Applied Immortality

Chapter 13: Deadlock and Survival

The stern youth forgot himself in joy. His eyes burned with greed as the Qi Refining cultivator got within reach. 

As he fought the Myriad Arts Sect’s Golden Core, he sensed the magic item on him getting warm. This item was an imitation of the quasi-immortal item the sect leader had, with the latter being stolen ten thousand years ago from a sect by the Imperial Celestial Rift Sect’s ancestor. It was part of a set. The replica he had, however, wasn’t great at all, only able to sense other treasures around.

[Quasi-immortal item!]

A magic item’s power was fixed upon creation unless one talked about vital magic treasures that could grow along with the user’s cultivation. Magic items were split into symbols, instruments, artifacts, true items, arcane items, and immortal items. Symbols were used in the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages. A Golden Core cultivator wielding an instrument could be said to be well off. Nascent Soul cultivators would kill for an artifact. Spirit Severing and Unity Integration cultivators used true items, while Great Ascension cultivators had arcane items as weapons. As for immortal items, they were reserved for cultivators that had achieved immortality. Ye Chang, in his capacity as the legacy disciple of the current best ancient cultivator, Celestial Rift Lord, the Imperial Celestial Rift Sect Leader, could only get a top artifact for himself.

Now an immortal item just appeared right before him!

His eyes burned with fervor. When he scanned the Qi Refining cultivator, he noticed that while the kid was using modern cultivation, there were still traces of Spirit Body training on him. The energy he sensed made him recall the cultivation method his master spoke of from a destroyed sect. The kid hid his spiritual sense as well, and he could only detect him with the grace of his magic item. This proved the kid’s legacy had to be incredible!

He would get clues to the immortal item and an ancient legacy just by slowly dragging him over searing coals. This fortune was godsent! 

First things first, he had to shake off the Myriad Arts Sect disciple.

“Stop!”

Li Ziye shot along with his sword, gnashing his teeth in shock. The modern cultivation overpowered the ancient system, to the point a modern Golden Core could hardly be said he was having a hard time against an ancient Nascent Soul. The Nascent Soul cultivator before him was able to block his Heavenly Sword because this guy wasn’t average, but a core disciple. Something didn’t sit right seeing this kind of guy targeting Wang Qi out of nowhere.

Ye Chang’s hands danced through gestures, sending golden magical arts for Li Ziye, but the latter leaned out of the way of every deadly strike. 

[They do say that normal attacks don’t work on a Myriad Arts Sect disciple.] Myriad Arts Sect was a great modern sect, with its disciples versed in extrapolating one art into countless ones and unraveling all with one art as well. Average skills could become mystical and wondrous in their hands while dissecting even the most intricate divine martial art. He only feared that by going all out, Li Ziye would find him out.

Li Ziye sped up to pierce with his sword. Ye Chang gnashed his teeth and activated three talismans. The magical arts hurtled at Li Ziye, who changed his attack into a slash, “Break!” 

The Heavenly Sword gave a blinding golden aura as a great power cut the three magical arts coming from the talismans. The strike was precise enough to hit the core of the arts, unraveling them. 

The downside was that Ye Chang got a hundred-meter advantage.

Wang Qi watched as Ye and Li clashed, not budging an inch. Ye Chang’s power had him frozen down to the meridians. Even blinking proved impossible. Ye Chang’s aura had him covered from head to toe. 

“What the hell is this?” Wang Qi shouted on the inside, his heart sinking with dread. 

He kept shouting with his spiritual sense, but Zhen Chanzi never heard him. This never happened before.

“Curses, shit! What’s going on here?”

Wang Qi howled in his mind, unable to comprehend why he was caught up in such a deadly fight.

“Calm down, anxiety won’t help you here.” Zhen Chanzi spoke in his mind.

Wang Qi roared, “Old man, explain!”

Zhen Chanzi began, “The guy’s here for the ring. He is a true disciple of Imperial Celestial Rift Sect, the sect that destroyed mine, Ephemeral Tranquility Palace, ten thousand years ago. The ring is related to that.”

“Hey, you never said anything about this before.” Wang Qi was furious. 

