Exploring Immortality Cultivation-Chapter 892 - 221: Are You Watching Me? (Part 1)

Wang Qi was walking alone on the beach.

It was the beginning of the month, the bright moon was absent, the starlight dazzling. The trade wind blew gently, wrinkling the sea surface, shredding the starlight of the night.

Wang Qi walked in this way. His gaze seemed to be looking somewhere, yet it was unknown where he was truly looking.

The seawater soaked his boots, bringing a slight chill to him.

——I feel the chill of the seawater because it absorbs the heat from my skin. In this process, I did not interfere...

——Heat can spontaneously transfer from a warmer object to a cooler one, but it cannot spontaneously transfer from a cooler object to a warmer one.

At the Core Formation Stage, his reactions were exceptionally keen, and Wang Qi's skin could also directly sense the air resistance.

——The action of force is mutual...

"Hey, kid!" Zhen Chan shouted from within the ring: "You've been walking for more than two hours already!"

——Two hours... The direction of time and the direction of entropy increase... No, no, this universe doesn't have such a concept. In the presence of Spiritual Energy, entropy can decrease.

"Hey! Kid, the sun has already set, what are you still doing here?"

——Sunset and moonrise, the "motion" of this world is still within my understanding.

"Kid..."

"Enough." Wang Qi tapped the ring: "I'm not deaf."

"You were in a trance just now!" Zhen Chan shouted angrily: "What's wrong with you? Ever since you read that letter, your expression has been off."

"Off? Maybe a little." Wang Qi sat on the beach, his left hand grabbing a handful of sand, his right hand gently touching the seawater.

——How strange...

"What exactly are you thinking about?" Zhen Chan asked in confusion: "Why haven't you said a word?"

"I..." Wang Qi tilted his head: "It's hard to describe."

Sand clutched tightly in his hand.

——There is a tactile feel... mass...

"What kind of Spirit Message did that genius disciple send you?"

Wang Qi shook his head: "Just a doubt of hers. From the perspective of our system, it holds no value."

"No value?" Zhen Chan was puzzled: "If it has no value, then why have you been thinking so long here?"

——It seems to hold no value within the system. But, how should one step outside this system?

Wang Qi felt that this was completely akin to the "self-reference problem" he had mentioned before. His thoughts also belonged to "this system," how could he transcend this system to point out its own mistakes?

He couldn't help but think of Lu Xiaoqian's letter.

This was the seventh or eighth letter between him and Lu Xiaoqian. In the previous letters, they merely exchanged their views on physics in a very ordinary manner, exchanging ideas and deepening their understanding of each other.

This time, the chief of the Mysterious Palace, whom he had never met, probably felt that he and Wang Qi could engage in a bit of deep communication beyond the superficial. This time, she brought forward several questions that had long puzzled her.

Of course, they weren't good enough friends yet to discuss everything, so the questions Lu Xiaoqian raised did not involve her most core thoughts.

However, one of the questions, for Wang Qi, was like a bolt from the blue.

"Junior Brother Wang Qi: Since I sent you this letter, more than a month has passed. Several letters exchanged, I already know your interests. The two of us seem quite kindred regarding this matter. Discovering this, I am elated... I have several questions that have lingered in my heart for a long time, but since they're too sharp, I don't know with whom to discuss them... Here, I have a heretical guess, I might as well say it, and you might as well listen. If you don't like it, then just take it as a foolish remark from this Senior Sister."

"Since Yuanli Master, in seeking Dao through Modern, all have first stripped away the variable 'Spiritual Energy,' then discuss other factors. First satisfy the Primordial Spirit Qi environment, then expand. But the deeper into the microscopic level, the more it feels, this is definitely not so simple. On the level of celestial bodies, Spiritual Energy is uniform and sparse, its effects relatively weak. But on the microscopic level, a trace of Spiritual Energy can create a different scenario... I'm thinking, is it really necessary to adhere to the principle of 'prioritizing the removal of Spiritual Energy' at the microscopic level... What if we reduced other quantities to Spiritual Energy quantities..."

This was a question posed by Lu Xiaoqian.

On the microscopic level, is it really necessary to adhere to the principle of "prioritizing the removal of Spiritual Energy"?

For Lu Xiaoqian, this is actually a not-so-difficult problem to solve—even it might just be a thought of complaining. If she really had such thoughts, once she reached the Primordial Spirit Stage and became independent, she could do whatever she wanted.

However, this question shocked Wang Qi.

His insights differed from Lu Xiaoqian's. In his memory, there still lingered knowledge from another universe. So, he suddenly realized that he had long ignored such a question.

Why must Spiritual Energy be removed?

The so-called experiment is "canceling variables to verify theory under ideal conditions." For this universe, "Spiritual Energy" is the largest and most significant variable, and also the most difficult condition to control, so it must be eliminated first.

Wang Qi never doubted there was any issue with this.

But when Lu Xiaoqian's words entered Wang Qi's thoughts, he suddenly realized something seemed not right.

