Master of Ten Thousand Foxes

The dilapidated hall, the bonfire burns.

Beside the bonfire, Hu Shanjiu and the Ancient Immortal Master, stare blankly at a blood-red crystal column as long as an arm.

Hu Shanjiu can’t figure out what this thing is about.

"Master, what does this mean?

"Thirty-six sides, a twisted multi-sided prism is a pulse resonance chamber?"

"I don’t know who came up with it. The director was in such a hurry and gave it to me."

"It doesn’t seem that complicated, is it really technically advanced?"

He wears a black uniform, with a white lab coat over it, and a name badge around his neck, which doesn’t specify the unit, only says "Division Five, Section Six," "Immortal Expert Liaison" and such.

Indeed, Hu Shanjiu’s Ancient Immortal Master, Elder Yuan Tian, was specially appointed by the mysterious unit affiliated with the Secret Brain Office as an "Immortal Expert."

And Hu Shanjiu was appointed as the "Immortal Expert Liaison."

At this moment, the white-haired, bald-headed Elder Yuan Tian holds a long box, carefully examining the strange prism inside.

He is a Sequence Three Immortal Artifact Master, with extraordinary strength and vision, and possesses over a thousand years of artifact refining experience. Yet even he can’t discern its reality.

Hu Shanjiu holds a computer and points at the images for his master.

"The director said to trouble you to engrave the Immortal Qi circuits on the prism surface according to these diagrams.

"The requirements are all written below.

"I don’t understand this pump, Q value, etc.

"The director said if you don’t understand either, then I’ll have to go and..."

The Ancient Immortal Master rolls his eyes and interrupts.

"Don’t think I’m as ignorant as you. These are different paths to the same destination, like the knowledge of the Ancient Immortal Dynasty. Not too difficult for me to understand."

As he speaks, Elder Yuan Tian reaches towards the prism in the box with his right hand.

His fingertips suddenly thin, sharpen, turn into hardened white bone, becoming the engraving knife for Immortal Qi circuits!

Five fingers are five different lengths and thicknesses of engraving knives!

He stares intently at the prism, and the image of a Bronze Shy Tripod emerges and rotates slowly in his eyes.

Poof...

The fingertip knife falls, and the crystal prism bursts forth with a puff of red dust!

...

Lunchtime is approaching.

Bai Mo carries her apprentice Mung Bean Cake on her shoulder, and walks out of the office with Wu Qingyun and Fang Xiaoyu, preparing to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

"There are no good food deliveries lately.

"In the cafeteria, the hot soup and water, lively and bustling, are comfortable to eat."

Along the corridor, they see Professor Li Fangming and greet him with a smile, along with several other colleagues also heading out for lunch.

A group of people chat and laugh.

"Recently, has anyone paid attention to that femtosecond pulse light? I heard it’s impressive."

"Can it be used to make laser weapons?"

"Pulse time window narrows, extreme power increases, sounds promising?"

"Expert Bai Mo, what do you think?"

Bai Mo smiles.

"I don’t quite understand."

Actually, none of them understand... most colleagues in the Immortal Grass Building work in biology or chemistry fields. Only Li Fangming works in mathematics.

In fact, not only in the Immortal Grass Building, but in the West State, there have always been few experts in mathematics and physics.

After all, these two subjects are distinctly different... both too challenging, hard to learn, hard to apply, and hard to achieve results.

Compared to mathematics, physics is even more demanding, not just difficult, but incredibly costly to research!

Researching mathematics needs just paper, a pen, and at most a computer.

But researching physics often requires things like ultra-quiet laboratories, particle colliders, radio telescopes... it’s not just spending money like water, it’s burning money like fire!

The West State is already strong in biochemistry, with Mycelium Healing Patch, Traitor’s Wine, Array Inspection Grass...

There is scale, there is talent, there is industry.

No need to tackle modern physics.

...

In the dream, the crystal prism with engraved Immortal Qi circuits quietly floats in the air.

The intricate patterns are dense and delicate, appearing like a light white layer over the prism’s surface.

Hu Shanjiu sits cross-legged nearby, bites his tongue, and closes his mouth.

Elder Yuan Tian also sits cross-legged, controlling the floating prism with his hands, staring at it for a long, long time.

"Ultimate simplicity, does that refer to this?"

He aims one end of the prism towards the bonfire.

"Disciple, look!"

Hu Shanjiu turns his eyes wide, watching as the bonfire’s light enters the prism, propagates along its length and gradually converges into a narrow beam, eventually shooting from the other end of the prism onto the hall’s damaged columns, casting a small bright spot.

"Huh?"

The Ancient Immortal’s gaze becomes increasingly hazy, he scrutinizes the crystal prism, left and right, up and down, as if trying to engrave the strange shape and outline into his memory.

"Who designed this?

"Once a prince said that some are born knowing, with exceptional spiritual wisdom; eyes open seeing the mundane, eyes closed seeing the way!

"Such people are naturally gifted Immortal Artifact Masters!

"The designer, was an Immortal Artifact Master? Wasn’t he?"

Hu Shanjiu purses his lips, glancing at his master’s drunken-like strange demeanor.

He looks again at the suspended prism, thinking that a convex lens can focus light, is this really amazing?

Is it really as mystical as the old man brags?

Frowning, he retrieves the prism, and with it, closes his eyes and returns to reality.

...

In the cafeteria.

Mung Bean Cake sits beside her master, enthusiastically devouring her second bowl of spicy hot pot!

One by one, round beef balls are shoveled into her mouth, eating with a face full of happiness, thoroughly enjoying herself.