Chapter 155
The terrain of Hongshan aligns perfectly with what the sect leader described as the spirit vein of the tortoise and snake—according to the "Theory of Spirit Veins," the location of the nursing home is right on the back of the tortoise.
Zheng Fa opened his eyes and began to walk slowly on the ground.
His steps were erratic yet seemed to follow a certain rhythm, gradually picking up speed.
The two old men, Bai and Lao, watched in a daze, eventually losing sight of his form altogether.
Gradually, it appeared as if starlight adorned Zheng Fa's clothing, transforming into streams of light that flowed with his every step.
Even though it was summer and the sun hung high in the sky, the brilliance surrounding Zheng Fa still dazzled Bai and Lao.
Suddenly, Zheng Fa halted.
With a flick of his right hand, two spirit talismans shot into the sky.
One soared towards the highest point of the mountain, the very peak of the "tortoise's back."
The other flew towards a slightly lower peak, the "snake's head."
As the two talismans took flight, the starlight surrounding Zheng Fa seemed to chase after them, creating a connection that resembled two tiny kites.
The starlight formed faint lines, linking Zheng Fa to the two talismans.
The talismans flew at incredible speed, invisible to the naked eye of mere mortals.
But in Zheng Fa's vision, as soon as the talismans reached their destinations, they shattered into countless sparkling fragments, merging into the mountain itself.
Zheng Fa felt an inexplicable sensation, as if he and the Hongshan beneath him had become one.
The spiritual energy within his dantian suddenly surged like boiling water, transforming into clouds and mist that poured out of him.
...
Down the mountain, in the guesthouse Zheng Fa had just left that morning.
Boss Mu was live-streaming to promote his guesthouse.
"That's right, just 198 for two days and one night! Three days and two nights for as low as 248!"
"Only ten slots available! Once they're gone, they're gone!"
"What’s fun around here? Our mountains are beautiful, the water is clear, and you can enjoy some home-cooked meals and hike a bit!"
"I’ll tell you, there’s a legend about Hongshan..."
He recounted the same legend he had told Zheng Fa earlier.
There weren’t many viewers in the live stream, and those present were commenting with "cliché" and "not buying it."
He didn’t lose heart, though, and began talking about the village's home-cooked dishes.
"Host! Host! Turn around!"
Suddenly, a viewer shouted.
"Turn around?"
Boss Mu looked a bit confused.
"The goddess has manifested! The goddess of Hongshan has shown herself!"
When Boss Mu turned around, he saw a rainbow bridge arching beautifully across the mountains.
"It hasn’t rained in the past two days..."
He muttered, only to be stunned by an even more astonishing sight—
A massive flock of birds suddenly erupted from the top of Hongshan, swirling around the mountain and the rainbow bridge in joyful flocks.
The sound of their chirping echoed through the mountains, filled with exuberance.
Unable to resist, Boss Mu took a few steps closer for a better look.
Then he saw his grandmother kneeling in front of the incense table at home, mumbling to herself.
"Grandma?"
"Your Highness, I didn’t mean to offend..."
"Grandma?"
"Don’t strike me! Strike that old man Wang instead; he was the ringleader back then!" His grandmother ignored him completely. "Don’t be fooled by him building a temple for you; his grandson is a scoundrel, making money without a conscience—don’t let him trick you!"
"…"
(End of this chapter)
**Chapter 156: Research**
For Zheng Fa, the ultimate goal of practicing the "Spirit Mountain Method" was not to make money or gain high status, but to conduct research.
It wasn’t just about how the "Spirit Mountain Method" could create a spiritual energy environment.
He viewed the practice of the "Spirit Mountain Method" itself as a significant experiment.
Zheng Fa felt as if he had connected with Hongshan through the two talismans, forming a vast cycle.
The spiritual energy in his dantian flowed into Hongshan through this mysterious connection, following the mountain's veins, and then returned to his dantian.
When it exited, the spiritual energy he had refined for a long time was already incredibly dense, like liquid mercury.
By the time this energy returned to his dantian, it had transformed into clouds and mist, or rather, into spiritual energy.
Zheng Fa observed this scene with great seriousness.
For those in the Xuanwei realm, absorbing spiritual energy and transforming it into spiritual power was a natural process.
