Chapter 240: The First Lesson: What Makes a God

Xiao Qing's academic performance was not ideal.

Although she was small and thin, she was indeed seventeen years old; for over a decade, she had known nothing of studying, and now to suddenly make her begin learning—

it was truly putting her in a difficult position.

Watching Xiao Qing nodding off beneath the statue, Zheng Fa stopped his lecture and asked Zhang Shijie, "Is my lecture... so hypnotic?"

He had some teaching experience—he had taught the Seventh Young Master.

Oh, the Seventh Young Master was also one who loved to sleep...

This made Zheng Fa doubt himself even more...

"It's not that you teach poorly," Zhang Shijie said, "but this young girl... or rather, to enlighten her in the Heavenly Stele Realm, the task is heavy and the road is long..."

Zheng Fa looked at Xiao Qing and inwardly agreed with Zhang Shijie's words.

He had started by teaching Xiao Qing because he wanted to test the people of the Heavenly Stele Realm's resistance to knowledge hypnosis.

Now it seemed the outlook was not optimistic...

In the river valley below the mountain, the land had already been tilled. Away from her books, Xiao Qing was cheerfully leading women and children to sow seeds everywhere.

The seeds themselves each had their own origins—

wild vegetables picked from the mountains.

wild rice pulled from the swamps.

and some small trees bearing wild fruits.

Zheng Fa also found it amazing:

The Heavenly Stele Realm had no proper arable land, but that did not mean Xiao Qing and the others had a narrow diet; on the contrary, what they ate was diverse, and they even knew of over a hundred edible plants.

When Zheng Fa said he wanted to plant some edible plants, the things they brought him opened his eyes wide.

Later, he figured it out—precisely because they ate so little, they tried everything...

If they died from eating it, so be it.

If they didn't die... then they had expanded their diet.

"Shijie..."

Watching them plant all sorts of things, Zheng Fa transmitted his voice to Zhang Shijie.

The next moment.

An extremely dazzling laser shot out from above the temple.

The Shanfeng where the Half-Mountain City was located became like a candle lit to the utmost brightness, illuminating the gloomy sky.

Xiao Qing looked up.

This was a sky she had never seen before, a thousand li of clear blue, without a single dark cloud.

She had also never felt such generous sunlight; the sun warmed her body, giving her an inexplicable urge to cry.

Beside her, a woman slightly older than her groaned.

"Auntie?"

"I just..." The woman touched her knee, "I just feel that the places on my body that hurt are much better. This must be the Lei Shen Lord's grace."

"Is it enough?"

Zheng Fa heard Zhang Shijie ask.

He touched the bronze seal with his divine soul and discovered that when Zhang Shijie used the Rain-Stopping Thunder, she did so precisely according to the "weather forecast" on this bronze seal.

The difference was...

Zheng Fa's weak cultivation at the Foundation Establishment Stage could only maintain clear skies over a small area.

But Zhang Shijie was a Nascent Soul genius!

Xiao Yuying had previously said that her own cultivation was relatively low, so using the Heavenly Merit might put her at a disadvantage...

Yes, I am indeed at the Foundation Establishment Stage.

But who doesn't have a considerate and hardworking Nascent Soul Shijie?

Zheng Fa looked at Zhang Shijie's statue; at this moment, he felt as if Heavenly Merit Points +1, +1... were constantly rising above the statue's head.

Zhang Shijie seemed to understand his silence; she chuckled lightly, a hint of small pride in her laughter.

Yuan Shijie, standing nearby, could no longer hold back:

"Zhang Shijie, shouldn't we at least wait for Zheng Shidi to praise us a couple of times before laughing?"

Zheng Fa hurriedly praised, "Yuan Shijie, your use of the Heavenly Tribulation Thunder is also excellent!"

"Is it? Leave this matter to me, Shidi; you can rest a hundred percent assured!"

Zheng Fa looked at the various plants in the river valley; his divine soul, carrying spiritual energy, circulated, and a clap of thunder appeared on the horizon.

It startled Xiao Qing and the others in the valley.

This was the Spirit-Wood Thunder Zheng Fa had just tested in the modern era; this thunder technique, ironically, was something Zhang Shijie could not master...

The main problem was her insufficient control over thunder techniques.

The Rain-Stopping Thunder and the Heavenly Tribulation Thunder, while also testing control, had their primary difficulty in the power of the Lei Ting; this was something even Yuan Shijie at the Jin Dan Stage did not lack, let alone Zhang Shijie.

But the Spirit-Wood Thunder, such an extremely precise thunder technique, in Zheng Fa's view, aside from himself, probably only his Shizun within the Jiushan Sect possessed such control.

After three claps of thunder.

Zheng Fa's gaze fixed tightly on the various plants in the valley, focusing mainly on several types of wild beans.

Sure enough, one type of bean began to slowly, slowly absorb spiritual energy, and it too began to undergo spiritual plant transformation!

"This... this is a spiritual plant?" Sister Yuan asked blankly. "We actually cultivated a new type of spiritual plant?"

"You could say that."

Zheng Fa thought for a moment; it seemed no one in the Xuanwei Realm had ever heard of such a spiritual plant.

"So simple... then why did the Qianhe Sect treat their so-called Huang Ya Rice as such a treasure?"

There was a sense of betrayed anger in Sister Yuan's tone—she loved Huang Ya Rice dearly and had later considered trying to get some from the Qianhe Sect to grow herself.

