Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 156 - 56 Master and Servant

Chapter 156: Chapter 56 Master and Servant

In the examination room.

Sitting around Zheng Fa, a few classmates heard him lightly put down the pen in his hand and couldn’t help but sneak a peek at him.

Their facial expressions nearly identical in their collapse—It’s only been an hour since the exam started, and you’re done writing again?

Even the supervising female teacher couldn’t help but walk over and glance at Zheng Fa’s test paper. Seeing that it was full of writing, she slowly moved away.

Indeed, the college entrance examination was no longer a challenge for Zheng Fa.

Especially after attaining cultivation, his reaction speed and memory were much improved from before.

If a test paper didn’t have any biased or difficult questions, he could finish it in less than an hour, even having time to review it.

At this point, it wasn’t yet time to hand in the papers, so Zheng Fa was seated, already contemplating his plans for the future.

Before, because he was illiterate in order to keep up with the learning pace.

He spent at least five years studying with extreme diligence:

In the Xuanwei Realm, even when he was working in the fields, he was oblivious to the scorching sun overhead, simply reciting textbooks he had memorized.

In modern times, he hardly ever left the house over five years, with very little entertainment, living a life isolated from the world.

The college entrance exam was an account of his efforts day after day in the past.

But university, that’s another story.

He had no compelling reason to attend university, or rather, he didn’t care about the things others cared about.

He didn’t need a diploma to gain money or status in modern times—just as Tang Lingwu said, I don’t need a diploma.

Zheng Fa pursued university with smaller goals in mind: to genuinely learn how to conduct research and how to organize a lab, so as to maximize the potential of the nursing home.

Looking at the bigger picture, he wanted to truly develop his scientific thinking to decipher the true Immortal Dao—Zheng Fa always understood that the greatest advantage the modern era could give him was thinking.

He wanted to learn more.

Of course, there was also the idea of attracting more scholars to join the nursing home.

Zheng Fa, now practicing the Spirit Mountain Technique, felt an urgent need to establish the nursing home—the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method recently faced two troublesome issues:

First, after discovering the Three Child Talismans law, now needed to research two types of unknown Sub-talismans, alpha and beta.

Especially after studying the Sub-talismans inside Lin Bufan’s body, Zheng Fa already had some inspiration:

He had no clue about alpha Sub-talismans for the moment.

But for the beta Sub-talismans, Zheng Fa had two hypotheses—

First, these may be directional Sub-talismans, for instance, among the two Sub-talismans within Lin Bufan, one might be directed at the Demon Ancestor of the Great Freedom Demon Sect, and the other at himself.

This was also what Tang Lingwu proposed, that these types of Sub-talismans are interactive—as if all things in the world were hardware of a computer.

The biggest problem with this hypothesis is the manifold targets.

If so, then the beta Sub-talismans would be endless.

Second: it could be a kind of mutual interaction Sub-talisman, they are interacting with something more fundamental.

Zheng Fa guessed this based on the model of the four fundamental forces.

The advantage of this hypothesis is that it may be simple enough.

The drawback is—it’s purely speculative, with no evidence whatsoever.

The second issue is actually older—the nature of the Yin Yang Talisman Diagram has been troubling Zheng Fa for a long time.

He still couldn’t understand the concept of Yin Yang Mutual Generation.

...

He was currently at the sixth level of Qi Cultivation.

Considering his current pace of cultivation, he would likely reach the seventh level by August, beginning to realize the initial stages of the Spirit Mountain Technique.

After the end of the high school finals, when Zheng Fa left the exam room, he was a bit surprised—he didn’t see Tang Lingwu waiting for him.

In the past two days, every time he finished an exam, Zheng Fa would see Tang Lingwu waiting for him at the gate.

But at the conclusion of the finals, Tang Lingwu was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, he was greeted by Old Man Bai.

"What are you looking at!" Old Man Bai noticed him searching and patted his shoulder, saying, "What’s wrong, is me coming to pick you up not good enough?"

Zheng Fa shook his head and said nothing more.

He followed Old Bai onto the bus.

The bus swung leisurely along.

There were many high school graduates on the bus, their faces now relaxed. They gathered in small groups and chattered away.

"How was the exam?" Old Man Bai also asked Zheng Fa.

"Not bad, I guess?"

"Is Beijing University a sure thing?"

At Old Man Bai’s words, the surrounding students all fell silent, turning to look at him with only three words written on their faces—

What audacity!

"Should be possible."

Zheng Fa nodded. The opportunity for the top three from Qingshui High School to go to Beijing University was quite high.

Then he saw the group on the bus staring at him in silence, their faces bearing another three words—

What a brag!

...

Getting off the bus, Zheng Fa exchanged a look with Old Man Bai, both smiling. They hadn’t dared to say a word for the latter part of the trip.

"So when do we go to Beijing? Wait until the admission notice arrives?"

"Let’s go earlier, the nursing home is the most important."

"When, then?"

"I have some things to handle at home, let’s say early July."

"What things?"

"I have some miscellaneous things to take care of, and to thank the teachers and staff who’ve looked after me over the years, and also... to clean my parents’ graves."

To be honest, he doesn’t even know what his relationship is with this body, but its parents have raised it, so there is a debt of gratitude.

Now that he has to leave his hometown, it is only proper to see them.

"...Yes."

The two walked into the Qingshui Middle School residential area in silence, when suddenly Old Man Bai said, "Come eat at my place, the food’s all ready."

