Exploring Immortality Cultivation

The essence of life is negative entropy. The essence of consciousness is negative entropy. The existence of life beings is necessarily a phenomenon of negative entropy.

When entropy increase exceeds a certain threshold, life beings will inevitably die, which is one of the iron rules derived from the second law of thermodynamics.

Wang Qi didn't have time to ponder "why such an Evil Demon showed signs of entropy reduction and yet could attack people like living beings." Now was not the time to get to the root of things; he had to find a way to save himself.

Indeed, that power that had twisted Yang Jun into something inhuman was not something Wang Qi could contend with right now. Maybe it was just a mantis trying to stop a chariot, but still...

"Sitting around and waiting to fail isn't the style of a top student," Wang Qi muttered, regaining control of the balancing pole, and then sitting down to focus on his cultivation.

He was different from Yang Jun. He was not completely powerless against this extraterrestrial Evil Demon. In fact, among the mental methods he cultivated, there were two that were completely opposite to the forces of the Evil Demon.

Heavenly Entropy Technique, Heavenly Calculation Atlas.

The Heavenly Calculation Atlas provided Wang Qi with a considerable fault tolerance in his cultivation, preventing him from falling into Deviation at the first instance, leaving him room to turn things around. The power of entropy reduction from the Heavenly Entropy Technique spread throughout his body instantaneously, redirecting the scattered cultivation back into order, preventing Wang Qi's mana from self-annihilating.

But it was not enough, far from enough.

Water can extinguish fire, but what about a cup of water against a wagonload of burning kindling? Insignificant.

If it had been before, Wang Qi simply could not believe that this little shadow, seemingly without much Spiritual Power or mass, could possess such a high entropy value!

In his meridians, the orderly mana was crumbling, retreating segment by segment.

The flood of entropy increase affected not only the body; it also formed a storm of Yin Qi in the domain of Wang Qi's consciousness.

— Damn it...

In this

The surging malice was churning the soul of this person; Meditation or self-hypnosis tricks were of no help. The self had long been disintegrated, consciousness and subconsciousness thrown into chaos. All order within consciousness was collapsing, the boundaries between "past" and "present" were gradually disappearing, and the concept of numbers began to confuse.

"At this time, I should count prime numbers... 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 28, no, it's 29... 31..." A list of prime numbers under one hundred is something any mathematics student can memorize. Surprisingly, the further back Wang Qi recited, the more difficult it became. He stumbled, often having to repeat a number several times to get it correct, performing worse than a child newly studying the subject. Later on, he even began to forget the concept of "prime numbers."

"One and prime numbers are lonely numbers that, apart from themselves and one, cannot be divided by any other number; such numbers have always given me courage... Damn, it's quite difficult to boost courage..." Wang Qi thought, bleary-eyed. He tried another way to keep his mind clear: "1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 7... seems like I counted wrong, it's 1, 2, 3, what's after that? Three is bigger than four... pah..."

Human consciousness is not dendritic, with each branch having no direct connection to one another, but more akin to scaffolding, interrelated, where taking out a part can destabilize the whole. If the removed part happens to be the foundation, then the entire structure might collapse directly.

"Losing the order of numbers" might sound like just forgetting how to count, but zero to nine are the techniques of all numbers, the very foundation of mathematics. Forgetting how to count, means that the order of numbers in consciousness is already in disarray, the "linear" markers have vanished from his mind, and the established mathematical system in his brain is completely ruined.

In simple terms, the real essence of the Modern Heart Method has become utterly unusable for him. Even if he remembered the formulas, he could not comprehend their meaning.

This dramatically weakened his Heavenly Entropy Technique, and the disintegration within his body accelerated considerably. In an instant, the Heavenly Entropy Technique had already curled up near the heart, protecting Wang Qi's last flicker of life.

Fortunately, the Heavenly Calculation Map was derived from a large number of phenomena and did not rely on Mathematics. Despite the repeated deviations in mana that made the cultivation paths unrecognizable, the Heavenly Calculation Heart Method managed not to collapse completely.

However, Wang Qi no longer had time to feel the condition of his body. His consciousness was undergoing an even more sinister tribulation.

The time axis within his consciousness was thoroughly destroyed, and the sense of time was lost. Decisions made now felt like actions from over a decade ago; emotions vivid just a moment ago could become "not yet occurred" in the next second. All that was forgotten, that he had no desire to recall, poured into the domain of his consciousness.

Memories from past lives... present life... past recollections turned over as if by a giant hand. And worse, Wang Qi had no strength to distinguish which memories belonged to the "past" and which thoughts belonged to the "now".

Logic was collapsing.

Wang Qi had once thought that being hacked to pieces was the worst torture. But now, he felt that the sensation of oneself slowly crumbling into a void of darkness, was truly terrifying.

"Xiang Zhaoming..."

Suddenly, a somewhat unfamiliar name was flipped up by the chaotic force from the depths of consciousness. With it emerged memories from a past life.

During his juvenile years, curiosity about everything... during his schoolboy days, a single-minded yearning for science... the hardships of studying... it was as if everything had just happened—Wang Qi could not distinguish past from present; time had lost its meaning to him.

I am...

As this doubt emerged, Wang Qi's collapse of consciousness accelerated once again.

The determination of "I" is the foundation of consciousness. Being able to differentiate between "others" and "I" is what distinguishes humans from beasts, demon beasts from fierce beasts. When memories of past lives caused Wang Qi to doubt himself, a new round of collapse began.

As his consciousness became gradually confused, and the self was about to dissipate, Wang Qi suddenly awoke: "What the hell!"

A shout within consciousness actually drove back the chaos a fraction!

"I've always said... I wouldn't be confused by such things... I'm a scientist, not some philosophical charlatan..." Wang Qi clenched his teeth, desperately squeezing out a margin for thought.

"My name is Wang Qi... I am me... I am me!"

Humans can only functionally recognize "self"—the principle of the Turing Test shows that even people cannot fully recognize their own "self".

So, better not to get entangled.

I think "I" am what, then I am that.

With enlightenment reached, like a pearl in hand, the waves of chaos washed over it as if they hit a true rock and could only retreat in frustration!

"Thankfully, the concepts of 'yes' and 'no' haven't been confused yet..." Wang Qi's thoughts were still occasionally interrupted by random emerging thoughts, but he persisted in thinking: "Can't keep forgetting like this, if I forget any more, I'll really even forget myself... The Heavenly Calculation Atlas can run on instinct and hold on... The priority now is to organize and perfect the logic in my thinking..."