Chapter 217: The Mother of the New Method

Sister Zhang's praise made Zheng Fa smile bashfully.

To some extent, Sister Zhang was naturally a proponent of the New Method; before knowing the cultivation defects after Soul Transformation, she and Zheng Fa had already discussed one issue: how to resolve the decline of spiritual energy.

Neither the Old Method nor Tianhe Zunzhe's New Method had avoided this problem.

Zheng Fa even suspected now that the Old Method and the decline of spiritual energy were two sides of the same coin.

Long ago, Sister Zhang had said she would forge a new path.

It was only after learning the secrets of Soul Transformation that the New Method became more dangerous and urgent.

He had actually been somewhat worried that Sister Zhang might retreat.

It seemed now that Sister Zhang had not been frightened off.

As if seeing through his thoughts, Sister Zhang smiled gently and said, "Junior Brother, you underestimate me, don't you?"

"Sister Zhang..."

Sister Zhang shook her head, holding her palm upright before him.

Zheng Fa froze for a moment, then suddenly understood her meaning; he raised his hand and lightly slapped hers.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

"I want to too! I want to too!"

Sister Yuan, standing nearby, clamored, stretching her hand high.

"Regarding what you just mentioned," Sister Zhang said after a moment's thought, "I fear that even Senior Uncle Pang would be unwilling, and the debate within the sect will be fierce."

Zheng Fa nodded.

Senior Uncle Pang was inherently someone unwilling to stir up trouble; his opposition to Sister Zhang stemmed from fear of damaging the Jiushan Sect's foundational vitality, leaving them unable to face the coming great calamity of the Xuanwei Realm.

Moreover, Zheng Fa's concepts were truly shocking to the Xuanwei Realm.

"Therefore, the Qingyang Dao Body indeed cannot be abandoned; in fact, you must become increasingly genius," Sister Zhang concluded. "If you display talent comparable to Tianhe Zunzhe, Senior Uncle Pang and the others would be willing to make you Sect Master directly."

"If your talent can surpass Tianhe Zunzhe's, Senior Uncle Pang and the others could use the entire Jiushan Sect to pave a path for you."

Zheng Fa understood Sister Zhang's meaning.

Slogans alone were insufficient.

The Xuanwei Realm valued strength above all, followed by talent, which represented future strength.

Currently, his strength was naturally far lacking.

Naturally, talent could not be abandoned either.

"You previously said that the Fusang Wood grows extremely slowly, likely because this divine tree is too extraordinary and those spiritual materials are insufficient," Sister Zhang asked.

"Yes, I think so too; the Fusang Wood is naturally excellent," Zheng Fa said, frowning. "But if it hinders my cultivation progress, that would truly delay matters."

"Do you have any ideas?"

Zheng Fa thought for a moment, then simply spoke three words: "Heavenly Stele Realm."

Sister Zhang was stunned; understanding his meaning, she nevertheless frowned. "That will require no small amount of Heavenly Merit."

Zheng Fa smiled but said nothing.

Seeing him like this, Sister Zhang knew he seemed to have some confidence in mind; she asked no further, simply removing the jade bracelet from her wrist and handing it to Zheng Fa.

"Sister Zhang?"

"Since the path after Soul Transformation has some defects, it is inappropriate for me to cultivate further now; take some of the resources in here first to use, so they aren't wasted," Sister Zhang said, lowering her eyes, her eyelashes shielding her gaze.

Zheng Fa froze, not yet speaking.

Nearby, Sister Yuan raised her hand again, saying, "I want to too! I want to too!"

"..." Sister Zhang turned to look at Sister Yuan, saying nothing.

Sister Yuan awkwardly withdrew her arm, muttering under her breath, "I high-fived too!"

Zheng Fa looked at the jade bracelet in Sister Zhang's hand.

In the Xuanwei Realm, spatial artifacts were actually not numerous; most cultivators used storage bags.

The space within a storage bag was very limited; smaller ones were merely the size of a cardboard box, while larger ones were only about the size of a room.

But Sister Zhang's jade bracelet was different; it contained a space as large as a small courtyard, far more valuable than ordinary storage bags.

It likely contained most of Sister Zhang's life savings.

He shook his head.

Sister Zhang's expression grew slightly cold, as if blaming him for refusing in a manner that seemed too distant.

"Sister Zhang, I have another request, something even more important."

"Hmm?"

Sister Zhang's expression softened slightly.

"Sister Zhang, look at this Shanhe True Form Talisman again," Zheng Fa said, pointing above the heads of the three of them.

Sister Zhang raised her eyes to look at the cliff top, her gaze containing some confusion.

"What is it?"

"The Patriarch's spiritual intelligence was born within this Shanhe True Form Talisman, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then... why can the Shanhe True Form Talisman give birth to spiritual intelligence?"

"Why?" Sister Zhang was somewhat bewildered by Zheng Fa's habit of asking 'why'; "An alternative path to the Dao, absorbing and exhaling spiritual energy, then spontaneously generating spiritual intelligence?" Sister Zhang's words were the Xuanwei Realm's summary of such phenomena, a summary that did not seek deep understanding.

But Zheng Fa had different thoughts.

At least in his eyes now, every phenomenon must have its material basis; the generation of spiritual intelligence was naturally no exception.

He looked at the four composite talisman diagrams, thinking about some basic artificial intelligence knowledge he had picked up from Tang Lingwu.

From Zheng Fa's perspective, whether it was human intelligence or so-called artificial intelligence, it was nothing more than three stages:

The first was, of course, input—whether a person takes it in through sight and hearing, or a computer imports data.

