Chapter 143: Gift (5K)

Tang Lingwu has mastered the "Spiritual Crane Body."

It is like a person holding a hammer always looking for a nail, or picking up a straight little stick and immediately hoping to encounter a patch of foxtail grass.

Tang Lingwu had perfected the "Spiritual Crane Body"—she just wanted to let off some steam.

The three of them arrived at the small park where Zheng Fa had previously practiced his skills.

It was already very late; there was little starlight in the sky, making the night curtain appear even darker.

This park was also very old, with sparse streetlights emitting a dim yellow glow; often, one had to walk a long stretch of dark road before encountering a hazy halo of light.

It was precisely a summer night.

Quite a few mosquitoes and insects were dancing in the park, making it truly not an especially pleasant place for a leisurely stroll.

But the place was not empty; as the three walked, they would occasionally encounter young or middle-aged couples holding hands.

Originally, all three spoke somewhat cautiously, after all, they would from time to time discuss matters regarding cultivation.

But after walking for a while, they discovered that while they feared bumping into others, those others feared bumping into them even more.

Not to mention those young couples, who would always lower their heads upon meeting them.

The middle-aged people were even more intense; upon spotting the three, they would separate widely, one in front and one behind, pretending to be strangers in a self-deceiving manner.

"Tsk... don't know who exactly is more ashamed to be seen."

Old Bai shook his head, his face filled with envy for the declining morals of the world.

He and Zheng Fa were walking side by side.

Ahead of the two, Tang Lingwu was hopping along, the ponytail at the back of her head rising and falling, possessing in the night a lively quality that was black and shining.

To onlookers, she appeared to be running, taking large bounding steps like a sprinter.

Only Zheng Fa and the other could see that she was exerting no force with her feet at all; she hadn't even bent her knees, merely lightly tapping her toes on the rough stone slabs, drifting lightly, leaping two or three meters with each touch.

It was evident she was still controlling her strength.

Tang Lingwu seemed to greatly enjoy this sensation of cutting through the wind while moving quickly; as she walked, she could not help but lift her face in a smile, wearing an expression of heartfelt joy.

Only when she saw people approaching would she obediently stop, waiting for Zheng Fa and the other.

Seeing her act like a little girl, not only did Old Bai reveal an auntie-like smile.

Even Zheng Fa's mood involuntarily relaxed considerably.

"Not anxious anymore?"

Seeing his expression, Old Bai beside him asked softly.

Zheng Fa nodded gently, while Tang Lingwu ahead also turned her head back, looking at him with concern.

"Anxious, but it's useless."

To be honest, rather than being anxious, he felt uneasy—it had not been easy, and he had been quite happy living in the Jiushan Sect.

Now, because of the matter in Taiyang Commandery, he always had some bad premonitions.

"Right, being anxious is useless."

Old Bai nodded, waved his hand toward Tang Lingwu ahead, as if he had something to say to the two of them.

With a curious expression, Tang Lingwu walked over to the two of them.

"Previously, I taught you many things in a disorganized manner." Old Bai pondered for a moment, seemingly organizing his words, before slowly speaking to the two.

"How to conduct research."

"How to study mathematics."

"I told you that you must work hard, cooperate, and strive forward."

Looking at the two who were lost in thought, Old Bai glanced around the surrounding park and said, "But there is one matter I have been wondering whether I should teach."

"?"

Both Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu looked at Old Bai's somewhat conflicted face.

"Besides hard work, besides cooperation and other old clichés." Old Bai spoke very slowly, as if carefully considering how to phrase it, "One must also learn to give up."

"..."

"We are all human; no one can solve every problem." Speaking to this point, Old Bai even glanced at Zheng Fa: "Even in cultivation, are there not so many troubles?"

A trace of bitter smile appeared at the corner of Zheng Fa's mouth.

Is cultivation good?

It is certainly good.

But do the people of the Xuanwei Realm live more happily than modern people?

Zheng Fa feared that even those disciples of the immortal sects would not think so.

"Do I want to become a great mathematician? Win a Fields Medal, receive a Wolf Prize?" Old Bai pointed at himself: "I dream of it day and night."

"Do I want to cultivate until I ascend amidst rosy clouds? Certainly, I want that too, but Lingwu and I have practiced the 'Spiritual Crane Body' for so long; she has already mastered it, while I am still far behind."

