Chapter 8: Reaching Heaven

Wang Qi had no clue that the two outside almost had their cultivation in pieces due to shock.Moments ago, he rushed into his room, eager to take out the books in Li Ziye’s bookcase. It was a truly magical item, now that he looked at all the towering piles of books around.

Recalling Li Ziye stressing two particular books, Wang Qi started off with them.

Unraveled Mystics was a visualization technique, that was called ‘cultivating truth through falsehoods’ by ancient system principles. By picturing something, say a true fire, a magic cloud, or some sort of legendary dragon, the soul would take on the characteristics of that particular image.

From what Li Ziye said, however, that was garbage. Thoughts affected the soul and its growth; that was all. It was not so much what one thought about, but thinking itself was more important. 

Unraveled Mystics was just that peculiar, even for a visualization technique. It demanded the cultivator to visualize the laws of the world, the Dao, to reflect on it, and grow his soul. The fancy book started with one cryptic platitude,  “To seek Dao, unravel its mysteries. See through the unseen and see Dao.”

Wang Qi let out a long whistle, the line appealing to him far more than he had thought.

“Unravel mysteries… Now where have I heard that one before…”

Then, a book caught Wang Qi’s eyes with its intriguing title, spurring him to browse it, Heavenly Variations. 

“In the mundane lies the celestial; the techniques that follow the changes of the heavens are known as variations of the heavens…”

[Giving me such hard stuff right from the start?]

Wang Qi frowned. [Modern and ancient systems are very different. Zhen Chanzi said only Spirit Severing cultivators could begin gleaning into Dao. But Heavenly Variations here wants us to know all the changes of the world from the get-go?] 

However, next to Heavenly Variations lay another book that drew him in again.

Heavenly Origins.

To the locals of Divine Province, this might be some type of cultivation method, but Wang Qi knew the same words were used in ancient China, that referred to algebra and polynomial equations.

“If the Heaven in Heavenly Variations points at the one in the algebra system…”

Wang Qi flipped the books as he investigated his guesses.

“I knew it! Heavenly Variations is all about studying the relation between two sets of elements. In other words, the functions on Earth!” 

Wang Qi’s breathing spiked as what he had neglected for a dozen years was brought back to his attention.

Page after page got flipped as Heavenly Variations’ images and information on functions screamed at him so much that it was impossible to ignore. 

Wang Qi put down Heavenly Variations and staggered to his desk. He took out a brush and paper, dipping a shaking brush in the ink. After a careless thought, he threw aside the brush and outstretched his hands, raising his right index then his left index and middle finger. 

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Zhen Chanzi shouted in his mind, but Wang Qi was too far gone. He was doing something beyond the soul fragment’s understanding, counting with his fingers.

“1, 2, 3, starting with the left hand. 1, 2, 3… 1+2=2+1, commutative law.” 

He raised his left pinkie.

“1, 2, 3, 4… counting with the right. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1+1+2=1+(1+2), associative law.”

Only then he took the brush to write on the paper 2×3 and 3×2.

“They’re all 6. This proves the commutative law.”

Hah~

Wang Qi breathed harder, like the bellows of a blacksmithy, all while he was confirming the laws of mathematics he was taught so many years ago back on Earth.

Addition and subtraction were identical to the ones here.

Fractions, the definition of zero, or null, 0, was established. Zero couldn’t be used as a denominator. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13… prime numbers and factorizations were identical… 

Natural numbers definition… Peano axioms…

[Two points form a line, and three points form a plane. The shortest distance between a plane and a point outside is a perpendicular line. The sum of a triangle’s angles…]

Euclidean geometry.

If the curvature changed… the line to a point outside a line… 

Hyperbolic geometry, Riemannian geometry.

[They all check out!]

Wang Qi’s mind buzzed, but he lifted the brush, drawing on the paper circles that intersected, that were concentric, or just independent.

“By considering these circles a set, then inclusion, exclusion, intersection… the basic logic structure is formed. And by taking it a step further…” 

Countless principles, laws, theorems, and statements floated around in Wang Qi’s mind.

Logical connective… identical to Earth’s.

Law of contradiction, the law of identity, the law of excluded middle…

Deductive reasoning…

Wang Qi’s brush fell on the table, but Wang Qi was oblivious, his mind feeling like a buzzing bee’s nest, chaotic and random. As if the whole world was reduced to these few sheets of paper on the table, calling for his attention. 

“This world…”

Wang Qi muttered, unable to stand straight and falling to one knee. 

“Wang Qi!”

Zhen Chanzi screamed from his ring. Everything that had happened these days only went from mere oddities to downright madness. For the first time in ten thousand years, he was scared. The insane actions of Wang Qi made him realize that he was no longer the same omnipotent Great Ascension cultivator of the far past he believed himself to be. 

Wang Qi’s shoulders shook hard. “Hu-hu-hu, ha-ha, wa-ha-ha-ha!”

Wang Qi cracked up in a burst of hysterical laughter as if having heard the funniest joke.

[This world can be learned.]

[This world can be researched.]

[This world can be overcome!]

Wang Qi laughed till he couldn’t breathe. Things started to slowly come back to him, the same things that used to take space in his since mind fourteen years ago, the same things he had abandoned without so much as a thought. 

