BOOK 2: CHAPTER 462: CONFUSED FUSANG, THE INNATE SPIRITUAL ROOT

Vol 2 Chapter 462: Confused Fusang, the Innate Spiritual Root

Zheng Fa truly wanted to have a conversation with the Fusang Wood.

If one wanted to prove the Dao to become a Scattered Immortal, they absolutely could not bypass the hurdle of the Fusang Wood.

Lord Shuyu Dragon had said a lot, and Zheng Fa summarized in his heart that it boiled down to one sentence—Scattered Immortals are the only true self.

The process of proving the Dao to become a Scattered Immortal all affirmed this:

First, one must extinguish the heart demons of the heavens and transcend the myriad worlds.

Second, one must become perfectly unified within oneself.

As for everything else, they were minor details.

Senior Sister Zhang could clearly see that the Fusang Wood and Zheng Fa had never been one entity.

If the Fusang Wood was not dealt with, Zheng Fa would never be able to pursue that unique true self.

He glanced at the Fusang Wood, whose spiritual root was completely leafless, with a rough appearance that revealed nothing of the high rank that Lord Shuyu Dragon had mentioned.

But Zheng Fa cared deeply about this.

He had always been self-aware, knowing that the many factors contributing to his rapid progress—opportunities, temperament, and thinking—were all indispensable.

But to be frank, throughout history, countless individuals have had great opportunities, great perseverance, and great wisdom.

Among them, his own presence was probably not very eye-catching.

Not to mention others, just take Lu Xuan—how could your hundred years of painstaking cultivation compare to his three lifetimes of accumulation?

Therefore, if he wanted his cultivation to keep pace with the changes in the Xuanyi Realm, no opportunity could be wasted.

It must be known that Lord Shuyu Dragon had decisively stated that the Fusang Wood’s rank might even be higher than that of the Dragon Ancestor.

If it could be truly fused into oneself as a foundation, it would be profoundly significant to both Zheng Fa and the Jiushan Sect.

But to fuse with the Fusang Wood, one had to understand the spiritual root’s condition to find a method—ideally, to communicate with the Fusang Wood.

Communicate...

Zheng Fa’s gaze toward the Fusang Wood was somewhat helpless. The Fusang Wood seemed to sense something, its branches trembling slightly, as if innocent. ṛÃΝȰBĚŞ

These past few days, he had been nurturing the Fusang Wood with his soul, trying to establish a bond with this spiritual root—this was also Lord Shuyu Dragon’s suggestion.

Simply put, it was treating the other party like a magical artifact for refining.

This idea was indeed orthodox, at least among cultivators of the Xuanyi Realm, who presumably did it this way.

Therefore, in the nursing home, he had stared at this thing for several days and nights. The result?

A headache!

...

"You mean the Fusang Wood reacts to your soul but is very chaotic?"

Old Man Bai found it interesting after understanding what Zheng Fa was doing and asked enthusiastically.

They were beside the scenic lake in the nursing home’s front courtyard, where rattan chairs were set. Tang Lingwu and a few others were sitting there, along with some scholars from the nursing home.

Over the years, such scenes had occurred countless times.

It was not always about cultivation;

most of the time, they just chatted casually, discussing the Confederation’s situation, changes in the research institute, and some interesting studies.

The attendees were not fixed, but Zheng Fa and his group were always there.

Speaking of which, the Confederation Research Institute had recruited batch after batch of new students since its establishment decades ago.

Time passed like a fleeting moment. Looking at Old Man Bai and the others, Zheng Fa felt they had hardly changed. Xiao Lingwu’s face still held a bit of baby fat, collagen overflowing, radiating pure, cold light just like when they first met.

Even their personalities had barely shifted.

In recent years, the group seldom descended the mountain;

they mostly cultivated and researched, giving off the feeling of “one day in the mountains equals a thousand years in the world.”

Even Old Man Bai, who loved to show off in public, rarely went down now, mostly for official business.

Regarding this, Old Man Bai had privately expressed to Zheng Fa that every time he descended the mountain, it was a grand affair. Old friends or family, if there was no opportunity, would have long since passed away, leaving only sorrow. If there was an opportunity, they acted both eager and distant. It was fine at first, but later it felt meaningless.

In contrast, relationships among the nursing home’s people grew ever closer.

Among this group, Zheng Fa could clearly see why cultivators valued Dao companions—because over time, worldly bonds slowly severed.

Therefore, even without discussing cultivation, Zheng Fa and the others regularly gathered, mostly to alleviate the loneliness of the cultivation path.

"What are you thinking about?"

Old Man Bai was a bit puzzled seeing Zheng Fa silent.

"Teacher Bai, you’re going into seclusion this month, right? Confident?"

