Chapter 232

Chapter 232: The Most Fundamental Principle

Although they had found a research facility, it was clearly not suitable for them to inhabit. Bai Yi wanted to find a more intact research facility to study energy conversion, or else the diagram that they obtained during the trade would just be a piece of scrap paper.

Bai Yi didn’t forget Yeye’s statement about how individual power could overpower any authority granted by the masses. Their situation now reflected that. Their individual strength hadn’t reached the stage where they could disregard society entirely, but their level of strength had already started to become an immense threat.

Bai Yi planned to put the mission of searching for Doctor Wang aside for a while. This was because Doctor Wang might have already died, or that he wouldn’t be able to create the drug to regain their human forms even if they found him. Finding Doctor Wang was just one of their hopes.

After leaving the research facility, they decided to look for a good place to stay in.

…

North of Hastings and by the side of Ngaruroro River was a mid-sized research facility between two lakes. That was their new destination and where they planned to stay for a period, but it was really hard to say exactly how long they would stay there.

Although they had immediately set off for their destination, they were still unable to reach that place within a day.

Around their bonfire was a flat area dozens of meters wide in which they would be able to detect even small bugs that tried to approach them. When everyone had fallen asleep, Sharpei’s ears twitched suddenly. Soon after, the rest of them opened their eyes as well. They developed this habit on the Devil Isles. They had to pay full attention to any activity they sensed no matter how small. However, none of them moved and waited to see what was it that had actually dared to treat them as prey. At this time, Sharpei suddenly slammed his claw down on the ground forcefully.

‘Boom!’ The ground shook and a part of it collapsed. In the newly formed hole, they could see that there was a fat rat quickly running away. Sharpei didn’t expect that this rat would be able to dodge his attack and immediately gave chase to exterminate his enemy completely.

Bai Yi didn’t bother to stop him and let Sharpei rush towards the rat.

Quickly, miserable shrieks and Sharpei’s roars came from the distance, but the sounds stopped after ten or so seconds. Bai Yi felt slightly suspicious. Had the battle ended so quickly?

Very quickly, Sharpei brought a group of rats back with him. Looking at those huge rats wearing monster skins, Bai Yi and the rest of them couldn’t help but feel that they were very familiar.

“Wuzhi?” Bai Yi suddenly recalled a group of rats that they had met very long ago.

“Chichi, Bai Yi,” Wuzhi said Bai Yi’s name in a strange voice. He jumped over and appeared very excited. Those in Bai Yi’s team that met the rats for the first time were all very taken aback. These were rats! Bai Yi even knew rats? They had met quite a few rats before; however, their common sense said that rats before the changes weren’t really ‘good’ animals, so they didn’t really try to communicate with them.

After interacting with Wuzhi, Bai Yi’s team found out that Wuzhi barely made it to LV2 after much effort, but the bunch of underlings he had before had all died. Moreover, they encountered a creature similar to a Great Devil Snake very recently, and most of the rat swarm had died in that encounter. Even now they were in midst of running for their lives.

“You still dare to set your sights on us even though you were running for your life?” Bai Yi smacked Wuzhi’s head.

“Chichi!” Wuzhi apologized profusely, and Bai Yi finally forgave him in the end. They could tell that Wuzhi and his underlings were in a very miserable state from the escape, so Bai Yi decided to let Wuzhi and his gang stay a night next to them since they had been quite familiar with each other before. However, Bai Yi didn’t intend to bring Wuzhi’s group along with him since their species were different after all. Furthermore, judging from how Wuzhi was planning to attack his group, they had probably killed and eaten quite a lot of humans in the past.

“Don’t eat humans in the future,” Bai Yi said right before they left on the second day.

“Chichi~. The humans attacked first…” Wuzhi grumbled that it was the humans who attacked them first. Because rats were omnivorous and had a fast rate of reproduction, they were now the most numerous species of lifeforms in the Devil Isles. Moreover, the rats now were a lot larger than before, about the size of a fat pig, and thus became the prey of many carnivorous creatures.

“That’s all then. Take care!” Bai Yi didn’t intend to force Wuzhi to do anything, and after waving their hands, they left with their own teams.

Wuzhi took his few remaining underlings and stood on top of a hill to watch Bai Yi’s team leave. Wuzhi’s intelligence wasn’t low anymore, so he knew that it wasn’t possible for him to follow Bai Yi. Humans’ dislike for rats practically came from their bones. It was already very good for Bai Yi to treat them without prejudice.

…

After such an interlude, Bai Yi’s team finally arrived at the no. 17 research facility located north of Hastings and beside Ngaruroro River. When they stopped at this research facility, they immediately began to research the diagram. Before they could start studying the diagram in earnest, they had to learn about basic energy conversion. Nobody could escape this time; they all had to study it. If they didn’t study it, they wouldn’t be able to understand the diagram; and if they weren’t able to understand it, then they wouldn’t be able to transform the special energy in their bodies actively.

