Chapter 1129 — Mathematics

Beyila looked at Gao Yang earnestly: "Are you interested in such dolls? If you want one, I can cut one off for you — unlike other wooden articles, she is very easy to maintain. Just soak her in frostgrass potion for two hours, take her out to dry, and she will keep for at least half a century."

"No, thank you." Sensing that the conversation might be heading somewhere unexpected, Gao Yang hastily waved his hand, pulled Belantia along, and ducked into the transport device inside the pipe. Beyila said nothing further; she merely stood where she was, maintaining her wooden expression, and then the protective shell of the pipe closed smoothly, while soft lights came on inside the cabin.

Belantia watched all of this calmly throughout. As the Silver Empress, her long life had shown her a great many things, and under most circumstances she could maintain this composed and tranquil bearing. Although the private temperament of the "Outland Wanderer" and Beyila's present appearance both somewhat exceeded her expectations, none of it was a bad thing.

Still, once the transit cabin in the pipe began to slide, she could not help asking: "Is it really all right to take me straight to that 'monitoring center'? It sounds as though you have just obtained some tremendous result — is this sort of thing not subject to confidentiality?"

"It does have a certain level of secrecy, but as I said earlier in the plaza, this project itself is open-source to the neighboring countries, and to the Silver Empire... it will be open-source as well," Gao Yang explained. "In fact, we have even sent technical teams to make contact with the Holy Dragon Duchy and the Typhon Empire on our own initiative, hoping to establish a larger-scale monitoring network with shared data..."

The Silver Empress could not help widening her eyes in astonishment. She had indeed just heard Gao Dai say that this "monitoring" project was open to the neighboring countries, but she had not expected it to be open to this degree. This went even beyond the technological exchange between the Cecil Empire and the Silver Empire; it was a joint undertaking at the technological level such as had never before appeared among the mortal nations, and she could not help asking: "Why go to such lengths? What exactly are you monitoring, that you need to... do this across the entire continent?"

Gao Yang looked into Belantia's eyes. Under the swiftly flickering lights, the Silver Empress's eyes were full of the curiosity of one seeking knowledge.

"We are tracking a signal — source unknown, meaning unknown, and the decoded content is also vague and unclear. But we can confirm that it is an artificial signal, and I believe it... may bring us something capable of overturning everyone's worldview," Gao Xi said slowly. "We have been tracking it for more than two years, and lately more and more data have made the experts realize one thing: with only the information-gathering efficiency of the Magic Web hubs within Cecil's borders, it is impossible to complete the tracking and locking of this signal."

Belantia's eyes widened, but before she could say anything more, a slight jolt suddenly came, followed at once by the sound of the pipe's outer shell opening.

Just as Beyila had said — this pipeline transit system was indeed very convenient.

In the brightly lit monitoring center, the fluctuations of the mysterious signal still echoed through the equipment. Paper tapes and boards used to record the signal's waveforms and images had already piled up on the recording table, and the printer kept outputting more continuous paper to record every minute change of the signal. In the holographic projection at the center of the room, a geometric pattern and dot matrix of considerable scale were still expanding.

Bard stared fixedly at the image, until a sudden voice at his ear startled him out of his absorption: "His Majesty is here!" "Lady Beyila is here too!" "It is the Empress... the Silver Empress..."

Bard quickly raised his head and saw three figures coming from the direction of the transit pipe's exit, but before anyone could bow in salute, Gao Yang, at the head of the group, waved them off.

"Back to your posts," Gao Song's voice rang through the room. "The person in charge of the monitoring channel — come here. Who captured this signal?"

Bard rose at once, left his post, and came before Gao Yang. After bowing in salute, Gao Yang looked at the familiar man before him in some surprise: "You?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Bard said, lowering his head. "I am in charge of this monitoring team."

"Good. Well done," Gao Yang said with a faint smile, nodding, and his gaze fell upon the holographic projection at the center of the room. "What is the situation now?"

"The signal transmission continues, and its stability far exceeds anything before. So far there has been no interruption and no unparseable noise," Bard said at once. "Using the decoding method created by Lady Beyila, we successfully produced these figures — the figures are clear and regular, which shows the decoding approach is correct, but as for the content..."

Gao Yang gazed at what was displayed in the projection, a seriousness in his eyes such as others had never seen.

He saw the basic geometric shapes arranged neatly in the first row, including perfectly regular squares, triangles, circles, and polygons.

He saw that the subsequent patterns began to include smooth curves, spiraling lines that gradually opened outward, and closed intersecting geometric solids.

Dot matrices grouped according to an increasing progression, a coordinate system with a horizontal axis and a vertical axis, upon which undulating round dots were distributed.

The discussions among the people in the room were pressed low; the most audible sounds all came from the magic-driven machines running throughout the space. The device outputting printed paper emitted a clattering sound—the print paper stored in the paper compartment had run out, and a staff member nearby hurried forward to replace it with new print paper.

"Your Majesty, look at these contents..." Bard said quietly from the side. "These things seem to be..."

"It's mathematics." Gaoyang finally let out a gentle breath, his heartbeat gradually calming with the deep breathing.

Bard was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice: "...So you see it that way too."

Gaoyang gazed at the holographic projection at the center of the room. Just then, those continuously output geometric figures, dot matrices, and curves seemed to finally reach their end, and something else emerged from above—but it was no longer the "mathematical" content familiar to everyone present.

It was a pile of grotesque, symbol-like things.