Of course, the Qianhe Sect had not given her that face.

Sister Yuan clearly still held a grudge over this.

"Is it possible... it's not that the Qianhe Sect is stingy, but that Junior Brother Zheng is powerful?"

Sister Zhang understood the value contained within these three Thunder-wood lines better than she did. She turned to Zheng Fa and said, "You have now mastered a secret method for cultivating spiritual plants..."

"Sister, it is *we* who have mastered a secret method."

Zheng Fa suddenly said.

Sister Zhang fell silent for a moment, then softly said, "Mm, *we*."

... Halfway Mountain City. Sister Hong was cooking at home while her child, Bao'er, spun around at her feet, drooling at the fish soup inside the clay pot.

Since the weather had begun to clear, fishing was no longer a difficult task.

Even with only two women in the household, they could eat fish every day—Bao'er had even grown a bit taller; the mark on the wall was now half a finger higher than before.

Thinking of this, a smile naturally appeared on her face.

Suddenly, the voices of several people came from outside. She heard that one of them was Xiao Qing, who seemed to be shouting something loudly.

She glanced at the clay pot and said to the inner room, "Mother, watch Bao'er and the fire. I'll go outside to see what's happening."

"See what?"

"Xiao Qing is here; it seems like something is up. I'll see if I can help."

She walked out the door and heard Xiao Qing standing at the street corner saying, "Lord Lei Shen has said that from now on, all children over five but under ten must go to the temple during the day."

"Go to the temple?"

"What for at the temple?"

"Every day?"

Questions from the surrounding people came one after another.

Sister Hong also stood at a distance, listening closely.

This matter had nothing to do with her Bao'er, who was only one or two years old; she was simply curious that Lord Lei Shen had suddenly issued such an order.

You see, in the past, Lord Lei Shen did not like people entering the temple.

"Lord Lei Shen said it is so they can go study."

"Study?"

These two words made these people even more confused.

"Study..."

The crowd looked at one another in silence for a long time before someone asked Xiao Qing, "Xiao Qing, tell me the truth... is studying a good thing or a bad thing?"

Xiao Qing's face showed a glaringly obvious struggle.

"G-good! It's a good thing!"

Seeing her expression, even people as close to her as Sister Hong found it hard to believe.

Let alone everyone else.

The crowd exchanged glances and remained silent.

After a while, someone else spoke up, "Then... can our children come back?"

"Come back?" Xiao Qing paused, then said, "They return every day at noon!"

"Good, they come back, that's good..."

The crowd asked no further questions and simply dispersed.

The next day, Zheng Fa looked at the small children of various sizes outside the temple and felt very strange...

Why did all these children have expressions of heroic martyrdom on their faces?

And why did those parents all look so reluctant to part?

Zheng Fa stirred his divine soul, and the inner thoughts of these children immediately began to chatter up and down in his sea of consciousness:

"Dad said not to cry... not to cry!"

"Lord Lei Shen gives fish! I want to make Lord Lei Shen happy!"

"Mother! Mother! I'm scared!"

The inner thoughts of one or two parents also rang out from time to time.

"Xiao Qing said they can come back at noon, so Lord Lei Shen probably doesn't eat children."

"The children might have to suffer some grievances, but after all, it is Lord Lei Shen..."

"At worst, we can just have another one..."

No, I'm just opening a school; I never thought of bullying children!

He couldn't help but turn his gaze toward Xiao Qing—how had this person delivered the order?

Sister Zhang, however, smiled softly and said:

"Junior Brother, even though these people do not understand what studying is, and some even think you intend to take pleasure in children, they are still willing to send their children..."

Zheng Fa fell slightly silent.

"I originally thought they wouldn't understand and that opening a school in the Heavenly Stele Realm would be difficult. I didn't expect..." Sister Zhang's tone held a hint of surprise, "that you would hold such authority in their hearts."

Sister Yuan spoke: "Sister, I've told you—Brother Zheng's ability to attract attention is utterly unreasonable!"

Zheng Fa said nothing, only turned his gaze toward the bewildered children.

Even compared to children of the Xuanwei Realm, these children seemed more sensible.

Some of the children, perhaps understanding their parents' worries, held back tears.

They merely gazed at Zheng Fa's statue, their expressions uneasy.

Zheng Fa stirred his spiritual sense, and a luminous screen appeared before the statue, displaying line after line of text.

As the characters appeared, a grand voice rang out:

"From today onward, you will study with me and learn knowledge."

The group of children fell silent.

They clearly did not understand.

"I know you don't understand, but I hope you remember what I say today…"

Zheng Fa paused. Honestly, he felt a touch of nervousness during this first lesson; on another level, he wished to plant a seed in these children's hearts.

"From today onward, you will learn how to think, how to observe the world, and how to help your parents and build Banshan City."

The children's eyes remained blank, yet they listened with intense focus.

"I've had many teachers and read many books," Zheng Fa continued. "They said countless wise words, but I know only three were what they most wanted to say… Now I tell you."

"Learn from me."

"Become me."

"Surpass me."

Zheng Fa's voice echoed through the temple, repeating again and again, as if carving those nine characters into the children's bewildered hearts.

"Sister Zhang…" Sister Yuan's voice, tinged with awe, reached Sister Zhang's ears. "Now I understand why, even if he wanted to eat people, they still came."

(End of Chapter)