Chapter 158 Arithmetic Lesson: Using the Abacus! A Push and a Pull Create Chaos in the Underworld
In the east wing of Mortal Dwelling, the afternoon sunlight shone in at an angle.
Five little youngsters sat in their respective seats. Although they were forcibly suppressing the boiling Law of Extreme Spatial Speed within them from eating the 'Immortal King Roc Meat,' an afterimage would still occasionally flicker from one of them by accident.
"Clack."
Lin Yuan took the newly made [Emperor Fan] and tapped it lightly on the podium, blowing out a breeze that calmed the stars and myriad Laws, instantly making the five little ones completely quiet.
"Alright, settle down everyone, prepare for arithmetic class."
Lin Yuan tucked the fan into his waist, turned around, and pulled a rectangular object out of a wooden box under the podium, placing it on the table.
"As the saying goes, when the abacus clicks, gold flows in by the tens of thousands. In today's class, I will teach you how to use the abacus."
An abacus?!
Sitting in the back row, Goudan and Tiezhu craned their necks, their gazes falling upon the object Lin Yuan called an 'abacus.'
Boom!
The hearts of the two peerless prodigies jolted violently, and they nearly slid off their chairs!
In the eyes of a Mortal, it was just a simple abacus with a frame made of deep purple wood and dozens of transparent glass beads; the craftsmanship was even a bit crude.
But in Goudan and Tiezhu's keen perception of the Great Dao!
The frame of that abacus was clearly polished from a section of the hardest core trunk of the [Primordial World Tree], enough to bear the weight of an entire world!
The threads connecting the beads were the tendons of a pure-blooded Ancestral Dragon, radiating a terrifying dragon might!
And most hair-raising of all were those dozens of so-called 'transparent glass beads'! The insides of the beads were hazy gray, with phantoms of countless living beings constantly appearing and disappearing within them—these were clearly the supreme Divine Artifacts of legend used to govern the fate of all life and sever the bonds of Reincarnation: [ancient karma dao beadss]!
"Master... Master actually took the Karma Dao Beads that govern the fate of all life... and strung them into an abacus?!" Goudan bit his lip hard to keep himself from crying out in alarm.
Tiezhu was breaking out in a cold sweat even more. Every single Dao Bead was connected to the past and future of billions of lives. This wasn't an abacus; this was clearly the [creation life-death disk] that could wipe out the Universe and restart the era with one click!
Lin Yuan was completely oblivious to the terror of the two little ones as he reached out and flicked the beads on the abacus.
"Clatter—"
The crisp sound of beads colliding rang out.
"I made this abacus a few days ago when I was bored. I picked up some scrap wood in the yard and went to the river outside the city to find some transparent rain-flower stones to string together. The feel is a bit stiff, but it's enough to teach you how to recognize numbers."
Lin Yuan stood before the podium, his index finger and thumb pinching one of the bottommost Karma Dao Beads.
"Watch closely, there are mnemonics for using the abacus. I'll teach you the most basic addition first."
"One up one!"
Lin Yuan used his index finger to push up a bead representing 'one'.
Buzz—!
The moment that [ancient karma dao beads] was pushed up, an invisible and irresistible supreme decree followed the frame of the World Tree, penetrated the depths of the Shenhuang Continent, and went straight into the Nine Serenities Netherworld!
...
Beneath the Nine Serenities, deep within the endless sea of blood, lay the Underworld.
Inside the [Yamas Precious Hall], the Ten Yama Kings were gathered, checking the life and death ledgers of the Eastern Desolation with troubled faces.
Ever since the Spiritual Qi of the Eastern Desolation recovered and Qingyun City became an 'absolute forbidden zone,' the workload of the Underworld had increased drastically. The Karma lines of many powerhouses had been forcibly severed, causing a large number of errors to appear in their Life and Death Books.
Suddenly!
The supreme Divine Artifact floating in the center of the hall, the manifestation of the Underworld's highest Laws—the [Heaven and Earth Life and Death Book]—erupted with a blinding red light!
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
The Life and Death Book began to flip pages automatically like it was crazy. The ink recording the Lifespans of billions of beings in the Eastern Desolation began to twist and rewrite itself uncontrollably!
"What's going on?! The Life and Death Book is going berserk?!" King Qin Guang was shocked and rushed forward, attempting to suppress it with his Yama magic power.
But his meager magic power, in the face of the force rewriting the Life and Death Book, was like an ant trying to shake a giant tree!
"Report—!!!"
A judge rushed into the hall, crawling and stumbling, holding a secondary volume of the Life and Death Book. His voice was as shrill as a eunuch's: "Ten Kings! Something big has happened! Just a moment ago, the Lifespan of every Mortal in the entire Eastern Desolation was forcibly increased by ten thousand years out of thin air!!!"
"What?!"
The Ten Yama Kings all sucked in a breath of extremely cold Yin Qi, their scalps tingling.
Ten thousand years?! A Mortal's Lifespan is barely a hundred years. To add ten thousand years directly... wouldn't that mean everyone in the Eastern Desolation is now immortal? It's turning into an Immortal Realm on earth!
"Who is it?! Who is forcibly tampering with the Karma of the Heavenly Dao to grant longevity to all living beings?!" King Yama roared in terror.
...
Inside the east wing of Mortal Dwelling.
Lin Yuan finished pushing the first bead and continued reciting the mnemonic.
"Two up two!"
With a flick of his finger, two beads were pushed up.
