Chapter 76

Wang Qi squatted down and examined the rock he had shattered.

The place where the rock was struck by him was unscathed, without even a mark. However, a strange force had seeped into the interior of the rock, disintegrating the entire stone.

Wang Qi looked at the pile of rubble, no bigger than a palm, and said, "This power... it’s so unscientific..."

If he had used a spell to shatter the rock, Wang Qi wouldn’t have been so surprised. It wasn’t difficult for a Qi Practitioner to conjure a small hand grenade-like spell, but he had just struck it casually!

"Could it be that this world is truly about enlightenment, where one’s level rises sharply once enlightened... No, no, I’m still a Qi Practitioner. And this effect..." Wang Qi picked up a piece of stone and found that the fracture was very smooth, not like it had been shattered by brute force.

"This effect is somewhat like the Elephant Wave Power, but not quite."

Zhen Chanzi reminded him, "Examine yourself internally. You have many and varied cultivation techniques, and it’s possible that one of them has broken through without you noticing. It’s common for new, uncontrollable power to appear within the body."

Wang Qi closed his eyes as instructed and examined himself internally. Soon, he opened his eyes and raised his hand in front of him. A strange power was swirling around his hand. This power appeared as a golden halo, radiating outwards from his palm, seeming both real and illusory, true and false.

"What is this?" Zhen Chanzi asked in surprise, "I feel it, yet I don’t. Such a mysterious power?"

Just as Wang Qi was about to speak, the golden halo flickered and vanished like a candle in the wind. Wang Qi smiled bitterly, "It’s this, the Ripple Mystic Qi."

"Ripple Mystic Qi? I remember that among the various cultivation techniques of the new methods, this one is rated at the same level as the Heavenly Evolution Chart!"

"The difficulty of cultivation is also one of the highest," Wang Qi sighed. "I was wondering why other techniques had detailed introductions, telling me their general functions, and some even came with accompanying martial arts and spells, but this one only had the technique itself. Now I think about it, the creator of the technique probably never thought anyone would cultivate the Ripple Mystic Qi at the Qi Practitioner stage, so they didn’t bother to elaborate!"

The Ripple Mystic Qi is a technique derived from the Elephant Wave Power by the Wave Lord Xue Ding'e. In Wang Qi’s eyes, the foundation of this technique is the Schrödinger wave function. According to Earth’s scientific history, Schrödinger derived the wave function from the concept of matter waves.

"Matter waves are probabilistic, but the Elephant Wave Power doesn’t exhibit much probability," Wang Qi thought. "This instability, however, is magnified in the Ripple Mystic Qi."

Zhen Chanzi’s question interrupted Wang Qi’s thoughts, "I’ve never seen you use it before, what’s going on?"

Wang Qi replied, "This technique is extremely difficult to cultivate. I was only at the initial stage before, and this power is hard to control, with weak destructive power, so I never used it."

Zhen Chanzi was shocked, "Look at that pile of rocks, and you call that weak destructive power?"

Wang Qi was also puzzled, "I just broke through, it seems I’ve completed the first stage and am about to enter the second stage."

But why did I break through?

When I recalled my past life as a student, I also remembered my understanding of the Schrödinger wave function, and this recognition influenced the technique, leading to its breakthrough?

Or did I determine my mindset, and the clarity of my thoughts, ‘I,’ led to the breakthrough of the technique?

The observer effect?

What is the true mystery of this technique?

While Wang Qi was thinking, he suddenly felt a tremor under his feet. He looked around in confusion, "Is a giant beast coming to drink water?"

"I think it’s more like an earthquake," Zhen Chanzi said.

As Zhen Chanzi spoke, the ground began to shake more violently. At that moment, a colorful light membrane appeared in the sky above the Trial Forest. The membrane began to twist with the ground’s vibrations and eventually ruptured.

Wang Qi fell to the ground, "Damn! What’s happening?"

