Chapter 668
“It's all carved on the stele! It says Zheng He went there and even conferred titles to the local king.”
Old Bai was taken aback. He blinked, seemingly measuring the distance, then cursed, “This is too sloppy. If Zheng He was going there, why not just sail around the world?”
“…”
“Who would believe such a story?”
Team Leader Yang looked up, trying to stifle a laugh. “They made it up themselves. They just dug up the stele yesterday. Why wouldn’t they believe it?”
(End of this chapter)
**Chapter 469: Learning from Analogy, Ancestral Craftsmanship**
People will do anything for the sake of cultivating immortality…
A truck slowly drove through the gates of the nursing home. The tailgate dropped, and a half-human-high stone stele was carefully unloaded by the workers.
Along with the stele came a half-meter-square iron box, which contained newly discovered spiritual materials shipped from that island nation.
To be honest, these spiritual materials were exactly what Zheng Fa wanted.
The stele was sent over by those persistent folks from that place, eager to show it to Zheng Xianren, and they even covered the shipping costs themselves.
Zheng Fa opened the iron box, revealing several tightly sealed metal jars. As he pried open one of the lids, a puff of white smoke suddenly billowed out.
As the smoke dissipated, the true nature of the spiritual material emerged:
It was a silvery-black liquid, thick in texture, resembling mercury but chilling to the bone— that white smoke was the cold air escaping.
Zheng Fa recognized it at a glance:
“Xuanming Sha, the lowest quality kind.”
Xuanming Sha is a type of diabolic energy, not particularly precious, and is abundant on the ocean floor.
The Xuanming Sha discovered this time had a spiritual level in the single digits—indicating low purity and high impurity. In the Xuanwei realm, it wouldn’t fetch much of a price, and might even go unwanted.
But in the modern world, it was a novelty.
Old Bai, naturally curious, reached out his finger, seemingly wanting to touch it.
“Teacher Bai… this stuff is harmful to the body,” Zheng Fa said, seeing his restless movements. “Diabolic energy is toxic to humans.”
Hearing this, Teacher Tian shot a fierce glare at Old Bai.
Old Bai’s finger froze slightly, and he muttered, “Research… research requires a spirit of sacrifice. How can we be afraid of this or that?”
Teacher Tian, upon hearing this, twisted his waist sharply.
Although the “Five Thunder Law Body” was perfected, Old Bai clearly couldn’t withstand Teacher Tian’s thunderous wrath. He grinned through gritted teeth but dared not speak up.
You may not fear poisoning, but it’s clear you’re quite afraid of your wife.
Speaking of which, Teacher Tian’s cultivation now surpassed that of the old man by a notch.
…No wonder Old Bai had been mumbling about spiritual roots and low aptitude lately; his status at home was nearly gone.
However, Zheng Fa could understand the old man’s curiosity:
This stuff was scorned by Xuanwei cultivators.
But for the nursing home, which longed for spiritual materials, it was like a treasure.
“Material transformation isn’t a technical challenge for us,” Tang Lingwu leaned in, looking at the jar of Xuanming Sha. “We already have the alchemy furnace; with a little modification, it should work. As for cultivation…”
She thought for a moment, counting on her fingers. “We have five Foundation Establishment cultivators in the nursing home, plus me as a Golden Core. Even if you, Zheng Fa, are busy, that’s enough.”
Zheng Fa nodded in agreement.
Unless it was an exceptionally rare and precious spiritual material, a Golden Core disciple could generally handle the material transformation project alone.
In the nursing home, aside from Old Bai and the other two, there were also two individuals with decent aptitude who had established their foundations.
If you added in those Qi Refinement scholars, with a bit of training, transforming some simple spiritual materials wouldn’t be a difficult task.
“We can start refining magical tools?”
Old Bai’s tone was filled with eager anticipation.
Even Teacher Tian’s expression showed some excitement.
Zheng Fa turned to Team Leader Yang, who had come with the truck. “What’s the yield of this Xuanming Sha?”
“Not much, but from our observations, it seems to be increasing. However, since it’s found on the ocean floor and is toxic, mining it is quite challenging,” Team Leader Yang frowned, then added, “You know, if there’s too much spiritual energy, many electronic devices won’t work well… These few jars took a lot of effort to bring up.”
An increase was to be expected.
The production of spiritual materials requires both environment and spiritual energy.
The sea area where this Xuanming Sha was found likely already met the environmental factors, and with the Fusang wood bringing spiritual energy to the modern world, it naturally produced Xuanming Sha.
