Chapter 21

In the inner city of Xin Yue, there are not too many teahouses, but they are not scarce either. Cultivators, though their requirements for food and water are much lower than ordinary people, still cannot survive without eating or drinking. Moreover, many cultivators have a fondness for the contents of their cups.

The White Horse Teahouse is located in the eastern district of the inner city and can be considered one of the more bustling teahouses. The owner runs a people-friendly business, and while he often stocks famous teas like Longjing and Biluochun, the teahouse mainly operates on affordable and popular strong tea. There is also a small stage in the shop where performers of crosstalk and skits take turns performing. Over time, the teahouse has become a model of low profit and high volume.

Now, Wang Qi is sitting at a table in the White Horse Teahouse, staring intently at the blue-robed cultivator across from him.

Just now, Wang Qi, due to the perfect angle, saw the blue-robed cultivator's movements and immediately had the urge to play a prank, planning to shout out the blue-robed cultivator's movements to the many black-faced cultivators chasing him. Unexpectedly, the blue-robed cultivator suddenly restrained him and dragged him all the way to this teahouse, then casually threw him onto a chair.

Then, the blue-robed cultivator sat down opposite Wang Qi with a carefree manner and began to flip through the card in his hand.

Although the method the blue-robed cultivator used to restrain him lost its effect after he let go, Wang Qi did not think of escaping. True Enlightenment had just transmitted a mental message to him, saying that this blue-robed person was at least a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If the other party was still harboring resentment over his prank and had no intention of letting him go, there was no way he could escape.

Since he did not want too many people to know of his existence,

and Xiang Qi would come to find him once she completed her resignation procedures, and there were rules around the Immortal Alliance prohibiting violence and private duels, he did not have to worry about safety for the time being.

But...

"Brother, what do you want to do?" Wang Qi, looking at the cultivator still studying the card, couldn't help but bang his head on the table.

The blue-robed person looked up, surprised: "Ah?"

"I mean... the crosstalk performers on stage have changed three times, and the strong tea on the table has been refilled so many times it has lost its flavor..."

The blue-robed cultivator suddenly realized: "Oh! So it has been that long—then why haven't you left?"

Wang Qi was flabbergasted: "What the hell, you brought me here, and now you're asking me why I haven't left?"

The blue-robed cultivator was also surprised: "I just wanted to prevent you from attracting those burning guys, so I restrained you. Besides, even if you say I brought you here, didn't I already let you go?"

Ah? Wang Qi looked at the blue-robed cultivator's puzzled and slightly aggrieved expression, was taken aback for a moment, then jumped up: "Damn, you let me go by throwing me onto a chair? That usually means 'sit here, don't move'! It hurts!"

After a bit of commotion, they sat down again. Wang Qi sulkily drank a cup of tea. The blue-robed cultivator smiled: "Little brother, don't look so gloomy. I admit I was wrong, but wasn't it your playful heart that started this?"

Wang Qi grinned and rubbed his buttocks: "You threw me with quite a bit of force."

"Ahaha." The blue-robed person laughed dryly: "The connection between cause and effect is truly wondrous, truly wondrous!"

"Cause and effect?" Wang Qi, who was about to get up and leave, couldn't help but ask another question: "In the modern methods, is there also a part about cause and effect?"

True Enlightenment had said that only accomplished cultivators would involve themselves in this level.

The blue-robed cultivator looked surprised: "Tsk tsk, little brother, which school did you come from? You don't even know such a basic question?"

Wang Qi replied: "I was just a wandering cultivator before, and then I met a Guardian, who accepted me to participate in the unified entrance trial here."

The blue-robed cultivator's eyes widened: "You, you, you... your cultivation is clearly already beyond the realm of Heaven! A wandering cultivator breaking through to the realm of Heaven before entering school?" He extended a thumb: "Genius, I admire you."

Wang Qi said: "Brother, could you please enlighten me, what does the modern method have to say about cause and effect?"

