Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 263 - 152: Experimental Tips

Chapter 263: Chapter 152: Experimental Tips

Upon hearing Tang Mudao say he had a way, the other four couldn’t help but turn their attention to him.

Tang Mudao pondered: "I mentioned to you before, Zheng Fa, our major job in astronomy is to collect various signals from the universe, be it X-rays, rays of light, or even microwave signals—in the end, they’re all observations of electromagnetic waves. These observations often last many years, resulting in a large volume of corresponding records."

Zheng Fa nodded and waited for him to continue.

"So, theoretically speaking, many observatories would have records of electromagnetic signals from the day of each solar term—except these electromagnetic waves are usually regarded as noise."

"I’ll check the public data from a few observatories; I should be able to get the relevant records."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but gratefully say: "Then we will have to rely on Professor Tang!"

Tang Mudao waved his hand and headed to his room, probably to search for some documents.

However, Old Man Bai asked: "With so many observatories and such a variety of signals received, how can we determine which signal is the one we’re looking for?"

It was a good question.

Electromagnetic waves are too common—almost infinite. Each observatory receives a vast quantity of electromagnetic signals at any given moment.

On the other hand, observatories are scattered across various regions, whether they can observe the special signals that Zheng Fa is hoping for is another matter.

Of course, they didn’t know, but Zheng Fa understood—

The Xuanwei Realm is ultimately not quite the same as the modern world. Although both have the concept of solar terms, the connotations may not be the same.

Therefore, whether this kind of special electromagnetic wave exists in the modern world is a more critical issue.

This is somewhat akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.

"There’s one method," Zheng Fa said.

"If my hypothesis is correct, then we can make a deduction—on the day of the solar term, there will be special electromagnetic waves."

"And such electromagnetic wave signals will not appear on non-solar term days."

"If we find this special electromagnetic signal in the corresponding records, it would partly validate this hypothesis."

"If not discovered, then of course the hypothesis would be incorrect."

It’s like how the theory of relativity predicted gravitational waves. Often, if a theory can’t be directly validated, some related, more observable deductions serve as a form of proof.

"The volume of this work..."

Old Man Bai clicked his tongue, somewhat with a sigh: "It’s quite massive..."

"That depends on Professor Tang."

This method of validation would first require a large amount of data.

As for how to process the data and find the corresponding signals—that would be the next headache.

...

Tang Mudao’s connections turned out to be very helpful, at least there were no issues in finding these public records.

The difficulty lies in—how to identify the specific small signal Zheng Fa and his team need from these vast records...

Zheng Fa couldn’t help but look towards Tang Lingwu.

For this kind of dilemma, turning to computer calculation has always been the first choice.

Tang Lingwu furrowed her brows in thought: "The technical difficulty is not high, but it requires time and luck."

Actually, this task is simpler than the previous identification of talismanic diagrams—it’s more akin to a game of finding differences.

But the problem is, with such a large amount of data and no specific pattern, there’s no particularly clever method to rely on—only computation and comparison by computer.

Zheng Fa turned to look at the others beside him.

Seeing that they were all out of ideas, it seemed none had a better solution.

...

Half a month later, in the evening, Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu along with the others were in the courtyard.

From inside the room, one could faintly hear the wailing of the laboratory’s mainframe, with fans whirring—it had been the same for about ten days.

The records Tang Mudao had sourced were plentiful and continued to grow in number.

Both domestic and international records were included.

However, no surprising discoveries had been made to date. This merely increased the workload for the computers, prompting Tang Lingwu to upgrade the machines.

At this moment, Zheng Fa wasn’t in such a hurry—primarily because he had found that the retirement home was now revolving around him.

Showing just a little bit of urgency would make people like Old Man Bai feel the pressure.

Especially Tang Lingwu.

This research mainly depended on her.

These past few days, she had the most work, and others couldn’t help much.

On several past nights, Zheng Fa had seen the lights on in her room till late.

It seemed she was working all night.

Most importantly, there had been no results to date.

She was evidently becoming more irritable.

Even sometimes she would start daydreaming while eating...

Today, he simply arranged an entertainment night.

Several lounge chairs were set up in the courtyard, with small tables in front, which bore fresh fruits harvested from the retirement home’s garden, juicy and freshly picked.

A bit further away, a projector was set up, with a screen placed opposite to it.

He asked Tang Lingwu, who lay on the chair to his left: "What movie would you like to watch?"

At that moment, he felt a bit of regret that modern society had yet to find materials capable of creating Spirit Talismans—if only he could show these people what a holographic projection was.

Tang Lingwu seemed to realize that Zheng Fa was probably feeling sorry for her.

She smiled at Zheng Fa, lying back on her chair, feet swinging on the edge, even the roundness of her toe pads exuded happiness.

"Anything is fine!"

Old Man Bai at the side snorted and glanced at Mrs. Tian beside him, then turned his head to look at Tang Mudao who was by himself.

