117: Chapter 117 Boss, you're awesome!

At the entrance of the Zijin Mountain luxury mansion.

The car hadn't even stopped fully when the door was kicked open. Researcher Yun Zhi rushed into the courtyard, holding a temperature-controlled experimental box. Her lab coat hem fluttered high, revealing a pair of cartoon cat pajamas underneath, which looked particularly jarring under the streetlights.

"Su Bai!!"

She stepped on the threshold and stumbled forward a few steps. "The flow-sensing membrane you wanted—the first batch of samples! Three different blending ratios! The room-temperature stability tests aren't finished yet, but the Mental Power response test data is already out. The reaction speed is much faster than the theoretical value. Which group do you want to see first? Hurry up and say—"

Kyubey jumped down from the shelf, crouching beside the coffee table, tilting its head to look at her.

[Researcher Yun Zhi's heart rate is higher than it was during her last visit. It is recommended to have her sit down first.]

"Shut up." Su Bai and Researcher Yun Zhi said in unison.

[Understood.]

Su Bai opened the temperature-controlled box. Three rows of micro-test tubes were lined up in shock-absorbing foam, each labeled with dense parameter tags. The liquid in the tubes glowed with a faint silver-blue fluorescence—the unique color of formless spirit sand in a liquid state.

"This group." Researcher Yun Zhi pulled out a test tube and shoved it into Su Bai's hand, her fingertips still trembling. "Seven-to-three ratio, interface layer at three-thousandths. Best stability, fastest switching speed."

Su Bai held the test tube up to the light. The silver-blue liquid flowed slowly in the glass tube, flowing slower than ordinary spirit sand solution—the interface membrane had already formed at the microscopic level.

"Have you tested the actual direction switching?"

"I did! The forward channel impedance is only that of conventional materials—"

Researcher Yun Zhi suddenly stopped.

She saw the phone screen on Su Bai's card-making desk was still lit. On the forum page, Qi Yuan's glittering verified ID was hanging in the latest replies column, writing a long string in black text on a white background— "Peerless Genius" "It is enough for this old man to be the corresponding author, it is enough."

"He just asked you if you could send him the experimental data tonight." Su Bai pointed at the screen. "He said you have a deep theoretical foundation and that your proposal of the interface membrane has opened up a completely new direction. Those were his exact words."

Researcher Yun Zhi looked down at the silver-blue glowing liquid in the test tube. Then she looked up at Su Bai's face, which was plastered with a "Is this strange?" expression.

Then she slapped both of her cheeks hard. Slap, slap. More than half of the graphite powder remaining on her face was shaken off.

"Okay, I've calmed down. Let's look at the data!"

She took a deep breath and switched back to researcher mode. But the tips of her ears were still red. Redder than that set of cartoon cat pajamas under the streetlights earlier.

...

Outside the window. Ten thousand meters above Jinghai City, in the Truth Sanctuary Core Materials Research Institute, Rank 9 material master Qi Yuan was making exclamations from the depths of his soul at the nano-interface layer under the microscope.

The young assistants beside him looked at their mentor with the eyes of someone seeing a ghost—this 9th-tier Supreme, who usually couldn't be bothered to meet even with the Sanctuary Elders, was currently writing a paper outline word for word in an excited tone that only a newly hired intern would use, addressing that forum account with only a level two rating on the screen.

In the underground card-making room of the Zijin Mountain mansion.

Su Bai spread Researcher Yun Zhi's flow-sensing membrane data out on the card-making desk, picked up the card-making pen, and redrew a line in the retrieval stage of the Stand Card circuit architecture. The color of that line was silver-blue.

[Su Bai, Venerable Qi Yuan has posted the paper outline on the forum. He just posted it.]

"...So fast."

[He even named the outline. "On the Application of Nano-Interface Layers in Two-Way Mass-Energy Conversion—Also a Discussion with Mr. Yun Zhi (Remaining problems unsolved, still need discussion)." With three exclamation marks as a suffix.]

"Three."

[Four fewer than before. He is probably a bit calmer.]

Su Bai spun the card-making pen between his fingers, and the corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably. Then he lowered his head and continued to draw the circuit leading to the new system.

The pile of 137 failed products that had exploded into fragments at his feet looked much more pleasing to the eye in the silver-blue shimmer.

Researcher Yun Zhi crouched beside him, lining up the test tubes for the three blending ratios, muttering something about "stability curves," "peak response time," and "first author of the paper."

Kyubey crouched in the corner of the card-making desk, its red glass eyes quietly reflecting the shadows of the two people and one cat. Its tail swept back and forth slowly.

[Su Bai. Your Stand Card—]

"Almost there."

[How many more days?]

Su Bai did not answer.

The card-making pen in his hand was extending along the silver-blue texture to the last node of the retrieval stage. The light under the pen tip was getting brighter and brighter.

At the same time, Researcher Yun Zhi was copying the stability data of the third blending ratio into her notebook. The phone resting on the corner of the card-making desk suddenly vibrated.

[Qi Yuan]: [Teacher Yun Zhi, please forgive this old man for intruding. Regarding the convergence path of the flow-sensing membrane at the microscopic scale of spatial geometry that you proposed, I got stuck when deducing the seventh layer of phase intersection. I have a few questions I would like to ask.]

