Chapter 22: The Shocking Works

Xiang Qi used the locator to find Wang Qi. The zombified walk he was using as he wondered the streets give her the shock of her life.“What’s with… Did someone take your essence?”

Wang Qi took two whole seconds to react, smiling, “Senior Sister, you’re not that off, actually.”

“Ah?” Xiang Qi cocked her head.

Divine Province had dark arts that sucked people’s vitality like any province. Any cultivator would know what Xiang Qi was talking about. 

These dark and vile arts weren’t widespread, and Xiang Qi merely mentioned it as joke. Zhen Chanzi was quick to explain the encounter at White Stallion in Wang Qi’s stead.

The girl made a wry face, “You went and had a match with an adept Foundation Establishment cultivator in White Marsh Algorithm from Myriad Arts Sect?”

Wang Qi gave a dull nod, “Uh-huh.”

Zhen Chanzi supplied, “And refused to call it quits.”

Xiang Qi shook her head, deciding to brush over this event, “Freak, look how dead tired you are. Let’s get you some rest. I’ll take you tomorrow to register.”

The girl supported the weary Wang Qi and walked to an Immortal Alliance’s station.

Midnight, Immortal Alliance’s station.

Wang Qi was on the bead, with closed eyes and stable breathing, yet his spiritual sense connected to the ring, “Old man, is the coast clear?”

Zhen Chanzi said, “As far as I can tell.”

“Ha!” Wang Qi flung the quilt off him and jumped out of bed, “I finally get to be secretive.” 

He picked up his clothes from next to the window and took out two stacks of papers.

One was Daoist Proscribe Heisenberg’s works, and the other was made of blank paper he bought today, along with an inkstone, an inkstick and a brush.  

“These things were dirt-cheap.” Wang Qi sighed, “Just 1% of a stone’s spiritual energy.”

Stone was the spiritual energy’s unit of measurement. It was the average spiritual energy of a low spirit stone. 

One percent of a stone was the lowest value in an immortal city. A respected laboratory could measure the smallest unit of spiritual energy similar to Planck’s constant, but the credit card-like spirit pool used in trading and POS didn’t need that kind of precision, topped at a hundredth of a stone’s value. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NovᴇlFɪre .ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Mortal items hardly ever intersect with cultivators. On the off chance some cultivator insists on mundane items, they would have an easy time earning silver than mere mortals. As for spirit stones, mortals would never get to use them. As such, mortals and cultivators never traded since ancient times.” Zhen Chanzi said, “It’s a miracle Argent Apex even sells such plain items.” 

Wang Qi smiled, “Old man, weren’t you known as Supreme Heaven before? It sounds fancy and distinguished.” 

Zhen Chanzi grumbled, “What’s so distinguished about something ten thousand years ago? I’m nothing but a game card now.”

In the catalog Su Junyu lent him, there was the Unrivaled Supreme expansion pack that contained a few Ephemeral Tranquility Palace renowned cultivators and many of their arts as cards. 

“How much is your value according to Lu Renjia Quantization?”

Zhen Chanzi considered, “This algorithm doesn’t calculate what arts you know, but what arts you use in a fight. In those days, I should be around 6 or 8. On a very good day, with Grand Scripture of Primordial Chaos and other arts brought to full power, I should be a 10.”

Wang Qi shook his head, “Great Ascension cultivation is theorized to have 10 at their very limit. As you know, the higher the cultivation, the higher the value.”

The higher the cultivation, the stronger the spiritual power. It made one’s magical arts more intricate. Furthermore, cultivation was related to lifespan. The longer one lived, the more a sword cultivator trained, for example, or increased one’s battle experience.

“That’s a rare achievement. Many ancient magical arts had their value drop with this algorithm.” Zhen Chanzi whined.

“Ethereal Cloud Sword, Dual Whirlwind, Grand Wave Palm, Grand Heavenly Chart, Heavenly Sword and a few others have a peak value of ten by themselves, true battle treasures. When taken alone, the Inescapable Electric Sword, Dual Electric Spiral, Elusory Movement, and Celestial Blade Discs’ 7th period have a max value of 9.”

Zhen Chanzi sighed, “I just can’t believe it…”

Wang Qi rubbed the inkstick, “Alright, old man, calm down. I’m starting.”

Wang Qi’s brush swept the blank paper with great speed.

Zhen Chanzi asked, “Again with those weird calculations? I’ve been meaning to ask you since Albion Village, just where did you learn these characters?”

