Chapter 235: Formatted Immortal Art

"You let Zheng Fa act like this?"

Master Huang asked Zhang Shijie.

Her gaze rested on the courtyard's central well; Zhang Shijie was fastidious by nature and loved water, and even though this was only a temporary residence, she had meticulously arranged it.

The well once held a small pond, its surrounding plants and trees neatly trimmed.

In the past, it had been refreshing to behold.

Now it held several jarringly out-of-place items—a coffin, two square tables.

Zheng Fa pulled out a storage pouch, opened its mouth, and soil poured onto the tables, dust swirling through the courtyard.

Master Huang winced, turning to look at her own disciple.

Zhang Shijie's expression remained unchanged, as if she hadn't sensed her master's distaste; she replied, "How is this acting foolishly?"

Master Huang snorted, pointing at the bones in the coffin, disdainfully: "These bones carry not a speck of spiritual energy—if they had, would you two even be allowed to pick them up?"

Yuan Shijie nodded beside her.

These bones were no ordinary remains; treasure-hunting cultivators must have examined them, and many likely hoped to find a hidden prize.

Only because they showed no discernible value did they fall into Zheng Fa's hands.

Zheng Fa heard Master Huang's words but didn't care—

In the Xuanwei Realm, the only person who might understand his thoughts was perhaps Zhang Shijie alone.

Or rather, Zhang Shijie might even harbor doubts herself, yet she gave him enough trust to let him act as he wished.

Master Huang was different.

Even among the three Nascent Soul cultivators of Jiushan Sect, she was the one who interacted least with Zheng Fa.

He could feel—Master Huang had little emotional investment in him, not out of dislike, but because she simply didn't care much.

Zheng Fa even had the impression that, within the entire Jiushan Sect, Master Huang cared for only Zhang Shijie.

It was natural for her to be puzzled by his unusual actions.

Zheng Fa arranged the soil he had taken from the secret realm, then pulled out a white porcelain plate and spoke softly to the bones in the coffin: "Elder, forgive me."

As he spoke, a Frost Blade Talisman flew from his dantian, slicing a paper-thin sliver from the bone's fingertip, which landed in his porcelain plate.

"What are you doing?"

Master Huang asked. Zhang Shijie watched Zheng Fa's actions and shook her head—she clearly didn't understand either.

Zheng Fa didn't answer their questions; instead, silver light flared in his eyes as he stared at the bone sliver.

Under the perspective of the "Dongxu Spirit Eye," the sliver was magnified many times over.

This bone sliver carried no spiritual energy whatsoever, having lost its former power—even a minor Frost Blade Talisman could cut through it—and thus others deemed it merely ordinary.

But to Zheng Fa, it was anything but ordinary—according to his understanding of current Immortal Arts, or as Zhang Shijie put it, from Soul Transformation onward, the physical body becomes mere nourishment, no longer important to the cultivator.

That meant, most likely, cultivators above Soul Transformation had no true physical bodies.

Yet this white bone had endured for hundreds of thousands of years, and even after that time, still possessed the power of a single strike.

Zheng Fa suspected this was due to the Tianhe New Method.

The magnified bone sliver showed nothing unusual.

Under the "Dongxu Spirit Eye," the bone fragment looked exactly like an ordinary human's bone—abundant bone matrix, scattered bone cells; since the man was dead, all internal cellular structures had ceased activity.

Yet this ordinariness was deeply abnormal!

For one thing, could an ordinary human live this long?

Could an ordinary human kill five Nascent Souls with a single sword strike?

Thinking of this, Zheng Fa's silver gaze intensified by a third, focusing again on the bone fragment.

He truly found something unusual!

Within each bone cell, there seemed to be a void—as if something had once occupied that space.

He recalled the cell structures within his own body, which resembled talismans.

Did this man also possess a special Dao Body?

"Young Master Zheng, what have you discovered?"

Zhang Shijie asked as he looked up.

Zheng Fa shook his head: "No conclusion yet."

He took out paper and ink, sketching the structure of those bone cells with meticulous detail, especially the void, then walked toward the soil.

The soil's composition was far more complex.

Aside from the soil itself,

there were fragments of magic treasures and human remains.

"Zhang Shijie…" Zheng Fa looked at her; he didn't need to speak, and she nodded immediately: "What do you need me to do?"

"Any unusual fragments—we must record their shapes and categorize them."

Zheng Fa explained his idea.

Zhang Shijie nodded and activated the "Dongxu Spirit Eye," joining Zheng Fa in recording.

Nearby,

Master Huang and Yuan Shijie exchanged a glance, both shaking their heads, as if in perfect understanding, then walked out of the courtyard.

"Master, do you understand what they're doing?"

"Doing what?" Master Huang sighed lightly. "Isn't it normal that outsiders can't comprehend a young couple's private whims?"

"..."

