The Demon King is unfathomable

Chapter 395 Whispers of Chaos

Rolling yellow sand washes over the unyielding Brass Pass, while the scorching winds from hell blow silently across the frigid snowfield.

Since Ilana proposed the "Colin-Otavia Equation", a frenzy of using mathematical tools to analyze everything has instantly swept through the entire "Magic Science Laboratory".

Although The Wise has not yet provided authoritative certification of Ilana's findings, this does not hinder the dissemination and sharing of knowledge.

The young apprentices were no longer satisfied with just experience and intuition, but began to try to use rigorous formulas to calculate the energy loss of magic circles and to use geometry to optimize the structure of alchemical devices.

Although most of the attempts seemed naive and laughable due to insufficient theoretical foundation, this unprecedented academic enthusiasm filled the entire laboratory with vitality.

The following morning, Luo Yan summoned his core apprentices to the center of the laboratory. Holding a magic crystal that emitted a soft glow, he spoke gently.

"Today, we have a new research topic."

"After being overloaded with source energy and then cooled, this high-purity magic crystal has a certain probability of developing micro-cracks inside, affecting the stability of its energy conduction. Our task is to find and predict the distribution pattern of these cracks."

“Professor Hector said he didn’t believe a group of magic apprentices could solve this problem, so I made a bet with him… I believe you can do it.”

Jamie, Ram, and the others were completely confused.

“Predicting cracks?” Jamie scratched his head, puzzled. “How…how is that possible? The cracks it produces each time it cools are different, right?”

Ram chimed in quietly, "It sounds more like divination than science..."

Ophia didn't speak; she was already chewing on her quill and thinking.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Ilana suddenly raised her hand.

"Mentor, I'm willing to give it a try!"

"Oh? It seems you have an idea," Luo Yan said with a smile.

Ilana nodded intently and said in a clear and affirmative voice.

"Since everything follows the 'principle of least action,' and the formation of a crack is a form of energy release, I think it must extend along some path with the 'minimum energy consumption'! I can use... that equation to find this perfect 'optimal crack path'!"

Although the "Colin-Ottavia equation" was her own suggestion, she is now the person most embarrassed to mention it.

Some things don't feel shameful when discussed in private, but become a different story in public.

She has now finally realized how rash she had been.

Although she didn't regret anything.

Luo Yan smiled and nodded.

"Very good, Ilana, go ahead and do it!"

After a pause, he continued.

"Of course, others can also think along these lines... although I would recommend that you broaden your thinking and not be confined to existing frameworks. Perhaps we will make new discoveries."

Having received her mentor's approval, Ilana immediately immersed herself in the calculations.

She spread out the manuscript paper, her quill pen dancing across it, lines of beautiful and complex formulas flowing from its tip, completely immersed in her own world.

In fact, she also carried considerable pressure after her tremendous success.

The editorial department of The Wise Man's Journal had no confidence in the research results of James Wally's mentor, let alone the theoretical achievements based on them.

Even if this achievement comes from the recently popular Magic Science Laboratory, and even if Prince Colin's name is on the paper.

Ilana didn't want to disappoint her mentor Colin. She desperately needed a practical application case to prove the value of the "Colin-Ottavia equation" to the entire academic community, so she subconsciously tried to use her new "hammer" to knock down all the "nails".

Jamie, Ram, and the others looked at the meticulous Ilana with awe, as if they could already see the birth of the next miracle in her.

"How long do you think it will take her to figure it out?"

"I don't know...maybe a week?" Ram said uncertainly.

“A week?! I think it’ll be three days at most!” Jamie said smugly. “Just wait and see, this little thing is no problem for her.”

The three days passed quickly.

Unsurprisingly, those who set their goals too early were proven wrong.

For the past three days, Luo Yan has been busy with matters related to the Void Realm Asset Restructuring Committee, and hasn't devoted much energy to the laboratory.

When he remembered this, it was already the fifth day.

