Chapter 394
Zheng Fa suddenly remembered that it wasn't his negligence; it was a long time ago when Sister Zhang had suddenly said she no longer liked it.
Now it seemed she hadn’t really stopped liking it at all.
Sister Zhang had been deeply engrossed in solving problems, but sensing Zheng Fa's gaze, she looked up at him.
Seeing the complex expression on Zheng Fa's face, Sister Zhang seemed to understand what he was thinking in an instant. She tilted her head, as if pondering how to express herself.
"You’re really busy."
"…"
Zheng Fa knew she was trying to explain why she had lied to him about not liking it anymore.
He understood that their roles had been shifting all along, and it was natural that they wouldn’t always maintain the previous dynamic.
"I really don’t like it as much anymore…"
Sister Zhang pointed at the Tongjian (通鉴), probably referring to the math problems within it.
Noticing his skepticism, she added, "This is just a pastime when I’m bored…"
She paused for a moment before continuing, "Since you came, I haven’t been so bored anymore."
Zheng Fa looked at Sister Zhang, who wore a serious expression, and suddenly felt that even though his own creation, the Zao Hua Yu Die (造化玉牒), was still far from the legendary treasures, at this moment, it seemed worth it.
…
"I don’t know if this simplification is worth it or not."
On Le Tu Island, Madam Xuanhua said to Zheng Fa.
As she spoke, she was gazing at a round, golden Dan (丹) floating above them, her face filled with uncertainty.
This golden Dan hovered in the air, dozens of meters above the ground, shining like a small sun, illuminating the hazy night of Le Tu Island.
Zheng Fa also looked at this simplified Shenxiao Golden Dan, or rather… the first nuclear reactor in the Jiushan Realm.
The reactions within the golden Dan could be divided into fusion, fission, and mixing.
The final step, mixing, in Zheng Fa's view, was about merging the generated particles with the five elemental spiritual energies.
A simplified golden Dan was essentially a nuclear reactor that only performed fusion and fission, purely used as an energy source.
"Thank you for your hard work, Madam Xuanhua."
Zheng Fa's gratitude was sincere—whether it was the Zao Hua Yu Die or the simplified golden Dan, Madam Xuanhua had played a crucial role.
"This was no challenge," Madam Xuanhua waved her hand dismissively, appearing unconcerned about the simplified golden Dan. She brought up the topic of whether it was worth it again, saying, "But… this thing has consumed quite a few resources. Is it all for the mortals on Le Tu Island?"
Such doubts were not only held by Madam Xuanhua; the disciples who created the simplified golden Dan shared them, and even every disciple of Jiushan Sect had their own thoughts.
Zheng Fa gestured for her to look into the distance.
The location of the simplified golden Dan was right at the center of Le Tu Island.
From Madam Xuanhua's perspective, Le Tu Island seemed to transform into a blooming flower—one by one, streetlights lit up from the center to the edges, illuminating the villages on the island.
As a Yuanying (元婴) master, Madam Xuanhua could even hear the admiration and cheers coming from those villages.
She pursed her lips, as if she understood Zheng Fa's point, yet her expression remained indifferent.
Zheng Fa also understood that Madam Xuanhua's personality was different from his own; the plight of mortals was hardly within her consideration.
He didn’t expect everyone to think the same way he did.
Zheng Fa waved to Madam Xuanhua, and they walked toward his home, one after the other.
As they walked, Zheng Fa suddenly brought up something:
"When I first joined, I met a senior brother named Zhuang."
Madam Xuanhua's expression turned curious, but she remained silent and listened.
"He once asked me a question."
At that time, Zheng Fa had just entered Jiushan Sect and attended his first class at the Lunfu Pavilion, where he was treated differently by Senior Brother Zhuang.
Time had passed, and he had long since stopped caring about that incident.
But he had always remembered Senior Brother Zhuang's question.
"He asked me why, when spiritual energy was abundant, most mortals couldn’t cultivate and enjoy the power and convenience it provided."
"But when spiritual energy dwindled, the ones who paid the price were mostly them."
"So he wondered… is spiritual energy, or cultivators, a poison to the Xuanwei Realm?"
Madam Xuanhua countered, "How can you compare? A transformation master and a mortal are not the same!"
Zheng Fa nodded slightly, seemingly agreeing with her, but he didn’t say anything further.
The two walked in silence toward Zheng Fa's courtyard.
Along the way, the villages were all lit by streetlights.
