I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times

Vol 2 Chapter 181: The Difficulty of Golden Core, Inherited Fusion

When Zheng Fa first encountered the Yin-Yang Fusion secret technique, he already felt it was a bit absurd—

The basic concept, once Zheng Fa summarized it, roughly went like this:

Use high-energy radiation to heat certain gases into a plasma state.

Use a magnetic field to confine the movement of that plasma.

Then… wait for boom boom boom!

This thing… wasn’t it just a magnetic confinement fusion device?

Of course, since Zheng Fa’s spiritual power and soul strength were limited, the particle flow he could heat and trap was extremely tiny, and the energy output wasn’t that terrifying—or rather, nowhere near as intimidating as the term “nuclear fusion” sounded.

But it was still nuclear fusion!

Golden Cores might really just be some kind of nuclear reactor.

As for the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend, if Zheng Fa’s guess was right, it probably had something to do with light and heavy nuclei—in other words, it might refer to nuclear fuels like uranium, plutonium, or deuterium and tritium.

The problem was…

Zheng Fa had previously doubted his own guess—cultivation tech in the Xuanyi Realm seemed way too advanced.

He looked at Senior Sister Yuan and wished he could hide the book in front of her—

If that bird blew herself up while studying, it’d be a disaster.

To be honest, there were just too many issues in this.

Zheng Fa turned to Senior Sister Zhang.

Her brow twitched, and her face actually showed an expression of grim anticipation, as if ready to die for a cause. She said, “Go ahead and ask.”

Then don’t blame me, Senior Sister, if I’m a bit rude!

“Senior Sister, based on my analysis, a Golden Core should produce a massive amount of energy… where does that energy go?”

Golden Cores were powerful, but judging by Senior Sister Yuan’s performance, they weren’t as overwhelmingly strong as Zheng Fa had imagined.

Hearing that, Senior Sister Zhang looked confused. She frowned and asked, “You mean, Golden Core cultivators should be stronger than they seem?”

Zheng Fa nodded.

Senior Sister Zhang thought for a moment and said, “Though Golden Cores in the Xuanyi Realm differ in quality, Golden Core cultivators’ actual combat power is still in the same general tier…”

Zheng Fa froze—he understood now what she meant—

Golden Core cultivators… were only that strong…

Makes sense!

This world didn’t have the concept of mass-energy equivalence.

So to cultivators in the Xuanyi Realm, the power displayed by Golden Core cultivators was completely normal.

“Still… I’ve also sensed something about the energy you’re talking about.”

Senior Sister Zhang suddenly seemed to remember something and said:

“Do you recall the Life-Bound Treasure method created by the Tianhe Venerable?”

Zheng Fa nodded.

“Life-Bound Treasures not only require all kinds of spiritual materials, they also must be nurtured inside the Golden Core.”

“You mean… the energy is used for crafting artifacts?”

“At least ever since the Tianhe Venerable developed that method, yes.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fa had a moment of realization—it lined up with another of his long-standing doubts.

Both fusion and fission produce byproducts, and generally speaking, because of binding energy factors, iron is considered the endpoint of both fusion and fission.

Theoretically, any fusion beyond iron requires absorbing energy.

So, looking at it this way, the Tianhe Venerable’s Life-Bound Treasure method could even synthesize metal internally?

Truly a great champion of sustainability…

“Since you’ve come asking about Core Formation techniques, you must be thinking about forming your core,” said Senior Sister Zhang, seeing the lingering confusion on his face. “I don’t know how much you’ve grasped about Golden Cores, but I can at least share my own thoughts on Core Formation.”

Zheng Fa nodded gratefully.

He understood—Senior Sister Zhang likely couldn’t answer all his questions, so she was laying everything she knew out in the open, hoping it might help him.

“There’s a saying, ‘Once the Core is formed, there’s no regret’… do you know why that is?”

Zheng Fa shook his head.

Senior Sister Zhang pointed at Senior Sister Yuan’s Golden Core.

That Golden Core radiated intense brilliance, constantly undergoing fierce changes within.

“Because the changes inside it can’t be stopped.”

Zheng Fa suddenly understood what she meant.

Cultivators in the Xuanyi Realm might not know terms like fusion or fission.

But what they did know was that once a Golden Core starts reacting, it becomes so violent it’s almost impossible to stop.

