I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times

Vol 2 Chapter 105: Measurement

At the nursing home.

Night had fallen, and the chef had already left with his team. The four of them had moved a few lounge chairs into the courtyard, lying side by side.

The ecological environment here was excellent.

Tonight’s weather was clear, the night sky was filled with twinkling stars, and the air carried the fresh fragrance of grass and trees.

A gentle breeze blew from the mountainside. Their conversation drifted without a set direction, yet they were all at ease.

"Their condition is that they’ll come to purchase daily. I’ve sent you the prices," Old Bai turned his head toward Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa nodded. He had already looked at the offer.

He had some understanding of market prices—after all, during his three years of high school, he often went to the farmers’ market on weekends to buy roast chicken and such.

The same tomatoes that might cost just a few yuan per pound at the market were listed at several hundred in the quote—more than a hundred times the usual price.

And that was on the lower end of the markup.

Some vegetables had even more outrageous increases.

Seeing Zheng Fa remain silent, Old Bai seemed to think he was dissatisfied with the price and explained, "This should be their most sincere offer."

"Hmm? This sincere right from the start?"

That seemed a little against standard business negotiation tactics…

"It’s because of her," Old Bai nudged toward Tang Lingwu beside Zheng Fa.

Tang Lingwu smiled sheepishly. "I asked my dad about the restaurant’s revenue and ingredient costs. I also looked into their supply channels and did the math. They shouldn’t be lowballing us."

"Isn’t that… considered trade secrets?"

Zheng Fa was momentarily stunned.

That was basically stripping the other party bare.

"Most of the time, the words ‘trade secret’…" Old Bai sighed, "…are just another way of saying you’re not qualified to know."

Zheng Fa was speechless for a moment. Then Old Bai continued, "But they do have another request."

"What is it?"

"Exclusive supply. And they even want to place specific orders—meaning they’ll tell us what to grow, and we plant accordingly. They said they’d be willing to pay more."

That wasn’t surprising. For a restaurant of this caliber, exclusivity was likely even more important than taste.

As for setting orders, it was simply a way to gain more control.

"A lot more money," Old Bai clicked his tongue. "The extra amount in just a week could be more than what I used to make in a year."

That was indeed a lot.

While mathematics didn’t bring in as much money as some other fields, as a professor at Jingcheng University, Old Bai’s annual salary combined with side incomes still reached the million range.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and asked, "If we don’t accept, how much would we be making per month?"

Old Bai glanced at him and replied, "Lingwu calculated it. Their prices are high, but their demand isn’t that large—probably five to six hundred thousand a week."

Zheng Fa immediately understood why Old Bai sounded tempted.

If they accepted the deal, the nursing home’s income would at least double.

"Professor Bai, I mentioned before that the nursing home follows three core principles," Zheng Fa said after a moment of silence. "This business… is just a byproduct of our research. It shouldn’t take too much of our focus."

Old Bai smacked his lips, already understanding Zheng Fa’s stance. He could only sigh, "At my age, even I get dazzled by money… But you…"

Tang Lingwu, on the other hand, nodded lightly, smiling brightly in agreement with Zheng Fa’s decision.

"You little girl, you always have that look whenever Zheng Fa speaks. But this business was your idea," Old Bai grumbled, as if dissatisfied.

"It was my idea, but… Zheng Fa is Zheng Fa."

Zheng Fa was stunned, looking at Tang Lingwu, unsure why she said that.

Tang Lingwu lay back on the lounge chair, gazing at the starry sky, and said softly, "He knows exactly what he wants, always moving in one direction. He just wants to see what cultivation truly is. Isn’t that why we all gathered together?"

Old Bai froze for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

Beside him, Teacher Tian patted him and chuckled, "I think these two kids have a clearer view than you."

…

That discussion ended quickly, but the next topic had everyone deep in thought.

"Lightning? Spiritual plants?" Old Bai frowned. "That’s an oversimplification…"

Zheng Fa understood what he meant.

It was barely a concept at this stage.

"If magnetic field changes can stimulate spiritual plant growth, what kind of changes? Strong or weak? Rapid fluctuations or slow shifts? In which direction? For how long?" Old Bai muttered. "There are too many unknowns—we don’t even know where to start."

"I do know of a lightning technique that is said to promote plant growth," Zheng Fa suddenly said. "Or rather, three unfinished lightning techniques—Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning, Cloud Rain Lightning, and this one… I call it Spiritwood Lightning."

Saying this, Zheng Fa felt helpless.

The lightning techniques from the Heavenly Monument Realm were so rough that he had to name them himself.

For example, Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning and Cloud Rain Lightning had been named by Yan Wushuang and the others.

Spiritwood Lightning hadn’t been named—mainly because they couldn’t even see a chance of mastering it. Out of sight, out of mind!

"Three lightning techniques?" Tang Lingwu asked. "What’s the difference between them?"

"Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning focuses on power control."

"Cloud Rain Lightning focuses on controlling rainfall."

"And Spiritwood Lightning focuses on stimulating plant growth."

Zheng Fa summarized slowly.

"Each one sounds harder than the last," Old Bai commented. "Power can be considered in terms of electrical current or voltage strength, but the other two are completely different."

