Book 2: Chapter 185: New Spiritual Plant, the Temptation of Knowledge |
Vol 2 Chapter 185: New Spiritual Plant, the Temptation of Knowledge
Several of Zhenren Qian’s disciples were walking together along the Rainbow Bridge, gazing at the palaces on the Heavenly Palace Island ahead.
“This Jiushan Realm… the scenery is honestly kind of dull and boring.”
One female disciple commented.
The others nodded as well.
“Mist everywhere, really nothing worth seeing.”
“Haven’t they been building houses lately? I heard Zhenren Zheng made a plan—one island is going to be dedicated as a marketplace, and there’ll even be theatrical performances.”
“You mean that ‘University Island’ everyone’s talking about? A few Nascent Soul cultivators have been working on it the past few days, saying they’re setting up some kind of lab… no idea what that’s supposed to be.”
“Letu Island has gotten a lot livelier too. A few days ago, Zhenren Zheng sent disciples to help out, opened up quite a bit of new farmland.”
“I heard Zhenren Zheng also plans to set up some kind of Agricultural Guidance Office on Letu Island. Disciples who study agronomy will go help teach mortals how to farm, and they’re even talking about collecting numbers or data or something…”
The group exchanged looks, all with slightly strange expressions.
“This Zhenren Zheng… really values mortals.”
Someone even muttered with a trace of complaint, “We never had these kinds of weird tasks before…”
“They’re not making us work for free. It’s just that the chores from the Administrative Hall are different now, that’s all.”
“…Well I still don’t like it. And I’m not the only one—aren’t there Jiushan Sect disciples who aren’t used to this either?”
The others were silent.
It’s not that they thought Jiushan Realm was bad—Zhenren Qian had been willing to take them along while fleeing for their lives, and most of them weren’t blind:
The Qianhe Sect had already been destroyed. It was pure luck they were still alive.
Besides, Jiushan Realm was just a bit plain in scenery. Living here gave them peace of mind—they no longer had to worry about life-or-death disasters.
Originally, there had been some friction with Jiushan Sect disciples, but since entering Jiushan Realm, it felt like they’d endured hardship together, and things had gotten much better.
They’d even made a few Jiushan Sect friends.
Still, being unaccustomed was something they couldn’t help—many of them had lived in the Xuanyi Realm for over a hundred years. Suddenly relocating to Jiushan Realm made everything feel out of place.
“Honestly, if Zhenren Zheng hadn’t treated us like insiders, we probably wouldn’t have gotten established here so quickly.”
The same female disciple said again.
At that, everyone fell silent, but had to admit—it was true:
Although Zheng Fa wasn’t overbearing, his will permeated all of Jiushan Realm, and his attitude toward the former Qianhe Sect disciples had certainly influenced the rest of the sect.
“Zhenren Zheng…” the disciple who had complained earlier now seemed to struggle to find anything bad to say, muttering begrudgingly, “He’s just… a little too good to mortals. And all we’ve been doing lately is spiritual farming—what kind of future does that have…”
“Get used to it,” the female disciple said. “If you want to talk about changing fast, our Master is the one who flipped the quickest…”
“……”
At that, the others couldn’t help but nod.
…
While they were chatting, Zheng Fa was busy discussing the setup of a laboratory with a few Nascent Soul cultivators.
Calling it a discussion was generous—most of it was the others asking questions and Zheng Fa doing the explaining.
“So the most important part of this lab… is the observation method?”
Uncle Pang asked after a long while, finally catching on.
“Exactly!” Zheng Fa replied with a hint of approval. “In my opinion, Uncle, your Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes are perfectly suited for lab observation. It’s a spell the lab can’t do without.”
“But my Thousand-Year Purple Bamboo doesn’t seem to be acclimating well in Jiushan Realm.”
Uncle Pang sighed.
“And my Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes haven’t improved much in the micro-level realm.”
Zheng Fa had noticed this too.
The Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes spell had three levels: Qi Observation, Micro-Level, and Void-Level.
Zheng Fa himself had reached the Micro-Level—by his estimate, this level allowed one to see organelles inside cells and even some faint internal structures.
Uncle Pang was naturally more advanced, but what Zheng Fa needed now was a far higher level of precision: he hoped to see down to the atomic or even nuclear scale.
Right now, Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes weren’t quite enough.
With that in mind, Zheng Fa had another idea:
Modern precision instruments, like MRI or electron microscopes, mostly worked based on electrons—could this be replicated through formations or magical tools?
The thought gave him a slight headache—Jiushan Realm was still rebuilding, he already had so many things on his plate, and there were gaps in talent, resources, and theory…
So many threads tangled up that he felt a bit mentally exhausted.
Sensing his mood, Senior Sister Zhang suddenly looked up, reached out, and handed him a spiritual fruit—also from the medicine garden, not worth many Heavenly Merit Points. Senior Sister Yuan had been earning merit points in the lower realm recently and had exchanged them for snacks.
