Applied Immortality

To all Divine Province people watching, Mao Zimiao included, Wang Qi’s interest in the roof was unnatural, to say the least.

Looking at it another way, one would label it culture shock. The roofs of Divine Province were sloped at 45 degrees, making them uncomfortable for people to stand on, to normal people. While back on Earth, the sketchy style regulations were unclear for a house’s roofing, resulting in plenty of flat roofs.

For the melodramatic school romance on Earth, the roof was used as a glorified spot for booty calls. Not to forget its other reputation, a stage for philandering seniors to duke it out. Barring those exceptional locations, most school roofs in the world were banned for students.

Wang Qi fell in love with it after interrupting his studies in Copenhagen and returning home due to family matters. He embodied the phrase ‘aspirations as high as the sky, but fate as fragile as paper.’ He failed to join a renowned domestic laboratory, but he still dreamt of winning the Nobel Prize one day. Back then, he would often climb on the rooftop, enjoying the scenery with a can of beer.

Wang Qi lived in a big metropolis, not far from the business district. Calling it a ‘city that never sleeps’ wasn’t much of a stretch. There was not a moment of silence downtown, night or day. Yet the rooftop of his building was placed in a quiet area.

Wang Qi actually hated beer, but he forced himself to bring it every time because he found that drinking coke in a situation where he reaffirmed his ideals despite fate throwing a wrench in his dreams would ruin the mood. It was kinda like two Vikings swearing a blood oath and using a farmer’s sweet wine to celebrate. 

On the roof, a teenager with lofty aspirations leaned alone against the wall, a can of beer in his hand, as he gazed at the noisy and tacky crowd below.

[Talk about pretentiousness. Very pretentious indeed.] He thought it twice for effect.

Even crossing over didn’t manage to cure him of this habit. He often climbed on his home’s roof before accepting this new strange world, avoiding his family he didn’t know how to face. Once his grandfather died, he got used to looking down at Albion Village from the rooftop. 

Mao Zimiao couldn’t grasp the cultural intricacies, but she could sense the sudden quietness enveloping Wang Qi the moment he sat on the roof. 

Wang Qi found a relatively smooth tile and invited Mao Zimiao over. He then used Solar Flare to shed some light. He opened the exercise notebook and asked, “What don’t you understand?”

Mao Zimiao hung her head, feeling embarrassed. “All of it…”

“This ‘with the ancient Inferno Sect’s stances diagrams as basis and knowing its cultivation method’s spiritual power is the constant… find out how Inferno Sect’s movement art works…'” Wang Qi gave Mao Zimiao a flabbergasted look, “Didn’t we learn this two weeks ago?” 

Mao Zimiao snapped, “I told you not everyone’s like you, nya! Keep this up and I’m going to ignore you.”

“Fine, fine.” Wang Qi raised his hands in surrender, “So what exactly don’t you understand?”

“What’s the connection between movement and spiritual power? I just don’t get it, nya.”

Wang Qi shook his head, “You don’t have to bash your head with it. If you set aside the Spiritual Energy’s Nature Theory, it becomes a dual second level Heavenly Origins equation(two quadratic equation) problem.” 

“But that’s what I do mind.”

Wang Qi explained in frustration, “Did you listen when we both learned about Spiritual Energy’s Nature Theory?”

“Yep, nya.”

“Spiritual energy’s essence is the exponent of energy. This you understand, yes?”

“Sure.”

Wang Qi spread his arms, “Spiritual power is a form of spiritual energy having undergone refinement. Through spiritual power, we can affect a body’s kinetic and potential energies. This is the principle behind lightness skill and soaring.” 

“Huh? What’s with that big leap, nya! Just what is this?”

Wang Qi shook his head in defeat. Many believed energy was visible and tangible, especially with spiritual energy having substance. It was hard for them to accept that energy was the property of a moving body.

Using spiritual power to change kinetic and potential energy sounded even more complex back to the people on Earth, but to Divine Province’s cultivators, it was as simple as eating. They just had to activate their movement art and the body’s kinetic and potential energy changed with it. Be it violating Newton’s second law of motion, inertia’s of making turns at breakneck speed without breaking one’s neck, or defying the third law, that of action and reaction like vanishing into thin air, were the order of the day here.

In regards to cultivators, agility and switching direction became harder to grasp after that. Lightness skills only involved dual quadratic problems and didn’t even require high speed; easy to learn based on experience alone. As for soaring, its problem involved too many variables, not to mention far more complex. One wrong move and you’d crash to your death. Spiritual power amount wasn’t the only limiting factor to a cultivator’s flying ability, involving one’s reaction and ability to calculate.

Impatient as he sounded, Wang Qi still gave full explanations to Mao Zimiao. He wasn’t a good teacher, however, leaving Mao Zimiao confused in some areas.

Wang Qi finished his lecture and stared at the sky from the rooftop. Mao Zimiao took back the exercise notebook but didn’t leave, staying with him.

“Little Qi, have you had any success in cultivation lately?”

“Oh, you want to know?” Wang Qi extended his right hand and his palm glowed blueish, “Look, a newly mastered magical art.”

“What’s it do, nya?”

Wang Qi smiled, extending his left in reply. Lightning crackled between his hands, yet his hands were unharmed.

Mao Zimiao cocked her head, “Was that supposed to… mean something, nya?”

Wang Qi laughed, “Didn’t you see? My right is unaffected by lightning.”

“But don’t you have the same electric potential when you generate it yourself? How can you hurt yourself, nya?”

Since Wang Qi used the same principle to save her, Mao Zimiao remembered it well.

“Ahem.” Wang Qi cleared his voice in awkwardness. “Don’t sweat the details. No one can harm my right hand now. In case of a lightning strike, electricity will spread across my body’s barrier. At that moment, my barrier’s electrical potential becomes zero, nullifying any damage to myself.”

Mao Zimiao gasped, “Thunder Cell, nya?”

“Exactly that.”

A Thunderous Pavilion magic art, it was known as the bane of all electromagnetic arts.

“But…” Mao Zimiao continued, “Can’t this protective magical art shield one’s entire body, nya?”

“Due to limited calculations, it can only cover my right hand.”

“Why not protect vital areas?”

Wang Qi gave a thumbs up with his right, beaming, “It’s a ‘shocking pick-up hand’!”