Chapter 86
“Zhuang Shidi has great talent, actually. He was over thirty when my master found him, which is past the best age for cultivating immortality. But my master valued his potential and took him into the sect directly,” explained Zhang Shijie. “He used one of those rare spots that only come around every fifty years.”
“...But Zhuang Shixiong doesn’t seem... that strong.”
“He’s extremely lazy in his cultivation. If it weren’t for me and my master pushing him, he probably wouldn’t even have reached the Foundation Establishment stage by now.” A hint of helplessness flashed across Zhang Shijie’s face. “This guy... doesn’t even want to cultivate, let alone use any spiritual materials.”
Zhang Shijie added, “Actually, we’re also afraid to let him cultivate too much…”
...That’s true; what a reckless world the cultivation realm is.
“Do you know what he thinks?”
“No idea.”
Zheng Fa felt utterly shocked.
“He said that spiritual energy is the poison of this world, and the sect is a great thief of humanity. When spiritual energy is abundant, only one in ten thousand can cultivate. When it declines, countless beings will be buried in despair because of the sect…” Zhang Shijie looked up. “He said that without the sect, the mundane world could escape this cycle of calamity.”
...That makes a lot of sense!
When spiritual energy is abundant, most people can’t cultivate and enjoy its blessings; when it’s scarce, most people have to die alongside it.
This idea, while a bit self-destructive, isn’t fundamentally flawed.
...
At home, Zheng Fa sat cross-legged on a mat, channeling his spiritual power according to the “Five Thunder Law Body.” The Xuan Lei Stone in his hand flickered with faint electric sparks, causing his body to twitch.
After a long while, he finally opened his eyes and looked at the Xuan Lei Stone in his hand.
The blackness on the stone seemed to have lightened a bit.
One Xuan Lei Stone was far from enough for cultivating the “Five Thunder Law Body.”
But for Zheng Fa, this stone had one advantage—it helped him gauge how much electricity he should use.
The “Five Thunder Law Body” seemed crude at first: shock yourself, then use spiritual power and medicinal materials to nourish your body, enhancing it in the process.
But in reality, this technique is quite intricate. The Five Thunder Law Body is divided into five layers—tempering skin, refining flesh, strengthening bones, exchanging blood, and finally, channeling heavenly thunder to refine the body.
Each layer requires spiritual power to communicate with the Xuan Lei Stone, drawing in different intensities of heavenly thunder into the body—this process is likely filled with the experiences of countless ancestors who were shocked to life and death.
For Zheng Fa, there’s a major issue with this technique: modern electrical currents aren’t controlled by spiritual power.
He needed to figure out the approximate voltage required for each layer.
Otherwise, too low would yield no results, and too high would lead to no future.
One Xuan Lei Stone was certainly insufficient for him to master the “Five Thunder Law Body,” but it was enough to familiarize him with the sensation of being shocked at each layer.
...
In modern times, Zheng Fa looked at the socket in his room, feeling a bit hesitant.
Starting with a voltage of 220V seemed a bit reckless.
After some thought, he took out a power bank from his room.
He cut one end of the charging cable, exposing the copper wires, and plugged the other end into the power bank’s output port marked with a rated voltage of 5V. Then, he gently grasped the exposed copper wire with two fingers.
Hmm, it tingled a bit, but not enough power!
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 98: Tingling
Chapter 98: Tingling
5V was still too weak. Zheng Fa opened his phone and searched online for a while.
Finally, he discovered a treasure of the cultivation world—a variable transformer!
After placing an order with a local vendor, Zheng Fa headed to the classroom.
As soon as he entered, he noticed a slight change in the classroom—next to the blackboard by the door, there was a notice board that read: “XXX days until the college entrance exam!”
Tang Lingwu was standing under the notice board, holding a stack of red-numbered cards on a white background.
The classroom was bustling with students chatting in small groups.
But most of their gazes occasionally darted toward the numbers in Tang Lingwu’s hands, as if those small squares held some significant meaning.
As Zheng Fa approached his seat, his best friend Wang Chen was slumped over his desk. Upon seeing Zheng Fa, he didn’t greet him, his expression mirroring the anxiety of most students in the room.
Tang Lingwu carefully placed the three numbers “100” on the board.
Wang Chen suddenly sighed, gazing at the notice board with a lament, “I suddenly feel like this is going to take forever.”
