“All right, here is the plan.” Shuxue unfurled a poster onto the table Zhujiao had pulled out of his forehead. “It took 3 months of these ridiculous unsecluded meditations, but the patriarch of the Watersnake clan has finally agreed to let us have an unsecluded meditation in their clan territory.”

The Sphinx nodded smugly. “My unsecluded meditations are all the rage among the younger mathivators. Ever since I started selling bottled water for ridiculous prices and installing flashy lights at the venues, attendance has skyrocketed.”

“People are so stupid!” Zhujiao laughed. “They actually want to buy bottled water inside an ocean!”

“Yes, yes.” Shuxue nodded. “So the venue for the unsecluded meditation must be placed near their library. Sphinx, that means the venue must be in this building, right next to the metallic palace.”

The Sphinx looked at the marked building. “Does that building have enough emergency exits?”

“Who cares, just pay somebody off if there’s not enough.” Shuxue snorted. “It’s not like a fire or anything can start inside an ocean.”*

“Right.” The Sphinx nodded. “Continue.”

“As usual, the unsecluded meditation will start with the confiscation of jade slips, mathematical artifacts, and water bottles, for, uh, safety purposes.” All three of them snickered as Shuxue spoke.

“The Sphinx will entertain, also as usual. In the ensuing madness accompanying unsecluded meditations, Zhujiao and I will sneak into the library to steal a Limit jade slip, and as many Calculus jade slips as we can. They’ll never find out, because people lose stuff all the time in unsecluded meditations!”

Shuxue smiled smugly at his genius. “All right, any problems?”

“Problem.” The Sphinx raised a paw. “I’m not Severed. I must stay near Zhujiao at all times.”

“Oh, right. Totally forgot about that. How many more pearls do you need to be able to Sever yourself?” Shuxue sighed.

“73,336,232,900,634 Arithmetic pearl’s worth.” The Sphinx began preening himself.

Zhujiao’s face drained of all blood. “What! So many! That’s like, more than 500 levels’ worth of pearls!”

Shuxue snorted. “It’ll have to be done sooner or later, Zhujiao. It’s no wonder only the eight great Sectors have Severed Spirits. This price is just ridiculous, and we haven’t even considered the maintenance cost. But we’ll have to help him Sever his Spirit. Any other problems?”

“I don’t like this plan!” Zhujiao yelled.

“What! This plan is the perfect crime!” Shuxue’s eyes bugged. “What could possibly be wrong with it?”

“We don’t kill anyone in this plan!” Zhujiao jabbed his finger at the poster. “This plan is boring!”

Shuxue’s eyelids began to twitch. “Overruled! Your Plot can go fuck off!”

Zhujiao looked indignant, but the Sphinx patted his shoulder. “No worries, Zhujiao, this plan could go horribly wrong.”

Instantly, a grin appeared on Zhujiao’s face. “That would be great! That wouldn’t be boring at all!”

Shuxue stared at Zhujiao warily. “Zhujiao, if you intentionally fuck this up, I’ll slap you so hard that you’d wish you were still a microscopic lifeform swimming inside your father! This is a Limit jade slip we’re talking about! With it, I can break past the Limit and into the realm of Calculus!”

Zhujiao shook his head vigorously. “I would never do something like that, big bro Shuxue! That would be backstabbing my own friend!”

“Damn right!” Shuxue pounded the table before rolling up the poster. “Meeting concluded, let’s go!”

The Sphinx took out some lightglasses from Zhujiao’s forehead and put them on, even though they were inside a building at the bottom of the ocean.

“Turn up, motherfuckers! Unsecluded meditation in 3 hours!” The Sphinx shouted at a withered skeleton of a fish who had meditated unsecludedly too much.

The fish’s sunken eyes moved around a little. “But…” it croaked. “But it’s a Tuesday! I have work!”

“Doesn’t matter! I got the club going up anyway!” The Sphinx began throwing around the jade slips Shuxue had confiscated at the beginning of the previous unsecluded meditation.

Shuxue sighed and went out. He had already gone over all these jade slips, but the Sphinx still wanted to have another unsecluded meditation with the same people. What was the point of an unsecluded meditation if the same people kept bringing the same jade slips?

He put on his respirator and opened the door. Below him was ocean water; they were in an upside-down cap fixed to the ocean floor, which kept in breathable air.

It had been 3 months of nonstop unsecluded meditating. The Sphinx had secured a deal that allowed them to host unsecluded meditations all across Ocean 2. Finally, their unsecluded meditations had garnered so much attention that even the Patriarch of the Watersnake clan invited them to their capital for an unsecluded meditation!

“Wow!” Zhujiao gasped as he saw the waters below. “The water here is white, and the water here is black! That’s so weird! What’s going on here?”

Shuxue looked down at the water. A line ran through the ocean below; on one side were raging whitewater currents, while on the other, the waters were a still, black color.

“Heh, this ocean makes complete mathematical sense. There is nothing illogical about it all!” Shuxue laughed. “These white waters are of the western Autumn ocean of Ocean 2, while these black waters are of the northern Winter ocean of Ocean 2! They have different types of mathforce within them, so they don’t mix together, except at Ocean 2’s capital, Golden Watersnake city!”

Shuxue’s eyes glittered. “At the center of the four oceans, in the capital city of Ocean 2, lies a massive pillar of metal, a hundred kilometers tall! It is both the tomb of an ancient mathematical beast, the Dragon King, and the palace of the Watersnakes! And this time, I’m not lying!”

Zhujiao’s eyes were shining. “Wow, I can’t wait until we go there tomorrow for an unsecluded meditation!”

When Shuxue thought about the Limit jade slips that the Watersnakes definitely had, he began to cackle.

They meditated unsecludedly for another 14 hours, before putting on their respirators and teleporting straight to the underwater capital of Ocean 2.

*If you believe there is such a thing as “too soon,” sorry xD