Kindling, page 30
part #6 of Painting the Mists Series
Cha Ming was overjoyed. He continued on until finally, he burned through 10,000 solutions. Roughly 8,000 were only worth one point at most, the subsequent interactions only being useful for data. Another 1,500 were worth five points, while another 450 were worth fifty points. Out of the 10,000 solutions he’d experimented with, only fifty were top-grade solutions.
“Continue to challenge questions?” the voice asked.
“No, I’ll be leaving,” Cha Ming said. He exited the room and saw that, after almost six months, he’d managed to break into the top ten with 64,000 points. Fifth place had 78,000 points, while first place had a colossal 160,000 points.
“How is that even possible?” he wondered. “You’d need to constantly hole yourself up in an examination room, even with my method.”
“What do you know?” a cultivator said beside him. “I’ll fill you in on some common knowledge. The one in first place, Fairy Sumei, is a perfectionist. While those before her were busy racking up 1,000 points before discovering herbal interactions, she had already realized this point. She didn’t make an appearance on the leader boards until she’d perfected no less than five solutions, giving her 50,000 points.”
“Perfected?” Cha Ming said. “There’s such a thing as a perfect solution? And it gives 10,000 points?”
“That’s right,” the cultivator said. “We’re all in awe of Fairy Sumei. Countless cultivators ask her to discuss the Dao, but she refuses all of them unless they gift her with an herb-gathering quota per hour of discussion.”
Cha Ming hissed through his teeth. “I couldn’t make so much money so quickly if I sold myself,” he said.
“I’ll buy you if you’re so cheap,” a voice said. Yu Wen walked up behind him, causing the cultivator he spoke with to awkwardly disappear off to the side. “Are you discouraged yet?”
“Not at all,” Cha Ming said. “I’m just shocked that someone has already discovered sixteen perfect solutions. That’s hard to beat—I don’t even have a bit of confidence in achieving that.”
Yu Wen laughed. “Will you be paying a fee to ‘discuss the Dao’ with her, then?”
“Heavens, no,” Cha Ming said. “In fact, I’m just happy that she managed to discover perfect solutions.”
“And why’s that?” Yu Wen asked.
“Because it means I was right all along,” Cha Ming said. “And that I didn’t waste my time. I knew a lot of the solutions I tried were suboptimal and couldn’t be improved. But I still tested them—do you know why?”
“Why?” Yu Wen said.
“Because I wanted data,” Cha Ming said. “I theorized that it was possible to get more points for better solutions. Therefore, the first step was to acquire a bulk of data for baseline effects. The next phase is perfection.”
“And how do you define perfect?” Yu Wen asked.
“You, of course,” Cha Ming said. “Would you care for a cup of tea?”
“Yes, I’ll have it with a generous helping of sweet talk,” Yu Wen said, holding her hand out. Cha Ming took it and guided her over to a private room.
Cha Ming tapped the Clear Sky Brush on a notebook as he organized his thoughts using rough scribbles. It was inefficient to write, but it helped calm his mind. Hours passed as he puzzled over a problem. Finally, his eyes lit up, and he added to his solution. He tested it on the simulacrum and confirmed its success.
“With this development, I’ve cut down the number of herbs required significantly,” Cha Ming said. “Moreover, I no longer use high-grade or mid-grade herbs. All of these are low-grade.” To him, the epitome of herbology was not the most effective solution but the most efficient. If one could cure an affliction or fix a problem with dregs, why use fresh tea leaves? It was similar to Li Yin’s philosophy on medicine, which advocated a minimalist approach with respect to treatment resources.
That wraps up the framework for the last round of solution optimization, Cha Ming thought as he stowed his brush and exited the Clear Sky World. Unfortunately, his knowledge of herbs was theoretical. Therefore, what he could simulate using his Clear Sky World was also limited. The models in the examination rooms were far more accurate, so he would fine-tune any solutions there.
“It’s about time you woke up,” Yu Wen said. She was seated beside him while flicking through pictures. Cha Ming recognized them as moments from their volcanic adventure.
