Mental Health Value, Critical!

"You still have 'Defensive Spell' active... Place five cultivation cards horizontally and use 'Offensive Spell'."

After deep thought, Wang Qi launched an attack on Su Junyu.

Defensive Spell, one of the spells derived from Tian Ge Xing, uses a profound electromagnetic field to interfere with spells, twisting incoming spells into a mass of Magical Power to achieve a defensive effect. In the No Fixed Card set, its rarity is five.

Offensive Spell, a spell from Benlei Pavilion, uses electricity as a crossbow and magnetic fields as a string to launch metal objects. This is what's known as an electromagnetic cannon on Earth. The card for this spell has a rarity of three, but it deals "mechanical damage," thus it can ignore the effect of Defensive Spell.

Su Junyu chuckled, "As expected! I've been waiting for you. Technique."

The predecessor of Technique was ancient, merely a martial art for cultivators to deal with flying arrows. However, the research fanatics of Myriad Dharma Sect pushed it to a level that was "beyond technique and close to the Tao"—that's right, this "arrow" doesn't mean a literal arrow or any projectile, but a "vector"! A vector, can you believe it? The card rarity is eight, with an actual weighted value between seven and nine, depending on the user's computational and abstract abilities.

Su Junyu activated the first effect of the Technique card: reflecting mechanical damage. Wang Qi watched the five extinguished life flames before him, his lips twitching slightly.

So, Railgun can't beat Vector Change after all...

"I say, isn't it a bit of a waste to counter a level three card with a level eight card..."

Su Junyu smiled brightly, "I'm rich, I'm willful!"

Wang Qi's gaze fell upon Su Junyu's spell area. Besides the long-term spell Defensive Spell, there was also a special cultivation card, Calculation. This card, with a rarity of seven, has no effect on its own but is a prerequisite for many profound spells from Myriad Dharma Sect. Su Junyu had already activated Chuan You Xiang Yu (rarity seven), Technique (rarity eight), and Technique (rarity nine)...

Veins bulged on Wang Qi's forehead as he slammed his hand of cards onto the table, "I'm not playing anymore! Your deck full of rare cards is completely unbalanced!"

Su Junyu sneered, "As if you'd win even if we swapped decks."

"Though I hate to admit it..."

Su Junyu's cultivated Bai Ze Calculation was practically tailor-made for card games... well, at least Wang Qi had never seen this guy, who spent all his time holed up in the library studying card techniques, use this cultivation method with a weighted value of seven for anything else. In short, with the boost from Bai Ze Calculation, he could basically beat rare cards with basic packs.

Since Lecturer Xiong had gone out to undergo a tribulation, the last class of the morning, Basic Flying Sword Theory, was replaced with Introduction to Yuan Force—which was basically basic mechanics. High school to freshman year level mechanics were equivalent to a dream-suppressing curse for Wang Qi.

Finally, class ended at noon. Wang Qi rushed to the mess hall for lunch, then headed to the Immortal Academy's storeroom to play a couple of rounds with Su Junyu. While listening to him brag, he could also pick up bits of gossip about the immortal world.

By the way, Wang Qi didn't just go to play cards with Su Junyu to get beaten. Wang Qi had already gained a preliminary understanding of Yao Ding Suanjing, cultivating Yin and Yang trigrams in dozens of acupoints, greatly enhancing his computational ability. And extensive calculation was also a form of cultivation for Yao Ding Suanjing.

Although theoretically, games like Go were the best way to train Yao Ding Suanjing, Wang Qi couldn't find anyone to play with. This also led to the rapid deepening of Wang Qi's friendship with Su Junyu.

"By the way, Brother Su, is it easy for modern cultivators to undergo tribulations?" Wang Qi suddenly remembered the events of the morning and asked.

Su Junyu was organizing his deck and replied nonchalantly, "It depends on the specific tribulation. How did you ancient cultivators undergo yours?"

"For the Golden Core stage, there's the initial formation of the Golden Core; for the Nascent Soul Realm, the shattering of the core and the formation of the soul; for the Spirit Severing Realm, the creation of a spirit avatar; and for the Body Integration Realm, the perfect completion of the physical body, each has a lightning tribulation."

