I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 131Book 2: : Sacrificing for Immortal Techniques!

Vol 2 Chapter 131: Sacrificing for Immortal Techniques!

"Same-gender friendship? Who's the same gender? Who's making friends?!"

At the dining table, Old Bai shouted in grievance.

The main issue was that Teacher Tian was clearly upset—in front of him were two plates of plain vegetables, while all the meat dishes were placed far out of his reach.

Sure, the nursing home’s vegetables were delicious.

But these two entirely green plates practically screamed, “You did it first, now it’s my turn. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Old Bai looked visibly panicked.

Teacher Tian's expression was inexplicably cold.

"Teacher Tian, don’t be like this. I trust Professor Bai." Zheng Fa spoke up in his defense.

Old Bai nodded furiously, deeply moved by the brotherly solidarity.

At last, someone understood the struggles of being a man.

Then, Zheng Fa added, "Based on what I know about Professor Bai, that ‘online friend’ is probably a woman."

Teacher Tian’s expression grew even colder.

"…"

Old Bai shot Zheng Fa a glare. "Is this how you help?! I was about to get twenty years in prison, and you just made it a death sentence?!"

"Wait, so it wasn’t a woman?"

"Of course not! It was a guy! A real man!"

Old Bai roared in frustration.

"Then it was same-gender friendship," Zheng Fa confirmed matter-of-factly.

"…Okay, yes, it was same-gender, and it was friendship," Old Bai admitted grudgingly. But realizing that arguing with Zheng Fa would only make things worse, he quickly added, "But it wasn’t some new friend—it was an old friend."

"An old friend?" Teacher Tian’s curiosity was piqued. "Do I know him?"

Old Bai shook his head. Instead, he turned to Zheng Fa. "You remember how, when I was young, I once had a master?"

"I remember—the one who got arrested." Zheng Fa recalled clearly.

"This guy… was kinda like my junior apprentice-brother." Old Bai reminisced. "Back then, I was about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, not quite thirty, and he wasn’t even twenty yet—just a college freshman. We were both disciples of that ‘master.’"

Zheng Fa nodded. "That is quite a long-standing friendship."

"Not really," Old Bai shook his head. "I was just practicing for fun. The moment our master got arrested, I chickened out and hid at home for days."

"But he was different."

"How so?"

"You know how movies always have those martial arts fanatics?" Old Bai frowned.

"He’s like that?"

"No—he’s obsessed with Qi cultivation." Old Bai shook his head. "We have very different personalities, and we weren’t actually that close. We hadn’t seen each other in years—until now, when I found out that even after our scam-artist master got arrested, he never gave up."

"He went around visiting Taoist and Buddhist temples, searching for a true path. After getting his PhD, he even went abroad, traveling the world in pursuit of ‘ancient inheritances.’ Wherever people claimed to have secrets, he would go."

"…"

"So why did he come looking for you?"

"Oh, well, I kinda went viral online," Old Bai shrugged. "After I started cultivating, I looked a lot younger, and I even mentioned my surname during a livestream. He recognized me."

"So he thinks…" Zheng Fa guessed.

"Yeah, he thinks I found real cultivation techniques, and he wanted to ask about it," Old Bai sighed. "Normally, I wouldn’t care if he was mistaken. But the problem is, he actually guessed right."

"That’s why I went to meet him—to stop him from poking around and drawing unnecessary attention."

Zheng Fa nodded.

The two of them looked toward Teacher Tian. Sure enough, during their back-and-forth conversation, Teacher Tian’s expression had softened considerably.

Old Bai discreetly shot Zheng Fa a grateful look.

Meanwhile, Tang Lingwu giggled and slid a plate of chicken toward Old Bai, while Teacher Tian pretended not to see it and quietly continued eating.

"Actually, I was also considering whether we should bring him into the nursing home," Old Bai suddenly said, his tone filled with hesitation.

"Huh? This guy is also an academic?" Zheng Fa was a bit surprised—someone who ran around seeking mysticism could still have a scientific background?

"He studied physics in China. Later, he got a tenured professorship abroad. Seems like he’s doing well for himself," Old Bai said. "But the thing is… let me put it this way—physics was just a temporary compromise for him. His real dream is Qi cultivation."

"…"

Everyone fell silent.

"He went into physics just because he was talented at it… ridiculously talented. Things that others struggled with, he could solve easily. He produced results with little effort," Old Bai sighed. "But to him, it was just a job."

Zheng Fa understood what Old Bai was implying.

Although Old Bai hadn’t said it outright, this man’s academic ability was probably extraordinary.

But his personality sounded unreliable.

On top of that, while he was an old acquaintance, they hadn’t been in touch for years.

His character, his past experiences, even whether his stories were true—none of them could be verified.

For now, Zheng Fa didn’t dwell on the matter. His bigger concern was the upcoming demon race attack in three months.

He glanced at the Fusang Tree within him, feeling slightly frustrated.

The Fusang Tree had, of course, been helpful—most notably in attracting the Golden Crow, which exposed the demon race’s schemes.

But at the same time, it had made his cultivation much more difficult.

If not for this damn tree, with all the lightning-element spiritual resources he had consumed, he should have already reached late Foundation Establishment.

Zheng Fa didn’t actually care about speed.

But when a cultivator advanced in realm, their divine soul would also grow stronger.

Right now, his spiritual energy was at early Foundation Establishment, but his divine soul’s strength was already on the verge of late Foundation Establishment.