Clearly, Ilana's progress is not going well.

Her desk was piled high with discarded manuscript papers, each one covered with dense calculations, then crossed out with irritating ink.

No matter how she derived her equations, she could not arrive at a unique and stable solution. The results always oscillated between several possibilities, and even fell into logical paradoxes.

She began to grow anxious, her fair cheeks turning pale from prolonged contemplation.

She firmly believed that her calculations were wrong, rather than the equation itself, so she repeated the same calculations over and over again, getting completely stuck on the problem.

"Are you alright?" Ophia, who had come to ask the question, looked at Ilana with some concern as she stood by the desk.

Although she considered Ilana her rival, she genuinely liked this helpful friend.

"I...I'm alright, but there are some things I just don't understand." Ilana smiled helplessly and handed the completed manuscript back to Ophia. "Thank you for your concern. I'll be fine. Just give me some more time."

Ophia nodded, glanced down at the paper with the answers written on it, and after a long while let out a soft sigh.

People are indeed different...

The answer that I couldn't figure out even after racking my brains was solved by Ilana in no time... even though she was struggling with an even more difficult problem.

Luo Yan calmly observed all of this.

When he saw yet another sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, he knew he had to do something. So he got up and walked to Ilana's table, looking into her eyes, which seemed somewhat dim with confusion, and said gently.

"It seems you've run into trouble."

“No, mentor, I didn’t…” Ilana raised her head, a rare hint of panic appearing on her usually cool face, like a child worried that the trophy in her hand would be taken away.

Her thoughts, of course, did not escape Luo Yan's notice. He smiled faintly and said jokingly.

"Your eyes don't lie to me. I bet you didn't go to sleep until around 2 a.m. last night."

Ilana's cheeks flushed slightly, her lips moved, and she lowered her head somewhat shyly.

She actually didn't fall asleep until four o'clock last night, but in order not to worry His Highness Colin, she felt that there was no need to talk about it.

"For topics that I don't know the answers to, I can't give you academic advice. I can only advise you... not to have too much of an idol image to maintain."

"...Idol image?"

Ilana looked at him with a confused expression, not understanding why he said that. She wasn't very famous; no more than ten people in this mage tower knew her.

Luo Yan roughly guessed what she wanted to say, and after thinking for a moment, he continued in a casual tone.

"The burden of maintaining an idol image isn't something only celebrities have; ordinary people have it too, and... no less than famous people. We often forget what we want because of other people's expectations of us. You don't need to care too much about whether the editorial department of the Wise Man's Journal is satisfied with your theories. I hope you can freely study what you like, and I think that was your initial expectation."

He paused, looking at the eyes that were gradually changing from confusion to clarity, and continued.

"Furthermore, your equation is a remarkable achievement; it's like a key that unlocks a magnificent door, but that doesn't mean it can open all doors. This idea is actually a form of 'path dependence'."

“Path dependence…?” Ilana murmured, repeating the unfamiliar word, her eyes filled with confusion yet also with a hint of clarity, as if she had found something.

"Yes."

Instead of directly pointing out her mistake, Luo Yan picked up a crumpled piece of paper and smoothed it out.

"Once you fall into the trap of path dependence, your knowledge and experience will no longer be tools to help you solve problems, but will instead become shackles that trap you... Since the original key can't open the door in front of you, why not try to find a new key?"

"For example, you are constantly looking for the only 'optimal path' for crack generation. But what if... the generation of cracks is not a single result? Or what if each occurrence of cracks is a 'probability' of random selection from countless possibilities... I think this possibility also exists."

This was probably the only clue Luo Yan could provide her, since he only vaguely knew that some things were "chaotic systems" and there was no single outcome.

Luo Yan thought she would need some time to digest this huge amount of information, but he didn't expect that his words would become the key that was inserted into the lock.

The word "probability" was like a lightning bolt that pierced the long night, instantly breaking the mental shackles in Ilana's mind and opening the door to a new world for her.

