Chapter 156: Research

For Zheng Fa, the ultimate purpose of cultivating the Spirit Mountain Technique was not to make money, nor to gain high status, but for research.

It was not merely that cultivating the Spirit Mountain Technique could create a spiritual energy environment.

Speaking only of the cultivation of the Spirit Mountain Technique itself, he also regarded it as a very important experiment.

Zheng Fa felt as though he had become one with Goddess Hongshan through two spiritual talismans, forming a massive cycle.

The spiritual power within his dantian flowed into Goddess Hongshan along this mysterious connection, then followed the earth veins within the mountain back into his dantian.

When it went out, the spiritual power in his dantian, refined for a long time, had a consistency that was extremely dense, like mercury.

Yet when this spiritual power returned to his dantian, it had turned into clouds and mist, or rather, it had become spiritual energy.

Zheng Fa observed this scene carefully.

For people in the Xuanwei Realm, absorbing spiritual energy and transforming it into spiritual power was itself a natural occurrence.

But Zheng Fa, having received modern education, always asked one more "why" than people in the Xuanwei Realm—why can spiritual energy transform into spiritual power?

What difference is there between spiritual power and spiritual energy?

Actually, he already had a crude hypothesis; if expressed as an equation, it would be:

Spiritual Power = Spiritual Energy + Spirit Soul + Movement Trajectory Determined by Meridians

This was not even really a hypothesis, just a very rough summary of his cultivation process—essentially, cultivation in the Xuanwei Realm is the process of absorbing spiritual energy, then using the Spirit Soul to guide the spiritual energy to flow along certain meridians, and finally storing it within the body.

The hypothesis itself was not difficult, but Zheng Fa felt it was very important—if he figured this out, then the essence of the various cultivation techniques in the Xuanwei Realm would be laid bare to him.

To put it even more grandly, he could even say he was exploring the essence of cultivation.

And if he speculated further, Zheng Fa might be able to, through this exploration of essence, create a cultivation technique most suitable for himself—just as after discovering that magnetism generates electricity, one could try building a generator.

Cultivating the Spirit Mountain Technique now was a verification of this hypothesis—by observing in reverse how his spiritual power turned into spiritual energy, he could understand whether his idea was partially correct.

To Zheng Fa's surprise, the spiritual energy formed in his dantian was indeed no longer under the control of his Spirit Soul, and he no longer had that feeling of it being as responsive as his own arm.

That is to say, compared to spiritual power, spiritual energy lacked his Spirit Soul; this partially verified his idea.

Furthermore, through the Spirit Mountain Technique, Zheng Fa could derive another equation:

Spiritual Energy = Spiritual Power - Spirit Soul + Movement Trajectory Determined by Spiritual Veins.

He opened his eyes, a hint of joy in them.

Although he had merely verified a very simple hypothesis, achieving such a harvest just after beginning to cultivate the Spirit Mountain Technique made him quite happy.

"What's wrong? Did it succeed?"

Seeing him smile, Bai Lao nearby asked hurriedly.

Whether Zheng Fa could successfully cultivate the Spirit Mountain Technique was, for both of them, an even greater matter.

Silver light shimmered in Zheng Fa's eyes as he looked around.

By analogy, in the Spirit Mountain Technique, the role Zheng Fa played was very much like a power source, while Goddess Hongshan's mountain range was a large circuit board—responsible for converting spiritual power into spiritual energy.

He was only at the seventh layer of Qi Refining now; the spiritual energy he could convert was extremely thin, able to affect only a space within less than ten meters.

This was normal.

According to the records of the Spirit Mountain Technique, the spiritual energy environment created by someone at the seventh layer of Qi Refining would be enough for only a few people to cultivate, and they could cultivate at most only to the first layer of Qi Refining...

But for the two of them, Bai Lao and the other, to enter the path, this was actually enough.

"Didn't you feel the change?"

Bai Lao shook his head in confusion, looking around: "There's no change."

"There is a change." Tang Lingwu suddenly said from the side: "My phone had no signal just now, and now it's powered off."

Zheng Fa was stunned, and took out his own phone.

His phone screen was also black, as if some unknown malfunction had occurred.

He looked at Bai Lao.

Bai Lao held his own phone and shook his head at him.

"So, can spiritual energy interfere with electronic devices?"

Zheng Fa said, frowning.

"It's not just interference; if it were just interference, the signal would usually just act up." Bai Lao shook his head instead: "It powered off; it's as if the circuits inside also had problems due to the spiritual energy."

Hearing this, Zheng Fa couldn't help but recall his previous doubts.

If the development of mathematics in the Xuanwei Realm was somewhat outrageous, it was because it wasn't intuitive enough.

Then electromagnetic induction itself is actually very intuitive—especially for cultivators who know the Thunder Technique.

Their sensing ability is extremely strong, and they can control enough electrical energy.

Even by coincidence, as long as they cast the Thunder Technique next to metal, they could discover the magnetization phenomenon of the metal.

It seems now that it must be the fault of spiritual energy.

Thinking of this, Zheng Fa couldn't help but think of Senior Brother Zhuang's statement that spiritual energy is the poison of the world.

It was strangely fitting.

Of course, even if cultivators in the Xuanwei Realm discovered this phenomenon, whether they would spark an energy revolution—Zheng Fa also thought they wouldn't.

