“Brother Xing, you must be joking. I’m just interested in dimensional technology, you’re all far better than me in all other fields,” Xiang Ning waved.
“Sigh, stop being so humble. Look at them, they’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. You might not know as much as us, but you’re very good at learning—so good that Mr. Dong doesn’t dare let you in the little black room studying again.” The researcher that Xiang Ning called brother Xing bitterly smiled.
The four newly joined researchers asked, “What’s the little black room?”
“It’s an inside joke we have with Xiang Ning, I’ll tell you about it next time. But it’s actually a room where we store resources on the theoretical explanations of technology. It’s like a library.”
“I see.” The four new members nodded.
“But why’d you say Mr. Dong doesn’t dare let him in the black room again?”
They knew how powerful Mr. Dong was! He was their idol, the object of their admiration. How could a person make Mr. Dong fear him?
“Why? Well, the punk almost died in there. Did you know? When he came out of the little black room, he was as thin as a piece of paper. We don’t know what his brain is made of, but he actually mastered the theory of dimensional technology there.”
“What?! Is that true? Are you lying?”
“Why would I lie? We’re all researchers, would we joke about something like that? This kid has extraordinary brain power and can learn things very quickly, so he must consume tremendous amounts of energy!” Many people turned to look at Xiang Ning with both curiosity and admiration.
Xiang Ning felt a chill, then quickly stepped aside with a sheepish grin. “My teacher’s looking for me, I need to meet him. Please, carry on without me.” As he spoke, he hurried off before someone asked for his permission to conduct research on his brain when he died. He didn’t want to hear that at all, and he already felt himself going numb under the curious gazes.
“Good evening Master, Old Jin.” Xiang Ning greeted them. Alia should have been there, but due to the beast horde, she wasn’t able to leave the fortress so soon. She still had to wrap up her research there, first.
“Ah, little Ning is here! Come here! Look at you, you’re so tanned now! You could’ve done research here with Grandpa, why’d you have to make yourself suffer? But you’re different from the rest, and since you’ve made your decision, I’ll still support you!” Old Jin clutched his hand with concern.
Xiang Ning nodded and chuckled, “Don’t worry, Old Jin, I know my limits. Also, I already promised you that I’ll be the Thirteenth Great Prodigy.”
Xiang Ning nodded with a smile, but Dong Qianyi shook his head. “You’ll never be the Thirteenth Great Prodigy—I want you to become the first Smith Saint!”
Old Jin’s eyes widened as he eyed Dong Qianyi in disbelief. “They started the Smith Saint Project already? Little Ning’s the chosen candidate? What about the other two?”
“While Xiang Ning was working on the dimensional ring, the Smith Saint Project had already been launched. After this, he’ll be learning all kinds of technologies with me.”
“Wait… wait, what? Why does it sound so elite?” Xiang Ning thought ‘Smith Saint’ sounded very cool, but didn’t know what it was. He didn’t even know if he qualified to be one.
“Xiang Ning, although you helped create the dimensional rings, you must know there are many talented people in the world. North Star City and Aurig both have research prodigies as good as you are. Although they’re three or four years older than you, their contributions are as good as yours.
“The prodigy in North Star City already completed half of the equations needed for the Celestial Calculator. Once it’s done and constructed, it’ll be a weapon for humans to become a superior race across the universe.
“The other one in Aurig is a battle prodigy. He created the three Level Eight Space Battleships, which are on the same level as a supership like the Chaos!” All three youths had made contributions as great as the Twelve Great Prodigies.
Xiang Ning nodded. Although he didn’t quite understand, the two people who had attracted Dong Qianyi’s attention must be very awesome.
“Alright, let’s talk about our research focus for the next phase. The Federation has appointed us as the main center for dimensional technology research. You’re being taken very seriously, but other than the highest level command and a few insiders, no one else knows your true identity or age,” said Dong Qianyi.