The confusion and anxiety on her face vanished, replaced by a heartfelt ecstasy.

"...probability!"

She murmured to herself, then suddenly raised her head, her clear eyes regaining a sharp light, even brighter than ever before.

“I understand! I’ve been trying to find a single ‘optimal’ crack path, but as you said, this process is likely to be random at every step! I don’t need to predict ‘which one it will be,’ I just need to build a completely new mathematical model to describe ‘which one it might be,’ and ‘how likely it is to occur’!”

Seeing the surprised look on Prince Colin's face, she took a deep breath and continued in an excited tone.

"The path generation is not fixed, but the probability can be calculated using a function!"

She abandoned her obsession with finding a single solution and began to try to use statistical, inductive, and probabilistic thinking to explore that unknown realm of randomness.

Without further hesitation, she grabbed her quill pen and began to delve into the research of the topic at hand from a different perspective.

Seeing Ilana quickly emerge from her depression and get back into the swing of things, Luo Yan was surprised but couldn't help but nod with satisfaction.

This guy is truly a genius!
It's so easy!

From the perspective of someone who has been through it all, he could certainly tell that the theory that Ilana was excitedly explaining was the prototype of the axioms of probability theory.

Although her understanding is still vague, she has already touched the boundaries of this great branch of mathematics through her own intuition.

Science is a way of thinking, and the 'path optimization equation' is just a tool developed based on scientific thinking.

If it is taken as the only solution, even science will inevitably become a religion.

It's like a swordsman who becomes the best swordsman of his time by constantly honing his skills. He inevitably regards the sword in his hand as the ultimate truth, forgetting that the legends he achieved with his sword are the essence of his power.

A scholar who becomes powerful by exploring the virtual realm may inevitably regard relying on external forces as the only way to break the involution, but ignores the fact that the masses around them are the source of their power.

These are all examples of path dependence.

Or perhaps it's called "inner demons".

This thing isn't just for top-tier experts; ordinary people can encounter it too. However, the stronger one's power, the harder it is to break free from one's own stubbornness.

Luo Yan's gaze returned to Ilana, filled with relief and anticipation.

“I’m glad you thought of that. What a true scholar needs is not a key, but a forever young heart. Go for it, Ilana. Don’t worry about whether I will disappoint you. The process of your exploration itself is enough for me to appreciate.”

At this moment, he is not only cultivating a "chosen one" who can harvest faith for him, but also a true inheritor of the "scientific" school!
Even if he leaves this place one day, the spark he lit with his own hands will continue to shine and radiate warmth on this cold snowfield.

Ilana's face was burning red. She didn't look up, but just hummed in response, trying to put her chaotic thoughts back onto the manuscript in her hands.

Now look what's happened. The "probability" concept that I had just begun to grasp has all turned into "admiration" and wild daydreams when I wrote it down on paper.

Luo Yan was genuinely pleased with Ilana's intelligence and wit, but this scene, in the eyes of the other apprentices in the laboratory, transformed into a profound awe of His Highness the Prince.

In their eyes, Ilana was already an unattainable genius, but Prince Colin's few casual words of guidance were enough to help her overcome what seemed like an insurmountable obstacle.

This is absolutely amazing!

Ram nudged Jamie beside him with his elbow and teased him in a low voice.

"Well, didn't you confidently say that Ilana could be dealt with in three days? It's been five days now, and in the end, it still took Prince Colin to step in."

"How would I know..." Jamie scratched his head a little embarrassedly, "Maybe I wasn't feeling well the past few days."

Ram looked at him, shook his head, and sighed softly.

"You're treating Miss Ilana like an omnipotent goddess. Actually, she's just like us, she also encounters problems she can't solve, and she also needs help... It's better not to put too much pressure on her or place too many expectations on her."

Jamie muttered a dissatisfied remark.

"Don't you also regard Prince Colin as a god?"