Spiritual energy is too useful.

"This matter is actually not bad." Bai Lao thought for a moment and said: "At least we don't have to worry about people using electronic devices to spy on us."

Zheng Fa nodded, looking at Bai Lao, whose eyes held a hidden longing, knowing the old man could hardly wait.

He walked back to his room and took five books out of his suitcase.

The Crimson Sky Art, the Azure Water Art, the Evergreen Art, the Geng Metal Art, and the Huang Tu Gong.

These were all introductory cultivation techniques provided for disciples within the Jiushan Sect.

For the five elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, Zheng Fa had selected one technique each.

The primary criterion for selection was—safety!

The one with the most annotations, the most detailed cultivation technique, hard to even suffer qi deviation.

"What's this?"

"Take turns trying them—pick the one that lets you cultivate fastest."

He used this clumsy method simply because he had no way to test their spiritual roots—the hardship of being a founding master in the modern world.

In a sense, the modern world is an intensified version of the Xuanwei Realm's spiritual decline.

No spiritual plants.

No spiritual stones.

Not to mention any of the methods long standard in the Xuanwei Realm.

But on the other hand, building a tiny cultivation civilization from scratch lets Zheng Fa gain deeper insight into the essence of the Immortal Dao.

Even now, Zheng Fa doesn't know what a spiritual root actually is.

He has some of his own ideas—based on the process of converting Qi into spiritual power, two factors determine it: the first is obviously the soul, the second is the Qi trajectory determined by the meridians.

The spiritual root is probably related to this trajectory.

But how exactly, Zheng Fa still needs more evidence.

Bai Lao and the other woman exchanged a glance and each picked one.

Bai Lao chose "Huang Tu Gong."

Tang Lingwu chose "Changchun Jue."

Both flipped through their books and frowned.

These were Xuanwei Realm cultivation techniques, hard for modern people to understand.

Some concepts within were relatively unfamiliar to most.

"I'll teach you first—starting out is always harder."

Zheng Fa had already anticipated these issues; he walked to the two, picked up both books, and began guiding their cultivation.

Fortunately, compared to others, both had trained in "Ling He Shen," so they had some foundation.

But some terms in this technique still required Zheng Fa to explain slowly.

Zheng Fa feared they might encounter problems during their first cultivation, so he patiently explained both books in great detail.

What surprised him was—Bai Lao seemed to have solid foundation.

Many terms—like meridians, meditation, breath control and sitting—he knew very well.

"Am I stupid?"

Tang Lingwu looked at Zheng Fa with a depressed expression.

Zheng Fa shook his head, equally puzzled—Tang Lingwu was certainly not stupid; when he himself learned these, he hadn't performed much better than her.

He looked at Bai Lao, his gaze filled with deep thought.

"What books have you been reading lately?"

"Ahem." Bai Lao scratched his head, slightly embarrassed to be caught: "I just bought a few Daoist classics and read them."

Tang Lingwu's look at Bai Lao changed—like Wang Chen once looked at Zheng Fa: You're really pushing yourself!

…

When cultivation began, Zheng Fa became certain—the old man had trained before!

His sitting posture was extremely standard.

He entered cultivation state far faster than Tang Lingwu.

This made Tang Lingwu slightly anxious.

Bai Lao, still embarrassed, comforted Tang Lingwu: "When I master it, I'll tell you the secrets!"

Zheng Fa's strategy was to have each try five cultivation techniques.

Then he would use "Dong Xu Ling Yan" to observe how fast each absorbed Qi.

Thus identifying the technique each absorbed Qi fastest through.

To Zheng Fa's relief, both could absorb Qi smoothly.

This meant both possessed what was called a spiritual root.

But to Zheng Fa now, the issue wasn't whether they had a spiritual root—it was how good it was.

After testing them all, he found Bai Lao was most suited to "Huang Tu Gong"—meaning he absorbed the most Qi from it.

As for Tang Lingwu, she had chosen well—she'd picked "Changchun Gong" from the start, and it suited her physique extremely well.

Extremely well…

Seeing Tang Lingwu's Qi absorption speed, Zheng Fa gave Bai Lao a meaningful glance—he guessed Tang Lingwu's absorption rate was likely that of a single-spirit-root cultivator.

In other words, she was a genius!

Bai Lao and Tang Lingwu gradually sank into cultivation; Zheng Fa watched closely nearby, fearing something might go wrong with these beginners.

After a while, Bai Lao slowly opened his eyes, his face excited as he said to Zheng Fa: "Zheng Fa, I'm cultivating 'Huang Tu Gong' faster than the other four techniques! I feel I've already produced a trace of Qi."

Zheng Fa placed a finger to his lips, signaling him to look at Tang Lingwu.

Tang Lingwu now had a small Qi vortex above her head, as if advancing.

Bai Lao froze, his gaze at Tang Lingwu mirroring Wang Chen's current look at Zheng Fa: Why her?

…

Xuanwei Realm.

Zheng Fa had just written down his thoughts on cultivating "Lingshan Fa."

Yuan Shijie suddenly burst in.

"Brother Zheng!" Her face was panicked: "Uncle Huang has sent word—the Changchun Sect has been wiped out, Sister Zhang is missing, the other disciples were ambushed!"