Is Spiritual Energy truly an adjunct property of matter?

"Spiritual Energy" as "the index of energy," in fact, is reducing the concept of Spiritual Energy into a more fundamental concept.

The so-called "reduction" is "being expressed by more fundamental concepts, and omitting this concept in theory."

From the phenomenon, Spiritual Energy can be reduced. It is not the most fundamental concept.

When Wang Qi came into contact with the Modern, he also accepted this idea, automatically reducing the concept of Spiritual Energy in his cognition.

And after "reducing" this concept of Spiritual Energy, this world becomes a world "where apart from having Spiritual Energy, all physical laws are highly similar to Earth's universe."

But if we abandon this notion and re-examine this universe, we will find that the physical laws here are completely different from Earth's universe.

In Earth's universe, the physical strength it takes to run ten kilometers is almost the same as running one kilometer back and forth ten times. Considering the extra physical strength spent on changing speed and direction, it would probably be more tiring to run back and forth ten times.

However, in the Shenzhou universe, running one kilometer back and forth is far easier than running ten kilometers straight.

Because running one kilometer back and forth is more "ordered" than running ten kilometers straight. This is such an absurd world.

Wang Qi held his forehead, contemplating in his mind.

"Thinking carefully, just this point alone is entirely unlike Earth's universe!"

Wang Qi even faintly developed this thought.

"Is it because the inherent logic of this universe is not exactly the same as Earth's universe that I have never thought about mathematics since birth?"

Mathematics is not purely created by humans; it's the inherent logic within the universe's laws. Something as simple as "one plus one equals two" has a meaning that transcends human rational thinking. The definition of the number "one" is also not something humans can change.

After Wang Qi was born, before Li Ziye came to the village and introduced him to the concept of the "Modern," he never thought about the mathematical laws of the two universes. Then, with the concept of mathematics, he directly achieved Breakthrough and advanced to Qi Cultivation.

At the time, his thought was—this universe's mathematical laws and logic are consistent with Earth's universe.

But is it really consistent?

Could it be that only the "known parts" are consistent?

Just like Godel's Completeness Theorem states, the mathematics known to humans is complete. Incompleteness occurs in the unknown domain.

Maybe the two universes have just the "known parts" in common, and the unknown parts may not be the same.

He might have sensed this inconsistency through "intuition," and thus avoided thinking about this issue?

Could this be true?

This thought sent a chill down Wang Qi's spine.

"If that is the case... in this universe, would it be easier to reduce other physical quantities into Spiritual Energy?"

Wang Qi felt like he had opened the door to a new world.

During the golden age of classical physics, the most important dispute was the "lineage struggle" between the "Mechanical View" and the "Electromagnetic View." The famous "wave-particle duality" was actually just a part of this lineage struggle, merely the tip of the iceberg.

The mechanical physical concept believed that "mass" is an irreducible concept. This was an idea since Isaac Newton.

Whereas the electromagnetic faction, centered around electromagnetic theory, reduced "mass" into another concept—electromagnetism.

This was a clash of two thoughts.

However, whether it was the Mechanical View or the Electromagnetic View, they merely imitated the laws of the universe from different angles. Aside from having disagreements on some key issues, their significance is limited. It merely changes the form of expression.

Wang Qi has not thought of any physical problem that can be solved using the "Spiritual Energy View," which is why he said Lu Xiaoqian's questions were "meaningless."

However, Wang Qi also discovered that if Spiritual Energy could be reduced into other concepts, then perhaps... maybe... it's not impossible?

For one thing, if so, the theoretical system of the Modern would undergo a massive change. At least the thermodynamic scores would be decimated, and mechanics would become something Wang Qi couldn't understand at all.

If this approach of "reducing other physical quantities into Spiritual Energy" became the cornerstone of Shenzhou's Modern Immortal Path, then if a scientist from Earth transmigrated here, they definitely would not recognize this planet's theoretical system.

But...

But...

"In this universe with Spiritual Energy, wouldn't this approach be more natural? At least it would allow one to directly ignore the nearly incomprehensible accumulation properties of Spiritual Energy and treat it as a completely unknown physical quantity to Earth... No, no, no. In that case, concepts like 'energy' and 'mass' might become completely different from Earth... they might not even exist..."

—The entire physical system would become something an Earth physicist could not understand at all.

Wang Qi looked at the sky, puzzled.

He took out a book from his Storage Bag, "The Calculation of the Great Dao," the foundational classic of the Modern, and flipped through it.

"Strikingly similar."

Almost identical to Earth's "Principles of Mathematical Natural Philosophy."

What exactly is the relationship between Shenzhou and Earth?

It can be said that this planet was definitely influenced by Earth, giving birth to the "Modern," an utterly peculiar system. The thoughts of the Modern even resemble that of a Spiritless Universe.

It seems...

"It's like it was meant for things from Earth to settle down here."

"The individuals Yuanli Master Newton and Isaac Newton used nearly the same thoughts to solve one system's most introductory problem. Then, everything that followed could be 'naturally' similar."