I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 140Book 2: : Formatting Immortal Techniques

Vol 2 Chapter 140: Formatting Immortal Techniques

"You’re just letting Zheng Fa mess around?"

Martial Aunt Huang turned to Senior Sister Zhang and asked.

She gazed up at the courtyard’s open sky. Senior Sister Zhang was someone who valued cleanliness and had a fondness for water. Even though this was just a temporary residence, she had meticulously arranged it.

Originally, there had been a small lake in the courtyard, with neatly trimmed plants along the shore.

Normally, it was a refreshing and serene sight.

But at this moment, a few things were ruining the picturesque scene—a coffin and two square tables.

Zheng Fa pulled out a storage pouch, opened it, and poured its contents onto the tables. Dirt spilled out, sending dust swirling through the courtyard.

Martial Aunt Huang found the sight unbearable and turned to look at her disciple.

Senior Sister Zhang remained composed, as if she hadn’t noticed her master’s displeasure, and instead asked, "How is this messing around?"

Martial Aunt Huang pursed her lips, pointing at the skeleton inside the coffin with a look of disdain. "There’s not a trace of spiritual energy left in those bones. If there was, do you really think you’d have been able to pick them up?"

Senior Sister Yuan nodded in agreement.

This skeleton had an extraordinary origin. The treasure-seeking cultivators must have examined it carefully, and many of them had probably hoped to salvage something useful.

If they hadn’t deemed it worthless, it wouldn’t have ended up in Zheng Fa’s hands.

Zheng Fa heard Martial Aunt Huang’s words but wasn’t bothered in the slightest—

In the Xuanyi Realm, the only person who might truly understand his perspective was Senior Sister Zhang.

Or rather, even Senior Sister Zhang might have some doubts, but she trusted him enough to let him do as he pleased.

Martial Aunt Huang was different.

Even among the three Nascent Soul cultivators of Jiushan Sect, she had the least interaction with Zheng Fa.

He could sense that Martial Aunt Huang didn’t have much attachment to him—not that she disliked him, but she simply didn’t care much.

In fact, Zheng Fa had a feeling that the only person Martial Aunt Huang truly cared about in the entire Jiushan Sect was Senior Sister Zhang.

So it was perfectly normal for her to be skeptical of his unusual actions.

Zheng Fa finished arranging the soil he had taken from the hidden realm, then turned and retrieved a white porcelain plate. He bowed slightly toward the skeleton in the coffin and said, "Senior, forgive my offense."

With that, a Frost Blade Talisman shot out from his dantian, slicing off a thin fragment from one of the skeleton’s fingers, which landed in the porcelain plate he held.

"What are you doing?"

Martial Aunt Huang asked, while Senior Sister Zhang, watching his actions, shook her head slightly—she clearly didn’t understand either.

Zheng Fa didn’t answer their questions. Instead, his eyes glowed with silver light as he examined the bone fragment.

Under the enhanced vision of Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes, the bone fragment was magnified many times over.

It no longer held any spiritual energy, having lost all of its former power. It couldn’t even withstand a simple Frost Blade Talisman, which was precisely why others dismissed it as ordinary.

But to Zheng Fa, this bone fragment was anything but ordinary—

Based on his understanding of modern immortal techniques—or, as Senior Sister Zhang would say, from the Soul Formation stage onward, the physical body became nothing more than nourishment, no longer important to a cultivator.

Which meant that most Soul Formation and above cultivators no longer had actual physical bodies.

And yet, this skeleton had endured for hundreds of thousands of years, even possessing enough power for a final strike.

Zheng Fa suspected this was due to the Tianhe New Method.

The magnified bone fragment didn’t seem unusual at first.

Under the Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes, it looked like an ordinary human bone—plenty of interstitial matter, scattered bone cells, and—probably because the person was long dead—various inactive cellular structures.

But that level of "ordinary" was precisely what made it abnormal!

For one thing, could an ordinary human live for hundreds of thousands of years?

Could an ordinary human kill five Nascent Soul cultivators with a single sword strike?

Zheng Fa’s silver eyes gleamed even brighter as he focused on the bone fragment.

And sure enough—he found something different!

Inside each bone cell, there was a tiny empty space, as if something had once been there.

He was instantly reminded of the talisman-like structures he had discovered in his own cells.

Could this person have possessed a unique Dao Body as well?

"Junior Brother Zheng, did you find something?"

Senior Sister Zhang asked when she saw him look up.

Zheng Fa shook his head. "I can’t say for sure yet."

He pulled out paper and a brush, carefully sketching the bone cell structure and detailing the mysterious empty spaces before turning toward the pile of soil.

The soil was far more complex.

Aside from its natural composition—

There were also fragments of magical treasures and human remains mixed in.

"Senior Sister Zhang…" Zheng Fa looked at her. He didn’t even need to say anything—she had already nodded.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Any distinct fragments—we need to record their shape and classify them."

Zheng Fa explained his plan.

Senior Sister Zhang nodded, activated her Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes, and joined Zheng Fa in recording their findings.

Off to the side—

Martial Aunt Huang and Senior Sister Yuan exchanged glances and shook their heads. They seemed to share a rare moment of mutual understanding before stepping out of the courtyard.

"Martial Aunt, do you understand what they’re doing?"

"Understand what?" Martial Aunt Huang sighed lightly. "It’s just a couple indulging in their own little world. It’s normal for outsiders not to get it."