"The restrictions here have been broken!"

Wang Qi looked at the rock he had shattered and said, "Don’t tell me that I just casually shattered the focal point of a major array..."

Zhen Chanzi replied, "You’re overthinking it. Instead of worrying about that, I think you have more pressing matters to attend to."

"What?"

"Run! The demon beasts resting by the lake are alarmed!"

At the top of Xingshan Mountain, the headquarters of the Immortal Alliance.

In the rear hall of the top floor, a cultivator from the Myriad Methods Gate, somewhat nervous, handed a jade slip to Chen Jingyun, who was sitting at a desk.

Although Chen Jingyun was far from the top experts of the Myriad Methods Gate, in the era where the Free and Easy Wanderers were all in hiding, he was the strongest openly acknowledged expert of the Myriad Methods Gate. Moreover, he was the current head of the Myriad Methods Gate, so the cultivator couldn’t help but be nervous.

Chen Jingyun glanced at the jade slip and asked, "When Palace Master Deng was in charge, did you also submit reports like this?"

The jade slip contained the daily report of the Immortal Alliance, known as a memorial in the Divine Continent. However, this memorial from the Myriad Methods Gate cultivator was somewhat different. Most of its content was numbers, formulas, and statistical charts, with the amount of text reduced to a minimum.

The Myriad Methods Gate cultivator smiled, "Of course not, I usually write my memorials seriously. But since you’re in charge now, I thought it would be more familiar since both you and I are disciples of the Myriad Methods Gate."

Chen Jingyun nodded, "It’s more comfortable for me to read. But non-Myriad Methods Gate disciples would probably find it headache-inducing."

The cultivator said, "In the Immortal Alliance, most of the clerical positions that require writing and calculations are held by Myriad Methods Gate disciples, and we usually write like this internally."

Chen Jingyun was about to say something more when a violent tremor interrupted their conversation.

The Myriad Methods Gate disciple was stunned, "Enemy attack?"

Xingshan Mountain has a stable geological structure, and earthquakes are rare. Even if they did occur, the cultivators in the Mountain River City could issue warnings. Therefore, this sudden tremor could only be man-made!

Who was so bold as to attack the headquarters of the Immortal Alliance?

Chen Jingyun remained calm, forming seals with his hands and shouting, "Mirror open!"

A mysterious spiritual energy wave entered the room. In Chen Jingyun’s eyes, a three-dimensional map of Xingshan in an ink-wash style appeared before him.

This map was a product of the Myriad Immortals’ Illusory Realm, and the Myriad Immortals’ True Mirror had powerful functions, sufficient to monitor the world. The key areas of the Immortal Alliance were under close surveillance.

The map in front of Chen Jingyun marked all the major spirit restrictions and cultivators at the Golden Core stage and above near Xingshan. At this moment, many of the symbols representing major spirit restrictions were blurry, as if the ink had been diluted by water.

"In the recent tremor, twenty-one major spirit restrictions were damaged, including the underground part... The source is also underground?"

Chen Jingyun muttered to himself, but the cultivator present, a Grandmaster, had extremely sharp hearing.

Underground? This word reminded him of some unpleasant legends.

Since Xingshan was once the place where the Holy Infant Sect imprisoned the Master of the Mystic Star Temple, many people believed that there was a secret prison underground, possibly containing a large number of ancient method cultivators at the Great Perfection stage, or rogue Free and Easy Wanderers like Hai Senbao, or powerful demon beasts captured from the sea... These beings were used as test subjects by some low-morality cultivators...

Seeing the expression of the cultivator opposite him, Chen Jingyun smiled, "Don’t speculate wildly, it’s just a common accident."

"Common accident?" The cultivator couldn’t help but be shocked.

Chen Jingyun shook his head, "This matter is confidential. Don’t ask. In short, the incident is over, and you don’t need to worry about a Great Perfection cultivator suddenly appearing to slaughter everyone."