Senior Sister Yuan looked at her now-empty right hand, then at the fruit in Zheng Fa’s hand.
She fell into deep thought—she gave the fruit, sure, but now… the favor didn’t seem to land on her?
That felt a bit unfair to birds!
“I’ll pay you back,” Senior Sister Zhang paused, “I’ll pay you back with an expensive one.”
Senior Sister Yuan immediately beamed. She rummaged through her pocket and pulled out another fruit. “I’ve got more. Want another one, Senior Sister?”
Zheng Fa took a bite of the spiritual fruit, just about to speak, when a Jiushan Sect disciple came running over, saluted, and said to him, “Zhenren Qian requests Junior Brother Zheng’s presence at the medicine garden…”
Hearing that, Zheng Fa’s thoughts shifted, and a smile spread across his face.
He may have laid things out a bit broadly, but… was there finally going to be some results?
…
When he saw Zhenren Qian again, Zheng Fa almost didn’t recognize him.
He was still the same person, same face, same little belly.
But the expression on his face was entirely different—Zhenren Qian had once been in charge of the Qianhe Sect marketplace, smooth-talking and sociable, his facial expressions always animated.
But now, Zheng Fa could see a familiar aura in him—
He was starting to resemble Teacher Tian.
Zhenren Qian was crouched beside a rice paddy in the medicine garden, closely examining a stalk of rice, his face solemn, focused, even somewhat dazed in thought—he didn’t even notice Zheng Fa and the others approaching.
Zheng Fa never would have thought that, after coming to Jiushan Realm, the one who changed the fastest and most drastically would be this man he hadn’t been particularly close to.
“Zhenren Qian?”
Zheng Fa called softly.
Only then did Zhenren Qian snap out of it. He turned to see Zheng Fa had brought along Senior Sister Zhang and the others, and he jumped in surprise, the expression on his face immediately shifting back.
A slightly ingratiating smile reappeared, his face returning to its former look as he quickly bowed to them.
“Zhenren Qian, did you call me because there’s been some results?”
Zheng Fa waved his hand and asked.
“Results…” To his surprise, Zhenren Qian looked a bit conflicted, stammering, “You could say there’s been some results, but…”
Seeing him like this, Zheng Fa became even more interested. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Since he had invited Zheng Fa over, Zhenren Qian wasn’t going to hide anything. He just looked at Senior Sister Zhang and the others and seemed a bit hesitant to speak.
After thinking for a moment, Zhenren Qian gritted his teeth and turned, leading the group deeper into the field.
“This started with the earlier rice cultivation experiments.”
He spoke as he walked.
“Back then, didn’t you leave me some books, Zhenren Zheng?”
Zheng Fa nodded.
Those were agricultural experimental plans compiled by Elder Hou and Teacher Tian. They’d tested modern methods at the nursing home, and anything proven effective was recorded in those texts.
“I couldn’t really understand them at first, so I thought I’d study and plant at the same time. Even if I didn’t grow anything, I’d at least learn something.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but praise, “That’s the right path—learning through practice, it speeds up understanding.”
Zhenren Qian smiled at that, his shoulders visibly relaxing.
“I couldn’t grasp much else, but when it came to hybridization experiments…” he said lightly, “That part, I understood.”
“So?”
“I hybridized all the spiritual plants from the medicine garden with the rice we collected.”
“All of them?”
Zheng Fa froze.
He stopped in his tracks, staring at Zhenren Qian, finally understanding the extent of the man’s transformation.
That was no small workload—the medicine garden easily had several thousand types of spiritual plants.
And with the various rice strains included, this experiment would’ve involved tens of thousands of combinations just for a single round…
You don’t come out of that unchanged unless you’ve lost your mind.
Zhenren Qian nodded, seemingly understanding what Zheng Fa was thinking. “It was grueling work, but I had a few disciples helping. Wasn’t too bad.”
“And there were results?”
“Yes!” Zhenren Qian pointed ahead. “That one.”
Zheng Fa looked where he pointed. A single stalk of rice stood tall.
It wasn’t thick or tall, but it had one unusual trait—from top to bottom, the stalk was speckled with faint bluish-purple spots, giving it an oddly mysterious and dangerous aura.
“This grain… is a spiritual plant?”
Zheng Fa was delighted.
Not because grain-based spiritual plants were particularly valuable, but because lower-level disciples couldn’t go without them.
Foundation Establishment cultivators and above could fast.
But Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples still needed to eat.
“Sort of…” Zhenren Qian waved a hand, and a nearby disciple brought over a bowl containing a small portion of rice—also dotted with those bluish-purple flecks.
“This stuff’s not poisonous, right?”
Senior Sister Yuan suddenly asked.
