Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 141 The Three Body Problem and Inner Strength
Now it was approaching 12 o’clock. Hao Ning yawned, watching dully Long Fei investigating the ring.

“Hao Ning,” Long Fei had tried all the methods he could think up to the ring, while it didn’t react at all. All he could do was turned back and asked, “You really don’t remember how you exerted your power and killed those people? Even the slightest details?”

“Stop asking me. I’ve told you countless times that I don’t remember at all.” Hao Ning lay on his sofa, watching telly, not interested in all kinds of magic weapons on the table. If Zhang Quan knew that the knock-off of Hunyuan Vat, Immortal Tying Rope, Falling Treasure Coin, Apricot Bamboo Hat, the gloves which could grasp human souls, and a ring to split up souls were piling up on his table like box lunches, he would probably shout at him for such a waste.

It wasn’t Hao Ning’s fault, though. He’d thought over it for times. Since he couldn’t cultivate his power, what was he going to do with all the magic weapons? Trade for a Porsche? No way. They looked valueless, and he’d be chucked out of the pawnshop for bringing them there. How about selling them to Zhang Chi Hang for some money? Impossible, he’s a miser specialising in finance who would calculate a minimum with formulas when answering sycophants’ wishes. And Zhang Quan? He should be the one who was interested most. But the pauper would be hilarious for a whole week at getting an Apple watch. How could he have money for such a trade? Could Long Fei be his potential customer? That would be ridiculous. Our Dragon God in front of him was now devoted to his little goal of 100 million.

Gosh! Hao Ning looked unconsciously at the nocturne outside the balcony, hoping to roar at the dark night. Why such a capable man like him, who could subdue Hong Hai’er, kill Lan Ruo, fight against gangs of rascals and seal the new god, was so poor? In novels, couldn’t the ones holding some specific tricks gain success and possess above ten billion yuan under his name? Why was he so pathetic?

He’d never thought that he was poor. Not when he met Zhang Chi Hang, not when he encountered Zhang Quan, but today when Zhe sent him the Porsche, he came to figure that he was really poor. Then he felt jealous watching Long Fei investigating the magic weapons in interest wearing a satisfied face. If only he had been a god, too. He could focus on only one thing all day, which was how to improve his incense. How would so much bloody stuff on earth even happen to him? What was worst, of all people, he was the last one in the world who could ever make it become a god. He couldn’t even cultivate his power. At that thought, he couldn’t help but shouted gloomily, “God! Why I have no money?”

Then even the telly was going against him, which began to flicker at a crackle. Irritated Hao Ning went front, clapping the telly and muttered, “The broken telly, it never works well. Maybe it was damaged last time when we sealed gods. I’ll complain forcibly about the quality of MI’s tellies someday!”

“Hao Ning, I notice something weird.” Long Fei finally turned his head and swung the ring at him, “The ring is an insulator against magic power. No matter how much power I tried to infuse it with, it deflected back all of it.”

“What?” Hao Ning patted the telly for a while. No effect was observed, so he left it aside, walked close, took the ring from Long Fei’s hand and looked precisely, “I didn’t get you.”

“To make it plain,” Long Fei explained, pointing at the magic weapons on the table, “All the magic weapons need the power to run, so when they’re infused with power. There lie two outcomes. One is that the magic power isn’t enough, so it turns out as if it disappeared. The magic weapon won’t react at all. The other is that with enough power, the magic weapon works. That night I and Zhou Yuan experimented with the magic weapon and it stayed still. We thought it was because of our lack of cultivation and limited power. But just now I investigated it closely, then I got to know that my power wouldn’t be taken in at all when I tried to infuse it, in turn, it came back directly to me. Thus, I made up the word, insulator against magic power. ”

The insulator against magic power… Hao Ning, listening to Long Fei, muttered in his mind that he was literally a superior student specialising in physics, or how could he have described the magic weapon with the word insulator.

“Or it actually isn’t a magic weapon?” Hao Ning took the ring from Long Fei’s hand and looked into it against the lamp light, “Maybe it’s like the broken telly, which is only an ordinary item?”

“Can’t be. Anything ordinary can’t return it wholly after being infused with power.” Long Fei shook his head and smiled, “It’s like when you take a ping pong ball and throw it to the ground, it won’t bounce back to the previous height, because of the energy loss in process of transformation. You can take power as one kind of special energy, so normally, when ordinary things are infused with power, there should be a loss. But when I infuse the ring, there isn’t such a loss at all.”

“Oh? That’s meaningful. “Hearing Long Fei, the god entitled with Doctor of Physics, explaining it, Hao Ning got an interest in the ring, too, “Then under which condition will the power not lose in slightest?”

