Chapter 183, After the Examination

Translator: Tamon

 

The exciting end-of-the-year joint examination came to a close with the finale of Wu Shiqin and Hu Jianghao’s fight.

 

Argent Apex and Langde’s disciples weren’t too happy with the results. The latter were overwhelmed by Wang Qi turning the tide, while Argent Apex’s disciples remained bitter over being constantly outmatched.

 

Wu Shiqin and Wang Qi’s final wins against Ai Changyuan and Hu Jianghao did give back Argent Apex Immortal Institute its morale. Come night, Long Shulin gathered Argent Apex’s team to pool together and celebrate in a restaurant in Jiongli.

 

Langde was depressed. The martial examination had begun on a high note, but then came Wang Qi to ruin it all, crushing their confidence. Langde’s best and second best, losing to Argent Apex’s best and second best, leaving them with no hope at all.

 

Ai Changyuan was oblivious to his classmates’ worries. He never cared about what others thought of him. The martial examination offered him an electromagnetic force cultivator on the same level as him, as well as a tough fight. That made the trip all the more worthwhile.

 

Not all were as carefree as Ai Changyuan, at least Hu Jianghao. Crushed by Wu Shiqin, he returned to Langde Immortal Institute’s rooms in depression, forcing himself to go through Langde’s celebration before looking for a quiet place to cry.

 

If only it had been Lijing, or Leyan Immortal Institute that would crush Langde Immortal Institute with absolute might, at least his people would unite under a common enemy, but this broken situation, this unsalvageable state, was all due to his fault. His!

 

“Wang Qi~!”

 

Hu Jianghao’s howl roused many crows last night.

 

With the examination done, many freshmen went home.

 

The long life of cultivators presented them with a different outlook on life than that of mortals. Cultivators over a century old would lose touch with things like holidays and birthdays. Golden Core cultivators lived for up to eight centuries. To them, even a holiday once a decade would feel like a drag.

 

As for Primordial Spirit cultivator’s lifespan—ahem, modern cultivation had only just been established two thousand years ago, not enough time for any of their Primordial Spirit cultivators to kick the bucket. Based on ancient cultivation hearsay on a Nascent Soul’s three-thousand-year lifespan, it was quite obvious a Primordial Spirit’s had to go beyond that. At those numbers, extreme as it was, maybe one celebration in a century would be enough to rouse their spirits somewhat.

 

In regard to Immortal Institute disciples, they were but youths—the eldest barely over fifteen, while their youngest just beyond childhood’s tender years. In terms of cultivation path, they were babies, with a little more strength than mortals and a sense of time unskewed by the ages. Their parents, even those that had reached the Golden Core Realm, were still on their fifties at best, prone to pangs of longing. As such, from the joint examination on the twelfth month to the sixteenth in the first month next year, they were on holiday. For many freshmen, this was the only break they knew in over a year.

 

In addition, to show their generous treatment of talent, Immortal Alliance waved all fees for the Immortal Institute disciples’ return home.

 

The very first to go was Mao Zimiao. The startling fact was that she left on the same spirit boat along with most Langde Immortal Institute disciples for the Western Sea.

 

She said that her father was a Golden Core demonborn of low talent, but was valiant in his early years working as the Western Sea’s frontier guard for the Immortal Alliance, earning plenty of merits killing sea demons. Later on he moved into the center of Divine Province, where with plenty of arts and guidance, he easily reached the Golden Core. At the beginning of this year, the Western Sea coast had been in turmoil from all the demon raids on the human population, with Yang Jun also part of the unfortunate victims. Mao Zimiao’s father had returned to the Western Sea battlefield at the request of an old comrade. The catgirl wanted to go there as well, having not seen him for a year.

 

Wu Shiqin left two days later. Most Argent Apex Immortal Institute’s disciples came from the center of the Divine Province. Only Leyan and Lijing’s Immortal Institute had disciples from great clans or Unfettered descendants willing to travel thousands of miles to join these prestigious academies.

 

By 27th, everyone was pretty much gone.

 

With nothing better to do, Wang Qi cultivated.

 

Though the process these past two days was unlike his usual style.

 

He took the same cross-legged stance typical of most Qi Refining cultivators, but instead of cycling his spiritual power, he focused on his soul.

 

The Upper Clarity Fractal stood smack in the middle and high above, in control of all soul power. The usual wild and unruly soul power was purified under the work of the ancient fractal.

 

But something strange crept into his soul. Four spiritual powers wiggled their way in. They came from his Dantian, but not like the Heavenly Position Axis. This was a baseless, weak, and frail, cheap Heavenly Position Axis Wang Qi made with a spiritual power.

 

Wang Qi planned on linking the fake with the Upper Clarity Fractal and instill change.

 

Infinite dimensional Hilbert space, or infinite universe, was what he aimed for.

 

The Book of Geometry’s progress meant combining with Divine Hexagram Computation, an arithmetic representative, in forming the analytic geometry’s Heavenly Position. Add to that Hilbert space, an extension of Euclidean geometry, and you’d have the Universal Position.

 

Most Myriad Arts Sect disciples would choose a finite multi-dimensional Hilbert space, at most a couple universes as a base for the Universal Position. Wang Qi knew, however, that Hilbert space had infinite dimensions.

 

Wang Qi, having grasped the Upper Clarity Fractal, allowed him to touch upon infinite dimensional Hilbert space in the Qi Refining Realm, or infinite universe.

 

It was a math tool he grasped back on Earth.

 

But when the fake touched the fractal, it was pulled in and refined.

 

Maybe the genuine Heavenly Position Axis could fight this baffling attraction, but having been injured just recently told Wang Qi never to try it again.

 

After all, Ai Dinglan had gone home too. No one was here to patch him if he messed up.

 

In the end, he lacked a deeper understanding of spiritual energy’s nature and was unable to integrate it into his own knowledge system. Why the hell did the fractal have so much power anyway?

 

Wang Qi sank in thought.

 

Zhen Chanzi asked out of nowhere. “When are you going back?”