Chapter 238
“……” The old man Bai glared at Zheng Fa. “Is this how you give advice? I was supposed to serve twenty years in prison, and you’ve turned it into a death sentence?”
“Not a woman?”
“Not at all! A man! A real man!” The old man Bai explained, his anger palpable.
“Then it’s a same-sex relationship,” Zheng Fa asserted.
“...Yes, same-sex, but also a friend.” The old man Bai, realizing he was getting nowhere, quickly added, “Not a new friend, but an old one.”
“An old friend?” Teacher Tian perked up with curiosity. “Do I know him?”
The old man Bai shook his head and turned to Zheng Fa. “You remember, when I was young, I had a master, right?”
“Yeah, the one who got arrested,” Zheng Fa recalled vividly.
“This person… let’s say he’s my junior brother,” the old man Bai reminisced. “I was about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, not yet thirty, and he was still under twenty, just starting college. We were both disciples of that master.”
Zheng Fa nodded. “That’s quite a long-standing friendship.”
“Not really,” the old man Bai shook his head. “Back then, I was just practicing for fun. When my master got arrested, I panicked and hid at home for a few days.”
“He’s different.”
“How so?”
“He…” The old man Bai furrowed his brow. “You know those martial arts fanatics in movies, right?”
“He’s one of them?”
“No, he’s a qigong fanatic.” The old man Bai shook his head. “Our personalities are different; we’re not really that close. We haven’t seen each other in years—only recently did I hear that after my con artist master got arrested, he didn’t give up. He went around visiting temples and monasteries, looking for genuine teachings, even went abroad for a PhD, searching for ancient traditions wherever he could.”
“…”
“So why is he looking for you, Bai Laoshi?” Zheng Fa asked.
“Oh, I went viral online, remember?” The old man Bai replied. “After I started cultivating, I looked a bit like my younger self again. I mentioned my surname was Bai in my livestream, and he recognized me.”
“He thinks…” Zheng Fa guessed.
“Yeah, he thinks I’ve had some kind of fortune and wants to ask me about it.” The old man Bai said, a hint of dejection in his voice. “It’s not a big deal that he guessed wrong, but he actually guessed right… That’s why I went to see him, to prevent him from asking around and drawing unwanted attention.”
Zheng Fa nodded.
The two glanced at Teacher Tian, and sure enough, her expression had softened during their exchange.
The old man Bai secretly shot Zheng Fa a grateful look.
Meanwhile, Tang Lingwu smiled and slid a plate of chicken in front of the old man Bai, while Teacher Tian pretended not to notice and continued eating.
“Actually, I want to see if this person can be brought into the retirement home,” the old man Bai suddenly said, his tone hesitant.
“Hmm? He’s a scholar too?” Zheng Fa was taken aback. This guy, who was running around seeking deities, could also be into science?
“He’s a physicist back home. He mentioned he got a tenured position abroad and seems to be doing well,” the old man Bai explained. “But this guy… let me put it this way: physics is just a means to an end for him. He yearns for qigong and distant horizons.”
“…”
Everyone fell silent.
“He’s into physics simply because he has a talent for it… an exceptional one at that. He can achieve results in experiments that others can’t even dream of,” the old man Bai sighed. “But he treats it merely as a job…”
Zheng Fa understood the old man Bai’s concerns.
Though he didn’t say it outright, Zheng Fa could tell this person’s academic abilities were likely impressive.
But his character sounded… unreliable.
On the other hand, even though they were old acquaintances, it seemed they hadn’t been in touch for years.
There was no guarantee about each other’s character or background.
Even the truth of the other’s personality and experiences was uncertain.
For now, Zheng Fa didn’t dwell on this person. His main worry was still the impending attack from the demon clan in three months.
He glanced at the Fusang wood inside him, feeling a bit resentful.
The Fusang wood had indeed been helpful, primarily in attracting the Jinwu (Golden Crow), alerting them to the demon clan’s schemes.
But on the flip side, it had made his cultivation significantly more challenging.
In the past, with the lightning materials he had consumed, he would have reached the late Foundation Establishment stage by now.
Zheng Fa didn’t particularly care about the speed of his cultivation.
However, after a breakthrough in realm, his spiritual soul would also strengthen.
Currently, Zheng Fa’s spiritual power was at the early Foundation Establishment stage, but the strength of his spiritual soul had already subtly surpassed the late Foundation Establishment stage.
