Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 271 - 159: Docking Teams and Reserves

Chapter 271: Chapter 159: Docking Teams and Reserves

Watching the black sedan slowly drive away from Rainbow Mountain, Tang Lingwu remarked:

"Were half an hour of conversation enough?"

Zheng Fa chuckled and turned to Tang Lingwu: "She’s just a representative of some people, she doesn’t call the shots. Our requests are pretty straightforward, what else is there to discuss?"

"Cooling things down works to our advantage—it puts them at ease as well."

Tang Lingwu didn’t quite grasp what was meant.

But a few of the more experienced ones nodded in understanding.

Old Man Bai scratched his head and jokingly said, "Seems like I’ve come a long way... Back in the day, when such high-level officials visited Beijing University, I had to stand aside and clap like a fool."

...

Not two days after that Director Yang left, Zheng Fa sharply sensed a change at the base of the mountain—

A number of well-trained strangers arrived in the village below, moving the local villagers out as if taking over the entire village.

Subtly, it seemed vehicles from outside could no longer enter.

It was like the nursing home was deliberately isolated from the outside world.

"A bit troublesome," Old Man Bai frowned and said, "Is this surveillance on us?"

Zheng Fa thought for a moment but then shook his head: "I don’t sense malign intent from them, seems like they’ve only isolated us from the outside."

This much he could tell.

Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu went down the mountain to school, and this group let them come and go as they pleased.

But when outsiders attempted to enter the Rainbow Mountain area, this group would intercept them.

"..." Old Man Bai still looked somewhat downcast. He was a lively person with many friends in the village, and now he was cut off from them all.

Zheng Fa also felt a bit discontented. The next moment, Tang Lingwu’s phone started ringing.

"My dad’s calling!"

Tang Lingwu exclaimed with a slightly frightened expression, fearing her family might be implicated.

Zheng Fa slightly knitted his brows.

"Hello? Dad? I’m fine, am I not?"

Tang Lingwu’s voice began with fear which gradually faded to confusion.

"What are you talking about? Someone offered you a project? A big shot?"

"Because of me?"

"What, what, I’m not dating anyone! Right, I’ll ask, I’ll ask!"

After hanging up, Tang Lingwu wore an expression hard to articulate.

"What’s wrong?"

"My dad said he suddenly landed several large projects... said he met with some high-level officials he couldn’t even dream of seeing before. They were very enthusiastic."

"Is this... because they’re afraid of offending us?"

Old Man Bai went blank for a second, then looked towards Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa had the same feeling.

"And, my dad is asking if I’ve got the backing of some big shot from Beijing..." Tang Lingwu continued, her face showing a hint of annoyance as she spoke, "Talk about being well-connected through generations..."

Old Man Bai smirked: "Generations? More like the generation of immortals, right!"

Tang Lingwu paused for thought, then sheepishly said, "My dad mentioned that he wants to visit us in Beijing... This time he’s probably genuinely scared."

Old Man Bai chuckled and said, "What, your dad is only coming now? How was he at peace before?"

"My mom was holding him back..." Tang Lingwu admitted, somewhat embarrassed, "I asked her to."

Old Man Bai shook his head: "Your dad is really obedient."

"...My mom said if he didn’t listen, she’d pretend to be sick for him to deal with..."

Tang Lingwu spoke, then suddenly turned to Zheng Fa: "This time... my dad’s probably not going to be stopped by my mom."

Zheng Fa was startled; had Tang Lingwu previously been keeping a secret for his sake?

"Looking forward to meeting Mr. Tang," he said to Tang Lingwu with a smile, "It makes no sense—for outsiders to know what we’re doing but your father not to."

...

After a while, Old Man Bai received a call as well.

Zheng Fa and the others exchanged knowing looks.

As expected, after hanging up, Old Man Bai spoke after a long silence: "My daughter, she’s been called to transfer to Beijing... They said they would resolve both she and her husband’s employment, she can choose whatever she wants... all the positions are good."

Zheng Fa summed it up.

He needn’t mention himself, having no close relatives and after his parents passed, he broke off connections.

Tang Mudao was a lifelong bachelor.

Mrs. Tian only had an elderly mother.

So... to show kindness, they really had to start with Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu’s relatives.

"Aren’t we immortals yet," Old Man Bai continued, "and already our families are reaping the benefits?"

It was Mrs. Tian who laughed: "Now that’s what you call success..."

...

Another week passed before Group Leader Yang visited the nursing home again.

This time, her smile was much more sincere.

"Mr. Zheng! I need to thank you sincerely!" Zheng Fa was startled, only to hear Yang continue: "That pea you gave us, we conducted animal experiments with it right after returning..."

Zheng Fa listened as she went on.

"The results are truly miraculous! From our observations, that pea can sustain a life’s vital signs for a long period, which is extremely helpful for high-intensity surgeries, especially ex vivo surgeries!"

She paused and then said:

"There’s an old man, you’ve probably heard his name too."

She quietly mentioned a name.

Zheng Fa nodded, he had seen it in textbooks...