"Exactly," Zheng Fa agreed. "Cloud Rain Lightning, if we think about rainfall formation, might involve altering the polarity of water molecules, using electromagnetic fields to cause condensation into raindrops or to disperse them back into vapor. That’s a relatively simple large-scale electromagnetic manipulation."

"But Spiritwood Lightning is even harder to understand, even if Teacher Tian’s theory about magnetic fields affecting plants is correct." Zheng Fa sighed. "Water molecules and raindrops have clear behaviors in electromagnetic fields. But how plants change is much more ambiguous—the necessary magnetic field variations might be far more complex and microscopic."

Old Bai and the others looked serious.

They could see the difficulty in this problem.

"That’s why I call them three completely unfinished lightning techniques," Zheng Fa explained. "Each of them is an entirely new research subject. Of course, they’re difficult. But experiments on Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning are relatively simple."

Zheng Fa had no intention of underestimating these three techniques. At present, many cultivators skilled in lightning techniques from the Xuanyi Realm had gathered in the Heavenly Monument Realm.

Yet, even they were completely lost when it came to these three techniques.

Without modern science, Zheng Fa wasn’t confident he could gain deeper insights into lightning than those cultivators…

"Difficulty isn’t a problem," Teacher Tian said with a smile. "As long as we have a direction, we’ll eventually get there."

"That’s quite true," Old Bai smacked his lips. "Why do I suddenly feel like cultivation and scientific research are a perfect match…"

Zheng Fa could only sigh.

He had already considered this matter…

If the Xuanyi Realm had a scientific civilization, and if hundreds of thousands of years had been spent exploring the world, things probably wouldn’t be in their current state.

But on the other hand, scientific civilization itself was never an inevitability…

…

A few days later, in front of Zheng Fa was a long metal rod connected to multiple sensors—current sensors, voltage sensors, and infrared sensors. These sensors were linked to optical fibers, which were connected to Tang Lingwu’s computer inside the house.

Several dozen meters away from him, a high-speed camera was set up.

Zheng Fa admitted that Yan Wushuang and the others likely had greater talent when it came to lightning techniques…

But talent had never been his path of choice.

What’s wrong with experiments!

For safety reasons, Old Bai and the other two were watching from inside the house.

This was their first experiment on Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning.

To prevent spiritual energy from interfering with electromagnetic fields and signals, all the equipment was placed outside the range of spiritual energy influence.

Zheng Fa channeled his spiritual power, guiding it externally under the control of his divine sense, following the Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning diagrams recorded in the Fengshen Register.

He wasn’t using a spell for the first time, but he had rarely done so before.

In his view, spells and talismans in the Xuanyi Realm were two sides of the same coin.

For example, right now, his divine sense controlled his spiritual power as it moved through the air, forming patterns similar to talisman diagrams. But unlike actual talismans, he was using his own spiritual power to "capture" the patterns already existing in the void.

This method was highly inefficient—ultimately, the power of a spell was mostly determined by the strength of the spiritual energy used.

Talismans, on the other hand, gathered the existing symbols in the air onto talisman paper, with the spiritual power injected by a cultivator playing only a minor role.

There were other differences too—spells had long activation times, whereas talismans were much faster.

As a result, spells were gradually replaced by talismans.

Senior Sister Zhang’s Yuan Talisman Foundation Establishment Method went even further—faster, and without the need for talisman paper or ink.

At this point, Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning barely even counted as a spell.

Zheng Fa could feel that much of his spiritual power's movement in the air was entirely useless, while some parts seemed to absorb the existing talisman patterns in the atmosphere—yet he had no idea what effect they actually had.

The difference between Heaven’s Tribulation Lightning and the other lightning techniques of the Xuanyi Realm was that its power was immense—so immense that it was almost immeasurable.

Zheng Fa had used lightning talismans before, but they had never reached the destructive force of a tribulation.

For many cultivators in the Xuanyi Realm, differentiating between weak and strong was relatively straightforward—anyone could feel the difference.

But distinguishing between "immensely powerful" and "even more immensely powerful" was much harder.

When a single lightning strike reduces someone to ashes, you can’t even tell if they’re rare, medium, or well-done…

Even if you could sense the difference, precise measurement was nearly impossible.

But with modern instruments, Zheng Fa could measure it—because, to some extent, modern scientific advancements were built on the improvement of observation tools.

…

As Zheng Fa’s spiritual power circulated, suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and struck the metal rod.

"How is he?"

Before Zheng Fa could respond, Old Bai and the others had already rushed out of the house, asking anxiously.

"I’m fine." Zheng Fa shook his head lightly and said to Old Bai, "I’ll draw the diagram of how my spiritual power flowed just now—can you take a look for me?"

"Alright."

And so it went.

One bolt after another struck the metal rod.

One diagram after another of spiritual power circulation appeared in Old Bai’s notebook.

Meanwhile, the related data—current, voltage, temperature, even the length and width of the lightning—was recorded on Tang Lingwu’s computer.

They continued until Zheng Fa had expended a significant portion of his spiritual power, finally bringing the experiment to a stop.