Chapter 199: Measurement

In the nursing home.

Night fell, and that chef had already left with his team; Zheng Fa and the other three moved several more reclining chairs and lay side by side in the courtyard.

The ecological environment here is very good.

Today the weather was perfectly clear, stars twinkled in the night sky, and the grass and trees sent forth a fresh fragrance.

A cool breeze blew from the mountainside; the four talked aimlessly yet enjoyed themselves.

"Their condition is to come and purchase daily; I've already sent you the prices." Bai Lao turned his head and said to Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa nodded; he had also seen their offer.

He knew something about prices—during weekends over his three years of high school, he would always go to the vegetable market to buy some roast chicken or something.

But their quoted price was truly a bit generous.

The same tomatoes might cost a few yuan per jin at the vegetable market, yet the price on their quote sheet was several hundred, an increase of over a hundred times.

This was still considered a relatively low increase.

For a few types of vegetables, the increase was even more excessive.

Seeing Zheng Fa say nothing, Bai Lao seemed to think he found it too low and explained: "This should be their most sincere offer."

"Hmm? So sincere from the very start?"

This went against the usual business tactics...

"Not really..." Bai Lao jerked his chin toward Zheng Fa's side, pointing at Tang Lingwu.

Tang Lingwu smiled sheepishly: "I asked my father about this restaurant's turnover and ingredient costs, checked their supply channels, and calculated; they probably didn't try to drive down the price."

"This... shouldn't this be a trade secret?"

Zheng Fa was stunned.

This was practically stripping off their underpants.

"Often, the word 'secret'..." Bai Lao sighed upon hearing this: "... is just another way of saying you aren't qualified enough."

Zheng Fa was speechless upon hearing this, then heard Bai Lao continue: "However, they have further requirements."

"What?"

"Exclusive supply, and they even want to give us orders—that is, whatever they want, we plant. They say they can add more to the price."

This was not surprising; for a restaurant of this caliber, the word "exclusive" might be more important than tasting good.

As for giving orders, naturally, they wanted more initiative.

"Add a lot of money." Bai Lao clicked his tongue: "The money added in one week might be more than I earned in an entire year before."

That was indeed a lot.

Doing mathematics didn't earn money in many fields, but as a professor at Jingcheng University, Bai Lao's annual salary plus side income was in the millions.

Zheng Fa thought for a while and said: "If we don't agree, what would our monthly income be roughly?"

Bai Lao looked at him and said: "Lingwu calculated; their prices are high, but the actual demand isn't large—about five or six hundred thousand per week."

Zheng Fa then understood why Bai Lao's tone was somewhat tempted.

Agreeing to their conditions would at least double the nursing home's income.

"Teacher Bai, I mentioned the three principles of the nursing home before." Zheng Fa paused for a moment and said: "This business... is merely a byproduct of our research—our energy shouldn't be dragged into it too much."

Bai Lao clicked his tongue, already understanding Zheng Fa's method's idea, and only sighed: "At my age, seeing this money makes me lose my sight... but you..."

Tang Lingwu beside him nodded lightly, smiling, with an expression very much in agreement with Zheng Fa.

"You girl, whatever Zheng Fa says, you make this expression; this business was clearly your idea..." Bai Lao muttered, seeming unable to stand it.

"It was my idea, but... Zheng Fa is just Zheng Fa."

Zheng Fa was stunned, looked at Tang Lingwu, and didn't know why she said that.

Tang Lingwu lay on the rocking chair, gazing at the starry sky, and said softly: "He knows what he wants, always walks in one direction, and only wants to see what cultivation is really like. Isn't that why we gathered together?"

Bai Lao was stunned, then suddenly laughed.

Tian Laoshi beside him patted him and laughed: "I think you haven't seen as clearly as those two children."

A few words settled this matter, but the next thing made everyone ponder a bit.

"Lightning? Spiritual plants?" Bai Lao frowned: "Said simply... this thing is too rough."

Zheng Fa understood Bai Lao's meaning.

This could barely be counted as a train of thought.

"Magnetic field changes can trigger and promote spiritual plant production, but what kind of magnetic field change? Big or small? Fluctuating between big and small? Which direction, for how long?" Bai Lao muttered: "A thousand threads, we don't know where to start."

"I do know a lightning technique; legend says it can promote the growth of grass and trees." Zheng Fa suddenly said: "To be precise, there are three incomplete lightning techniques: Heavenly Tribulation Lightning, Cloud and Rain Lightning, and this one—I call it Spiritual Wood Lightning."

Speaking to this point, Zheng Fa was also helpless.

How rough were the three lightning techniques in the Heavenly Stele Realm? Their names were even made up on the spot.

For instance, Heavenly Tribulation Lightning and Cloud and Rain Lightning were named by Yan Wushuang and the others.

And Spiritual Wood Lightning wasn't named—mainly because there was no hope of mastering it at all; out of sight, out of mind!

"Three lightning techniques?" Tang Lingwu beside him asked: "What's the difference between the three?"

"Heavenly Tribulation Lightning pursues power control."

"Cloud and Rain Lightning pursues controlling rainfall."

"And Spiritual Wood Lightning controls the growth of grass and trees."

Zheng Fa summarized slowly.

"This sounds like each one is harder than the last." Bai Lao said: "We can regard power as current strength or voltage strength; the other two are different."