The second step was data storage, computation, judgment, or in other words, information processing—humans do it through the nervous system, while artificial intelligence does it through various calculation method structures, such as neural networks.

The last was output, no need to mention it.

Earlier, his Master had given him a jade slip containing his Master's insights on talisman arrays, and Zheng Fa had noticed some very interesting things—

If one compared spiritual Qi to electric current, then in his Master's talisman arrays, the spiritual Qi actually traveled through several separate circuits, each circuit composed of different spiritual talismans producing different effects.

It was rather like a circuit board.

Considering the similarity between the two worlds, Zheng Fa could not help but grow more suspicious about the principle by which the Shanhe True Form Talisman had generated spiritual intelligence:

If one were to view it as a spiritual Qi lifeform.

Then could these talisman diagrams composed together be seen as various circuits, or even as having naturally generated certain calculation method structures?

And the so-called generation of spiritual intelligence through breathing in spiritual Qi for thousands of years—essentially, could it be seen as a form of long-term input?

If so, could he try to build a spiritual Qi computer?

Thinking of this, his eyes burned with eagerness as he looked at Zhang Shijie: "Shijie, what I am about to ask of you is to lend me your body!"

Zhang Shijie was stunned, and Yuan Shijie beside her raised her hand and said: "I… I'm still here!"

……

"You mean to use my Primordial Spirit Dao Body to test various composite talisman diagrams?" Zhang Shijie understood what Zheng Fa meant: "To see what kind of composite talisman diagrams can help us with computation and deduction, and even generate spiritual intelligence?"

"Yes, Shijie. Your Primordial Spirit Dao Body can generate all kinds of spiritual talismans within the body, making it the most suitable for this."

Zhang Shijie thought for a moment and said: "That's not difficult, but is it actually useful?"

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and said: "Shijie, I can put it this way—if this thing works, the New Law will be half complete."

Zhang Shijie nodded slowly, though her expression suggested she still couldn't quite understand.

If he hadn't witnessed the explosive development following the invention of computers in the modern world, Zheng Fa figured he wouldn't have been able to understand either…

But to tell the truth, Zheng Fa truly felt that if Zhang Shijie could really help him build a spiritual Qi computer:

Then in the future, there would be no second candidate for the Mother of the New Law!

……

Hurrying back from Jiushan Sect to Lei Chi, Zheng Fa once again came beneath the Heavenly Stele.

There were quite a few cultivators beside the Heavenly Stele, and upon seeing Zheng Fa, many of them greeted him warmly—this was still thanks to Xiao Xianzi's good reputation.

The moment he thought of Xiao Xianzi, she appeared.

Xiao Xianzi walked over, her gaze still ignoring everyone else, as if she only saw Zheng Fa, and came to stand beside him.

The two stood side by side, and Xiao Xianzi suddenly turned to look at Zheng Fa, opening her mouth as if she had something to say to him, but said nothing.

"Xiao Xianzi?"

Xiao Xianzi shook her head and said: "I know the location of a spiritual treasure."

"……"

Zheng Fa was somewhat speechless.

Why does your tone when saying this sound so similar to me saying I ate three bowls of rice today?

He could clearly sense the somewhat cracking expressions on the faces of the other cultivators nearby who had overheard their conversation.

"Are you interested?"

Zheng Fa was stunned, staring at Xiao Xianzi, not understanding why this person was being so generous.

"The place where the spiritual treasure is located is extremely dangerous, I cannot enter it." Xiao Xianzi looked at Zheng Fa and said: "I need someone whose thunder methods surpass mine by a margin."

Zheng Fa finally understood why this Xiao Xianzi had been so friendly toward him.

It turned out she seemed to be asking him for a favor.

"Dangerous…" Zheng Fa frowned, thought for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Xiao Xianzi, I've only just reached Foundation Establishment. If even you find it dangerous, how could I dare to go?"

"I will guarantee your safety."

It was clear that this Xiao Xianzi placed extreme importance on that spiritual treasure.

Zheng Fa shook his head even more resolutely.

"My apologies."

You've got to be kidding.

Treasures left by predecessors, secret realms and the like—are they not the most dangerous things ever?

Wouldn't it be better for me to grind out more Heavenly Merit in the Heavenly Stele Realm?

Xiao Xianzi looked at Zheng Fa with an extremely strange expression, seeming to have seen through his cowardice: "Others, upon hearing of a spiritual treasure, would be crying and begging me… but you…"

Zheng Fa grinned: "My Master once had a disciple who attracted many great enemies while treasure-hunting… so he long ago strictly forbade me from acting rashly."

Xiao Xianzi heard this and nodded lightly, seemingly convinced: "I know your Sect Master, he's a timid one…"

"Right, right, right, I actually really want to go!" Zheng Fa said apologetically, nodding repeatedly: "It's just that a master's orders are hard to disobey."

Xiao Xianzi shook her head and closed her mouth, seemingly giving up.

But just before entering the Heavenly Stele, a secret voice transmission suddenly reached Zheng Fa's ear: "The spiritual treasure I mentioned should be related to Tianhe Zunzhe."

Zheng Fa was stunned and stopped in his tracks.

He understood why even the outspoken Xiao Xianzi had to resort to secret voice transmission—a spiritual treasure related to Tianhe Zunzhe was the kind that could make many cultivators throw their lives away.

But Zheng Fa was not only because of this.

Now, he was very curious about Tianhe Zunzhe, especially his New Law…

Seeing Zheng Fa's shocked expression, Xiao Xianzi smiled smugly: "If you change your mind, we'll discuss it in detail after we come out of the Heavenly Stele."

(End of this chapter.)