Book 2: Chapter 221: Blessed Land in the Mortal World, Magic Treasure Planning |
Vol 2 Chapter 221: Blessed Land in the Mortal World, Magic Treasure Planning
When Tang Lingwu hits someone, normal folks really can’t take it—over the past six months, Zheng Fa didn’t have time to use the Lingshan Method, so her cultivation barely advanced, but she’d still reached the sixth level of Qi Refining, definitely not a mere mortal.
What’s more, her Linghe Body was taught to her personally by Zheng Fa and had long since been perfected.
Absolutely invincible!
Zheng Fa smiled and watched Tang Lingwu for quite a while, only turning his head when she lowered hers and buried her face in his chest, then he looked at the other three.
Old Bai had now reached the fourth level of Qi Refining.
Teacher Tian was at the third level of Qi Refining.
Tang Mudo had been here the shortest time; now he had just barely reached the first level, but he wasn’t far from the second.
“These past six months have been hard on you.”
Though he was confident in his ability to protect himself, the four of them had stayed alert and careful, not letting anyone disturb his cultivation. Over the past six months, not even a single strange fly had appeared at the nursing home.
Outside, the Jiushan Martial Arts Hall and Jiushan Grain Company had just started up, with everything still in chaos, and it had all been shouldered by these four.
“Hard? What’s hard about it!” Old Bai grinned, teeth showing, “You have no idea how impressive I’ve been these past six months!”
“Huh?”
“Him!” Teacher Tian rolled his eyes. “Disciples all over the place now, all scrambling to curry favor with him—he’s loving it!”
At those words, Zheng Fa suddenly understood. As the chief instructor of the Jiushan Martial Arts Hall, Zheng Fa didn’t manage daily affairs, which meant Old Bai was basically the one calling the shots.
He found it interesting and asked Old Bai, “How’s the martial arts hall doing now?”
“We’ve opened ten martial arts halls, all in provincial capital cities,” Old Bai counted them off one by one, “all trial sites for now. We’re preparing to compile an introductory martial arts curriculum.”
Zheng Fa gave a light nod.
That was within his expectations.
The martial arts hall was just the first step in promoting martial arts—in the Xuanyi Realm, there were plenty of martial techniques, some with high requirements, some low, and their functions were all over the place.
Fortunately, modern resources were quite abundant. For example, when Zheng Fa first learned martial arts, it was modern nutrition that had forcefully turned him into a genius.
The so-called “introductory martial arts” Old Bai mentioned were intended to be more universal, with lower requirements… basically, radio calisthenics.
This was probably something mandated from above.
Zheng Fa didn’t mind. On the contrary, he was even interested in learning from the methods used to promote radio calisthenics—results from promoting Dao-infused martial arts in the Jiushan Realm should be coming soon. Zheng Fa was also thinking of compiling an entry-level Dao-infused martial arts curriculum for broader promotion.
Zheng Fa then looked toward Tang Lingwu.
Tang Lingwu blinked, then smiled mysteriously like she had a secret. “As for Jiushan Grain Company’s results, let Elder Hou tell you!”
Zheng Fa raised an eyebrow, knowing it was probably a little surprise. He wasn’t in a rush and simply nodded, “I’ll send Team Leader Yang a message and have them come over.”
After sending a text, Zheng Fa added, “You’ve all been held back with no spiritual energy at the nursing home for so long.”
Old Bai and the others’ eyes lit up. That was true—over the past six months, without spiritual energy, they couldn’t cultivate, and they’d been itching to.
Zheng Fa saw their expressions and smiled. Raising his index finger, several Awakening Talismans flew out, heading toward the tortoise-back and serpent-head of Rainbow Mountain. The next moment, his expression turned startled—
The Lingshan Method had changed!
...
Team Leader Yang and the others had also been getting anxious. When she received the message, Cheng Yun, who was in charge of the Golden Core Project, was chattering nonstop beside her ear:
“When can we go back to the nursing home...”
Team Leader Yang glanced at him, only finding him noisy, and asked, “Why are you in such a rush?”
“Why? We got stuck halfway through the project...” Cheng Yun was helpless and complained, “Why do you think?”
Team Leader Yang was speechless and could only sigh, “After these six months, I think everyone finally understands...”
“Understands what?”
“Who the backbone of the nursing home is!”
Cheng Yun’s face shifted subtly at her words and nodded, “True. The moment Director Zheng has anything going on, the entire nursing home and all those collaborative projects grind to a halt...”
“I knew he was important when he was around... but now that he’s been gone, I really get it...”
“It’s not even about importance anymore—it’s that without him, nothing works.”
