Master of Ten Thousand Foxes

"Some bloggers spreading panic were banned immediately."

The tinted windows of the government car blocked the outside view and the cold autumn wind.

Bai Mo sat on the soft seat with his legs crossed, opened the small table, watched the laptop screen, and listened to Fang Xiaoyu talk about work.

"Oh, that’s not so bad.

"Why panic?

"Everyone should just do what they need to do."

This government car was incredibly spacious, containing not only the driver Old Zhang and the secretary Fang Xiaoyu, but in the back, Wu Qingyun was sitting, engrossed in doing homework.

There was also a refrigerator in the car, and the fox apprentice Croissant was perched on the armrest, sipping a can of cold cola.

"Ow~"

It squinted its eyes, tilted its chubby head back, fully enjoying itself.

It had been a long time since Fox Mountain had this fizzy drink!

After all, with so many delicious things around, everyone had forgotten about these fizzy drinks.

Bai Mo closed a webpage and accessed the expert database, preparing to look up some fluid dynamics and aerodynamics materials to aid in cultivating Qinghua Rain.

Suddenly, a message popped up on the computer screen, sent by Chairman Chen Shu.

[Expert Bai Mo, for the next few days, you might have to work from the car. I’m really sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.]

[Is the car big enough?]

Bai Mo smiled as he replied.

[You’re too kind, the cabin is very spacious and comfortable; I’m not inconvenienced at all.]

It turned out that a team from the Array Center in Shangjing was coming to West State to set up the City Defense Array, requiring them to run around the vast West State and plant array stakes everywhere. This task posed certain dangers, so the Immortal Committee suggested Wu Qingyun accompany the team to hold down the fort.

And Bai Mo couldn’t be separated from his bodyguard.

So he accompanied his bodyguard, sitting in the car, bouncing around town.

This sounded a bit absurd.

But the Immortal Committee had many tasks and low combat strength, so Bai Mo fully understood.

...

Outside Bai Mo’s car, not far away, the roadside flowerbed was dug up.

Cai Xiaozhen, a Sequence Seven array expert, was squatting in a dirt pit, holding a metal array stake with a solemn expression, hesitating to insert it.

He lifted his head, using his heartbeat as a clock, his eyes as measurement tools, his ears as radar, and his skin to feel the light and wind, observing the feng shui data in this area!

"A, three eight point six six.

"B, four zigzag.

"C, five one two point hook..."

He quickly reported the data he observed.

Around him, a dozen assistants sat cross-legged on the ground, clutching laptops, staring at screens, ears tuned to his reports, typing furiously to input the data, using programs to assist in calculations!

The feng shui data could change at any time; whenever one data point shifted, the entire calculation and deduction process had to start over.

For instance, at this moment, a drifting cloud cast a shadow on the ground from the sky.

Cai Xiaozhen immediately adjusted the data!

"B, four hook.

"D, five one one..."

The surrounding team members, ears alert to the corrected data, immediately terminated their previous calculation processes, entered the new data, and started recalculating.

On the laptop screens, the progress bars for the calculation programs began anew.

Twenty seconds passed, and the progress bars were halfway through.

Cai Xiaozhen shouted again.

"A, three eight point six hook."

The team members once again terminated the ongoing calculations, immediately re-entered the data, and started recalculating.

...

Like this, facing ever-changing feng shui data, the team repeatedly observed, adjusted, and recalculated, eventually succeeding in completing a calculation smoothly after two hours.

"Three hook six hook hook eight one point eight four!"

With this string of numbers called out, Cai Xiaozhen immediately adjusted the orientation and position of the array stake in his hand, and with hands as precise as machines, he "plooshed" the stake into the earth at a specific angle.

Buzzing...

The array stake emitted a gentle buzzing sound, glowing faintly.

The team all smiled, about to cheer...

Bzzz!

The array stake trembled violently, shook several times, emitted black smoke, and fell silent.

Smiles froze on everyone’s faces.

Cai Xiaozhen’s mouth twitched.

He chuckled awkwardly.