It was not an easy answer, which was why Wang Qi faked being engrossed in his research and ignored him.

Daoist Proscribe’s works were slowly, but surely, translated into modern Earth’s mathematical equations.

Familiar formulas passed through Wang Qi’s eyes.

“This symbol is prevalent, then it must be a constant. This too…

“One should be Planck’s constant, but what about the other?

“This work’s data is insufficient. Old Hai must’ve played it safe since he was wanted and didn’t conduct research.

“Lacking data means I can’t use black body radiation experiment, and I can’t confirm Planck’s constant’s exact value of this world.

“Then there’s another constant. Hold on, this symbol usually appears in three other formulas.

“These three formulas show up often, but I haven’t seen them before. Maybe they’re specific to this world?”

Wang Qi bit on the brush end as he analyzed the equations.

“It’s hard to figure out why the three formulas are so common, and what are their purpose.

“Let’s leave aside what they represent for now and just use math to solve them…]

Wang Qi threw aside the works and took out a blank paper to calculate.

As a transmigrator, Wang Qi’s soul was much stronger. Top that with an Earth’s bookworm specialized in math and physics, and Wang Qi was armed to tackle highly advanced mathematical problems. Regardless of intellect and knowhow, it still took him an hour.

“The formulas are equal…

“Then I can replace them with a symbol.”

Taking into consideratin that Wang Qi didn’t know the formulas and the unknown constant’s use into the formulas he did know…

“Yes, it’s now an array.”

Simplifying it, Wang Qi’s spirits lifted, yet grumbled soon after. 

Array mathematics were annoying and complicated. It was something all quantum mechanics researchers hated in common.

“Array mechanics and wave mechanics are equal… No, there are too many lacking conditions, on top of the unknown ones. I can’t change them at a whim…”

Wang Qi chewed on the brush in thought, [Old Hai’s art is the top Elusory Movement, known for no other art being able to see its speed and distance. It encompasses the uncertainty principle into one’s movements. Schrödinger’s wave function doesn’t have this…]  

[What now?]

Wang Qi stared at the ceiling, founding himself so short on time.

“The advantage of matrix mechanics comes into play in handling discrete spectral lines and large amount of data. Yet there’s hardly any data here…”

Then it hit him, “Right, Dirac equation! Using Poisson brackets, if this center follows uncertainty principle, then Poisson brackets, which don’t conform to the commutative law, will work just as well! This will simplify the problem!” 

Zhen Chanzi had been meditating in the ring all this time. Listening to all those mind-boggling and foreing formulas was torture.

When the sun dawned, Wang Qi finished his calculations.

He took a random paper to wipe his brow, and Wang Qi looked at the works once more. He put them with the rest of brush, ink and other papers, and wrapped them in a fireball. He supplied it with spiritual power to keep the flame from dying out while being careful not to set the room on fire.

Having done with that, he cracked up, “Wa-ha-ha-ha! I can do anything I want now!”

Zhen Chanzi jolted awake, snapping, “What got you so crazy in the morning?”

Wang Qi laughed, “Guess what’s on Old Hai’s works?” 

Zhen Chanzi was curious, “What did you find?”

“Ethereal Cloud Sword and Elusory Movement, at the very least. If I can just supply it with experimental data, I might even get to solve the way to refine the Grand Heavenly Chart!”

“Since Elusive Palace and he share common roots, Inescapable Electric Sword and Dual Electric Spiral are just as possible to use!” 

[Old Hai was trully generous! This heavily simplified manuscript, which still spans more than twenty pages, is a guide on how to integrate theories such as the uncertainty principle, probability density, and matrix mechanics into cultivation techniques!] 

Zhen Chanzi thought about giving a sarcastic laugh out of disbelief, but Wang Qi’s tone proved it true. His voice was shaky, “You learned them?”

Wang Qi’s answer was like a rock, “Nope.”

Zhen Chanzi hesitated, “Then you know how?”

“No?”

Zhen Chanzi snapped, “Are you mocking me?”

Wang Qi spread his arms, “You can’t frickin’ train a sword art without a proper guidelines even if you bash your head with it! The corresponding mental arts, Elusive Palace’s sword arts, and magical arts are the basics of these arts.”

“In other words, you could learn them later?”

Wang Qi shook his head, “Not could, but will. But these arts sure are tough. I can’t learn them at the drop of the hat either.”

He stretched and opened the window. The hazy sunlight of the glorious morning shone on his face.

The youth muttered, “Now I’m even more excited about Immortal Alliance.”