Zheng Fa turned his head to glance at him and nodded.

Upon entering Old Man Bai’s house, he was rather surprised—

His surprise was not because Tang Lingwu was there.

But because Mrs. Tian was there too.

Both of them were in the kitchen, with Tang Lingwu standing before the stove, wielding the spatula as if facing a formidable enemy.

Mrs. Tian stood by her side, appearing to be instructing her.

Seeing the two men return, Mrs. Tian actually came out from the kitchen.

Tang Lingwu, as if embarrassed, hid inside instead of showing herself.

"Mrs. Tian, what are you doing here?"

"Old Bai said that after the college entrance exams, other families would have a celebratory meal, and he wanted to prepare one for you too," Mrs. Tian said with a smile: "But... this man can’t cook!"

"So he called you?"

"I happened to be free."

Mrs. Tian waved her hands nonchalantly, laughing heartily.

Zheng Fa glanced at Old Man Bai, who was sheepishly smiling—that old man wanted to surprise him, and even went roundabout to plead his case with Mrs. Tian.

On the other hand, just after one encounter, Mrs. Tian was willing to come and cook this meal specially for him, which made Zheng Fa feel quite honored.

As to whether Mrs. Tian knew he might be able to heal her—the way he knew Old Man Bai, this old man actually had a good sense of propriety.

"And her?" Zheng Fa looked toward the kitchen, where Tang Lingwu was still hiding.

With a suggestive look at Zheng Fa, Mrs. Tian said, "Oh her, I don’t know what got into her, but she suddenly developed an interest in cooking."

Her tone suggested that she fully understood what was going on.

...

During the meal, Zheng Fa understood why Old Man Bai had invited Mrs. Tian over—she truly had culinary skills!

Even a simple plate of greens tasted fresh and sweet in his mouth, without the slightest bitterness of raw vegetables.

"Aunt Tian, your cooking is even better than the restaurants I’ve been to!"

With Tang Lingwu’s family background, this praise was indeed not insignificant.

"The place where I did my research before was pretty remote," Mrs. Tian laughed. "There were no restaurants, so out of necessity, I honed my skills."

"Wait a second, you call me ’grandpa,’ but you call her ’aunt’?" Watching the two of them as if they had known each other for a long time, Old Man Bai felt a mix of gratification and confusion: "Our generational ranks are mixed up!"

"Do you have any objections?" On this matter, even the usually cheerful Mrs. Tian wouldn’t back down, and with a sharp glance, Old Man Bai instantly shut his mouth, not daring to speak.

Zheng Fa watched Tang Lingwu leaning in to whisper to Mrs. Tian and realized another trait of the girl—she was the darling of seniors.

In such a short time, they became so close.

Absorbed in thought, Zheng Fa noticed Tang Lingwu’s subtle action—she quietly moved the plate of tomato and eggs she had cooked to her front, shielding it with her hand, and started eating voraciously on her own.

As she ate, her brow furrowed and she looked somewhat disheartened.

Honestly, for a beginner, the dish wasn’t bad—it was at least cooked.

But compared to Mrs. Tian’s cooking, it had many faults—tomatoes too firm, eggs overcooked, and most importantly, too much salt.

No wonder Tang Lingwu felt somewhat embarrassed, after all the trouble, hiding it and not wishing others to taste it.

Zheng Fa reached out and rescued the plate of tomato and eggs from under Tang Lingwu’s arm.

"It’s salty!" Tang Lingwu said anxiously.

Zheng Fa, while pushing the eggs into his bowl with his chopsticks, nodded and said without looking up: "It’s fine, I like strong flavors."

Tang Lingwu was momentarily stunned and then started to smile with pursed lips.

Old Man Bai, watching this scene, chewed on the green vegetables in his mouth and asked Mrs. Tian confusedly, "Did you put sugar in this dish?"

"...No."

"Then why does it taste so cloying?"

...

Xuanwei Realm.

Zheng Fa stood before Lin Bufan, examining a black jade ring on his right hand.

This was Lin Bufan’s Soul Seal; as long as Zheng Fa wished, with a thought of divine intention, life and death for Lin Bufan could be decided in an instant.

Lin Bufan lay on the bed, his complexion pale, his eyes somewhat bewildered—as if unsure whether his choice that day was right or wrong.

"Please, my lord, grant me a name."

He said in a low voice.

One could tell, this person was sensible.

After affirming the master-servant relationship, it is a common practice in the Xuanwei Realm for the master to bestow a name.

After pondering for a moment, Zheng Fa shook his head and said, "It doesn’t matter to me, and besides, your uncle’s surname is Lin; it would not be good to change it."

Lin Bufan’s gaze flickered slightly, the confusion in his eyes diminished somewhat, seemingly relieved that Zheng Fa could think this way, at least showing he wasn’t a harsh person.

He thought for a while, then suddenly said, "Then I’ll change my name to Lin Fan, my lord, didn’t you say before..."

"No!"

"?"

Looking at Lin Bufan’s puzzled expression, Zheng Fa fell silent for a moment and then said, "That name... it’s kind of inauspicious."

"..."

"By the way." Zheng Fa took out a white porcelain bottle from behind him: "Do you want to do it yourself?"

Lin Bufan looked at the bottle, which was bigger than the one before, and again at Zheng Fa—

His gaze started to become bewildered again.