The Modern Martial Immortal

Chapter 185: Information

Yaoguang weighed the options in silence.

If I invest this experience in the Refiner and Psyche Dao branches, the former could reach level 10 and gain the ability to refine spirit treasures, while the latter could reach the Dharma Form Realm.

But if I invest in the Array Caster and Martial Dao branches, I can only choose one path. Either I advance the Martial Dao into the Star God Realm, or raise the Array Caster branch to level 7, or even level 8...

For the Array Caster branch, reaching level 6 was enough to optimize spirit-gathering arrays. Level 7 was not all that necessary at the moment.

With his personal guidance and a few more experiments, the refiners would gradually master artifact refinement. Array art, however, was different. Not only did it require long setup cycles, but even if he broke everything down and explained it step by step, the array masters still wouldn’t understand.

The Array Caster branch can wait. Level 10 Refiner branch is crucial. If I can equip Li Hanqiu of the Nine-Cauldron Sect with a second-generation, or even third-generation spirit treasure...

Light flickered in Yaoguang’s eyes.

In fact, the terms ”first-tier” to ”fifth-tier” great cultivators had only become popular recently. A hundred years ago, the early stage of the Foundation Building Realm had been classified as level 4 of the body cultivation system, the middle stage as level 5, and the late stage as level 6.

As for Dao Foundation, its early stage had been called second-generation level 4, while Immortal Foundation had been third-generation level 4, and so on.

The tier classification had been adopted because second-generation Dao Foundation cultivators were far stronger than ordinary Foundation Building cultivators, and did not fit neatly into the array caster or artifact refiner systems.

By now, both the body cultivation and the artifact refinement systems had been further optimized, with the latter far surpassing the others. The power boost provided by refined artifacts had become far more concrete.

In most cases, having refined artifacts one generation ahead granted an overwhelming advantage, allowing one to take on two or even three opponents at once. A two-generation advantage was enough to roughly offset an entire realm gap.

In other words, a third-tier great cultivator with third-generation flying swords could barely contend with a fourth-tier great cultivator using first-generation flying swords. With three-generation advantage, they could even win against said fourth-tier great cultivator.

If Foundation Building great cultivators could achieve this, then what about Golden Core cultivators?

It’s not that we lack level 10 artifact refiners, but they haven’t progressed much from the Lunar Fiend Empire war era. They failed to keep up with the Golden Core Realm evolution, and lacked the ability to refine even second-generation spirit treasures. As a result, all Golden Core cultivators use spirit treasures.

However, these first-generation spirit treasures can barely withstand their power output and provide no amplification whatsoever... If I were to raise my artifact-refining techniques to level 10 and refine second-generation, third-generation, or even fourth-generation spirit treasures...

With that, the Golden Core cultivators of the Nine-Cauldron Sect would probably be able to fight ten enemies alone. He dismissed the thought soon after. If he truly revealed such spirit treasures, the impact would have been far too great.

The one who could fight ten enemies would be Li Hanqiu, not him. Once other Golden Core cultivators learned of this, they would try to eliminate him at all cost to restore strategic balance among the sects.

At least, he would have to wait until reaching the Star God Realm before thinking of refining fourth-generation spirit treasures. With that, the choice became obvious.

Strength is the foundation. If I lack strength, I just can’t reveal my techniques no matter how good they are. Otherwise, I’d just be working for others for free.

Thus, Yaoguang focused his mind on the Psyche Dao branch. Hum!

As experience poured in, the Psyche Dao branch grew at astonishing speed, quickly reaching its limit. It blossomed and bore fruit.

Compared to the Martial Dao branch, the Psyche Dao branch was easier to convert directly into strength, even if it leaned more toward support.

The moment the Psyche Dao broke through to the Dharma Form Realm, which represented level 7, Yaoguang’s primordial psyche trembled violently. The world seemed to undergo a tremendous change, shifting from monotony into rich, vivid complexity.

A sudden yet faintly familiar realization dawned on him.

”It’s the profundities of chaotic space-time contained within the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning!”

In theory, one could comprehend the profundities of chaotic space-time when enduring Purple Firmament Divine Lightning. Yet among primordial psyche cultivators, those who could truly achieve this were one in ten thousand, just like Yaoguang himself...

After reaching the Dharma Form Realm, he clearly understood how unimaginably difficult it was to comprehend such profundities. It was like being given only an elementary math textbook and being asked to solve the Millennium Prize Problems.[1]

There is one big difference between comprehending chaotic space-time’s profundities and failing to do so. Without it, my detection range is limited by how far my psychic thought can spread. With it, my detection range scales with the strength of my psychic thought. As long as my psychic thought is strong enough, it can directly cross space through its understanding and penetration of spatial distortion

Yaoguang quietly sensed the power of the Dharma Form Realm.

In other words, as long as my psychic thought is strong enough, I can easily detect a target 50 thousand kilometers away. A Dharma Form Realm psyche cultivator can typically sense things even across a distance of a hundred thousand light-years. If my psychic thought were limitless, I could even probe the far side of the starry void!

This was almost a dimensional shift. Before the Dharma Form Realm, psychic thought detection was akin to a line spreading across a sheet of white paper, with the length representing its strength.

After achieving the Dharma Form, it was akin to drawing a line with a pen. In other words, it could exist at any point and no longer be limited to one method. Even if the pen did not move, pulling the paper would still produce a line.

Through my understanding of chaotic space-time, my psychic thought can act like a pen from another dimension, drawing lines at any point at will. At the same time, by flowing with space-time, it can probe 50 thousand kilometers, several hundred thousand kilometers, or even over a million kilometers...

