Among all his peers, Wang Qi found Ai Changyuan to be the toughest of them all.
Eating Newton’s apple on a daily basis year-round brought with it an incredible depth into gravity. The most remarkable fact, however, was that he didn’t rely on his ancestor’s insights at all, but assimilated the knowledge to his own beliefs and self.
For instance, the Heaven Fall Palm he used to beat Wu Shiqin was in no way Transcendent’s original version. The Riemannian geometry-backed palm that used gravity was derived from the Supreme Lord’s comparative path, seeing gravity as a modified version of bending spacetime continuum.
Furthermore, he said this to Wu Shiqin at the end.
“You’re not bad. Let’s fight again… or rather I hope we can conduct research again.”
It dawned on Wang Qi then and there.
“The guy aims for more than just classical mechanics.”
His base cultivation method was Universal Pull, based on gravity, and he sought other cultivators training in the four fundamental forces with a passion, even going as far as inviting them to form a research team. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
Be it Earth or Divine Province, all physical phenomena fell under the four fundamental forces’ influence. However, scientists were a lazy bunch and saw them being four too complicated.
To combine the four fundamental forces, the Grand Unified Theory, a model theory attempting to describe all particles and forces, using the same set of equations, was born.
Before coming to this world, Wang Qi had gotten as far as combining electric, strong, and weak forces on Earth. It was all due to the efforts of countless scientists’ research, from Einstein to Franklin Yang. Divine Province’s research was rather slow, but they made it up with long lifespans. Supreme Lord also completed unifying the three forces besides gravity.
It would seem that both worlds’ seekers got stuck at gravity.
Integrating it into the Grand Unified Theory, also known as the Theory of Everything on Earth, was known on Divine Province by a different name, Shortcut Path.
Ai Changyuan was after this recent path connection to Dao.
“Then again, we can’t rule out the possibility he was smitten with Wu Shiqin either. As for me, I think the girl glued to his side is cuter. In simpler terms, you wouldn’t do that when you already have a girlfriend.”
Wang Qi poked fun at the end and Wu Shiqin shot to her feet to put him down. Jokes aside, Wang Qi made sense in a way. He had a good reason for saying that.
Ai Changyuan and he were the same, true Dao seekers.
“True Dao seekers won’t do something like that—why does it feel like I just kicked myself…”
Such a rival in the modern system was the worst.
However, only his type could get Wang Qi somewhat excited.
“Kid, enough.” Zhen Chanzi roared from his ring. “You found how to deal with Universal Pull and Heaven Fall Palm tomorrow, so how long are you going to be sappy for?”
“I don’t want any tension before the big fight…”
“All I see is you clowning around.”
[You even learned that?]
[Old man, look what Earth’s internet does to you!]
Wang Qi was standing on a rock peak in Jiongli with hands behind him, and staring in the distance with confidence—or a dumb smile?
Having gone through seven consecutive fights in the morning, Wang Qi was free for the afternoon. He made his exit on the spot, looking for a good place to think about how to handle Ai Changyuan.
“You have a tactic ready and want to do math, so why aren’t you? Why come here?”
“It’s called artistic imagery! When experts clash, what matters most…”
“All of you modern cultivators show obvious disdain for this mystical stuff.”
Wang Qi sighed and sat down cross-legged on Crazed Peak. The rock pillar was two square feet wide and the added wind made it a poor location to meditate, but Wang Qi was calm and steady.
“Newton’s apple is truly a modern age treasure. I ate so little, yet my skills in handling force and balance have improved so much.” Touching the rock beneath him, Wang Qi sighed. “I can’t help but wonder how strong did he become eating them like candy every day.”
Zhen Chanzi said. “If it were ten thousand years ago, his skillfulness and accuracy would’ve made him a true expert.”
I.e. a promising Golden Core or higher seed.
Wang Qi sighed again, taking out a brush and paper to calculate.
Zhen Chanzi asked, “What are you going to use against that freak?”
Zhen Chanzi knew all of Wang Qi’s skills. He saw Wang Qi’s bladesmanship coupled with the ingenious use of Grand Ripple Enigma and Celestial Entropy would give him a far better chance than Wu Shiqin, while still falling short of Ai Changyuan and the Heaven Fall Palm. He might fend off one or two of those, but from Ai Changyuan’s look, rubbing ten of them out wasn’t a problem.
“The recluse has his tricks.”
“If you think I can’t get it and are too annoyed to explain, just say it.”
“It’s good to know your limits.”
Wang Qi got to work crunching numbers.
Zhen Chanzi had been following Wang Qi’s cultivation for so long that he could figure some things out. The images drawn and the formulas written should be related to blade or sword arts. But the extras mixed with them had him baffled.
“Through a point outside a straight line, there exists no line parallel to it… How? What kind of math is this?”
Wang Qi chuckled. He’d been researching this blade art by himself so his schoolmates didn’t bother him with questions.
Wang Qi’s calculations were going beyond the normal scope; Riemannian geometry on Earth.