Mental Health Value, Critical!

"You still have the 'Defensive spell' defense on you... Tap five cultivation cards and use 'Offensive spell.'"

After racking his brains, Wang Qi launched an attack at Su Junyu.

Defensive spell, one of the spells derived from Tian Ge Xing, relied on an abstruse electromagnetic field to interfere with spells. It could twist incoming close-range spells into a ball of spiritual power, thereby achieving a defensive effect. In Wuding Card, it had a rarity of five.

Offensive spell was a Benlei Pavilion spell. It used electricity as a crossbow and a magnetic field as its string, firing metal objects—the so-called electromagnetic cannon of Earth. The card corresponding to this spell had a rarity of three, but it dealt "mechanical damage," so it could ignore the effects of Defensive spell.

Su Junyu laughed. "Just as I thought! I've been waiting for this. Vector Manipulation."

The origins of Vector Manipulation were ancient. It had once merely been a martial art cultivators used to deal with stray arrows. But the research fanatics of the Myriad Dharma Sect had forcibly developed it to the point of "surpassing technique and approaching the Dao"—that was right, this "vector" was neither arrows in the narrow sense nor all thrown weapons in the broad sense. It was a vector! A vector, could you believe it? Its card rarity was eight, and its actual weighted value ranged from seven to nine, depending on the user's computational and abstract reasoning abilities.

Su Junyu activated the first effect of the "Vector Manipulation" card, reflecting mechanical damage. Wang Qi looked at the five life flames extinguished before him, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Sure enough, Railgun couldn't beat Vector Change...

"I say, isn't it a little wasteful to use a level-eight card to counter a level-three card...?"

Su Junyu smiled brilliantly. "I'm rich. I do what I want!"

Wang Qi's gaze fell upon Su Junyu's spell zone. Aside from the long-lasting spell "Defensive spell," there was also a special cultivation card, "Cosmic Calculation." This rarity-seven card had no effect whatsoever on its own, yet it was the activation condition for many wondrous Myriad Dharma Sect spells. Su Junyu had already used rarity-seven "Chuan You Xiang Yu," rarity-eight "Vector Manipulation," rarity-nine "Cosmic Fixing Light"...

Veins bulged on Wang Qi's forehead as he slammed his hand of cards onto the table. "I'm not playing anymore! Your deck is nothing but rare cards. There's no balance to it at all!"

Su Junyu said disdainfully, "As if you'd be able to win if we switched decks."

"Though I really don't want to admit it..."

The Bai Ze Calculation Su Junyu cultivated was practically tailor-made for card games... Ahem. At least, Wang Qi had never seen this fellow, who spent all day cooped up in the storeroom studying card techniques, use this cultivation method with its weighted value of seven anywhere else. In any case, with the boost of Bai Ze Calculation, he could basically crush rare cards using the basic set.

Since Instructor Xiong had gone out to undergo a tribulation, the final morning class had been changed from Basic Flying Sword Theory to Introduction to Yuan Force—that was, the fundamentals of mechanics. Mechanics at the level of high school through first-year university was as good as an An Meng Mantra to Wang Qi.

After finally enduring until the noon dismissal, Wang Qi rushed to the dining hall, finished lunch, then went to the academy storeroom to play a few rounds of cards with Su Junyu. While listening to the other man brag and shoot the breeze, he also picked up all sorts of trivial news about the immortal path.

Incidentally, Wang Qi had not come to play cards with Su Junyu merely to get thrashed. Wang Qi had already grasped the beginnings of Yao Ding Suanjing, refining Yin Yang Yao within dozens of acupoints and greatly enhancing his computational ability. And extensive calculation was itself a form of cultivation for Yao Ding Suanjing.

Although games such as Go were theoretically the best way to train Yao Ding Suanjing, Wang Qi simply could not find anyone to play with. This also caused his friendship with Su Junyu to deepen rapidly.

"By the way, Brother Su, is it easy for Modern Dharma Cultivators to undergo tribulations?" Wang Qi suddenly recalled what had happened that morning and asked.

Su Junyu gathered up his deck and answered absentmindedly, "That depends on the specific tribulation. How did the ancient method undergo tribulations again?"

"When advancing to the Golden Core Realm, there is the Golden Core's Initial Formation; at the Nascent Soul Realm, the core shatters and the nascent soul forms; at Dividing the Spirit, the divided spirit becomes an incarnation; at the Body Integration Realm, the Dharma body reaches completion. Each has a lightning tribulation."

