Chapter 37: Super Genius!

"The essence of runes?" Yang Shubai asked, looking puzzled.

Having studied and utilized runes for so many years, this was the first time anyone had spoken to her about their essence. After all, weren't runes just runes?

Lin Xiao carefully weighed his words in his mind, searching for an explanation that would allow Yang Shubai to understand. Watching her create extraordinary items earlier, he had felt as if he were watching someone write code. Those combinations of runes were like API calls in a high-level programming language—the developer didn't need to understand the underlying implementation, only to combine and call them according to established rules.

How to put it… It was like the cultivation stories from his past life, where immortals had to chant mantras and weave hand seals to cast spells. It was like magicians in fantasy tales chanting incantations to release magic. To an ordinary person's senses, they might hear: "El’súmë cala’quen, Menel’vanya estel, Aire’lóte undómë, Ná i’omentielva..." To the mind, it would sound like: "asdfauiasd, fjaksdfuiwerfbjk, laszjkvczxbjkaodfiyuhqv, ebhrfjkaszxjfhg..."

But in reality, they were using Elvish to say: "Great fire spirit 'Salamander,' I am your old friend, Old Wang—do you remember me? I’m asking for a favor: at these coordinates—44°27′46″ East longitude, 14°33′26″ North latitude—please grant me an 8th-tier spell, 'Doomsday Flame'! Today's enemy is too strong, and I need the 'Master Kami's Modified Version 3.5'—I am willing to pay 3,400 points of mana for it. Please! Thank you so much! I'll look for you again for our next collaboration!"

Within that chant, the target of the plea—the fire element 'Salamander'—the geographic coordinates, the name of the spell, the master-modified version, the mana consumption... these pieces of information were like runes; they were preset by predecessors, and mentioning these concepts immediately invoked the massive amount of information behind them.

It reminded him of technical scenarios from his past life: when an ordinary programmer calls a sort() function, they don't need to know whether it's using quicksort or mergesort behind the scenes. However, a systems engineer can rewrite the algorithm or even directly optimize the CPU instruction pipeline. What had flowed from his fingertips earlier was precisely an algorithm-level refactoring of the "Hourglass Rune." From a programming perspective, he had bypassed the interpreted rune layer and outputted optimized machine code directly. It was equivalent to other programmers still using Python to call ready-made libraries, while he had already rewritten the standard library in C++ and was optimizing the assembly instructions.

Lin Xiao selected the vocabulary he thought Yang Shubai could understand and explained this logic. As he delved deeper, Yang Shubai’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. His words were like opening a brand-new door for her. She hungrily absorbed his "knowledge dew," terrified of missing even a single drop. When Lin Xiao finished his exposition, Yang Shubai let out a long sigh: "I used to think I was a genius, but I didn't realize there were such insurmountable chasms even among geniuses."

She certainly had the capital to be proud. If twenty-five-year-old Chen Xin was already a genius at the federal level, then what level of genius was twenty-year-old Yang Shubai? Even Lin Xiao, who possessed a cheat-like method for absorbing source energy, couldn't be sure if he would become a Level 4 esper by the age of twenty.

"I really didn't misjudge you!"

But Yang Shubai's frustration lasted less than half a minute. Her eyes brightened once more, and her gaze toward Lin Xiao became even more intense.

Lin Xiao: ...

He felt as though he had trapped himself. It seemed that his efforts had completely maxed out her attention toward him. Faced with Yang Shubai's curiosity, Lin Xiao had no choice, but there were more important matters at hand. He asked, "I would like to ask, if I want to create an extraordinary item capable of storing and reading memories, and it would be best if it could overcome the 1:1 time flow to speed up memory storage—what kind of materials would such an item require?"

How to modify extraordinary materials to become extraordinary equipment was no longer a challenge for Lin Xiao, but choosing the right material required summarized experience. Thus, he chose to consult Yang Shubai directly. In his vision, if there were an extraordinary item that allowed Huang Lingzhao to store a portion of her important memories before midnight each day, and then read them back at high speed the next day, it would at least partially solve the inconveniences in her life.

