161: Chapter 161 The First Lesson: When the Laws of Thermodynamics Invade the Dou Qi Continent

pangu-003 · Thirty-Third Heavens · Tianhe Academy Teaching Area.

This was the teaching base Li Mo created specifically for the newly recruited Myriad Heavens instructors using his "Setting Modification" permissions. Although it was called a "teaching area," the aesthetic was extremely wild. To the left was the [Burning Heaven Qi Refining Tower] (Xiao Yan's classroom) floating above lava; to the right was the [Arcane Spire] (the Magic God's classroom) piercing the clouds; in the middle, there was even a Cthulhu-esque [Abyss Anatomy Room] (where Xiao Hei taught part-time).

Today was the first day the [Myriad Heavens Instructor System] went online. Tens of thousands of players were clamoring to get in, holding the "Lecture Passes" they had just finished grinding for, scrambling to rush into various classrooms.

"Charge! I want to learn the Buddha's Angry Fire Lotus!" "Mages are the meta's favorites! I'm going to learn Forbidden Curses!" "Don't push! I don't want to Cultivate anymore, I want to learn how to make Abyss Sashimi!"

...

Burning Heaven Qi Refining Tower · Lecture Hall 101.

Xiao Yan (current Head of the Demolition Department at Tianhe Academy) was standing on the podium, with a slowly rotating three-colored fire lotus behind him. Looking at the hundreds of pairs of eyes hungry for knowledge (and filled with greed) below the stage, a long-lost surge of pride welled up in his heart. As the protagonist of a world, despite being trapped in a discarded draft for five hundred years, he still had his teaching skills.

"Ahem." Xiao Yan cleared his throat, a Heavenly Flame rising in his hand. "Students, today we shall discuss the first lesson: The Control and Fusion of Flames." "As everyone knows, flames are the most violent energy in heaven and earth. To master them, one must use powerful Soul Power as a guide to perceive that sliver of..."

"Teacher! I have a question!" A player in the front row wearing thick-rimmed glasses with the ID "Professor Li of the CAS" suddenly raised his hand and interrupted him.

Xiao Yan frowned slightly but maintained his composure: "Student, please speak."

Professor Li pushed up his glasses and took out a thick notebook and a temperature gun. "Teacher, the 'Soul Power' you just mentioned is too abstract. Can you quantify it specifically?" "For example, what is the core temperature of this 'Green Lotus Core Flame' in your hand? What is its combustion heating value? Do you have the spectral analysis data?" "Also, is the 'Fire Lotus Fusion' you just demonstrated essentially a type of controlled nuclear Fusion?"

Xiao Yan: "???" He was stunned. He had spent decades in the Dou Qi Continent, fought the Hall of Souls, and burned Yao Lao (by mistake), but no one had ever asked him what the "heating value" of a Heavenly Flame was. "This... flame is just flame; it is an expression of spirituality. How can it be measured with such rigid data?"

"No, no, no, Teacher, you are wrong." Professor Li shook his head with a serious face. "According to the First Law of Thermodynamics, energy is conserved. The fact that your fire lotus explosion can produce such great power indicates a violent mass deficit within it." "If you can tell us the specific Fusion formula, we might be able to use heavy water to extract deuterium and tritium to replace Dou Qi as fuel." "This way, even ordinary Mortals could produce nuclear-explosion fire lotuses. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

The players below instantly erupted. "Holy crap! The big shot is awesome!" "Using heavy water to make fire lotuses? The cost is way lower than Dou Qi!" "Teacher! Hurry up and teach us how to hand-assemble a reactor!"

Xiao Yan looked at this group of "madmen" with fanatical eyes, and the fire lotus in his hand almost went out from the shock. What the hell is hand-assembling a reactor?! I'm here to teach cultivation, not to teach how to build nuclear bombs!

"Absurd! Simply absurd!" Xiao Yan was furious. "Cultivation is about the heart! It's about Comprehension Ability! You people are all thinking about taking shortcuts; how could you possibly grasp the true essence of Heavenly Flames?" "To teach you reverence, today I will let you experience it firsthand..."

Boom! Before Xiao Yan could finish, a loud bang came from the back of the classroom. A player with the ID "Master Wang the Lanxiang Welder" was holding a self-made [High-Pressure Oxygen Tank] and [Acetylene Torch], blowing hard at an ordinary Beast Fire. "Teacher! I've realized it! As long as the oxygen concentration is high enough, even Beast Fire can burn with the color of a Heavenly Flame!" "Look! It's blue! The fire turned blue!"

Pshhh—! That Beast Fire, which was originally only a few hundred degrees, instantly turned into high-temperature plasma of several thousand degrees under the addition of pure oxygen, burning a large hole right through the classroom's Titan Alloy floor.

Xiao Yan: "..." He looked at the player holding the welding torch with an excited face, then looked at the Heavenly Flame in his own hand. He suddenly felt that... his Dou Qi Continent was indeed a bit backward.

...

Arcane Spire · Top-floor Laboratory.

Equally breaking down was the Magic God next door (current Head of the Programming Department at Tianhe Academy).

"Chant! You must chant!" The Magic God waved his staff and roared at the players below. "The incantation for the Forbidden Curse 'Meteor Fall' has three thousand syllables! The pitch and pause of every syllable must be precise to the millisecond! One wrong word will cause a backlash!" "Why aren't you people memorizing the incantations? What are you doing tapping on keyboards?"

Below, a group of programmer players with IDs like "Tencent Senior Architect" and "Guardian of the Hairline" were each holding a [Spiritual Power Terminal] (a tablet computer produced by the Scrap Iron Clan), their fingers flying across virtual keyboards.

