Chapter 73: Mental Sums
Anji ate while she browsed through the intermediate spell guidebook her teacher left on the table. She glanced at the counter pebbles piled neatly to one side and wondered if she needed to do more training.
According to the introduction of the intermediate spell guidebook, an advanced mathematical formula was required. There was a concept of quick multiple addition involved called multiplication. Basically, Anji would group the same set of numbers and add them several times over. It was useful when calculating how many sets of spell combinations to repeat in a complicated circuit.
However, Anji wasn’t very good at counting, much less remembering the sum of the last number she calculated. She often lost track of how many times she had counted a repeated number and would make a mistake when tallying the total with the new balance. It was quite the headache.
Just as Anji was trying to decide what to do, Yan Ping entered the hut. Her teacher looked tired, but before Anji could ask what was wrong, the blind prophet pulled out a familiar calculation tool from inside her sleeve.
"I sent someone back down to your family to get this," she smirked. "To train the body is to train the mind. After learning how to count with the pebbles, it’s time for the actual thing. It’s a little ridiculous collecting over a hundred pebbles for this exercise, so we will do this without visual aids."
Anji listened to Yan Ping explain the purpose of mental sums. The blind prophet had someone from her family write up several charts, which Yan Ping pasted on every wall in the hut. There was only one chart Anji recognised. It was the chart that helped her count to one hundred.
"Every day, you will memorise one of these charts. By the end of our closed-door training, you should know all these by heart and have all twenty meridian paths open. From today onwards, you will open the rest of your meridian pathways yourself without my assistance under my watch. As for the chores, I’ll have your maid to take care of them. Your learning progress will still be closely monitored, so don’t think you can slack off. We will have lessons starting from tomorrow onwards in the afternoon."
Surprised by the change of pace, Anji wondered if her teacher changed her mind due to her significant progress or because she was extremely exhausted. If the dream dragon was real and his words accurate, Yan Ping must have suffered tremendous setbacks in her cultivation progress from helping Anji create her own meridian path.
"Anji will work hard!" the youngest princess promised. "Shifu, rest well."