Chapter 156: Study

For Zheng Fa, the ultimate goal of cultivating the Ling Shan Fa was not to make money or gain high status, but to study.

It was not merely that cultivating the Ling Shan Fa could create a spiritual energy environment.

Even just cultivating the Ling Shan Fa itself, he regarded as a very important experiment.

Zheng Fa felt as if, through two spiritual talismans, he had fused with this Hong Shan, forming a vast cycle.

The spiritual power in his dantian flowed along this invisible connection into Hong Shan, then traveled through the mountain's earth veins and returned into his dantian.

When he emerged, the spiritual power long refined in his dantian had become extremely dense, like mercury.

But when this spiritual power returned to his dantian, it had transformed into clouds and mist—or rather, into spiritual energy.

Zheng Fa observed this scene with great care.

For people of the Xuanwei Realm, absorbing spiritual energy and converting it into spiritual power was a natural process.

But Zheng Fa, educated in the modern world, always asked one more question than those of the Xuanwei Realm—why could spiritual energy become spiritual power?

What was the difference between spiritual power and spiritual energy?

He already had a crude hypothesis, which, if expressed as an equation, was:

Spiritual power = spiritual energy + soul + trajectory determined by meridians.

This wasn't even really a hypothesis—just a rough summary of his cultivation process: fundamentally, cultivation in the Xuanwei Realm was the process of absorbing spiritual energy, guiding it along specific meridians with the soul, and storing it within the body.

The hypothesis itself was not difficult, but Zheng Fa found it crucial—if he understood this, the essence of all Xuanwei Realm techniques would be laid bare before him.

Even more boldly, he could say he was probing the very essence of cultivation.

And if he pushed further, Zheng Fa might, through this exploration of essence, create the most suitable technique for himself—just as discovering electromagnetic induction allowed one to attempt building a generator.

Now, cultivating the Ling Shan Fa was a test of this hypothesis—by observing how his own spiritual power turned back into spiritual energy, he could determine whether his idea was at least partially correct.

To Zheng Fa's surprise, the spiritual energy formed in his dantian no longer responded to his soul's control; the sense of effortless command was gone.

That meant spiritual energy lacked his soul—this partially validated his idea.

Moreover, through the Ling Shan Fa, Zheng Fa could derive another equation:

Spiritual energy = spiritual power – soul + trajectory determined by spirit veins.

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

Though he had merely verified a simple hypothesis, the fact that such progress came so early in cultivating the Ling Shan Fa made him very pleased.

"What's wrong? Did it work?"

Seeing him smile, the old man beside him hurriedly asked.

Whether Zheng Fa could successfully cultivate the Ling Shan Fa was a major matter to both of them.

Zheng Fa's eyes shimmered with silver light as he looked around.

By analogy, in the Ling Shan Fa, Zheng Fa played the role of a power source, while the Hong Shan mountain range was a vast circuit board—responsible for converting spiritual power into spiritual energy.

He was only at Qi Refining seventh layer; the spiritual energy he could produce was extremely thin, affecting only a space less than ten meters in radius.

This was normal.

According to the Ling Shan Fa's records, the spiritual energy environment created at Qi Refining seventh layer was sufficient for only a few people to cultivate, and at most only up to Qi Refining first layer…

But for Bai Lao and Tang Lingwumin's entry, it was enough.

"Don't you feel any change?"

Bai Lao shook his head blankly, glancing around: "No change at all."

"There is a change," Tang Lingwumin suddenly said. "My phone just lost signal—it's completely powered off now."

Zheng Fa froze and pulled out his own phone.

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

He looked at Bai Lao.

Bai Lao held his own phone and shook his head too.

"Is this… spiritual energy interfering with electronic devices?"

Zheng Fa frowned.

"It's not just interference—if it were only interference, the signal would just be erratic," Bai Lao shook his head. "This is powered off—like the internal circuits have been damaged by spiritual energy."

Hearing this, Zheng Fa recalled his earlier doubts.

If the development of mathematics in the Xuanwei Realm seemed bizarre due to lack of intuitiveness…

Then electromagnetic induction itself was actually quite intuitive—especially for cultivators who mastered Thunder Art.

They had extremely strong perception and could control vast amounts of electrical energy.

Even by coincidence, if they cast Thunder Art near metal, they could detect the magnetization of the metal.

Now it seemed, the culprit was likely spiritual energy.

Thinking of this, Zheng Fa recalled his senior brother Zhuang's claim that spiritual energy was the poison of the world.

It was strangely fitting.

Of course, even if Xuanwei Realm cultivators discovered this phenomenon, Zheng Fa doubted they would spark an energy revolution.