Old Man Bai raised his mouth arrogantly and said, "Do you know what the fortune teller said?"

"What did he say?"

"I am destined for late success!"

Late success?

"The fortune teller you mentioned..." Zheng Fa asked Tang Mu Dao.

"That was me," Tang Mu Dao nodded, then said, "I was lying."

Old Man Bai blinked, "…Fake?"

"True," Tang Mu Dao chuckled, "Your fate is such that you met Zheng Fa too late. Had you met him earlier, you would have been a young prodigy."

"...That makes sense."

"Besides, your previous aptitude is uncertain, but late success is definitely late success."

"You just formed your Nascent Soul too!"

They hadn’t changed in appearance, but their cultivation had progressed greatly in recent years:

Tang Lingwu had the best aptitude;

with ample spiritual materials and spiritual energy from the modern world, she had just advanced to late Nascent Soul.

Old Man Bai was still in late Golden Core but had deep merit cultivation and would form Nascent Soul soon.

Teacher Tian was in early Nascent Soul.

Tang Mu Dao was also in early Nascent Soul, half a year ahead of Old Man Bai—after all, Old Man Bai had been delayed due to his aptitude.

Among the many scholars trained in the nursing home, two with the best aptitude had also formed Nascent Souls.

There were even over eight hundred in the Golden Core stage—they were the cream of one world, highly knowledgeable and cultivated. Once aptitude and spiritual materials were resolved, their cultivation would proceed no slower than Jiushan Sect disciples and, given time, might even surpass Jiushan Sect.

Hearing Old Man Bai mumbling something incomprehensible about not underestimating the elderly, the atmosphere in the nursing home instantly filled with cheerfulness.

Zheng Fa tapped his right index finger lightly on the rattan chair, knowing these few were deliberately teasing him to cheer him up, and shook his head:

"This Fusang Wood seems to have spiritual intelligence, but it might as well not have."

"Last time I communicated with it, although I didn’t understand what it was expressing, the interaction was relatively harmonious. Next time, this thing acted like it didn’t recognize me."

"Forgetful?"

"Yes," Zheng Fa nodded. "That would be fine, but it seems a bit schizophrenic."

"Schizophrenic?"

"Sometimes, this Fusang Wood’s mind seems like that of a supreme demon, yelling and attacking me."

"At other times, it seems like an enlightened sage, mysterious and profound, wanting to enlighten me—while it itself is crazy!"

Everyone was speechless hearing that. Being enlightened by a madman was no different than seeing a doctor for hair loss or for male pattern baldness.

The Fusang Wood’s situation was quite different from the Trapping Immortal Sword.

Although the Trapping Immortal Sword was crazy, it could still communicate and was relatively clear-headed—simply put, it knew it was ill.

The Fusang Wood, Zheng Fa suspected, didn’t even know what it was doing.

"And this thing has an extremely high rank. The longer I interact with it, the more it affects me;

my soul feels torn apart."

"Then what do you do?"

Old Man Bai looked toward Teacher Tian, since the Fusang Wood was somewhat a plant and Tian’s specialty was more relevant here.

But Teacher Tian frowned, clearly finding the Fusang Wood troublesome.

Zheng Fa had discovered this problem in the Xuanyi Realm, and Lord Shuyu Dragon had no good solution either—after all, by nature, the Fusang Wood was stronger than Lord Shuyu Dragon.

Zheng Fa was experimenting at the nursing home to control variables and see if soul communication could work.

Now it seemed unlikely.

"Teacher Tian, I have an idea."

Before Teacher Tian could respond, Zheng Fa proposed a hypothesis.

"Hmm?"

"I am thinking, what if we treat the Fusang Wood as an ordinary plant—would that work?"

"An ordinary plant?"

"Yes, the Fusang Wood is a spiritual root with intelligence, but it seems better off without it."

"You mean exploring the Fusang Wood’s biological instincts?"

Zheng Fa nodded gently: "Just like humans have unconscious subconsciousness, the Fusang Wood’s surface consciousness is chaotic, but its plant instincts should still exist, otherwise it wouldn’t be called a living organism."

Teacher Tian’s eyes lit up: "In that case, it is indeed possible to bypass the soul and study the Fusang Wood’s condition. Many experiments related to plant consciousness could be tried."

"I don’t know much about plant experiments, so I’ll leave this to Teacher Tian and the Agriculture Academy."

Seeing Teacher Tian and several botanists from the Agriculture Academy nod, Zheng Fa turned to the Fusang Wood beside him—

Since talking Dao didn’t work on you, I’ll try some science.

Back in the lecture hall, Zheng Fa sat on stage, lecturing again.

He was still the one giving the lecture, but the audience had changed a lot.

The first batch of scholars had gone to various spirit veins around the world to head laboratories.