“You really like looking through these pictures, don’t you?” Cha Ming said. “And here I thought taking them was a waste of time.”
“I just like capturing my happiest moments,” Yu Wen said. “Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask.”
“All right,” Cha Ming said. “What’s the favor?”
“After the examination ends in six months, I want to go see some nice things with you,” Yu Wen said. “It’ll be a vacation, a rest from all this cultivation and studying, with just the two of us. We don’t have a lot of time left together on Jade Moon Planet, and I think I’d be a lot happier with more pictures once we head back to our own worlds.”
Cha Ming swallowed and nodded. “I’d like that. But you make it sound like we’ll be separated forever,” he said.
“Who knows,” Yu Wen said. “What if I die tomorrow? Would you regret not spending more time with me?”
“All right, I promise,” Cha Ming said. “But I need to hurry for now. The examination ends in six months’ time, and I have a lot of ground to make up.”
“Knock ’em dead,” Yu Wen said. Cha Ming gave her a quick thumbs-up before making his way to one of the many empty examination rooms in the larger foyer, where thousands of cultivators were busy chatting about the latest results. He didn’t bother looking at the leaderboards. Knowing where he stood wouldn’t change what he did one bit.
Cha Ming substituted yet another herb, one that was part of a set of a hundred with similar properties but whose secondary properties he wasn’t fully aware of. The test was one of a thousand failures, but he didn’t give up. Instead he moved on to the next component. He continued until the results took a favorable turn and changed his experimental model to account for it.
Soon, 10,000 experiments were fully completed. And while he’d managed to upgrade the final result to a top-grade solution, it was just a drop in the bucket. True success would come when he managed to find a perfect solution.
Cha Ming trudged on. Out of the initial 450 high-grade solutions, he burned through 150 optimizations. One hundred had been dead ends while forty-nine had been optimized to new top-grade solutions.
As he administered yet another cure to the model, a soft hum sounded within his mind. “Congratulations on discovering a perfect-grade solution to Question 2. Points for this solution updated to 10,000.”
Counting the other solutions he’d discovered, he now had 95,000 points.
Continue, he thought. He wouldn’t stop until he either ran out of time or until he ran out of experiments. He wasn’t sure which would happen first. He burned through another twenty-nine solutions, none of which could be upgraded past top grade. Then, on the thirtieth, he was surprised with another perfect-grade solution.
Again! Months passed, and before he knew it, only one month remained in the three-year time limit. By then, he’d completed his optimization of all 450 initial high-grade solutions. A total of 200 had been upgraded, yielding 191 top-grade solutions and nine perfect solutions. His points had increased to 237,500.
“Only two percent of high-grade solutions could be upgraded to perfect-grade ones,” Cha Ming thought out loud. “But perhaps the top-grade solutions will be easier to optimize. I refuse to believe that I can’t squeeze out at least two or three perfect solutions from the last fifty.”
He wiped the sweat off his brow and continued issuing instructions.
Outside the examination room, and near the rankings stele, cultivators were excitedly discussing the results.
“It looks like the first-place contestant will be Fairy Sumei with 490,000 points,” a blue-robed cultivator said. “She’s been producing one perfect solution after another at regular intervals. It’s only recently that she’s started slowing down.”
“First place is a no-brainer,” a yellow-robed cultivator said. “I’m more interested in the rest of the top ten.”
“The remaining top ten is much more exciting,” the blue-robed cultivator agreed. “Even tenth place has accumulated 200,500 points. The top ten are all monstrous talents in herbology.”
“Most of them are alchemists by trade, the only exception being Fairy Sumei,” a red-robed cultivator said. “She’s a prodigy in a transcendent-grade influence. I heard that she had a head start on everyone due to the sheer size of their library. The others—well, they used their knowledge of alchemy and modified it to succeed.”
“What about the current dark horse in eighth place, Cha Ming?” a brown-robed cultivator said. “He’s only 5,000 points below seventh place, and 20,000 points below fifth place.”
