Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 184 - 84 Suspicion

Chapter 184: Chapter 84 Suspicion

Zheng Fa slowly made his way to where Zhang was trapped.

When he arrived three zhang away, Zhang just happened to open her eyes.

Without a word exchanged, it was as if they’d met for a prearranged silent appointment.

Zheng Fa opened his "Topology" and continued teaching from where he had left off the previous day.

Sometimes, Zhang would interrupt him with questions about things she didn’t understand.

Some of these were down to her incomplete knowledge, certain concepts eluded her, and Zheng Fa responded to those easily.

Others were things even Zheng Fa hadn’t fully thought through, at which point he would find himself stumped by her questions.

He would frown and start to ponder.

Zhang wouldn’t press him, just quietly watching him with a subtle smile on her lips.

Sometimes when Zheng Fa truly couldn’t answer her questions, her smile contained a hint of smugness.

...

Both were cultivators, their thought processes far outpaced ordinary people.

They went through the "Topology" in just ten days—a mere skimming of its surface, but at least now Zhang had an outline of it.

"Zhang, does this knowledge help you?" Zheng Fa asked with anticipation.

"Yes, it does."

"Really?" Zheng Fa said happily.

"Have you had any insights, Zhang?"

"Not quite."

"...Then doesn’t that mean it hasn’t been helpful?" Zheng Fa couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

"Because of this book, you come here every day at this time," Zhang pointed to the "Topology" in Zheng Fa’s hands and said, "Every day at this time, I feel much better."

"..."

Well, that counts as help, I suppose.

But not the kind of help Zheng Fa was looking for.

Seeing his slightly disappointed expression, Zhang chuckled, "The knowledge you imparted is profound and vast. I am only just stepping into it now, and it’s still too soon for me to integrate it with talismanic diagrams."

Zheng Fa slowly let out a breath.

He was being too impatient.

If simply studying "Topology" was enough to fully understand talismanic diagrams, Old Man Bai would have achieved it long ago.

Zhang had more accumulation in the talismanic Dao compared to Old Man Bai, but significantly less in mathematics.

It was difficult to say who was superior.

"No need to be disappointed. Your knowledge is promising; at the very least, it has provided me a new way to review talismanic diagrams," Zhang consoled him: "As I said before, I still have nine hundred years, quite enough for me to gain some understanding."

Zheng Fa nodded.

That was a good point.

...

Zheng Fa slowly entered the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace, his brow slightly furrowed.

Giving the "Topology" to Zhang was his last resort.

To be honest, it was a bit like grasping at straws.

But as things stood, it could not be said to be useless, just that it might not help Zhang in the short term.

He believed in Zhang’s mathematical talents. Nine hundred years was enough for her to thoroughly understand this subject and even enhance it significantly.

But...

The emergence of the Heavenly Stele always left him feeling uneasy.

On the other hand, Zhang’s reminder had also made Zheng Fa somewhat alert:

Without understanding the Yin Yang Talisman Diagram, the foundation of the Primordial Talisman would be flawed.

According to Zhang, even if she were to condense her Nascent Soul, she would pay a price for this issue.

Therefore, Zheng Fa felt an urgent need to perfect the "Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method" before establishing his own foundation.

This matter was very important to both him and Zhang.

"Zheng Fa, come here for a minute."

As soon as he walked into the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace, he heard Master Pang’s voice by his ear, and Zheng Fa, startled, headed towards the hall where Master Pang was.

"Did you visit Nephew Zhang again today?" As soon as Master Pang saw Zheng Fa, he asked.

"Yes."

Master Pang looked at Zheng Fa, his face bearing a look that seemed to hold unsaid words.

"Master Pang?"

"Zheng Fa, sit down," Master Pang said after a pause, his tone cautionary: "Nephew Zhang’s current situation is not of immediate concern, you should focus your thoughts on yourself."

"Master Pang?"

"You and Nephew Zhang, though not named as Dao companions, are better than such," Master Pang suddenly said: "We cultivators regard wealth, companions, methods, and land importantly, but you must understand, self is most important."

"Yes."

Zheng Fa didn’t understand why Master Pang would suddenly say this but still softly agreed.

"...The two most outstanding juniors of our Jiushan Sect are Nephew Zhang and you," Master Pang seemed to see his confusion and stated plainly: "With Nephew Zhang in trouble, I don’t wish for you to be further affected."

Zheng Fa was taken aback.

Those words... seemingly suggested abandoning Zhang.

"Of course I will save Nephew Zhang," Master Pang said softly: "But if it affects your Dao journey, I won’t agree to it."

"..."

Zheng Fa didn’t know what was the right thing to say.

"Do you know who the most famous Daoist couple of our Jiushan Sect’s last generation was?"

"I don’t know."

"Your Junior Master Huang and her husband."

"Husband?"

Zheng Fa was stunned for a moment. Junior Master Huang is now withering away on Jiushan’s seventh peak, and she hardly ever leaves the mountain, so he had never heard about her having a husband.

"Her husband was what I considered the Jiushan Sect’s most talented True Inheritor of the previous generation," sighed Master Pang. "He was also my dear friend."

"Junior Master Huang used to have a temperament ten times more explosive than Nephew Zhang. She was impulsive in her actions. Later, she encountered a mishap, and her husband, as her partner, naturally risked his life to save her."

"..."

"As you might have already guessed, Junior Master Huang was rescued, but he died." Zheng Fa suddenly noticed a hint of anger on Master Pang’s face. "If it weren’t for that, our Jiushan Sect might have had one more Divinity Transformation!"

