Reaching the Heavens

Wang Qi had no idea that the two people outside were already so shocked that their Foundation Bases had nearly shattered.

A moment earlier, he had taken the book chest from Li Ziye and rushed back to his room, impatiently dumping out every book inside. Li Ziye's book chest truly was miraculous; moments later, books were piled in Wang Qi's room like a small mountain.

Wang Qi first picked out the two books Li Ziye had specifically mentioned: Breaking Profound Chapter and The Logic of the Great Dao.

Breaking Profound Chapter was a visualization method. By the principles of the ancient methods, it was a technique of "borrowing the false to cultivate the true." One visualized a concrete thing within one's mind—true fire, Auspicious Clouds, Dragon and Tiger. Gradually, one's soul would take on the qualities of the thing visualized.

But according to Li Ziye, that was complete nonsense. Thought affected the soul, and thinking could strengthen it. That was all. What one thought about was not the key; the key was the act of "thinking" itself.

Breaking Profound Chapter was precisely such an unconventional visualization method. It actually required cultivators to directly visualize the Great Dao, contemplate the Great Dao, and strengthen their divine souls. The book stated its purpose plainly from the very first line: "To seek the Dao, one must first break the profound. If the eye sees not the profound, then it sees the Dao."

Wang Qi whistled. For some reason, he found himself deeply drawn to that statement.

"Break the profound, break the profound... I feel like I've heard that somewhere before..."

"Heavenly Change Formula." Wang Qi then noticed a book whose title seemed rather interesting, and he could not help opening it.

"Any formula containing the heavenly, whose laws change with heaven, is a formula of heavenly change..."

Learning something so advanced right at the beginning?

Wang Qi frowned. The difference between the modern methods and ancient methods truly was enormous. According to Zhen Chanzi, comprehending the "Heavenly Dao" was cultivation reserved for Dividing the Spirit cultivators. Yet this Heavenly Change Formula actually demanded that one thoroughly investigate heaven's transformations from the very beginning of cultivation?

However, another book placed beside Heavenly Change Formula made Wang Qi realize that something was off.

Heavenly Origin Formula.

To a native of Divine Land, this would perhaps look like the name of some Qi Refining technique. But Wang Qi knew that in ancient China, the so-called "heavenly origin" was what modern mathematics called an "equation"!

"If the 'heaven' in Heavenly Change Formula refers to heavenly origin..."

Wang Qi flipped through the pages, seeking to confirm his suspicion.

"Just as I thought! This Heavenly Change Formula studies the correspondence between numbers in two sets! In other words, it's what Earth called a function!"

Wang Qi's breathing suddenly grew heavier. At last, he remembered a question he had forgotten... no, deliberately ignored for more than ten years.

As he turned the pages, one classic graph after another recorded in Heavenly Change Formula seemed to turn into little demons, shouting incessantly in his ears and leaving him unable to ignore that question.

Wang Qi tossed aside Heavenly Change Formula, staggered to the desk, took out rice paper and a brush, and ground ink with trembling hands. After thinking for a moment, he threw down the brush, raised both hands, held up one finger on his right hand and two on his left.

"Boy! Have you gone mad?!"

Zhen Chanzi shouted within Wang Qi's consciousness, but Wang Qi turned a deaf ear. He began doing something Zhen Chanzi could not comprehend—counting his own fingers.

"1, 2, 3... Counting from the left hand is also 1, 2, 3... 1 + 2 = 2 + 1. The commutative law of addition holds."

Then, he raised his left pinky.

"1, 2, 3, 4... Counting from the right hand is also 1, 2, 3, 4. 1 + 1 + 2 = 1 + (1 + 2). The associative law of addition holds."

Next, he used his brush to mark out a 2 × 3 matrix and a 3 × 2 matrix on the paper.

"Both have six points. The commutative law of multiplication holds."

Huff... huff...

Wang Qi's breathing grew as thick and harsh as the bellows in a blacksmith's shop, yet he continued verifying mathematical laws from his previous life, from Earth, one after another.

The laws of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division matched Earth's.