The blue-robed cultivator became much friendlier: "Come, come, come, sit down. Little brother, what's your name? It's not convenient to address you without a name. I'm Su, Su Junyu."

"Wang Qi."

Su Junyu pressed Wang Qi back into his seat and smiled: "Wang Qi, you haven't formally studied the modern method system, so you probably don't know. In fact, many terms in the modern method are borrowed from the ancient method, but the meanings of these terms in the modern method are vastly different from what the ancient method cultivators intended."

Wang Qi said: "I would like to hear more."

"By 'cause and effect' in the ancient method, it means 'one cause leads to one effect,' emphasizing the concept of 'cause, condition, and effect.' Planting a cause, passing through a period of conditions, leads to an effect. Cause and effect are unpredictable, but ultimately, good and evil will be repaid—this is what the ancient method cultivators say." Modern method cultivators tend to get excited when talking about their field of study, and Su Junyu was no exception. He placed one foot on the teahouse stool, speaking with great enthusiasm: "But from the perspective of the modern method—nonsense. Wang Qi, are you familiar with the celestial transformation formula?"

Wang Qi nodded. Isn't it just a function?

Su Junyu continued: "Let's take the simplest celestial transformation formula as an example. The celestial element increases by one to become the terrestrial element. Do you understand this?"

Wang Qi nodded again. x + 1 = y, the simplest function learned in junior high school on Earth.

"Here, it involves two sets of numbers, the celestial element set and the terrestrial element set. Any number in the celestial element set increases by one to correspond to a number in the terrestrial element set."

Wang Qi silently translated it into mathematical language on Earth: set x and set y...

"If we call the celestial element set the cause, then the terrestrial element set is the effect, and the increase by one is the 'path' that leads the cause to the effect. In the modern method, we seek this 'path'." Su Junyu raised the teacup on the table and drank it in one go: "In the ancient method, cause and effect refer to the elusive concept of fate. In the modern method, cause and effect is about seeking the path from cause to effect. For example, your playful heart is not the starting point; the initial cause lies in your personality. From your personality to 'you being thrown onto the chair,' how many factors are involved? According to what rules do they lead to this effect? If this is put into an algorithm, how would it be calculated? Thinking about it, it's really fascinating."

Determinism?

Wang Qi's mind raced—so, in this world, determinism has not been completely refuted?

Due to the lack of information, Wang Qi could not yet determine the level of mathematical and physical research among the cultivators of the Divine Continent, but he at least knew that the Ethereal Palace, one of the Five Greats, represented that quantum mechanics had already been established. And quantum mechanics is the first wave to challenge determinism!

Wang Qi asked tentatively: "This sounds very powerful. If this method is cultivated into a supernatural power, wouldn't it give you an advantage in battles with enemies?"

Su Junyu laughed heartily: "Wang Qi, you have a good eye! This is one of the pinnacle cultivation methods of our Myriad Methods Gate, the Bai Ze Calculation!"

Indeed, determinism and Laplace's demon!

Wang Qi pretended to be puzzled: "But the Guardian who brought me here mentioned the Ethereal Palace's Wu Ding. The Ethereal Way..."

Su Junyu frowned and interrupted: "That's because the cultivators of the Ethereal Palace are crazy. Forget it, don't believe in such things before you enter the school. If you encounter strange things in the future, remember one thing—if the effect seems rootless, it's because you haven't found the cause yet."

Wang Qi was pleasantly surprised. This one sentence from Su Junyu revealed a lot of information.

First, quantum physics has a foundation in this world, but it is not yet stable—especially the theory of the collapse of the Schrödinger wave function has not been determined. Su Junyu's insistence on the determinism of "specific cause leading to specific effect" indicates that he leans towards the "hidden variables" school, which believes that the reason for the collapse of the wave function lies in factors ignored by researchers. This at least proves two points: first, chaos theory has not yet been developed; second, the Bell inequality, which is the key to the development of quantum mechanics, has not yet appeared!

