Exploring Immortality Cultivation

"Leiyang's workshops have such poor service," complained Chen Youjia, despite having graduated from the Leiyang Immortal Institute. She had no fond feelings for that purely research-oriented Immortal City devoid of decent cuisine: "It's been over a month, and only now do they finish."

"Determining the precise Spirit Energy Eigenform does take some effort," Wang Qi, aspiring physicist, reassured her, "Running the tests alone takes four days, plus two weeks for mailing, additional time for queuing and duplicating the Spiritual Energy—it roughly adds up to a month."

When Wang Qi spoke, Chen Youjia chose not to say anything more. They were sitting with Chen Feng at a desk, waiting for him to unveil a crucial formula.

Chen Feng opened his Illusion Post District and summoned the message. A lengthy formula appeared on the screen before Wang Qi and Chen Youjia. Written in size five font, the formula spanned half a meter, daunting for most to even attempt memorizing.

"This long?" questioned Chen Youjia, "How do we use it?"

"There might be a way to simplify it," Wang Qi suddenly remembered. Long ago, Ai Qinglan had given him an intrinsic formula, a simplified approximation of his Holy Light Divine Power. He wrote out that formula, then said, "Factorize this long intrinsic formula, then cancel out the parts from this Holy Light intrinsic formula."

Blessed with significant computational skill, Wang Qi's recent focus had shifted to the Life Path to harness the Life Flame, which slightly dulled his familiarity and sheer computational power compared to Chen Youjia. However, Chen Youjia quickly arrived at the result: "Here."

As Wang Qi observed the considerably simplified formula, he closed his eyes, pondering various aspects. The umpteen formulas accumulated over the month surfaced before his eyes, comparing life insights with the formula.

"Have you found the spell significance or the meaning concerning life beings of this formula?" Chen Feng inquired.

"Do you have the intrinsic formula for the Spiritual Power of the Soul?" Wang Qi retorted.

Chen Feng nodded, "Want to see it?"

"Obviously."

Chen Feng fetched another formula from his calculator, "Here it is. But... this formula is very strange, and not easy to use, so we at Tianling Ridge generally avoid it."

Wang Qi wondered, "Eh? Why? It should be quite powerful, right?"

Chen Feng shook his head, "In our Yangshen Pavilion's estimates, souls should exist in a steady state, but this formula..."

"Not steady?" asked Chen Youjia.

"My mathematics isn't that great, hard to explain to you both. Take a look for yourselves."

The intrinsic formula Chen Feng displayed was a group of functions. Chen Youjia observed for a while, silently constructing the image in her mind. Wang Qi, eyes brimming with sudden understanding, drew out his words, "Oh! So that's how it is!"

Chen Youjia gave him a sideways look, "Show off—what do you even know?"

"This exhibits bifurcation phenomena!"

Bifurcation phenomena?

Chen Feng was utterly confused. Chen Youjia seemed to remember something.

It was a phenomenon in systems where the number of equilibrium states changes as parameters alter, particularly when one equilibrium state splits into two or more. Simply put, it's when the same formula with definite parameters ultimately yields a probabilistic function as a result.

This curious phenomenon had perplexed the Wanfa Sect for years.

However, Wang Qi knew this was a characteristic of complex systems—Chaos.

This function reflected chaos.

Grinning at Chen Youjia, Wang Qi teased, "Junior Sister, as a direct disciple, can't believe you missed Senior Pang from Wenfa, the Mathematics Lord's function theory like this!"

Chen Youjia turned her head away, ignoring his boasting.

"You mean to say... the soul exists as a structure with many possible equilibria?"

Wang Qi nodded, "Exactly, and then this..."

Wang Qi began to fiddle again with the intrinsic formula of the Holy Light God.

Watching Wang Qi deeply engrossed in his research, Chen Feng felt a surge of relief. He was fortunate to have met Wang Qi.

He was daunted by the complex mathematics of the formula before him—he simply couldn't comprehend it. Meanwhile, Chen Youjia, capable of understanding the formula, couldn't connect it with the Path of Life Beings.

Within the entirety of Tianling Ridge, there were but a few disciples like Wang Qi who could instantly see through the true nature of this intrinsic formula. And there were scarcely any disciples from the Wanfa Sect who could instantly discern the practical meaning of the formula.

Now, in his own domain, Wang Qi had established a unique and unrivaled position!

Wang Qi suddenly took a deep breath of cold air, "Damn, what I initiated was indeed a cult!"

You only know that now?

You wouldn't realize you were committing a crime, would you?

Both Chen Feng and Chen Youjia wisely swallowed their criticisms. Chen Feng urgently asked, "Why? How did you realize this?"

"This..." Wang Qi rewrote the simplified formula into the form of two formulas multiplied together, "Look here, the previous factor."