The concept of fractions... held... the definition of zero... zero could not serve as a denominator... 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13... the table of prime numbers was still there... factorization... identical...

The definition of natural numbers matched Earth's... the Peano axioms held...

Two points formed a line, three points formed a plane... within the same plane, through a point outside a line, there was one and only one line parallel to that line... the sum of a triangle's interior angles...

Euclidean geometry held.

If curvature changed... through a point outside a line...

Luo's Geometry and Riemann Geometry held.

Every last one of them held!

Wang Qi's mind buzzed, but he still picked up the brush and casually drew several circles on the paper, some intersecting, some containing one another, some separate.

"If these circles are treated as sets... or, and, not—those hold. If the most basic logical structures hold, then further logic..."

Countless propositions from his previous life surfaced in Wang Qi's mind.

Connectives... matched Earth's.

The law of non-contradiction, the law of identity, the law of excluded middle, the principle of sufficient reason... all held...

Deduction... held!

Smack! The brush in Wang Qi's hand fell onto the desk. Yet Wang Qi himself did not notice in the slightest. He only felt as though someone had stuffed a hornet's nest into his head, leaving his entire consciousness in chaos. The whole world seemed to contain nothing but the sheets of paper on the desk, roaring at him!

"This world..."

Wang Qi muttered, then found himself unable to remain standing. His legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees.

"Wang Qi! Wang Qi!"

Zhen Chanzi's spiritual body roared from within the ring. To him, everything that had happened over the past few days was stranger than the last. For the first time, he felt how terrifying ten thousand years of time could be. And Wang Qi's crazed actions before him made him realize that he was no longer the omnipotent Great Vehicle cultivator from ten thousand years ago!

Suddenly, Wang Qi's shoulders began to shake.

"Wuhuhuhu... Hahaha... Hahahahahaha!"

As if he had remembered some heaven-shaking joke, Wang Qi curled into a ball with laughter and pounded the ground desperately.

This world could be known.

This world could be explored.

This world could be conquered!

Wang Qi nearly laughed until he could not breathe. The things that had shattered within him fourteen years ago, the things he had cast aside fourteen years ago, were now being picked up bit by bit.

This was something no one in this world knew, something even Wang Qi himself had nearly forgotten.

In his previous life, Wang Qi had been an outstanding student at the University of Copenhagen on Earth, with dual degrees in mathematics and physics. He had even become an assistant at the Niels Bohr Institute. If he had not suddenly received notice that his parents were critically ill, he would almost certainly have become a scholar of his generation!

Later, because the domestic research environment was utterly different from that abroad, and because his experience as an "assistant" failed to earn the attention of domestic research institutions, he had left the research field.

Then, he had transmigrated. Everything he had once possessed vanished overnight, and everything he had believed in was shattered overnight.

During those first years, he had cried and screamed almost every day, cursing without end.

He cried for himself and cursed the heavens!

He had once cursed everything he had learned and cursed such a fate. He had also once hated the two worlds of his past and present lives, worlds in which he could not see even the slightest trace of reason.

And now, after he had finally calmed down and become able to accept everything about this world, Wang Qi awakened to the truth for the first time.

This world also possessed objective laws!

All manner of unbelievable things existed here, but they were not supernatural, nor were they unreasonable.

This was merely a new heaven and earth that Earth's human science had yet to set foot in!

This world could be analyzed step by step, conquered step by step!

And the means to analyze it, the means to conquer it...

Wang Qi sprang to his feet and rummaged through that pile of books like a madman.

Records of Heavenly Evolution... the theory of evolution held.

Introduction to the Dao of Yuan Force... the Three Great Heavenly Principles... the three laws of classical mechanics held.

On Cold and Heat... the Dao of cold and heat, the Three Methods of Burning Heaven... the zeroth law of thermodynamics and the three laws of thermodynamics held.

Initial Explanation of the Metal-Burning Method... chemical reactions existed.

Table of Heavenly Order... the periodic table of elements was highly similar to Earth's.

Initial Explanation of Flow Methods... fluid mechanics held.

