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Translator: Tamon
The trial area was neither big nor small. Foundation Establishment cultivators could fly around it and, regarding those with deep spiritual power, could even do it without breathing.
In the case of the Qi Refining cultivator, however, it was a very tall order.
Having collected samples from five sites, the group of four was each experiencing varying degrees of exhaustion. Wu Fan slumped on the ground, expressing his weary state of being unable to get up. Mao Zimiao had forgone using spiritual power to shield herself and preserve it instead, leading to red swells on her arms from the bites.
Wang Qi had no choice but to declare a break.
Wu Shiqin was doing better, electing to keep watch while the others sat down and recovered.
Wang Qi noticed the particularity of the grove while meditating.
The Evolution Chart, incomplete to begin with, had a stable and evolving spiritual power before one inferred higher stages. During meditation, Evolution Chart’s spiritual power was incredibly active, changing cycling paths on a whim.
Wang Qi was overjoyed. Evolution Chart jumped to the second stage under who knew what Arbiter of Arithmetic did, which made it impossible for him to feel where to go from there when he practiced it. Yet among this patch of trees, he could actually feel it getting close to evolving, although hardly any time had passed since the last time it did.
[It’s all thanks to the arts placed here by Spirit Beast Mountain!]
Wang Qi was unaware that this had more to do with his shallow cultivation. Foundation Establishment cultivators using Evolution Chart would feel a boost the second they entered the groove. There were rumors going around that a Golden Core cultivator used the grove’s arts as an excuse for reaching Primordial Spirit.
Before long, Wang Qi’s spiritual power was full once more. A sudden and strange feeling overtook him then, like a seed sprouting, like an insect’s buzzing having echoed through the earth for eons, the joy of copulation, and the absolute peace before one’s end.
He felt he should keep cultivating, but composing himself, he frowned. He detached himself from that feeling and broke out of meditation.
Wang Qi glanced at Mao Zimiao. The meditating cat-eared girl was weary, but that didn’t stop a bright smile from showing on her face. She also must’ve gained something. He nodded to Wu Shiqin and said, “I’m good now. You rest as well.”
Wu Shiqin sat down at once.
Wang Qi clenched his fist, then relaxed a couple of times. He felt a slight change in his body, making him frown. “What was that feeling?”
His goal was to earn merits and cultivate according to Hilbert’s indications. His path could never stray from math; his every step was clear and justifiable.
Yet he just deduced the next stage of the Evolution Chart from something as ephemeral as a gut feeling?
Zhen Chanzi once said that a truly supreme art was not made up of words. This type of inheritance relied on the ancestor sealing his insights into an item for the disciples to incorporate into their souls to cultivate a truly mystical and sublime art.
Zhen Chanzi’s Grand Scripture of Primordial Chaos had words, but only until Qi Refining.
Nevertheless, in the modern scientific cultivation society, Wang Qi knew that anything lacking writing was made up by a second-rate founder and left to be practiced by a third-rate cultivator.
Grand Dao could be deduced from but a few axioms, so how could a trifling cultivation method not be summed up in words?
The ancient cultivation methods lacked words, not due to their mystical and abstruse notions, but because the ancient cultivators were too dense. They just couldn’t crack it!
Unable to surpass some dense founder and needing to train in some wordless second-rate cultivation method, of course you’d end up as nothing more than a third-rate!
Three fundamental laws, the Celestial Element Series, were widely circulated in the Divine Province’s cultivation world. Just like the three laws of motion and Maxwell’s equations, both series explained the nature of all things. Where could one even begin to compare their value and contribution to science with some obscure, convoluted, and empty ‘wordless’ arts?
He was certain that giving this sensation any validity would lead him astray, not to mention forcing him to waste even more time researching the principles behind such a vague feeling. It wouldn’t come anywhere close to the step-by-step realization Wang Qi would glean from using the evolutionary algorithm and mutation model to improve his cultivation method.
Wang Qi reached a decision and called out Mao Zimiao. Seeing the silly face the foolish cat was making, he feared she might be too absorbed in the cultivation method.
Wang Qi heard Su Junyu say, “Your paths are different. The sensation might work in her favor, unlike in your case.”
Wang Qi looked back to find Su Junyu’s mat a foot from the ground, its user still reading The Case of Ge. Since the time they left Su Junyu behind, he looked to be almost finished reading it, judging by its state.
“You’re really serious about reading.”
Su Junyu ignored his chatter. “Calculations would be an integral part of your future path, am I correct?”
Wang Qi nodded. He was even considering the Myriad Arts Sect among the sects he would join.
Su Junyu said, “The feel of your spiritual power is very mixed, including the Evolution Chart. While all of your cultivation methods have taken the scent of Evolution Chart, Divine Hexagram Computation and Book of Geometry have strong natures and should’ve driven Evolution Chart down the path of arithmetics. Some of the books Senior Hilbert offered would tell you the same thing, and you thought your path and Mao Zimiao’s were the same.”
Wang Qi’s thoughts took a sharp turn, imagining the cat-eared girl breaking her fingers trying to use Divine Hexagram Computation. Recalling her drooping ears for failing her basic calculations, Wang Qi almost burst out laughing, “As if!”
Su Junyu nodded. “So you see, she walks a much purer Evolution Chart, which makes every insight she gleans here to her benefit. It will be of great use in opening to her the macro theory of evolution. This place was set up by an Unfettered after all.”
Su Junyu was the picture of assistance, but his voice was filled with respect. The modern system needed talents, but not the kind that couldn’t get their talent under control. Myriad Arts Sect had seen plenty of disciples with a strong inclination for math, able to figure out the value problem with one glance, but they were trapped in their innate talent, their math skills unpolished. They were unable to conclude in words what they discovered or felt. This was why none of them were able to step foot into Unfettered, let alone Nirvana.
Myriad Arts Monarch Chen Jingyun was famous for the question of value. Sect Leader Chen’s talent and spirit weren’t that good among his peers; worse, in fact. Despite all that, through constant efforts and slow progress, he relied on the question of value to reach half Unfettered. In regards to Myriad Arts Sect’s requirments, Wang Qi’s stance was indeed the best.
