Devour

Chapter 297: The Problem of Unknown Count

Everyone was alert and vigilant, only to see three huge creatures that looked like ants crawling out of the hole one after another.

They are incredibly strong! They are about 18 meters long, and except for their dark eyes, they are dark red like rust. Their strong jaws are curved like a guillotine, opening and closing, giving off a dangerous aura. On their backs are two pairs of translucent wings folded in the shape of water drops, making them amphibious overlords on land and in the air.

If the black poisonous ants seen in the Qiongqi Continent can be considered large ants in the conventional sense, the giant monster in front of them is far beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Li Tong said: "I know why those demon fossils have almost no demonic energy. It is the unique secret technique of the Iron Demon Ants, which can devour demonic energy and transform it into spiritual energy to grow!"

Cheng Bai repeatedly expanded his perception range and asked in confusion: "Are they celibate? We can't sense a fourth of their kind within hundreds of miles."

Zhai Xufei said: "Their bodies are stronger than iron, their jaws and teeth are extremely poisonous, and they absorb demonic energy, so they are called iron demon ants. Each of these species is a killing expert who comes and goes like the wind. If there are only a few of them entrenched, even groups of roaming ghosts dare not approach the underground palace caves."

When the Iron Demon Ant found a living creature, it immediately displayed its terrifying jumping ability. It was hundreds of meters away, but in a flash, it jumped close to the front. Its pair of large, black, translucent eyes reflected the appearance of its prey, sending a chill down one's spine.

Without waiting for the opponent to get close, Bei Tingjun quickly stretched out his finger to launch an attack. Three giant frost swords condensed from thousand-foot ice slashes slashed down in front of him, taking away the heads of the three iron demon ants in the process of spinning.

Cheng Bai sensed the fluctuations of the power of all things and judged the depth: "The Iron Demon Ant's cultivation is inferior to the Thousand-Eyed Centipede, and it will be much more troublesome if the three of them join forces. However, Master Zhai and Sister Bei are much more powerful, so this battle is completely suspenseful."

Three huge heads fell to the ground and rolled. The headless Iron Demon Ant was not dead yet. It sensed the terrible threat from the powerful enemy and hurriedly turned around and spread its wings to escape.

In a flash, Zhai Xufei's chain of wind blades shot out, and the sharp blade wall made a crisp and short cutting sound, tearing the wings of the Iron Demon Ant into snowflake-like pieces that scattered everywhere.

Cheng Bai followed closely with his killing sword, and with "chi chi chi" sounds, it pierced through the Iron Demon Ant's thin waist and cut it into two pieces.

The broken body of the Iron Demon Ant fell to the ground and rolled helplessly. One of the heads said in horror: "Who are you? How can you be so powerful? We were torn into pieces before we could even use our skills..."

Zhai Xufei let go of his body without saying a word, stretched out his nine heads, opened his mouth wide, picked up the bodies of the iron demon ants one by one, and was about to swallow them down with a crunch.

Cheng Bai thought to himself, "It's natural for a bird to eat an insect. It's a pity that it swallowed an ant whole and even lost its inner elixir." He couldn't help but say, "Leave an inner elixir of the Iron Demon Ant for me."

Zhai Xufei really tore open one of the body parts, picked out an inner elixir and gave it to Cheng Bai.

This is an early stage Unfettered Realm inner elixir. Although it is more advanced than the Mud Demon King's inner elixir, it only has three runes: "Transformation", "Go All in", and "Transform Demon into Spirit". At first glance, it is inferior for refining tools. Cheng Bai took a quick look and put it into the Xumi mustard seed.

Zhai Xufei devoured the delicious food in two or three mouthfuls, then retracted his head and licked the corner of his mouth and said, "Your Excellency, please forgive me for making fun of you. The rules of the Nine-Layered Abyss are special. If a corpse is left idle for a long time, it is very likely to turn into a ghost. Humans change especially quickly. It is best to eat it as soon as possible, or hide it in another world."

"I see." Cheng Bai thought about it and suddenly realized the contradiction. He asked, "If the life fire of all the dead creatures in the Nine-Layered Abyss was taken away by the Nine-Sky Mysterious Fire, why did the corpses give birth to new spiritual intelligence in such a short time and turn into ghosts?"

The birth of a new life from a corpse means a new fire of life. But since it has been taken away, how can a new one appear?

Li Tong pondered, "What powerful ability can make the corpse change so quickly that only will-o'-the-wisp is born instead of other life. The two are not contradictory, but complementary, first taking away, then giving."

Cheng Bai was surprised and asked, "According to this inference, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Fire is constantly gathering the fire of life and becoming increasingly vigorous. Could it be that the ultimate purpose is to transform the corpses of the ancient god kings into ancient ghost kings?"