One piece of knowledge after another from Wang Qi's previous life reappeared in his mind. The shift in his consciousness immediately manifested in the tiny amount of weak mana within his body.

Zhen Chanzi discovered in astonishment that Wang Qi had actually bypassed Li Ziye's seal. Mana had begun to circulate through his body, and the fluctuations of mana around him became increasingly obscure and increasingly bizarre!

Zhen Chanzi fell silent. Having spent years with Wang Qi, he already knew that while the boy appeared somewhat mad, his heart was clearer than anyone's. Since the modern methods were beyond his understanding, this great power from ten thousand years ago ultimately chose silence.

In the cultivation of Nurturing Life under the modern methods, the Nurturing the Heart stage strengthened the soul and heightened spiritual awareness, while the Learning stage involved studying in great volume and understanding the summaries previous generations had made of the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

Years ago, Zhen Chanzi had noticed that Wang Qi's soul power was more than twice that of an ordinary person, nearly reaching the level of an ancient-method Foundation Establishment Cultivator. Thus, his soul had long surpassed the standard for the Nurturing the Heart stage.

This was the advantage brought by transmigration.

And as for the knowledge required for the Learning stage...

"Wahahaha! It's only at the level of high school science!"

Wang Qi laughed wildly, continually recalling what he had learned in his previous life while beginning to sense the so-called breathing of heaven and earth!

Then, Wang Qi's mana fluctuations merged with the flow of spiritual energy between heaven and earth as naturally as water flowing into a channel. An aura several times stronger suddenly bloomed from within him. Surging mana washed back and forth through his body, and Wang Qi felt a warm current endlessly flowing inside him, every cell in his body steeped in delight.

Mana!

This was not Wang Qi's first time feeling this, so he quickly gathered his mind and actively guided the newly born mana into his dantian.

Who would have thought that my greatest cheat came from my previous life! Wang Qi sighed inwardly. The modern methods were undoubtedly founded upon investigating the laws of nature. In other words, his former self, a scientific researcher, possessed an immense advantage in this regard.

Only after Wang Qi finished his cultivation did Zhen Chanzi ask uncertainly, "Qi Refining?"

Wang Qi was riding high on the spring breeze and had been hoping for someone to ask. He immediately showed off, "Haha, didn't expect that, did you, old man? When it comes to cultivating the modern methods, I'm an unparalleled genius! Following you around all those years was such a waste."

Zhen Chanzi did not retort. Instead, he sighed. "Only today does this old man understand how fearsome the passage of time is... Heh, entering Qi Refining in half a day..."

At that moment, the study door was kicked open. Xiang Qi turned into a streak of red and pounced before Wang Qi, her slender hands trembling as they groped all over him.

Wang Qi was horrified. "What the hell! What's going on? Fairy, stop! I'm not that kind of easy man! Don't, don't... Hey, don't tell me you ate something you shouldn't have... Mmph!"

Wang Qi's words finally made Xiang Qi realize what she was doing. Mortified, Xiang Qi clapped a hand over Wang Qi's mouth.

How immense was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator's strength? With that cover, Xiang Qi nearly shattered Wang Qi's jawbone!

Holy shit, she's silencing me forever! Unable to breathe, Wang Qi had only that thought left in his heart, and he immediately struggled for his life.

Li Ziye followed in at that moment. Half amused and half exasperated, he moved Xiang Qi's hand away. "Junior Sister Xiang, if you keep this up, you'll truly strangle this genius to death yourself."

Xiang Qi shot Wang Qi a resentful glare. "Boy, try spouting nonsense again."

Li Ziye pressed a finger to Wang Qi's brow, sending over a trace of mana to heal him while also examining his cultivation progress.

Wang Qi's scalp went numb. Without even pausing to catch his breath, he said, "Damn... is this... the start of a three-person game... Fairy, your tastes are way too heavy, little brother—Aah! Aaaah! Murder—Aah!"

Watching the youth being pummeled by the red-faced Xiang Qi, Li Ziye shook his head. "If one does not play with fire, one will not bring about ...."