"The old man’s heart condition wasn’t very good before, and he always needed an external operation, but no one dared to do it due to his age..." Group Leader Yang’s tone carried a hint of admiration, "Originally, we wouldn’t want to ask others for this, but he decided himself, saying that he was close to death anyway, so he might as well volunteer..."

"The result was very good!"

That pea is actually not a very strong Spirit Plant—after all, the Spiritual Power environment Zheng Fa can create now is limited.

But to modern people, it was too miraculous.

"What’s going on with the commotion at the foot of the mountain?"

Old Man Bai asked.

He still had some concerns about this matter.

"This matter, we mainly want to keep it relatively secret." Group Leader Yang explained apologetically, "After all, this mountain has been here... Lately, there have been more and more tourists coming, and it’s possible some rumors might spread."

"I came this time also to discuss the cooperation we mentioned before with Mr. Zheng."

Zheng Fa nodded imperceptibly.

"To be honest, this matter has a huge impact." A wry smile appeared on Group Leader Yang’s face as he continued, "Mr. Zheng, you may be the greatest opportunity we’ve had in a thousand years, but on the other hand, we also have to be extremely cautious."

"My visit this time firstly serves as a formal request—some people would like to visit you, but of course, if you do not wish to meet them, we will respect that."

"Secondly, to inform Mr. Zheng of my new role, we now have an interface team inside, and I am currently leading it—if you have another person in mind, we will also consider that."

"This interface team can also be called a service team—whatever you need, as long as it does not harm the national economy and the people’s livelihood, we can meet, and whatever you want to research, we can mobilize all resources to fulfill."

"Thirdly, this matter also seeks your opinion—the authorities are planning to define the area around Rainbow Mountain as a nature reserve, to prevent any disturbance to the retirement home. But in reality..."

Group Leader Yang passed over a file.

Zheng Fa took the file and looked, somewhat surprised—the document declared a large area around Rainbow Mountain as belonging to the retirement home.

It almost had the sense of a private property.

"This is?"

"The people at the foot of the mountain are actually just trying to reduce some trouble for you; now all of this is your territory, which means—if you feel uncomfortable, you can ask them to leave."

"Mr. Zheng, our only principle is—maintain communication, express friendliness, and eliminate misunderstandings."

Zheng Fa pondered and said:

"All of these don’t matter to me, I only have one question."

"Please tell me, Mr. Zheng."

"What do you want?"

Group Leader Yang was slightly taken aback, then he gave a wry smile and said: "Mr. Zheng, don’t you understand yet? We only care about one thing—"

"Hm?"

"What you want."

...

Zheng Fa was flipping through the materials given by Group Leader Yang, or rather, the Group Leader.

Among them, what he valued most was the information about Spirit Tree Thunder—indeed, after cooperating with the officials, the research on Spirit Tree Thunder faced no more obstacles.

Moreover, the special electromagnetic waves for the eighteen solar terms had all been listed, each with three to four alternatives.

As for the project of constructing advanced artificial intelligence with circuits, the outcome is currently scarce—mainly because there are a wide variety of algorithms for advanced artificial intelligence.

There are simply too many plans.

According to Group Leader Yang, they are cooperating with various top universities and research institutes to select the most complete plans as much as possible.

Mrs. Tian flipped through the materials she held and smiled: "This plan is quite interesting."

"Hm?"

Zheng Fa looked up at Mrs. Tian, and she said: "It seems they’ve seen the benefits of Spirit Plants and are now more eager than us. They say they want to cooperate... mainly, they provide the seeds, we try to cultivate Spirit Plants, and then they conduct various researches."

Zheng Fa was indifferent.

If the nature of Spirit Plants is what he conjectured—then by controlling the modern source of Spiritual Energy, he inherently controls the production of Spirit Plants.

This kind of cooperation only had benefits for him, no downsides.

Mrs. Tian also knew this point and, after flipping through more, added: "But this is interesting... because we can use Evergreen Talismans to make ordinary crops mature quickly, they hope we can help with agricultural breeding experiments..."

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and nodded:

"Cooperation is mutually beneficial, of course, we can agree, but we need all the experimental data and research reports."

For him, since he has started cooperating with the government, there’s no need to hide—a

But he must understand all the corresponding technologies and information to serve the Heavenly Stele Realm or even the Xuanwei Realm in turn.

After all, they covet Spiritual Energy.

He himself covets those bigshots.

It’s hard to say who has the short end of the stick.

...

In the Heavenly Stele Realm.

Once again, it was Junior Master Huang and Senior Sister Yuan who accompanied him to collect Heavenly Merit points.

After a month of busy work, they had gathered more than twenty thousand points.

If going by the idea that the gold seal could be upgraded by another level with a hundred thousand points, they should temporarily have enough Heavenly Merit points.

"No news from Senior Sister Zhang yet..."

On the way to Hundred Treasure Hall, Senior Sister Yuan suddenly sighed.

Zheng Fa and Junior Master Huang’s expressions also became grave—if Senior Sister Zhang succeeded, a new Divinity Transformation would occur, and it would be impossible to have no rumors at all...