“Eh… Have to say I haven’t met one yet.” Long Fei winked, apparently thoughtful. Hao Ning began to figure that Long Fei was virtually suitable for a scientist or a theologist, while the sophistication on earth is not for him. Long Fei continued, “As far as I know, all ever been involved in theological history is about how to make weapons more strengthful. Who would conduct research on making such a useless thing as a magic weapon insulated from power?”

“How about thinking about that in another way? Since you’re a doctor in physics,” Seeing Long Fei’s truly seriousness, Hao Ning plucked up spirit and decided to divert himself from the fact that he was a pauper by discussing these things with Long Fei, “In physics, what an item could maintain the power without any loss?”

“Eh… It only exists theoretically, like a rigid object. We suppose that a ball would bounce and clap without any energy loss when a rigid object is absolutely smooth because there isn’t any friction…” At that thought, Long Fei peered at Hao Ning and speculated, “A hypothesis, I say it’s only a hypothesis, that if one object holds such an intense texture that there isn’t even a leak allowing the entrance of power, then that would be possible…”

“Seam?” Hao Ning pondered. He’d never met such a seamless thing. Then one item occurred to Hao Ning, “Eh, Long Fei, have you read The Three Body Problem?

“The Three Body Problem? You refer to the trilogy of the master of science fiction Liu Cixin?”Long Fei, not knowing why Hao Ning mentioned that, got confusion in his eyes, “I didn’t go further with that, but Yufei should’ve read it. I kept related memories after occupying his body, but it’s been years, so not quite clear. What’s it?”

“In The Three Body Problem, it depicted a weapon, Master Liu called it Water Drop. It was featured with a cohesive surface, in which the arrays of atoms were seamless. No matter at which level of magnification, the surface was smooth. That’s a very strengthful weapon.” Hao Ning said and turned on his mobile, looking for a depiction of Water Drop, then handed it to Long Fei, “See, here it is.”

“Ah, I keep such an impression.” Long Fei went through it and nodded, but then shook his head, “You mean the ring is likely to be such things? No way… According to Master Liu’s depiction, with no space between atoms, the tiny ring should weigh too much for a human to pick it up, leave alone wear it on fingers. Besides, what he wrote is science fiction, not the real.

“You make sense as well.” Hao Ning knew more about physics than Liu Shuai did, so he could understand Long Fei’s words. At that thought, he got the inspiration and beamed at Long Fei, “If this thing can’t be driven by your power, then will it be possible to drive this with inner force?”

“Inner force? How will inner force even drive?” Long Fei felt confused and scratched his head, “Inner force is the force that functions inside objects. If you do a force analysis, you’ll find that it has no external impact…”

Long Fei’s answer perplexed Haoning, but he understood in the twinkling of an eye, that Long Fei’s inner force wasn’t his inner force, but the inner force used in force analysis of physics subjects. For Hao Ning, he wouldn’t apply such inner force unless in a physics examination, so who’d ever think of that in daily life? It was visible that Long Fei was deeply affected by Yufei. Theology, physics or nothing would be on their mind.

“Hey, you got it wrong.” Hao Ning smiled mirthlessly. He was to blame for switching to physics abruptly when talking to Long Fei about physics. “When I say inner force, I don’t refer to the inner force in physics, but the one in Wuxia fiction, which is also known as inner strength. Yeah, Long Fei, you are supposed to be the one among us who reads the least of Wuxia fiction. For example, the Sven Sided Strike I applied on dinner table today, and the Flower-picking Finger, Cloud Step, are all driven by inner strength. Inner strength is quite important for the warriors in Wuxia fictions. Of course, the so-called inner strength doesn’t exist in the real world. But think about the guys in Brain Restaurant that evening, they’re all supposed to hold inner strength.”

“Exactly! I remember! That makes sense!” Long Fei patted his thigh and looked at Hao Ning in excitement, “Last evening when Dao used Soul Cutter, I didn’t notice the wave of power in his body. And I could tell by his behaviors that he didn’t exert his power by incense absorbed, which was to say, it was probable that he didn’t possess any power, and he utilised the ring in some other methods. Yes! I strayed by subjectively reckoning that power was needed to run at the sight of a magic weapon. Sure! It sure is! Dao should have been reformed by Book Elf, too, and they were actually exerting the inner strength in fictions!”

“In that way. it got relatively complicated.” Saying that, Long Fei got a bit anxious, “Though I haven’t read many Wuxia fictions, I heard something from Liu Shuai that in different kungfu they cultivate different inner strength. So if Dao was really exerting inner strength, while we didn’t know accurately which one, how could we learn the corresponding inner strength? The ring is mysterious, so it’s impossible that we drive it with nothing special.”