Old Bai's words caused a trace of embarrassment to flash across Tang Lingwu's face, as if she felt her behavior just now had been somewhat too showy.

"I mean nothing else." Old Bai waved his hand and said: "My meaning is that human capability sometimes reaches its limit, which is quite normal; do not feel that others' fates depend on you, do not carry everything on your own shoulders—that is a form of arrogance."

Zheng Fa was stunned.

"Especially in research, one must least of all be arrogant, and least of all force things."

"If one forces cultivation too much, one will suffer qi deviation. If one forces research too much, one will go astray... Sometimes, whether in academia or cultivation, it is not that important." After speaking, Old Bai rubbed his head and said to Zheng Fa and the other, "I'm speaking incoherently... Actually, I don't understand what I'm trying to say myself."

Zheng Fa blinked his eyes, then looked at Tang Lingwu and asked, "Did you understand what Teacher Bai was saying?"

Tang Lingwu shook her head.

Zheng Fa laughed: "I didn't understand either, but Teacher Bai..."

"..."

"I'm not anxious anymore."

Zheng Fa actually understood.

If Master Bai's earlier teachings were those of a teacher,

then today's words were spoken as those of an elder.

A teacher hopes students succeed, but an elder sometimes tells you—success matters less than happiness.

…

At Zheng Fa's family dining table.

He wore the gloves he used for practicing the Five Thunder Body Art, the gloves connected to a transformer plugged into the power outlet; his expression was far calmer than before.

Though Master Bai's comfort was somewhat inarticulate, it strangely calmed his agitation.

Master Bai was right: don't carry everything on your own shoulders—does Jiushan Sect collapse without him? Does Zhang Shijie fall apart without him?

Jiushan Sect has three Nascent Soul True Persons.

Zhang Shijie is exceptionally gifted.

As a Qi Condensation cultivator, honestly, worrying so much is needless anxiety—even presumptuous.

He closed his eyes, feeling the current slowly flow from his palms, stimulating the muscles within his body.

Zheng Fa had removed his shirt; bare-chested, any outsider could clearly see his muscles had grown more than an order of magnitude larger than before.

Zheng Fa's diet had improved considerably since leaving the Zhao household.

In modern times, needless to say, he had always been a loyal fan of the cafeteria aunties.

Now in Jiushan Sect, he was no longer short on funds.

Dun Dun Spirit Rice was the bare minimum.

Under the effect of the Five Thunder Body Art, these foods gradually transformed into streamlined muscle masses on his body.

Yet now, the small rodent-like bulges were gone from his frame.

In Zheng Fa's view, this meant his current level of Five Thunder Body Art training was nearing its limit.

As time passed, all his muscles began trembling and swelling, beads of sweat breaking out across his skin.

Under the light, he looked as if wearing an exaggerated armor woven from muscle.

But after a while, his muscles began contracting again, leaving only clear lines beneath his skin.

Yet if he put on clothes, he appeared noticeably thinner.

Zheng Fa opened his eyes, rose gently from his chair, feeling strangely light—after achieving the Muscle Refinement realm, he sensed a harmony within himself, from inside to outside.

According to the martial arts texts he'd seen in the Zhao household, this was roughly body-mind unity—no, it was even beyond body-mind unity.

Zheng Fa placed his phone on the dining table, opened the camera, stood before the lens, and performed the Spirit Crane Piercing Clouds Hand.

When he watched the video later, Zheng Fa noticed the difference before his advancement—the phone's camera could not capture his movements at all; even at maximum frame rate, his hands appeared as a blur.

He was faster!

Zheng Fa grinned, sat back down, slipped on the gloves again, and prepared to continue training the next realm of the Five Thunder Body Art: Bone Forging.

But after a moment, he opened his eyes in disappointment.

Each realm of the Five Thunder Body Art demands a leap in voltage intensity.

This transformer's maximum voltage was only 300V—now insufficient for Bone Forging.

Zheng Fa reluctantly packed away the transformer.

This divine artifact seemed unable to keep pace with his cultivation progress—but perhaps someday he could use it to shock Master Bai; the old man had always been interested in the Five Thunder Body Art.

…

Zheng Fa sat in his classroom seat, pondering how to continue training the Five Thunder Body Art.

