Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 250 - 143: The Law is not Easily Transmitted, United in Mind and Purpose

Chapter 250: Chapter 143: The Law is not Easily Transmitted, United in Mind and Purpose

"Zheng Fa, what do you say? Stay or not?"

Old Man Bai asked Zheng Fa.

After a brief contemplation, Zheng Fa did indeed have a slightly better understanding of Tang Mudao... but it wasn’t enough to give him sufficient trust in Tang Mudao.

"Mr. Bai, I have an idea..."

"Hm?"

"We need to perfect the system of teaching Immortal Law at the elder care home."

Zheng Fa’s words made the three of them nod slowly, as if they also shared this thought.

It was Old Man Bai’s earlier mention of inner and outer doors that had sparked this idea in Zheng Fa.

There hadn’t been such a system in the elder care home before, mainly because the four of them got along relatively harmoniously—indeed, there hadn’t been much use for it.

But as the elder care home was going to gradually open up, there would always be people with relatively complex characters like Tang Mudao...

Zheng Fa couldn’t establish deep relationships with everyone, and feelings alone couldn’t maintain an organization.

"System..." Old Man Bai pondered and said, "Systems are good, but which direction should we go?"

Mrs. Tian and Tang Lingwu also looked at him with curiosity.

"My current idea is an academic achievement point system."

"...It really is a research-oriented elder care home!"

Zheng Fa nodded and said:

"All Cultivation Techniques, newly researched spiritual materials, spells, I hope to assign a corresponding number of points to each..."

"The assessment of academic contributions, I plan to be decided by the four of us..."

The three understood that Zheng Fa must have been thinking about this for a while.

"I think it’s good, no problem," Tang Lingwu said with a light nod.

"There wouldn’t be a problem anyway," Old Man Bai thought more openly, "We’ve just started. If there’s a problem, we’ll just fix it."

...

First floor of the main building of the elder care home.

Tang Mudao was fidgety, waiting for the final decision from Zheng Fa and the others.

Seeing Zheng Fa coming out, he eagerly looked at Zheng Fa and said, "Immortal Master..."

"Professor Tang, just call me Zheng Fa," Zheng Fa interrupted what he was going to say, "Regarding your request."

Tang Mudao’s eyes blazed with excitement.

"We can let you into the elder care home."

"Thank you, Immortal Master! No no, thank you, Zheng Fa..."

Tang Mudao seemed extremely excited, with his legs bent, as if he wanted to kneel to Zheng Fa again.

This time Zheng Fa was quick and stopped him.

"Just that... regarding your wish to receive the inheritance of Daoist Skills, that’s not available for now."

Zheng Fa went on.

Tang Mudao’s eagerness on his face froze slightly, but he immediately nodded vigorously: "I understand! I understand! The Law is not transmitted lightly; one must be tested!"

"Even to learn comic dialogues, one has to serve tea and water for years!"

His somewhat round face was full of submission.

"It’s good that you understand..."

"Understand, of course, I do!" Tang Mudao patted his chest with a loud thump, and said,

"Just tell me what I need to do!"

"Whether it’s heavy labor or servitude, I’m willing!"

Zheng Fa fell silent for a while, then said: "...I order you to study hard."

"Ah?"

"What he means is that you need to first learn the basic knowledge of Immortal Law, then research some academic achievements, and then you can receive the Immortal Law inheritance and cultivate to become an Immortal."

Old Man Bai slightly explained to him about Zheng Fa’s academic achievement point system.

The more Tang Mudao listened, the weirder his expression became, and he couldn’t help summarizing: "Cultivation also depends on writing papers? I’m nearly sixty, do I still have to pursue a doctorate?"

"If you can’t die from cultivation, why not learn..."

Old Man Bai said.

Tang Mudao looked towards the entrance of the elder care home, as if he was looking for a signboard.

"What are you looking at?"

"Isn’t this... could it be the Cultivation department of Beijing University?"

"...Your words are not quite correct, but they are very precise!"

...

"What has Professor Tang been up to lately?"

"What else can he do?" pondered Old Man Bai, and then said, "He had medical equipment installed in his room, and then he went back and resigned, saying he wants to focus on cultivation."

Mrs. Tian asked, "Zheng Fa, you’re letting him run around outside?"

It was clear that she wasn’t very reassured about this person.

"Not to mention he hasn’t learned even a bit of Cultivation Technique, even if he did... they don’t have Spiritual Energy."

Zheng Fa shook his head.

The fact that he could take one step at a time, and control the source of Spiritual Energy, was also a very important reason.

Mrs. Tian nodded and added, "But he really is quite enthusiastic about learning. He asked me for a lot of materials on cultivating Spirit Plants."

"He also asked me about talismanic diagrams and such."

Old Man Bai stroked his chin, recalling, "He even consulted me about some questions in topology."

Zheng Fa nodded.

It seemed that the academic point system greatly sparked Tang Mudao’s enthusiasm for research.

Suddenly, the sound of screeching brakes came from outside the elder care home, and they turned to see a familiar SUV stop at the entrance.

Tang Mudao hurriedly ran down from the car again.

"I’ve got it! I’ve got it!"

Running so eagerly that he was almost falling over, Zheng Fa waved his hand, and Spiritual Power supported him, steadying his body.

"Take it easy, what have you thought of?"

"I’ve figured out how to measure the electromagnetic field of pea seedlings sprouting!"

