Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 111 - 17 Statutes

Chapter 111: Chapter 17 Statutes

Zheng Fa looked at the pattern that Old Man Bai was pointing to.

Calling it a pattern isn’t quite accurate; it’s part of a three-dimensional shape.

In reality, just as Old Man Bai mentioned, it’s a structure, and only part of a structure—if one were to draw an analogy, it’s somewhat like the radical of a Chinese character.

However, these shapes are all three-dimensional, much more complex than characters on a plain surface.

Zheng Fa scrolled with his mouse, moving other talismanic diagrams onto the screen.

Indeed, at least in this result, most talismanic diagrams have such structures, and only one of each.

"Water Element..."

Zheng Fa pondered, this result easily led to a speculation—

The Five Elements classification of runes depends on whether there is such a small structure.

Whether this speculation is correct remains to be confirmed, but at least it provided Zheng Fa a way to analyze the runes.

"Let’s look at the runes of the Gold, Wood, Fire, and Earth Elements!"

Zheng Fa sent all the other Five Elements runes over to Han Xiaobai.

He glanced at the sky, then apologized: "It’s a bit late, sorry to bother you."

"Late?" Han Xiaobai typed out quickly: "You know nothing about cultivation."

...I do know a bit.

Old Man Bai was not yawning anymore, energetically standing by Zheng Fa’s side, examining the previous Water Element talismanic diagrams together.

Some talismanic diagrams didn’t initially seem to have this structure, but after topological changes, they gradually revealed the similar features.

Zheng Fa drew this structure on paper and wrote the character for "water" beside it.

"The more I look at this, the more interesting it gets... Have you said before that runes are the paths traced by Spiritual Energy?" Old Man Bai suddenly asked.

"It was mentioned by my sister," Zheng Fa shook his head. "But I think it makes sense."

At least from the "Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method," which can accelerate his cultivation speed, he could conclude that runes truly are composed of Spiritual Energy.

"Different paths result in different effects," Old Man Bai shook his head. "I can’t understand that."

Zheng Fa nodded and then raised further questions:

"Besides this structure, what is the use of the other parts in this rune?"

"Is the Yin-Yang attribute also a kind of structure?"

"..." Old Man Bai was stunned upon hearing this; he looked at Zheng Fa, somewhat innocently: "How would I know, I’m just an old man, I’ve never even seen what Spiritual Energy looks like!"

No, you have a high status in the Xuanwei Realm!

After an unknown amount of time, when Tang Lingwu’s phone had rung three times, the other side finally sent over the analysis results of the other talismanic diagrams.

What disappointed the trio was—perhaps the algorithm wasn’t accurate enough, or the sample size for the other four elements was insufficient.

They only identified the structure corresponding to the Earth Element.

The other three elements did not yield the results they had hoped for.

"Having such a discovery today is also a matter of luck." Seeing Tang Lingwu looking a bit disappointed, Zheng Fa consoled her: "These things are not urgent; we can continue tomorrow night."

He had always kept a hopeful outlook.

Research inherently requires patience.

Besides, cultivation carelessly spans hundreds or even thousands of years.

It’s truly not something that can be rushed.

Tang Lingwu nodded slowly, checked her phone, greeted the two, and walked downstairs.

Zheng Fa now had hearing far beyond ordinary people; he could clearly hear Tang Lingwu’s increasingly faint footsteps down the stairs, the sound of the engine starting as she got into the car.

What he heard even more clearly was Tang Lingwu’s mother loudly scolding her downstairs.

And Tang Lingwu’s silent response.

...

The next day, in the classroom.

After physics class, Zheng Fa collected the test paper handed down by the teacher, and took out a set of exercises to look through.

Look, not do.

Now at this high school stage, for most problems, he understood the examiner’s intentions and knew what methods to use just by looking at them, then he would look at the answers.

If there were no issues, he considered them passed.

Zheng Fa felt his time was getting shorter by the day.

Time actually available for studying high school content was quite limited—only during classes and the breaks.

That’s why he now opted for this relatively less time-consuming method.

But this was not him giving up on the college entrance exam; on the contrary, his goals were now even higher.

Before, he told Mr. Chen he wanted to apply to Jiangnan University.

Now, he wanted to apply to Beijing University.

To establish a cultivation laboratory, it was necessary to go where there was an abundance of top-tier talents—In modern society, opportunities to access top talents across disciplines are relatively few.

Attending a good university might be the simplest and most direct way.

Most people might not even realize that a professor you meet in university might be the peak of your network connections.

"Zheng Fa?"

Wang Chen called out to him gently from behind.

"Hm?" Zheng Fa turned slightly, looking at Wang Chen.

"...was that test just now a perfect score?"

Wang Chen looked at Zheng Fa.

"Yes," Zheng Fa nodded lightly.

He did have a sort of talent in physics, especially at the high school level.

Now he was usually the top scorer in most of the physics tests.

"Why don’t you rest during the break?" Wang Chen pursed his lips, pointing at the countdown timer by the door, complaining: "Even that thing is not as anxious as looking at you!"

Zheng Fa: "..."

Tang Lingwu suddenly came over from the front row, holding a rather thick notebook in her hand.

"Hm?"

"I was looking during class and it seemed like I discovered a common structure in the Gold Element talismanic diagram."

Tang Lingwu placed her notebook in front of Zheng Fa and spoke softly.