Old Jin nodded, then swiped the space in front of him and a ray of light appeared. Old Jin gently pushed forward and the light expanded into many sets of space coordinates and data. This was on a larger scale than the data they’d had to process during the research on the dimensional ring. Xiang Ning’s jaw fell.
“Master… Grandpa Jin, I might not be able to complete this. It’s too difficult.” Xiang Ning looked at the data. Exponents in the billions?! He was looking at exponentials alone and they were up to the billions; the numbers were astronomical. He felt a panic attack would come along if he continued reading the numbers.
“Hahaha, finally, something to make you uncomfortable. That’s right, this is the next research project,” said Old Jin with a smile. He then pulled out the data from dimensional ring research. “In truth, Mr. Dong was crowned one of the Twelve Great Prodigies for his work on dimensional technology. The dimensional ring was just a small cog in a very large system.”
Xiang Ning nodded, stunned. Whatever you say must be right. As he thought about it, his master really was awesome. Before this, he wasn’t aware of how awesome, exactly, but now he understood. He fully understood the vast quantities of data involved in dimensional technology; he had needed almost four months to solve it even after possessing the blueprint! If he’d had to slowly do it from the beginning… he was too afraid to even think about it.
“Master… how many years did it take you to complete the calculations for this dimensional system?” asked Xiang Ning.
“Uh, about thirteen years. I had no choice, I slacked off a lot. I only spent fifteen hours per day on calculations.”
Xiang Ning was speechless. Did they have a different concept of time? I have twenty-four hours a day, do you have thirty?! “But I see you’re always working on other matters during the day. I’ve never seen you performing calculations,” he said, puzzled. It was true. Mr. Dong had been guiding him or conducting research on other things, but he'd never seen Dong Qianyi performing calculations.
Dong Qianyi smiled and pointed at his own head. “I’m always counting in there.”
Xiang Ning’s eyes widened and he looked at Old Jin, who nodded with a grin. Xiang Ning clutched his head. “Awesome!”
“Brother Xing, you must be joking. I’m just interested in dimensional technology, you’re all far better than me in all other fields,” Xiang Ning waved.
“Sigh, stop being so humble. Look at them, they’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. You might not know as much as us, but you’re very good at learning—so good that Mr. Dong doesn’t dare let you in the little black room studying again.” The researcher that Xiang Ning called brother Xing bitterly smiled.
The four newly joined researchers asked, “What’s the little black room?”
“It’s an inside joke we have with Xiang Ning, I’ll tell you about it next time. But it’s actually a room where we store resources on the theoretical explanations of technology. It’s like a library.”
“I see.” The four new members nodded.
“But why’d you say Mr. Dong doesn’t dare let him in the black room again?”
They knew how powerful Mr. Dong was! He was their idol, the object of their admiration. How could a person make Mr. Dong fear him?
“Why? Well, the punk almost died in there. Did you know? When he came out of the little black room, he was as thin as a piece of paper. We don’t know what his brain is made of, but he actually mastered the theory of dimensional technology there.”
“What?! Is that true? Are you lying?”
“Why would I lie? We’re all researchers, would we joke about something like that? This kid has extraordinary brain power and can learn things very quickly, so he must consume tremendous amounts of energy!” Many people turned to look at Xiang Ning with both curiosity and admiration.
Xiang Ning felt a chill, then quickly stepped aside with a sheepish grin. “My teacher’s looking for me, I need to meet him. Please, carry on without me.” As he spoke, he hurried off before someone asked for his permission to conduct research on his brain when he died. He didn’t want to hear that at all, and he already felt himself going numb under the curious gazes.
“Good evening Master, Old Jin.” Xiang Ning greeted them. Alia should have been there, but due to the beast horde, she wasn’t able to leave the fortress so soon. She still had to wrap up her research there, first.