"From the perspective of chaos theory and the Bell inequality, the scientific level of this world is roughly at the level of the 1950s. No, there seems to be a problem. If the 'Five Masters of Silence' of the Divine Continent correspond to Qian Xuesen on Earth, then it would be closer to the 1970s... but that's not right either. There are several inconsistencies in the history of cultivation that I already know. The Heavenly Selection God, who corresponds to Darwin, is the first Transcendent cultivator of the modern method and a senior to the Newton-like Yuan Li Shangren. However, according to Earth's history, Darwin was born 150 years after Isaac Newton..."

"Is this strange correspondence not perfectly aligned? What is the principle behind it? Is it related to my穿越?"

Seeing Wang Qi lost in thought, Su Junyu thought it was due to his words and laughed heartily: "These things will become clear to you gradually after you enter the school. Remember, the initial cultivation of the modern method is a process of breaking down and rebuilding your worldview."

Wang Qi didn't care about this. His worldview had been reshaped many times in his previous life, and the穿越 had reshaped it again, almost making him immune to such changes.

Today's gains are already significant. Now that he has a clear understanding of the mathematical level of the Divine Continent, he can determine which mathematical tools to use to analyze the manuscript of the Unpredictable Daoist. The rest is to understand the key methods of the Ethereal Palace to roughly outline the structure of the Unpredictable Daoist's manuscript.

He needs to conduct several experiments, including the blackbody radiation experiment, or obtain the data from these experiments. This will allow him to thoroughly analyze the manuscript. If he can also obtain the cultivation methods of the modern method and understand how theory and cultivation methods are combined...

Hehe, just thinking about it is a bit exciting!

At this moment, Su Junyu took out two sets of Wu Ding cards from his pocket, added a few cards from the newly bought expansion pack, and pushed one set towards Wang Qi: "Do you know how to play? If you do, I'll lend you a set."

Wang Qi smiled: "Senior Su, you really love this."

Su Junyu's face lit up: "This is my path of cultivation."

"Cultivation?" Wang Qi raised an eyebrow: "Bai Ze Calculation?"

Su Junyu nodded: "Exactly, the Bai Ze Calculation! A game of Wu Ding cards, from my perspective, is a system that constantly introduces new causes. If I can use the constantly introduced 'causes' as a foundation to calculate the 'victory' as the effect, that is my path of cultivation."

Wang Qi flipped through the card set Su Junyu lent him and his hand trembled: "This... so many cards with a rarity of eight or higher?"

In Xiang Qi's Wu Ding card set, the rarest card was the "Mystic Gold Lightning Technique" with a rarity of eight!

Su Junyu smiled innocently: "Draw hard, and miracles will happen. All my 108 cards with a rarity of eight or higher were obtained this way."

"Damn, rich guy, let's be friends! Rich guy, let's be friends!"

"Sure, win against me, and we'll be friends."

Wang Qi thought for a moment and said with a bitter face: "Not realistic, I don't recognize most of the cards in this set."

As a poor guy who only played the basic set, he couldn't handle the rich guy's cards!

Su Junyu pulled out a book from his storage bag: "Rulebook and complete guide. I'll lend it to you."

Wang Qi flipped through it: "Look, detailed explanation of the basic set... expansion packs 'Holy Child's Heaven Disaster' and 'Imperial Extreme World Shock,' supplements for the Holy Child Sect and the Imperial Extreme Heaven Splitting Dao... tsk tsk, the Great Luo Xuan Qing Palace's supplement 'World-Shaking Heavenly Luo,' followed by rare cards—hey!"

Suddenly, Wang Qi's pupils contracted, and he burst into laughter: "Hahaha, when you're sleepy, a pillow comes!"

In his hand, the guide had just flipped to the "Ethereal Palace Rare Cards Overview."

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