Even though the quality of this diabolic energy was low now, if it continued for years or if the spiritual energy became abundant, its quality might improve in the future.
Tang Lingwu immediately suggested, “How about I go?”
As a Golden Core cultivator, she naturally wasn’t afraid of this amount of Xuanming Sha.
Going to mine it didn’t seem like a problem— the issue was that she was too busy, and Zheng Fa was reluctant to let her run around.
“What about Nezha?”
As soon as Zheng Fa mentioned this, Old Bai slapped his thigh. “Right! That big toy! This is just the time to put it to use!”
Team Leader Yang nodded in agreement. “With the current yield, going once a month should be enough.”
Old Bai suddenly asked, “Zheng Fa, how do you plan to use this spiritual material?”
“It’s too little, and the quality is too low…” Zheng Fa shook his head slightly. “It’s impossible to make external elixirs; we can only create some of the simplest magical tools.”
“Not enough to refine a life-bound magical treasure for Lingwu, either.”
The quantity and quality of this Xuanming Sha were both lacking.
Even if they relied on material transformation, the products they could create would be limited. Still, for the nursing home, it was a breakthrough.
A hint of disappointment crossed the faces of the group.
Then Zheng Fa chuckled, “The significance of this Xuanming Sha is that it proves spiritual materials can be produced naturally. If it doesn’t work now, it will in the future… Moreover, once the Fusang wood evolves further or I reach the God Transformation stage, there might be some changes.”
After reaching the God Transformation stage, the spiritual energy in Hongshan would likely see a significant boost.
“As for this Xuanming Sha… let the scholars in Hongshan have some fun with it.”
“Fun? How do you mean?”
Old Bai was taken aback, and Zheng Fa said, “Why not hold a magical tool design competition?”
Old Bai and the others exchanged glances, finding the idea quite interesting.
“You want to see what they can come up with?”
Zheng Fa nodded with a smile.
He had this idea because, first, the Xuanming Sha was indeed too little and too low in quality, meaning there was limited use for him. It wouldn’t hurt to let these scholars tinker with it.
Secondly, it was still about that goal: leveraging their brains.
The crafting style of Jiushan Sect had already changed somewhat due to Madam Xuanhua’s learning of modern knowledge, especially in mechanical structures, and had begun to differ from the Xuanwei realm:
For instance, various Shenxiao flying boats.
But overall, it still leaned towards the thinking of the Xuanwei realm.
This was normal; after all, she was a cultivator raised in the Xuanwei realm.
But the people in the nursing home were different. Their learning concepts from childhood and the various novels and comics they encountered during their growth had shaped their thinking in a way that diverged from Madam Xuanhua.
By giving them the Xuanming Sha to “play” with, Zheng Fa wanted to see what fresh ideas they could come up with through their divergent thinking, hoping for some surprises.
If he dictated everything, it would be a waste of their wisdom and wouldn’t align with Zheng Fa’s original intention of establishing the nursing home.
It was better to give them some space for free expression.
Seeing Old Bai still looking puzzled, Zheng Fa smiled and explained further:
“Teacher Bai, I’m teaching everyone the path of immortality, not to have them follow in my footsteps.”
“The nursing home is, after all, a research institution.”
“Letting a hundred flowers bloom and showcasing each person’s strengths is the way to go.”
Old Bai understood. He glanced toward Hongshan, seemingly envisioning those laboratories, and chuckled:
“Even the hard-earned spiritual materials can be used to nurture them… No wonder so many people want to come.”
Team Leader Yang, hearing this, suddenly pointed at the stele and said, “What should we do with this? I can see they’re quite eager to come over.”
The group turned to the stele, noticing two sections of text inscribed on it. The upper part was in ancient Chinese, while the lower part appeared to be in a local language. The inscriptions showed signs of wear, indicating a great deal of effort, and even looked quite authentic.
The only oddity was that the character for “Zheng” was exceptionally clear…
Old Bai shook his head and sighed, “The foreigners aren’t fools; this is a chance for cultivating immortality.”
If it were a few years ago, it would be understandable that foreigners didn’t know what cultivating immortality was.
But in recent years, although Zheng Fa hadn’t made any major moves, he never hid the truth. Who doesn’t know that becoming an immortal is good?
“What do they want?”
Team Leader Yang suppressed a laugh. “They want to recognize their ancestors.”
“Wait, do they really think anyone would believe that?”
“They know it’s fake, we know it’s fake, and even the whole world knows it’s fake,” Team Leader Yang glanced at Zheng Fa. “But as long as the director says it’s true, then it is.”
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