Wang Qi hurried back to his dorm, filled with limitless sympathy for Zhen Chan.
The "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture" had been a tremendous help to him. As a Modern Method, it offered a total mana capacity and recovery rate that the "Da Luo Chaos Heaven Scripture" couldn't match. Although in specific directions the "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture" showed no particular advantage, purely in terms of computational ability, the "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture" was absolutely unmatched in both the ancient and modern worlds!
On Earth, scientists had always called mathematics the "queen of science". Without math, no research could be carried out.
How could one establish oneself in the field of electromagnetism without understanding Fourier expansion or calculus?
How could one even conduct genetic research without knowledge of the Taylor series or genetic algorithms?
How could any mechanical research take place without mathematical modeling?
So, when choosing his Cultivation Technique, Wang Qi first picked the "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture". No matter what he decided to cultivate in the future, the "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture" would be useful.
Thinking this, his mood lifted, and he quickly approached the door of his room, ready for some sleep before starting his cultivation the next day.
Just as he reached the door, he stopped; he clearly heard the sound of someone's voice inside.
An illusion?
Wang Qi pressed his ear to the door. This time he heard even clearer, it was unmistakably the sound of a girl humming a tune. The girl's voice was warm and soft, no, it was downright saccharine, extremely pleasant to the ear. Wang Qi took two steps back, looked up at the room number, and saw "Geng 414". There was no mistake. He then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing wrong.
"Blind life, you've spotted a flower," Wang Qi said, muttering a joke only he understood, as he pushed open the door.
Having ruled out "walking the wrong way" and being certain no special services had been ordered, only two possibilities remained.
First, the girl humming inside had entered the wrong room.
Second, he had caught a thief's eye.
He ignored the first possibility for now. If it was the second, that would be a pleasure to witness! Although he had to commend the intruder's courage for sneaking into Immortal Alliance territory to steal, any thief who would come to a dorm area inhabited by Mid-Stage Qi Refining disciples must be very poorly off—hmm, and humming while working, simply no professional ethics!
Catching a pretty female thief was precisely the enjoyable turn of events one found in novels! With that thought, Wang Qi couldn't help but wear a sinister, or rather sleazy, smile.
Unfortunately, these thoughts were not shared with Zhen Chan; otherwise, the old man in the ring would've immediately chastised Wang Qi for his deviant line of thinking.
Moreover, it must be said that Zhen Chan deserved sympathy for having fallen so far as to be reduced to a critic of material possessions.
As he pushed open the door, Wang Qi's first sight was the humming girl. He paused, then couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Brother Tiandao... I finally understand your taste..."
First of all, the girl's hair color was unusual. The people of Shenzhou Land were all of Asian descent like those on Earth, but there were quite a few "ethnic minorities" with different skin colors, and hair and eye colors were not unique. However, the bright orange hair this girl had was way beyond the range of human variation. Yet, this head of orange hair looked completely natural, nothing like the scene-stealing hairstyles in the Cultivation World.
Moreover, the girl had no ears on either side of her head, but atop her head were a pair of cat ears.
The slightly open mouth that seemed unable to close, and that sugar-laden voice... Yes, she was the very definition of a Kemonomimi.
Although Wang Qi had for a moment doubted if she might be a Transformation Demon Creature. However, a Transformation Demon Beast would have to be at least at the realm equivalent to Ancient Method of Divinity Splitting or Modern Void Refining, and such Great Demons would by no means blunder into a Qi Cultivator's open door.
But the reflections on the girl's identity had already been suppressed by Wang Qi himself. A certain academic curiosity had taken over him. To put it in the terms of some comics, he felt like a switch had been flipped inside him.
"Can I touch your ears?" he asked.
"Eh?" The girl, having heard Wang Qi come in, had already put on a professional smile. But Wang Qi's words made her smile freeze on her face.
"Seeing you smiling, I take it you don't object?" Wang Qi was exhilarated. The biological structure of such a peculiar creature was just too intriguing. And the feel of it...
"Eh! Wait a sec, meow! I... umm, meow!" The girl finally reacted, protesting loudly. But Wang Qi was fast, grasping her ears in a flash.
The feel was nice!
Wang Qi inwardly cheered in satisfaction. An act he'd dreamed of doing since his childhood had finally been accomplished!
The girl's cheeks turned redder as Wang Qi manhandled her ears. She struggled desperately to escape from the clutches of this tormentor, but Wang Qi could tell that there was no mana within the girl's body, her strength was only at the level of Learning Stage or Heavenly Communication Stage, nothing to be afraid of. In her struggle, the girl cried out, "Help! Somebody... save me!"
The classic line was here! Wang Qi, with delight in his heart, sneered, "Go ahead, scream! No one will come to save you even if you scream your throat out!"
Suddenly, Wang Qi felt a pain in his back, and his body was hurled against the wall. With quick reflexes, he pressed his hands against the wall to ease some of the force, then naturally exerted himself to shake off the impact and landed firmly on the ground.
I should have known, someone really did come to the rescue!
Wang Qi grumbled to himself as he turned around. Xiang Qi was protecting the Kemonomimi girl behind him, a look of fury on her face: "Wang Qi... To think you were this kind of person!"
"What kind of person?"
Xiang Qi pointed at Wang Qi's nose with a finger, angrily rebuking, "You actually forced yourself on a girl! Openly lewd!"
