The Immortal Alliance's Unified Entrance Trial, whose full name was the Immortal Alliance's Unified Entrance Trial for Ordinary Sects Across the Divine Land, was the path through which all sects registered with the Immortal Alliance had to recruit disciples, with the sole exception of the special sect Sky Sword Palace, which watched over the world and guarded the heavens from seclusion.
Every first month of the year, branches of the Immortal Alliance throughout the land dispatched low-level cultivators to teach aspiring immortals introductory knowledge. By midsummer, the Immortal Alliance assessed all students, using their trial results and personal wishes to determine which sect they entered and what standing they would hold after entering.
There were, however, several exceptions. Children of mortal nobles and Rogue Cultivator lineages had studied such knowledge since childhood, so testing them alongside ordinary people would hardly be fair. Talented Rogue Cultivators who had stumbled upon Ancient Method inheritances and cultivated themselves to a certain level, as well as supreme immortal seedlings favored by senior experts, learned much faster than others, so making them study with ordinary people would be a waste of time. Furthermore, gifted youths who had already broken through the Heavenly Pass had absolutely no need to learn basic knowledge again. Such people naturally received separate treatment.
According to Immortal Alliance regulations, newcomers falling under those five categories were to be sent to the Immortal Alliance's main altar or one of the nine great branch altars, such as Lude and Leiyang, to study. Then, after at least one year of training, they would enter a sect alongside the following year's disciples.
When Wang Qi first heard of this system, he was practically in tears. Damn it, they even stipulated that the good students taking the college entrance exams had to be gathered in places with higher score cutoffs! That's too inhumane!
He had seriously considered asking Yan Heyi to place him in whichever branch altar happened to be convenient. But first, he fit two of the "five categories." Perhaps he could claim that his success through the Ancient Method was merely because Zhen Chanzi had taught him well, but his Qi Refining cultivation under the modern method was indisputable. Second, Xiang Qi soon brought up another consideration.
"Usually, the Five Excellences of the Immortal Alliance—Myriad Dharma Sect, Returning to One Alliance, Sky Spirit Ridge, Burning Gold Valley, and Misty Palace—only select True Disciples from students admitted at the main altar or the nine great branch altars. The top-ranked student at an ordinary branch altar may very well only become an inner disciple of a second-tier sect such as City of Mountains and Rivers or Liuyun Sect."
Having crammed some common knowledge about the present-day immortal way, Wang Qi had already gained some understanding of its institutions. Sect disciples were currently divided into four ranks: servant disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, and True Disciples.
Servant disciples handled every sort of menial task, from sweeping and cooking to paperwork. Their sects taught them basic Qi Refining methods and the spells needed for their work, while the resources they received from the sect were comparable to a servant's wages. From an Earthling's perspective, it was like vocational college.
Outer disciples had fewer miscellaneous duties. Besides resources supplied by their sects, they could freely choose assignments within the Immortal Alliance in exchange for rewards. In Wang Qi's view, they were roughly equivalent to undergraduates.
Inner disciples held another advantage over outer disciples: they could already participate in research-oriented assignments. Such assignments were not only relatively easy and generously rewarded, but also helped disciples comprehend the Way of Heaven and Earth. This category was already in the realm of combined bachelor's and master's programs.
As for True Disciples, those immortal second-generation heirs who never needed to worry about resources and could conduct their own research under the guidance of ten elders, Wang Qi called them "combined bachelor's-master's programs with guaranteed placement into research institutions." Ordinary people could only envy them.
Furthermore, sects themselves differed greatly in rank. Among the Five Excellences, Myriad Dharma Sect, Returning to One Alliance, Sky Spirit Ridge, and Burning Gold Valley had all built their foundations step by step through struggles against Ancient Method Cultivators. Their cultivation methods and spells had been tempered a thousand times over and could be called fully realized. Misty Palace, meanwhile, was filled with experts and stood at the very forefront of the Immortal Alliance's exploration of the laws of Heaven and Earth. The cultivation methods of second-tier sects such as Thousand Machines Pavilion, City of Mountains and Rivers, and Liuyun Sect also pointed directly toward the Free and Unfettered Stage. As for lesser minor sects, reaching Grandmaster was already considered defying the heavens, and even their True Disciples might not match the outer disciples of the Five Excellences.
By comparison, Wang Qi felt a little more energized. "Isn't it just the college entrance exam? What's there to fear?"
Though she found the term "college entrance exam" strange, Senior Sister Xiang appreciated her junior brother Wang's spirit of fearing no hardship. Besides, they had at least shared adversity together, so she immediately thumped her chest and said she would guide him.
