Immortal Alliance had no concept of academic journal, but the presence of the All-immortal Realm and its Internet-adjacent functions made it a great substitute for paper. All theories would last forever among their mystical coding, as well as their references.
This gave the cultivators another way to earn extra merits. Each referential paper would earn them one merit, with a research paper triple that. In regard to the latter, if a specialized cultivator were to review the paper, further merits would be given at their discretion.
Not anyone could use this method to earn a quick buck, though. Those failing to have the structure, logic, references, and reasonable conclusions would fall short. Though Immortal Institute disciples and cultivators with less than five years on their journey could at most submit three papers for review a month.
Also whenever someone borrowed a paper, the author would get a merit. The same applied when it was referred.
Modern immortal cultivation was Divine Province’s scientific community. The Immortal Alliance was its biggest organization. Such a system, of course, would focus its resources on researching cultivators.
“This paper is worth one merit at the least, bastard!” Wang Qi raged. “Being a moneybags for so long made you forget the pain of being broke?”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha.” Su Junyu flung his head back and laughed; gone was the earlier professionalism he used in teaching calculations. “Don’t sweat the details.”
Su Junyu sighed. “Fine, treat it like New Year’s merch.”
He took out a jade token from his waist, a high symbol grade calculator. The particular refining process made this high symbol calculator worth upward of high instrument sword or attire. It was the single most valuable item on Su Junyu.
This calculator wasn’t like Wang Qi’s Math. Math was a relic from tens of thousands of years ago and couldn’t cope with the more complex calculations, nor could he ‘install’ stuff on it to bring it to the same level as the All-immortal Mirror’s All-immortal Realm. Practically useless by all accounts. As for Su Junyu’s baby, it was just a symbol, the lowest grade, but it could go on-, ahem, access the All-immortal Realm. In the Immortal Alliance’s branches, within ‘signal’ range of the All-immortal Realm, its effect left the immortal item Math in the dust.
Su Junyu had the ripped papers of Wang Qi gathered, then he threw the jade token. It floated in the air and shone a green light over the papers.
“Let me see. The ‘dictionary’ will convert the handwritten papers to illusions.” Su Junyu made a couple of signs, and the jade token beeped. The ‘electronic version’ of the papers was done.
Su Junyu nodded, looking over one before frowning. “Your crappy writing is so bad even the dictionary can’t figure it out. For heaven’s sake, learn to write with a soft brush!”
“How can you make a diagram with a soft brush? Also, the progra-, conversion can’t recognize them because you tore them too much, you idiot.”
“Holy hell, is that how you talk to your senior brother?”
Wang Qi eyed Su Junyu. “What now? I can’t bring along the illusion version.”
[Give me a flash drive at least!] ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩
Su Junyu threw him the jade token. “Here, a New Year’s gift.”
Xiang Qi flipped. “Moneybags, you snob! All the almond cookies I got over the years can’t begin to make up for this calculator’s value!”
Su Junyu rolled his eyes. “You only wanted cookies.”
Xiang Qi glared. “So wanting a calculator would get me one? Mon-, Junyu, why didn’t you say so? Honestly!”
“Of course not.” Su Junyu’s face was flat. “Can your math skills match this calculator?”
Wang Qi’s heart was racing at the sight of the jade token in his hands.
[A calculator, the pinnacle of math and magic items, the best of the best!]
With it, he’d access the All-immortal Realm whenever for materials. It was nothing like that immortal item junk who only knew basic operations. Su Junyu’s was a bit lacking, though it could handle imaginary numbers and paradoxes!
Wang Qi placed the calculator on his forehead to push his intent inside. As he wasn’t its owner, this was the only way to inspect it. But Su Junyu had its mark uninst-, ahem, removed the moment he threw it, and Wang Qi could see a blue ‘table’ in front.
[Now this is a modern calculator!]
Divine Province didn’t follow the Earth’s ‘screen’ tech tree. They skipped straight for augmented reality.
“Eh, what’s this document library? It’s called scallion…”
Su Junyu grimaced. “Oh shit!” He moved like lightning and snatched the token while making a few hand signs. “Some things are better left unknown.”
[Ha-ha, moneybags had left some private stuff in some nondescript folder, just like back on Earth.]
Wang Qi, back holding the jade token, asked, “Senior Brother Su, do you have another calculator?”
Su Junyu laughed. “This New Year, an Grandmaster found one logic thesis so pleasing that he offered a high instrument calculator.”
Lihang’s Su clan’s ancestor was Lord White Marsh’s direct disciple. The grandmaster Su Junyu referred to was Unfettered Lord White Marsh.
“Moneybags, you really…”
Wang Qi’s new calculator was useless to him. He gave the two a hasty goodbye and ran back to his room.
He wanted to inst-, uh, refine the new calculator.
Zhen Chanzi disapproved. “You got a ring as an immortal calculator already. What’s there to be happy about over some symbol?”
“You won’t get it.” Wang Qi was perky as he stuck the token to his forehead, carefully feeling the calculator’s structure. “Mm, a classic. The jade can hold information, and then the core array… is mostly yin-yang diagrams as expected. Divine Hexagram Computation and calculators are tied together.”
The more he analyzed, the more excited he got. “I see!”
Zhen Chanzi didn’t, of course. “Didn’t you say all you need is time to make a decimal system have the same features as a binary system?”
Wang Qi shook his head. “I thought so as well, but I was wrong.”
“Before analyzing this calculator, I thought a calculator was nothing more than a bunch of yin-yang diagrams bundled together, but I was so, so wrong.
“This thing is an architecture!”