Chapter 226: Sacrifice for the Immortal Method!

"Same-sex dating? Who's same-sex? Who's dating?"

At the dinner table, Old Bai shouted in grievance.

Mainly because Tian Laoshi was clearly emotional; only two plates of green vegetables sat before him, while the meat dishes were placed far away.

Although the vegetables at the nursing home are delicious.

But these two plates of lush green right in front of him practically screamed, "You do the first day of the first month, I'll do the fifteenth; don't say I didn't warn you."

Old Bai's expression was obviously a bit panicked.

Tian Laoshi's face was inexplicably cold.

"Tian Laoshi, don't be like this; I believe in Teacher Bai," Zheng Fa advised from the side.

Old Bai nodded frantically, looking at Zheng Fa with gratitude, feeling that only now could he experience the warmth of being a man.

Zheng Fa added, "Based on my understanding of Teacher Bai, that netizen should be a woman."

Tian Laoshi's face grew colder.

"..." Old Bai glared at Zheng Fa: "Is that how you advise? Originally facing twenty years in prison, you've defended me into execution by firing squad?"

"Not a woman?"

"No! A man! A pure man!"

Old Bai explained furiously.

"Then it's same-sex dating," Zheng Fa affirmed.

"..." Yes, same-sex, and friends," Old Bai, seeing he couldn't make it clear and fearing Zheng Fa would continue to cause trouble, quickly said, "Not a new friend, but an old one."

"An old friend?" Tian Laoshi became curious: "Do I know him?"

Old Bai shook his head, instead turning to Zheng Fa: "Do you remember, when I was young, I also had a master?"

"I remember, the one who got caught," Zheng Fa recalled quite vividly.

"This person... counts as my junior brother," Old Bai recalled. "At that time, I was twenty-eight or twenty-nine, not yet thirty; he wasn't even twenty, just starting university. We were both disciples of that Great Master."

Zheng Fa nodded: "That friendship is old too."

"Not old," Old Bai shook his head. "Back then, I was just practicing for fun; as soon as Master got caught, I cowered and hid at home for a few days."

"He was different."

"How was he different?"

"He..." Old Bai frowned and said, "Do you know those martial arts obsessives in movies?"

"He is one too?"

"No, he is a Qigong obsessive," Old Bai shook his head. "My personality and his are different; actually, we weren't very familiar, haven't seen each other in many years—this time I heard that after my scammer teacher got caught, he didn't give up. He visited Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries everywhere seeking true methods, got his PhD, went abroad, and still traveled the world looking for some ancient lineage; wherever there was something to swindle, he went there."

"..."

"So why is he looking for you, Old Bai?"

"Oh, wasn't I famous online before?" Old Bai shook his head. "After I started cultivating immortality, my appearance became a bit like when I was young. In the livestream, I even mentioned my surname is Bai, and he recognized me."

"He thinks..." Zheng Fa guessed.

"Yes, he thinks I gained an opportunity and wants to ask me about it," Old Bai said somewhat dejectedly. "If he guessed wrong, it wouldn't matter, but he actually guessed right... That's why I went to see him, to stop him from asking around everywhere and attracting others' attention."

Zheng Fa nodded.

The two looked at Tian Laoshi on the side; sure enough, between this question and answer, Tian Laoshi's face had softened.

Old Bai secretly sent a grateful glance to Zheng Fa.

Tang Lingwu on the side smiled and moved a plate of chicken in front of Old Bai; Tian Laoshi acted as if he didn't see it, just lowering his head to eat.

"Actually, I also want to see if this person can be absorbed into the nursing home," Old Bai suddenly said, his tone very hesitant.

"Hmm? Is this person a scholar too?" Zheng Fa was stunned; someone seeking gods and praying everywhere, yet still playing with science?

"He works in physics in China; from what he said, he later got a tenure-track position abroad and seems to be living quite well," Old Bai shook his head. "It's just that this person... let me describe it this way: physics is his immediate drudgery; what he longs for is Qigong and the distance."

"..."

Everyone was speechless.

"He does physics only because he has that talent... even an outstanding talent; experiments others can't produce, he achieves results with ease," Old Bai sighed. "It's just that he only treats this thing as a profession..."

Zheng Fa also understood Old Bai's thinking.

Although Old Bai didn't say it, Zheng Fa could understand this person's academic ability was probably extraordinary.

It's just that this personality sounds... not very reliable.

On the other hand, although they are old acquaintances, from what Old Bai said, the two haven't been in contact for many years.

Regarding the other person's character and background, one actually cannot guarantee much.

Even whether the other person's personality and experiences are real or fake, the few of them cannot determine.

Zheng Fa didn't take this person to heart for now; the problem worrying him was still the demon beast attack three months later.

Looking at the Fusang Tree inside his body, he felt a bit resentful in his heart.

The Fusang Tree certainly helped a lot; the main thing was attracting the Golden Crow, letting them know the demon beasts' plot.

But on the other hand, this thing made his cultivation much more difficult.

In the past, with the lightning-affinity spiritual materials he ate, not to mention others, he should have reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

Zheng Fa didn't care much about the speed of cultivation.

But after breaking through the realm, the divine soul would also strengthen accordingly.

Now Zheng Fa's spiritual power level is in the early stage of Foundation Establishment, but his divine soul strength has already vaguely surpassed the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

If he could advance to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, his divine soul could almost certainly surpass the Jin Dan threshold.

