is certain; all circled on one straight line…”
While saying this, he drew a straight line connecting several centers of the red circles he drew on the map.
“Fixed?”
This time, the group of them was still unable to wrap their heads around it.
“Why it’s fixed…”
Realizing they hadn’t studied basic mathematics, Du Gang didn’t set out to explain the complexity. After musing for two seconds and looking up with a gleam in his eyes, he smiled, “Just imagine the sun is the Son of Destiny, its position is fixed. What we have to do is to constantly get closer, draw the red circle, letting you conduct the test, all for moving forward…”
“Once the circle we draw surpasses the sun, the fixed direction will change, signifying that we have located his exact position, and we can then proceed to the third stage testing…”
“I get it now!”
This time, the first to speak up enthusiastically was Kou Yingwu.
His face was full of excitement, “I get it, let’s do as you said, Du Gang, you are a genius with this method. We will certainly find the Son of Destiny…”
As he spoke, he looked up at the sun, nodded and said, “Now the time is about right, it’s almost exposure time. We should start the next stage of testing…”
Then, he charged north with full confidence.
Kou Yingwu had a bitter taste in his mouth.
Darn it, the longer I stayed, the more I felt like a moron.
He basically had no understanding of what Du Gang was saying and just felt that it all sounded correct.
“Huh?”
Seeing his retreating figure, Du Gang was speechless.
Did the guy really understand?
He was headed due north, which was the direction of the previous test!
Helplessly, he shouted aloud, “Wait, you’re going the wrong way!”
“We are to proceed along the northwestern centerline now. When we reach the center of the circle, I’ll direct you further…”
At his words, Lan Zhize who was excitedly going to say something, suddenly bit his tongue.
Like Kou Yingwu, he also thought the direction he was to test was west.
Only Tao Xuanzhu seemed to have some understanding. At the moment, like a student who had just joined a study group, she looked at Du Gang expectantly and asked, “You mean, our previous tests were conducted according to the direction of the continent, but now, the tests need to be conducted based on the direction you draw the circles?”
“Exactly!”
Du Gang revealed an appreciative expression. Finally, someone understood what I was saying…