Zheng Fa glanced around; most people looked more serious than usual, while Tang Lingwu appeared unfazed, absorbed in her book—Zheng Fa recognized it as a university-level mathematics course, “Modern Algebra.”
From her expression, she seemed completely unaffected by the impending exam.
“Only a hundred days left…” Wang Chen plopped down next to Zheng Fa. “Feels so long! My parents are more nervous than I am! My mom’s been cooking this and that every day, and she won’t even turn on the TV at home, saying she’s afraid it’ll disturb my studying. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even play a game without feeling guilty!”
“The worst part is, when she sees me playing games, she doesn’t even scold me anymore; she says I’m good at it!” He wore a look of overwhelmed happiness. “It’s made me feel embarrassed to play!”
Zheng Fa stayed silent, feeling like he was being subjected to a display of Wang Chen’s bragging.
“I read online that after we graduate, we’ll miss these days... Miss them, my foot!” Wang Chen grumbled, seemingly trying to ease his inexplicable tension. “These are the most painful days of my life!”
After talking for a while without hearing Zheng Fa’s voice, he turned to him.
“What about you? Do you think you’ll miss it?”
“Me?” Zheng Fa looked around the classroom. “I’ve already started missing it. Yeah, I miss it seven days a week.”
The Jiu Shan Sect had shattered his imagination of the immortal sect.
It was filled with angry low-level cultivators.
Disciples from two factions brawling in the talisman hall.
Zhuang Shixiong, who was unwilling to cultivate, and Zhang Shijie, who felt trapped.
It left him with a sense of inexplicable despair.
Looking at this group of classmates, anxious and restless about the college entrance exam, Zheng Fa felt... a bit of affection.
Wang Chen paused, glancing at him and then at Tang Lingwu’s back. After a long silence, he finally said:
“...If I had someone like Tang Lingwu to miss, I’d miss it too.”
Seeing his somewhat frustrated expression, it seemed he felt overshadowed by Zheng Fa’s earlier comments.
...
The transformer arrived quickly. The model Zheng Fa bought could output voltages from 0V to 300V, with increments of 30V.
He set up the transformer, grasped two copper wires, and began to slowly adjust the output voltage.
At 30V, he felt a slight sensation, but it still wasn’t as strong as when he was cultivating with the Xuan Lei Stone in the Xuan Wei Realm.
At 60V, it was still a bit lacking.
Finally, at 90V—a familiar tingling sensation made his hands tremble!
His internal spiritual power began to circulate spontaneously.
His skin quivered lightly, a mix of tingling and itching discomfort.
This was precisely the state described in the “Five Thunder Law Body” during the skin tempering phase.
...
It was another day to visit Old Bai.
As Zheng Fa walked down the road with Tang Lingwu, he suddenly asked curiously, “Tang Lingwu, you don’t seem nervous at all?”
In the entire class, aside from him, who had a rather unique experience, Tang Lingwu was the calmest.
What Zheng Fa found even more puzzling was that most of the time, Tang Lingwu wasn’t studying high school textbooks but was instead learning university courses—
Including the audacious act of studying math during English class and doing exercises during Chinese class.
Even the teachers turned a blind eye.
“What’s there to be nervous about?”
“The college entrance exam.”
Tang Lingwu seemed to understand something, nodding as she said, “Didn’t I tell you? I don’t have to take the college entrance exam.”
“?”
“I got a direct admission.”
When Tang Lingwu said this, her expression was as casual as if she were saying she had just eaten.
“...Then why are you coming to school?”
This time, Tang Lingwu fell silent for a longer time.
Just when he thought she wouldn’t answer, a soft voice finally broke the silence:
“I don’t want to go home.”
Zheng Fa turned to look at Tang Lingwu’s face.
She turned to meet his gaze, a rare playful smile appearing on her face as she said:
“I’m just kidding. Do you know what the happiest thing is after getting direct admission?”
“What?”
“Just sitting in the classroom, watching you all work hard.”
“…”
Zheng Fa watched as Tang Lingwu walked ahead of him, her ponytail swaying, seemingly trying to block his slightly skeptical gaze.
...
In the office of the teaching building, Zheng Fa’s homeroom teacher, Old Chen, watched the two figures from behind, frowning in worry as he smoked.
The female teacher across from him, curious about his expression, followed his gaze and saw Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu.
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