Being able to create a god-king-level ghost is extremely terrifying, but it seems that the effect is not that strong at the moment, and a god-king-level corpse is still just a corpse.

Cheng Bai thought for a moment and asked Li Tong: "What is the ability of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Fire?"

Li Tong said: "The Nine Heavens Mysterious Fire has powerful healing and detoxification abilities, and can even revive the dead. But after gathering countless life fires over the years, I don't know if it has evolved."

After Zhai Xufei had eaten his fill, he began to talk more: "In my previous life, I also wanted to go deep into the abyss to find out what was going on, but unfortunately I couldn't get past the Yali, so I had to give up."

Bei Tingjun said: "Yayu is a bloodthirsty and murderous guy. If you want to get past him, you can't be soft. The intruder will either become a corpse or a ghost."

Zhai Xufei said: "The lords of other levels are very lazy and don't care about outsiders coming in and out. Yayu is obviously different. He is extremely interested in killing and is always hunting intruders. It is difficult to miss him if you want to enter the ninth level."

A Pu said absentmindedly, "At least we have reached the eighth floor, let's think about what to do next."

Cheng Bai used the power of the Phoenix to explore the road ahead: "Go out from the cave dug by the Iron Demon Ants and walk up the corridor. Not far away is the new teleportation altar."

The ghost general on duty was named Xinnong. Cheng Bai saw the introduction of him in the roster and found out that he was actually a mathematician who was very good at studying tiny details and making ingenious calculations!

Cheng Bai raised his eyebrows and thought to himself, "Each of the 72 ghost generals has unique abilities. It would be great if they were all under my command. Unfortunately, the aliens are ultimately not as capable as them."

This altar cave is both neat and messy. The neat part is that the environment is neat and orderly, and the stone walls are cut flat; the messy part is that the stone walls are covered with dense handwriting, and every inch of space is used.

Cheng Bai looked at the various series, calculus, geometric analysis and other contents on the wall, and secretly admired: "Xin Nong has unique insights into things, but in a world dominated by monks, it is just a personal hobby, and it may not be able to solve many problems, right?"

As the team stepped onto the first level of the altar, a puff of green smoke rose from the top of the altar, and the startled Xinnong emerged from underground. It had a simple appearance, wearing a gray-blue robe with fluttering sleeves, and except for a pair of curved horns on its head, the rest of its body was similar to a human shape.

Xinnon faced the crowd and said in a majestic and loud voice: "Fools from outside! You have trespassed and disrupted the holy temple of knowledge, infringing on the rights of scholars who pursue truth and wisdom."

Cheng Bai tried to make peace with him, "It's not that serious. How dare we offend you? But we want to go to the next floor."

Xin Nong crossed his arms and said as a matter of course: "If you want to pass the Xin Nong Pillar, you must answer my question."

Cheng Bai smiled and said, "Sir, why don't you tell me what the problem is?"

Xin Nong straightened his chest and asked, "There is an unknown number. When divided by five, there is a remainder of three. When divided by seven, there is a remainder of two. When divided by nine, there is a remainder of four. What is it?"

Everyone present looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to answer. To the monks, such mathematical problems were simply incomprehensible.

Bei Tingjun felt dizzy after thinking about it, and said reluctantly: "I don't understand what it means, 'five three two four nine'. Has this old man lost his body and been lonely for too long, and has he become confused?"

Zhai Xufei, who was standing beside him, guessed, "It seems to be saying 'five seven nine four two three'? The old man probably won't have any delicious food to offer after his death. He dreams about eating so many kilograms of rice every night, and he can't even tell how many handfuls of rice or how many vegetables he has. He's going crazy from dreaming about it!"

Hearing the gossip, Xin Nong shook his head and sighed, "Only female demons and birdmen are difficult to raise!"

"Does anyone have a solution to this?" Apu frowned and looked around at everyone, not knowing how to respond.

"Brother Yan, have you found a solution?" Hei Long looked at the smoker and saw him bending down and pinching his fingers to substitute numbers one by one into the calculation, and then eliminating them step by step.

Cheng Bai thought to himself, "The smoker's method is clumsy, but it is practical."

Seeing this, Zhai Xufei gave a thumbs up, laughed dryly and praised: "Haha... Brother Yan Gui is really a learned demon!"

Xin Nong showed a mocking look and sneered: "According to this calculation, how many years do you want to live here, slowly counting the years until you die of old age?"

Cheng Bai thought: "It's actually talking about a problem of unknown number of objects. The wise ancient people on Earth solved similar problems a long time ago. We can get the answer by substituting the remainder theorem."