If he could just reach late Foundation Establishment, his divine soul would likely surpass the Golden Core threshold.

With a Golden Core-level divine soul, he might be able to master Spirit Wood Thunder, which would earn him a massive amount of Heavenly Merits, speeding up his control over the Heavenly Monument Realm.

Thinking of this, Zheng Fa shot a somewhat unfriendly glare at the Fusang Tree.

The tree trembled slightly, as if… afraid.

"Come quickly!"

One day, as Zheng Fa and Old Bai were still researching Cloud Rain Thunder, trying to optimize it further, Teacher Tian suddenly ran in, looking excited.

"What’s wrong?"

Old Bai, seeing how urgent she looked, quickly asked.

"Come to my lab!"

Teacher Tian didn’t explain—she simply gestured for the two of them to follow.

Zheng Fa and Old Bai exchanged glances before heading toward Teacher Tian’s agricultural laboratory.

On the way, Teacher Tian finally spoke.

"You know how I take daily samples from the fields and analyze them in the lab?"

Zheng Fa nodded.

So far, their spiritual energy environment hadn’t yet reached the level where true spiritual plants could form.

But they had discussed a possibility—if the crops underwent genetic mutations, it might not be visible yet due to the short growing period.

To account for this, they always saved seeds from each harvest, and Teacher Tian regularly examined samples.

"Take a look at these cell slice images!"

Teacher Tian led them to a computer, where magnified images of plant cells were displayed.

Zheng Fa leaned in to examine them—

Okay, the only things he recognized were the basics:

Cell wall, nucleus, chloroplasts, mitochondria…

To be honest, Zheng Fa’s high school-level biology knowledge was useless here—he had no idea what he was looking at from these images.

"Xiao Tian, what’s wrong with these cells?"

Teacher Tian smacked her forehead. "I got too excited and forgot that you two don’t have the background for this."

She pulled up some older cell images and placed them side by side with the new ones. "Now look again."

Zheng Fa and Old Bai studied the images for a while.

Old Bai frowned, uncertain. "There’s… a new structure?"

Zheng Fa noticed it too.

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It was a tiny, unremarkable thing, nestled against the cell wall—far smaller than the nucleus or any other major organelles.

"Exactly!"

Teacher Tian clapped her hands. "Just in the last couple of days, these pea sprout cells have suddenly developed this new structure!"

"Did they become spiritual plants?"

Old Bai asked excitedly.

"I’m not sure, but I can say for certain that this is a significant change."

Without hesitation, Zheng Fa halted his internal circulation of the Lingshan Method.

The three of them walked out to the fields and stood around the pea sprouts, observing them closely.

"Spiritual energy!"

"These pea sprouts have spiritual energy!"

"We actually cultivated a spiritual plant!"

Old Bai cheered.

Even Tang Lingwu, who was inside the house, was drawn out by the commotion.

A group of people circled around a few ordinary-looking pea sprouts, examining them from every possible angle, afraid they might be mistaken.

Finally, they confirmed it—these pea sprouts indeed contained a faint trace of spiritual energy.

It was so weak that, in a high-spiritual-energy environment, it would have been completely undetectable.

They immediately checked the rest of the plants.

They scanned the entire test field, staring until their eyes turned green, but found no other crops containing spiritual energy.

"It’s just this one," Teacher Tian confirmed. "The other samples in the lab haven’t changed either."

Everyone felt a bit disappointed.

Teacher Tian, however, reassured them, "Our field is different from Old Bai’s—he does math, we do agriculture."

"Different how?" Tang Lingwu asked curiously.

"Mathematicians observe people. We observe the sky."

"The sky? You mean weather and climate?"

"No, I mean we wait for divine intervention." Teacher Tian sighed. "Sometimes, you just don’t know when things will work—or even why they worked at all."

Zheng Fa fell silent.

Right now, they really had no idea why this happened.

"This cell structure…"

Old Bai stared at the magnified cellular images, rubbing his chin. "It looks… familiar."

Zheng Fa nodded. Suddenly, he said, "It looks like a bundle of fine, tangled threads—or more specifically, a woven talisman diagram."

"Yes! That’s exactly the feeling!" Old Bai slapped his hand on the table. "But these images are too blurry. We can’t tell exactly what kind of talisman it is."

"I’ve actually been thinking…" Zheng Fa mused. "Whether it’s talismans, our meridians, or even spells—they all follow spiritual energy pathways.

For a plant to become spiritual, it probably also needs these energy pathways."

"So you’re saying… this structure is the plant’s ‘meridians’?"

Old Bai immediately understood what Zheng Fa meant.

"Exactly. But why does it manifest as a cellular structure?" Zheng Fa nodded, still puzzled.

Old Bai stroked his chin. Suddenly, he said, "Zheng Fa, remember when I told you to go to Jingcheng University’s medical school?"

Zheng Fa paused and looked at him. "You want to see our own cellular structure?"

"Of course!" Old Bai pointed at the lab equipment. "If we don’t want outsiders slicing us up, why not do it ourselves?"

He gestured dramatically toward the lab.

"This place has top-tier equipment. It’s time for us to sacrifice for the advancement of Immortal Science!"

Zheng Fa pondered for a moment, then turned to Teacher Tian.

"Teacher Tian?"

"Hold on. I need to check the ethical guidelines and research protocols," Teacher Tian sighed.

"I specialize in agriculture—I’ve never conducted human experiments before."