“So before you form your core, you must understand exactly how you want to form it.”

“What kinds of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend you want to collect.”

Senior Sister Zhang’s expression was very serious:

“Our Jiushan Sect has twelve Golden Core methods, each with its own characteristics, and each requiring different Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend energies. You can review them all.”

“For example, my technique is the Dragon-Tiger Primal Core. It uses innate Flaming Sun Qi and Mystic Ice Underworld Fiend as fuel—this is one of the highest-tier Golden Cores in Jiushan Sect.”

Zheng Fa asked again, “Then how are Golden Cores ranked?”

“A top-grade Golden Core is flawless and pure. A low-grade one is full of impurities.”

“Impurities?”

Zheng Fa realized.

“Exactly,” Senior Sister Zhang said. “The fewer impurities, the higher the core’s quality, and the better your chances of advancing to Nascent Soul in the future.”

Zheng Fa nodded lightly.

Seeing his slightly enlightened expression, Senior Sister Zhang’s face turned serious: “Do you know how long it took me to form my core?”

Zheng Fa shook his head.

“It took me just over a year to reach Foundation Establishment, and about ten years to reach late Foundation Stage. But from late Foundation to Core Formation… nearly seventy years.”

“I see…”

She was trying to explain how complex Core Formation really was.

“Core Formation is a slow and meticulous process,” Senior Sister Zhang warned. “How you construct the core, how you choose the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend energies, how much to gather each time—it all has to be tested step by step, considered thoroughly.”

After bidding farewell to Senior Sister Zhang, Zheng Fa was still mulling over everything she had said.

She had been honest, clearly intending to guide him, but his doubts had only grown deeper.

Senior Sister Zhang probably couldn’t answer his questions anymore.

But that was okay.

There was someone who could.

…

Modern era, nursing home.

By now, many new plants had appeared in the nursing home’s fields—thanks to Elder Hou’s suggestion, the higher-ups had collected many seeds and placed them here, hoping to cultivate new spiritual plants.

There was no one else near the fields.

Even Elder Hou himself wouldn’t come to the backyard at night.

They had left this time for the five people at the nursing home.

“Golden Core… is a reactor?”

Listening to Zheng Fa’s explanation, Old Bai’s mouth dropped open, his expression shaken.

The others also looked dazed.

Clearly, they thought the whole thing was ridiculous.

Zheng Fa nodded. “But here’s the problem… why is fission necessary?”

He couldn’t ask Senior Sister Zhang this question… she probably wouldn’t even understand it.

To put it simply, even the idea of the Golden Core being a sun didn’t confuse Zheng Fa this much… at least the sun only involves fusion.

Beside him, Tang Mu Dao nodded. “That’s true. If it’s just about generating massive amounts of energy, either one of the two reactions should be enough.”

Zheng Fa asked again, “Here’s another question… what exactly is the relationship between spiritual energy and energy?”

This was Zheng Fa’s long-standing question about the nature of spiritual energy:

From past cultivation experiences, as long as a cultivator accumulated spiritual power, they could control all things in the world—but as for where the energy came from that allowed spiritual energy to control everything, he’d wondered before, but with his cultivation level, he had no way to investigate.

He never expected that Golden Cores would involve nuclear reactions—

Which meant, at the stage of forming a Golden Core, cultivators were no longer just accumulating spiritual power—they were trying to generate huge amounts of energy themselves.

And yet… that energy didn’t seem to have much use.

If later cultivators used it to refine Life-Bound Treasures as the Tianhe Venerable had done, what about those earlier cultivators?

What happened to all the energy generated by their Golden Cores?

That kind of question—only modern folks could even understand it.

These two questions left Old Bai and the others with completely baffled expressions.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone and called Team Leader Yang.

“Hello? Mr. Zheng?”

“Team Leader Yang, can you send over a couple of people who understand nuclear engineering…”

If a Golden Core really was like a nuclear reactor, one with both fusion and fission reactions,

Then it could be seen as a highly sophisticated piece of engineering…

And if it’s engineering,

Just get an engineer!

There was a moment of hesitation on the other end before the voice replied:

“Mr. Zheng… people in this field all have security clearance. Even for you, I’d need to submit a request… may I ask why you want to meet with them?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’ve got a secret nuclear fusion technique passed down in my sect. I just want them to take a look and see if it’s authentic.”

“……”

The line went silent.