With the divine soul strength of the Golden Core Stage, he might be able to master the spiritual wood lightning, thereby acquiring a large amount of Heavenly Merit to speed up controlling the Heavenly Stele Realm.

Thinking of this, his gaze at the Fusang Tree was rather unfriendly... The Fusang Tree trembled, seeming a bit afraid.

……

"Come with me!"That day, as Zheng Fa was continuing to study Cloud, Rain, and Thunder with Old Bai, attempting to further optimize this thunder technique, Tian Laoshi suddenly rushed over excitedly.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing her so anxious, Old Bai hurriedly asked.

"Come to my laboratory!"

Tian Laoshi said nothing else, simply beckoning the two of them.

Zheng Fa and Old Bai exchanged a glance and walked toward Tian Laoshi's agricultural laboratory.

On the way, Tian Laoshi finally began to explain: "You know, generally every day I take some samples from the fields and examine them in the laboratory."

Zheng Fa nodded.

Although the Qi environment had not yet generated spirit plants for the time being—Zheng Fa and Tian Laoshi had also discussed a scenario where the plants indeed underwent some changes, such as genetic mutations, but because the planting time was insufficient, they could not truly become spirit plants.

Because of this hypothesis, they saved seeds from every harvest, and Tian Laoshi would also take samples for observation.

"Look at these cell slide images!"

Tian Laoshi led Zheng Fa and the other person to a computer; on the computer screen were several magnified images of the cell interiors.

Zheng Fa looked at them one by one—well, the only things he could recognize were very elementary: cell walls, cell nuclei, chloroplasts, mitochondria, and the like.

But to be honest, asking him to discern anything from these images, his high-school-level biology knowledge was truly powerless.

"Xiao Tian, is there something wrong with these cells?"

Tian Laoshi patted her forehead and said, "I was too excited; I forgot you aren't familiar with these."

She pulled up several previous cell images, arranged the pictures side by side, and said again, "Look again?"

After Zheng Fa and the other person looked for a while, Old Bai frowned and said uncertainly, "There's a... new tissue?"

Zheng Fa saw it too.

It was an inconspicuous thing; positioned near the cell wall, compared to the cell nucleus and other things, this thing appeared very small.

"Yes!"

Tian Laoshi clapped her hands and said, "Just these past two days, this thing suddenly appeared inside the cells of these pea seedlings!"

"It became a spirit plant?"

Old Bai also said joyfully.

"I'm not certain of that; I can only say it has undergone significant changes."

Zheng Fa immediately stopped the circulation of the Spirit Mountain Method within his body.

The three of them walked to the field's edge and surrounded that pea seedling, looking at it for a long while.

"Qi!"

"There is Qi on this pea seedling!"

"We really cultivated a spirit plant!"

Old Bai cheered.

Even Tang Lingwu, who was inside the house, was attracted over; a group surrounded a few ordinary pea seedlings, looking left and right, afraid they might be mistaken.

Finally, they confirmed that Qi, extremely faint and indistinguishable under the Qi environment, was indeed flowing on these pea seedlings.

They did not neglect the other plants either.

They circled the experimental field, their eyes turning green from looking, but found no other vegetable containing Qi.

"It should be just this one type; the other samples in the laboratory showed no changes either," Tian Laoshi also said.

Everyone was somewhat disappointed.

However, Tian Laoshi comforted them: "Our field is different from Old Bai's; they do mathematics and look at people, while we do agriculture and look at Heaven."

"Look at Heaven? Look at the weather and climate?" Tang Lingwu asked curiously.

"No, look at whether Heaven blesses us or not," Tian Laoshi shook her head and said, "Sometimes you don't know when it will succeed, or even why it succeeded."

Zheng Fa fell silent; they didn't know now either...

……

"This cell tissue..." Old Bai looked at the cell structure diagram, which Tian Laoshi had magnified even further, and stroked his chin, saying, "It looks somewhat familiar..."

Zheng Fa nodded and suddenly said, "It looks very much like a bundle of fine threads intertwined—or rather, like intertwined immortal technique diagrams."

"Yes! That's exactly the feeling!" Old Bai clapped his hands: "Pity this image is too blurry; I can't tell exactly what immortal technique it is."

"Actually, I've been thinking..." Zheng Fa suddenly said, "Whether it's an immortal technique, our meridians, or even spells—in essence, they are all Qi trajectories. To become a spirit plant, it probably also requires such Qi trajectories."

"You mean this is the spirit plant's 'meridians'?"

Old Bai immediately understood Zheng Fa's meaning.

"Yes, it's just that I don't know why it exists in the form of cell tissue," Zheng Fa nodded and said.

Stroking his chin, Old Bai suddenly said, "Zheng Fa, didn't I mention to you before about going to Jingcheng University's School of Medicine..."

Zheng Fa was stunned for a moment and looked at Old Bai: "You want to examine our cell structure?"

"Yes, if we don't want outsiders to slice us, it's no big deal if one of us slices one of us, right?" Old Bai pointed at the laboratory: "The equipment here is fully equipped; it's time for us to dedicate ourselves to the science of immortal techniques!"

Zheng Fa thought for a while and asked: "Tian Laoshi?"

"Wait a moment, I need to check the data and see the experimental protocols," Tian Laoshi shook her head and sighed: "I'm in agriculture; I've never actually conducted human trials."

(End of this chapter)