He faintly understood why Heavenly Palace cultivators existed, and why Dharma Form cultivators habitually resided above the nine heavens. That was because the world was in motion. By exploiting the world’s motion, Heavenly Palace cultivators could greatly expand their perception range, much like Dharma Form cultivators.

By locking onto a single point over the course of the world’s movement cycle, they could complete a full perception of that region. It was merely that the perception process matched the cycle of the world’s movement.

If a single world cycle took a full day, then a Heavenly Palace cultivator would need a full day to read all the information in that region. Likewise, if 24 Heavenly Palace cultivators were arranged in that area, the detection interval would be shortened to one hour. If there were 1440 Heavenly Palace cultivators, it would be shortened to one minute.

As for Dharma Form cultivators, they would keep themselves moving horizontally along the world, continuously diffusing their psychic thoughts. As long as they maintained a state of fusion with chaotic space-time, their psychic thoughts would eventually flow with the power of space-time to cover the entire world.

Of course, this was a theoretical number. Covering the entire world with psychic thought consumed an enormous amount of energy, far beyond what any Dharma Form cultivator could sustain. Unless, of course, someone was willing to provide their own mental power as an energy source.

Yaoguang gained a sudden insight. ”Void Psychic World.”

The Void Psychic World was, in essence, a method by which Dharma Form cultivators obtained energy for their psychic thought.

Others entered the Void Psychic World through psychic consciousness, psychic thought, or psychic will to search for information and communicate. Though incomparably convenient, using the Void Psychic World was equivalent to supplying it with energy. In doing so, they enabled the Dharma Form cultivators to gain the ability to probe their surroundings.

No wonder that even with the Void Psychic World left behind by Dharma Form cultivators, the various sects still vigorously developed their own Heavenly Palace cultivators, and even cultivated their own Dharma Forms and Void Psychic Worlds. Using the Void Psychic World is equivalent to exposing myself to another’s field of vision... This level of control at the information layer...

Yaoguang took a deep breath.

Terrifying. Truly terrifying. No wonder it’s said that whoever controls the Void Psychic World effectively controls information.

He calmed his mind. ”Dharma Forms, the Void Psychic World, information hegemony...”

After some consideration, he cautiously connected his psychic thought to the Void Psychic World. Almost immediately, he sensed four powerful streams of psychic thought filling the space. Each occupied its own core territory, constantly infiltrating the regions controlled by the others—searching, reading, and even restricting the flow of psychic thought data.

Four Dharma Forms! Yaoguang noted silently.

Based on the directions represented by these four regions, he gradually identified the forces to which the four Dharma Forms belonged. There’s one from the Thousand-Beast Sect, one from the Immortal Alliance, and the other two are from the Infinite Star Palace.

He was unfazed and kept perceiving information.

Even though he did not possess a Void Psychic World, his high-dimensional use of psychic thought allowed him to restrict the transmission of psychic thought within any given region, provided there are no Dharma Form cultivators. In some cases, he could even distort and alter the information within it.

For example, he could have changed the Infinite Star Palace’s Sky Patrol Warship’s order to attack Longxiang City into an order to rescue it instead. Of course, the Infinite Star Palace had its own Dharma Form cultivators and Void Psychic World, so its information could not be interfered with. As for forces without Dharma Form cultivators...

Realization dawned on Yaoguang. I think I understand why the Quicksand Sect was crushed so decisively.Since they never developed a Heavenly Palace cultivator system, their information transmission relied entirely on the Thousand-Beast Sect, which was also the leader of the Northern Alliance at the time.

However, the Thousand-Beast Sect only had one Dharma Form cultivator, while the Infinite Star Palace had two. When an Infinite Star Palace Dharma Form cultivator blocked the way, the Thousand-Beast Sect’s sole Dharma Form cultivator had to respond at full focus.

In that situation, the other Infinite Star Palace Dharma Form cultivator could spare the effort to deal with the Quicksand Sect... Under an information restriction, I doubt the sect master’s counterattack orders could be accurately delivered to every great cultivator.

He once again extended his perception toward the direction of the Black Feather Sect on the Black Flame Continent.

Good grief. There truly is a Dharma Form cultivator stationed on the Black Flame Continent. But the Black Feather Sect has outright banned the Void Psychic World, declaring that no one is permitted to link into it.

As a result, transmitting information within the Black Feather Sect had become extremely difficult. Moreover, without cultivators supplying energy to the Void Psychic World, the Infinite Star Palace’s Dharma Form cultivator could not replenish his strength. They had to rest and recover from time to time.

And whenever that cultivator rested, allied observers would immediately relay the news to the Black Feather Sect, which would then launch a counterattack. The damage from such counterattacks was limited, but the humiliation was immense.

Go on, keep fighting. The Black Feather Sect has used a scorched-earth strategy and even stopped using the Void Psychic World. It will be difficult for you to track them. But how can you not fight back after being attacked, Infinite Star Palace? Do you no longer want the title of the number one sect in Cangwu? Yaoguang thought.

”I knew there was an expert backing the Black Feather Sect.” After observing for a while, Yaoguang quickly reached a conclusion. ”Ultimately, the Black Feather Sect won’t defeat the Infinite Star Palace. But it’ll take at least ten to twenty years if the Infinite Star Palace wants to completely pacify the Black Feather Sect.”

For the next ten to twenty years, the Nine-Cauldron Sect wouldn’t have to worry about the Infinite Star Palace making a comeback. Cautious probing was also unnecessary. They could act boldly and without restraint in the East Sea.

”Xuanming Sect, you think you can act wildly just because the Infinite Star Palace has your back?” he asked aloud. ”Tang Fenghua, help me contact Sect Master Li. I have important intelligence to report to him.”

1. The Millennium Prize Problems are seven well-known complex mathematical problems selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. ☜