Spiritual energy fluctuated wildly, comparable to a cultivator secretly gathering power. Ru Tianqi was indifferent to this. After all, when cornered, even a rabbit will bite. It was only natural for the Golden Core Cultivator to want to fight for survival in a desperate situation.

Yet, he suddenly sensed a twinge of discomfort instinctively.

— It doesn't quite feel like the prelude to a cultivator's attack...

Soon, his Divine Separation Stage cultivation made him recognize the source of his unease.

In this quiet room, the quantity of spiritual energy was actually increasing slowly.

This... this goes against the Heavenly Dao. Why would it be increasing?

A tremendous sense of crisis emerged from deep within him. He didn't know what had happened, but he was certain the source of the crisis was behind him.

Ru Tianqi turned slowly and saw the youth who should have had all his bones shattered actually standing up, supporting himself against the wall, surrounded by white flames.

Wang Qi opened his mouth, spat a mouthful of congealed blood, and then spat a few more times to cleanse the blood from his mouth. Only then did he coldly smile at Ru Tianqi: "Old man, that last hit really hurt..."

With a "clang," the sword hummed. Before the Third Elder Ru Tianqi realized what was happening, his right hand had already begun to act on its own accord, drawing a gleam of sword light from the sword scabbard. It leaped out into the air like a living thing, accelerating toward Wang Qi.

Then, the surrounding space transformed suddenly. For a moment, Ru Tianqi couldn't grasp what had happened. The distances within the space altered; directions were displaced. His supposed fatal sword strike passed Wang Qi by with all subsequent changes. Wang Qi stretched out his five fingers as if invisible strings extended from his fingertips, weaving into the space.

These invisible gravity lines were like the axes of coordinates within space itself. In higher dimensions, the space changed.

The method of cultivation that Ai Changyuan comprehended, the Curved Sky Ruler, uniquely abandoned the manipulation of common matter, focusing instead on gravity to control time and space. Wang Qi, having simulated this method, used the calculating power of the Xiangyu Heavenly Position Technique to manipulate space momentarily, enabling seemingly illogical movements, even interfering with others, turning possible actions into impossibilities.

"This is controlling the void with supreme mana... celestial element to earth element... but wait, this little rascal's mana isn't particularly great, yet it feels ingenious, unable... cubic volume multiplication without resolution... incomprehensible." Amidst the high-speed confrontation, Ru Tianqi couldn't care less about the noise appearing in his consciousness. His mind raced, swiftly scheming a strategy: "If his strength isn't strong... then I'll suppress the void with great power, walk the path of straightforward righteousness!"

Wang Qi merely concentrated his control on time and space. For instance, his space control was a hundred times that of Ru Tianqi, but should Ru Tianqi use a hundred times his mana to cover every inch of this space, his spell would equally face intense interference.

Ru Tianqi had already completed Divine Separation Sense Transformation, no need for deliberate cultivation. At the thought, infinite sword qi swept out from his being, containing supreme sword intent, unshaking and unstraight, yet with a thread of life emerging and pulsating. Meanwhile, the long sword in Ru Tianqi's hand gathered divine light, striking slow to fast, gracefully protecting his vital points. The momentum of this sword wasn't particularly strong, the divine light restrained, yet all vitality lay within.

Should Wang Qi rashly touch this sword, he'd sure be struck dead by the absolute strength embedded within this "thread of life!"

Wang Qi seemed unaware of the intricacies of this sword. He kicked off the wall to accelerate towards Ru Tianqi, appearing intent on colliding face-on with the sword qi. Ru Tianqi was shocked internally, not able to ponder why the opponent would make such a blunder; he almost believed he was about to succeed. But at that moment, Wang Qi tapped his toes against the storefront, and with that tap, Ru Tianqi suddenly felt a delusion.

"What's going on... The now infamous rabbit-chick enclosure, thirty-five heads above... Where exactly is that youth... What's his speed in geometry?"

Unpredictable movement technique, enigmatic mechanism, is to mimic the 'unpredictable'.

With this step of unpredictable movement technique, Wang Qi barely escaped the range of Ru Tianqi's sword move's coverage, then using two fingers as swords, made a slash in front of him in midair, drawing out a streak of azure blue sword qi.

The sword qi struck the protective gang qi surrounding Ru Tianqi, only creating faint ripples. Seeing this, Ru Tianqi internally sneered: "Now, Tian Guang fifteen steps, from sixteen steps. Ask for Tian... That little ghost, ultimately still a golden... altogether hunted five deer. Wish to divide by ranks... core, his sword qi is incredibly weak, also... through earth four, for soil five, for firmness three, for ruins four... can't penetrate my protective gang qi. Let this old man have... Equation technique says, set upper grain three units, middle grain two units, lower grain one unit, total thirty-nine rooks on the right side. Middle and left grains aligned as right side. Multiply upper grain of right line through middle line with direct exclusion... him, then slowly torture him step by step...

Ru Tianqi swung his sword backhandedly. Unexpectedly, this sword not only missed but also deviated greatly from the target. Ru Tianqi was greatly shocked, unable to comprehend how Wang Qi could escape his estimated range—it was impossible!

"An illusion?"