Zhen Chanzi didn’t lash out, “I wanted you to step on the path to immortality, but let’s leave that for later. I just slipped a soul trace into your body. This art is too taxing on my soul fragment, so enough with the complaints. Heaven Splitting Emperor and Ephemeral Tranquility Palace had been at war for a thousand years and I know their magical arts. I’ll pass on to you a forbidden art. Use it when the guy isn’t paying attention to wrest a trace of spiritual power out of his control.” 

“Spiritual power? What… you mean to activate a talisman?”

Wang Qi thought back, guessing Zhen Chanzi’s intention.

“He and Li Ziye aren’t giving up on fighting. You just have to bide your time and activate the talismans. He will pick up on your action and, with his power, attacking will be useless. I can’t have the Imperial Celestial Rift Sect ever find out about me either, which is why I won’t help you look with my spiritual sense. You’re on your own to find the best timing.

“I don’t have much strength left. Here’s the magical art. It’s a bit complex, but it’s your only hope. You have to seize it!”

Wang Qi’s mind stung as a magical art filled his head. He cursed when he saw it.

“I-it wants me to control 37 strands of spiritual power, each in a different way through my meridians! Geezer, are you trying to kill me?”

Multi-tasking wasn’t hard for a cultivator, but asking that of a Qi Refining cultivator, and 37 times at that, was impossible.

“There’s no way I can learn it at the drop of a hat. Even if I do get it, moving 37 strands of spiritual power can’t be done.

“Unless the strands have a common ground.

“But the 37 strands’ trajectories are too divergent. Wait! Turning it into a math problem… it resembles a system with 37 points…”

His mind flashed with inspiration.

“Yes, the Hilbert space! There are no complex variables in this art at all. The real problem is moving the 37 strands of spiritual power. Using the Hilbert space algorithm, a function can simplify the system.”

Hilbert space generalized Euclidean vector spaces to infinite-dimensional. 

In layman’s terms, depicting the trajectory of a single point in three-dimensional space, you’d need a three-dimensional coordinate system established by three vectors. If you wanted to depict two points as one entity, you’d need a six-dimensional coordinate system established by six vectors. Extending this further, three points required nine dimensions, and four points required twelve dimensions… 

“37 trajectories need a 111-dimensional Hilbert space. There’s nothing scary about the high number of dimensions, for in math, it’s much easier to depict a point in 111 dimensions than 37 points in three dimensions.

“I’m familiar with Hilbert space from my past life. Quantum physics needs six vectors to depict a single point, while now I only need three. Thanks to the Nurturer Realm, my soul is many times stronger than before, amplifying my mental calculations.

“Solving a 111-dimensional Hilbert space is doable!”

Wang Qi’s mind was set as he crunched numbers.

“Setting Dantian, no, the center sternum acupoint as the starting point..”

While Wang Qi ran the math, Li Ziye came for another round.

“I can’t retreat again or my secret will be exposed!” Ye Chang formed thick light barriers, but Li Ziye slashed them down one at a time.

“This guy’s breaking the arts like nothing. There has to be another way!”

Ye Chang was losing momentum with his greatsword against Ye Chang’s Heavenly Sword. He had no choice but to slap his chest and spew essence on the greatsword, forcing Li Ziye back with explosive sword energy.

Li Ziye charged again as Ye Chang halted. He used his power to get Wang Qi in his hands, barking, “Don’t come any closer, or he dies!”

Wang Qi’s mind blanked, forgetting all about math. [You kidding me? This situation is outside of my calculations!]

Despite the few days hanging with Li Ziye, Wang Qi admired the man, but not to the point of believing he would sacrifice himself for some Qi Refining cultivator. 

Li Ziye paused his attacks, chuckling, “Did you think I’d let go of Nascent Soul for a Qi Refining kid?”

Ye Chang sneered, “You know better than me the morals of modern cultivators. Nothing but a bunch of crazy fanatics believing that fake righteousness and kindness junk, spouting crap like protecting the world’s heart.” 

Li Ziye shrugged, “Fine, you win.”

Ye Chang cackled, “Throw away the Heavenly Sword.”

Li Ziye sighed and flung Heavenly Sword in front. It flew into the sword case and Li Ziye threw it at Ye Chang. 

[Has he lost it?]

Wang Qi was stunned. He had to admit that there were selfless people out there, but they were few and far in between, in both worlds. Yet the first Golden Core he met was this guy? The odds were so low, that he could practically win the lottery. 

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