booktalesy Chapter 4233 Flowers are not flowers
Chapter 4233 Flowers are not flowers
Chapter 4233 Flowers are not flowers
Echo Library, perfect completion mode.
When everyone opened their eyes, they found themselves in a greenhouse.
Everywhere was a riot of colors, and the surroundings were a riot of flowers.
The blooming flowers put everyone in a good mood, the only downside being... it was a locked room.
"Looks like it's time for the entrance exam again." Gray Porcelain shrugged helplessly as he looked around and found no sign of the entrance.
Angel stroked his chin and nodded: "It is indeed an entrance exam, but this time it's a little different from before."
When they first entered the normal mode, there was also an entrance exam, but it was separate and the difficulty of the exam was relatively low.
But now that everyone has been grouped together, it means the difficulty of the assessment will definitely increase.
"No matter how difficult the test is, let's find the riddle first." As soon as the rabbit girl finished speaking, everyone scattered and began searching for the riddle in the not-so-large greenhouse.
Soon, they found a strange place.
In the very center of the greenhouse, there is an elegant pure white flower stand with five circles drawn on it in black charcoal.
The five circles were similar in size. After comparison, they discovered another key detail: the size of the black circle was exactly the same as the size of the bottom of the flowerpots around it.
Therefore, part of the riddle has already been revealed:
"We should put five pots of flowers here," the rabbit girl murmured. "However, these five pots of flowers shouldn't have been chosen randomly; there might be some pattern we haven't discovered yet?"
Before she could finish speaking, she saw five more pots of flowers on the flower stand.
Gabriel manipulated five tentacles, randomly selecting five potted plants from the surrounding area, rolling them up, and placing them there.
And then... nothing happened.
There was no sound from the surroundings.
Seeing this, the rabbit girl said confidently, "Sure enough, we can't choose randomly; we must find the hidden pattern among all the flowers. And this pattern must meet the requirement of 'five'."
With this part of the riddle solved, everyone's attention was now focused on the blooming flowers and the flowerpot.
Because the hidden pattern must be hidden here, either the flowers are patterned, or the flowerpot or the soil in the flowerpot is patterned.
The group scatters in unison, searching for the hidden patterns within.
five minutes.
Ten minutes...twenty minutes...
There are so many flowers in the greenhouse, at least a thousand pots, that finding a pattern that matches the number "five" is quite difficult.
"I feel like this is even harder than the Book Spirit's test and the Book Demon's assessment..." Gray Porcelain wondered.
Neither the trials of the book spirit nor the book demon had taken this long before.
Unexpectedly, it was the entrance exam that stumped them.
Gabriel: "Now I understand the pain Mr. Angell went through to undergo the Book Spirit's trial..."
Of the four people from Rabbit Hole, apart from Angell, none of the others had undergone the Book Spirit test; they had all experienced battles against Book Demons.
The Book Demon's test is basically combat, which is actually quite easy for them.
The mystery of the flower room in front of us is clearly a test for the book spirit.
Thinking of this, everyone silently turned their gaze to Angell.
Angell was actually quite nervous at this moment, because... he really didn't know the answer!
When he participated in the Book Spirit's trials, they were all open-book exams. He had to use a god-like perspective to search for the answers among the books piled up around the Book Spirit...
But now, they are undergoing an entrance examination.
From God's perspective, there were no relevant "books" around the greenhouse, so his advantage was gone, and he was completely at a loss.
"It seems the 'wise man' persona is no longer sustainable," Angell thought to himself.
However, Angel quickly reconsidered: "That's not right either, we can also stand..."
Since there's no way to "copy the book," let's just "find a ghostwriter."
Angell walked slowly through the greenhouse, seemingly observing the flowers, but in reality, he had entered a god-like perspective and made contact with Laplace, who was currently at the Tooth Fairy's residence.
Seeing the other person's speechless expression, Angel explained their current predicament in a simple way.
Laplace: "Okay, I'll go and see if there's anyone who knows about flowers."
Laplace is a very proactive person, and her goal is clear: plants are rare in the Daydream Realm, but that doesn't mean there aren't people skilled in botany. For example, the various races on the Myriad Forest are very good at botany.
Not long after, Laplace brought two people with him.