The Third Elder didn't notice that the "noise" in his consciousness had already exceeded normal thoughts. These distracting thoughts had significantly slowed down his thinking speed.

In the moment his consciousness was interrupted, Wang Qi had already moved away from where he was originally standing.

"Little thief, don't leave!" Ru Tianqi no longer intended to continue battling this inexplicable Core Formation Cultivator. Wang Qi suddenly felt that the air in this quiet room became extremely viscous, as if a small mountain was pressing down from above, making it difficult for him to move his limbs.

Earlier, Ru Tianqi had not realized that this Golden Core Stage cultivator in front of him required serious attention. But once he got serious, Wang Qi, with his mere Golden Core Stage mana, would find it truly difficult to contend with him!

Ru Tianqi grabbed Wang Qi's neck, using his indestructible Sword Qi to first sever Wang Qi's Ren Meridian, interrupting the main circuit of mana flow. Then he continuously applied more strength, seemingly planning to slowly crush Wang Qi's neck. As a cultivator, Wang Qi was not particularly afraid of suffocation, but having his Ren Meridian cut off was somewhat uncomfortable. Yet, at this moment, Wang Qi's smile only grew wider, as if he already had victory in his grasp.

"You brat… The art says: like an equation, put what you take, with positive and negative techniques entered into it… I guess you won't cry until you see the coffin… huh?"

Ru Tianqi originally intended to make another mocking comment, but the words he spoke this time surprised even himself.

What is "The art says: like an equation, put what you take, with positive and negative techniques entered into it"?

What does this mean?

"Oh, it's the Wanfa Sect's outside magic cultivation, the method from the 'Equations' chapter of the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Techniques." Wang Qi explained, "Although it doesn't have the infinite potential and future development like the Yao Ding Calculating Scripture and the Book of Geometry, it's still a decent cultivation method. More importantly, Ancient Method Practitioners can understand it too, and quite a few who defect to the Golden Core Stage from the Ancient Method choose this method."

Ru Tianqi felt his heart skip a beat, chills spreading through most of it: "You said… The art says: like an equation, place five grains positively and seven grains negatively, reducing by one bucket and one liter positively. Then place seven grains positively and five grains negatively, reducing by two buckets and five liters positively. With positive and negative techniques entered into it… What? Why… Shaoguang Skill says: place the whole step and the denominators, multiply all the numerators and the whole step by the lowest denominator, divide each by its denominator and place to the left. Command the common fractioner, multiply all numerators by the denominators, unify and merge them into method. Place the desired step number, multiply it by the whole step integral to obtain the result…"

Wang Qi truly lacked the patience to hear all of this, so he explained, "If you're wondering why it's the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Techniques and not the Yibi Calculation Scripture… The Nine Chapters is more popular among mathematicians outside the Wanfa Sect, and there's a public version of the tutorials and analysis in the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm, making it easier to load and understand, isn't it? Oh, the Spirit Sense requirement for the Yao Ding Calculating Scripture and the Book of Geometry is relatively high, so I didn't use those two, and I certainly don't have the patience to input it bit by bit myself…"

As Ru Tianqi listened, his heart filled with terror. Unknowingly, he applied more pressure to try and pull Wang Qi's head off. However, with a light touch of Wang Qi's hands on his wrist, his hands automatically loosened as if they were being controlled. Wang Qi patted his neck, a white flame flickered, and the Power of Negative Entropy repaired his physical body within half a minute. Only then did the Third Elder realize that as the Divine Plague Curse Technique eroded deeper, those inexplicable thoughts had quietly altered the nature of his mana and drowned the thoughts he'd infused into his mana.

And his true self seemed to hear tens of thousands of Arithmeticians chanting Mathematical Scripture, making it difficult to continue thinking, requiring a great effort to ensure he wasn't led astray.

"Hmm, it's roughly as I calculated. Using the cultivation practice I loaded from the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm in Shenzhou as the prototype, mixed with self-replicating instructions, is an excellent algorithm for defeating enemies. Then, let me check… from the moment I fended off your first attack outside to when I suddenly struck, a full quarter of an hour passed. Then, from my sudden strike to inputting manual commands into you, it only took three minutes total... Considering your current cultivation in the mid-Divine Separation Stage, and that you've once reached the late stage, I could consider you the average for this era's Divine Separation Stage. That would mean this numerical data is also very helpful in plotting against the Great Elders!" Wang Qi observed Ru Tianqi with great interest, his expression giving the impression that he found this matter extremely intriguing.

At this moment, Ru Tianqi's remaining cognitive ability could finally recall what the characteristic "the more you accumulate power, the more abundant the surrounding Spiritual Power" actually signified.

Modern Heretics.

Using mana to perform work also consumes Spiritual Energy, with much of that Spiritual Pressure transforming into meaningless Thermal Energy, contributing to the universe's Entropy Increase, apart from the portion that returns to the cycle. So after a battle between two cultivators, there indeed would be a Spiritual Energy void in a given area.

However, every Modern Cultivator is a freak. While they absorb nature's Spiritual Energy, they also release it, and the amount released consistently slightly exceeds what is absorbed.

This is practically the characteristic of an Evil Demon.