Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 170 - 70 Great Dream

Chapter 170: Chapter 70 Great Dream

Zheng Fa’s college entrance examination score ranked first in the entire city.

Over the phone, Mr. Chen’s voice still carried a hint of regret: "I heard you were only a few points behind the top scorer in the province... just short of a bit of luck."

"It’s pretty good already." Zheng Fa laughed through the phone: "Being able to attend the university I want is good enough."

"Speaking of that, do you have a target university? Several universities have already called me, saying they couldn’t reach you on your cell phone."

Hearing Mr. Chen’s words, Zheng Fa felt somewhat embarrassed.

When he was cultivating Spirit Mountain Technique, if the phone was too close, it would cause some anomalies, such as shutting down or crashing.

Previously, he didn’t really care—truth be told, not many people would call or message him.

It was only tonight, reminded by Tang Lingwu, that he placed his phone further away.

"Isn’t that bothering you, Mr. Chen?"

Zheng Fa said.

"Bother what bother? If being flattered by the head of the admissions office from Beijing University is considered a bother, then I wish to be bothered every day!" Mr. Chen muttered: "Just don’t forget to fill in your college application choices around the time when exam results come out."

"Okay."

"Where are you planning to go?"

The question from Mr. Chen was meant to imply—given Zheng Fa’s results, he could go to most universities or choose any major he wanted in the country.

It all depended on Zheng Fa’s choice.

Zheng Fa turned his head to look at Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu beside him.

Old Man Bai—a retired professor from Beijing University.

Tang Lingwu—a prospective student at Beijing University.

Old Man Bai was muttering something under his breath.

Tang Lingwu looked at him with wide, expectant eyes.

"Beijing University."

"That certain?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then, I’ll have someone from the admissions office of Beijing University give you a call later. Make sure you answer."

"Okay."

"By the way, a few newspapers from our city want to interview you. Where are you now?"

"I’m currently in Beijing and it’s not convenient for me."

"That... is indeed inconvenient."

"And I also don’t want to be interviewed."

Zheng Fa said sincerely.

In his view, becoming famous, especially for high school exam scores, brought more disadvantages than advantages—To real big shots or academic gurus, high school exam scores are really nothing special and wouldn’t impress them.

"Well, you... okay then. Actually, they were also a bit hesitant since there’s no publicity allowed." Mr. Chen pondered for a while and then said: "I’ll hang up now, remember to answer Beijing University’s call later."

After a while, Zheng Fa saw Mr. Chen send him a new message.

"Oh right, the school and the district and city authorities have some cash awards. Send me your bank account details."

A moment later, Zheng Fa saw Mr. Chen send a picture.

It showed several banners that were just made.

The one at the front read: "Celebrating our student Zheng Fa’s acceptance into Beijing University."

Behind that banner was another: "Celebrating our student Tang Lingwu’s early acceptance into Beijing University."

The two banners twined together, as if supporting each other.

Old Man Bai looked at the photo and was momentarily stunned: "Your teacher... is he a shipper of you and Tang Lingwu?"

"..."

"What major are you thinking of applying for at Beijing University?" Old Man Bai continued where Mr. Chen had left off.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and then said: "Initially, my preference is still physics."

Physics was the choice he initially agreed upon with Mr. Chen, thinking at the time that he was best at physics, perhaps a bit gifted.

To put it plainly, he simply chose whatever he was good at learning, a random choice.

But now, what he was considering was whether this subject could be useful to him.

If there were no Old Man Bai, or if Old Man Bai did not cultivate, he would probably choose mathematics, because that subject’s connection to spirit talismans is very direct.

With Old Man Bai around, studying mathematics would be a bit of a waste of Beijing University’s teaching resources.

On one hand, if he wanted to learn mathematics, he could ask Old Man Bai.

On the other hand, if he couldn’t learn it himself, he could just use Old Man Bai’s brain directly.

The same goes for computer science because he would have Tang Lingwu’s assistance.

"Physics..." Old Man Bai asked: "How did you come to that decision?"

"I want to understand how spiritual energy affects the world, like how it causes electronics to malfunction." Zheng Fa slowly shared his thoughts: "In this regard, perhaps physics can help me a bit more."

Zheng Fa concealed his most genuine thoughts from Old Man Bai.

In fact, the more he traveled between the two worlds, the stranger he found it—

Both Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu could practice the Spiritual Crane Body Technique and even cultivate immortality, which suggests that there’s no inherent difference in the human body itself.

On the other hand, present-day electricity does indeed have a real effect on his cultivation.

And there’s the transformation of a few common weeds.

Even the fact that Spirit Mountain Technique could actually be cultivated made Zheng Fa have an extremely simple hypothesis—the difference between the two worlds lay only in the variable of spiritual energy.

Whether considering species or the basic laws of physics.

There seems to be a close connection between the two worlds.

To study the influence of spiritual energy on the material world, the most suitable subject might indeed be physics.

As he shared his ideas with Old Man Bai, Zheng suddenly noticed—Tang Lingwu was gone.

"Where’s Tang Lingwu?"

Zheng Fa turned his head to ask Old Man Bai.

Old Man Bai chuckled, looking like he knew something but wouldn’t say.

Zheng Fa gave him a skeptical look, and suddenly he heard a loud bang of fireworks.

Turning his head, he saw thousands of fireworks erupting from the village below the mountain, blooming in the air.

Viewed from the mountain, it truly resembled a sea of flowers.

"What’s this..."

"To celebrate your great exam results."

Zheng Fa’s eyes widened slightly: "You guys had prepared in advance?"

