Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 110 - 16: Peeping

Chapter 110: Chapter 16: Peeping

Jiushan Sect, the docks.

Zheng Fa was seeing off Han Qi and two others.

Sister Zhang seems to be the kind of leader who acts swiftly and decisively; the guiding ship was ready in just a few days.

Because it was their first attempt, both Zheng Fa and Sister Zhang preferred a cautious approach—they only dispatched one ship, and it was only going to travel to a few nearby sects and workshops, about a half-month round trip.

Accompanying the ship, aside from Sister Zhang’s people and a few brothers from the workshop, were the three people specially arranged by Zheng Fa: Han Qi and his companions.

Han Qi and company weren’t stuffed in by Zheng Fa to vie for power or profit, but after negotiating with Sister Zhang for two days, they refined his previous idea—the now empty guest rooms were filled with symbolic seals collected from the workshops.

Now, the guiding ship’s model was to transport symbolic seals going out and bring customers back, maximizing the use of transportation as much as possible.

Han Qi and his two companions’ cultivations weren’t very strong, but they indeed had some business acumen; Zheng Fa deliberately wanted them to help with selling the goods.

"Brother Han, this is just a trial. Don’t feel too much pressure," Zheng Fa said, comforting Han Qi, who clearly looked very nervous.

"Brother..." Han Qi let out a wry smile: "I’m in charge of such a large batch of symbolic seals; if anything goes wrong..."

Sister Zhang had great resolve; having recommended the three of them, she actually handed over the responsibility of all the spirit talismans on the ship to Han Qi—he was in charge of how to sell them and for how much.

Han Qi had always been at the bottom of the Jiushan Sect hierarchy; he had never shouldered such great responsibility before.

It’s really quite normal for him to have his worries.

Zheng Fa patted his shoulder, thought for a moment, and then said, "As long as you put your heart into it, no one can do anything to you. You have me above you, and I have Sister Zhang above me."

Hearing this, Han Qi nodded, his face showing a little less unease.

The ship slowly rose from the water, and as Han Qi watched Zheng Fa on the docks become smaller and smaller, it seemed as if he was watching him leave from afar.

He turned and led his two junior brothers towards the cabin.

As they were going upstairs, the three of them encountered two senior brothers.

These two were usually patrolling the workshop; Han Qi and the others were very familiar with them.

Or more accurately, they used to reverence them—fearful of offending them while also wanting to curry their favor, and with their former status, they couldn’t find an inroad to do so.

Now, as the three of them encountered the two brothers, they also instinctively stopped, their faces habitually revealing flattering smiles as they bowed respectfully.

Unexpectedly, the two senior brothers also stopped and kindly smiled, "Junior Brother Han, no need for such formalities!"

"Senior Brother?"

"We’re all Zheng’s men..." One senior brother even casually draped his arm over Han Qi’s shoulder as if they were close: "You have been with Zheng for a long time; you have quite the status in his eyes, he even entrusted you with the ship’s spirit talismans! In the future, I’ll be counting on you to put in some good words for me with him."

"...Yes!"

After a few friendly exchanges, the two senior brothers bid their farewells.

The tall and skinny junior brother next to Han Qi licked his lips, looking somewhat smug, "We... have that much clout now?"

"...That’s Master Zheng’s clout!" Han Qi shook his head.

"Senior Brother, we might make a good profit this time!" The tall and skinny one suddenly changed the topic, excitedly saying, "Before, we always played small games, but this time... it’s a whole ship of spirit talismans!"

"...If you want to die, don’t drag me into it!" Han Qi slapped the back of his head.

"..."

"Our lives have only just gotten better for a couple of days, and you’re already courting death!" Han Qi took a couple of deep breaths and scolded in a low voice, "Do you really think those seniors on the ship won’t be watching us? The nicer they are to us now, the more they want to take our place!"

"This..."

"How great is Master Zheng’s future? This is just the beginning. If you are so short-sighted... don’t follow me next time!"

After saying that, he added a few more words of caution: "Our cultivation is lacking; we can only put in our best effort. At night, even while sleeping, keep one eye open."

