Chapter 206
“Thunder? Spirit Plants?” The old man Bai furrowed his brows. “It sounds simple... but this is far too vague.”
Zheng Fa understood what the old man meant.
This was merely a starting point.
“Magnetic field changes can stimulate the growth of spirit plants, but what kind of magnetic field changes? Large or small? Fluctuating wildly? In which direction, and for how long?” Bai muttered, “There are countless threads to follow, and we don’t even know where to begin.”
“I do know of a type of thunder technique that’s said to promote plant growth,” Zheng Fa suddenly said. “There are three incomplete thunder techniques: Tianjie Thunder, Yunyu Thunder, and this one—I call it Lingmu Thunder.”
At this point, Zheng Fa felt a bit helpless.
Just how rudimentary were the three thunder techniques recorded in the Tianbei realm? The names were all improvised.
For instance, Tianjie Thunder and Yunyu Thunder were named by Yan Wushuang and the others.
As for Lingmu Thunder, it had no name—mainly because there was no hope of mastering it; out of sight, out of mind!
“Three types of thunder techniques?” Tang Lingwu, who was nearby, asked. “What’s the difference between them?”
“Tianjie Thunder focuses on controlling power.”
“Yunyu Thunder aims to control rainfall.”
“And Lingmu Thunder is about controlling the growth of plants,” Zheng Fa summarized slowly.
“That sounds increasingly difficult,” Bai remarked. “We can consider power in terms of current strength or voltage, but the other two are different.”
“Exactly,” Zheng Fa agreed, “For Yunyu Thunder, if we consider the process of rainfall, it might involve altering the polarity of water molecules, using an electromagnetic field to coalesce them into raindrops, or causing raindrops to dissipate and vaporize—that’s relatively straightforward large-scale electromagnetic field control.”
“Lingmu Thunder is even harder to grasp, even if Teacher Tian’s hypothesis about magnetic fields affecting plants is true,” Zheng Fa sighed. “The changes in water molecules or raindrops in an electromagnetic field are clear, but how plants change is much more obscure. The required magnetic field changes could be even more complex and microscopic.”
The expressions of Bai and the others turned serious.
They clearly recognized the difficulty involved.
“That’s why I say these are three fundamentally incomplete thunder techniques,” Zheng Fa explained. “You could say they are three entirely new subjects. Of course, it’s a bit challenging, but the experiments on Tianjie Thunder are relatively simple.”
Zheng Fa didn’t mean to underestimate these three thunder techniques; it could be said that many cultivators skilled in thunder techniques had gathered in the Tianbei realm.
Faced with these three techniques, they were just as clueless.
Without the modern world, Zheng Fa actually lacked confidence in his understanding of thunder techniques compared to these practitioners...
“Don’t be afraid of the difficulty,” Teacher Tian said with a smile. “Once we have a direction, we’ll find our way…”
“That’s a good point,” Bai nodded. “I suddenly feel like cultivating immortality and scientific research are a perfect match…”
Zheng Fa felt a sigh building up inside him.
He had thought about this long ago...
If the Xuanwei realm had a scientific civilization, and if hundreds of thousands of years were spent exploring the world...
It probably wouldn’t be in its current state.
But on the other hand, a scientific civilization isn’t a given...
...
A few days later, Zheng Fa stood before a long metal rod connected to several sensors—current sensors, voltage sensors, and infrared sensors, all linked to fiber optics that connected to Tang Lingwu’s computer inside the room.
Several dozen meters away, a high-speed camera was set up.
Zheng Fa admitted that Yan Wushuang and the others might have a better grasp of thunder techniques than he did...
But he had never been one to rely on intuition...
Experiments were where the real excitement lay!
For safety, Bai and the others were watching him from inside the house.
This was their first experiment on Tianjie Thunder.
To prevent spiritual energy from interfering with the electromagnetic field and signals, all the equipment was placed outside the range of spiritual energy.
Zheng Fa’s spiritual power surged out, and under the control of his consciousness, it operated according to the patterns of Tianjie Thunder recorded in the Fengshen Ce (Book of Gods).
Though it wasn’t his first time using a spell, he had indeed used it very rarely.
In his view, the spells and talismans of the Xuanwei realm were two sides of the same coin.
For instance, right now, his consciousness was controlling his spiritual power, and the way it moved in the void resembled a talisman pattern—but unlike talismans, he was manipulating his spiritual power to “capture” the patterns in the void.
This method was inefficient; in reality, the power of a spell was more determined by the strength of the spiritual power used.