One is a young man from Konoha who uses a lotus leaf as a parachute, and the other is an elegant old woman leaning on a cane.
According to Laplace, the two individuals are from the Leaf Village and the Fragrance Clan, respectively. The former calls themselves "Guardians of Nature," while the latter is the main force in making fragrance powder.
They all have a good understanding of botany. The young people of the Muye tribe are more inclined to recognize common plants, while the elders of the Quxiang tribe are very knowledgeable about flowers.
Through Laplace, Angell told the two about the puzzle they were facing.
Of course, it's hard to understand just by talking about it.
However, it didn't matter, as Laplace had the Nightmare Node left by Angor on him, and he directly constructed a rough vision for the two botanists to identify.
With the help of a professional "gunman," the answer came out almost instantly.
After having Laplace express his gratitude, Ingres withdrew from his omniscient perspective.
At this moment, everyone was still wandering around the greenhouse, speculating.
"Are we going to be stuck here?" Gray Porcelain was somewhat resigned. It now understood how big the difference was between the difficulty of the single-person entry test and the group entry test.
In the initial admission assessment it participated in on its own, it could find the answer with almost no thought.
The only challenge was its short stature, while the answer to the puzzle was hidden at the top of the tall bookshelf, which took it a little time to climb.
Now, it not only ponders and wanders around, its eyes blurred from looking, but it still hasn't found any pattern related to "five".
It slumped against the corner of the greenhouse, looking like it wanted to give up.
Gabriel was also floating beside it at this moment. As a chaotic and vicious creature that had spent many years in the Dark Mirror Realm, the number of flowers it had seen... no, all the types of plants it had seen probably did not compare to the number of types of mirror ghosts it had encountered.
It was of no help whatsoever and could only rot along with the gray porcelain.
The rabbit girl was still thinking. She possessed a vast amount of memories, comparing them with the surrounding flowers and plants while searching for any corresponding memories.
Just as the rabbit girl was feeling dizzy, Angel, who had been pretending to be thinking and observing but was actually daydreaming, finally snapped out of it.
"Cough-cough-"
He coughed twice and then looked at everyone with a wise gaze.
"I have found the hidden riddle."
Everyone's eyes lit up, and they all looked at Angor. Gray Porcelain and Gabriel also got up and surrounded him, looking expectant of Angor's story.
"The answer is actually not difficult; just look at this pot."
Angell picked up a pot containing a large, pure white rose nestled among layers of triangular leaves and placed it in one of the five spots on the flower stand.
"Is this potted plant the correct answer?" Everyone looked over.
Angel nodded: "That's right, have you noticed anything?"
As Angell spoke, he moved another potted plant to a new spot. This plant resembled a purple peony, but it was larger and had more layers.
Everyone looked at the two pots of flowers but still couldn't see any similarities between them.
"Is it the color, or the pattern?" Gray Porcelain guessed in a low voice.
Angel shook his head: "No, it's because these two pots... aren't actually flowers."
"Not a flower?!" Everyone was stunned.
Angel nodded: "Yes, the riddle this time is actually very well hidden. It can be understood as—'Flower is not a flower'."
What does "flowers that are not flowers" mean?
It looks like a flower, but it's not actually a flower.
Take, for example, that huge pure white rose set off by triangular leaves. It is called Three White Leaves, but what looks like a pure white rose is actually white leaves.
Similarly, the "flower" that looks like a purple peony is called Yu Zi Gan, which is quite common in the Manluo plane and is a well-known vegetable there. The purple flower clusters that look like peonies are also leaves.
While explaining the concept of "flowers that are not flowers," Ingres also brought out different "flowers" from different regions.
The "Hexagonal Plum" that looks like a flower, the "Mountain Rose" that clusters like grapes, and the "Stone Lotus" that resembles a jade mushroom all belong to the category of flowers that are not flowers. Their flowers are very beautiful and you can't tell the difference at first glance; but in fact, they are either leaves or have special branch shapes.
After all five pots of "flowers that are not flowers" were placed on the flower stand, a series of "click-clack" sounds reached everyone's ears.
Turning around at the sound, I saw that a large door had appeared out of nowhere on one side of the enclosed greenhouse...
"The answer really is... 'Flower is not a flower.'" Gray Porcelain stared blankly. "Is there really anyone who can understand this kind of question?"