If he could advance to the late Foundation Establishment stage, his spiritual soul would almost certainly cross the threshold into the Golden Core stage.
With the strength of a Golden Core spiritual soul, he might be able to master the Spirit Wood Lightning, thus gaining a significant advantage in controlling the Heavenly Stele Realm.
Thinking of this, he cast a somewhat unfriendly glance at the Fusang wood… which trembled slightly, as if sensing his displeasure.
……
“Come here!” One day, while Zheng Fa was continuing his research on cloud and thunder with the old man Bai, trying to further optimize the lightning technique, Teacher Tian suddenly rushed over, brimming with excitement.
“What’s up?”
Seeing her urgency, the old man Bai quickly asked.
“Come to my lab!”
Teacher Tian didn’t explain, just beckoned the two of them.
Zheng Fa and the old man Bai exchanged glances and followed her to the agricultural lab.
On the way, Teacher Tian finally explained, “You know, I usually take samples from the fields every day to examine in the lab.”
Zheng Fa nodded.
Although the spiritual energy environment hadn’t yet produced spiritual plants, he and Teacher Tian had discussed a scenario where plants might exhibit some changes, like genetic mutations, but due to insufficient growing time, they couldn’t truly become spiritual plants.
Because of this hypothesis, they saved seeds from every harvest, and Teacher Tian would take samples for observation.
“Look at these cell slice images!”
Teacher Tian led Zheng Fa and the old man Bai to a computer, where several magnified images of cell interiors were displayed on the screen.
Zheng Fa looked through them—well, the only things he recognized were the very basic components: cell walls, nuclei, chloroplasts, mitochondria, and so on.
But honestly, with his high school-level biology knowledge, he couldn’t glean much from these images.
“Xiao Tian, is there something wrong with these cells?”
Teacher Tian slapped her forehead. “I got too excited and forgot you’re not familiar with this stuff.”
She pulled up some previous cell images, arranged them side by side, and said, “Take another look.”
After a moment of examination, the old man Bai furrowed his brow and said uncertainly, “There’s a… new tissue?”
Zheng Fa noticed it too.
It was an inconspicuous thing, located near the cell wall, and compared to the nucleus and other components, it seemed quite small.
“Exactly!”
Teacher Tian clapped her hands. “Just in the past couple of days, this thing suddenly appeared in the cells of these pea seedlings!”
“Is it becoming a spiritual plant?” The old man Bai asked excitedly.
“I can’t say for sure; I can only say it has undergone significant changes.”
Zheng Fa immediately stopped the operation of the Ling Mountain method within him.
The three of them walked to the edge of the field, surrounding the pea seedlings for a long while.
“Spiritual energy!”
“There’s spiritual energy in these pea seedlings!”
“We’ve really cultivated a spiritual plant!” The old man Bai cheered.
Even Tang Lingwu, who had been in the house, was drawn over, and a group of people surrounded the ordinary pea seedlings, peering closely, afraid of missing something.
Finally, they confirmed that these pea seedlings indeed contained a very faint trace of spiritual energy, which would be indistinguishable in a normal spiritual energy environment.
They didn’t overlook other plants either.
After circling the experimental field, their eyes were practically green, but they didn’t find any other vegetables containing spiritual energy.
“It seems this is the only one; the other samples in the lab haven’t shown any changes,” Teacher Tian said.
Everyone felt a bit disappointed.
But Teacher Tian reassured them, “Our field is different from Old Bai’s. They study mathematics and people, while we study agriculture and the heavens.”
“Study the heavens? As in weather and climate?” Tang Lingwu asked curiously.
“No, it’s about whether the heavens bless us or not.” Teacher Tian shook her head. “Sometimes you just don’t know when it will happen, or even why it happens.”
Zheng Fa fell silent; they didn’t know either…
……
“This cell structure…” The old man Bai looked at the greatly enlarged cell structure images that Teacher Tian had displayed, stroking his chin. “It looks a bit familiar…”
Zheng Fa nodded and suddenly said, “It resembles a tangle of fine threads—or rather, like a diagram of intertwined spiritual symbols.”
“Exactly! That’s the feeling!” The old man Bai clapped his hands. “Too bad the images are too blurry to tell what kind of spiritual symbol it is.”
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