193: Chapter 193: The First Question Shatters One's Dao Heart

The morning sun spilled onto the square of the Heavenly River Sword Sect. Accompanied by a burst of eerie yet rhythmic radio calisthenics music (actually a magically modified version of 'The Era is Calling' recorded by Li Mo using a Recording Stone), a new day began.

But inside the lecture hall on the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion, the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.

This was the core area of the "Tianhe Tutorial Class," and currently the most terrifying "IQ Meat Grinder" in the Cultivation World and even the Myriad Realms.

In the very last row of the classroom—the VIP area commonly known as the "underachiever seats"—sat a person who was completely out of place with his surroundings.

The Purple Mansion Holy Son, Xiao Tianjiao.

At this moment, he no longer possessed the majesty of yesterday, when he commanded a Nine-Dragon Chariot and spoke with the authority of the heavens.

His magnificent Purple-Gold Qilin Armor had been forcibly stripped off (supposedly to prevent interference with the examination room's magnetic field) and replaced with a set of dull gray, pungent rubber-smelling insulation suits.

Even more humiliating was that, to prevent him from "roaring in court" again, a Silence Talisman with a large "X" drawn on it had been pasted over his mouth.

"Mmph... (Let me out!)"

Xiao Tianjiao roared in his heart.

He glanced out the window.

That human-shaped pit was still there.

His Dao Protector, Elder Zhao Wuji of the Middle Stage Nascent Soul, currently had only his head sticking out of the ground.

Elder Zhao had his eyes closed, having lost all hope for life. Sticking out of the top of his head was a giant red card: [Banned].

Beside Elder Zhao, the Big Yellow Dog wearing glasses was squatting there, gnawing on a bone while staring intently at Elder Zhao's crown with an expression that said, "I dare you to move, I'll bite."

"This is a devil's den..."

Xiao Tianjiao withdrew his gaze in despair.

"Class is in session."

With the crisp sound of a pointer tapping, Li Mo walked onto the podium.

Today, Li Mo had changed his outfit.

He wore a white lab coat, gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and held a book as thick as a brick. On the cover of the book was a half-dead cat and several dizzying large characters:

Quantum Mechanics: The Microscopic Nightmare of the Cultivation World

"First, let us welcome our new student."

Li Mo adjusted his glasses, his playful gaze falling on Xiao Tianjiao in the back row.

"Although Student Xiao only barely passed the entrance exam (60 points), I greatly admire his thirst for knowledge—that sense of 'not understanding but being deeply shocked.'"

"Everyone, let's give him a round of applause."

A smattering of applause rang out.

Ye Guyun, Zhang Yuan, and others in the front row turned to look at Xiao Tianjiao, their eyes filled with pity.

That look seemed to say: Another poor child who hasn't yet experienced the brutal beating of 'wave function collapse.'

"Alright, enough small talk."

Li Mo gave a broad wave of his sleeve.

"Yesterday, we discussed macroscopic physics. That is, Great Emperor Newton's 'Three Laws of Motion.'"

"That was just the foundation, something for the little kids in the Qi Refinement Stage to play with."

"Today, we shall enter the realm of the truly powerful."

"We are going to explore—Microscopic Cultivation."

Li Mo turned and drew a circle on the blackboard with a dot in the center.

"Everyone here is a Cultivator. You Cultivate your Nascent Soul and refine your Divine Soul every day."

"But have you ever considered a question?"

Li Mo's voice suddenly became profound.

"When you are in secluded meditation, in a state of 'Samadhi'..."

"Is the Nascent Soul inside your body 'existing' or 'non-existing'?"

The entire room fell silent.

Xiao Tianjiao couldn't help but sneer in his heart: Nonsense! Of course the Nascent Soul exists! Can't you see it just by looking inward? What kind of question is this? This is an insult to common sense in cultivation!

But he didn't dare say it out loud, only rolling his eyes.

"I know someone is calling me an idiot in their heart."

Li Mo seemed to see right through Xiao Tianjiao's thoughts and smiled slightly.

"Student Xiao, since you are so confident."

"Then you shall answer this first question."

With a flick of Li Mo's finger, he peeled the Silence Talisman off Xiao Tianjiao's mouth.

"Cough, cough..."

Xiao Tianjiao coughed violently twice, stood up, and straightened his ugly rubber suit, trying to reclaim some of his dignity as a Saint.

"Teacher (he gritted his teeth as he spoke), this question is too simple. The Nascent Soul is the very foundation of a Cultivator's Dao, condensed within the Dantian, real and tangible. Whether in meditation or not, it is there. One only needs a sweep of Divine Sense to observe it."

"A sweep of Divine Sense?"

Li Mo shook his head.

"That is a macroscopic perspective."

"From a microscopic perspective, Divine Sense itself is a form of 'interference.'"

Li Mo wrote four large characters on the blackboard:

[The Observer Effect]

"Now, assume there is a 'black box' that absolutely isolates Divine Sense, spiritual energy, and Karma."

As Li Mo spoke, he pulled a black metal box from his System space and placed it on the podium.