Those who remained in the lecture hall were new recruits in recent years. Although the people had changed, their gaze toward Zheng Fa was even more fervent.

In recent years, the cultivation trend had grown stronger, and the research institute was gradually influencing all industries. Although Zheng Fa seldom left Rainbow Mountain, his status had become ever more lofty.

The latest batches of students had grown up listening to Zheng Fa’s name and worshiped him like a god.

They were far more fanatic than previous scholars.

As Zheng Fa spoke on the Yellow Court Scripture, sensing their thoughts, he felt somewhat helpless—this was not his intention, nor did he think it was particularly good, but the accumulated influence was beyond his control.

Speaking of which, his purpose in lecturing was not only to cultivate students but also to improve the Yellow Court Scripture.

After all these years, the Yellow Court Scripture had been revised in at least a hundred ways, with thousands of versions over large iterations.

If not, Lord Shuyu Dragon would never be so impressed upon seeing it.

This lecture had many more people and devices than usual in the hall.

The Fusang Wood stood beside Zheng Fa, surrounded by various detection instruments.

The simplest were temperature sensors, optical sensors, and so on.

There were also devices collecting air components and spiritual energy meters.

Even cameras recording changes in talismanic diagrams around the Fusang Wood...

Hundreds of instruments surrounded the Fusang Wood, sparing no change in the spiritual root.

This was a kind of experiment on the Fusang Wood and the most hopeful one yet.

The various data and substances collected here were processed by the laboratory and then sent behind Rainbow Mountain.

In a cave behind Rainbow Mountain, Tang Lingwu looked at dozens of screens in front of her and asked a staff member, "Any results?"

"Yes, Heluo has already provided the analysis."

Tang Lingwu nodded lightly.

Heluo was a supercomputer designed by the research institute—using external pills as energy and Nine Chapters Calculation Runes as base code, the operating system was self-written.

Even key components were obtained by transforming spiritual materials.

This made Heluo much more capable than previous supercomputers in analyzing Immortal Dao knowledge, with far superior computing power.

For example, Zheng Fa could lecture while waiting for Tang Lingwu to give real-time analysis from the back mountain.

The Heluo supercomputer was not assigned by Zheng Fa but developed by Tang Lingwu and her team.

Although both the Xuanyi Realm’s Nine Chapters Calculation Array and modern Heluo supercomputer were based on Nine Chapters Calculation Runes, their differences were substantial—one was more formation-oriented, the other rooted in modern supercomputer architecture, with distinctly different strengths.

Although modern and Jiushan Realm’s fundamental knowledge was increasingly similar, because of different people, they ultimately blossomed differently.

Zheng Fa welcomed this;

if they were identical, there would be no need for the modern Confederation Research Institute.

Tang Lingwu tapped the screen and looked at the analysis file.

"The Fusang Wood senses environmental changes and the presence of living beings."

"But its strongest reaction was when the Sect Leader lectured."

Tang Lingwu paused and looked at a chart beside her.

As the file stated, the Fusang Wood reacted most when Zheng Fa explained the Yellow Court Scripture:

The temperature curve rose and fell sharply, forming steep peaks,

and the optical sensor recorded similar patterns.

Tang Lingwu flipped through the records and began transmitting to Zheng Fa.

"When you explained the Vermilion Heaven Jade Manual, the Fusang Wood was most active, and its changes were most regular."

Zheng Fa nodded lightly in the lecture hall.

This matched his expectations.

After all, the Fusang Wood was closely connected to Haori Mountain, and the Vermilion Heaven Jade Manual was Haori Mountain’s fundamental cultivation method.

It was normal for it to react.

"Also, when you practice positive formation spells, especially fire spells, it reacts too."

This was no surprise.

The Fusang Wood was a supreme yang spiritual root, adept at fire magic.

Zheng Fa felt somewhat disappointed—not that there were no results, but these results seemed to offer little help for fusing with the Fusang Wood.

Next, Tang Lingwu’s transmission sounded puzzled: "Besides, there is a very strange phenomenon."

"What?"

"It seems to react especially strongly to a few characters—stronger than at any other time."

"A few characters?"

Zheng Fa’s spirit perked up, and he hurriedly asked, "Which characters?"

"Lu."

"Lu..."

Zheng Fa frowned—was this related to Lu Mo?

"Jiu."

"Yao."

"Yao?"

Zheng Fa’s voice paused as he looked at the Fusang Wood, then suddenly said, "Nine Luminaries Heaven."

"The Fusang Wood reacted—not just reacted, it reacted greatly!"

Tang Lingwu’s voice was excited in the transmission.

"I see it."

Beside Zheng Fa, the Fusang Wood suddenly burst with bright light, its branches shaking as it shot upward, almost breaking through the lecture hall’s roof, as if trying to fly away.