The "streetlights" were, in fact, a very cheap form of Tongjian (通鉴).
To put it simply, they were signal receivers.
After all, the Jiushan Realm was different from the modern world—it had spiritual energy.
Modern nuclear reactors store and convert energy primarily by "boiling water," and transmission relies on electrical wires. But the Jiushan Realm was different.
The interference from spiritual energy in the Jiushan Realm made wired transmission prohibitively expensive.
On average, a set of shielding runes was needed every five meters…
The consumption of spiritual materials was excessive.
However, the Jiushan Realm had unique advantages; cultivation could easily achieve things that modern technology could not—like transmitting radio waves with almost no loss.
Zheng Fa found the transmission talismans increasingly fascinating:
To ensure the stability of information, the electromagnetic waves in the transmission talismans propagate without loss…
Thus, the streetlights in the Jiushan Realm actually relied on modified transmission talismans to spread light.
In this way, the streetlights on Le Tu Island only needed to decode the transmission talismans, and even the light itself was generated by the electromagnetic waves produced by the golden Dan…
This meant that the streetlights in the Jiushan Realm didn’t require electrical wires, and they didn’t even need to emit light themselves, so they lacked any light-emitting components.
This made them extremely cost-effective with a very long lifespan.
Zheng Fa led Madam Xuanhua to the entrance of his courtyard.
Inside the yard, they could hear the cheerful voice of his younger sister, Zheng Shan:
"Mom! This light is so bright!"
She was referring to a streetlight at the entrance of their small courtyard.
To be honest, this was a bit of favoritism…
Or rather, it was the careful consideration of the disciples during the streetlight planning.
Streetlights weren’t without cost, so they hadn’t been installed in every household, but naturally, it was significant if one was placed closer to someone’s home.
And here, right at the entrance of the Zheng family courtyard, there was one…
The occurrence was indisputable; no one was surprised, and it felt entirely natural.
Zheng Fa had known this all along; he didn’t stop it, nor did he want to—he cared about everyone in the Jiushan Realm, but his closest concern was naturally for his family and friends.
So he didn’t argue with Madam Xuanhua.
As they entered the small courtyard, they saw Zheng Mu standing there, squinting at the streetlight outside.
The light from the streetlight was bright, illuminating Zheng Mu's face.
Years of hard work had left some wrinkles on her face.
Even though Zheng Fa had been teaching her martial arts, her progress was slow… It wasn’t just a matter of talent; it was that her education had been different from Zheng Fa’s and even from Zheng Shan’s since childhood.
When faced with many things, she often first thought of her own inadequacies, and her curiosity was often lacking—sometimes, when Zheng Fa discussed cultivation with others, she would even quietly leave.
In reality, she felt that cultivation was far removed from her, something she could never reach.
Zheng Fa believed this mindset was what made it hardest for her to progress.
Today, however, the wrinkles on Zheng Mu's face seemed to relax a bit, and her gaze toward the streetlight held a rare curiosity.
"What is this… a light?"
She asked Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa nodded.
"It’s so bright… much brighter than a candle," Zheng Mu continued, "How is this made?"
Zheng Fa didn’t feel impatient because Zheng Mu lacked cultivation; instead, he gently explained what a golden Dan was and what a simplified golden Dan was.
Zheng Mu listened more attentively than usual.
After a long while, she slowly nodded.
"Cultivation is a good thing."
Madam Xuanhua was somewhat puzzled; who didn’t know that cultivation was good?
Could it be that Zheng Fa's mother just realized this today?
Unexpectedly, Zheng Mu began counting on her fingers, saying slowly, "The food production is higher than before."
"And the vegetables are more plentiful than before."
She looked at the few acres of vegetable garden in the corner of the courtyard, smiling as she spoke.
Then she turned her gaze to the streetlight in the sky.
"The light is brighter than before."
Zheng Fa listened to his mother’s assessment without looking at Madam Xuanhua, but she inexplicably understood something—
Sometimes, these few words from Zheng Mu might be what made Zheng Fa feel it was all worthwhile.
And Zheng Mu’s appreciation of cultivation was different from her previous understanding of its benefits; she couldn’t quite articulate where the difference lay.
If Zheng Fa were to explain, it might be something like—money is a good thing, science is also a good thing, but these two things are good in different ways.
…
Madam Xuanhua bid farewell to Zheng Fa and the others, walking from Le Tu Island toward Wan Xian Island.
For some reason, she found herself noticing things she had never paid attention to before—
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