His expression suddenly turned smug.

"Tian, what do you want to watch?"

He said it loudly.

Mrs. Tian gave him a glance, a smile evident in her eyes, and pondered, "How about each of us makes a suggestion?"

"That’s a good idea!"

Old Man Bai agreed.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and said, "Something light."

He still wanted everyone to relax a bit.

Tang Lingwu also considered for a while and said, "Something that doesn’t strain the brain."

It was clear that she was really tired these past few days.

Old Man Bai laughed, "A domestic film! I’m not in the mood for foreign languages!"

Mrs. Tian thought for a moment and said, "Then something related to Cultivation... it’s more immersive for me."

Everyone turned their gaze to Tang Mudao, who pursed his lips and said sternly, "A movie where the lovers meet a tragic end..."

"..."

In the end, as everyone watched the familiar figure of Jiu on the screen, they all felt that what they had initially thought of wasn’t quite this.

But as they continued to watch, it turned out to be quite enjoyable...

Everyone started to relax.

Zheng Fa glanced at Tang Lingwu and saw that she was completely engrossed, which pleased him.

Out of the blue, Old Man Bai turned to Tang Mudao and asked, "Mu Dao, I heard you have some tricks up your sleeve for doing experiments... with a high success rate."

Mrs. Tian also nodded, looking at Tang Mudao with a hint of envy.

Zheng Fa turned to look at Tang Mudao too.

Only after beginning to research Spirit Tree Thunder did he realize that experiments—especially agricultural ones—really depended on luck, and if there were any tricks, he would like to learn them.

Tang Mudao looked slightly stunned, then a reluctant expression appeared on his face.

As if he had some embarrassing secret.

Seeing him like this, Zheng Fa said, "Professor Tang, if you don’t want to share, that’s fine."

Tang Mudao shook his head, laughed and said, "This matter... Well, it’s not exactly a secret, it’s just a bit embarrassing to mention in front of you guys."

"Embarrassing?"

Tang Mudao explained, "My experimental trick is—him!"

Tang Mudao pointed at Jiu on the screen.

"Ah?"

"When I first went abroad, I was a complete stranger there," Tang Mudao continued, "I had a hard time, couldn’t find a job, didn’t have any resources—then I learned about a professor who was very fond of our country’s traditional culture. So I bought a costume exactly like the one in this film and told him I could perform rituals to improve the success rate of experiments."

"Swindle and cheat?" Old Man Bai realized.

Tang Mudao laughed, "Not really, it’s not that he was foolish, just that he found me interesting and gave me a chance, even accepted me as a Ph.D. candidate."

"As we got to know each other better and joked around, this rumor started to spread," Tang Mudao shook his head, "Sometimes to lighten the mood, I’d put on that costume and go through the motions... just for fun, really."

He concluded, "In scientific research, all achievements are the result of persistence and patience, cannot be rushed, there’s no real trick to it."

This Tang Mudao...

Zheng Fa looked at Tang Lingwu, who seemed to be gaining some insight, and felt that Tang Mudao’s words were probably aimed at her.

It looked like she was taking it to heart.

...

The next day.

Zheng Fa was curious about Tang Lingwu’s behavior—she sat in front of the computer, covering her eyes as if she dared not look at the screen.

"I searched online for scientific research tips and learned some methods," Tang Lingwu turned her head, avoiding looking at the computer screen, "Someone said that you can’t look at the computer, or it will get scared and not give you the correct data."

Really, this is what you learned?

"...Anything else?"

"Oh, some people bow to their computers... I haven’t tried that yet."

"...That’s not necessary."

Not just Zheng Fa, even Tang Mudao beside him was speechless, "Tang, we should still be down-to-earth..."

During the conversation, a notification sounded.

Tang Lingwu quickly turned around, looking at the screen, "There’s a result!"

"Ah?"

"I’ll check, this is a comparison, the special electromagnetic signals from Jingzhe Day..." Tang Lingwu clicked around on the computer for a while and summarized, "This signal only appeared on Jingzhe Day, and it’s been recorded dozens of times at five observation stations."

Zheng Fa and Tang Mudao were taken aback, both moving closer to look at the screen.

Finding a needle in a haystack was difficult, but once you’ve found it, recognizing that it’s a needle was easy.

"So is this the wave form of Jingzhe Thunder?"

Tang Mudao asked blankly.

"Possibly the wave form, if there are no other special electromagnetic waves on Jingzhe Day, this is the most likely one!"

Tang Lingwu smiled.

Another notification sounded.

"What’s this?"

"Didn’t we study a type of Spirit Tree Thunder before? I input its waveform into these records to find similar ones, and now I’ve found it! This is the special electromagnetic signal from the Great Heat Day!"

Tang Lingwu glanced at the computer and smiled again.

Zheng Fa’s spirits lifted, looking at the still working computer, and suddenly had an idea—

Maybe I should bow to it?