Applied Immortality

Wang Qi took a deep breath and brandished his fists.

As an early Qi Refining cultivator still, his fist skills didn’t improve, though the strikes had greater stability and force.

Wang Qi believed if he were to fight his yesterday’s self to the death, he’d win with ease.

The yin-yang diagrams inside his acupoints weren’t the meager two dozen from before but nearly a hundred. He formed the yin-yang diagrams by using his advancement in the Evolution Chart.

The more than double amount of yin-yang diagrams wasn’t as simple as merely doubling his computing ability. Divine Hexagram Computation’s ability to calculate grew geometrically with the number of yin-yang diagrams. Doubling the number of yin-yang diagrams meant multiplying his computation skills by a larger factor!

Book of Geometry’s advancement allowed a precise grasp of a coordinate system with him as the origin at any given time. He could now abstract into simple shapes and visualize the trajectories of all objects detected with spiritual sense.

For a modern cultivator, this ability was real combat power.

What’s more, the two cultivation methods showed signs of fusing after Evolution Chart linked with them. Once the two became one, it was tantamount to analytic geometry’s Heavenly Position. With heavenly position as the foundation, by combining it with Cosmic Calculation, Divine Province’s name for Hilbert space, would result in Myriad Arts Sect’s most powerful fundamental cultivation method, Celestial Harmony.

Developing the Heavenly Position at the Foundation Establishment realm was a crucial metric for Myriad Arts Sect to judge whether its students would reach the Eminence Stage. By cultivating Celestial Harmony before the Primordial Spirit Realm, Nirvana was a near certainty, with Unfettered a strong possibility.

Wang Qi also gained knowledge of biology from a part of Gene Ancestor’s enlightenment in the path of life. It was not nearly enough to make him become a biologist, but at the very least, his sore lack of basic biology that plagued his Evolution Chart cultivation was now gone. Until the Foundation Establishment that is.

Wang Qi sighed. “An Unfettered’s item when achieving his path is truly incredible.”

[Doesn’t this feel like I’m suddenly owing him a big favor?]

The inferior Mendel bean shouldn’t be too precious to Ai Dinglan, but not for a second did Wang Qi believe it was worthless.

Wang Qi left the room and went to the medical office.

The medical office was in a remote and quiet corner of the Immortal Institute. Through the window, Wang Qi saw the shadows cast by the climbing vines on the outer walls. A direct path connected the medical office and the training grounds, in case someone got hurt they’d receive immediate medical attention. Unless the injuries were severe enough to affect cultivation, freshmen wouldn’t  visit. At this moment, the medical office was empty except for Wang Qi and Ai Dinglan.

The girl was sleeping. The lively, bubbly, and chatty five best true disciple had a softer side when resting, contrasted by that mischievous smirk. Curled up and wearing a tight robe, it gave a perfect outline of the girl’s outstanding features.

Wang Qi pondered before waking her up, opting to take a seat in the lobby to review what he knew.

The opening of the door startled him as Su Junyu and Xiang Qi walked in.

Xiang Qi frowned. “Wang Qi, I heard you got hurt. Is it bad?”

Su Junyu smiled while assessing him, rolled the scroll closed, and hit Wang Qi’s chest with it. “You sure are tough! Mao Zimiao told me you were attacked. The way she said it sounded like you were put through a wringer, that you’re hanging by a thread.”

Wang Qi rose an eyebrow. “What did she say?”

[Didn’t the Unfettered warn the silly cat?]

Xiang Qi turned grave. “They say a freshman with seething hatred and unsolved grudges had an unstable mind. The one you defeated in the martial test envied your talent and that turned into his inner demon, making him strike you down. You ended up being saved by a Foundation Establishment teaching assistant passing by. But the freshman’s mind had since broken down into madness, relentless in his attacks aimed now at the teaching assistant. In the ensuing chaos, the teaching assistant accidentally took their life.”

Wang Qi eased a breath. [Most of it is true, at least.] Yang Jun’s death couldn’t be covered up and the assault on Wang Qi was a hard fact. To the uninvolved, that was enough to buy into this version of the truth.

But it helped hide two crucial facts.

Inner demons? Deviation leading to madness? [What kind of cultivation method is even capable of that kind of inner demons?] [Also, can an insane Qi Refining cultivator earn the attention of an Unfettered?] [There’s no way Ah’Zimiao could come up with this half-truth explanation. It must be Immortal Alliance’s declaration!]

Wang Qi asked, “What of Zimiao?”

Su Junyu said, “Just shaken up. Nothing serious.”

A figure jumped at Xiang Qi. Ai Dinglan threw the Scorching Metal Valley true disciple to the ground and rubbed her face on Xiang Qi. “Qiqi, we meet again, he-he.”

“Hey, why does the butch get such a high treatment?”

“Let go, Dinglan! And you, moneybags, what the hell are you thinking?”

Wang Qi bore witness to the scene while whispering to Su Junyu. “Are you guys close?”

Su Junyu replied in the same hushed tone. “Before both of us became teaching assistants at the same Immortal Institute, we heard rumors of Witch Ai Dinglan, one of the best talents of our generation. Her reputation precedes her. Not so much as friendship, but rather nodding acquaintance. But the girl’s just overly… familiar, jumping on Xiang Qi at first glance just like now.”

[Is the bondage fan batting for the other team as well?]

“What’s the ‘witch’ for?” Wang Qi watched Ai Dinglan rubbing up and down as Xiang Qi strained to get her off. “Is there something… off about her?”

Su Junyu nodded. “She’s gifted to an obscene degree, to the point it makes it difficult for her to understand average people’s thinking as well as having unconventional behavior. Hence her nickname. Then again, all geniuses are like that.”

Wang Qi glanced at Su Junyu, “Don’t go make excuses for being a shut-in, socially awkward, and doomed to be single.”

Su Junyu snapped, “You can’t discuss ice with a summer insect! Tch, the wisdom of mortals!”