"Inside this box is a Nascent Soul in a 'state of suspended animation' (not actually there, just a hypothesis)."

"At the same time, there is an extremely unstable 'Decaying Spirit Stone' in the box."

"In the next hour, this Spirit Stone has a 50% chance of releasing poison gas to kill the Nascent Soul, and a 50% chance of remaining stable."

Li Mo looked at Xiao Tianjiao, his gaze sharp as a blade.

"I ask you, Student Xiao."

"Without opening the box and without using Divine Sense to investigate (because Divine Sense would interfere with the Spirit Stone's decay)."

"At this very moment, is the Nascent Soul in the box alive or dead?"

Xiao Tianjiao froze.

He opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to say "alive."

But on second thought, there was a 50% chance it would die.

"Then... then it's... maybe alive, maybe dead?"

Xiao Tianjiao answered tentatively, "It's a matter of luck, up to the heavens."

"Wrong."

Li Mo cut him off coldly.

"In the realm of quantum mechanics, there is no 'maybe,' and there is no 'will of heaven.'"

Li Mo picked up a piece of chalk and wrote a formula on the blackboard that made Xiao Tianjiao's Soul tremble:

∣ψ⟩ = 1/√2 (|Alive⟩ + |Dead⟩)

∣ψ⟩ = 1/√2 (|Alive⟩ + |Dead⟩)

"As long as you do not open the box and do not perform an observation."

"This Nascent Soul exists in a superposition where it is both dead and alive."

"It is not dead, nor is it alive."

"It is—a Dead-Alive Superposition State."

Boom!

It was as if a thunderbolt had exploded in Xiao Tianjiao's mind.

"Both dead and alive?!"

Xiao Tianjiao's eyes widened, his voice trembling.

"How... how is that possible? Life and death are the two poles of the Great Dao, separated by Yin and Yang! How can they exist simultaneously?"

"This is sophistry! This is heretical nonsense!"

His Dao Heart began to waver.

As the Purple Mansion Holy Son, the education he had received since childhood was: the world is certain, and Karma is rigorous. One is one, two is two.

Life is life, death is death.

But now, Li Mo was telling him that life and death could be superimposed?

This directly attacked his understanding of the "essence of life."

"Don't believe it?"

Li Mo chuckled.

"Then let's do an experiment."

"Now, assume your Dao Heart is that box."

"Your cultivation is that Nascent Soul."

Li Mo stepped down from the podium, closing in on Xiao Tianjiao.

With every step, the Aura on his body underwent an eerie change.

In Xiao Tianjiao's eyes, he looked like a Mortal one moment, a god the next, and then an indescribable mist.

"Student Xiao, look at me."

"The moment you close your eyes, how can you be sure I am still in front of you?"

"I... I can perceive your presence..."

Xiao Tianjiao broke into a cold sweat, backing away step by step.

"What if I shielded your perception?"

"What if everything in this world only exists because you 'looked' at it?"

"What if... the so-called Great Dao of Cultivation itself is a massive 'wave function'? Is it because of the 'observation' (belief) of countless Cultivators that it collapsed into its current form?"

"If one day, no one believes in the Dao anymore, will the Dao... still exist?"

This series of questions was like a heavy hammer, ruthlessly smashing into Xiao Tianjiao's mind.

"Will the Dao... still exist?"

Xiao Tianjiao's pupils contracted violently.

He tried to argue.

He wanted to activate his Purple Qi from the East Cultivation Technique to prove the objective existence of the "Dao."

But he discovered to his horror that as he began to think about Li Mo's questions, the Qi in his body... became chaotic.

His Golden Core began to tremble irregularly.

At that moment, he felt as if his Golden Core had become that "Nascent Soul in the box."

One moment he felt the Golden Core was real.

The next, he felt it was illusory.

One moment he felt he was cultivating.

The next, he felt cultivation was just a lie.

"Who am I?"

"Where am I?"

"Is my Golden Core alive or dead?"

An unprecedented cognitive collapse instantly swept through his Sea of Consciousness.

“Pfft—!!!”

Xiao Tianjiao suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

This blood was not from a physical injury, but from a loss of mental composure.

He stumbled and slumped into his chair, his eyes vacant, muttering to himself:

"Superposition state... dead and alive in one body... wave function collapse..."

"I look at it, and it's there. I don't look at it, and it's not..."

"Then what am I? Am I just an observer?"

"Aaaah! My Dao Heart! My Dao Heart is cracking!"

Xiao Tianjiao clutched his head and let out a cry of agony.

He felt his worldview being smashed to pieces by Li Mo with a hammer called "Quantum Mechanics."

The classroom was dead silent.

Everyone looked in horror at this Saint who had just enrolled ten minutes ago and was already being driven mad by a single question.

"Teacher..."

Ye Guyun in the front row swallowed hard and cautiously raised his hand.

"Um... Junior Brother Xiao, is he alright? He looks like he's having a... Qi Deviation?"

"He's fine."

Li Mo calmly walked back to the podium, picked up his thermos, and took a sip of goji berry tea.

"This is called the collapse of an old worldview."

"One must destroy to create."