Others were buried in their books, making their final sprint before the college entrance exam.

Tang Lingwu walked over to his desk again.

Now, not only Wang Chen and his group, but nearly all classmates around Zheng Fa had grown indifferent to Tang Lingwu's visits.

Taken for granted. Calm and detached.

As if Tang Lingwu had always belonged here.

Or perhaps the pressure of the college entrance exam had left Wang Chen and the others too drained to care about Zheng Fa and her.

Tang Lingwu carried many items.

A bulging file folder, along with a notebook.

Zheng Fa blinked, looking at Tang Lingwu's face—had she stayed up all night again?

But she didn't look tired; her fair, delicate face radiated vitality, showing no trace of sleeplessness—indeed, since achieving the Spirit Crane Body, her beauty had deepened further.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Tang Lingwu stopped, puzzled, touching her own face.

"I think you've become even more beautiful."

Zheng Fa honestly voiced his own idea.

Tang Lingwu blushed slightly.

Behind them, Wang Chen's sly voice came: "Enough already—flirting outside, please!"

"..."

Aren't you studying?

"... Cough." Tang Lingwu placed the file folder before Zheng Fa, opened it, and pointed to the blueprints: "My mother had the Architecture Institute design this—take a look, see if anything needs changing."

Zheng Fa glanced—it was a small villa design.

Because it sat on a mountainside with little flat land, the plot was small and the buildings few.

The blueprints showed only two main structures—

After entering the courtyard, they first encountered a three-story Chinese-style building; Tang Lingwu pointed at it and said, "This is for visiting guests or patients, equivalent to guest rooms or wards."

Behind the small building lay a patch of land specifically reserved.

This was reserved for Zheng Fa's future farming plans.

At the far end of the open space, leaning against the mountain wall, was an area marked with a question mark.

"My mom said we should live here; the privacy is better. She wanted to ask your opinion: what kind of house do you like?"

Zheng Fa shook his head; he had low requirements in this regard, and merely said to Tang Lingwu, "Whatever you prefer. Oh, right, ask Teacher Bai too; you all will be living here."

"Wait..." Wang Chen's voice came again, clearly showing he had not given up eavesdropping on Zheng Fa and the other's conversation.

"Hmm?"

"Your mother is building a house for him?" Wang Chen pointed at Zheng Fa, then at Tang Lingwu: "Are you two going to live together from now on?"

"... Aren't you supposed to be focusing on your studies?"

Zheng Fa asked in confusion; how was this guy constantly listening to his and Tang Lingwu's conversation?

"I want to focus on my studies too..." Wang Chen pointed at the "Essential Kit for the College Entrance Exam" before him, gritting his teeth as he said, "I'm sitting here reading this book while you two talk here; no matter how I look at it, I can't get into it. In the end, I saw words between the lines. Guess what they were?"

"What did you see?"

"Two densely packed words—Jealousy!" Wang Chen tilted his head and asked Tang Lingwu, "Tang Lingwu, do you have a younger sister?"

"?"

Tang Lingwu's expression showed some confusion.

"It's not that I crave the house; I just can't bear to part with my good brother Zheng Fa..." Wang Chen said in a deep voice, "I want to become brothers-in-law with him."

Made uncomfortable by Wang Chen, neither Zheng Fa nor Tang Lingwu could speak freely in the classroom; they walked out to the corridor outside, where Tang Lingwu finally handed the notebook in her hand to Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa took the notebook and discovered the handwriting inside was actually Old Bai's.

Flipping through it further, Zheng Fa's face showed some surprise—

These notes were written based on those talisman diagrams from Senior Uncle Pang.

First, those overly complex talisman diagrams of Senior Uncle Pang had been simplified further.

Then, likely with Tang Lingwu's help, they used previous methods to identify some similar sub-talismans.

On the first page of the notebook, Zheng Fa distinctly saw Old Bai had written:

"Proof by calculation method: The Five Elements sub-talismans are not a special case; every talisman diagram contains three different sub-talismans, and the Five Elements sub-talismans are merely one category among them."

"The Five Elements sub-talismans are probably the easiest to observe, while other sub-talismans seem to usually manifest incompletely."

"I speculate that every talisman diagram should be composed of three different sub-talismans; however, apart from the Five Elements sub-talismans, the specific functions of other sub-talismans remain unclear at present."