Only then did Zheng Fa understand why Master Pang’s attitude towards Zhang was quite decent, but he had always addressed Junior Master Huang formally by her surname.

"Later, that woman surnamed Huang came back wanting to seek revenge, creating some Mystical Gate Mirror..." Master Pang sighed softly. "Now, Nephew Zhang is trapped within that Mystical Gate Mirror; what kind of Mystical Gate Mirror is that? It’s a cautionary example from the past..."

"What’s more, you haven’t even achieved Foundation Establishment yet, how could you possibly help Nephew Zhang?"

Zheng Fa knew in his heart that Master Pang’s advice was not without reason.

What he could do, he had already done.

The rest was up to Zhang herself.

...

Inside Zheng Fa’s room, he was immersed in his cultivation.

Although he was teaching classes daily to Zhang, he had never neglected his own cultivation.

On the contrary, he was even more diligent than before.

Now the Mystical Gate Mirror that Zhang was dealing with could only be broken from within. However, since it was now situated within the Thunder Pool, should anything change with the Thunder Pool, those Nascent Souls from the Great Freedom Demon Sect would be able to act—

At that moment, a battle between Jiushan Sect and the Great Freedom Demon Sect would be inevitable.

His current level of cultivation was hardly sufficient.

As the night deepened, within Zheng Fa’s room, a vortex of Spiritual Energy suddenly appeared.

This Spiritual Energy vortex was even larger than before, affecting many disciples cultivating within the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace.

Master Pang, in the grand hall, along with his disciples, all sensed it.

They all turned their eyes toward the direction of Zheng Fa’s room.

"Is that Disciple Brother Zheng?" A disciple exclaimed with surprise: "Has he reached the pinnacle of Qi Cultivation? How long has it been?"

Another elder disciple beside him was also astounded: "I’ve never seen anyone like Zheng who cultivates faster and faster... Truly a prodigious talent."

"A prodigious talent..." Master Pang’s gaze became distant, as if reminded of someone. "Only such a person could truly be reminiscent."

"Master?"

...

"Have you reached the pinnacle of Qi Cultivation?" When he arrived where Zhang was, she immediately noticed Zheng Fa’s level, her eyes filled with joy: "You’re faster than me by half a month."

Zheng Fa shook his head.

If you include modern times, it is still Zhang who is faster.

"You need to think carefully about Foundation Establishment," Zhang cautioned him. "If you feel the ’Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method’ is incomplete, you could buy an Origin Transformation Pill and disperse the rune Foundation inside your body. Although your cultivation level might drop a bit, your body’s Spiritual Power is sufficient—pursuing the conventional route of Foundation Establishment should also be fast."

It was evident that Zhang had thought it through for him.

According to Zhang’s idea, the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method was simply a cultivation accelerator, which should be discarded after use.

Zheng Fa nodded lightly; that was indeed a solution.

Although he had already finished teaching "Topology" to Zhang, his visit to her was not without gains. On the contrary, Zhang’s insights into both talismanic Dao and mathematics had inspired him greatly.

"In thinking over the past few days, I find the knowledge you have shared with me to be extremely meticulous, derived from so-called axioms. Aside from the axioms which cannot be proved, all other theories have a source," she was saying.

Zheng Fa was also in agreement. This was a characteristic of modern mathematics.

"This way of thinking is also from a great sage. He was the first to propose several axioms," Zheng began to explain the five postulates in Euclidean geometry to his sister, and how doubts about the parallel postulate eventually led to the creation of non-Euclidean geometry.

"Doubt can be cast on axioms?" Zhang’s eyes flashed with admiration. "That is truly a piece of great wisdom."

"Of course, doubt must be cast. In fact, doubting is the biggest reason this field of study can progress," Zheng said, with his own small understanding of science. "Doubting..."

He paused.

Doubting...

Up until now, he had unhesitatingly accepted Zhang’s view: the Primordial Talisman’s Foundation is condensed into a talismanic diagram.

Could this be the parallel postulate that could be doubted?

The Yin Yang Talisman Diagram in the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method process mutual generation.

Yet in the Xuanwei Realm’s void, these talisman diagrams did not exhibit such properties.

This was almost the equivalent of experimental results not quite aligning with the theory.

Are these two kinds of talisman diagrams truly the same?

"Not a talisman diagram? But what we condense is certainly a talisman diagram."

"Yes, but if we put aside that premise, what can we deduce from the premise that Yin Yang Mutual Generation is due to the mirror image?" Zheng’s eyes lit up with excitement. "Only the Five Elements Child Talisman can satisfy the properties of a mirror image. The other two parts of the Sub-talisman, although they affect the properties of the talisman diagram, are not related to the essence of the talisman diagram!"

Zhang’s eyes started to shine.

She understood Zheng Fa’s point.

"Are you saying that the Five Elements Child Talisman is the essence of the Spirit Talisman?"

"No, what I mean is, the Five Elements are the inherent properties of Spiritual Energy," Zheng Fa shared his speculation. "In our cultivation, no matter what cultivation method we use, we ultimately absorb Spiritual Energy—and there is a gap between Spiritual Energy and Spirit Talismans."

"Spiritual Energy also has the Five Elements but lacks those two categories of Sub-talismans!"

"The Foundation we condense inside our bodies is likely to lean more towards Spiritual Energy, rather than Spirit Talismans!"

"To perceive illusions, to discard falsehood and retain truth is the way to grasp the Dao..." Zhang was silent for a long while before finally sighing: "Today, you have achieved just that."