This was something that nobody could help with unless somebody in the future came up with a simple method that only required people to follow the specified instructions. Withstanding that, the requirements to learn this was extremely high. This made Woolf and the rest of them very miserable, since, honestly speaking, none of the people in their team were scholars or researchers. Now that they had to study such a complex subject, it was practically asking for their lives. However, for the sake of making themselves stronger, they had no choice but to study this.

Among all of them, Bai Yi and Vala learned the fastest. Bai Yi had created a stable foundation for himself when he studied with full focus back in New Christchurch and learned a lot about biology. Since the sciences were somewhat related to each other, there were some common things thus his learning speed was faster than the others’. As for Vala, she was a very knowledgeable person, to begin with, so she learned things very quickly. For the rest of them, none of them had much knowledge so they really had to start from the basics to understand it.

“I can’t do this anymore. I don’t understand at all!” Woolf came into a reformed hall and sat on the gigantic chair he had made for himself feeling his head swimming.

“It’s not like you’re the only one who finds it difficult,” Ulisses said as he lifted his head and stretched his neck.

“I still have to learn culinary skills and medicine under Older Sister Betsy and Nancy. I’m studying way more than you guys!” Bellamy complained as she brought a big plate of food in front of the two of them.

“This could be considered the basic Cultivation Method that Bai Yi talked about, right?” Ulisses took a bite and immediately felt better.

“En, Bai Yi said that it’s at the level of Fireball,” Woolf suddenly felt like crying.

At the level of a Fireball!

Woolf and Ulisses stared at each other and felt devastated in their hearts. Since when did the characters in movies and novels have to study so much complicated knowledge just to learn a little fireball?

“Uncle said before that this is because we are at the most preliminary stage of figuring things out. That is why we have to understand the most fundamental principles of energy conversion and actively control the energy in our bodies through this understanding later on. The transformation of special energy is something even more complicated than nuclear fusion. If we can’t understand the basic principles underlying it, then it would be impossible for us to actively adjust and change this process for our needs.”

Alodia walked in and happened to hear the two of them complaining.

“There will be simpler methods in the future.”

Bai Yi walked in as well. It was close to lunchtime now, so almost everybody had arrived at the dining hall.

“Simpler methods?” The eyes of the dumber ones in the team instantly lit up.

“Right, a simpler method. We can systematically organize the conditions underlying these theories and consolidate all of them into something simple,” Bai Yi explained.

“I don’t understand. Give an example?”

“Let’s talk about Wind Bullet then, something on the same level as a Fireball. What we are learning now are the most fundamental principles. Where does the energy in the Wind Bullet come from? What is the process for its energy conversion? How does air organize itself to form a stable structure? What affects the power of the manifested Wind Bullet?” Bai Yi said with white spinning Wind Bullet forming on his fingertips. The transparent air spun continuously and gave off a whistling sound.

“As long as we master the fundamental principles, we can make adjustments and improve on the current design. Not just small Wind Bullets, but big Wind Bullets, and even the formula for a hurricane could be deduced.”

The Wind Bullet in Bai Yi’s hand gradually changed.

Woolf raised his hand, “Please make it simpler.”

Bai Yi heard and the Wind Bullet in his hands dispersed, feeling like laughing as he asked Woolf a question, “Do you know the basic mathematical operations?”

“Of course I know!” Woolf wasn’t that dumb.

“What we are learning now is similar to the basic mathematical operations. They are the most fundamental principles. As long as you have mastered these mathematical operations, you will be able to make the correct calculations based on these principles no matter how big the number is. What I mean by consolidating the rules into something simple is like me telling you that 12 x 5 – 3 /2 = 58.5. You don’t have to know why; you just have to know that the answer is 58.5. After that, as long as you are able to write this answer, even if you are retarded or you don’t even know what numbers are, nobody can say that your answer is wrong.”

“This is the so-called ‘following the prescribed order’. I don’t need you to understand. I just need you to follow the steps and replicate the answer,” Bai Yi said with a smile.

“However, I still hope that everybody can start learning from the most fundamental principles because what you manage to understand based on your own body will let you create something most suitable for yourself. Most importantly,” Bai Yi paused. “There isn’t a ‘following the prescribed order’ Cultivation Method for you guys to learn.”

Bai Yi shrugged.

“We still have to study in the end….”Woolf and Ulisses went limp on the table. En, actually there was still one more; Momo was also similarly lying on the table at the other end. To these guys who disliked studying, this was enough to torment them to death.