The tall and skinny junior brother, rubbing the back of his head, grumbled, "Senior Brother, after following Master Zheng, you’ve become unrecognizable."

"..."

Han Qi glanced at him and then at a senior brother in the distance, and suddenly said softly, "Following Master Zheng, I finally feel like myself."

"?" The tall and skinny junior brother looked confused, not quite understanding.

"Isn’t it good now?" Han Qi didn’t feel like explaining.

"Good."

"Then why all the fuss?"

...

The waning moon was in the sky; the night was deepening.

Two streets away from Zheng Fa’s small courtyard, in a somewhat larger courtyard, Sun Daoyu and Zhou Qian Yuan were sitting in the attic.

Sun Daoyu’s gaze was fixed in the direction of Zheng Fa’s small courtyard.

"Senior Brother? What are you looking at?" Zhou Qian Yuan asked.

"Watching Zheng Fa."

"Zheng Fa?" Zhou Qian Yuan was confused; he looked towards Zheng Fa’s courtyard but saw nothing.

He turned back only to discover that Sun Daoyu’s eyes had changed color; the originally black pupils were now tinged with a silver glow, appearing mysterious and unfathomable.

"The Void Spirit Eye?" Zhou Qian Yuan’s face showed surprise and a somewhat terrifying speculation suddenly surfaced in his mind...

He quietly backed away three steps, distancing himself from his own senior brother before saying, "Senior Brother, isn’t this... a bit disrespectful?"

"It is a bit disrespectful," Sun Daoyu sighed, "I can’t very well stare at him directly in front of him."

"In fact... this isn’t necessarily wrong; many young masters in the secular world have similar interests to yours, Senior Brother," Zhou Qian Yuan pursed his lips, dryly suggesting, "We cultivators don’t have so many prejudices; why don’t you go express your intentions to Master Zheng directly?"

"...Intentions?" Sun Daoyu blinked, slowly looking towards Zhou Qian Yuan.

Zhou Qian Yuan looked back at him, encouragingly and understandingly.

Sun Daoyu’s face showed contemplation as he seemed to finally understand the meaning of those words, and his expression slowly crumbled.

"I’m doing this for the thousand-year-old Purple Bamboo Tears!" Seeing Zhou Qian Yuan’s dubious expression, Sun Daoyu explained through clenched teeth: "A few days ago, Sister Zhang went looking for the Master, wanting to exchange the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method for two portions of the thousand-year-old Purple Bamboo Tears."

Zhou Qian Yuan looked at his own senior brother, still somewhat disbelieving, "What does this have to do with Zheng Fa?"

"Sister Zhang mentioned that Zheng Fa’s progress in cultivating the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method is extremely fast, so much so that after forming the Primordial Talisman Foundation, he can double his cultivation speed."

"...That powerful?"

"Not only do you not believe it, but even Master has his doubts." Sun Daoyu shook his head and said: "And he doesn’t wish to give up two shares of the thousand-year-old Purple Bamboo Tears either."

Seeing Zhou Qianyuan still a bit unclear, Sun Daoyu softly explained: "The thousand-year purple bamboo of our Master produces fewer and fewer tears as time goes by. Now, there are only enough for two shares on hand."

"Because of me?"

"Yes, if two shares were given to Zhang, you would have to wait at least ten years," Sun Daoyu explained.

"..."

"Moreover, the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method has its flaws, it’s not worth so much."

Sun Daoyu’s words took Zhou Qianyuan by surprise, and he couldn’t help but ask: "Then why does Master still want this Cultivation Technique?"

"On one hand, the technique is truly marvelous, very suitable for Talisman Masters to practice. Master once said, just because Zhang cannot make up for the shortcomings of this technique, doesn’t mean he can’t. In fact, he already has some clues," Sun Daoyu smiled. "Moreover, Master also has the notion of surpassing the other branch by repairing the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method."

"... So Brother, you came here today to?"

"Master sent me to see whether Zheng’s cultivation speed really is so fast, and more importantly, to check if Zhang has already repaired the flaws in the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method, allowing Zheng Fa to cultivate so quickly."