Team Leader Yang chuckled softly, a teasing look on her face. “You probably don’t know, but over the past six months, the higher-ups’ attention on Rainbow Mountain has gone up another notch.”
Cheng Yun understood too:
Of the two projects at the nursing home that had shown results, one was agricultural development, and the other was the martial arts halls. Both already had national significance.
But compared to the planned Golden Core Project—or rather, the potential of controlled nuclear fusion—
Those were on a whole different level.
Such a massive project now seemed to center entirely around Director Zheng. No amount of top-level attention would be too much.
And along with that, he—someone seemingly favored by Director Zheng—had unknowingly become a bit of a figure himself. Say what you will, but even just returning to his original research institute, he was now at least in a leadership position!
Just a few days ago, his dad was still bragging—saying he’d given him the right name: Cheng Yun Cheng Yun, such a bright future, all thanks to “Yun” (luck)!
While the two of them chatted, Team Leader Yang’s phone buzzed. She looked down and suddenly leapt up from her chair: “The Director’s out of seclusion!”
“I’ll message Elder Hou, and then we’ll head straight to the nursing home!”
Cheng Yun was excited too.
The two of them took a car toward Rainbow Mountain. When they were still about ten kilometers away, Cheng Yun suddenly pointed ahead and shouted, “What is that!”
The driver turned his head, froze for a moment, then slammed on the brakes.
Team Leader Yang and Cheng Yun slammed forward into the seatbacks with a bang, but neither had time to cry out—they just stared wide-eyed in the direction Cheng Yun had pointed—
They all knew it well. That was where Rainbow Mountain was.
The direction was the same, but the scene had completely changed!
Radiant clouds—purple light filling the sky.
These clouds weren’t descending from the heavens but rising up from the earth.
The mountaintop of Rainbow Mountain in the distance—familiar to them before—was now like a candle flame, lighting up half the sky.
Rainbow Mountain looked like it had been printed into a richly colored oil painting: verdant mountains, purple clouds, white puffs, a golden sun.
The three of them looked on, dazed, as if peering into another world.
“Is that... the nursing home?”
After a long while, Cheng Yun finally asked in confusion.
“Must be...” Team Leader Yang’s tone also held uncertainty. After a moment, she added, “Didn’t Director Zheng say he was breaking through his cultivation? That must be what caused this spectacle.”
“Mhm.”
Cheng Yun nodded lightly, lost in thought.
“Let’s keep going.”
Team Leader Yang didn’t know what else to say, so she just spoke to the driver.
The car started moving again. After a while, Cheng Yun finally said, “Ever since I learned about the nursing home... I’ve read a lot of legends about gods and spirits. Some talk about Blessed Lands and Celestial Grottoes... I used to think they were just stories, a bit too far-fetched.”
“...”
“But now, I believe.”
...
The changes in Rainbow Mountain were felt even more strongly by the five people in the nursing home.
After the Awakening Talismans flew into the tortoise-serpent meridian, it became clearly visible that the spiritual energy within Zheng Fa’s body actually followed the mountain veins and transformed into the image of a divine beast with a tortoise's back and a serpent's head. It swayed its head, vivid and lifelike, as if it were alive.
Moments later, the divine beast slowly faded, but Zheng Fa had a faint feeling—
It hadn’t vanished, or rather, this tortoise-serpent vein had gained sentience, sentience that was now linked to Zheng Fa’s divine sense.
“You’re saying... you can control the entire Rainbow Mountain?”
Old Bai stared wide-eyed in astonishment.
“Control isn’t quite accurate, at least I can’t do that yet,” Zheng Fa said honestly, “but within Rainbow Mountain, any disturbance can’t escape my divine sense.”
“The spiritual energy produced by the Lingshan Method can now blanket all of Rainbow Mountain, and I can also control the concentration of spiritual energy in different areas.”
“I can even make small changes to the terrain.”
Tang Lingwu spoke up from the side: “Like playing with building blocks? Minecraft?”
Zheng Fa nodded: “At least for small changes, yes.”
“The Lingshan Method...” Old Bai sighed, then said, “It was already miraculous before, but I didn’t expect that after you formed your Golden Core... it’d have this kind of use.”
Zheng Fa was surprised too. The Lingshan Method originated from the Jiushan Ancestor, and later his own master also cultivated it, but it had never shown this kind of effect...
Still, thinking on it, Zheng Fa had some guesses:
Modern times had no spiritual energy. Zheng Fa controlling Rainbow Mountain and his master trying to control the Jiushan spiritual veins...
They weren’t even on the same level.
The deceased Jiushan Ancestor wasn’t something Old Yuan could just toy with like blocks.
In fact, Zheng Fa had another thought...