“You don’t understand, so you can’t assume others don’t understand,” Gabriel retorted.
Gray Porcelain shook his head: "What I mean is, the questions here are so complicated and numerous, covering all sorts of subjects... This instance is simply designed to make things difficult for challengers, isn't it?"
Gabriel said quietly, "...Because this wasn't originally prepared for you and me; it's a special challenge for scholars."
Gray Porcelain paused for a moment, recalling the "seal" mentioned by the Book Fairy.
Yes, sealing the divine thoughts of demons requires a vast amount of knowledge; and such knowledge could never exist in the mind of a poor student.
This level is designed for scholars from beginning to end; only scholars have a tiny chance of being able to seal it using their knowledge.
Moreover, learned people generally have a high degree of self-awareness. When they know they are powerless to seal the divine thoughts of the demon god, they will take the initiative to step down and give way.
Just like the other team the Book Fairy mentioned, they had clearly reached the end of the normal mode, but hadn't entered the perfect mode. The Book Fairy's advice was one factor, but another was that they were all intelligent people with a very high level of self-awareness. They knew very well that if they couldn't do it, they couldn't do it, and there was no need to force it; cutting their losses in time would prevent disastrous consequences.
"Stop trying to figure out the level mechanics. Whether it's for scholars or the general public is irrelevant right now," Angor said. "The most important thing is to get through the first three levels of challenges and quickly seal the demon god's divine will."
"Let's go." Angell turned his back and waved, signaling everyone to follow.
……
The entrance exam gave the Rabbit Hole team a rude awakening.
This made everyone abandon their underestimation and, after passing the entrance exam, begin to cautiously explore their path forward.
Why use the word "pioneering"?
Because after they came out of the greenhouse, they discovered that the surrounding area was an area they had never been to before, a true "pioneering" area.
"The location for this entrance exam is different from the regular one." Gray Porcelain: "So what should we do now?"
"Should we look for the old path, or... start from scratch?"
Rabbit Girl: "No need to overthink it. If we encounter the same path as before, we'll continue along it; if we don't, we'll stick to our current approach."
Anyway, they've now entered perfect mode, and it's been confirmed by the Book Fairy that no other team has surpassed them.
Therefore, they don't need to be in such a hurry as in the normal mode.
If we can follow the old path, we can find all three different Book Demon Proverbs more quickly; but if we don't follow the old path, it doesn't matter, we'll eventually find them eventually.
Everyone thought about it and agreed.
Even if we do follow the old path, we might not be able to continue doing so indefinitely.
It's important to understand that cracks can move; if they shift or deviate even slightly, even if they've gone back to the old path, they still have to follow the positioning cursor to the new area.
Therefore, it's right to let go of old habits and nostalgia.
"Shall I lead the way?" Gray Porcelain paused. "Or perhaps, Mr. Angell, is experiencing a sudden inspiration?"
Angell: "No need, I'll lead the way the whole time."
In the normal mode, Angor was always hesitant to act in order to leave a good impression on the book fairies and avoid making them think that they were using super-powerful abilities to win them over.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
The Book Fairy can't be said to be completely won over by Rabbit Hole, but Rabbit Hole is currently the only team she can rely on.
Moreover, the book fairy might feel more at ease if the book shows more extraordinary abilities; after all, what is needed to seal the demon god's divine will is extraordinary knowledge.
With this in mind, Angell naturally stopped hiding his true abilities.
It would be a real waste if he didn't use the full map cheat.
With Angell leading the way, the rabbit hole was cleared much faster than expected.
They took half an hour for the entrance exam, and the two Book Spirit tests plus one Book Demon test also took them only half an hour, even including the travel time.
If we disregard the entrance exam, in perfect mode, they completed half of the first floor of the Echo Library in just half an hour.
It's worth mentioning that Gray Porcelain passed the first test of the Book Demon.
Or rather, this time the Book Demon tested the four of them together.
Gray Porcelain figured that since it would eventually have to pass the Book Demon's trial anyway, the sooner the better. Once it passed it once, it could rest easy.
With this in mind, it went with the group when it first encountered the book demon.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The person randomly selected by the Book Demon to participate in the battle this time was not Gray Porcelain, but Rabbit Girl.