Zhou Qianyuan’s face was somewhat troubled.

Upon seeing this, Sun Daoyu laughed and said: "Don’t worry brother, no matter how fast he cultivates, I will tell Master that the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method is not worth two shares of the thousand-year-old Purple Bamboo Tears."

Zhou Qianyuan, a bit ashamed, nodded his head and quietly said: "Thank you, brother."

"You’re my junior brother! Of course, I prioritize your needs," Sun Daoyu smiled warmly towards his own junior.

Zhou Qianyuan pursed his lips, his expression a bit moved yet seemingly not daring to be overly emotional.

He said softly: "Brother, my heart has nothing but respect for you."

Sun Daoyu: "?"

...

Zheng Fa was unaware that someone was secretly observing him, and moreover, it was a man.

He was already in the modern world in his dream.

In Old Man Bai’s house, three people were sitting before a laptop, and on its screen were categorized talismanic diagrams.

"Not very good."

Zheng Fa frowned, looking at the results sent by Han Xiaobai, he felt a little disappointed.

"I have tried all the algorithms that I could," came the somewhat aggrieved reply from Han Xiaobai. "The training dataset you provided just isn’t enough."

Zheng Fa didn’t feel that the other was shirking responsibility.

Indeed, the Yin Yang Five Elements Talisman Diagrams categorized by Zhang weren’t numerous, and moreover, a part had to be reserved to verify the accuracy of Han Xiaobai’s categorization algorithm.

That made them even scarcer.

"Why not, just don’t categorize them so finely?" Zheng Fa thought for a moment and proposed.

"You’re right!" Old Man Bai clapped his hands and nodded in agreement: "With such few samples, let’s just categorize them broadly!"

Zheng Fa’s idea was simple.

Since nothing much could be discerned by categorizing them into ten different types of Yin Yang and Five Elements.

Then divide them into the two major categories of Yin Yang, or into five major categories of the Five Elements, to see if some clues might emerge.

Clearly, the number of samples sorted into Yin Yang was the highest.

"Let’s start with the Yang Five Elements Talisman Diagrams."

A little more than an hour later, Han Xiaobai on the other end of the laptop sent back several results.

Zheng Fa looked for a long time but couldn’t discern anything, and turned his head to Old Man Bai.

Old Man Bai looked for a while and shook his head.

"Let’s try the Yin ones."

Zheng Fa felt a sinking feeling in his heart and said to the other side.

"Still can’t see anything."

Watching the results that Han Xiaobai sent over again, Old Man Bai sighed.

"Let’s try categorizing them by the Five Elements, starting with the Water Spirit Talisman."

Zheng Fa by this time was quite calm and composed.

After all, cultivation isn’t something that happens overnight, it really can’t be rushed.

Zhang was probably a Water Spirit Root, so the Water Spirit Talismans she experimented with were the most numerous.

After all the hustle for so long, the night had grown deep.

While waiting for the results, Old Man Bai couldn’t help but yawn.

Zheng Fa turned to Tang Lingwu and asked: "Don’t you have to go back?"

Tang Lingwu thought for a moment and said: "I’ll leave once we see the results of this attempt."

"Why don’t you go back first, in my view, the chances are slim." Old Man Bai, yawning with his mouth wide open, eyes welling up with tears, muttered: "This matter might still need a bit of luck."

Tang Lingwu shook her head.

The laptop chimed with a notification of a new message, Zheng Fa clicked to see, and it was Han Xiaobai with the result of this attempt.

Zheng Fa frowned, scrolling the mouse wheel, examining each talismanic diagram that the computer had classified as belonging to Water.

"Wait! Go back and look at those few diagrams again," Old Man Bai suddenly called out.

Zheng Fa turned around, looking at Old Man Bai with a hint of surprise.

Old Man Bai, rubbing the corner of his eyes, muttered: "I just yawned and my eyes watered, my vision’s a bit blurry, I can’t see clearly."

"..."

"Wait a second!"

"Blurred vision again?"

"This structure, it appears quite frequently in this category."

Old Man Bai was pointing at the computer screen as he spoke.