Ram coughed awkwardly.

"That's different..."

Let alone His Highness Colin, any mentor was practically a god to these apprentices...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the laboratory, Ophia looked at Prince Colin, who had a pleased smile on his face, with a pout, feeling a little jealous.

She buried her head deeply and muttered something in a low voice that only she could hear.

"A biased bastard..."

Just then, a devilish thought suddenly emerged in Ophia's heart, which was filled with jealousy and resentment.

Speaking of which, a noble lady from the Kingdom of Rhodes seems to be planning to harm Ilana during the labyrinth trial.

Why not turn a blind eye? Miss Lastina's methods may not be honorable, but who knows, they might be able to influence Prince Colin...

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she was suddenly jolted awake by the evil thought in her heart.

Her fair cheeks flushed instantly, as if she had done something shameful. She quickly crumpled up the filthy thought and threw it into the garbage heap of her consciousness.

She felt ashamed that she had such a wicked thought and silently repented in her heart.

Saint Sith above, Ophelia Castellón, how could you associate with the devil? She was your best friend in the school!
Just as she made up her mind, a tempting whisper suddenly rang in her mind.

'But...does she even consider you a friend? She seizes every opportunity to compete with you in order to win that prince's favor. At this rate, you're destined to lose.'

"Enough!" Ophelia's face turned pale. She gritted her teeth and shouted inwardly, "The Castellón family has no place for such gossipy scoundrels! Get out of my head!"

"...Besides, she didn't study those things for Prince Colin's sake! I know she genuinely loves her research!"

Seemingly realizing that it could not shake her will, the voice actually "rolled away" and vanished from her mind in an instant.

Ophia didn't know what had happened, but she suddenly felt a sense of relief, as if an invisible burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Weird..."

What just happened?
She glanced around blankly, then shook her head vigorously, banishing the momentary frustration from her mind, and refocused her attention on the problem about prime numbers.

Not far away, Luo Yan, who had just returned to his desk, stopped in his tracks, a thoughtful expression on his face, his gaze sweeping across the laboratory.

Youyou appeared silently beside him and whispered.

"My Lord Demon..."

"The aura of chaos, is it?"

"Hmm... but it's not quite the same as what we've encountered before. It's not Novell; it must be something else."

Luo Yan raised his eyebrows slightly, and a playful smile appeared on his lips.

"……interesting."

It's corroded me.

……

Meanwhile, in a secluded corner of Craftsman Street, a girl in a blue robe quietly slipped into a dimly lit shop.

The shop's signboard had long since faded, and a strange smell permeated the interior, a mixture of dried herbs and unidentified preservatives.

The shelves were filled with all sorts of unsettling items—eyeballs wriggling in bottles, skulls whimpering, and scrolls made from the fur of unknown creatures.

The shop owner is an elderly female mage slightly corrupted by necromancy. It is said that she was once a teaching assistant at the Academy, but was expelled for being obsessed with forbidden research. In the end, she opened this small shop in the shadow of this mage tower.

The street was filled with people who had been driven away by the sorcerer, but the merciful sorcerer did not kill them all.

After all, what if we need it someday?
The person who arrived was none other than Lastina. She had learned about this shop, which specialized in selling gray-area magical items, from an upperclassman.

The shopkeeper seemed to have already guessed her purpose, a sinister smile spreading across his wrinkled face: "Welcome, little one. All Souls' Day is here again, isn't it? Tell me, what kind of 'surprise' do you want to give your rival?"

"How did you know I was going to use it on my rival?" Rastina looked at her warily, subtly tightening her grip on the wand hidden beneath her robe.

"Is that even a question?" The old witch chuckled. "Every time this happens, all my customers come here for this. Alright, stop beating around the bush. Or... do you actually not have any good ideas and need me to help you think of something?"

Rastina took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and nodded.

“There’s this annoying guy I need to teach her a lesson, but I don’t want to make it too ugly. Most importantly, I can’t let anyone suspect that I did it.”