"Only by smashing that rigid, empiricism-filled brain of his can the brilliance of truth be stuffed inside."

Li Mo glanced at Xiao Tianjiao, who was still twitching on the floor, and shook his head.

"Psychological resilience is too poor."

"He collapsed just from hearing about 'Schrödinger's Cat.'"

"We haven't even gotten to 'Quantum Entanglement (Principles of Dual Cultivation)' or 'Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (Why You Always Miss Your Target)' yet."

Li Mo turned around and continued writing on the blackboard.

"Ye Guyun."

"Present!" Ye Guyun immediately stood up straight.

"You answer. If Student Xiao wants to reshape his Dao Heart, according to quantum mechanics, what should he do?"

Ye Guyun pondered for a moment, a glint of wisdom flashing in his eyes (the result of long-term training with 'Five-Three').

"Reporting to Teacher."

"Junior Brother Xiao is currently in a superposition of 'insane' and 'sane.'"

"He needs a powerful 'observer' to perform a 'forced collapse' on him."

"To put it simply... someone needs to slap him awake so he can confirm he's still alive."

"Full marks."

Li Mo snapped his fingers.

"Iron Pillar Zhao."

"I'm here!" The muscular Iron Pillar Zhao stood up, still clutching the "hand grenade" he had just refined.

"Go, give Student Xiao a 'physical observation.'"

"Remember, take it easy. Don't knock the superposition into a 'dead state.'"

"You got it!"

Iron Pillar Zhao grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

He walked up to Xiao Tianjiao, looked at the Saint who was still muttering "am I a wave or a particle," and unhesitatingly raised a palm larger than a clay pot.

“Slap!!!”

A crisp, loud sound of a slap echoed throughout the Scripture Pavilion.

"Ah!"

Xiao Tianjiao cried out, snapping out of his daze. Clutching his rapidly swelling cheek, his eyes finally regained focus.

"It hurts! It hurts so much!"

Xiao Tianjiao glared at Iron Pillar Zhao. "You dare hit me?!"

"Hehe, good to see you're awake."

Iron Pillar Zhao scratched his head honestly. "Teacher said this is called 'wave function collapse.' You're not confused anymore, right? You're alive, and you're in pain."

Xiao Tianjiao: "..."

He held his face, looking at the smiling "devil teacher" on the podium, and then at the group of "top student fellow disciples" pointing at him.

An urge to cry welled up in his heart.

He was the dignified Purple Mansion Holy Son; when had he ever suffered such grievance?

He vomited blood from doing a problem, and then got slapped in the face and told it was "treatment"?

"Alright, since you're awake, let's continue the lesson."

Li Mo tapped the blackboard.

"Xiao Tianjiao, that mouthful of blood wasn't for nothing."

"At least you proved one thing: in the Cultivation World, the will of the observer can indeed influence reality."

"Next, we will discuss the second question."

Li Mo drew two wavy lines on the blackboard.

"Topic: 《The Essential Difference Between Quantum Tunneling and Wall-Passing Techniques》."

"Given: A wall is composed of atoms, and there are gaps between atoms."

"If you are a particle, as long as your probability wave is long enough, it is possible for you to 'teleport' to the other side of the wall without breaking it."

"Now, please calculate:"

"For a Golden Core Stage Cultivator to pass through the Mountain Protection Grand Array of the Heavenly River Sword Sect (10 meters thick) without injury, to how many Hertz must he adjust his body's vibration frequency?"

"Student Xiao, you'll do this one too."

Thud.

Xiao Tianjiao's body, which had just sat steady, slid under the desk again.

He clutched his hair, looking at the problem, and tears finally fell.

"Teacher... I was wrong..."

"I don't want to be a Saint anymore... I want to go home and farm..."

"This is too hard! This is really too hard!"

Li Mo adjusted his glasses, his gaze cold yet merciful.

"Farm?"

"Sure."

"But before that, you must first learn Quantum Efficiency Analysis of Plant Photosynthesis."

"In the Tianhe Tutorial Class."

"There is no room for the illiterate."

"Even if you're farming, you must farm scientifically."

...

Outside the window, Elder Zhao Wuji, who was buried in the dirt, listened to his Saint's desperate cries from the classroom and silently closed his eyes.

He suddenly felt...

Being buried in the dirt as a security guard seemed... quite happy?

At least he didn't have to do problems.

At the top of the Scripture Pavilion, the System prompt sounded again.

[Successfully performed a "Scientific Dimensional Strike" on a high-level Cultivator (Purple Mansion Holy Son).]

[Detected target's "Dao Heart Shattering" and reorganization.]

[Congratulations, Host, for reading Xiao Tianjiao's Psychology of Collapse.]

[Extracted Purple Trait: Thought Labyrinth.]

[Trait Effect: You can manifest any logical puzzle into a mental labyrinth. Pull enemies inside to solve problems. If they can't solve them, they will be trapped in a mental infinite loop forever until brain death.]

Li Mo looked at this new trait and nodded with satisfaction.

"Very good."

"In the future, if I encounter an enemy I can't beat, I'll just invite them to do a set of 'Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Simulation.'"

"I'll make them solve problems until they die."