Chapter 93: The Water Altar

February 12, 0001, early morning.

In the medieval world, Ekli Village, the church.

The sun was about to rise, casting a faint red glow on the horizon. Treading the stone path woven through wild grass, Wu Qingshen stepped onto the church steps and appeared at the doorway.

“Seventy-five... seventy-six... seventy-six... seventy-six...”

On the left side of the church, a boy was anxiously muttering numbers while wiping the tables and chairs with a rag.

Hearing movement at the door, the boy’s furrowed brow instantly relaxed, and a genuine joy lit up his face. He quickly turned around, his voice filled with relief: “Good morning, Ross! You finally came!”

“Good morning, André... It rained a few days ago, and the bridge near the Avilia family got a bit loose again. It took some time to pile the stones...”

Smiling at the only student under the parish priest of Playa, Wu Qingshen—known here as Ross—entered the church and naturally turned to the right side, where he picked up a broom, a rare item in the entire Ekli Village, and joined in the morning cleaning routine.

“One, two, three, four... eight, nine, ten...” On the right side of the church, as Wu Qingshen swept the stone slabs step by step, he recited each number with every stride, quickly counting from one to ten.

“One, two, three, four... eight, nine, ten...” On the left side, after Wu Qingshen finished, little André immediately followed suit, reciting numbers for each wipe on the tables and chairs.

“Eleven, twelve... nineteen, twenty...” Just as André finished, Wu Qingshen began another round of stepping, sweeping, and counting.

“Eleven...” André started his second round as well.

“Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty...” By this point, the first row of stone slabs on the right side was completely swept. Dragging the broom, Wu Qingshen moved toward the central aisle.

“Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four... fifty-five... fifty-four... fifty-five... fifty-five... fifty-five...”

At the mention of “fifty-four” and “fifty-five,” little André suddenly stumbled, mumbling under his breath, the rag in his hand halting unconsciously.

From combinations like “small water,” “water,” “medium water,” “sleep water,” and “jump water,” which left Wu Qingshen both ecstatic and exhausted, it was clear that in the medieval world—or within the influence of the deity known as the Sovereign—the language and script used was a phonetic system primarily based on sound notation.

This phonetic system’s greatest advantage was its small core vocabulary of sounds, making it simple and easy to learn, adaptable to many different things.

Using a handful of core nouns, such as “water” and “fire,” combined with a few core verbs like “sleep” and “jump,” and even fewer core adjectives like “big,” “medium,” and “small,” they could be combined as needed to describe most things’ types, states, ranges, and so forth in a way the indigenous people of the medieval world found satisfactory.

However, this kind of phonetic notation and combination, while convenient in many ways, brought substantial drawbacks when applied to mathematics.

The downside André could currently feel was that the larger the number, the longer its pronunciation, making it more difficult to memorize and more painful to recite.

“Fifty-six...” After waiting about ten seconds and still unable to produce the number “five,” Wu Qingshen gently prompted him.

“Oh! Right, right...” Enlightened by the reminder, André smoothly continued his recitation.

“Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty...”

This was why every time Wu Qingshen showed up these days, little André’s joy doubled.

Having swept all the church’s stone slabs once, the “50-100” lesson the priest had “just taught” half a month ago was reviewed again.

Next, Wu Qingshen also took a rag and began helping little André wipe the tables and chairs, simultaneously assisting with reviewing another subject, “Holy Words.”

When the cleaning and André’s review were complete, the first rays of morning sunlight shone at the church entrance.

“All done, almost...”

Satisfied, little André looked around the church, then put the rag back in its place.

“Now, just need to prepare the stream water...” he said, approaching the pulpit. Together with Wu Qingshen, they brought down the water basin resting atop it.

Working together, they carried the basin out of the church to the stone steps at the entrance, emptied the leftover water from the previous day onto the wild grass, and then took a sloping path down to the stream.

Following the usual routine—cleaning, filling with water, drying the surface with their outer robes—they lifted the basin again and headed back toward the church.

About a dozen steps from the stream, walking on the right, Wu Qingshen suddenly felt a faint tremor in the arms holding the basin.

It came!

It was little André’s slight shiver.

This was the very tremor Wu Qingshen had long anticipated, or rather, had been waiting for for quite some time.

This path connecting the church and the stream, at the spot where they stood, about a meter ahead on their return route, had a naturally formed mud step higher than any other part of the path.

Wu Qingshen was quite familiar with this step.

Just yesterday afternoon—or in Earth time, May 13, 2012—he had traversed this exact step two or three dozen times at the corresponding location in the Earth “Ekli Village Simulation Base.”

The target was exactly this moment’s little André’s tremor.

Perhaps he had fallen here before, or nearly fallen, or was simply afraid of the height...

Using the highest-precision cameras, motion capture devices, and other equally top-tier instruments, the Earth team could calculate with extraordinary accuracy every blade of grass on the giant sky screen, every wood chip’s volume, every person’s expression, heartbeat, breathing rate... and the psychological states they represented.

Companies worldwide capable of producing these instruments had been urgently requisitioned by governments, working overtime with massive resources to manufacture. Every newly off the assembly line device was immediately dispatched at top speed to the most critical institutions.

Beyond these key institutions, Earth simultaneously established countless similar agencies, equipped with slightly lower-grade or moderately lower-grade equipment, analyzing every second, every frame, every experience Wu Qingshen had in the medieval world from multiple angles.

Thousands of these agencies discovered:

Ever since Wu Qingshen was asked by the priest to participate in cleaning the church and preparing for prayer, whenever he and little André passed this spot, André almost always showed considerable nervousness.

Moreover, the differences in anxiety when going uphill versus downhill, the involuntary direction of his gaze, and the instinctive protection of the water basin in moments of tension...