When he first started cultivating and saw the Lingshan Method, he found it extremely unique, something no one had imagined before.
But now, he had a different take:
This thing might actually share the same essence as the Heavenly Monument Realm and that Sun and Moon Bell—creating a region filled with spiritual energy. Compared to this, what the Sun and Moon Bell could do was far more outrageous!
That thing created a whole little world!
Maybe the Jiushan Ancestor didn’t even know about things like fate-suppressing treasures... but this was probably just an inherent part of cultivation.
It was like this: when he first arrived in the modern world, everything looked like immortal magic to him.
After going to school, he felt like everything was explainable—at least he wasn’t surprised by everything anymore.
What’s the saying? “If you don’t study, everything looks like an unsolved mystery.”
That was how he now saw the Lingshan Method.
Maybe, just maybe, the final form of the Lingshan Method could really become something like Minecraft—Zheng Fa didn’t find it impossible at all.
Although the Jiushan Ancestor never reached that level, he had neither modern science nor the Sun and Moon Bell.
To put it bluntly: the guy was a bit of a bumpkin, short-sighted.
If the Ancestor could come back to life, he’d probably say—“If I’d had your setup back then...”
If Zheng Fa didn’t have this confidence, that would be the real disrespect to the Ancestor.
...
“The spiritual energy concentration has gone way up too!”
After a few quick tests, Tang Lingwu couldn’t help exclaiming in delight.
Old Bai and the others were also visibly invigorated.
With Zheng Fa’s advancement to Golden Core, the spiritual energy converted through the Lingshan Method had become more potent.
Naturally, Tang Lingwu and the others were excited—this meant their cultivation would speed up significantly!
Especially Tang Lingwu, whose talent was pretty decent. She was currently stuck at the bottleneck of mid-stage Qi Refining.
An increase in spiritual energy concentration could greatly help her break through.
“If the concentration is high enough, cultivating spiritual plants might also go a lot smoother than before.”
Teacher Tian thought for a moment and chimed in.
Indeed, the current method of cultivating spiritual plants at the nursing home involved a combination of magic and science.
But ultimately, one of the key factors in growing spiritual plants was the concentration of spiritual energy.
Now that Zheng Fa had reached Golden Core and Rainbow Mountain’s spiritual energy had intensified, the benefits to the nursing home’s spiritual plant research would be enormous.
“Speaking of which... the physics lab is now kind of inconvenient.”
Tang Mudo looked troubled.
The nursing home’s physics lab had been built right at the edge of the spiritual energy zone—part of it inside, part of it outside.
That setup was meant to reduce interference from spiritual energy on electromagnetic fields.
Now that the Lingshan Method blanketed all of Rainbow Mountain with spiritual energy...
The physics lab was, naturally, fully enveloped.
“Didn’t Zheng Fa say he can control the distribution of spiritual energy concentration?”
Old Bai offered in comfort.
“No need,” Zheng Fa shook his head. He was already prepared: “I know of a talisman diagram that can block spiritual energy from interfering with electromagnetic fields.”
He was talking, of course, about the diagram Senior Sister Zhang had derived from the Message Talisman.
“That’s great!” Tang Mudo said joyfully. “This way, our research will be much smoother!”
“Not just smoother... with this diagram, combining cultivation and technology will have virtually no obstacles left!”
Zheng Fa, in fact, valued this discovery even more. After all, his life-bound treasure depended on it.
“...”
Everyone looked at Zheng Fa, seemingly aware he was cooking up another idea:
“Before, whenever we ran experiments, spiritual energy was more of a side effect.”
Zheng Fa explained.
Old Bai and the others all nodded.
Spiritual energy’s effect on the material world was too vague and random—it actually seriously hindered research.
“But if we can shield electromagnetic fields from spiritual energy, then spiritual energy can actually help with our research!”
Zheng Fa gave an example: “Like, a particle collider!”
Tang Mudo’s eyes lit up. He immediately got it: “Using thunder techniques to accelerate particles?”
Zheng Fa nodded, “Exactly!”
When he first proposed the idea of a particle collider, Team Leader Yang had talked to him about several issues.
The biggest problem wasn’t money, but construction time.
Large-scale particle colliders were, of course, costly, but the construction period typically started at ten years.
If the top brass committed, they might be able to shorten it a little.
Still, five or six years minimum—any shorter and quality couldn’t be guaranteed.
Zheng Fa’s current idea was to build a small one first—at least for Phase One, build a small prototype.
Money wasn’t really a problem—it wasn’t coming from his pocket anyway!
The main thing was saving time.
As for the energy required to accelerate particles? Naturally, thunder techniques!
That way, they could replicate the function of a large particle accelerator in significantly less time!
