Wang Qi wandered the streets without any particular destination.
Half an hour ago, he had still been eagerly planning to find something like a library, then procure some paper and brushes to convert Unforgiving Taoist's manuscript into the mathematical language he was more familiar with. While he was at it, he could borrow a few books to help analyze the manuscript.
But he was quickly disappointed—the city of Xinyue did have an archive chamber, but it was not open to the public.
After hearing that the archive chamber was meant for Nirvana cultivators, Wang Qi gave up even the thought of sneaking inside.
"It seems the Immortal Alliance's system isn't as enlightened as I imagined. At the very least, if libraries aren't open to the public, that means they manage knowledge very strictly." Wang Qi pondered. "That's extremely detrimental to scientific research."
And Xinyue, as the location of the Immortal Alliance's headquarters, already counted as one of the greatest immortal cities. If even this place had no publicly accessible archive chamber, then probably nowhere in all the Divine Land did.
Seeing this, Zhen Chanzi suggested, "Why not try staying at an inn?"
Wang Qi jumped in fright, then smiled with an odd expression. "Damn, old man, you're actually suggesting I use a girl's card to rent a room?"
Put that way, it really did sound just a little sleazy.
Zhen Chanzi did not understand. "Is there a problem?"
Wang Qi shook his head. It seemed that someone who was not from Earth would never understand the implied meaning in his words. After thinking it over, he still rejected the idea. "If I take the receipt back, it might instead arouse unnecessary suspicion—tell me, why would I stay at an inn for no reason?"
"Then what should we do?"
"Keep walking around. I mainly want to see just how far the modern methods have developed. You can analyze the Immortal Alliance's style of doing things."
Although early Qi Refining cultivators possessed weak spiritual power and could not support powerful methods, their physical constitutions far surpassed those of ordinary people. Wang Qi walked around for a long time without feeling tired.
Zhen Chanzi had initially been marveling at Xinyue's prosperity as well. But gradually, a trace of doubt arose in him. "Kid, something really is wrong here. Have you noticed? They don't sell cultivation techniques or spells here."
Wang Qi nodded. "Yeah. There are pill shops too, but they only sell pills and materials, not pill formulas. The artifact workshops probably don't sell artifact blueprints either. There are a few bookstores, but the most they sell are cultivators' cultivation insights. They don't involve any specific spells at all—the bestsellers seem to be biographies and novels!"
"The Immortal Alliance seems to strictly restrict the exchange of knowledge." Zhen Chanzi was somewhat puzzled. "If modern methods truly take the summarization of Heaven and Earth's laws as the foundation of their path, why would they abolish the exchanges that already existed in ancient times?"
The situation really was even more suspicious than he had imagined, Wang Qi analyzed. Restrictions of this degree could no longer be explained by merely saying that science-minded men lacked management skills.
Could it be that the Immortal Alliance's insistence on "intellectual property rights" had reached a pathological level?
That did not seem right either. Leaving aside the fact that after an intellectual property system was established, paid knowledge-sharing was the best win-win model, it was unlikely that everyone within the Immortal Alliance held to such a belief so firmly.
For example, Laplace, the great mathematician of Earth, was someone with an extreme lack of copyright awareness. Not only did he cite others' academic results for years without attribution, he would even occasionally give his own academic achievements to newcomers in the academic world and let them publish them under their own names.
According to that bizarre correspondence, A Pu Na, the Divine Land's Free and Unfettered Cultivator known as the "Reincarnated Baize," ought to possess similar traits!
And after all the wrong answers had been eliminated, even the most impossible-looking conjecture would become the only possibility!
Wang Qi frowned. "Foreign enemies... Old man, should we still join the Immortal Alliance?"
Zhen Chanzi said, "This place is peaceful to such an extent that even if there are foreign enemies, they are probably matters for centuries or millennia from now. Or perhaps they only target High-level Cultivators. If you truly wish to study modern methods, then joining the Immortal Alliance is your only option."
Wang Qi rubbed his chin. Rather than answer directly, he changed the subject. "How do you think the tools of today compare with those from ten thousand years ago?"
"They greatly surpass them. Quite a few pills have also trended toward uniformity and standardization, and magical artifacts are the same."
They had actually put effort into popularizing technology? Wang Qi looked around in confusion.
Just then, a commotion arose ahead.
"What happened?" Wang Qi asked doubtfully.
Zhen Chanzi judged, "There are no spiritual power fluctuations carrying killing intent. There is no danger."
Upon hearing there was no danger, Wang Qi headed forward, acting on the principle that one never minded a bigger fuss when watching the excitement.