Yang Shubai pondered for a moment and said, "The extraordinary material with the highest affinity for memory-based abilities is Spirit-Wood. Wanting to have both storage and retrieval effects is already very demanding, and if you also hope to speed up memory storage, you absolutely must use Spirit-Wood that is at least a thousand years old."

"Thousand-year-old Spirit-Wood?" Lin Xiao’s pupils constricted, his voice rising a notch involuntarily. "Where can I find such a material?"

As soon as he spoke, he realized he had asked a foolish question. A material that had formed over a thousand years was a rare treasure in any era; how could it be found easily?

"Don't look at me, I don't know either," Yang Shubai shrugged. Suddenly, as if thinking of something amusing, a cunning smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Wait, I do know of one place that has it."

"Where?" Lin Xiao pressed.

"The Heavenly Dao Shrine in Donghai City. The plaque above the main gate is made of ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Wood. If you can get your hands on that, the extraordinary equipment you make will likely exceed your wildest imagination." There was a playful glint in Yang Shubai’s eyes. She deliberately drew out her words, clearly teasing him. Today, she was supposed to be the teacher, but she had been stunned by the mysterious strings of characters Lin Xiao revealed, which made her feel a bit embarrassed. Using this to tease Lin Xiao was a way to find some amusement. It wasn't as if he could actually get the plaque from the Heavenly Dao Shrine, could he?

Hearing her words, Lin Xiao paused: "The information you provided is very valuable. It doesn't seem entirely impossible, does it?"

Yang Shubai: "!!!"

I was just saying that casually—could you actually get it? This is too ridiculous; that's the Heavenly Dao Shrine! What kind of blind person would dare to target the Heavenly Dao Shrine?

"Don't do anything reckless! If you actually go to the Heavenly Dao Shrine to steal the plaque, ten lives wouldn't be enough!" Yang Shubai quickly warned.

Lin Xiao laughed. So, she was worried he would become a thief? He smiled and explained, "I don't intend to steal it. It's just that I have a little bit of a connection with the high-level officials of the Donghai Heavenly Dao Shrine."

Lin Xiao didn't specify who this official was, as during their previous conversations, Su Huaijin seemed not to want outsiders to know that she had a connection with him.

"Tch~ what's the use of just knowing an official? Unless you can get Su Huaijin to nod, how could you possibly walk away with that plaque?" Yang Shubai retorted. "Forget it, I'll keep an eye out for you and see if I can acquire a piece of thousand-year-old Spirit-Wood."

Lin Xiao: "..."

I actually might be able to get Su Huaijin to gift me the plaque...

But the next moment, Lin Xiao shook his head, casting the thought from his mind. To ask for such a precious extraordinary material would incur a debt of gratitude far too heavy; he would avoid it if he could.

With today's business concluded, Lin Xiao prepared to take his leave: "Thank you for your guidance. I will find a way to source the materials myself, so I'll be heading back now."

He turned to leave, but was stopped by Yang Shubai: "Wait!"

"Is there something else?"

He saw Yang Shubai flip her wrist, and a piece of peculiar wood flew through the air. Lin Xiao caught it instinctively, a faint tingling sensation spreading through his palm. It was a piece of dark purple wood, the texture as delicate as glaze, emitting a dim, mysterious luster. Most striking were the naturally formed silver veins on the surface, winding and coiling like lightning, and one could faintly hear a subtle humming sound.

"This is?"

"This is Thunder-Sound Wood. It also has a very high affinity for memory-based abilities. Although it doesn't meet your requirements, you can use it to practice and see what kind of extraordinary equipment you can create," Yang Shubai said.

Lin Xiao: "You just want to sneak a peek at my process of creating extraordinary equipment, don't you?"

"Are you going to make it or not?" Yang Shubai asked, feigning toughness.

"I will! Of course I will!"