"What do you think that kid suddenly reminded you to put your phone away for? You might not remember the date of the results release, but she remembers it every day." Old Man Bai grumbled, and Zheng lowered his head to see Tang Lingwu’s call flashing on his phone.

"Hello?"

"I was going to set them off at the nursing home, but they said you can’t set off fireworks on the mountain, so I’m doing it here." Tang Lingwu’s voice carried a slight regret: "But I thought it would still look pretty nice for you to watch from the mountain... Is it pretty?"

"Beautiful." Zheng Fa watched the colorful fireworks and sincerely said, "How did you think of setting off fireworks for me?"

"On the day I was recommended for admission to Beijing University, my dad gave bonuses to everyone in the company," Tang Lingwu said on the phone. "When other people get good grades, their parents celebrate too."

"..."

"Sir Bai is right, what others have, you should have too."

"Tang Lingwu."

"Hmm?"

"You should read fewer of those overbearing CEO novels with Old Man Bai." After thinking for a moment, Zheng Fa added, "Even if you read them, isn’t the angle you’re getting into a bit odd?"

"..."

"Also, thank you, I’m really happy."

"...Hmm!"

...

"Is this the talismanic diagram?"

Old Man Bai’s brow faintly revealed a golden eye, his head swiveling around to look in all directions.

Under the effect of the Spirit Mountain Technique, there was a presence of not-so-rich Spiritual Energy in the surrounding space.

Although this Spiritual Energy was transformed from Zheng Fa’s Spiritual Power.

But Zheng Fa found it hard to control them; instead, they seemed to spontaneously manifest various talismanic diagrams in the void.

"I can’t, I’m feeling dizzy!"

After watching for a while, Old Man Bai shook his head, and the golden eye in his brow slowly faded.

Beside him, Tang Lingwu also looked like her head was swelling.

This was the first time both of them had used the Spirit Eye technique to observe talismanic diagrams, and it seemed they had not gained much.

Zheng Fa, on the other hand, was not disappointed—this was just a preliminary attempt.

Rubbing his temples, Old Man Bai suddenly remembered something and said, "Did you mention before that you’ve condensed that, what’s it called, Dream Charm?"

"Yes."

"You’re going to use that thing to test Tian? What are the effects of this Dream Charm, any side effects?"

"It’s like having a dream; what side effects could there be?" Zheng Fa explained, "I can only create her dreamscape."

"Then how do you plan to test her?"

"It’s simple, for example, let her be caught and interrogated..."

"...Isn’t that too cruel?"

"Or let her enter some bizarre world with you to see if she’ll protect you?"

"...That’s a bit hurtful."

"Or even the simplest, let her fulfill her deepest desire to see what her true nature is."

...

"This one’s good! I want to try this!" Old Man Bai suddenly slapped his thigh and said excitedly.

"..."

Watching the curiously-faced Old Man Bai, Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu exchanged a glance.

The old man’s curiosity was so strong that neither of the two young people could comprehend it.

"And... I could try it out for Tian too."

Old Man Bai muttered softly.

"You... this..."

"It’s already miserable enough to be ill; if something else happens... besides, I was the one who recommended it, then..."

Old Man Bai’s soft heart...

Zheng Fa shook his head helplessly and said, "You have cultivation now, so the Dream Charm might not be so effective. Don’t resist it in your heart."

Old Man Bai nodded earnestly.

A golden Spirit Talisman flashed in Zheng Fa’s hand and shot into Old Man Bai’s forehead.

The old man soon fell asleep, with a small black energy sphere emerging above his head, slowly spinning with some images appearing in its center.

The image showed a small auditorium.

A podium stood to one side, with a few hundred people sitting below.

Mostly from abroad it seemed.

There were also several cameras facing the podium, apparently waiting for some important person.

"Is this Sir Bai’s deepest desire?"

Tang Lingwu watched intently and asked in a puzzled tone.

Zheng Fa also shook his head.

Soon, a middle-aged foreign woman walked out smilingly, stood behind the podium, and said into the microphone:

"This year’s Fields Medal is awarded to..."

Old Man Bai, dressed in a suit, walked out from behind the curtain with a beaming smile.

Ecstatically accepting the award.

"Sir Bai... still has an academic dream..."

Tang Lingwu sighed.

Zheng Fa also admired him.

Then, Old Man Bai on the stage finished his acceptance speech and suddenly became serious, saying:

"I’m done with worldly affairs, it’s time for me to return!"

After that, facing hundreds of onlookers and cameras below, he summoned out a flying sword, wearing a suit, and rode it straight out of the auditorium...

"..."

"I don’t know about the academic dream, but I can see a show-off dream..." Zheng Fa shook his head.

The dream ended quickly.

But the black energy sphere above Old Man Bai’s head did not dissipate.

"Sir Bai really wants to do a lot of things..."

Tang Lingwu couldn’t help but mutter.

In the picture, Old Man Bai was in the courtyard of the nursing home, a golden eye manifesting on his forehead, surrounded by talismanic diagrams, and he was reaching out and playing with these talismanic diagrams.

Was he... interpreting symbols?

Seeing this, Zheng Fa felt somewhat moved: the old man actually put showing off and interpreting talismans for him on the same level...

Suddenly, Old Man Bai in the dream shouted loudly, "I’ve realized it! I’ve realized it!"

In reality, Old Man Bai on the chair also leapt up, raising his hands and shouting, "I’ve realized it!"

"You old man, you were dreaming..."

"It’s not!" Old Man Bai’s face was beaming with a smile: "I’ve understood the difference in Yin Yang Talisman Diagrams!"

"Ah?"