Exploring Immortality Cultivation-Chapter 331 - 85: Immortal Alliance’s Online Thesis Library, Journals

Although the project had not officially started yet, Chen Feng had limited time. According to him, he still needed to train a few seasoned laboratory apprentices, which kept him busy—the entry into the Primordial Spirit Environment Validation Department was a test of one's control over mana. If one could not master the mana within the body and allowed it to dissipate continually, the internal environment of the Validation Department could become contaminated.

Upon seeing several disciples from Tianling Ridge arrive, Chen Feng let Wang Qi do as he pleased and then entered the Validation department with a few new experimental apprentices. With nothing else to do, Wang Qi, carrying the artifact refining textbook and Chen Feng's notes which had been highlighted, headed towards the Wanfa Sect grounds.

While walking, Wang Qi couldn't resist starting to browse through Chen Feng's notes. In his view, everyone belonged to the noble scholarly type; investing precious time into technical work was utterly foolish—humanity's strength lied in unity and division of labor, and for one person to inefficiently monopolize all tasks was no different than a mighty monkey. Assigning low-level technical tasks to ordinary people and using theory to drive humanity's progress was the attitude a badass scientist should have.

Upon opening Chen Feng's notebook, Wang Qi realized his thoughts were incredibly accurate. Look, someone insightful like Chen Feng, a True Inheritor of the Five Excellences, thought so too!

Look at his artifact refining technique. Principles and everything ignored, just jotting down some techniques and common formulas, and for materials, only understanding a few types needed? What? Common materials? Could I use them in my refining this time? No? Then why should I learn about them? Common magical treasure structures? Why bother with those? I just need to know how to refine a simulation of the Magic Foundation.

With this attitude, Chen Feng managed to complete his learning of the artifact refining technique just from the textbook annotations and half a notebook!

Wang Qi couldn't help but exclaim, "This is truly the artifact refining technique that everyone needs to grasp for daily life—so simple."

Zhen Chan sighed, "The world is going downhill, and people long for the past... Back in my day... we at least had to learn how to maintain and repair magical treasures..."

Wang Qi then ignored Zhen Chan's lamentations. Natural treasures could be produced on a large industrial scale, and magical treasures could naturally be made on assembly lines, bringing costs down to levels unimaginable in the Ancient Method Era. Even Foundation Establishment disciples like Chen Feng could afford a Treasure Level calculator.

When Wang Qi arrived at the Wanfa Sect, he saw an Outer Disciple named Liang Jin holding a few books, staring blankly at the gate. Wang Qi remembered him and called out, "Hey, what are you spacing out for?"

Unexpectedly, upon seeing Wang Qi, Liang Jin seemed severely frightened and quickly stepped back two paces, bowing deeply, "Wang… Senior Brother Wang!" Unfortunately, his grand gesture caused him to drop all the books he was holding.

Wang Qi asked curiously, "What's wrong with you, why have you suddenly become so polite?"

Liang Jin stepped back two paces, stammering, "Gracious... Gracious... how dare I be so casual in front of Senior Brother… Pardon me for my impudence…" He then began picking up the scattered books in a fluster.

Wang Qi crouched down, picked up a journal, and looked at it. The title was "All Laws Selection," an academic periodical of this world.

However, this "periodical" was nothing like the ones Wang Qi was used to in his previous life. First, it did not publish the main body of papers but only their abstracts, keywords, some conclusions, and occasionally comments from senior Great Cultivators on the papers. If one wanted to read the actual papers, they had to be exchanged at the Immortal Alliance's paper library. Secondly, since it only recorded abstracts, one periodical could contain many papers. Lastly, this periodical accepted no submissions; it was entirely up to the periodical's compilers to choose which papers to include. A single paper could be collected by more than one periodical.

From Wang Qi's perspective, this was a quick but inefficient system.

Renowned scholars with connections could quickly spread their papers, initially gaining traction from smaller periodicals before being picked up by high-level cultivators and included in major periodicals. For new disciples under the watch of high-level cultivators, fame could come overnight. However, new theories not quite aligned with mainstream theory or unknown newcomers in the scientific community had a harder time getting noticed. freeweɓnøvel.com

This was somewhat detrimental to academic progress.

Moreover, periodicals themselves couldn't bring direct benefits to paper authors, nor could they truly be considered "credentials". In Shenzhou, periodicals essentially served more as "advertisements" for papers, and the real income for authors still came from other cultivators exchanging and citing their papers at the Immortal Alliance's paper library.

However, if one considers the history of Shenzhou, this peculiar system had its historical origins. The Earth's academic periodicals were characterized by "peer review," a system that appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century. Its formation was influenced by two factors—first, Europe was small enough for quick mail and periodical delivery. Secondly, although communication tools were not well developed, postal services were sufficiently advanced.

Unfortunately, Shenzhou was a vast continent, and unless one was a top-level Great Cultivator, even high-order cultivators using Flying Swords would need half a month to travel—relying on high-order cultivators for mail was very impractical. Additionally, long-distance communication had actually been developed thousands of years ago during the Ancient Method Era, although it experienced significant delays and could only transfer limited information, it was still enough for discussing theory. Moreover, during this period, everyone was focused on their own cultivation, so they were not very concerned about the spread of their papers.

And because the physical laws here differed significantly from Earth, the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm, similar to telephones or telegraphs, became popular earlier, so an online paper library that charged fees appeared even before periodicals, essentially sprinting into the online paper library era.

Also, it's worth mentioning that because the exchange and download of papers, as well as citations, were directly linked to cultivators' incomes, whether it was out of considerations for intellectual property protection or cultivators' copyright consciousness, systems like free preprints did not emerge—or perhaps they did, but were shut down by Feng Luoyi and a group of internet administrators.

An extremely inconvenient system.

However, if one initially approached this system skeptically...

"As the old man said, this didn't exist for convenience at first. The Immortal Alliance adopted this peculiar system to ensure to the greatest extent that theories were not lost."

The Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm was initially set up so that only Modern Cultivators could enter. This was a method of discerning souls; only Modern Cultivators, whose souls had transformed after Breakthrough under the guidance of Nourishing Life Masters, could access the information of the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm. To exchange a significant amount of Modern Magic Theory, one had to possess substantial merit points. Within the reward system of the Immortal Alliance, the largest beneficiaries were frontline researchers, and these people were unlikely to betray the Immortal Alliance.

This was a highly effective defensive measure.