Wang Qi's mouth twitched, "I just hadn't seen this lady's... um, ears so peculiar before, and I wanted to touch them, that's all. How is that lewd?"
"Even if she's a half-demon, she's still a citizen under the Immortal Alliance! Don't you consider her a person?"
"So I'm saying... all I did was satisfy my curiosity by touching her ears, it's not a big crime..."
Su Junyu peeked his head in from the door with a weird smile and an "I get it" expression, "For a half-demon, those ancestral traits are the untouchables."
Wang Qi's face stiffened, "What's with that 'fellow traveler' smile of yours. And, what is a half-demon?"
"Half-demons are the offspring born after a Transformation Demon mates with a human," Zhen Chan explained in Wang Qi's mind. "For tens of thousands of years, the Immortal Dao and Demon Clan have opposed each other, neither the Human Clan nor Demon People have accepted them. But it seems things have changed nowadays."
This just isn't scientific! Wang Qi looked at the Kemonomimi girl—who, startled by his gaze, shrank back behind Xiang Qi—and asked, "The love between humans and demons can actually break through reproductive barriers? That feels so perverted."
Xiang Qi asked in a puzzled tone, "Have you really never seen a half-demon before?" Wang Qi hurriedly shook his head. Then Xiang Qi looked at the ring in Wang Qi's hand and asked, "Old man, you never told him about half-demons?"
Zhen Chan chuckled, "Ten thousand years ago, when Cultivators saw a half-demon, which one of them didn't just cut them down with a sword?"
At the mention of being "cut down", the Kemonomimi girl trembled.
Xiang Qi patted her back and consoled her in a soft voice while Su Junyu proceeded to explain in detail to Wang Qi.
The so-called "Transformation" is a Divine Skill that demons can learn after cultivating to a certain level. This Divine Skill allows one to change the body's structure without altering the bloodline, thus achieving a change in form. Using Earthling terminology, it's like changing the expression of DNA without rewriting the genes.
After the expression of DNA is changed, the Demon Clan's body becomes indistinguishable from the Human Clan's, and the reproductive barriers between humans and demons temporarily disappear. During this period, if a human and a demon mate, there's a very low chance of producing offspring. This is the origin of half-demons. If a half-demon then has offspring with a human, there's a fifty percent chance the baby will also be a half-demon.
Half-demon babies are indistinguishable from humans at birth, and only around the age of twelve, when secondary sexual characteristics start to develop, do ancestral traits gradually begin to show—the most common being hair color, ears, and tail.
It's worth mentioning that the Cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain lead by Master Tian Gu, after decoding this Divine Skill, collectively expressed the desire to give a scientific name to Transformation Demons. It turns out, the principles of a demon's Transformation are almost identical to a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly; the only difference is that demons rely on mana while caterpillars rely on hormones.
However, this proposal full of scientific rigor was adamantly rejected by other Carefree Practitioners joining forces, and several Great Demons at the Mahayana Level, who originally had a good relationship with Spirit Beast Mountain, also stated that if Spirit Beast Mountain dared to use that as the academic term for demons, they would turn hostile immediately.
In short, thanks to those elders' persistence, people today do not refer to the Transformation Demon Clan as "Perverted Demons."
Wang Qi keenly caught the key point, "Wait a minute, 'only appearing after the development of secondary sexual characteristics,' means..."
Su Junyu gave a thumbs-up, "Correct! For half-demons, their ears and tails are to humans what are..." he said, glancing at Xiang Qi's chest, "cough, unfortunately..."
Xiang Qi forced a smile and released her Heavenly Order Sword Disc, "Die, rich dude, come over here, I promise I won't kill you."
Wang Qi covered his face. What he was thinking now was: This time, I've really crossed the line...
After a lot of explanations, the situation finally calmed down.
Xiang Qi concluded, "So, what you're saying is, you, Wang Qi, out of never having seen a half-demon before and being driven by curiosity, took liberties with this half-demon Junior Sister, Mao Zimiao, and acted lewdly in public."
Wang Qi's mouth twitched, "Regarding the 'public lewdness' part, I have reservations…"
It was to satisfy curiosity! This is a scientific activity! Can something done in the name of science be called lewd? Can it?
"Just apologize."
Wang Qi sincerely apologized to Mao Zimiao. Her face flushed, she quickly waved her hands, "No need, Meow! Actually, Senior Brother, you were also... unintentional, Meow!"
"Um, I've been meaning to ask since a while ago... is that inexplicable 'Meow' a unique speech pattern of half-demons?"
Mao Zimiao panicked, immediately waving her hands, "It's not, Meow! I... I'm just... Meow... just..."
Xiang Qi helped her out, "It's an instinctive physiological response for half-demons. Core Formation Demons refine their bodies through the Twelve-Floor Tower and can change their throat structure, but half-demons can't."
The girl's face grew even redder, "It's really not that I can't control it, Meow!"
The reason the half-demon girl appeared in Wang Qi's room was that she had taken on a task from the Immortal Alliance to earn "Merit," which involved cleaning the dormitories before the students moved in.
Immortal Alliance Points are a sort of contribution or points system. Once you accumulate enough Merit, you can exchange it for anything you want from the Immortal Alliance.
After clearing up all the misunderstandings, Xiang Qi instructed Mao Zimiao to leave first, then turned to Wang Qi, "Your skills have improved, huh? Have you decided on a Cultivation Technique to practice?"
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Happy New Year everyone!!!