Book 2: Chapter 206: Simulated Cauldron, Unexpected Popularity |
Vol 2 Chapter 206: Simulated Cauldron, Unexpected Popularity
“From these three external pill methods, it’s clear that the most important thing to refine an external pill is the cauldron, and the second is the technique.”
Comparing the Boundless Sea External Pill from Mu Qingyan with the two external pill methods provided by Xiao Yuying, Zheng Fa quickly reached a conclusion.
By his side sat Senior Sister Zhang and others.
Three jade slips passed from hand to hand among the group. After reading them, everyone nodded.
“This line of thinking is understandable—the cauldron’s structure corresponds to the cultivator’s Dao body, and the refinement technique corresponds to the core formation method,” Senior Sister Zhang spoke first, frowning as she added, “But with this, the Golden Core Engineering project just got a lot more complicated.”
“Yes,” Martial Uncle Pang nodded, “Techniques we can simplify, but the structure of these cauldrons… that’s truly not our Jiushan Sect’s strong suit.”
This was exactly what a shallow foundation looked like.
Zheng Fa stayed quiet, considering whether the modern world could help with this—
“For the external pill cauldron, the most crucial part is the so-called ‘Three Gates and Nine Apertures,’ using the cauldron to simulate the human body…” Senior Sister Zhang continued. “The differences in these cauldrons likely reflect the differences in cultivators practicing those specific techniques.”
Zheng Fa nodded lightly. That much was obvious.
The question was—how exactly did they correspond?
That part was complex.
Maybe noticing Zheng Fa’s distress, Senior Sister Zhang suddenly smiled. “I could try out these three techniques.”
Hm?
Zheng Fa blinked, then suddenly remembered—
When it came to simulation, Senior Sister Zhang’s Yuan Spirit Dao Body was the ancestor of them all!
……
In Senior Sister Zhang’s courtyard.
Only Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Yuan, and Senior Sister Zhang were present.
“The Golden Core Engineering team is ready to start forging cauldrons,” Zheng Fa said to Senior Sister Zhang. “Once we collect your body’s data here, we’ll compare it with the related cauldrons—maybe then we’ll uncover some of their secrets.”
To be honest, if it weren’t for Senior Sister Zhang, this really wouldn’t have been easy—there was no one else in the Jiushan Realm who could practice those three techniques.
Senior Sister Zhang nodded, then sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, her body gradually becoming transparent.
Unlike before, this time inside her body appeared a tiny, chibi version of herself.
The little figure wore a five-colored headband, had a small round face, and her plump little legs were crossed in a meditative pose.
Senior Sister Yuan was utterly confused—her eyes practically said I want to squish it!
Not just her—even Zheng Fa was captivated by the little figure. Senior Sister Zhang was usually icy cold and distant, but now, seeing her like this was unexpectedly adorable.
After staring for a while, the little chibi face even showed a hint of embarrassment and annoyance.
“Cough!” Zheng Fa didn’t dare push his luck and quickly looked away. “Senior Sister, try the Boundless Sea Scripture first.”
Upon hearing this, Senior Sister Zhang’s spiritual energy began to disperse and gather repeatedly. After a while, she began circulating it according to the route outlined in the Boundless Sea Scripture.
As the energy moved through her meridians, all the channels and apertures in her body began to subtly change.
Zheng Fa recorded these changes while thinking:
Their Senior Sister Zhang’s Yuan Spirit Dao Body had truly achieved mastery over spiritual energy—whatever posture he needed, she could give him.
That Primordial Magnetic Dao Body of Xiao Yuying? Please, don’t even try to compare!
……
Xiao Yuying walked into the classroom, visibly unenthusiastic—today was her first class as a Professor of Archaeology.
Zheng Fa sat in the back, watching her reluctant expression with full understanding—
A rich lady who used to find treasures just by taking a stroll was now being forced to punch a time clock… anyone would struggle to smile.
Xiao Yuying stepped onto the podium and immediately spotted Zheng Fa. She glared at him lightly, clearly finding him an eyesore.
Then she saw the classroom packed full of students, and froze slightly—clearly not expecting this big of a crowd.
Zheng Fa was here partly because he had some interest in Xuanyi archaeology… cough, treasure-hunting… and also to observe Xiao Yuying’s teaching skills.
As for the other students—
They were definitely interested in the subject. After all, the Xuanyi Realm was fanatically obsessed with secret realms.
And of course, Xiao Yuying’s reputation preceded her.
Still, Xiao Yuying had seen her share of grand occasions. After a brief pause, she quickly regained her calm and began:
“Your Sect Master asked me to teach something called ‘Archaeology.’ To be honest, I don’t know what that is…”
Her tone was completely flat, devoid of emotion—like a soulless lecture bot.
“All I can do is talk about some secret realms I’ve encountered. My past experiences…”
Clearly, Xiao Yuying hadn’t prepped a lesson plan. She was clearly winging it.
“Fifteen years ago, I came across a senior’s ancient cave dwelling in Tianhai Prefecture.”
“Of course, I wasn’t the one who discovered it. A lot of cultivators were there when the cave emerged… that’s not important.”
