Free Web NovelChapter 413: Chapter 400: Two Blockbuster Top-Journal Articles
It was October, and the autumn air was crisp and clear.
The first major phase of development at the Yichuan Ruins was already in full swing.
Ever since it was discovered that all Illusion Realm attacks within the Yichuan Ruins originated from the Memory Essence of the Primordial Dream Butterfly, Beastmasters had gone into a frenzy.
Now, Wenquxing University only held one percent of the total exploration slots.
Various universities, research institutes, top-tier factions, and even the military had all gotten involved.
The fact that Wenquxing University could secure even one percent of the slots under these circumstances fully demonstrated its profound legacy as a top-tier private university.
Furthermore, in terms of research output, Wenquxing University had a first-mover advantage. It was churning out one achievement after another, overwhelming the academic world and capturing everyone’s attention.
However, despite so many findings, a paper that definitively proved the existence of the Primordial Dream Butterfly was still missing.
Everyone’s attention turned to the student who had first unearthed the Primordial Dream Butterfly’s Memory Essence—Gu Ming.
They were all waiting for the publication of his research paper on the Yichuan Ruins.
This month, a large number of papers about the Primordial Dream Butterfly had appeared, but they were all too easy to pick apart when it came to key evidence, lacking direct, compelling arguments.
And Gu Ming’s first paper written in October was a study on Spiritual Fragment Identification directly related to this, which unequivocally identified these Memory Fragments as belonging to the Primordial Dream Butterfly.
His second paper then served as a supplement to the first, releasing the collection and analysis tool used within it: an advanced version of the Spiritual Fragment Analysis Method.
Gu Ming and Professor Zhang had discussed it for many days, and finally, at this point in October, they published it in the *Peak* journal.
That’s right—two papers in a top-tier journal.
Normally, these two papers, certified by the Hall of the Great Dao, were only rated as Four-Colored Holy Light.
A Four-Colored Holy Light was enough to shake the world, but it was still a little lacking for a journal like *Peak*.
However, this was from Gu Ming, the author of a paper once certified with a Nine-Colored Holy Light.
Even if his subsequent papers weren’t as astonishing as the *Foundation Establishment Evolution Method*, as long as he was the author, they would have a place in the *Peak* journal.
Of course, that was on the condition that the papers themselves possessed considerable universal value.
If their academic value was too low, they would still be shot down by the editors and reviewers.
Thus, when the two top-tier papers were published, it caused an uproar among the students and faculty of his own university.
Online, Beastmasters caught up in the "gold rush" greedily began to study Gu Ming’s improved Spiritual Fragment Analysis Method.
As for the paper proving the Memory Essence belonged to the Primordial Dream Butterfly, it contained far too much text derived from the Memory Essence itself.
The powerhouses at the *Peak* journal had used a Nine-star Pet Beast to transcribe it, embedding the Great Dao imagery from the Spiritual Memory Essence into the journal itself. To see the words was to see the remnants of the Primordial Dream Butterfly’s memories.
Each page was a page of memory.
Reading the two hundred pages was like following Gu Ming to browse those two hundred memories, piecing together the complete image of the Primordial Dream Butterfly.
Only in this way could one truly see it; otherwise, readers of the paper would only have a partial understanding, left impressed but bewildered.
Gu Ming had absorbed a considerable amount of Memory Essence. He performed data analysis on nearly two hundred condensed Memory Fragments of the Primordial Dream Butterfly to ultimately piece together its general outline and form.
It was precisely by relying on the form of the Primordial Dream Butterfly he had analyzed from the Spiritual Fragments that Gu Ming had deeply shocked the people at *Peak* after they saw it, thus successfully getting published in their journal.
If all the content were condensed onto a single page, it would cause the minds of *Peak*’s readers to swell and their Sea of Consciousness to tremble in an instant.
Out of respect for the journal’s academic standing and a responsibility for their readers’ safety, they couldn’t possibly take such a dangerous risk.
Therefore, the content of the first paper was ultimately spread across two hundred pages, allowing readers to gradually raise their spiritual tolerance threshold.
If someone couldn’t adapt, they would often suffer a splitting headache after just a few pages and be forced to stop.
Those who could endure the headache and continue to imprint the image of the Primordial Dream Butterfly into their minds proved they possessed the necessary Spiritual Power aptitude to directly perceive its form.
This page-by-page reading design was, in itself, a filtering process.
In short, through the combined efforts of Gu Ming and the editors at the *Peak* journal, this top-tier paper of immense academic value was finally completed.
As for the accompanying tool, the *New-style Spiritual Fragment Analysis Method*, the *Peak* journal also included it for the purpose of enlightening the public, given the recent frenzy over the development of the Yichuan Ruins.
In truth, in terms of academic rigor alone, the Spiritual Fragment Analysis Method fell far short of *Peak*’s usual acceptance criteria.
But sometimes, the review standards for a top-tier journal weren’t so strict.
At least for top scholars, the criteria for inclusion could be flexible.
Gu Ming flipped through the published paper, sensing the words within. He felt as if he were lost in them, and a vision of enormous, dreamlike, translucent wings tearing across the sky appeared before his eyes.
It was like a sky covered in iridescence, with the deep blue of the firmament as a backdrop and the rainbow that appears after a storm.
As for the Dream Butterfly’s body and forehead, Gu Ming couldn’t see them.
What outsiders didn’t know was that he had gone to great lengths to write this paper.
The image of the Primordial Dream Butterfly was still blurry in his mind. He had only been able to complete it by relying on bits and pieces from the system’s "bullet comments," following his memories to write down what he felt in his heart.
That was how he managed to describe the two hundred Spiritual Fragments one by one.
As for now, he had already sold those Spiritual Fragments.
The buyers were the powerhouses from the *Peak* journal, and in exchange, Gu Ming had received an extremely generous reward in resources.
This was how Gu Ming cashed in all his future gains from this exploration of the Yichuan Ruins for resources he could use now.
’No wonder people are so crazy about the Yichuan Ruins.’
’It’s like being a pig in a whirlwind—you get swept up whether you want to or not.’
Gu Ming himself hadn’t done anything heaven-defying; he had merely collected Memory Fragments from the surrounding areas and caves, yet he had managed to exchange them for resources on such a massive scale.
The proceeds from this one exchange alone were more than enough to cover all the cultivation costs for his three Pet Beasts during the four years promised by the university, with a lot to spare.
The more he thought about it, the more reluctant Gu Ming was to give up on the next wave of major development at the Yichuan Ruins.
He planned to return to the Yichuan Ruins for another exploration after his Pet Beasts completed their Three-star Evolution, while there was still Memory Essence left to be collected.
Gu Ming looked at his Cyan Treasure.
After bathing in the Five Blood Divine Medicine last time, Cyan Treasure’s body had been enhanced several times beyond that of other Little Cyan Snakes its age.
At this moment, it stood perfectly still, its scales refracting a faint cyan light. Both its gaze and its size had clearly grown.
Gu Ming reached out and stroked it gently. Cyan Treasure immediately narrowed its eyes and affectionately nuzzled his palm.
It seemed to understand that its master was about to plan its path to Three-star Evolution.
And this was precisely what Gu Ming had recently learned from his many consultations with Elder Huo and Teacher Tang.
In the future timeline, "Foundation Establishment" was a cutting-edge Evolution Method.
Where there was Foundation Establishment, there would naturally also be research into the methods of "Qi Refining."