"Teacher, this incantation is too redundant." A programmer said without looking up. "I looked at your incantation logic; it contains a massive amount of repetitive loops and invalid checks." "For example, this part 'Praise the great God of Fire Elements' is entirely a comment line. it has no actual effect on the spellcasting and only increases the casting wind-up."

"I have already encapsulated these three thousand syllables into a function." The programmer pressed the Enter key. "In the future, to cast a Forbidden Curse, you just need to input 'Call Meteor' and then press F5 to run it."

Buzz—! As he pressed Enter, a massive meteor a hundred meters in diameter appeared out of thin air in the sky outside the window, crashing toward the distant firing range with a world-destroying Aura. Rumble!!! The firing range vanished instantly, not even dregs remaining.

"See, 0.01-second casting." The programmer nodded with satisfaction. "And I also added a Loop; as long as the mana is sufficient, I can drop ten per second."

The staff in the Magic God's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter." The Forbidden Curse he had practiced for a thousand years... had been turned by these people into... an Enter key? "This... this is a profanation of magic!" The Magic God's beard trembled. "No reverence for the elements! No Soul resonance! What kind of magic is this?"

"This is called 'Object-Oriented Programming'." The programmer pushed up his glasses, the light of reason shining in his eyes. "Teacher, times have changed." "Efficiency is the primary productive force."

...

Thirty-Third Heavens · Dean's Office.

T-9 was reporting the first day's teaching situation to Li Mo. "Dean, the situation... is getting a bit out of control." "Director Xiao Yan just applied to resign, saying he wants to go for further studies in 'Quantum Physics.' He said he feels like he was just someone playing with a lighter before." "Director Magic God is learning C++ from the programmers. He said he wants to rewrite the 'Encyclopedia of Forbidden Curses' to compress the chanting time to the nanosecond level." "And that 'Sword Saint' recruited from the Wuxia world... his swordsmanship has now been modified by players into the 'Electromagnetic Rail Accelerated Sword'..."

T-9's electronic eyes flickered with a confused light. "Dean, is this still cultivation? This has completely turned into... a sci-fi arms race."

Li Mo sat in his chair, listening to this preposterous report, but he was laughing uncontrollably. "Hahaha! That's it!" "The end of cultivation is science, and the end of science is metaphysics." "When the two combine... that is 'Theology'."

He stood up and walked to the window. Below, in the campus, the air was filled with joy. Some people were racing Demonic Beasts modified into motorcycles; some were sparring with engineer shovels enchanted with "Sharpness V"; and others were using Pill Furnaces to cook hotpot.

"These players are using their logic to reconstruct the underlying rules of this world." A glint flashed in Li Mo's eyes. "And this is exactly what I want." "The reason the Author's discarded draft worlds collapse is because the logic is too rigid and formulaic." "But these players are different. Not only are they not rigid, but they can also take rigid things... and play with them in creative ways."

Just then, Star Spirit Navigator walked in with a solemn expression. "Captain, there's a new situation." "It's not the players, it's... a dungeon." "We've monitored abnormal fluctuations in the Tenth Heaven (an unopened high-risk zone)." "That [Draft No. 003 · Dark Cultivation World] we sealed is... actively expanding."

"Actively expanding?" Li Mo stopped smiling. General discarded drafts are dead and only slowly dissipate over time. Being able to actively expand meant that a... self-awareness had been born inside. Or rather, a "Rogue Protagonist" had been born.

"Data analysis shows that the logical core of that world is: 'Cannibalism Style'." Star Spirit Navigator's voice trembled slightly. "The protagonist levels up by devouring his own kind. He has sensed the 'players' on our side (who are immortal and full of energy) and is attempting to... break out."

"Wants to eat the players?" Li Mo raised an eyebrow and picked up the [spring and autumn brush] again. "Interesting." "Just right, the players' 'novice period' is over. It's time for them to see the real... Dark Forest."

"Pass down the order." Li Mo's voice turned a few degrees colder. "Release the server-wide event: [Darkness Descends]." "Open the Tenth Heaven." "Tell the players that there are no rules there, no protection, only the purest... killing and being killed." "Want to learn the nuclear-explosion fire lotus? Want to try Forbidden Curse macros? Then go there and try them." "Let's see if their 'Cannibalism Style' protagonist is tougher, or if our 'the fourth calamity'... has a better bite."

...

Real World · Bureau of Unusual Affairs Base.

Thunder War had just exited the game and taken off his helmet. His eyes were deeper than before, faintly revealing a fluctuation of laws. "Captain, how is it?" the technician asked nervously. "That 'Military Combat Boxing · Cultivation Improved Version'..."

Thunder War did not speak. He walked to a sandbag on the training ground and slowly assumed the starting stance of Military Combat Boxing. "Lunge Punch!"

Boom! There were no fancy light effects. But the special alloy sandbag in front of him, weighing a ton, was hit as if by an invisible heavy hammer and instantly exploded into fragments. Not just the sandbag, even the bulletproof glass wall behind it was shattered by the shockwave.

"This..." Everyone was horrified. This wasn't a release of Spiritual Qi; this was... a rule-based strike. Thunder War's punch just now seemed to have invoked a sliver of the rules of "Sure-Hit" and "Pulverize."

"This is the gift the 'Administrator' gave us." Thunder War looked at his fist, his voice low. "He is teaching us... how to use a Mortal body to touch the Domain of gods."

At this moment, the latest announcement for pangu online popped up on the base's large screen. [Server-wide Nightmare Event: Darkness Descends.] [This is a war for survival. Facing a dark world that lives by devouring, please cast aside your bottom lines.] [Because here, only madmen can survive.]

Thunder War looked at the announcement, Battle Intent igniting in his eyes. "Notify all Falcon Team Members." "Assemble." "This mission... is war."