But having received modern education, Zheng Fa always found himself asking one more "why" than those from the Xuanwei realm—why could spiritual energy transform into spiritual power?
What was the difference between spiritual energy and spiritual power?
He had a rough hypothesis, which could be expressed as:
Spiritual Power = Spiritual Energy + Soul + Path determined by Meridians
This wasn’t so much a hypothesis as it was a crude summary of his cultivation process—essentially, cultivation in the Xuanwei realm involved absorbing spiritual energy, guided by the soul, flowing along specific meridians, and ultimately storing it within the body.
This hypothesis wasn’t difficult, but Zheng Fa felt it was crucial—if he could understand this, he would have a clearer insight into the essence of various cultivation methods in the Xuanwei realm.
To put it grandly, he might even say he was exploring the essence of cultivation.
Moreover, if he could delve deeper into this essence, he might create a cultivation method that suited him best—much like discovering how magnetism generates electricity and then attempting to build a generator.
Currently, practicing the Spirit Mountain Method was a way to validate this hypothesis—by observing how his spiritual power transformed into spiritual energy, he could determine whether his thoughts were partially correct.
To his surprise, the spiritual energy forming in his dantian was no longer under the control of his soul; he no longer felt that sense of direct command.
In other words, compared to spiritual power, spiritual energy lacked his soul's influence, which partially validated his hypothesis.
Through the Spirit Mountain Method, Zheng Fa could even derive another equation:
Spiritual Energy = Spiritual Power + Soul + Path determined by Meridians.
He opened his eyes, a glimmer of joy in them.
Although it was just a small validation of a simple hypothesis, achieving such results so early in his practice of the Spirit Mountain Method made him quite happy.
"What’s up? Did it work?"
Seeing him smile, Bai Lao hurriedly asked.
Whether Zheng Fa could successfully cultivate the Spirit Mountain Method was a significant matter for both of them.
Zheng Fa's eyes sparkled as he looked around.
In a way, in the Spirit Mountain Method, Zheng Fa played the role of a power source, while the Hongshan mountain range served as a large circuit board—responsible for converting spiritual power into spiritual energy.
At present, he was only at the seventh level of Qi Refinement, and the spiritual energy he could produce was quite thin, only affecting a radius of less than ten meters.
This was normal.
According to the records of the Spirit Mountain Method, the spiritual energy environment created at the seventh level of Qi Refinement was sufficient for a few people to cultivate, but they could only reach the first level of Qi Refinement at most...
But for Bai and Lao, who were just starting out, this was enough.
"Didn’t you feel any changes?"
Bai Lao shook his head in confusion, glancing around. "Nothing seems different."
"There is a change," Tang Lingwu suddenly interjected. "My phone just lost signal, and now it’s completely shut off."
Zheng Fa was taken aback and pulled out his own phone.
His screen was also black, seemingly experiencing some unknown malfunction.
He looked at Bai Lao.
Bai Lao shook his head, holding his own phone.
"This means spiritual energy can interfere with electronic devices?"
Zheng Fa frowned.
"It’s not just interference; if it were merely interference, it would just show a signal issue." Bai Lao shook his head. "This is shut down, as if the internal circuits have encountered some problems due to the spiritual energy."
Hearing this, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but recall his earlier doubts.
If the mathematical development in the Xuanwei realm seemed absurd due to a lack of intuition, then electromagnetic induction was quite intuitive—especially for cultivators who practiced thunder techniques.
They had a strong sense of perception and could control significant amounts of electrical energy.
Even by coincidence, as long as they stood near metal while casting thunder techniques, they could notice the phenomenon of metal magnetization.
Now it seemed that spiritual energy was likely to blame.
With this thought, Zheng Fa recalled his senior brother Zhuang’s remarks about spiritual energy being the poison of the world.
It oddly resonated.
Of course, even if cultivators in the Xuanwei realm discovered this phenomenon, would they spark an energy revolution? Zheng Fa doubted it.
Spiritual energy was just too useful.
"This isn’t bad," Bai Lao mused after a moment. "At least we don’t have to worry about anyone using electronic devices to spy on us."
Zheng Fa nodded, watching the glimmer of desire in Bai Lao's eyes, knowing the old man could hardly wait any longer.
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