Chapter 33: Question Board
.
The board in question was placed at the back of the hall, not very noticeable compared to all the others, and the reason for that was its contents.
Zhu Rong made his way over to it, and when he arrived, he saw it was crammed full of sheet after sheet, classified in a slightly different way.
'Heaven, looks like nobody cares about this even now,' he thought as he grabbed one and read it.
.
[-------------------------------------------------
Title: Qi Loss During Cultivation.
Subject: Cultivation.
Question Code: X-12369
Description:
During daily practices of gathering Qi from the external world, a student at the Qi Gathering stage noticed a constant loss of a small part of the newly absorbed spiritual energy. This loss happens inexplicably and isn't related to known mistakes in the technique.
The question is: why does a portion of Qi disperse like this, and where exactly does the lost energy go?
Date Posted: 01-06-XXXX
Deadline: 30 days.
Reward: 2 Credits
-------------------------------------------------]
.
He read the sheet quickly, and by the time he finished, a dark expression was on his face as he shook his head.
'Seriously, what kind of idiot would ask something like this? They don't even know why a bit of Qi is lost?'
This board was the Student Questions Board.
Because of the huge number of questions, the academy had decided to add an extra section in the mission hall where every student could post a question and set a reward in exchange for an answer.
At first, it seemed like a good idea since students could ask and get help from more senior students, in exchange for a small reward.
The answers would be reviewed by some instructors who could either approve or reject them, ensuring the answer you got was legit.
Students could ask questions during class too, but at some point, the number of useless or too obvious questions started to pile up, and the instructors came up with this system.
It was meant to make students think twice before asking a question and also let others earn a little by answering.
It was a dumb thing in itself, but now and then there'd be some interesting or tricky questions mixed in.
The instructors also decided that outside of lesson hours, they'd only answer if a certain number of credits were offered, and unfortunately for the students, that number was way too high.
So unless the question was really important, nobody would bother with it.
This system actually worked pretty well.
The instructors were happy, the students were fine, everyone was content.
Sure, the fact that most of the questions on this board were pointless or flat out stupid dropped its value, but sometimes someone would pass by to pick up a few easy credits.
The number of credits was low, and the number of questions high.
The less experienced students couldn't take advantage of this, and the more experienced ones weren't tempted by such small rewards.
And so the board was left in this state.
He grabbed a few more and had to admit, he agreed with the academy's way of handling this.
Half the questions here were too dumb, and the other half were questions you could figure out with just a little effort.
Only a few were actually real, proper questions worth anyone's time.
He figured if he read too many, he'd either turn stupid or worse, go bald out of frustration.
If it were up to him, he'd avoid this section of the mission hall too, but unfortunately for him, this was his best option to earn credits quickly.
So he swallowed his frustration, grabbed the sheets one by one, and with a pen nearby, started Answering them.
.
[----------------------------
Answer: I'm assuming you've already figured out by now why the loss happens, but since the question's still here, I'll explain it in simple words.
Normally, a small loss is to be expected because like all things, spiritual energy can change into different forms of energy.
Spiritual Qi is a good example. You condense the energy in your dantian to turn it into another form you can use.
This process can cause a small part of the condensed energy to disperse just because of the condensation operation itself.
That's one of the basic reasons, then there are secondary ones that may or may not be relevant depending on the person.
Incorrect posture, flawed cultivation technique, using the wrong technique, irregular breathing, poor focus, and so on...
---------------------------]
.
At first, he wanted to give a simple, direct answer, but the more he thought about how someone couldn't figure this out on their own, the more frustrated he got,
and soon the answer turned into more of a scolding about how obvious it was.
He ended up listing about twenty different, but obvious, reasons this could happen.
He eventually had to stop not because he ran out of words, but because he ran out of space to write.
Seeing this, he shook his head, more and more convinced that questions like these weren't good for his mental health.
He pinned the sheet in a corner of the board and grabbed another:
.
[------------------------------------------
>Question: Why is the third stage of Mortal Cultivation called Foundation Esthablishmente?
Answer: No idea what 'eshtablishmente' is supposed to be, but as for the third stage, it's because…
> Question: How come my friend can use Qi Manifestation and I can't?
Answer: How come you're not at his same stage yet?
>Question: How am I still single? Is it possible someone cursed me?
Answer: Is there, by any chance, a mirror in your room? If so, try looking into it.
--------------------------------------------------]
.
Like that, he spent about an hour answering question after question, and the more he read, the darker his expression got.
The number of questions he answered during that time was nearly double what anyone would expect, because at some point he started giving direct answers instead of taking his time to explain the reasons behind everything.
He realized there was no point in overthinking it all, and that it would be better for him to get straight to the point and save time and words, so he could finish it quickly.
There were a ton of questions, but the reward per question was miserable.
So he decided to be fast and direct, answering as many as he could.
His writing speed was so fast that at one point, without realizing it, a crowd gathered around him, baffled by the bizarre scene playing out before their eyes.
"Holy sh*t, is someone actually bothering to answer these?"
Someone spoke up, noticing the pile of sheets in the corner of the board.
"Heaven, that guy must have insane mental endurance.
Even I gave up after reading a few and seeing the reward. Totally not worth it."
"Exactly, I lost the will to answer after just a couple of them. The reward's trash, you'd have to be really desperate for credits to bother answering so many."
Before he noticed, people went from being surprised at seeing him answering so furiously to straight up pitying him.
To them, this guy probably hadn't eaten in days because he was out of credits and was now forced to do this just to scrape something together.
If Zhu Rong had heard some of those conversations, he would've gone made.
But he was way too focused to notice, and in fact, after two hours, the board that had once been covered in sheets was now practically a desert, with only a few left pinned.
Even the section made specifically to place answers, in case someone wanted to answer a lot at once, was now filled to the brim and couldn't hold another sheet.
Zhu Rong wiped his forehead and glanced at the pencil that was now barely a fraction of its original size.
He tossed it into a nearby bin and, before grabbing another, stopped to count how much he'd probably earned from all those answers.
"Hmm, should be just under 300 credits with all this. Barely enough for two days' rent for a bottom-tier room," he thought, shaking his head.
Even though he'd earned almost all the credits he needed in less than two hours, he felt that the mental energy he'd spent dealing with questions like these wasn't worth it at all.
More than once, he'd almost written down a curse or an insult for the person who made yet another stupid question.
He was pretty sure he'd lost a few neurons today.
"Haa, f*ck it, let's just finish this quick," he muttered as he reached for the last remaining sheets.
In total, there were four left, the ones that had been buried under all the others.
He figured they'd be like the rest, so he grabbed them, ready to rush through them just like before.
But as soon as he began to read, for the first time since he started answering questions, his expression changed.
'Oh… now this is an interesting question.'