"We were still a bit slow; at the last moment, the feng shui data changed again.

"Don’t be disheartened, everyone!

"This thing has always been tricky; some setbacks are normal.

"Um..."

He suddenly noticed his own parched throat.

"Uh, let’s all take a ten-minute break, and then we’ll start again.

"Everyone, head back to the cars to rest a bit first."

Each person hugged their laptops, dejectedly following Cai Xiaozhen back to the convoy.

Then they saw a dozen business cars parked by the road, one of them tightly shut, with a silhouette inside.

An array expert, with a scoff, complained.

"Damn it, we came all the way from Shangjing to help West State with their arrays.

"We are exhausted like dead dogs.

"Yet the West State’s own expert is sitting comfortably in the car, drinking cola."

Someone nearby retorted him.

"Don’t talk like that, that’s Expert Bai Mo!"

"I know it’s Expert Bai Mo. It’s just a casual vent of frustration."

Cai Xiaozhen patted his colleague on the shoulder with a wide grin.

"Speaking of which, doesn’t Expert Bai Mo have a supercomputer?

"If we borrowed his supercomputer to calculate the array stake angles and positions, wouldn’t it be faster?"

The colleagues all shook their heads.

"It’s not much use.

"The time complexity of our algorithms is already minimized.

"A supercomputer’s main frequency isn’t much faster than our computers either.

"Our computers need forty seconds to run once.

"Using a supercomputer could shorten it to... uh... thirty-five or thirty-six seconds?"

These colleagues, uninvolved with immortals, were all algorithm engineers and widely versed in this field. Their estimate of "thirty-five or thirty-six seconds" was pretty much spot on.

Cai Xiaozhen smiled.

"Even a few seconds faster is good enough."

He turned to head for Bai Mo’s government car and knocked on the door.

"Expert Bai Mo, we have a small request..."

...

"...Don’t mention it."

Inside the car.

Bai Mo saw Cai Xiaozhen off, then looked at the project files that had just been received on the computer. He opened the algorithm file and scrolled through it quickly with the mouse wheel.

Fang Xiaoyu leaned in to see.

Croissant also snuggled into his master’s arms, craning its head to look.

"Redefined big numbers? High precision floating points?

"This algorithm... definitely aiming for low time complexity, using space to trade for time?

"Though... it seems like it’s just computationally complex, procedurally intricate, without using much space.

"They really want this thing faster?"

Bai Mo furrowed his brow slightly, contemplated for a moment, then created a new file, placing his hands on the keyboard...

...

Clicking to save the file, Bai Mo sent the modified project folder to Professor Fang.

He sent him a message, too.

[Two versions, the second one is optimized by me.]

[Please test it for me, Professor Fang.]

[If it works, deploy it and start the service.]

The reply came instantly.

[Got it!]

Bai Mo was about to continue reading the paper when Fang Xiaoyu leaned in.

"Expert Bai Mo, look at this, it’s quite strange.

"Someone saw you at West University?"

Huh?

Bai Mo leaned in to see a short video on the Kuaishou platform showing him walking around the West University campus with a Dirty Bun on his back.

The video was posted five minutes ago, captioned, "Ran into Expert Bai Mo again, he’s so handsome I’m in love ahhhhh I gwao."

What was going on?

Bai Mo was slightly taken aback and turned to look at Wu Qingyun behind him.

"What’s happening here?"

Wu Qingyun looked up from her workbook, maintaining a stoic face, but her eyes were slightly embarrassed.

"That’s for the enemy to see.

"Making them think you are still at West University."

So, was the array team using Wu Qingyun to create a facade?

Having Bai Mo secretly leave West University and roam around West State, making it hard for enemies to find him, was the true intention?

Bai Mo’s mouth twitched.

"That... was really unnecessary."

Fang Xiaoyu, unaware of this, was now full of surprise.

Wu Qingyun lowered her head.

"This was Shangjing’s decision.

"The array team actually doesn’t need me.

"But Cai Xiaozhen, while setting up the arrays, is also tasked with helping protect you.

"You’re the one who absolutely cannot have an accident."