Zheng Fa remembered her privilege of not paying attention during classes and felt a bit envious.

He flipped through the notebook handed to him by Tang Lingwu, which was filled with densely packed talismanic diagrams.

Each diagram was neatly arranged in rows.

It looked extremely OCD-friendly.

On each talismanic diagram, Tang Lingwu had made a small circle, inside which there indeed was a common structure.

He looked at the dark circles under Tang Lingwu’s eyes, slightly frowned, and asked quietly, "When did you sleep last night?"

He suspected that she had stayed up late working on this the night before.

Tang Lingwu didn’t answer and instead, waved her hand at him, flicked her ponytail, and wobbly walked back to her own seat—then she directly laid her head on the desk to nap.

"What is this?"

Wang Chen, who appeared out of nowhere, stood beside Zheng Fa, pointing curiously at the notebook’s diagrams.

"...It’s hard to explain to you."

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and said to Wang Chen.

"..." Wang Chen stroked his chin, glanced at Zheng Fa, then Tang Lingwu, and a realization flashed across his face: "It’s still you two!"

"?"

Wang Chen slapped Zheng Fa’s shoulder, envy in his voice: "Top students are top students, even flirting in such a sophisticated way!"

Zheng Fa, looking at the excited Wang Chen, felt that the other had an overactive imagination: "What are you talking about?"

"Have I watched too many spy shows? Is this a codebook?" Wang Chen pointed at the notebook in Zheng Fa’s hand: "You two are into encrypted communication now?"

"...You’re thinking too much." Zheng Fa looked at Wang Chen, wondering how his mind works.

At that moment, a head with a photographic-flash effect popped up from behind Wang Chen.

Wang Chen’s face turned pale as he watched as Mr. Chen first glanced at him and then shifted his gaze to the notebook.

"Let me see."

Mr. Chen reached out his hand towards Zheng Fa’s notebook.

He looked at the densely and neatly packed diagrams, stroked his chin, lowered his head to glance at Zheng Fa, then Tang Lingwu, a realization crossing his face as well...

Zheng Fa felt he had just seen this set of expressions.

Mr. Chen didn’t say anything to Zheng Fa but placed the notebook in front of Zheng Fa again, giving him a meaningful glance.

Watching Mr. Chen’s retreating figure, Wang Chen slapped Zheng Fa’s shoulder and asked, "Do you think Mr. Chen thought too much?"

"..."

At Old Man Bai’s house.

Hearing that Tang Lingwu had discovered a structure related to gold, Old Man Bai couldn’t help but give her a surprised glance.

"Looks pretty correct."

After verifying all the Gold Element talismanic diagrams categorized by Sister Zhang, Old Man Bai nodded.

Zheng Fa looked at Tang Lingwu.

Her complexion was still very tired, but her face showed a relieved smile.

Old Man Bai seemed to see her expression too and turned his head to give Zheng Fa a deep look.

Zheng Fa nodded slightly.

On the other end of the computer, Han Xiaobai also modified the algorithm.

Knowing what to find, some things became much simpler.

An hour later, the five structures symbolizing Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, sprang up on the screen.

They also tried to find the structure of Yin Yang, only to discover Yin Yang seemed different from the Five Elements—at least this approach didn’t work.

Zheng Fa randomly dragged the five patterns in the software, changing their positions and orientations, seemingly trying to assemble something.

"What are you doing?"

Zheng Fa didn’t speak, just stared at the screen, slowly operating.

"I got it!"

The computer screen suddenly showed these five structures forming a whole.

Earth connects to Metal, Metal connects to Water, Water connects to Wood, Wood connects to Fire, Fire connects to Earth.

"Hmm?"

Old Man Bai was stunned, looking at the computer screen.

"Did you always think this was a whole?"

"No, I got the inspiration from the talismanic diagrams inside my own Dantian."

He had specifically observed the Right Stand No Shadow Talisman and Frost Blade Talisman condensed in his Dantian today. These two, from the moment of condensation, were always next to each other.

Today he discovered—the parts where these two were next to each other, were the structures symbolizing "Earth" and "Water", and they even combined into a new diagram.

This made him wonder if these five structures could be combined with each other.

"Are these five things actually one entity?" Old Man Bai frowned.

Zheng Fa nodded, flipped open the notebook in front of him, and wrote a very simple sentence: The Five Elements properties of a talismanic diagram are determined by a certain special structure, which can be called the Five Elements Sub-talisman, and the Five Elements Sub-talisman can be combined into a whole.

Old Man Bai stared at that line, then suddenly laughed: "You are trying to establish a law."

He seemed to see Zheng Fa’s hidden ambition.

Zheng Fa shook his head: "It still needs verification, but once it’s truly proven, I want to give it this name."

He wrote eight characters above that line.

"Bai’s Talismanic Dao First Law."

"Ah?" Old Man Bai pointed at himself: "Name it after me?"

"The biggest credit here is yours," said Zheng Fa with a smile.

"Cough, cough, this is the collective wisdom of us three, collective wisdom."

"Should I change the name?" Zheng Fa pretended to revise.

"Never mind, the name sounds pretty good!" Old Man Bai quickly stopped Zheng Fa, looked at that line and silly-smiled for a long time, then suddenly became a bit sentimental: "I’ve done mathematics all my life without leaving much fame behind; if there really is such a law, I guess I’d die without any regrets."

It sounded like he didn’t take it very seriously.