Chapter 210, Imminent Face-Slapping

Translator: Tamon

 

‘Spanning across the empty void, in all heavenly portents and the geography of earth, there is nothing truly dependable—except myself.’

 

‘Standing through the coming tribulations, even the River Diagram and Luo Script afford no foundation—everything claimed reliable is hollow.’

 

Sword Energy rippled, sending wood shavings into the air. Wang Qi finished carving, and his mood improved.

 

[The past life is both a blessing and a curse. Sounds fair.] Wang Qi stood. [Shouldn’t have tangled with my past life in the first place. Death means the past should stay buried. I’m not some lunatic actor from the set next door who died, got transmigrated to Earth, then did everything possible to go back and fulfill a promise.]

 

Wang Qi sighed, taking two sheets of paper from his storage bag, balling them. Celestial Entropy spiritual power turned them to ash.

 

“Is this what you wanted to show those two? What is it?”

 

“My last resort. It helps calm the mind.” Wang Qi took more papers to destroy.

 

“But what are they?”

 

Wang Qi scoffed. “Something that would’ve brought Chen Jingyun to his knees.”

 

Zhen Chanzi snorted. “And you didn’t use it? I’m not some genius when it comes to math, but you’d need some Unfettered-level results to win the bet. That much I could tell.”

 

“Using it would’ve put me at odds with all of Myriad Arts Sect.” Wang Qi spoke sorrowfully. “This would’ve destroyed arithmeticians’ beliefs and crushed Myriad Arts Sect cultivators’ resolve. Taking it out without some adjustments and destroying an Eminence would’ve surely ended up with Immortal Alliance giving me the boot.”

 

Throwing out this stuff way ahead of its time without some insurance, especially when he was still suspected of being a banished immortal, was like being annoyed he wasn’t getting killed fast enough.

 

Wang Qi’s first burned paper had Godel’s incompleteness theorem. It would’ve broken math’s divinity, proving once and for all math’s faults; a miracle theory.

 

Su Junyu said once, Myriad Arts Sect cultivators’ resolve and the sect’s teachings had the same source, ‘where the seeker’s senses fail, math does not.’ Even the strongest Unfettered, like Arbiter of Arithmetic Hilbert, believed from the bottom of his heart that math was perfect and provable.

 

In other words, taking it out with no insurance would’ve crushed Chen Jingyun’s resolve.

 

Zhen Chanzi was skeptical. “From what you’re saying, the paper is on the level of Unfettered? But I know for sure that any Unfettered-level result had to be a thick stack.”

 

Wang Qi smiled.

 

Godel’s incompleteness theorem was the exception among exceptions. Along with the proof, it was incontestably concise. Not even the great mathematician Godel could believe his eyes that he came up with it.

 

The second burnt paper was Alan Turing’s ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,’ on the same level as Godel’s incompleteness theorem. (Tamon: Entscheidungsproblem=decision problem)

 

Divine Province’s calculators and Earth’s computers weren’t technically the same. Calculators used mathematical logic, which computers didn’t. Divine Province’s mathematical provisional logic revolved around determinism and completeness, another system People’s Champion Neumann and Contraption Elder Turing built. Wang Qi couldn’t tell which world’s mathematical logic was superior, but if they were combined, the advancement would be huge.

 

“Hence, the imminent kneeling from Chen Jingyun now became a question of when and how.” Having insurance, Wang Qi’s anger evaporated. He considered, [I gotta do it right and enjoy it fully… I’ll try doing it with my own efforts over the next couple of years, while keeping these two as insurance. Ha, I might’ve been rejected, but I’m way better off than Earth’s Oppenheimer and Allan Turing. Like the imprisoned Landau by KGB at best. He-he, I can now say ‘I’ll be back.’]

 

Wang Qi had given up on himself in his first few years after crossing over, but once he resolved himself and found the path he wanted to pursue, he came out of the shadows and took on a carefree attitude. He was in a pickle right now, but referring to himself as the diamond in the rough rekindled his spirit. He walked toward the Immortal Institute as he recited,

 

“Gone away from me

 

Is the day of yesterday that cannot be held on to;

 

What disturbs me

 

Is the day today happens to be that is full of worries and gloom.

 

For thousands of miles the wind blows sending autumn geese on their way,

 

We shall drink to our hearts’ content here on a tower with a commanding view.”(Tamon: Bidding Farewell to Secretary Shu Yun at Xie Tao Tower in Xuanzhou by Li Bai)

 

“Oh, only now I realize your literary skills are also good.” Su Junyu appeared nearby.

 

“Let me show off in peace…”

 

Su Junyu’s mouth twitched. He glanced at the poem carved behind Wang Qi. “Nice mentality. Here I was thinking you’d be in a slump.”

 

“Ha-ha, that Chen gave me a free swing to his face. What’s there to be depressed about?”

 

Su Junyu hesitated. “Don’t blame Senior Uncle. It’s the standard practice for all banished immortals.”

 

Wang Qi scoffed. “I know that already. Wu Shiqin already told me. Presumption of innocence is one of Immortal Alliance’s laws. There’s still the benefit of the doubt.”

 

Su Junyu’s brow lowered. “Presumption of innocence is based on confidence in strength… Immortal Alliance is confident it can suppress demons, so it allowed demonborn and reformed demons to join it. Immortal Alliance is confident ancient cultivation is on its last leg; that’s why it admitted those half-modern inter-cultivators. Only banished immortals are the exceptions, having no confidence in dealing with them.”

 

“So you’d rather convict them all?”

 

Su Junyu nodded. “I cannot deny it. A weak banished immortal could sacrifice a city and easily leave the continent, as for a stronger one… Do you know who the biggest crisis and threat to the core of modern cultivation have been in the last thousand years?”

 

Wang Qi frowned. “Banished immortals?”

 

“Demonic cultivation through absorbing another’s cultivation. Its users had been purged tens of thousands of years ago. So you tell me, just how high are the odd odds of a royal family member finding a peak demonic method in a remnant in the last thousand years?” Su Junyu continued. “Or an average Great Ascension cultivator unite countless ancient sects in the deep seas to contend with the modern cultivation for countless years?

 

“Demon Emperor Xi Le? Celestial Rift Lord Holy Emperor?” Wang Qi gasped. “They’re banished immortals?”

 

Su Junyu nodded. “Demon Emperor burned to death, but his ashes were found to be unusual. Holy Emperor calls himself a banished immortal, using a cultivation method that is not entirely from the Imperial Celestial Rift Sect’s, of unknown origins.”

 

Wang Qi shook his head. “They sure came out on top.”

 

Su Junyu sighed. “I hope you won’t let this setback pit you against the Immortal Alliance.”

 

Wang Qi waved him off. “I get it. Modern cultivation is a collective effort, with the ultimate goal of making everyone an immortal. I have everything to gain from staying with it rather than going on my own.”

 

“Come, I came to find you after informing the Immortal Institute of your situation. I even asked a few people to help find you.”

 

“There’s still a month left until the examination. I need to return and study.” Wang Qi strode ahead.

 

Su Junyu followed as he looked behind. “By the way, there’s a question that’s been nagging me for a while. “What are the River Diagram and Luo Script?”

 

“Uh…” Wang Qi flicked a Sword Energy as he brushed his hair, his face strait as he erased that part. “Some lost record.”

 

[Shit! Prancing ain’t easy at all!]