When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 828 - 779: Divination and the Difference Engine

The research results of Kerben ten years from now?

Hearing this statement, even someone as experienced as Horn had his brain crash for a moment.

Directly acquiring technology from the future, is the divination spell of the Dreamless Hermitage really that powerful?

If you have this technology, why are you staying in Black Snake Bay as part of the Secret Faction?

To ensure he hadn't misheard, Horn cautiously asked, "The research results you're talking about ten years from now, is that a metaphor?"

"No, it's literally the research results ten years from now."

"I've never heard of anyone or any witch being able to foresee information from ten years ahead in such detail."

"Just because others can't doesn't mean we can't." Seeing the doubt in Horn's mind, Istria explained, "Has Your Excellency ever wondered why most divination spells are displayed using pendulums and star charts, rather than directly transferring the image into the brain?"

Since coming to this world, Horn had witnessed many divination spells, both from witches and ordinary wizards.

Whether divining the past or the future, most divinations required astrology, tarot cards, or dice.

Only present divination allows for directly viewing the image.

He'd always thought that divining the future and the past couldn't show images; did Istria mean they could?

"Is it because not using these tools for divination would harm the body?" Horn recalled and asked.

Istria smiled and nodded, "You're right, the essence of divination is a realistic simulation from the present to the past and future, not truly foreseeing.

For witches who have directly faced divination results, a million possibilities can flood into the brain in an instant.

The human brain obviously has its limits and can't withstand such a huge amount of information.

If the limit is exceeded, in the mildest case, the person would sleep forever; in the direst, the brain could explode, leading to death.

For early astrologers, every divination was a life-threatening risk…"

An ageless witch lowered her eyes, and pure sunlight shone on her thick, fluttering eyelashes.

Horn stood with his back to the sunlight, his expression hidden in the shadow, only his bright eyes gazing at the eloquent Istria.

"...What should be done then? Our solution was to use crystal balls, pendulums, and tarot cards to replace and simplify.

The information carried by tarot cards is obviously limited, just enough to reduce damage to the brain.

But it still requires interpreting the results from the tools, and the Tarot Society is a leader in this field."

Seeing that Istria was taking forever to get to the point, Horn glanced at the clock beside him: "And what does this have to do with your divination ten years into the future?"

As Istria recounted, his mind gradually calmed from the shock.

What followed was a greed and excitement for this miraculous spell.

If she could steal technology from the future, wouldn't she be able to reach the heavens?

I could just directly steal my results from ten years later, which are results stolen from twenty years later, potentially grabbing a century's worth of technology.

"Please listen to me patiently first." Istria took a tarot card from her pocket, "This method of using tools as substitutes is called the Tarot Faction, mostly part of the magic faction.

But they have a major problem, which is being overly simplistic and full of randomness.

However, our Dreamless Hermitage, and the White Mountain Hermitage, use an alternative method, combining spiritual magic and divination magic.

The White Mountain Hermitage uses the unconscious, while the Dreamless Hermitage uses dreams.

Astrologers, centered around a witch, construct dreams together with spiritual mages to mitigate the impact, for more refined and complex divination results.

Normally, divination cannot reach the level of text, but our dream divination can do that…"

Only then did Horn realize that they relied on this trick to divine the future.

Even though he was an outsider, he had noticed a clue: "Aren't dream interpretations used as divination tools, resulting in more complex results that require more complex interpretation?"

"Of course they do." Istria honestly replied, "Take, for example, Bachelor Kerben's research results from ten years later.

First, Novia brought back Bachelor Kerben's early research and a lot of draft papers and ideas.

We used those things for dream divination, resulting in a series of dream symbols.

If we were to decode these dream symbols normally, it would take at least twenty or thirty years.

By the time we decode them successfully, not only would the research results have been published, but Bachelor Kerben might have already died."

"Given this, how do you manage, wait!" As Horn asked this, a flash of insight crossed his mind.

At the end of last year, Black Snake Bay imported three boxes of hand-cranked calculators, could it be...

"Hand-cranked calculators?"

"Besides the hand-cranked calculators, there are also your mathematical and natural science books." Istria unhurriedly explained, "Students from Holy Machinery Court University are eager to earn extra cash, and they are quite knowledgeable in semiotics and dream studies."

"And dream studies?!" Horn blinked forcefully.

"This is a well-known philosophy passed down from the El Empire, and many scholars have dabbled in it to some extent.

There are even claims of curing diseases with dream studies, boasting of healing through dreams without injections or medication."

Sometimes, some aspects of this world are too advanced, causing Horn to forget that it's a civilization at the early Renaissance stage.

He composed himself: "If that's the case, you must not know whether these notes are genuine, how do you ensure this result is definitely correct?"

"To verify our hypothesis, I conducted a re-divination of this interpretation result." Istria confessed, "It is correct, but incomplete, requiring Bachelor Kerben to complete himself."

Sitting behind the desk, Horn clasped his fingers under his lips, organizing his thoughts.

According to Istria, their divination is the realistic simulation of the future.

Using Kerben's bronze conversion method as an example.

Istria's deduction was based on the situation where he continued to research the bronze conversion method for the next ten years.

Is there a possibility of him researching something else in the meantime? Yes, but such a possibility has been excluded by Istria.

The final result must be derived through a process of exhaustive decoding.

As the research results delve deeper, the decoding speed will also accelerate.

The ultimate result is the mutual progress of research outcomes and research progress.

Kerben's special situation this time lies in his solid foundation, with only time being the missing factor.

Due to the first-time combination of hand-cranked calculators and functions, as well as mathematics, Istria was eager to directly confront the future to verify, resulting in this outcome ten years from now.

There is also a situation like, for example, a gun can replace a crossbow.

But their divination developed the crossbow to its extreme, yet even at its extreme, it was not as high as the potential limit of a gun.

In simple terms, it's like deviating from the tech tree.

It's equivalent to a technology acceleration card, the amount of acceleration depending on luck, with the side effect of technology going astray.

The fervor in Horn's heart subsided a little, and he directly asked, "What kind of price did you pay?"

"You are truly keen." After being interrupted by Horn, Istria fell silent for a few seconds before speaking, "For the first divination, we sacrificed the lives of 9 astrologers.

The second divination, the death toll was five times that, and I personally lay in bed for three months.

Fortunately, I am a witch, with a much more resilient soul than theirs, so I survived."

"Will you have to pay such a high price in the future?"

"This time we divined for a full ten years, it won't be like this next time."

Horn nodded, placing the notes aside: "You couldn't have provided these to me for nothing, could you? What do you want?"

"Your Excellency, why can't it be that I want to help our Holy Alliance win?"

"Well, if that's the case..."

"But!" Istria coughed once, "I heard you in the ry Court Barracks created a mechanical prototype called a difference engine?"