In between teaching and eating, Researcher Ke and Assistant Hu watched how Anji’s eye colour flickered between her regular dark brown and a golden orange shade. At first, they thought it was a trick of the light. However, after more observation, they confirmed it was something else at work.
"Do you think it’s an illusion?" Assistant Hu whispered. "She might be using a spell to hide her identity."
Unsure, Researcher Ke frowned. She had never seen such a thing before. However, Anji did not strike her as a malicious person. There was an unworldly presence around the child when she was fully focused on learning. Even without much guidance from them, Anji was picking up the basics of general relativity and space very quickly. Nobody knew how much Anji understood from analysing Researcher Ke’s handwritten notes. However, they chose to let Anji do what she wanted.
While finishing up the rest of her cold meal, Researcher Ke finally asked her assistant what Anji had been doing the whole morning.
Admitting he did not give Anji many tasks, Assistant Hu shared how Anji gave him a few ’chore talismans’ and taught him how to use them. They were very effective when applied.
"She was dusting the library and reading before we went for lunch," he glanced over to Anji, who was still reading the notes. "I think she has a research idea in mind already. Researcher Yang recommended you because Anji was interested in learning general relativity. None of her talismans applied regular logic."
Showing the talismans given to him by Anji, Assistant Hu explained how easy it was for him to activate the talisman with minimal qi. If anything, he also confirmed Anji’s low level of cultivation. It was rare for anyone accepted into the sect to be lower than a refined core cultivator. Most librarians were stuck at the solid core stage. However, anyone who was a researcher had to be of at least the enlightened core. Hence, it was surprising to him that Anji was at the foundation stage of the strengthened core with her level of wisdom and insight.
"It could be a physical condition," Researcher Ke concluded. "Those glowing eyes might be a mysterious family secret cultivation art. I’ve read about family arts that defy natural cultivation progress. Whoever she is, she’s a gem to our sect. However, I heard that we need to bring her to see Doctor Yun before escorting her to the mess hall?"
When they received Researcher Yang’s letter last night, there wasn’t much time to discuss Anji’s arrangement. If anything, both of them were busy child-proofing the place. Any hazardous and fragile objects were stuffed away in Researcher Ke’s lab.
About an hour later, Anji finally put down the notes and closed her eyes. Her head was swimming with new information, trying to match them to her original understanding and shifting to a new paradigm. Although it was still confusing, redefining the nature of space and time helped Anji find many new answers.
When she finally opened her eyes, she found Researcher Ke and Assistant Hu tidying up the area.
"Do you have any questions?" the researcher asked. "I believe you might need more time if you were to study general relativity. No matter how smart you are, it’s not something that can be mastered in a day. My shifu dedicated his whole life to the subject and could not find an answer. We can only discover more layers to this mystery with the time we have. Life is finite, but learning is forever."
Blinking blankly, Anji wondered where she should begin. Now that she knew what space truly was, she had even more questions than before. How could space be calculated when it was constantly moving and changing? Was there a trigger for that change? If it changes, how would they be able to cope with the new behaviour and ensure what was stored inside would not change?
"I begin to see where calculating point-to-point coordinates would be impossible if we passed through the void," Anji frowned. "By leaping through space, we can slow down time. However, the body that passes through it would not remain unchanged. Moreover, nobody knows how to use the same path for every teleport. If only there were a way to separate each part of the teleportation calculation and connect it using a bridge to preserve that state of the object getting sent through multiple hoops. It would be safer to ship a package when a channel is controlled."
Hearing Anji’s thoughts, Researcher Ke had to ask what the girl meant by channel and bridges. After many questions and clarification, Anji decided to borrow some writing materials. The concept of dismantling a formula was created by her shifu, which was the first thing Anji learned. However, she had no idea if such a simple trick would work on such a complicated system. After all, isolating elements and qi manipulation or processing was not at the same level as sending a targetted body through several channels and gateways to manipulate time in space.
With clumsy brush strokes, Anji drew a few boxes to represent calculated and isolated elements of a spell. She explained how she would create the basic building blocks of a spell, which usually consisted of a power source.
"If I want to convert this power source to a more refined version, I will use a bridge to transform its properties. This is the part where I will apply the calculations directly to a connected base. The processed information will be split to a storage block to either be discarded or further processed while the processed element will be applied to a new function spell."
Looking at an amplified spell map, Researcher Ke finally understood the strangeness of Anji’s talismans. The calculation method was long-winded, and it took many steps to reach the final conclusion. However, every part that Anji drew in had a purpose. There were also safe-check controls at every stage that made troubleshooting easy. If an activation went wrong somewhere, the new spell-weaving method would ensure the spell would not be activated. Moreover, there were multiple paths that the same energy source could be used to regulate irregular circumstances, creating greater efficiency than regular spells. The rightful source is novel✶fire.net
It was almost as if the spell had an intelligence of its own to decide if proceeding would be dangerous. The more Researcher Ke studied the writing system, the more excited she became. Although the general activation time would be longer, the new writing method was revolutionary and could help make her research findings more consistent.
The primary issue with point-to-point teleportation was tracking the number of patterns it took. The spell was often too quick to analyse and over as soon as it started. They spent a lot of time, money and effort trying to trace the loops the spell went to without understanding enough of its patterns. With this, it would finally be possible to input known patterns to isolate explored paths. Even if there were an infinite number of paths, identifying commonly occurring paths and studying them would eventually give her some hint of what they can predict and control.
"Hu, bring out all my writing materials and calculation journals now! Little apprentice, please help me rewrite a portion of the spell how you would understand it. We can restructure the way point-to-point teleportation works with this!"
Scrambling to his feet, Asisstant Hu ran to the lab. It had been several years since he saw Keke looking this enthusiastic and inspired. Anji was truly the sect’s good luck charm. He had no doubts about it now.