Spiritual energy was just too convenient.

"This isn't bad," Bai Lao thought for a moment. "At least we don't have to worry about anyone using electronic devices to spy on us."

Zheng Fa nodded, watching the old man whose eyes held unmistakable eagerness—he could tell the old man was barely holding back.

He returned to his room and took out five books from his suitcase.

The Chi Xiao Jue, the Bi Shui Jue, the Chang Chun Gong, the Geng Jin Jue, and the Huang Tu Gong.

All were introductory techniques provided by the Jiushan Sect for disciples.

For the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—Zheng Fa had chosen one technique each.

The primary criterion for selection was safety.

The most annotated, most detailed, hardest-to-cause-qi-deviation techniques.

"What's this?"

"Try each one. Whichever you cultivate fastest, stick with that."

He used this clumsy method because he had no way to test their spirit roots—this was the hardship of being the first Daoist master in the modern world.

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

No spiritual plants.

No spirit stones.

No techniques long standard in the Xuanwei Realm.

But on the other hand, building a cultivation civilization from scratch could give Zheng Fa deeper insight into the essence of the Dao.

Even now, Zheng Fa did not know what spirit roots truly were.

He had his own ideas—looking at the process of spiritual energy becoming spiritual power, two factors determined it: the first was obviously the soul, the second was the trajectory of spiritual energy dictated by meridians.

Spirit roots were likely related to this trajectory.

But how exactly, Zheng Fa needed more evidence.

Bai Lao and Tang Lingwumin exchanged glances and each picked one book.

Bai Lao chose the Huang Tu Gong.

Tang Lingwumin chose the Chang Chun Jue.

Both flipped through their books and frowned.

These were Xuanwei Realm techniques—difficult for modern people to understand.

Some concepts within were unfamiliar to most.

"I'll teach you first—it's always harder at the beginning."

Zheng Fa had anticipated these problems. He walked to them, took both books, and began instructing their cultivation.

Fortunately, compared to others, both had cultivated the Ling He Shen, so they had some foundation.

But even so, Zheng Fa had to slowly explain many of the technique's terms.

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

To his surprise—Bai Lao seemed to have prior experience.

Many terms—meridians, meditation, breath control, seated cultivation—he was very familiar with.

"Am I stupid?"

Tang Lingwumin looked at Zheng Fa with a depressed expression.

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

He looked at Bai Lao, his gaze thoughtful.

"What books have you been reading lately?"

"Ahem." Bai Lao scratched his head, slightly embarrassed. "I just bought a few Daoist scriptures and read them."

Tang Lingwumin's gaze toward Bai Lao changed—like Wang Chen used to look at Zheng Fa: You're that obsessed?

…

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

His seated posture was perfectly standard.

He entered cultivation state much faster than Tang Lingwumin.

This made Tang Lingwumin slightly anxious.

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

Zheng Fa's strategy was to let them each try the five techniques.

Then he used the "Cave Void Spiritual Eye" to observe the speed at which the two absorbed spiritual energy.

Thus, he would identify the cultivation technique they absorbed the most spiritual energy through.

What relieved Zheng Fa was that both could absorb spiritual energy smoothly.

This meant both possessed what was called a spiritual root.

But to Zheng Fa at this moment, the issue was not whether they had a spiritual root, but how good or bad it was.

After testing them all, he found that the old white man was the most suited to the "Yellow Earth Technique"—meaning he absorbed the most spiritual energy from it.

Tang Lingwumin, however, had excellent taste; she had picked the "Eternal Spring Technique" from the start, which suited her physique perfectly.

Truly perfectly suited...

Seeing Tang Lingwumin's speed of absorbing spiritual energy, Zheng Fa glanced at the old white man with deep meaning—he guessed Tang Lingwumin's absorption rate matched that of a single spiritual root.

In other words, she was a genius!

The old white man and the other gradually sank into cultivation, while Zheng Fa watched closely nearby, fearing something might go wrong with these beginners.

After a while, the old white man slowly opened his eyes, his face flushed with excitement as he said: "Zheng Fa, I'm advancing faster with the 'Yellow Earth Technique' than with the other four techniques! I feel I've already cultivated a trace of spiritual energy."

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

At that moment, a tiny vortex of spiritual energy hovered above Tang Lingwumin's head, as if she were ascending.

The old white man froze, his gaze at Tang Lingwumin mirroring Wang Chen's current look at Zheng Fa—why her?

Xuanwei Realm.

Zheng Fa had just written down his thoughts on cultivating the "Spirit Mountain Technique" on paper.

Sister Yuan suddenly burst in.

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