Five days were neither long nor short. Xiang Qi gradually put away her sorrow and began tutoring her newly admitted junior brother. Junior Brother Wang, meanwhile, consolidated his early Qi Refining cultivation aboard the ship—though he personally felt that his greatest gain was finally getting used to vomiting after vomiting and vomiting.
Soon, the fifth day arrived. Wang Qi sought out the big sister for their routine spar.
Eight green flames circled Wang Qi. The youth wore a solemn expression. "Senior Sister, forgive my offense."
"Come."
"I'm now in late Qi Refining... Illusion Devil Hand!"
Xiang Qi grinned. "You're too green. Illusion Devil Hand has to hit solidly to work. Watch this—Yang Flame Bodyguard!"
"End turn..."
"My turn. First, I draw two cards, then place two cultivation cards. That gives me four cultivation cards on the field, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm! Then, I tap two cultivation cards and activate Heavenly Order First Cycle!"
Two of the dozen or so green flames floating around Wang Qi suddenly went out. He frowned. "I say, do you have to be this serious...?"
Xiang Qi shook her head with a sigh. "What's the guy who beat me five times in a row yesterday saying? Who started getting serious first?"
Yesterday, I was only briefly excited by this cultivation-world version of Magic: The Gathering! And that isn't the point! The point is, why did this promised tutoring session turn into a tabletop game war in the cultivation world?!
Wang Qi complained inwardly, on the verge of tears.
Yesterday, after Wang Qi had finished a day's lessons, Xiang Qi suggested they relax a little. Wang Qi had assumed the big sister would play something elegant and immortal, like Go or backgammon. But he quickly understood that on this Divine Land, caring about aesthetics was destined to leave one scorched outside and tender within.
"Wuding Card... Senior Sister, you dress so classically, yet pulling out a deck of cards from your clothes feels completely out of place... And if you wanted to play mahjong or something, I could at least understand it. But why is it Magic: The Gathering?!"
The game Xiang Qi taught Wang Qi was called Wuding Card. The cards resembled those used in Earth's card games, and its rules were similarly close to Magic: The Gathering.
Each player's deck had a maximum of eighty cards. Aside from drawing five cards at the beginning of the game, players drew two cards during each turn's draw phase, while their hand limit depended on their cultivation. Each player placed one cultivator card on the field, and every cultivator card began with eight life flames. After that, players could place one or two cultivation cards on the field per turn. Up to three cultivation cards counted as Qi Refining, four to six counted as the Foundation Establishment Realm, and so on. Casting spells, using martial techniques, or activating magical artifacts required paying mana—that was, tapping cultivation cards. Tapped cultivation cards recovered on the next turn. The number of life flames also increased along with one's cultivation realm.
Wang Qi had been half a tabletop game enthusiast in his previous life. Upon seeing something that caught his fancy, his delight at the hunt made him unable to stop. Xiang Qi was, at most, an enthusiast of the game; how could she compare with an Earthling who could make tabletop games blossom into flowers? She immediately experienced the profound weight of Earth's entertainment culture. But Senior Sister Xiang was quite competitive. Seeing that even a newcomer playing for the first time could surpass her in this area, she felt she had lost face and insisted on winning it back.
Wang Qi's tabletop game skills were indeed a little better than Xiang Qi's, but only to the extent of an advanced enthusiast bullying a beginner. He was nowhere near skilled enough to deliberately go easy on her without letting her notice. In the end, Xiang Qi still failed to win back her dignity and could only arrange another battle for the next day.
Then, after Wang Qi finished his lessons, they had kept playing until now...
After being defeated by Xiang Qi once again, Wang Qi estimated that his senior sister's mood should have improved considerably, so he tried asking, "Senior Sister, there's something I've wanted to ask for a long time..."
Xiang Qi nodded as she shuffled her cards. "Speak."
"Didn't you say yesterday that my time was precious and I needed to work hard?"
"Yes."
"Why has it now turned into playing this...?"
Xiang Qi frowned. "Is that strange? This is also one of the required subjects for cultivators. It's a bonus item in the entrance trial."
"Huh?" Wang Qi was utterly shocked. Holy crap, this world is so open-minded! Being good at tabletop games even earns bonus points on the college entrance exam!
Zhen Chanzi suddenly asked Xiang Qi, "Is it because this game simulates battles between cultivators? It teaches disciples the countering relationships between spells and how to calculate every scrap of mana during magical combat?"
Xiang Qi nodded. "That is one aspect. There is another consideration as well."
Wang Qi asked, "What consideration?"