"Yes." Zheng Fa also had his own thoughts on this matter: "Cloud and Rain Lightning, if considering the process of rainfall, might involve changing the polarity of water molecules, using electromagnetic fields to condense them into raindrops, or causing raindrops to dissipate and vaporize—this is relatively simple large-scale electromagnetic field control."

"And Lingmu Lei is even harder to understand, even if Tian Laoshi's hypothesis about magnetic fields altering plants is true." Zheng Fa sighed slightly as he spoke of this: "The changes in water molecules, or raindrops, within an electromagnetic field are clear, but how plants change remains vague; the required magnetic field variations might be far more complex and microscopic."

The expressions of Bai Lao and the others grew somewhat grave.

They clearly saw the difficulty involved.

"So I say these are three fundamentally incomplete thunder techniques," Zheng Fa explained. "They can be considered three entirely new fields of study; naturally, they are somewhat difficult, but experiments regarding heavenly tribulation thunder are simple enough."

Zheng Fa did not mean to belittle these three thunder techniques; indeed, the Heavenly Stele now gathered quite a few cultivators from the Xuanwei Realm who specialized in thunder techniques.

Facing these three thunder techniques, they too had no clue.

Without the modern world, Zheng Fa actually lacked confidence that he would have greater insight into thunder techniques than these people...

"Do not fear the difficulty," Tian Laoshi smiled at this moment. "With a direction, one will eventually arrive..."

"That is truly well said," Bai Lao smacked his lips. "Why do I suddenly feel that cultivation and scientific research are a perfect match..."

Zheng Fa also wanted to sigh.

He had considered this matter long ago...

If the Xuanwei Realm possessed a scientific civilization, and if those hundreds of thousands of years had been used to explore the world...

It likely would not be in its current state.

But on the other hand, a scientific civilization is not inevitable...

A few days later, a long metal rod stood before Zheng Fa, connected to several sensors—a current sensor, a voltage sensor, and an infrared sensor. The sensors were linked by optical fibers, which ran into the room to Tang Lingwu's computer.

Several dozen meters away from him stood a high-speed camera.

Zheng Fa admitted that Yan Wushuang and others might possess greater insight into thunder techniques than himself...

But he had never been on the track of insight...

Isn't experimentation wonderful!

For safety, Bai Lao and the other two watched him from inside the house.

This was the group's first experiment targeting heavenly tribulation thunder.

To prevent spiritual energy from interfering with the electromagnetic field and signals, all these items were placed outside the range of spiritual energy.

Spiritual power surged from Zheng Fa's body. Under the control of his divine sense, it circulated according to the patterns of heavenly tribulation thunder depicted in the Fengshen Book.

It was not his first time using spells, but he had indeed used them very little.

In his view, spells and talisman arts in the Xuanwei Realm were two sides of the same coin.

For instance, right now, the way his divine sense manipulated his spiritual power to circulate in the void resembled talisman diagrams; however, the difference from talisman runes was that he was manipulating his own spiritual power to "capture" the talisman diagrams in the void.

This method was very inefficient; in reality, the power of a spell depended more on the intensity of the spiritual power used.

Talisman arts, by contrast, caused talisman diagrams in the air to gather upon the talisman paper, with the spiritual power injected by the cultivator becoming the minor portion.

There were other differences as well—for instance, spells had too long a wind-up time, while spiritual talismans were extremely fast.

Therefore, spells were gradually replaced by spiritual talismans.

And Shijie Zhang's "Yang Yuanfu Foundation Establishment Method" went a step further, being even faster and requiring neither talisman paper nor spiritual ink.

Nowadays, this heavenly tribulation thunder could not even be classified as a spell.

Zheng Fa could feel that many of the trajectories of his spiritual power moving through the air were utterly useless, while some seemed to absorb talisman diagrams from the air, yet he did not know what effect they actually had.

The difference between heavenly tribulation thunder and thunder techniques in the Xuanwei Realm was that its power was immense, even to the point of being immeasurable.

Zheng Fa had used Lei Fu before, but rarely did they reach the power of heavenly tribulation.

For many cultivators in the Xuanwei Realm, whether the power was small or large was actually a matter of little consequence; everyone could perceive it.

But between "immensely powerful" and "immensely powerful," it was difficult to measure accurately.

With a single strike of this thunder, a person would turn to ash; one could not even tell how well-done they were...

Even if there was some sensation, it was difficult to measure precisely.

But with the aid of modern instruments, Zheng Fa could—up to a point, the progress of modern science is built upon the progress of observational methods.

As Zheng Fa circulated his spiritual power, suddenly, a bolt of lightning appeared in the air and struck the metal rod.

"How is the person?"

Before Zheng Fa could say anything, Bai Lao and the others rushed out of the house, asking.

"I'm fine." Zheng Fa shook his head slightly and said to Bai Lao, "I will draw the pattern of my spiritual power circulation just now; please take a look for me."

"Very well."

And so it went.

Bolt after bolt of lightning struck the metal rod.

Trace after trace of spiritual power circulation appeared on Bai Lao's notebook.

Meanwhile, related data on current, voltage, temperature, and even the length, width, and shape of the lightning were recorded on Tang Lingwu's computer.

Only when Zheng Fa's spiritual power was depleted to a certain extent did they stop this experiment.