“Ah, little Ning is here! Come here! Look at you, you’re so tanned now! You could’ve done research here with Grandpa, why’d you have to make yourself suffer? But you’re different from the rest, and since you’ve made your decision, I’ll still support you!” Old Jin clutched his hand with concern.
Xiang Ning nodded and chuckled, “Don’t worry, Old Jin, I know my limits. Also, I already promised you that I’ll be the Thirteenth Great Prodigy.”
Xiang Ning nodded with a smile, but Dong Qianyi shook his head. “You’ll never be the Thirteenth Great Prodigy—I want you to become the first Smith Saint!”
Old Jin’s eyes widened as he eyed Dong Qianyi in disbelief. “They started the Smith Saint Project already? Little Ning’s the chosen candidate? What about the other two?”
“While Xiang Ning was working on the dimensional ring, the Smith Saint Project had already been launched. After this, he’ll be learning all kinds of technologies with me.”
“Wait… wait, what? Why does it sound so elite?” Xiang Ning thought ‘Smith Saint’ sounded very cool, but didn’t know what it was. He didn’t even know if he qualified to be one.
“Xiang Ning, although you helped create the dimensional rings, you must know there are many talented people in the world. North Star City and Aurig both have research prodigies as good as you are. Although they’re three or four years older than you, their contributions are as good as yours.
“The prodigy in North Star City already completed half of the equations needed for the Celestial Calculator. Once it’s done and constructed, it’ll be a weapon for humans to become a superior race across the universe.
“The other one in Aurig is a battle prodigy. He created the three Level Eight Space Battleships, which are on the same level as a supership like the Chaos!” All three youths had made contributions as great as the Twelve Great Prodigies.
Xiang Ning nodded. Although he didn’t quite understand, the two people who had attracted Dong Qianyi’s attention must be very awesome.
“Alright, let’s talk about our research focus for the next phase. The Federation has appointed us as the main center for dimensional technology research. You’re being taken very seriously, but other than the highest level command and a few insiders, no one else knows your true identity or age,” said Dong Qianyi.
Old Jin nodded, then swiped the space in front of him and a ray of light appeared. Old Jin gently pushed forward and the light expanded into many sets of space coordinates and data. This was on a larger scale than the data they’d had to process during the research on the dimensional ring. Xiang Ning’s jaw fell.
“Master… Grandpa Jin, I might not be able to complete this. It’s too difficult.” Xiang Ning looked at the data. Exponents in the billions?! He was looking at exponentials alone and they were up to the billions; the numbers were astronomical. He felt a panic attack would come along if he continued reading the numbers.
“Hahaha, finally, something to make you uncomfortable. That’s right, this is the next research project,” said Old Jin with a smile. He then pulled out the data from dimensional ring research. “In truth, Mr. Dong was crowned one of the Twelve Great Prodigies for his work on dimensional technology. The dimensional ring was just a small cog in a very large system.”
Xiang Ning nodded, stunned. Whatever you say must be right. As he thought about it, his master really was awesome. Before this, he wasn’t aware of how awesome, exactly, but now he understood. He fully understood the vast quantities of data involved in dimensional technology; he had needed almost four months to solve it even after possessing the blueprint! If he’d had to slowly do it from the beginning… he was too afraid to even think about it.
“Master… how many years did it take you to complete the calculations for this dimensional system?” asked Xiang Ning.
“Uh, about thirteen years. I had no choice, I slacked off a lot. I only spent fifteen hours per day on calculations.”
Xiang Ning was speechless. Did they have a different concept of time? I have twenty-four hours a day, do you have thirty?! “But I see you’re always working on other matters during the day. I’ve never seen you performing calculations,” he said, puzzled. It was true. Mr. Dong had been guiding him or conducting research on other things, but he'd never seen Dong Qianyi performing calculations.
Dong Qianyi smiled and pointed at his own head. “I’m always counting in there.”
Xiang Ning’s eyes widened and he looked at Old Jin, who nodded with a grin. Xiang Ning clutched his head. “Awesome!”