She flicked her finger, forming a glowing sigil in the air.
“When I saw this rune, I knew the cave dwelling belonged to our current epoch and dated back around 100,000 years.”
The students below looked confused.
Seeing this, Xiao Yuying explained, “This rune looked like this 150,000 years ago.”
She drew a more complex diagram in the air.
“And today, it’s simplified a bit.”
She drew another.
Given that the Jiushan Sect was founded on talisman techniques, they immediately understood.
“What’s the benefit of knowing the cave’s era?” Xiao Yuying went on. “Each era has its own style of restriction formations.”
“For example, that cave used one of the three most popular restriction types from 100,000 years ago.”
“If you know this, you’ll crack the formation faster and get in before others.”
Zheng Fa nodded quietly to himself.
Though Xiao Yuying seemed reluctant, she didn’t hold back at all in her teaching.
And the thing was—she really knew her stuff!
“Not just that—cave layouts also vary by era.”
She added, “Like the one in Tianhai Prefecture, I walked in and immediately recognized the most popular alchemist layout from 100,000 years ago… with that insight, I could quickly and accurately guess where the owner hid their treasures, and also roughly predict what methods they left behind.”
“……”
As she talked about her experiences, Xiao Yuying casually dropped all kinds of information no one else knew.
Listening below, Mu Qingyan’s eyes lit up!
She compared what Xiao Yuying said with the memories in her mind—
And suddenly found that many cave dwellings, when approached from Xiao Yuying’s perspective, became shockingly easy to navigate and loot!
……
Xiao Yuying may not have prepared a lesson, but in the field of archaeology, her experience and insight far exceeded others.
The problem was, no one had ever tapped into her potential in this area before—
Or rather, no one had ever offered her a good enough reason to teach.
In her lecture, two hours passed in a flash.
When she finally said “class dismissed,” the students below erupted with enthusiasm:
“Fairy Xiao, please teach one more class!”
“Professor, we want more!”
“……”
Xiao Yuying was truly stunned this time.
Zheng Fa looked at her slightly bewildered expression and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself—
This woman didn’t tend to get along with people wherever she went. She really might never have received such a warm welcome before.
But to be fair, these students were genuinely sincere.
Who doesn’t love grave-robbing stories?
Besides, grave-robbing to get rich in the modern world is illegal.
But in the Xuanyi Realm…
It’s a legitimate career path!
……
The next time he saw Xiao Yuying, the resentment on her face had noticeably faded.
After all, she was a Nascent Soul cultivator—not someone who’d get completely charmed by a bunch of students. But now that she was so popular in the Jiushan Realm, she couldn’t help but feel quite pleased.
At the end of the day, she’d found a trace of joy in being a teacher.
She’d come to find Zheng Fa for a tutoring session in Electromagnetism.
Her foundation wasn’t bad. In the Jiushan Realm, her comprehension of Electromagnetism was probably on par with Old Yuan.
After teaching her a few times, Zheng Fa realized that Xiao Yuying was absolutely a genius in this area—
Her advantage was clear: she had an intuitive sense for many electromagnetic phenomena!
To be honest, this kind of talent was a total trump card when it came to abstract theory.
What she lacked, on the other hand, was a solid mathematical foundation, so when Zheng Fa taught her now, he focused almost entirely on qualitative concepts, not quantitative analysis.
“Electromagnetic waves… frequency, amplitude?” Xiao Yuying suddenly asked as she listened. “I saw those terms in the books before and didn’t quite understand—according to what they said, the light we see is also a kind of electromagnetic wave?”
“Yes. With the Maxwell equations you’ve heard about, you can derive that… uh, well, maybe not exactly.”
Zheng Fa suddenly remembered—
In the Xuanyi Realm, the speed of light… wasn’t something you could take for granted.
“I think I kind of get it now…”
“Hm?”
What exactly do you get?
“I remember those message talismans—don’t they seem to have the kind of fluctuation you’re describing? I thought I was just imagining things.”
“……”
Zheng Fa opened his mouth, staring at Xiao Yuying.
Message talismans had always been a bit of a bug in his mind.
The main issue was—what were their underlying principles? How could they identify specific cultivators? What was the actual carrier of the information?
According to traditional talisman theory, they identified cultivators through each person’s unique divine soul and spiritual energy signature.
As for the signal carrier… spiritual energy could do everything!
But Xiao Yuying’s words seemed to imply…
That message talismans were something like radio transmitters?
No one had ever realized it before, likely because no one else had such acute electromagnetic perception as Xiao Yuying.
Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but develop a newfound respect for her Primordial Magnetic Dao Body—
Because if she was right, this could be huge for the Jiushan Realm.
If message talismans were truly spiritual tools capable of long-range electromagnetic signal transmission…
What Zheng Fa was most interested in was—how did they shield electromagnetic signals from interference by spiritual energy?
If they could figure that out…
Then the energy produced by nuclear reactions in the Golden Core Engineering project—
Would finally have a use.
He could even start envisioning… the Internet Age!
He looked at Xiao Yuying and couldn’t help but smile.
This kind of talent…
He’d roped her in just in time!