The soil contained too many, too varied substances. Even though both Zhang Shijie and Zheng Fa were cultivators—Zhang Shijie even a Nascent Soul—they spent three full days and nights just to organize the basics.

"Finished playing?"

On this day, Master Huang watched as the two packed away the coffin and tables, and asked.

"Done."

Master Huang glanced at Zheng Fa and Zhang Shijie; their expressions were calm, unremarkable: "No discoveries?"

"Yes. A small one."

"That's fine," Master Huang nodded. "At least you didn't make your sister waste her time."

"Young Master, this discovery… isn't small!" Zhang Shijie suddenly spoke up.

"Huh?"

"We've figured out roughly how the Tianhe New Method works!"

"What?"

Master Huang froze.

"Based on that bone? That pile of dirt?"

Zheng Fa nodded.

"Wait—the Tianhe Sect hid this for hundreds of thousands of years! The Tianhe New Method's lineage was lost for an entire epoch! And you two figured it out from just these two things?"

"Not quite," Zheng Fa shook his head. "We still don't know what the actual cultivation method of the Tianhe Patriarch was—only have some theories. That's why we call it a small discovery."

"Then what did you find?"

"Perhaps… the underlying concept of the Tianhe New Method?"

"..."

Zheng Fa picked up the drawings and began explaining:

"Master, look—this circle here, in the bone cells of the Tianhe Patriarch's disciple, has a gap."

"Later, we found traces of blood—cells, actually—in the soil, and they had the exact same small gap."

"I didn't know what this gap was at first, but then we found a tiny metallic particle infused with spiritual energy in the soil—their shapes matched perfectly! We suspect these particles came from the bronze sword he once held."

Master Huang blinked.

Zheng Fa was only Foundation Establishment, yet how come she, a Nascent Soul, didn't fully grasp what he was saying?

"Master, Zheng Fa means the Tianhe New Method's general concept is to cultivate the sword into the body, merging man and weapon, using the magic treasure's power to strengthen the flesh."

"That's why the bronze sword particles match the cells so precisely."

"The cultivator survived so long because of that bronze sword."

Zhang Shijie explained.

Master Huang now understood. She frowned: "So the Tianhe Patriarch created the method of the True Magic Treasure—and the Tianhe New Method's post-Soul Transformation concept is to fuse the True Magic Treasure with one's own body?"

"Yes. That's our guess."

"This concept…" Master Huang mused, "I feel like I've heard it before."

"Sword cultivators!" Zhang Shijie said directly. "I've read ancient records—there was a type of cultivator in the last epoch who owned nothing but their sword! And the Tianhe Patriarch was famed for his sword."

Master Huang nodded vigorously: "So cultivating the sword into the body is the essence of the Tianhe New Method?"

"No. The essence is owning nothing else." Zheng Fa and Zhang Shijie exchanged glances, their expressions heavier than before. "Master, you know our Three-Character Theory, right?"

Master Huang gave a slight nod.

"Simply put, we believe the spiritual rules of this world were written by great beings—hence the existence of Divine Name Sub-characters."

"I know that."

"But we've discovered—the Tianhe New Method can fundamentally erase these rules."

"Erase?" Master Huang stared. "What do you mean?"

"Among the soil particles, many came from the bodies and magic treasures of those cultivators—but when we observed them with the 'Dongxu Spirit Eye,' their spiritual energy traces showed no trace of Divine Name Sub-characters."

"You mean..."

"Master He Tian Zhishaozhangwoleyizhongnenggougaibian —— O ， Yinggaishuoqingxilingqiguizedeshouduan —— Wohuaiyijiushinashizhuxian 。"

And those Yuan Ying and Jin Dan cultivators died so quickly because the spiritual energy rules within their bodies were altered...

Zheng Fa spoke while shaking his head: "Of course, this is just a hypothesis of mine and my senior sister's, but based on the observations, this explanation is relatively reasonable."

Sister Zhang beside him also nodded.

"This also explains why the new and old methods of the Heavenly River are almost completely incompatible—according to the old methods, this Heavenly River Master might as well be called the Law-Annihilating Master; if all sword cultivators are like this, it's truly terrifying."

Master Huang stood frozen for a long while, seemingly processing all the logic involved.

She opened her mouth, turned her head to look at the coffin and the soil, furrowed her brow, her expression even more puzzled.

"Master, is there something you still don't understand?"

Sister Zhang asked softly.

"I understand what you mean..." Master Huang waved his hand and said, "I just can't quite believe it—that these two things alone, you've deduced so much from them?"

……

Modern day.

Tang Lingwu and Old Bai listened to Zheng Fa's explanation of the new Heavenly River method; after a long silence, Tang Lingwu finally seemed to understand and spoke up:

"So the new Heavenly River method is just formatting the spiritual energy?"

... hat's actually a very apt description!

(End of Chapter)