And at a much lower cost.
In fact, he’d had this idea before, but the interference of spiritual energy with electromagnetic fields had made him hesitate—after all, a particle collider required extremely high precision, and he worried it would skew the results.
Now that he had the shielding talisman diagram, that concern naturally vanished.
“Particle collider...” Old Bai frowned and asked, “Why are you so obsessed with that thing?”
“Core Formation isn’t just about producing new particles,” Zheng Fa thought for a moment and explained, “it’s also about the fusion of spiritual power and particles.”
Old Bai and the others listened quietly.
“This fusion produces a kind of spiritual material, but what exactly is the structure inside that spiritual material... I need to find out.”
...Zheng Fa’s meaning was clear—he wanted to figure out what exactly he had created!
“After forming my core, my main task is to forge my life-bound treasure.”
“Life-bound treasure?”
“Simply put, it’s using the spiritual material formed from the Golden Core to craft your own magical treasure.”
“Regardless of what the treasure ends up being, if I can’t even understand the properties of the material I produced myself...”
“Then talking about refining a life-bound treasure is just empty words.”
“The particle collider is one approach. As for things like electron microscopes, I’m planning to try those too.”
When it came to forging his life-bound treasure, Zheng Fa’s ambition required innovation—regardless of how others innovated, his approach was very clear:
First, understand the fundamental nature of the spiritual material he had produced, including its properties and traits.
Then, based on those properties, design the treasure he needed.
Finally, forge his own life-bound treasure.
The most important parts were twofold: first, uncovering the essence of the spiritual material; second, designing the treasure itself. The first step was the most critical.
At the end of the day, it was the same approach he had taken with the “Golden Core Project”: first, understand the core principles.
“...Materials science?”
After hearing Zheng Fa’s thoughts, Old Bai blinked and said three words.
“Yeah.”
This matter really did have a lot to do with materials science.
If all went well, the Jiushan Realm would likely be getting a brand-new course!
Who knew how excited the disciples would be...
But Old Bai just waved his hand and said, “I don’t know materials science, and we’re not professionals—go find that Yang woman!”
Zheng Fa lifted his gaze, looked beyond Rainbow Mountain, and smiled: “Team Leader Yang’s already here.”
...
At the foot of the mountain, Team Leader Yang had just hung up the phone.
Her expression was a bit strange.
“What’s wrong?”
Cheng Yun couldn’t help but ask.
“They saw the anomaly in the capital too.”
“...”
“The higher-ups said... we must make sure Zheng Fa knows we’re sincere!”
Cheng Yun opened his mouth, not quite understanding: “What sincerity?”
“Before... wasn’t someone harboring some crooked thoughts?”
“Tang Lingwu wasn’t...”
Cheng Yun immediately understood.
“The girl’s too kindhearted...” Team Leader Yang sighed. “A beating, and that’s it? Director Zheng might not care, but we can’t act like it didn’t matter.”
Cheng Yun thought about it for a long time, then just shook his head and said nothing.
“That’s not all. Regarding that particle collider... the higher-ups also said, work overtime, spare no expense...”
Cheng Yun looked up at the Rainbow Mountain in front of him.
The anomaly hadn’t faded. Standing at the base of the mountain, they could see every blade of grass, every rock, every stream glowing faintly with purple light.
A mythical scene playing out before his eyes—his emotions were truly beyond words.
And precisely because of that, the tone on the phone had sounded almost humble.
Like someone eagerly throwing money at a favor.
Team Leader Yang sighed again: “Rainbow Mountain... has vanished from radar. Or rather, aside from the naked eye, no detection method... works on it anymore.”
Cheng Yun could completely understand where that phone call was coming from...
They must’ve stood there for a while, because inside, Zheng Fa seemed to notice. Suddenly, clouds and mist rose within the mountain. Clusters of white clouds, wisps of fine mist enveloped all of Rainbow Mountain, veiling the anomaly.
“This...”
This scene made both Team Leader Yang and Cheng Yun feel an extra measure of reverence.
...
After passing through the mist, they arrived at the nursing home deep within the white clouds.
The nursing home looked the same. The buildings hadn’t changed, yet both of them inexplicably felt a bit timid.
“Come in already!”
It was still Old Bai who waved to them from the courtyard. Only then did they both take a deep breath and walk inside.
“Perfect timing, Team Leader Yang,” Old Bai said cheerfully, “we were just talking, and that particle collider—turns out we can save some money on it!”
“Save money?” Team Leader Yang’s eyes widened as she looked at Old Bai. “No need to save! Not even a little!”
“...”
“Whatever it costs, we’ll pay it! Don’t save a single cent!”