“Him?” the blue-robed cultivator said disdainfully. “I asked around and found out that he’s from a low-grade mortal plane. His background isn’t even in alchemy or herbology. He’s only a talisman artist.”
“But I heard he caused a commotion on the Bridge of Stars,” the red-robed cultivator said. “I spoke to one of the seven other survivors from the final massacre. Every one of them obtained a transcendent treasure, and I heard his rewards were the greatest of all. Could he have obtained something that helped him in this trial?”
“Impossible,” the blue-robed cultivator said. “No one has ever obtained anything other than treasures, techniques, and formulas. Besides, his ranking hasn’t increased much recently. While the others are inching up by 500 points every day or so, his scores have stagnated.” As he spoke, the current seventh-place contestant, Hong Fa, increased by 500 points. “See? What did I tell you?”
“You should look again,” the red-robed cultivator said.
Cha Ming’s name suddenly blurred and appeared one step higher. It had increased by 10,000 points.
“Wait, did he just discover a perfect solution? Is that why his rate of discovery stalled?”
“Don’t forget his rather aggressive climb in the top twenty,” the brown-robed cultivator said. “I’m really glad I bet on him when his odds were higher. I’m bound to win thirty herb-gathering quotas and some change at this rate.”
The blue-robed cultivator’s expression turned ugly.
“Who did you bet on?” the brown-robed cultivator asked him.
“I bet on the current fifth-place cultivator, Su Ming,” the blue-robed cultivator said. “As long as he maintains his position, I’ll break even. I refuse to believe he’ll get kicked out.”
Suddenly, Cha Ming’s name switched places once more. He was tied for fifth place briefly before Su Ming gained 500 points and displaced him once more. The blue-robed cultivator wiped sweat off his brow. The next half month would be a nerve-wracking wait.
Chapter 29: Loyalty
Cha Ming was unaware of the commotion he was causing on the outside. Nor was he aware that he was running neck and neck for fifth place. Instead, he was wholeheartedly pursuing perfection within the testing chamber.
“My success rate is pretty good,” Cha Ming said as he completed his twenty-fifth set of trials. “Out of twenty-five, I’ve succeeded in two. Although it might just be luck, it’s better to be lucky than good sometimes.” At least, according to Feng Ming it was.
As his rating stagnated outside and Su Ming steadily climbed past him, he performed thousands of experiments. Finally, after sifting through another ten sets of trials, he succeeded in yet another perfect solution, bringing him back on top. Then, nine sets later, he succeeded once more. Given Su Ming’s current rate of success, it was a toss-up who would manage to remain in fifth place.
I only have time for one more set of trials,” Cha Ming thought, looking over the five remaining ones. Only one day remained. Which one should I pick? Four of them seemed most promising, while another one seemed like a dead end. He quickly discarded it.
Suddenly, the Clear Sky Brush vibrated. Cha Ming frowned. He summoned the artifact by his side, but it showed no additional movement. “It must be stress,” he muttered. He continued examining the four remaining ones before discarding another two.
The Clear Sky Brush vibrated again, this time more violently. Just what do you want? he said to it. The brush ignored him and stood still like before. Yet just as he was reaching out to the final two solutions, the brush dashed out and painted black lines on them, causing them to crumble to ashes.
“Just tell me what you want,” Cha Ming said, massaging his brow. The brush darted out and ripped the other two solutions to shreds, leaving behind only the least-likely solution he’d first cast away. “And why do you think that’s a good idea?”
The brush trembled for a moment before swiftly painting a pattern in thin air. A black star appeared, followed by a white circle. They superimposed and faded. Then the brush painted out the same thing once more. This time, however, the black star faded and the white circle stayed. A puff of gray floated in the middle.
Cha Ming’s closed his eyes and tried to make sense of the situation. “There must be something different about this solution,” Cha Ming thought out loud. “But what is it?” He recalled the alternating black stars and circles. He reviewed each of the five solutions in his mind, carefully poring through every detail. Them he compared them to the previous twelve perfect solutions.
