Chapter 748: The Opening of the Second Round Goes Awry

The entire assembly of Array Cultivators was energized because Zhang Deming had pointed out a new path of development for them. Well, perhaps that’s not quite accurate. It’s better to say he had pointed out a path they had all overlooked.

For this reason, the Disciples who majored in, minored in, planned to minor in, or were simply interested in the Array Dao became exceptionally active, all rolling up their sleeves and jumping into the fray.

They began to debate the Dao, attempting to shift the calculation of the Array Dao away from being controlled by the Array Cultivator’s mind. They started experimenting with various computational methods, and sparks of ingenuity flew continuously, making the scene exceptionally lively for a time.

While this stage’s topic was originally from the Celestial Spirit Sect, the momentum was already set. The Celestial Universe side no longer held anything back, and many of their Disciples would occasionally discuss the Celestial Universe’s algorithmic concepts, providing endless inspiration for the Disciples of Hongmeng.

And through the efforts of the Celestial Universe side, the so-called Magic Space and Storage Space were also analyzed to a fair degree, yielding them considerable benefits as well.

In such an atmosphere, even though there were fewer active Disciples overall, the heated debates among the Array Cultivators kept the event going for four full days before it began to wind down.

Throughout this process, the Spirit Nurturing Celestial Bead in the sky remained exceptionally active, constantly responding to the crowd of Disciples as manifestations of the Dao occurred one after another.

The second round concluded, but matters were far from over. The Celestial Spirit Sect’s Array Department became unusually active. It seemed they had finally found a path forward for Rune Life; at the very least, they had a starting point and were no longer at a complete loss.

As for Zhang Deming, he gained a wealth of Energy. During the debate on the Dao, he had already harvested over twenty points of Qi Fortune and more than two points of Merit.

Furthermore, as time went on, his daily gains of Qi Fortune and Merit gradually increased and began to accumulate. Even during the break, he was taking in several points of Qi Fortune each day.

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Just as the second round of the conference ended, Fang Jixiang of the Array Department was led by Yang Guangfu to the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower.

Seeing Fang Jixiang arrive with a crowd of Disciples from the Array Department, Zhang Deming was slightly taken aback. He bowed to Fang Jixiang and said, “Senior Brother Fang, the Sect Protection Array is operating at full capacity during the conference. Shouldn’t you be guarding the main control room? How do you have time to come all the way out here to see me?”

Fang Jixiang smiled and said, “It’s shameful to admit, but as the head of the Array Department, I probably understand the Array Dao less than a junior brother like you who only minors in it. It’s truly…”

Zhang Deming immediately replied, “Senior Brother Fang, you exaggerate. I only understood some of the fundamental principles of the Celestial Universe Array Dao because my thinking is a bit unconventional. When it comes to the true Array Dao, I would never dare to show off in front of you.”

“Junior Brother Zhang, you’re as humble as ever. It truly puts me to shame!” Fang Jixiang replied.

The two went back and forth with professional pleasantries for quite some time. Behind them, some of the Disciples who had tagged along were beginning to regret having pestered their way here. After all, they had come to meet the famed Zhang Deming and hoped to receive some inspiration.

Instead, all they got was a mouthful of bootlicking and faces plastered with professional flattery. And most of those who had insisted on coming were the academic, researcher types!

After a good while, the two finally got down to business.

“For you to lead a group here at such a critical juncture, Senior Brother, there must be something important?” Zhang Deming asked.

Fang Jixiang paused for a moment, then nodded. “Indeed, I have an important matter to discuss with you, Junior Brother.”

With that, Fang Jixiang casually waved his hand. The tabletop in front of them began to transform. Bathed in a Spiritual Light, the table became a Light Screen, displaying several lines of information.

Our Side’s Topics.

Round 1: Array Dao, Data Storage (Correction: Calculation and Storage)

Round 2: Artifact Dao, Array Artifact Forging.

Round 3: Magic Dao, Lightning Focus (Urgent: learn from their techniques, disseminate and adapt)

Round 4: Array Artifact Dao, Intelligence—Rune Life (Core keystone topic, grand finale, joint debate)

Round 5: Array Artifact Dao, Speculations on All Daos (Closing remarks, future prospects, joint debate)

Zhang Deming glanced at it, and his expression faltered. “This is…”

Fang Jixiang said, “These are the topics we spent years researching and deciding on for this conference. But we had that blunder right at the start. If you hadn’t saved the day, Junior Brother, this conference would’ve been half a disaster for us. We’d never have a scene like the one we have now.

“Frankly, I’m truly impressed with you, Junior Brother. All the Array Cultivators in all of Hongmeng have researched this for decades without a single clue, yet you easily solved a key problem that countless others had failed to even notice.

“If the path of Rune Life truly comes to fruition, you, Junior Brother, will undoubtedly be its primary founder.”

In truth, such situations are not at all rare. Once something becomes commonplace, it’s difficult to ask ‘why’ anymore.

From the moment Array Cultivators reach Foundation Establishment, they begin developing their own minds. When it comes to using Arrays, they have clearly overlooked the idea of letting the Array calculate on its own.

Some people may not understand, but think about his past life. Before Newton, was there no gravity? Was there no freefall? Did apples not fall from trees?

These things have existed since time immemorial. It’s just that people grew so accustomed to them, treating them as common sense, that they lost the fundamental drive to ask why.

It’s just like the Hongmeng Array Dao today. At the Entry Level, you’re taught Rune Heart Calculation and a whole host of other things to begin developing your mind. It’s considered common sense for an Array Cultivator to operate an Array with their own mind. Who would ever stop to think, ‘Why do I have to be the one to do the calculations?’

Who would ever consider the fact that an Array requires an Array Cultivator’s control to operate at full power to be a user-unfriendly design?

Of course, Zhang Deming couldn’t be compared to Newton. After all, Newton had the law of universal gravitation knocked into him by an apple. While everyone knew things fell to the ground before him, there was no established rule for it.

Newton was the one who formulated the law of universal gravitation. Zhang Deming merely gave the Cultivators a wake-up call. The path of calculation didn’t need him to pioneer it; in Hongmeng, it had already flourished to its absolute peak.

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Zhang Deming didn’t return the humble praise, instead looking quietly at the information on the Light Screen.

Zhang Deming looked at the five topics. The first three were topics for one side each, while the last two were joint topics for both sides.

In other words, the conference should have eight rounds in total. If there were any impromptu ‘speculation’ rounds, one or two might be added, though such situations were rare.