All of them were things this world was oblivious to, things even Wang Qi was close to casting them to oblivion.

Wang Qi had been a valedictorian student at Copenhagen University on Earth, having degrees in both math and physics. He was once a research assistant to the renowned physicist Niels Bohr. His future was set as a great scholar, physicist, and scientist, until news of his parents’ grave illness reached him. 

The foreign and national research systems were different, making so his credentials as an assistant was seen as worthless in his country, forcing him out of the research field.

Then he crossed over. Everything he had and knew was taken from him overnight.

During his first years here, he would cry almost every day. He would blame himself and curse the god or whatever put him here.

He even cursed everything he had worked hard to learn and his fate. At one point he even hated this world and the last, for their irrational nature. 

Now though, his heart found peace. After accepting everything in this world, Wang Qi finally woke up to reality. 

[This world is governed by objectivity!]

All the things in this world might be incredible and amazing, but not supernatural or beyond comprehension.

It was a new world where Earth’s science had yet to establish a foothold!

[This world can be analyzed and understood one step at a time.] 

The way to analyze and understand it was…

Wang Qi jumped to his feet, scrambling through the piles of books.

Evolution Chart… Darwin’s theory of evolution. 

Introduction to Energy Path, the three heavenly principles… Newton’s laws of motion.

Hot and Cold Theory… Hot and Cold Energy Path, Scorching Heaven’s Three Arts… zeroth law of thermodynamics, the three laws of thermodynamics. 

Basics of the Scorching Metal Law… chemical reactions.

Celestial Table… nearly identical to Earth’s periodic table of elements.

Basics of Flow… hydrodynamics.

…

All the knowledge he gained in his past life resurfaced one at a time. The change in mindset caused an immediate reaction to the feeble spiritual power within.

Zhen Chanzi gasped, finding Wang Qi undoing Li Ziye’s seal, his spiritual power surging faster and faster but also containing unknown mysteries.

Zhen Chanzi calmed down. In his interactions with Wang Qi over the years, he knew better than anyone that the kid had more than just a screw loose. As modern cultivation wasn’t even part of his vocabulary, the ten-thousand-year-old relic wised up, choosing silence at this time.

Nurturer Stage had the Soulcare Realm to strengthen the soul and widen one’s horizons. The Education Realm was to learn and understand all the theories and studies predecessors had conducted in relation to the world’s nature, the Dao.

Zhen Chanzi noticed a few years back that Wang Qi’s soul was twice that of other people, nearing a cultivator at Foundation Establishment. That meant he had passed Soulcare Realm with flying colors.

This was where crossing over showed its advantage.

As for Education Realm’s conditions…

“Wa-ha-ha-ha, they’re only at the high school level of physics!” 

Wang Qi cackled like a mad scientist, his mind was abuzz with all the studies he did in his past life, all the while feeling the breath of the world.

Wang Qi’s spiritual power and the world’s spiritual energy matched their flows and combined. It resulted in an explosive increase in Wang Qi’s aura. The rushing spiritual power coursed through Wang Qi’s every fiber, filling him with warmth and relaxation from every cell being suffused with joy. 

Spiritual power!

It wasn’t the first time Wang Qi felt this, so he quickly woke up and guided the new spiritual power to his Dantian.

[To think that my cheat came from my other life!] Wang Qi sighed. Modern cultivation was all about researching the world’s truth and its fundamental composition. In other words, his scientific experience from the past was his greatest advantage.

When Wang Qi calmed down, Zhen Chanzi’s voice was shaky, “Qi Refining?”

The elated Wang Qi was dying for someone to ask him anything to share his glory, “Ha-ha, didn’t expect that, did you, old timer? I’m a modern cultivation ultimate genius! All those years listening to you were a waste of time!”

Zhen Chanzi had no comeback, “I now understand how cruel time can be. Heh, in Qi Refining after just half a day…”

Xiang Qi kicked the door wide open, her red image shooting into Wang Qi’s face while her invasive hands roamed all over his body.

Wang Qi coughed, “Hey, what’s with this development? Fairy, you should learn some modesty towards strangers. D-don’t, I mean stop doing that before it’s too la-, ubg…” 

Wang Qi’s words finally got to Xiang Qi, realizing her actions. She instantly covered his mouth in embarrassment. 

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, her hasty action almost broke Wang Qi’s jaw.

[Is she gonna silence me now?] Wang Qi was having a hard time even breathing, struggling to get away.

Li Ziye followed in, chuckling as he took her hand away, “Junior sister Xiang, any longer and you’d have killed a genius in the cradle.”

Xiang Qi glared hard at Wang Qi, “Kid, try running your mouth again and see what happens.”

Li Ziye pointed at Wang Qi’s forehead, sending some spiritual power to heal him, while also checking his cultivation in passing. 

Wang Qi’s skin crawled, and gasped, “Holly hell, is this… a threesome? This development… fairy, you nearly ruined my mou-, agh! She’s killing me…” 

Li Ziye shook his head as a red-faced Xiang Qi was pounding away into the guy on the ground, “Play with fire and you’ll get burned.”