In the Nine Serenities Underworld, the judge screamed again: "Your Majesties! The Lifespan of all birds and beasts in the Eastern Desolation has been increased by twenty thousand years! The pigs in the pens are all about to become spirits!"
"Three down five remove two!"
Lin Yuan's fingers flew as he skillfully flicked the top beads down and pushed the bottom beads up.
The Yamas Precious Hall was in utter chaos!
"Your Majesties! This is bad! The Immortal King Old Ancestors in the Central Plains, who were at the end of their million-year Lifespans and lingering on their last breaths in death seclusion, suddenly had eight hundred thousand years deducted! Four of them died on the spot!"
"Your Majesties! The Lifespan of the Yao Race in the Southern Ridge has been cut in half!"
The Ten Yama Kings watched the Life and Death Book, which was frantically changing data like it was having a seizure. Their legs went weak, and they knelt directly in the hall.
"Such means of playing with the fate of the heavens at will and treating life, death, and Reincarnation like a joke... Could it be that the legendary supreme taboo hidden in Qingyun City of the Eastern Desolation has made a move?!"
King Yama trembled all over, kowtowing frantically in the direction of Qingyun City: "Have mercy, Great One! Please stay your hand! If you keep calculating like this, the Underworld's System will completely collapse, and the Six Paths of Reincarnation will be worn smooth by your fiddling!"
...
"Four remove six carry one..."
Lin Yuan was getting into the rhythm on the podium, his hand speed getting faster and faster.
It wasn't until he finished a set of basic addition and subtraction mnemonics and looked at the messy beads on the abacus that he suddenly frowned.
"Oh, I was explaining too fast just now. It seems I made a mistake in one of the steps."
Lin Yuan stopped his movements and sighed as he looked at the abacus.
"Forget it, let's start over."
Saying that, Lin Yuan reached out his hands and gripped the frame of the abacus.
"Clear the board!"
He slammed the abacus hard against the table and then pulled it downward.
"Clatter—!!!"
At that moment, all the [ancient karma dao beadss] returned to their positions with extreme precision, producing a crisp collision sound like a great bronze bell!
Nine Serenities Underworld, Yamas Precious Hall.
The [Heaven and Earth Life and Death Book], which was already emitting black smoke and on the verge of collapse, heard the sound of 'clearing the board'.
Buzz!
All the red light instantly vanished. The Lifespans of billions of beings that had been frantically increased, deducted, and tampered with were instantly restored to their original state under a surge of Karma power!
The ten thousand years of Mortal Lifespan disappeared. The Immortal King Old Ancestors who had died from having their Lifespans deducted strangely opened their eyes in their coffins once again.
Everything was like a 'undo' button had been forcibly pressed, rolling back to the most perfect initial state!
The Ten Yama Kings collapsed onto the cold floor of the hall, panting heavily, their clothes long since soaked with cold sweat.
"It... it's been cleared? That Great One has withdrawn his Divine Ability?!"
King Qin Guang wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking at the restored Life and Death Book with lingering fear, his eyes full of the joy of having survived a disaster.
"Warn all the Underworld messengers!" King Yama gritted his teeth and issued a top-level death order: "From today onwards, the Underworld is absolutely forbidden from taking charge of any Karma within a hundred-mile radius of Qingyun City! Even if the people inside live to be as old as tortoises, do not go to reap their souls! That place is a supreme forbidden zone that has escaped the Six Paths of Reincarnation!"
...
Inside Mortal Dwelling.
Lin Yuan leveled the abacus and nodded with satisfaction.
"The beads on this abacus are a bit stiff. I'll have Old Wan put a couple of drops of sesame oil on them to lubricate them after class."
Lin Yuan picked up the abacus, walked to the back row, and handed it to Goudan, who was already dumbfounded.
"Come, Goudan, you take it and practice first. Just follow what I taught you—'one up one, two up two'—and flick them slowly. No rush."
Goudan looked at the 'creation life-death disk' handed to him, his arms shaking violently, and his Innate Immortal Bone let out an overburdened wail.
How could he dare to take it!
Just now, the Master had casually pushed and pulled it a few times, and he had already felt the Karma between heaven and earth being frantically churned. If he accidentally flicked a bead wrong and erased the fate of some Holy Land, he would surely be struck by heavenly lightning!
"Ma... Master... your student's Aptitude is dull, and my hand is cramping. I'm afraid of breaking Master's teaching tool..." Goudan said with a long face, nearly kneeling down to kowtow.
Tiezhu also nodded repeatedly from the side, hiding his hands firmly behind his back: "Right, right, right, I have a cramp too!"
Lin Yuan looked at these two usually clever kids who 'cramped up' as soon as it was time for math class and sighed helplessly.
"Sigh, this talent for science is truly hard to describe. If you don't even dare to touch an abacus, won't you be swindled out of your pants when you go out to buy groceries in the future?"
Lin Yuan shook his head, took the abacus back, and placed it on the podium.
"Forget it, I won't force you today. Memorize the mnemonics well over the next few days, and we'll do practical work tomorrow. Xiaopang, you come up. I'll teach you how to use this to calculate the money for buying meat."
Hearing about buying meat, Zhang Xiaopang's eyes immediately lit up. He trotted up and, without any psychological pressure, reached out his chubby little hand and clumsily flicked the supreme Divine Artifact that could scare the Ten Yama Kings to death.
Goudan and Tiezhu watched Xiaopang's fleshy hand sliding across the Karma Dao Beads, so scared they covered their eyes tightly, fearing that the Universe would restart in the next second because of this little fatty's mistake.