"Modern methods are different. Breaking through the Golden Core to become Primordial Spirit has one lightning tribulation, and perfecting Primordial Spirit to enter the Void Refining Realm has another. These two tribulations can be handled with a single 'Prison Lightning Charm'. However, the number, type, and intensity of tribulations in the Nirvana stage vary from person to person. Once you're in the Nirvana tribulation, no one can help you."

Wang Qi asked curiously, "Why?"

Su Junyu put his cards into their case, "Do you know the principle behind lightning tribulations?"

Wang Qi shook his head.

"A cultivator is a 'Magical Power field'—I don't need to explain the concept of a field, right? The termination is that a powerful Magical Power field interferes with the flow of spiritual energy in the world. This system is always in dynamic equilibrium. If the balance is broken, the system will self-adjust to form a new equilibrium. The principle of the Nirvana tribulation is more complex and is something only high-level cultivators deal with, so I won't explain it to you."

I suspect you don't know either, Wang Qi thought to himself.

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

"Xiong Mo."

Su Junyu's face paled in shock, "Xiong Mo? Uncle Xiong from Spirit Beast Mountain?"

"Yeah, a cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain teaching Liuyun Sect's theory. Isn't that odd—Brother Su, your expression looks strange?"

"Hahaha, Uncle Xiong has broad interests. He actually knows some of Yangshen Pavilion and Burning Gold Valley's power, hahaha."

There's definitely something strange. Seeing Su Junyu's reaction, Wang Qi became even more convinced of his guess, "So that perverted uncle really likes young boys?"

Su Junyu was taken aback, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Your strange expression," Wang Qi patted Su Junyu's shoulder, "If you encountered something like that... ahem, a quid pro quo, it's not your fault."

Su Junyu was exasperated, "Get lost! I'm just worried about my mental health value."

Mental health value, like the Lu Renjia weighting algorithm, was a concept created by Bai Ze Divine Lord to measure a person's mental state. However, due to the complexity of the human heart, this value didn't become a commonly used concept like the Lu Renjia weighting algorithm and was more of a playful term.

Wang Qi stroked his chin, "If he doesn't have that kind of hobby, why are you reacting like this?"

Su Junyu shook his head, "It's too disgusting... If you're interested, look it up yourself on the Myriad Immortals Realm. Don't blame me for not warning you, eye-bleaching warning!"

That scary?

With curiosity about the newly promoted Void Refining Realm cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain, Wang Qi left the storeroom.

Immortal Academy has about a thousand disciples per year. The disciples from Wang Qi's previous year wouldn't be assigned to their respective sects until June, so the afternoon practical classes involved two thousand people simultaneously. These two thousand people were divided into twenty-four groups based on their cultivation progress, with each group guided by three Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Wang Qi's group consisted of the cream of the crop from the new cohort. Besides Wang Qi, there were as many as nine Qi Refining disciples in this batch. Six of them had reached Qi Refining by breaking through to the heavens using modern methods, while the other three had found ancient cultivation inheritances.

Currently, eighty to ninety people in this group were practicing Basic Swordplay Three under the supervision of a blue-robed cultivator.

Speaking of the sword and fist techniques he had been learning lately, Wang Qi felt a sense of helplessness. 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 if the person who named them couldn't be bothered to put any thought into it.

However, when Zhen Chanzi saw these sword and fist techniques, he repeatedly exclaimed, "What do you know? Do nice-sounding names fill your stomach? These sword techniques not only contain all possible movements in swordsmanship but also train all your muscles, bones, and meridians with every set of movements. The same applies to the fist techniques. They will be of great benefit to your future learning of advanced sword techniques!"

Zhen Chanzi's cultivation experience was mostly irrelevant, but his judgment was trustworthy... probably. Therefore, Wang Qi had put considerable effort into these sword and fist techniques, which were ruined the moment their names were spoken.

However, Wang Qi faced a huge problem while practicing his sword techniques. The conflict of cultivation methods within his body had not yet been resolved. The effect of the swordplay in driving Magical Power within him was like a trigger for going berserk, so he had to divert some of his energy to suppress the internal anomalies while practicing.

This anomaly naturally did not escape the notice of the Foundation Establishment cultivator leading their training. The leading blue-robed cultivator suddenly called him out, "Wang Qi, come out."