"…"

The composition of the soil was extremely complex.

Even though both Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang were cultivators—and Senior Sister Zhang was at the Nascent Soul stage—it still took them three whole days and nights to sort through everything.

"Are you done playing?"

On the final day, Martial Aunt Huang saw them packing away the coffin and tables and asked.

"Yes, we’re done."

Martial Aunt Huang glanced at the two of them. Seeing that their expressions were calm and without excitement, she asked, "Nothing significant?"

"There were some small discoveries."

"That’s good, at least your senior sister didn’t waste her time following you around."

"Junior Brother, this discovery… isn’t small at all!"

Senior Sister Zhang suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm?"

"We’ve basically figured out how Tianhe Venerable’s New Method works!"

"What?!"

Martial Aunt Huang was stunned.

"Just from that skeleton? That pile of dirt?"

Zheng Fa nodded.

"Wait, wait—Tianhe Sect kept this a secret for hundreds of thousands of years. The Tianhe New Method has been lost for an entire era. And you’re saying you figured it out from these two things?"

"Not exactly." Zheng Fa shook his head. "We still don’t know what Tianhe Venerable’s cultivation technique looked like—we only have some theories, which is why we’re calling it a small discovery."

"Then what exactly did you figure out?"

"Roughly… the underlying concept of the Tianhe New Method?"

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"……"

Zheng Fa picked up the sketches and began explaining:

"Martial Aunt, look here. In the bone cells of that disciple of Tianhe Venerable, oh, inside this circular structure, there’s a missing section."

"Later, we also found some blood remnants in the soil—uh, cells—and they had the exact same missing section."

"I didn’t know what this missing section was at first, but then I discovered a type of metallic micro-particle infused with spiritual energy in the soil. And coincidentally—its shape perfectly matched these missing sections! We suspect that these micro-particles originated from the bronze sword he once wielded."

Martial Aunt Huang blinked.

Why did she, a Nascent Soul cultivator, feel like she barely understood what this Foundation Establishment disciple was talking about?

"Master, what Zheng Fa means is that the Tianhe New Method likely revolves around integrating the sword into the body, fusing man and weapon together, and using the power of magical treasures to strengthen the physical body."

"That’s why the bronze sword’s particles align so precisely with these cells."

"And the reason that cultivator could survive for so long was probably because of that bronze sword as well."

It was Senior Sister Zhang who explained.

Hearing this, Martial Aunt Huang finally understood. She frowned and said, "Tianhe Venerable created the technique for life-bound magical treasures, and the Tianhe New Method’s approach for cultivators above the Soul Formation stage is to fuse their life-bound magical treasure with their own body?"

"Yes, that’s what Zheng Fa and I are speculating."

"This idea…" Martial Aunt Huang murmured, deep in thought. "I feel like I’ve heard of something similar before."

"Sword cultivators!" Senior Sister Zhang said immediately. "I’ve read in historical records that there was a type of cultivator in the previous era who abandoned everything but the sword! And Tianhe Venerable was renowned for his swordsmanship."

Martial Aunt Huang nodded repeatedly. "Integrating the sword into the body—is that the essence of the Tianhe New Method?"

"No. Abandoning everything else is." Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged a glance, their expressions turning more serious. Then Zheng Fa said, "Martial Aunt, you should be familiar with our Three-Sub-Talisman Theory, right?"

Martial Aunt Huang nodded lightly.

"In simple terms, we believe that the rules of spiritual energy in this world were written by some powerful entities. That’s why things like Divine Name Sub-Talismans exist."

"I know about that."

"But we’ve discovered—the Tianhe New Method seems to have the ability to erase these rules at their core."

"Erase?" Martial Aunt Huang was stunned. "What do you mean?"

"In the soil samples we analyzed, we found many fragments from both the cultivators' bodies and their magical treasures—but when we examined them using Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes, the spiritual energy patterns contained no traces of Divine Name Sub-Talismans."

"You’re saying…"

"Tianhe Venerable must have mastered at least one technique capable of modifying—or rather, cleansing—the rules of spiritual energy. I suspect that’s exactly what his ‘Slay the Immortals’ technique does."

"And that’s why the Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators died so quickly—their internal spiritual energy rules were forcibly altered…"

As Zheng Fa spoke, he shook his head and added, "Of course, this is just a theory that Senior Sister and I have, but based on our observations, it makes the most sense."

Beside him, Senior Sister Zhang nodded in agreement.

"If that’s the case, then it makes sense why Tianhe New Method and the Old Method were completely at odds—from the perspective of those who practice the Old Method, Tianhe Venerable could very well be called ‘Venerable Extinguish-the-Method.’ If all sword cultivators were like this… that would be terrifying."

Martial Aunt Huang stood frozen for a long time, as if she were processing all the logical implications.

Her mouth hung slightly open as she turned to look at the coffin and soil, her brows furrowing deeper, her expression even more perplexed.

"Master? Is there something you still don’t understand?"

Senior Sister Zhang asked softly.

"I understand what you’re saying…" Martial Aunt Huang waved her hand dismissively and muttered, "I just find it hard to believe that you figured out all of this… from just these two things?"

…

Modern Times.

Tang Lingwu and Old Bai listened to Zheng Fa's explanation of the Tianhe New Method.

After a long silence, Tang Lingwu finally seemed to grasp the concept and said:

"So the Tianhe New Method is basically formatting spiritual energy?"

…That was an excellent way to put it!