Applied Immortality

Chapter 187, Yang-Mills Gauge Theory

Translator: Tamon

Wang Qi was on the dorm’s roof. He pressed his right hand down, using Celestial Entropy to melt all the snow within a meter before he sat down and held a spirit wine jar.

Wang Qi stuck the wine jar in the snow to keep it on ice. His gaze was distant, enjoying the view of Argent Apex inner city just below the mountain and the festive mood it was under. Argent Mountain’s Mistshroud Mountain Array blocked some of the snow, making the inner city’s weather better than the outer one’s.

The outer city was mainly used by mortals, while the inner city belonged to cultivators.

Cultivators had a tougher mentality and didn’t care about day or night, making the inner city always bustling. In addition, they might not be keen on celebrating the New Year, but they wouldn’t criticize others’ interests in it. It gave the immortal city a certain contrast.

Wang Qi had bought a jar of sweet wine on the way over.

The Mistshroud Mountain Array’s mist had an extra tint of color to it, probably to bring good luck and joy to the ongoing celebration. The sleepless inner city’s lights blending with the mist made it akin to a scene out of a fairy tale.

Wang Qi took out a cup from his storage bag and poured himself a drink. Finding it lacking, he reached out and drew snowflakes into the cup.

Zhen Chanzi asked, “What’s the theory behind that?”

He had been dying to ask all this time. The skill Wang Qi used after he stopped using ripples to block the snowfall didn’t look like some magical art.

Wang Qi took a sip. “Celestial Hymn Odyssey.”

Zhen Chanzi cried out. “Electromagnetism controls water?”

“Water has polarized particles. Each one has its own poles. Water doesn’t have a magnetic field because they cancel each other out macroscopically. By applying a specific magnetic field, controlling snow comes easy.”

“But ancient cultivation also has some Primal Magnetic Glow and other arts. How come no one figured that out all those thousands of years?” Zhen Chanzi muttered, “Using magnetism to control water can lead to a variety of magical arts…”

Wang Qi shook his head. “No. First off, ancient cultivation had no concept of particles, so how could they know of water particles having magnetic poles? Secondly, the skill is backed by extensive and complex calculations. Controlling snow is already my limit. I won’t be able to even keep myself dry in the rain. Its effect is a far cry from true water-controlling spiritual power.”

Zhen Chanzi ‘blinked’ and then asked. “Why use it then?”

“Showing off.” Wang Qi said it like it was a given. “‘Returning home on a snowy night’ doesn’t feel the same with at least some snow on you, does it?” (Tamon: a verse from Liu Changqing’s Lodging on Furong Mountain During a Snowstorm)

“Yeah.” Zhen Chanzi agreed. “So you were going for practicing electromagnetism.”

“Holy shit, what the… How the hell did you come up with that answer? What kind of logic did you use?”

“I figured you out ages ago. Your first words meant ‘How did you know?’ right? Ha-ha, I didn’t live ten thousand years for nothing.”

[Taking ten millennia to figure out a mental case doesn’t sound like something to be proud of…]

Zhen Chanzi asked, “Aren’t you aiming for Myriad Arts Sect? Is that why you stopped Celestial Hymn Odyssey training? Also, I’ve seen Celestial Hymn Odyssey’s spiritual power as well, so why is yours so weird? Did you modify it?”

Wang Qi drank some more. “I’ve been in a bad mood for days now and wanted to do some tough problems to cool off.”

“Just how obsessed are you with problems…”

The youth was frank. “This time I picked a topic that matched my level, a problem related to Celestial Hymn Odyssey and fields. I’ll say it again, problem, so it won’t interfere with my focus on math to enter Myriad Arts Sect.”

Zhen Chanzi asked in curiosity, “What problem?”

“Uh, I don’t have a name for it.”

“Oh, I see.” Zhen Chanzi figured it was something average and unimportant that didn’t affect cultivation much, losing interest fast.

Wang Qi’s nameless problem had a way bigger importance than Wang Qi let on and Zhen Chanzi assumed.

Yang-Mills existence and mass gap was one of the Millennium Prize Problems on Earth. These problems had great significance in science, proposed in 2000, and echoed Hilbert’s 23 problems in 1900.

The two worlds’ mysterious connection had gradually loosened. Neither Yang nor Mills had a correspondent in this world, and the Grand Unified Theory was elucidated from another angle by the Supreme Lord. Therefore, this topic had no real name on Divine Province.

The Millennium Prize Problems had the same difficulty as Hilbert’s 23. In Divine Province, any of the 23 problems made one a guaranteed Unfettered upon solving them. Wang Qi had a long way to go before he could solve it. The past few days were spent using an Earth scientist’s thinking to calculate the known part of the problem.

Even so, the effort proved more than worthwhile.

This application, which got Zhen Chanzi, a Great Ascension, almost losing his marbles over it, was the true use of Yang-Mills gauge theory—unified theory.

Strong force, weak force, and electromagnetism combined.

Lacking in the spiritual power department, it offered no real use to Wang Qi. To someone like him training in Divine Hexagram Computation, low spiritual power translated into low computational power and precision. Lacking in both meant toying with Meltdowner was suicide. The slightest mistake would cause a chain reaction that would take half the city down with him—[Uh, it sounds like a skill for mutual destruction.] (Tamon: Toaru Majutsu no Index reference)

Building on the above premise, for the current Wang Qi there was no difference between using Yang-Mills gauge theory built on the Celestial Hymn Odyssey field and Maxwell’s equations system. In fact, the latter was far simpler and easier to use.

“Fine, it’s a late-game skill I got at level one. It’s not that I don’t have more.” Wang Qi said with a clearly smug look.

Just like he said, this skill was akin to a finisher, closer to the Grand Unified Theory, and could be combined with Celestial Hymn Odyssey to control three of the four fundamental forces.

Just thinking about it got Wang Qi in a cheerful mood as he downed the third cup.

“Nya~”

“Little Min, you can’t wander off, nya!”