“No poison… it’s just…”
“Then I’ll try it!” Hearing that, Senior Sister Yuan’s eyes lit up. She grabbed a few grains of raw rice and tossed them into her mouth.
“Uh…”
Zhenren Qian seemed like he wanted to say something but held back.
“There’s still plenty…” Senior Sister Yuan thought he was being stingy and tried to comfort him. “I’m just tryingataste”
But as she drew out the last few words, her voice suddenly trembled, like she was in sheer ecstasy.
“……”
Everyone couldn’t help but look at her face—twisted, twitching, mouth lopsided. Then they turned to Zhenren Qian.
Didn’t you say it wasn’t poisonous?
“No poison… but it’s charged…” Zhenren Qian looked embarrassed and mumbled, “Fairy Yuan ate too fast. I didn’t get the chance to warn her…”
“...Does it numb?” Zheng Fa suppressed a laugh and asked her.
“...Nuuumb~”
Senior Sister Yuan replied with a thick tongue.
Zhenren Qian also explained with a pained expression: “This new spiritual plant does contain spiritual energy, but also… carries a strong electric charge.”
“Most people probably won’t be used to eating it…”
As he spoke, his face grew a bit gloomy again.
No wonder he’d been so hesitant earlier.
Spiritual plants in the Xuanyi Realm usually either had abundant spiritual energy or a distinctive taste—
No one in their right mind pursued something with an electric shock effect.
Wait?
Hold on!
Zheng Fa suddenly thought of an old acquaintance with the surname Yan…
That guy wasn’t the only weirdo in his crew!
Thinking of Yan Wushuang, a new idea popped into Zheng Fa’s mind.
He took a few grains and chewed them slowly.
Hmm… a little zap, but nothing serious!
After training in the Five Thunder Body Technique, he was practically immune to this level of electricity.
But…
Zheng Fa looked at Zhenren Qian, who seemed a bit nervous, genuinely thinking he’d made a useless, awkward creation.
“Zhenren Qian…”
“Hmm?”
Zheng Fa suddenly cupped his hands and gave him a slight bow.
“Zhenren Zheng, what are you…”
“This spiritual plant could be incredibly valuable to Jiushan Realm!” Zheng Fa smiled. “Our environment here is unique. Thunder Techniques are a priority… and this plant might help our Jiushan disciples cultivate lightning-based body techniques.”
The power of thunder couldn’t be underestimated. In the Xuanyi Realm, any cultivator practicing Thunder Techniques had to rely on spiritual materials to develop resistance—like Xuanlei Stones for the Five Thunder Body Technique.
But most spiritual materials were expensive.
Even in Jiushan Realm, average disciples could hardly afford them.
“If this plant can yield as abundantly as rice and provide thunder energy like Xuanlei Stones, it’ll be the perfect training material for our sect’s lower-tier disciples!”
Hearing this, Zhenren Qian’s face lit up instantly.
“Really?”
“Why would I lie to you, Zhenren?” Zheng Fa smiled. “Even if most people don’t enjoy eating it, for those cultivating lightning-based body techniques, this stuff is cheap and practical. It’ll sell just fine—maybe even to the Xuanyi Realm!”
Everyone else started thinking about it too, and the way they looked at the plant changed.
Zhenren Qian mulled it over and agreed. His smile grew even brighter, and he couldn’t help but mumble, “I thought… I really thought…”
He was clearly too happy to even finish his sentence.
“Zhenren Qian, why don’t you give this new spiritual plant a name?”
Zheng Fa smiled as well.
He was genuinely pleased.
On one hand, this new spiritual plant was actually useful. He’d just tested it—the thunder force it contained was enough to support the cultivation of the Five Thunder Body Technique’s first level. In the future, he even planned to see whether this plant could be further cultivated to produce stronger thunder energy—perhaps varieties suitable for higher levels of the Five Thunder Body Technique.
On the other hand, this was the first successful modern scientific experiment in Jiushan Realm—and it had been initiated spontaneously by Zhenren Qian.
That part made Zheng Fa even happier.
“I’m naming it?”
Zhenren Qian was caught off guard.
“Of course…”
“Well… then…” Zhenren Qian hesitated for a moment, then as if struck by an idea, said, “Let’s call it Qianhe Grain… the Qianhe Sect may be gone, but I hope the name can live on.”
Everyone was stunned. They all looked slightly respectful.
Only the disciples behind Zhenren Qian had somewhat odd expressions, as if they’d thought of something…
…
The group continued studying the Qianhe Grain and found that even after cooking, the thunder energy it contained didn’t change much.
This spiritual grain wasn’t without flaws—the spiritual energy it contained wasn’t much. Compared to the matured spiritual grains of the Xuanyi Realm, it didn’t offer much benefit to cultivation.
That was probably why Zhenren Qian had looked so nervous earlier.