Below followed several dense lines of formulas. Each one was embedded with at least three layers of nested spatial geometric deductions, and at the end, after the question mark, three small yellow bowing emoji faces were specially added.

Researcher Yun Zhi stared at those lines of formulas for a long time. She recognized every symbol, but when put together, they turned into a vast sea of stars of the unknown. A Rank 7 researcher looking at a Rank 9 material master's advanced questions was roughly equivalent to someone who had just learned to swim being thrown into a deep-sea trench.

Of course, this had to do with Researcher Yun Zhi's research direction; this part was also something she hadn't deduced yet.

"...Su Bai."

"Hmm."

"Venerable Qi Yuan has sent questions again, about the spatial geometry microscopic convergence, the node drift correction parameters for the seventh layer of phase intersection." She turned the phone screen toward Su Bai. "This part is completely outside my field."

Su Bai was crouching on the ground checking the last segment of the Stand circuit's silver-blue texture. He didn't even lift his head:

"The seventh layer of phase intersection will diverge if you use the conventional Riccati expansion. Change the expansion kernel to the theta function on the abelian variety, and take the integration path from the complex plane around to the compactification boundary of the moduli space. For the drift correction parameters, take the second-order cohomology of the phase angle, and rearrange the node spacing according to a 1/2 spiral step size."

Researcher Yun Zhi's thumb swiped rapidly across the screen. She didn't use her brain at all—she typed as Su Bai spoke, a kind of pure physical conduction channel forming between her Mental Power and her fingertips.

[The seventh layer of phase intersection should not use Riccati expansion, it will diverge. Change the expansion kernel to the theta function on the abelian variety, and take the integration path along the compactification boundary of the moduli space. For the drift correction parameters, take the second-order cohomology of the phase angle. Rearrange the node spacing according to a 1/2 spiral step size.]

Send.

It only took a few seconds. Qi Yuan's reply popped up.

[Teacher Yun Zhi!! Using the theta function on the abelian variety as an expansion kernel—this old man has never thought of this path until now!! Constraining the integration domain with the compactification boundary of the moduli space directly bypassed the entire divergence problem—this is no longer the way of thinking of conventional spatial geometry, this is welding algebraic geometry and material physics together at the level of causality!! Amazing!!!]

The exclamation marks were so dense that the phone screen could barely contain them.

Su Bai had just finished checking the last segment of the circuit and stood up to pat the dust off his knees.

Before Researcher Yun Zhi could relay it, Qi Yuan's next message arrived.

[Teacher Yun Zhi is a great talent!! This old man has cultivated in the field of spatial geometry for I don't know how many years, and only today do I know that there is a heaven beyond heaven! If Teacher does not mind, this old man is willing to ask for advice on the subsequent phase inversion problem with the etiquette of a disciple—]

Researcher Yun Zhi looked at that line, "Teacher Yun Zhi is a great talent," and her lips moved.

She looked down at Su Bai again. Su Bai was using his sleeve to wipe the silver-blue powder off the tip of his card-making pen, his expression as indifferent as if he were picking out cabbage at the vegetable market. The masterful words that had just made the Rank 9 material master so excited that he slammed the table were, to this person, probably equivalent to a daily routine at the level of "Should I eat cabbage or radishes tonight?"

"Su Bai."

"Hmm?"

"Do you know." Researcher Yun Zhi flipped the phone over and placed it face down on the table, saying in a tone of calm on the verge of collapse, "Venerable Qi Yuan is calling me Teacher now. He said he wants to ask for my advice with the etiquette of a disciple."

"...Oh."

"Oh?! That's all you have to say? Oh?! A 9th-tier Supreme wants to bow to me, a Rank 7, as a teacher—because I forwarded your words exactly as they were—I didn't even change the punctuation! I'm just a human-shaped repeater!"

Kyubey tilted its head from the corner of the card-making desk: [Strictly speaking, a biological signal repeater. The forwarding delay is less than 0.3 seconds. The efficiency is very high.]

"You shut up too." Researcher Yun Zhi buried her face in her palms.

Outside the window. In the direction of the Imperial Capital, there was a faint muffled sound of a table being slammed. Perhaps someone in the research institute at 3:00 AM was teary-eyed at the few lines of formulas on the screen.

Researcher Yun Zhi revealed half an eye from between her fingers and secretly glanced at Su Bai. That person was already squatting back down to tinker with the next segment of the circuit, muttering something about "the penultimate node should be shifted half a degree to the left."

She flipped the phone back over. Qi Yuan had sent three more messages. The wording of each was more respectful than the last, and the address for her—or rather, for the fragments that Su Bai had inadvertently let slip from his mouth—had been upgraded from "Teacher Yun Zhi" to "Great Talent Yun Zhi."

And she was just someone helping to pass test tubes and forwarding messages.

Researcher Yun Zhi took a deep breath and handed Qi Yuan's question to Su Bai for the sixteenth time. For the sixteenth time, Su Bai reported a string of parameters without lifting his head.

She lowered her head, her thumb continuing to act as that ruthless repeater on the screen. Moonlight leaked in from the hole in the ceiling that hadn't been patched yet, falling on the tips of her slightly reddened ears.