“Are the other ones too skewed?” he wondered. “Are they not balanced enough?” Thinking about it, the other twelve solutions all followed a similar pattern. Firstly, they used a four-stage treatment. They weakened several functions in the body before bringing them all to equilibrium once more. Then the process was repeated, bringing the body’s functions closer to perfection. However, doing this was difficult, as one had to incorporate the initial upsetting herb into their solution.
“Does the brush dislike these solutions because it’s difficult to achieve this balance? Or is it because they can’t?” Cha Ming reviewed the solutions and discovered that, through following an empirical approach, these top-grade solutions were indeed effective. However, they were more skewed toward one element or another. Balancing them would be difficult. However, the first solution was different. Although its effects weren’t as good, the solution was close to a perfect balance. It would only require a bit of tweaking.
This will take too long, Cha Ming thought. I’ll have to simplify the initial set of experiments to mimic the final solution for the other twelve. He quickly modified his approach and discarded three quarters of his planned experiments.
Cha Ming worked quickly. One after another, he weakened several functions in the model body. The herbs wreaked havoc on it, bringing it ever closer to the brink of death. But Cha Ming continued. A few more herbs created a balanced creation cycle and healed the ailing body. Only a minor amount of the original poisoning herbs remained. Therefore, he continued another round of fighting poison with poison before finally bringing the body back to equilibrium with one last creation cycle.
“Congratulations on discovering a perfect-grade solution,” the voice intoned. “Would you like to continue submitting solutions?”
Cha Ming shook his head. “I’d like to leave. I don’t have enough time to accomplish anything.”
He exited the room and was greeted by cheering and jeering. He looked up to the board, and to his surprise, his name, Cha Ming, stood in fourth place with a solid lead over fifth. It would be impossible for the fifth-place cultivator to catch up without discovering a perfect-grade solution. A few moments passed, after which green light flooded the chamber, and everyone was transported back to the shrine in Jade Moon Garden.
“The competition is over,” the elemental said, appearing once more. “Selection of top-grade herbs and high-grade herbs will take place over the next six months, starting with first place. The third examination will begin in six months’ time.” A green light enveloped them once more, and Cha Ming soon discovered he was in a room with nine other people.
“Sumei, please come select your prize,” the elemental’s voice echoed in the chamber. A dignified beauty in white robes stood up and walked through a small door. She returned a quarter hour later with a smile on her face. Second and third place followed, after which Cha Ming was finally called through.
He entered a large chamber that was fully crafted with alabaster, save for conspicuously tinted windows on three sides. They depicted scenes of war and heavenly carnage. Angels fought devils while saint beasts fought fiends. Righteous gods fought evil ones while Buddhas fought evil spirits. Each window revealed the bloodshed and chaos that enforced the delicate balance between good and evil.
A lone figure was seated in the middle of the chamber. “Greetings, young one,” the figure said. Judging by its voice, it was the same elemental who was administering the exam, though much smaller than its original form. His upper body was thirty feet tall, and he sat cross-legged on the alabaster floor. “What do you think of these murals?” he said, gesturing to the walls.
Cha Ming shook his head. “It seems unfair.”
“Unfair?” the elemental said. “One could argue that it’s perfectly fair. Good and evil created for perpetual battle. Every side wants victory, but neither can obtain it.”
“I think it’s unfair for good people to be trampled upon by scum,” Cha Ming said. “Why should they be punished for wanting to help others?”
“And why should devils be punished for pursuing their own benefit?” the elemental said.
Cha Ming shrugged. “It’s something you need to believe. It’s a starting point. It’s faith. I can’t use reasoning to argue with you. No one can.”
“You’re right.” The elemental grinned. “Many people try to rationalize good and evil. That’s impossible. Everyone has a starting point, and it’s difficult to change a person’s heart. Now tell me, which herb would you like?”