She wanted to teach Ilana a lesson, but she didn't want to get splattered with the filthy blood of the commoners.

The old witch's smile widened.

"Then we can only rely on 'accidents' in the maze."

“That’s right.” Rastina nodded, her voice cold. “Is there any spell that can attract acid slimes? Preferably one that can be disguised as a trap… This trial’s instructor is Merck, so ordinary tricks won’t fool him.”

After hearing this, the old witch let out a dry, grating laugh, as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world.

"Attracting slimes? Little girl, that's child's play."

She sized up Rastina with her cloudy eyes and mocked mercilessly, "Your mentor, Merck, may be rigid, but he's not stupid. He only needs to glance at the victim and then at your and your friend's clumsy performance; he could guess what happened with his toes. What, you and your 'key guy' somehow 'coincidentally' met in the maze? Or do you two not know each other at all?"

A look of panic instantly crossed Lastina's face; she really hadn't considered this possibility.

She opened her mouth, about to explain, but was interrupted.

"Generally speaking—"

The old witch slowly interrupted her, her voice lowered, like a viper flicking its tongue in her ear.

“I would recommend that my guests broaden their perspective. An attack targeting only one person makes the motive too obvious. If there are three or more victims, it becomes an indiscriminate ‘accident,’ making it difficult to identify the perpetrator based on vested interests. This way, it’s safer for both of us.”

Upon hearing this, Rastina subconsciously swallowed, her voice slightly hoarse as she asked, "Then... what should I do?"

A mysterious yet satisfied smile finally appeared on the old witch's wrinkled face. She turned and took a small box wrapped in a black cloth with runes from the deepest shadows of the shelf.

"Hehe, that depends on whether you have the guts. I recently received a special item. It's very easy to use..."

"Just open it and then stay far away."

……

After hearing about the terrifying effects of the "box," Rastina hesitated for a long time before finally gritting her teeth and paying the full amount of thirty gold coins.

This is almost all of her living expenses for a month.

She just hoped that the money would be well spent.

The shop door creaked shut, cutting off the sparse sunlight from the snow-covered plain.

The old witch's sinister smile gradually disappeared, replaced by a deep weariness and helplessness.

She turned around and sighed softly at the deepest shadow in the corner.

"...I don't understand, why would someone as distinguished as you use a student? She's just a child..."

Her thoughts drifted back to the past.

She was once an ordinary teaching assistant at the Academy, but because her mentor was obsessed with forbidden research, she was made a scapegoat and banished to the outside of the mage tower after the matter was exposed.

She knew better than anyone what a tragic end awaited those pawns used by powerful figures.

Tripping your competitors in the maze trial might at most result in them stumbling and learning a lesson. And the acid slimes in the maze might at most damage your clothes, but they won't actually eat you.

So she didn't feel guilty about selling harmless prank props, since there were plenty of people here who were darker-skinned than her.

But the "box" she sold today was completely different.

That's a problem that even Professor Merck couldn't handle, and even this poor child himself would get caught up in it.

However, she couldn't afford to offend this adult lurking in the shadows, and she dared not make her non-cooperation too obvious.

All she could do was try to scare away the ignorant and self-important little girl with her most sinister smile and most vicious tone.

Unfortunately, she failed.

The person standing in the shadows never showed their face, but spoke in a slow and emotionless tone.

"You don't need to know, this is for your own good."

He paused for a moment, then continued.

"Besides, you haven't been home for quite a while, have you? Why don't you go back to your hometown for a few days and come back next winter when we recruit?"

Upon hearing these words, the old witch's body trembled uncontrollably, and a deep fear appeared in her eyes.

She understood that this was not advice.

But a command.

She lowered her head humbly.

"Yes……"

The man nodded in satisfaction, his presence vanishing into the shadows of the corner of the room, as if he had never been there at all…

(End of this chapter)