Zheng Fa felt a surge of excitement, "Go on!"

"You’ve seen the records before, and you approached this with spells, right?"

"Yes."

"So why don’t we start with the pea seedlings themselves?"

Zheng Fa understood what he meant.

"You’re saying, measure the electromagnetic field around the pea seedlings before and after they transform into Spirit Plants?"

"That’s right!"

"We’ve discussed this idea before," Zheng Fa said, shaking his head lightly. "It’s not very feasible... mainly because within the range of Spiritual Energy, electromagnetic field sensors fail to function, making real-time measurement impossible."

"I’ve thought about that!" Tang Mudao said. "We just need to place the electromagnetic receiving devices a bit further away."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Fa immediately had a vague idea in mind.

"Professor Tang, go into detail."

"You should know that one of the main tasks in studying astronomy is to receive electromagnetic wave signals from the universe and use algorithms to determine the energy strength and the distance of their origin, while filtering out unrelated signals."

Tang Mudao pulled out his laptop and showed a diagram with an array drawn on it.

"Look, with this kind of array, arranging five magnetic field sensors at certain angles and distances, even if they are not near the pea seedlings, we can calculate the magnetic field around them based on the received electromagnetic signals."

"With more magnetic field sensors, the information obtained will be even more accurate."

Zheng Fa and Old Man Bai exchanged a glance; they shared the same thought—this is promising!

...

"We’ve got it!"

With a cheer, Tang Lingwu addressed Zheng Fa, "At the moment when the pea seedlings produced Spiritual Energy, there was a slight change in the nearby electromagnetic field, look!"

Zheng Fa turned to look at the computer in front of him.

Indeed, the magnetic field was originally not strong, and the fluctuation was rather slight—if it were not for their relatively sophisticated measuring approach, they would probably have missed such a subtle change.

With the data on magnetic field fluctuations in hand, what followed became much simpler.

"The first iteration of the Spirit Tree Thunder..." Zheng Fa looked at the talismanic diagram before him, his expression not as relaxed, "I wonder if this Thunder Skill can only promote the sprouting of peas..."

"Pea Thunder Skill?" Old Man Bai smirked, "Does sound a bit awkward."

Beside them, Tang Mudao tentatively asked, "Does my contribution count as academic progress worth credit points?"

"Of course, it does!" Zheng Fa said with a smile and asked Tang Lingwu to open up their newly-established credit exchange list.

"The points for developing the Spirit Tree Thunder... this! We had initially set it at one hundred."

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and said, "Although the Spirit Tree Thunder is just a start, since it’s an innovative idea, I think we could reasonably add some more points. What do you think?"

Old Man Bai said, "That’s possible."

They all understood that Tang Mudao’s chief contribution wasn’t the creation of the Spirit Tree Thunder but the method of measuring changes in the electromagnetic field.

"So, shall we settle at one hundred?"

Zheng Fa glanced around, and with no objections from Old Man Bai and the rest:

"One hundred credits... what would you like to exchange for?"

Zheng Fa asked Tang Mudao.

Tang Mudao glanced over the list, which included parts of Cultivation Techniques for the Qi Refinement Realm, some Thunder Body Refinement methods, and other entry-level martial arts like the Spiritual Crane Body.

He rubbed his hands together and suddenly asked, "What does Professor Bai study?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Whatever he studies, I’ll study. It’s safer!"

Zheng Fa looked at Tang Mudao with puzzlement, not understanding why he said so.

"When our teacher was captured back then, he was the one who ran the fastest..." Tang Mudao said with a laugh, "Professor Bai fears death... no, is naturally cautious, he’s my role model!"

"..."

Xuanwei Realm.

Zheng Fa, along with Zhang and Yuan, walked toward the Heavenly Stele, discussing with Zhang their plans after entering the Heavenly Stele Realm.

"Junior Brother, you mean... you want to set up a school in the Heavenly Stele Realm?"

Zhang wore a frown, seemingly not quite grasping Zheng Fa’s idea.

Zheng Fa nodded.

This idea came to him after establishing the system in the nursing home.

"Is that necessary?"

Even now, Zhang was not very supportive—like many others, she saw the Heavenly Stele Realm as a point for resource collection. Even though Zheng Fa talked about making the Heavenly Stele Realm as the base for Jiushan Sect, she didn’t see the importance of it.

Jiushan Sect had never had a school within their domain.

"Sister, I’ve been thinking about why the Tianhe Venerable failed."

"You’ve mentioned this before, and that’s why you want to gather collective intelligence."

"Right! But talent doesn’t just pop out of cracks in the rocks; only education can nurture the people we need."

Upon hearing this, Zhang slowly shook her head: "There are so many sects in the Xuanwei Realm, and there’s no shortage of geniuses..."

"No, they might be our collaborators, but... it’s not the same."

"Not the same?"

"Sister, I’ve just asked you why you think the Tianhe Venerable failed, and I believe there’s another reason..."

"Hmm?"

"Those around him, most were cultivators of the old ways... and in the end, they betrayed him."

"What will you do?"

Zhang asked.

"It might be hard to change the thoughts of cultivators in Xuanwei Realm, but the people in the Heavenly Stele Realm are a blank slate..." Zheng Fa slowly voiced his plan, "I hope to educate them to be loyal to Jiushan, support the new methods, and be committed to research..."

"Comrades!"