“As long as the method works, there’s always room for improvement,” Zheng Fa consoled. “And even as it is now, it’s extremely useful to our Jiushan Sect—as soon as Senior Sister Zhang finalizes the Administrative Hall’s system, there will be official rewards within the sect.”
Hearing that, Zhenren Qian couldn’t help but smile. “No, that’s not…”
Zheng Fa ignored his humility and continued, “This Qianhe Grain has two possible cultivation paths. One is to reduce the thunder energy and increase the spiritual energy—basically, turn it into an ordinary spiritual plant.”
“The other is to boost the thunder energy even further…”
“You know what I mean, right?”
That made Zhenren Qian fall silent and nod repeatedly. “That method was written in your book, I remember.”
Zheng Fa was even more satisfied. He looked at Zhenren Qian and suddenly said:
“Zhenren Qian…”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
Zheng Fa bowed deeply.
Zhenren Qian was taken aback. All his years of dealing with people suddenly failed him—he didn’t know how to respond.
After Zheng Fa spoke, Senior Sister Zhang also gave Zhenren Qian a smiling nod.
Uncle Pang even patted him on the shoulder with a grin and said, “Well done.”
After Zheng Fa and the others left, Zhenren Qian remained where he stood, dazed, a strange expression on his face.
“Master…” His disciples looked at each other in confusion. “Aren’t you happy?”
“Happy?” Zhenren Qian turned and looked at them. “I’m very happy!”
“Then why did you just…”
“I was just thinking… I used to bend over backward, grovel, flatter with every smile…” Zhenren Qian’s expression was oddly distant. “But I’ve never had a Nascent Soul cultivator pat my shoulder and say, ‘Well done.’”
“Now I can stand tall, no more risking life and limb… and I still got that.”
“……”
After speaking, Zhenren Qian turned and walked back into the fields, even humming a little tune.
His disciples glanced at one another, silently pondering their master’s words. Then they too turned and ran off into the fields.
The farm work that used to be dull and lifeless now suddenly seemed full of hope.
…
The Hundred Treasures Hall on Heavenly Palace Island in Jiushan Realm had officially become the Administrative Hall.
Currently, Zheng Fa hadn’t opened up large-scale operations to the mortal world—most of the external affairs were still handled by Uncle Huang and Senior Sister Yuan.
But the Administrative Hall did have tasks. The most common ones now involved building the Nine Islands of the Heavenly Palace—though construction wasn’t moving quickly, since many talismans and techniques didn’t work properly in Jiushan Realm.
Zhou Qianyuan had followed his senior brother, Sun Daoyu, to the Administrative Hall to take on more tasks and trade for spiritual materials.
Sun Daoyu said, “Jiushan Realm is best for Thunder Techniques. We brothers should work hard, complete missions, and build our bodies first.”
Zhou Qianyuan nodded. Just then, from a side hall—the Investiture Hall—came a surprised shout: “They have that too?!”
The two exchanged glances and headed toward the Investiture Hall.
As soon as they entered, they saw a glowing screen standing inside, densely packed with text.
“What happened?” Sun Daoyu asked curiously.
“Junior Brother Zheng created some kind of educational syllabus. He says he’s going to use it to pick students and teach immortal techniques.”
Someone explained.
“Then… why’s everyone so excited?” Sun Daoyu pointed to a senior brother in front who was frantically scrolling the screen, his finger trembling.
And not just him—many gathered disciples were murmuring, clearly discussing something excitedly.
“There are so many immortal techniques listed up there…”
“Huh?”
“They’ve got the Talisman Foundation Establishment Method…”
“What?!”
Zhou Qianyuan and Sun Daoyu exchanged looks—and immediately understood why everyone was so hyped.
The Talisman Foundation Establishment Method had gained major fame along with Zheng Fa’s rise in power.
Especially after Senior Sister Zhang broke through to Nascent Soul—it was widely considered the number one Foundation Establishment method in the Hundred Immortals Alliance.
But it was her personal, guarded secret. No one dared even dream of getting it.
And now it was listed right here, in the so-called Educational Syllabus—how could they not be excited?
“They even included the Sect Master’s Formation Method…”
“And Master Pang’s Linked Talisman Method…”
“……”
“I even heard… there’s a Core Formation secret method listed…”
Zhou Qianyuan and Sun Daoyu were stunned.
They pushed into the crowd and spent a long time scanning through the syllabus. Then they asked:
“What do the subject requirements mean?”
Senior Brother Yang replied, “I know. Senior Sister Zhang said Junior Brother Zheng plans to hold a major exam… based on our scores, he’ll determine whether we qualify.”
“……”
“No one knows what the test will be like…”
“What does it matter? Could it be harder than what we’ve been through fighting for our lives? We’re not afraid of death, but we’re afraid of an exam?”
“Well said!”
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