"Modern methods are different. When a Modern Dharma Cultivator breaks through the Golden Core to form the Primordial Spirit, there is one lightning tribulation. When the Primordial Spirit reaches completion and emptiness is refined into reality, there is another. An Imprisoning Thunder Mantra is enough for both of those lightning tribulations. But the number, type, and intensity of Nirvana tribulations vary from person to person. When one is in the midst of a Nirvana tribulation, no one can help them."

Wang Qi asked curiously, "Why?"

Su Junyu put the cards into their card box. "Do you know the principle behind lightning tribulations?"

Wang Qi shook his head.

"A cultivator is a 'spiritual power field'—I don't need to explain the concept of a field, right? In short, a powerful spiritual power field interferes with the movement of spiritual essence between heaven and earth. This system of movement is always in dynamic equilibrium. If that equilibrium is broken, the system adjusts itself and forms a new balance. The principles of Nirvana tribulations are more complicated; only High-level Cultivators come into contact with them, so I won't explain them to you."

I think you just don't know either. Wang Qi grumbled inwardly.

After putting away the deck, Su Junyu looked at Wang Qi. "By the way, do you know which instructor was undergoing tribulation today?"

"Xiong Mo."

Su Junyu's face changed drastically. "Xiong Mo? Martial Uncle Xiong from Spirit Beast Mountain?"

"Yeah. A Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator teaching Liuyun Sect theory—tell me, isn't that bizarre? Brother Su, why does your expression look so strange?"

"Ahahaha, Martial Uncle Xiong has broad interests. He actually knows a little about the powers of Yangshen Pavilion and Burning Gold Valley too, hahaha."

Something was off. Seeing Su Junyu's reaction, Wang Qi became even more certain of his guess. "So that lecherous uncle really likes boys?"

Su Junyu stared at him in astonishment. "How did you reach that conclusion?"

"Your strange expression." Wang Qi patted Su Junyu on the shoulder. "When you encounter this kind of... ahem, unspoken rule, it isn't your fault."

Su Junyu did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Get lost! I'm only worried about my mental health value."

Mental health value, like the Lu Renjia weighted algorithm, was a concept created by the Divine Lord Bai Ze. Its main purpose was to measure a person's mental state. However, because the human heart was far too complex, this value had not become an everyday concept like the Lu Renjia weighted algorithm. More often, it was used as a joking term.

Wang Qi stroked his chin. "If he doesn't have that sort of preference, why did you react like that?"

Su Junyu shook his head. "Too disgusting... If you're interested, look it up yourself in the Myriad Immortal Realm. Don't say I didn't warn you—warning: it'll blind your eyes!"

That terrifying?

Carrying curiosity toward that newly advanced Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator who had refined emptiness into reality, Wang Qi left the storeroom.

There were roughly a thousand disciples in each academy cohort. The cohort ahead of Wang Qi would not enter their respective sects until June, so the afternoon practical class was attended by two thousand people at once. These two thousand were divided into twenty-four groups according to their cultivation progress, with each group guided by three Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Wang Qi's group was made up of the outstanding members of the newest cohort. Aside from Wang Qi, there were as many as nine Qi Refining disciples in this cohort. Six of them had reached Qi Refining by breaking through the Heavens with modern methods, while the other three had stumbled upon ancient method inheritances.

Now, the eighty or ninety people in this group were practicing Basic Swordplay Three under the watch of a blue-robed cultivator.

Whenever Wang Qi thought of the swordplay and fist techniques he had learned these days, he felt powerless to criticize them. Basic Swordplay One, Basic Swordplay Two, Basic Swordplay Three, Basic Swordplay Four... The fist techniques were also Basic Fist Technique One, Basic Fist Technique Two... It was as though whoever named them could not be bothered to spend even a moment thinking of a proper name.

Yet when Zhen Chanzi saw these sword and fist techniques, he repeatedly sighed that the younger generation was formidable. "What do you know? Can a nice-sounding name fill your stomach? These sword techniques not only contain every movement that could possibly be used in swordsmanship, but each set of movements also trains the muscles, bones, and meridians throughout your whole body. The fist techniques are the same. They will be of immense benefit when you study profound sword techniques in the future!"

Zhen Chanzi's cultivation experience was basically no longer useful, but his judgment was still trustworthy... probably. Thus, Wang Qi had put considerable effort into these sword and fist techniques whose names ruined the atmosphere the moment they were spoken.

However, Wang Qi had one enormous problem when practicing swordplay. The conflict between the cultivation methods in his body had yet to be resolved. To him, the effect of swordplay stirring the spiritual power within his body was like a trigger for cultivation deviation. Thus, while practicing the sword, he had to devote part of his attention to suppressing the disturbances within his body.

Naturally, this abnormality could not escape the notice of the Foundation Establishment cultivator leading their training. The blue-robed cultivator in charge suddenly called his name. "Wang Qi, step out."