After thinking for a moment, Xiang Qi set down the deck in her hands and took another set of cards from her storage pouch. "The basic deck we just used doesn't contain any high-end spells. In truth, every known immortal spell, including the supreme arts of the Five Excellences, has been made into cards for this game." As she spoke, she flipped through the deck she had taken out, then drew one card. "Here, for example. The supreme art of Myriad Dharma Sect, with a rarity as high as seven."
Wang Qi said, "Damn, they even came up with the concept of booster packs... This card is called 'Bai Ze Calculation.' Its effect is to tap three cultivation cards, forcing the opponent to state their actions for the next three turns, which cannot be changed? Is there anything special about this card?"
Xiang Qi shook her head. "It isn't the card that is special, but the 'Bai Ze Calculation' represented by the card. This is an old tale among the golden-haired people. Myriad Dharma Sect has a Free and Unfettered Stage senior from the northern wilderness borderfolk, named A Pu Na, titled the 'Bai Ze Reborn.' We generally respectfully call him True Lord Bai Ze."
Eh... wait... that name...
Xiang Qi continued, "True Lord Bai Ze has a famous saying: 'If one knows all causes and effects at this moment, then one knows the causes of the boundless past and the fruits of the endless future.' He believed that the outcome of battle between cultivators was determined from the very beginning, that every divine ability and every fraction of cultivation could be quantified into numbers, and that everyone could compare numbers to determine victory or defeat without needing to truly fight..."
Are you fucking kidding me...
That was the first reaction of both Wang Qi and Zhen Chanzi. How many factors were involved in battle between cultivators? How could one or two numbers possibly encompass them all?
Seeing Wang Qi's expression, Xiang Qi guessed what he was thinking and explained, "With a deity's Free and Unfettered Stage cultivation, the amount of information one can instantly obtain and judge far exceeds your imagination. It is not impossible to judge the outcome of a battle in a single instant. Of course, it is difficult to popularize. Still, this research of the deity's does help cultivators judge their approximate combat strength."
"Judge combat strength?"
Xiang Qi explained, "It is a weighted algorithm. A cultivator's cultivation method, spells, martial techniques, magical artifacts, and so on are all assigned weights according to their power. The greater the weight, the higher the weighted value. For instance, an ordinary Flame Bullet has a weighted value of zero. If cultivated to mastery, its weighted value becomes one-half. The Heavenly Order Sword Disc I cultivate is considered a fairly good sword art, with a weighted value of six, or seven if completely mastered. Suppose there is a modern-method Rogue Cultivator named Lu Renjia, who cultivates the most common basic cultivation method of the modern way and has only initially mastered two ordinary spells, Flame Bullet and Palm Thunder. Then he is an ordinary cultivator with a weighted value of zero."
"One point of weighted value can make up for one minor stage. For example, an early Qi Refining cultivator with a weighted value of one can defeat a middle Qi Refining cultivator with a weighted value of zero. If challenging across a major realm, the excess weighted value must be divided by three. For example, if a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator with a weighted value of eight is converted into combat strength at the Golden Core level, first deduct two weighted points to convert him into early Golden Core, then divide his remaining weighted value by three. In other words, that person is equivalent to an early Golden Core cultivator with a weighted value of two."
As she spoke, Xiang Qi seemed to recall something amusing and suppressed a laugh. "This weighted algorithm is called the Lu Renjia Weighted Algorithm, to express thanks to Mister Lu Renjia, who has been defeated again and again in the imaginations of countless cultivators. Later, people with nothing better to do turned this algorithm into a game, and it eventually swept through the immortal way. There are also rumors that Myriad Dharma Sect pushed it behind the scenes. Combined with a certain kind of mathematics, this game is the introduction to Bai Ze divine calculation..."
Zhen Chanzi chuckled. "That is rather interesting... Er, it is very interesting. Girl, is it because this old man failed to burst into laughter that this old man failed to get the joke?"
Xiang Qi's expression stiffened slightly. "I think... even if you got the joke, you wouldn't react like this..."
Before them, Wang Qi had collapsed to the ground in complete disregard for his image, laughing so hard that tears nearly streamed from his eyes.
"Is it really that funny?"
"Hahahahahaha! So even this kind of parody has times when it runs out of words! Hahahahahaha!"
I'd long been curious about how, under that one-to-one correspondence between Earth scientists and great Divine Land cultivators, Laplace's demon was supposed to be turned into a xianxia element. Laplace's demon, which can infer the past and future from knowing all information at a given moment... Bai Ze... Ahahahaha...
As Xiang Qi and Zhen Chanzi looked at each other while Wang Qi clutched his stomach and laughed, Yan Heyi's voice carried over.
"Get ready. We've arrived."
Sorry this update came late.
The year-end is approaching, and there have been many social obligations. Sorry.
Before you continue