Chen Feng was itching to slam the table and force this guy to say everything all at once. However, Chen Youjia had already exclaimed, "Is it really to eliminate differences?"

"The reason human thoughts are so varied is because the 'algorithm of thinking' is inevitably chaotic and constantly gives rise to divergences. Each divergence is like a choice, steering people onto different paths," Wang Qi pointed to the formula he wrote, "But this 'Holy Light God' is actually the power to eliminate such differences."

Chen Feng opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but was unable to speak.

Wang Qi said, "Though it's said to eliminate differences, it actually starts from the soul. What it removes is the soul's physical ability to compute divergences. The soul is one of the human organs of thought. Though weak in ordinary people, it can still affect the brain when stimulated."

"For high-level cultivators, their increasingly powerful souls replace their brains, so this cult power can directly influence their consciousness."

Chen Feng's expression turned dismal, "We... made this thing?"

"It's like seeking benevolence and obtaining it," Wang Qi recalled his initial actions, "Actually, the teachings I set forth were quite good, truly incorporating some of the sages' teachings. But we used the 'White Snake' to brainwash them, hoping to quickly turn those eight people into fanatics and establish a Divine Tao system. During this process, many especially provocative misinterpretations not present in the teachings were emphatically stressed in the minds of those eight youngsters. Then, we restricted their movements, creating a closed system, causing them to influence each other... That's the elimination of thought divergence or brainwashing..."

Chen Youjia gently pushed Wang Qi, "That was you... it has nothing to do with the rest of us."

As she spoke, Chen Youjia motioned towards Chen Feng with her lips. She was somewhat worried that this good-natured man couldn't accept that he had a hand in forging a brainwashing cult. Chen Feng gestured with his hand, "Don't worry about me… I'm not that overly sympathetic. Unless this cult causes irreversible disasters in Shenzhou, there's nothing I can't accept..."

Wang Qi also said, "Actually, this is a progression. Now that we understand the form of power used by cults and extreme ideologies, we can also understand the power forms of public order and good customs, of national armies, of laws, and morals..."

Chen Feng nodded, "Indeed so. However, we also need to thoroughly investigate how to reverse the process of Holy Light erosion."

Wang Qi raised his hand, "Actually, I already have an idea."

"What?"

"Do some practical operations ourselves, gather data in the experimental area, right!"

Chen Youjia turned pale with fright, "You want to refine this power? No way! Absolutely not!"

Wang Qi held Chen Youjia's head, "Look how frightened you are..."

"Don't touch my head!"

"Alright, alright." Wang Qi spread his hands, "I didn't say I was going to cultivate it myself."

Realizing what Wang Qi meant, Chen Youjia said, "You mean to..."

Wang Qi smiled and took out his half jade clip that was not connected to the Holy Light God. Using the Elephant Phase Wave Skill, he split it again into two. Then, he took out a pig soul that had been eroded by the Holy Light but not placed at the edge of the cross, along with numerous artifact refining materials. Following that, Wang Qi, with his clumsy artifact refining technique, spent a full hour refining a new memory body.

Although the technique was clumsy, it did not conceal the superiority of the design idea.

Wang Qi grasped the newly emerged memory body. This memory body was filled with his half-year's accumulation and insights, as well as the intrinsic form formula and thoughts brought by the two analyses. The divine power in this memory body had already detached from the Holy Light and the disguise of Negative Entropy Force, becoming the most basic yet most powerful Heart Demon.

"Those guys, the first batch of Holy Light faithfuls were unusually trusting in those beautiful things. They truly believed in the starry sky above their heads and the moral law in their hearts."

"But they only ever practiced kindness in words, so for them, the 'Moral Starry Sky' is actually an exceedingly false concept."

Listening to Wang Qi's analysis, Chen Feng repeatedly nodded, while Chen Youjia closed her eyes, an expression of unbearable sight on her face, "I knew it... he's about to name it!"

Wang Qi's taste in names was disastrous!

"Delusion, beauty, deception, fooling, self-deception... and despair, discouragement, dejection, utter emptiness—the set of principles is indeed supposed to keep one spirited at heart... but it's worthlessly hypocritical arrogance," Wang Qi closed his eyes and murmured, "If that's the case, then let's call it 'Thousand Illusion Divine Spell'!"

Just perfect, you should also have the ability to infinitely erode and corrupt others!

Chen Youjia blinked and asked Chen Feng in a low voice, "Chen Feng, is there something wrong with my aesthetic sense recently? Why do I feel... that this name is surprisingly normal?"

She even thought her aesthetic sense had been violently influenced by Wang Qi!

Chen Feng quietly said, "Perhaps... according to Wang Qi, the spirit is indeed unpredictable; perhaps Wang Qi could be normal for once." (Continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit qidian.com to vote and support the author. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)