Talismans, on the other hand, gathered the patterns in the air onto talisman paper, making the spiritual power infused by the cultivator secondary.
There were other differences as well—like the long preparation time for spells, while talismans were much quicker.
Thus, spells gradually fell out of favor in favor of talismans.
Moreover, Senior Sister Zhang’s “Yuanfu Foundation Establishment Method” took it a step further, being faster and not requiring talisman paper or spiritual ink.
Now, Tianjie Thunder didn’t even qualify as a spell.
Zheng Fa could feel that many of the trajectories of his spiritual power in the air were useless, while some seemed to absorb the patterns in the air, yet he had no idea what their effects were.
What set Tianjie Thunder apart from the thunder techniques in the Xuanwei realm was its immense power—so great that it was beyond measure.
Zheng Fa had used thunder talismans before, but rarely had he achieved the power of Tianjie.
For many cultivators in the Xuanwei realm, the difference between weak and strong power was understandable; everyone could relate to it.
But the distinction between immense power and overwhelming power was hard to gauge accurately.
When a thunder strike hit, it turned everything to ash, leaving no trace...
Even if one could feel it, precise measurement was difficult.
However, with modern instruments, Zheng Fa could—up to a point, the progress of modern science is built on advancements in observational methods.
...
As Zheng Fa’s spiritual power flowed, suddenly, a bolt of lightning appeared in the air, striking the metal rod.
“How’s it going?”
Before Zheng Fa could respond, Bai and the others rushed out of the house to ask.
“Everything’s fine,” Zheng Fa gently shook his head and said to Bai, “I’ve drawn the pattern of my recent spiritual power operation; could you take a look?”
“Sure.”
And so it went.
Bolt after bolt of lightning struck the metal rod.
The trajectories of spiritual power appeared in Bai’s notebook.
Meanwhile, the related data—current, voltage, temperature, and even the dimensions and shapes of the lightning—were recorded on Tang Lingwu’s computer.
They only stopped the experiment when Zheng Fa’s spiritual power was depleted to a certain extent.
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 200: Equations (4K)
When Zheng Fa entered the room, Bai and Tang Lingwu were both busy.
Tang Lingwu was processing the data collected from various sensors on the computer, including the current magnitude, voltage strength, temperature, and the shapes and colors of the lightning captured by the high-speed camera.
Bai was examining various patterns on paper, trying to find the key among them.
Zheng Fa sat down beside Bai, feeling a bit tired for the first time in a while.
The thunder techniques in the Tianbei realm were peculiar: the power of Tianjie Thunder far exceeded that of ordinary thunder techniques, yet the requirements for cultivation were relatively low.
Zheng Fa, who was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, had just unleashed nearly eight or nine instances of Tianjie Thunder. If he hadn’t wanted to leave some spiritual power for the “Ling Mountain Method,” he probably could have managed two more.
But he hadn’t felt it then; now, however, he felt a sharp pain in his head, particularly at his temples—like someone was using a power drill to bore a tunnel through his skull.
Sitting at the table, he rubbed his temples, recalling a similar situation recorded in the texts of the Jiushan Sect—this was a sign of slight damage due to excessive consumption of spiritual consciousness.
This was rare for him; compared to his Foundation Establishment early stage, his consciousness strength had even surpassed that of the late Foundation Establishment stage.
Generally speaking, his spiritual power should deplete before his consciousness.
This led him to speculate: could the overwhelming power of Tianjie Thunder stem from its excessive consumption of a cultivator’s consciousness?
“Zheng Fa, what’s wrong?”
Bai, who had been focused on the draft in front of him, seemed to sense something was off. He turned to see Zheng Fa’s pale face and couldn’t help but ask.
“Nothing, just a bit of excessive consumption of consciousness. I’ll be fine after resting for a few days,” Zheng Fa shook his head. “Have you discovered anything?”
Tianjie Thunder was considered the most fundamental thunder technique in the Tianbei realm.
Yet, Yan Wushuang and the others had also failed to master it, primarily for two reasons:
The first was that no one knew how Tianjie Thunder was actually generated.
In other words, among all these patterns, which one could be the talisman pattern for Tianjie Thunder?
Without understanding this, the second problem naturally arose: how to control the strength of Tianjie Thunder.
At this moment, Bai was trying to research the first point, and the thought process was quite simple: every time Zheng Fa successfully cast Tianjie Thunder, he would collect the trajectory of that spiritual power and then use topology to identify the common patterns within the trajectories:
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