Chapter 212 - A Puzzle That Drives One Crazy
The runic lines on each runic plate on the inheritance building was very noticeable as it stood together as a whole, but it was overshadowed by the runic plates itself like looking at a brick wall, an uneducated and ignorant person would only look at the sturdiness of each brick, believing the toughness of the bricks was what made a brick wall strong and not the cement in the gaps between that holds it together.
However, once the runic lines around the perimeter of the jade lit up, the situation was reversed with the runic lines completely overshadowed the runic plates. The glowing runic lines on the runic plate by itself were more intricate than any character of the ancient language, and when it conjoined with the others surrounding the power jade, it formed a more complex but incomplete system than spider webs.
Just as Leon had anticipated, once the inheritance building was powered up, the runic plates became moveable. Unfortunately, he was the only one that got to witness such a fantastic sight.
Elder Evergreen had returned to his dwelling. Believing that even if Leon could solve the puzzle, it would still take a long time. He wasn't interested in watching through this entire process. As a semi-treant and a particularly aged one at that, He wasn't usually this active. Their entire group usually spends most of their time sleeping.
Leon had noticed that one of the glowing runic lines ran all the to the bottom of the inheritance building's jade side. Using his divine sense, he found that the bottom side of the inheritance building was already fully lit. This means, of the six sides of the giant cube-like puzzle, he only needed to solve the other five sides.
'These runes are actually quite simple. I didn't expect that difficulty of this test to be set this low.' Leon thought simply.
As he twists and turns a few plates, the number of glowing runic lines steadily increased. Leon was surprised by the fact that solving the puzzle would be this smooth.
While Leon had assumed that Arden wouldn't set a very high bar for runic understanding, he wouldn't set such an exceedingly low requirement that any Tom, Dick, and Harry could also solve it. After all, he, himself had yet to cover all the basics of the [Introduction to Runes for Dummies]. The knowledge was there but had yet to digest it all.
'I thought this inheritance was made for finding a good successor with great talents, but maybe it was only meant for the fated one? After all, the prerequisite for solving the puzzle is to have the dragon phoenix jade, and half the jade was given to me since birth... Everything seems... fixed.' Leon began to feel doubtful.
However, after he finished lighting up one-fifth of the jade side, he finally encountered his first problem. No matter how Leon turned his current plate, or go back and rearrange the previous ones, one of the glowing runic lines on the plate will always run into a dead end.
Each runic plate was square in shape and three of the sides would end with a connector, while the last side would be blank.
At any given time, a runic plate will always be surrounded by 4 other runic plates, but only 3 will be connected by their runic lines. To turn the runic plates, he had to first press into it and sink the plate inwards before space is created for it to turn, even the runic plate with the jade slotted can be pressed and turned.
'I see, no wonder it's called a puzzle and not a test. Even if the runic lines light up, it might not be the correct combination. Only one answer is correct in the truest sense, while the others will eventually cause a connector to run into a dead-end down the track…"
Leon began to sweat. Although one side was already solved for him, also given a starting point, and even realized the problem early, this still didn't make Leon feel better and his expression turned for the worse very quickly. This was because the puzzle was almost impossible to solve without knowing the answer from the start!
This wasn't a simple puzzle where connecting two plates was a simple 3 plus 3 equal 6, but 3 times 3 equal 9! And with each plate added, the number of possible solutions increases exponentially!
There were 100 plates on each side, for a grand total of 600 plates! 100 plates solved means he still has 500 plates to solve. Within these 500 plates, there were some black plates that Leon deemed as dead plates. It didn't have any connectors and wasn't meant to light up at all.
But what did close to 500 plates mean? It means the number of possible combinations was almost equivalent to 3 to the power of 500!
Within this seemingly infinite number of possible solutions, there was only one true solution! The rest will eventually create a dead end at some point!
'Fuck!'
Leon cursed.
What kind of inhuman mental calculation and memory was required to solve this!? The number was enough to make anyone with the hopes of solving the puzzle easily despair! Who would be able to remember all the possible combinations and mistakes they make while solving this!?
Even if he goes back 3 steps in order to go 4 steps forward, he might him running into a different dead end!
Let's say he even manage to light up the entire jade side on his first try only to find a new dead end, he wouldn't even know at which point in the combination sequence went wrong. Perhaps it was wrong from the start!
Even if he manages to solve four sides and get very close to completion but ended running into a dead-end that traced him all the way back to the start, the setback will make him go crazy! Or anyone for that matter!
Solving the puzzle through trial and error is like walking through an infinitely large maze of crystal-clear glass, even if they can see the endpoint, without a guide, they would just keep banging their heads into the glass.
'There's still something missing. Even a hint will be useful at this point.' Leon contemplated.
He spent the following six hours through trial and error and managed to light up four-fifths of the jade side. He had already lost count of the times he had to retrace his steps to get this far and even then, it didn't guarantee that the current combination sequence was the most correct one.
'The more runic lines lit, the greater the difficulty. As I thought, try to solve this puzzle purely through trial and error is a pointless endeavor.'
Leon frowned and rubbed his sore temples. After discovering the problem, just the thought of solving the puzzle was enough to give him a headache.
He had no choice but to give up on the puzzle for now and return to Elder Evergreen's dwelling in defeat. The elder had his eyes closed in hibernation, but upon hearing nearby footsteps, he was roused awake. It could be seen that he was very alert despite his idleness.
"What's wrong, child? Given up so soon? I thought you found the way to solve it." The elder chuckled at Leon's defeated look.
Hearing this, Leon sighed, "Knowing the way and actually solving it are two completely different concepts. For the specifics, you should go take a look, then you'll understand, elder."
"Oh?"
Elder Evergreen was taken aback, before he said with interest, "Then I better take a look."
Leon followed after the elder back to back to the site and told the elder his general understanding in solving the puzzle. He mischievously chose not to mention the endless possibilities of the puzzle that made him despair. He wanted to see how the elder reacts upon realization for his own amusement.
After learning the method, the elder's long extinguished hope of solving the puzzle was reignited and said, "That sounds pretty simple. How hard can lighting up all these lines be?"
But within 10 minutes of fiddling around with the arrangements of the runic plates, he also figured out the problem and decisively washed his hands of the matter with a simple statement, "Yeah, Nah. That puzzle is fucked up. It's all you, child."
Leon was taken surprise by the elder's language but laughed right after.
After a while, Leon calmed down and casually ask, "Do you know if your great ancestor left behind any words or hints regarding the puzzle, or anything outside of the puzzle in general at all, elder?"
Although Leon was not expecting a positive answer, he was still disappointed when the elder shook his head.
'Did Arden really leave nothing else behind other than his inheritance building? How did he expect people to solve his puzzle? It would take hundreds if not thousands of years to input all the possible combinations unless there was a clue to aid them or godly luck to solve it by a fluke.'
'No, that's not right. He did leave something else behind. His diary!' Leon's eyes flickered with hope. Perhaps the hint was contained within the diary!
Leon had a strong hunch that this line of thinking was correct.
It didn't make sense for Arden, who was supposedly mortal to survive the crash of the floating city. There were many floating cities built in that era. A floating city that crashes on land would create an exceptionally large area of devastation but not enough to end the world. A floating city crash on the ocean was a different story, however. The Boundless Sea had enough water to sweep the world!
Surviving the first crash wouldn't help him survive what was to come after, not unless he had something to rely on! A secret that wasn't recorded in the diary, but most likely holds the key to unlocking that secret!
Why else would a diary that accompanied Arden throughout his life be left behind even though Arden, himself had survived that disaster?