Bitter Realm: Have the Four Realms been united today?

Chapter 23 Making Things Difficult, Trapped in One's Own Trap

Even? Xuanming was stunned.

This nonchalant attitude only made him more bewildered.

He instinctively wanted to refute, but before he could take responsibility, Yue Tianji interrupted him.

"Did you understand what I just said?"

Yue Tianji deftly steered the conversation back to military strategy, giving Xuanming no chance to continue speaking.

"Huh? I..." Xuanming was speechless for a moment, his face turning bright red.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't hear a single word.

Admitting you didn't listen would seem extremely disrespectful.

But if he says he understands, the Heavenly Secrets will definitely give him a test, and he will definitely not be able to answer it, then he will be in even more trouble.

"I'm sorry... sir, I... I didn't quite understand..." Xuanming's voice was very faint, and he didn't dare to look at the secrets of heaven.

Yue Tianji immediately understood that Xuanming was lying, but he didn't care whether Xuanming hadn't heard or understood.

Xuanming was prepared to withstand the anger or impatience shown by the other party.

However, Yue Tianji simply nodded slightly, not blaming him but instead offering him a way out.

"Military strategy is profound and difficult to comprehend in a short time, which is perfectly normal."

After saying that, without waiting for Xuanming's reaction, he asked directly:

"If you were the lord of a city, with only three thousand soldiers, surrounded by ten thousand enemies, and with only enough food for ten days, there would be no hope of reinforcements."

"What should you do now?"

Xuanming was a little stunned by this sudden question. He thought about it carefully before answering:

"We can feign surrender first, and then launch a night attack to burn their supplies when the enemy is less vigilant."

"How can a feigned surrender gain the enemy's trust?"

"How many troops will be deployed for the night raid?"

"How can we deceive the enemy? What are the chances of success?"

"What will happen to the soldiers and civilians in the city if our scheme is discovered?"

The questions from the diviner came one after another, spoken calmly yet with an undeniable pressure.

Xuanming was sweating profusely from the barrage of questions.

I had no choice but to abandon all distractions and devote all my attention to this virtual predicament.

I racked my brains, argued, and thought again...

Unbeknownst to him, as he focused intently on tackling each difficult problem, a fleeting, almost imperceptible look of satisfaction flashed across Yue Tianji's deep eyes.

This teaching session, which Xuanming viewed as more like a rigorous assessment, continued until evening without stopping.

The questions raised by Yue Tianji were actually not many; from morning until now, there have been only seven.

The first five were fairly basic, and Xuanming was able to manage them with difficulty, relying on the knowledge he had gleaned from scattered listening and his instinctive understanding.

However, starting with the sixth question, the difficulty and complexity of the questions increased sharply, and they even involved areas outside his knowledge.

Xuanming racked his brains and spent two hours before finally managing to give an answer, even eating lunch absentmindedly.

Then, Yue Tianji calmly asked the seventh question.

This question was completely outside Xuanming's area of ​​knowledge.

It's like a student with only junior high school knowledge being suddenly asked to solve a difficult problem that requires calculus.

After hearing the question, Xuanming sat there in silence, racking his brains but still unable to find an answer that he could feel comfortable saying.

The fact that the problem is so difficult is not because Yue Tianji is plotting something or deliberately making things difficult for Xuanming.

To be honest, Xuanming dug his own grave.

He was too afraid that his answer would not satisfy this unfathomable strategist.

Therefore, before each response, he would try his best to exhaust all his energy, repeatedly deducing every possibility in his mind and finding every loophole.

Only when the idea reaches "perfection" within his limited understanding, and he can no longer find any mistakes or think of a better solution, does he dare to carefully reveal it.

Moreover, when answering, Xuanming not only stated the conclusion, but also elaborated on his tortuous thought process, all the weighing and selection, and even the options he rejected and the reasons for them in great detail.

He was terrified that any concealment or unclear expression would lead to misunderstanding by Yue Tianji.

When Yue Tianji first heard this, a barely perceptible hint of surprise flashed across his calm eyes.

He hadn't expected that the boy's meticulousness and comprehensiveness far exceeded his previous assessment of him.

The answer Xuanming gave was the limit that his current thinking could reach.

Even Yue Tianji couldn't find any major faults in Xuanming's answer.

The goal is correct, and the proposed solution has a high chance of success.

However, Xuanming's experience and knowledge are far inferior to Yue Tianji's, and he has never actually commanded an army. He is currently only talking about military strategy on paper.

The boy was completely unaware of some oversights that would be obvious to a true commander.

This is like a student who has done his best to submit what he thinks is a perfect answer sheet, but the teacher sees deeper knowledge in it that he has never touched.

The next question naturally pointed to a more subtle and profound area.

The better and more comprehensive Xuanming answers the previous question, the more in-depth and complex the next question will naturally become, which is completely trapping him.

However, Yue Tianji's advice was always incredibly accurate and hit the nail on the head, making Xuanming realize that it wasn't that the questions were difficult, but rather that his own thinking was still not thorough enough.

Xuanming was completely unaware that he was digging his own grave step by step.

Instead, they dared not slack off even more, and when answering the next question, they put in an astonishing amount of effort, and their admiration for the ability to read the secrets of heaven grew stronger.

Meanwhile, Xuanming's terrifying learning and adaptability, which was deeply buried by fear and inferiority, is being subtly and firmly brought out and polished by Yue Tianji.

As night approached, Yue Tianji put down his brush and summoned the soldiers on duty outside, ordering them to deliver Yu Ling to Du Miao and Jiu Mo Hun respectively.

The soldier accepted the order, and as he turned around, his gaze inadvertently swept over the table under the west window.

The young man in blue was still engrossed in his books. The stack of Xuan paper on his desk was even higher than it had been an hour ago, the ink still wet, and the dim lamplight reflected his furrowed brows.

The soldiers couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy.

Yue Tianji and Xuanming did not try to hide their conversation from others; in fact, Yue Tianji intentionally let the soldiers on duty hear it.

Since the creation of the world by the gods, the Shenyu region has adhered to the rule of respecting martial prowess and having the strongest fist.

If I had to describe this place in one word, it would be...

chaos!

Every day, forces rise and fall on this land.

In such a chaotic environment, martial arts naturally flourish while literature does not.

Learning martial arts grants you power, giving you the ability to protect yourself when danger strikes.

Learning literature is like being a fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others.

In the Dark Realm, even learning unorthodox methods is more useful than studying literature.

This idea, passed down for thousands of years, has long been ingrained in everyone's bones.