Zheng Fa flipped through the pages.

The handwriting in this notebook was very fresh, even suggesting a rushed effort.

Following Old Bai's notes, Zheng Fa first encountered the example of the Upright Shadowless Talisman he had previously condensed—

This talisman diagram had been decomposed by Old Bai into three sub-talismans.

Besides the Earth-element sub-talisman, there were two other sub-talismans, but the inherent meaning of these two characters remained unclear.

"This is..."

"Grandpa Bai has been studying those talisman diagrams you gave him these past few days; I also found that senior brother and asked him to try various methods. Originally, we didn't hold much hope, but perhaps because the talisman diagrams were more complete, the patterns became more obvious. The computer automatically classified these talisman diagrams."

"After Grandpa Bai and I studied them, we discovered that talisman diagrams are all composed of three parts; we call it the Law of Three Sub-Talismans."

Zheng Fa pursed his lips.

Tang Lingwu made it sound simple.

But Zheng Fa knew the difficulty involved—the talisman diagrams Senior Uncle Pang gave him were more complete than those Zheng Fa had seen before.

Yet they were also much more complex.

He had been studying these talisman diagrams these past few days himself, so he naturally knew the amount of work involved.

"Teacher Bai, he..."

"He said he needs to catch up on two days of sleep and told you not to bother him."

Tang Lingwu relayed Old Bai's words—this remark was rather impolite, sounding exactly like the old man's tone.

Zheng Fa suddenly felt the notebook in his hand grow somewhat heavy; he said softly, "This old man even told me not to push myself too hard."

"... That was a lie." Tang Lingwu narrowed her eyes into slits and said to him, "This is a gift."

"Huh?"

"You're eighteen now!"

Zheng Fa paused, only then remembering that, calculating by this body's age, today was indeed his eighteenth birthday.

Whether in the modern world or in the Xuanwei Realm, he had no habit of celebrating birthdays.

In the modern world, no one celebrated; in the Xuanwei Realm, conditions didn't allow it.

On this day in previous years, apart from some software reminders, no one remembered this event, and no one had ever offered him blessings.

He hadn't expected—Old Bai and Tang Lingwu could actually remember.

"... You both remembered this?" He looked at the notebook in his hand and gently exhaled a breath.

"I saw it at Old Chen's place," Tang Lingwu said with a beaming smile. "We didn't have much to give you; fortunately, this thing got finished."

Zheng Fa looked deeply at Tang Lingwu for a moment, then turned his head to gaze at the residential building where Old Bai lived; pursing his lips, he suddenly asked, "So, were those words Teacher Bai said earlier intentional?"

"Yes!" Tang Lingwu said with a laugh. "He and I planned it long ago to give you a surprise... However, Zheng Fa, those words were also sincere."

Zheng Fa shook his head; no wonder that old man suddenly said those things.

It wasn't that he doubted the other's feelings toward him; rather, it was obvious that Old Bai had been somewhat unnatural at the time, speaking incoherently.

Now it seemed clear: it was all said intentionally so Zheng Fa wouldn't guess what the two of them were doing.

"Zheng Fa, Tang Lingwu, look here!"

Inside the classroom, a classmate's shout suddenly rang out.

Zheng Fa and the other lifted their heads to look, only to see a flash go off; a male student was holding up his phone and had just taken a photo of the two of them.

"What are you doing?"

"Aren't we about to take the Gaokao?" the male student said with a smile. "I thought I'd record the moment. You two looked quite nice standing out there, so I snapped a shot... Here."

Zheng Fa glanced at the other's phone screen; in the glow of the sunset, he and Tang Lingwu stood side by side.

Tang Lingwu was laughing without much reserve, seemingly triumphant from having given Zheng Fa a surprise, her gums still exposed before she could pull her lips back.

Zheng Fa looked at his own face and realized he was smiling too.

He had never known he could smile so easily, even so unrestrainedly.

"Can you send this photo to me?" he asked the male student.

"Of course!" The male student waved his hand, then asked somewhat nervously, "I want to use this photo as the cover for our class album, is that okay?... With the two of you looking so lovey-dovey posted online, the click-through rate will surely be higher."

"..."

"Okay!" Before Zheng Fa could even agree, Tang Lingwu spoke first.