The source of the disturbance was a trading house. The inner city of Xinyue was filled with bustling crowds and lively activity everywhere, but compared with this trading house, more than half the shops in the city could probably only be called deserted enough for sparrows to build nests.
"Damn, what are they selling that's this popular..." Wang Qi fought his way through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. Then he looked up and saw a plaque above the trading house bearing the words "Grand Auspicious."
Wang Qi curiously tugged at the clothes of a nearby Qi Refining cultivator and asked, "Brother, may I ask what they're selling here? Why are there so many buyers?"
The man flew into a rage when he heard that. "You brat, you don't even know what this place is doing and you came to cut in line?"
"I'm just curious," Wang Qi said.
The Qi Refining cultivator said, "Today is the release day for Wuding Card's new card packs! Who knows how many people have been waiting for this day!"
Wang Qi's mouth twitched. "New card packs..."
The cultivator's face was full of devotion. "Mm-hm, mm-hm. The theme is demons from the moon descending into the mortal world..."
Wang Qi's mouth twitched again. "And what happened to being grounded in reality..."
Only after asking carefully did he learn that this trading house was the Wuding Card's sole legal retailer, and its methods of fleecing people were exceptionally sophisticated.
The Wuding Card basic pack Wang Qi had used contained a cultivator card for a random Modern Dharma Cultivator, along with cards for the vast majority of common modern spells and magical artifacts. Cards with a rarity level above five—that was, advanced spells and artifacts whose real-world weight exceeded five—were all hidden within separately sold card packs and included at random. On the birthdays of certain great figures, limited-edition character-themed cultivator cards would be released. Then, Grand Auspicious Trading House would also release themed expansion packs at intervals, each theme being an ancient method that had once strutted through the age in peerless style.
Originally, according to Lu Renjia's weighting algorithm, no ancient spell had a weight above four. Apart from the renowned immortal artifacts, there were also few magical artifacts with a weight above seven. Yet ancient methods had accumulated for eighty thousand years. Even if only one out of every thousand spells had something ingenious enough to make Modern Dharma Cultivators look upon it highly, many excellent spells would still ultimately be incorporated into the modern system.
These expansion packs not only greatly enhanced the game's playability, but also provided countless Modern Dharma Cultivators with unexpected inspiration. That was precisely why this game had swept through the immortal path, making innumerable players both love it and hate it.
Watching the fanatical cultivators, Wang Qi silently covered his face. The complaints "Cults are terrifying" and "Hardcore nerds are disgusting" kept looping through his mind.
"The immortal path's Aji fans and ship fans... Forget it, I'd better leave... Huh?"
Suddenly, a fierce fluctuation of spiritual power erupted from within Grand Auspicious.
The spiritual power fluctuation came with extreme abruptness, and it swiftly erupted with chilling killing intent!
"What the hell is going on?" Wang Qi hurriedly grabbed someone beside him and asked.
The cultivator's expression remained completely normal. "Someone probably drew a card with rarity above seven. It should be burned!"
Damn, cults really were terrifying!
Then the commotion ahead reached them.
"He's a shill! He just wants to scam us out of money!"
"Bullshit! This is the miracle I pulled through sheer force!"
"Four rares in one ten-pack!"
"He's definitely a shill!"
"You're the shill! Your whole family are shills!"
"Leave the card behind!"
"Burn it! Burn it!"
"We can't be friends anymore!"
"Burn it, burn it, burn it!"
"Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!"
At first, he could still vaguely make out a young voice cursing at a cultivator as dark as a kunlun slave. But when the crowd's voices converged into a single word—"Burn"—the killing intent filling the air finally boiled over!
Then Wang Qi saw several cultivators in front of him sent flying to either side as though something had crashed into them. His vision went dark, and he saw a blue-robed cultivator turn into a black shadow that flashed past him!
Then an unbelievable scene unfolded. Under Wang Qi's gaze, the blue-robed cultivator stepped, twisted his waist, exerted force from an impossible angle, and whirled around Wang Qi like lightning. Along with a wave of spiritual power, a black afterimage separated from the blue-robed cultivator's body and flew away in the direction he had originally been heading.
If the distance and angle had not been just right, Wang Qi would never have seen that scene at all. He quickly understood what had happened and suddenly felt like making a joke, preparing to expose the blue-robed man's whereabouts to the cultivators pursuing him. Yet the blue-robed man circled behind him at even greater speed. Then Wang Qi felt a numbness in the major acupoint on his back, and he was actually subdued by the blue-robed cultivator!
Damn it!
Wang Qi watched angrily as the crowd chasing the lucky man passed in front of him.
Sorry, fellow readers. This Taoist had too much fun today, so there's only one update.
This Taoist will make it up with a triple update sometime this week.
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