I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times

Vol 2 Chapter 198: Industrial Cthulhu, The Hot New Rice

Nursing home main building, lobby.

Old Hou stood with eyes half-closed, one foot forward and one back, hands held in front in a mock grip, slowly rotating them up and down, as if tilling a field.

This was a form from the Farmer Stance, and he now practiced it with some proficiency.

Electrode sensors were attached to Old Hou’s chest, abdomen, quadriceps, arms, and armpits. The sensor data streamed to Tang Lingwu’s computer.

What Zheng Fa wanted wasn’t just Old Hou’s impressions during training—but all the physical data during training, to create… a broadcast exercise routine.

…

More precisely, broadcast exercise meant a universal, entry-level, Dao-infused martial art.

The Jiushan Realm now had over twenty million mortals, and daily life was only just getting back on track—though immortals and mortals were segregated, with the help of Jiushan disciples, the mortal world could now be considered prosperous and peaceful.

Even though agriculture developed slowly, the abundant rainfall brought ample aquatic plants and fish. For the past few months, Zheng Fa had been slowly copying various aquaculture plans, preparing to try them among Jiushan mortals in the future.

Actually, feeding twenty million people in the Jiushan Realm wasn’t a huge issue—the environment had been worse before, and they still had this population.

But Zheng Fa’s goal in developing agriculture was to prepare for future population explosions.

As for the idea of entry-level martial arts, it had long been on his mind: he wanted to improve the Jiushan Realm’s population, and the core was extending lifespans and boosting fertility rates.

And ultimately, that meant improving the physical constitution of the mortal population.

Martial arts training—especially Dao-infused martial arts—was a shortcut.

From his own experience cultivating Linghe Body, he’d realized that practicing Dao-infused martial arts hinged on two problems:

Spiritual energy, and visualization.

Spiritual energy in the Jiushan Realm was actually quite abundant.

At least for a sect that controlled an entire world like Jiushan Sect, the current spiritual energy of the Jiushan Realm was entirely sufficient.

For the mortal world of the Xuanyi Realm, visualization was even harder. In some sense, this was a knowledge barrier—upper-level cultivators weren’t incapable of popularizing visualization diagrams. Even his own Master’s Sect Master’s Grand Illusory Formation could match the effect of those documentaries Zheng Fa had seen.

But…

For cultivators who could do that, teaching their own disciples or juniors like that—maybe.

Helping inner-sect geniuses train?

Also worth considering.

But going to such lengths for mortals?

Are you insane?

That made it laughable:

Those disciples or even prodigies who could receive such teaching often had Dao Bodies already, and could cultivate various physique techniques—Dao-infused martial arts were redundant.

While those mortals who needed Dao-infused martial arts most couldn’t access any of that education.

…

Zheng Fa not only collected Old Hou’s physical data and impressions, he also took his own measurements—and the same went for Tang Lingwu and others.

In his view, a good entry-level martial art had to be both simple and standardized.

Simple—meant gathering their impressions to find forms that were easy to train.

Standardized—meant measuring everything to determine which movements were most effective.

Of course, this kind of research would be easier back in the Jiushan Realm. Once he returned, he planned to verify and discuss things with disciples who’d already trained in Dao-infused martial arts.

While Zheng Fa was lost in thought, he suddenly sensed someone looking at him with a somewhat conflicted gaze.

He looked up and saw Team Leader Yang watching him, looking like she wanted to speak but was hesitating.

“Team Leader Yang?”

“I heard Director Zheng mention… you’re trying to develop a beginner martial art?”

Zheng Fa nodded slightly.

“Then… is it possible to promote this martial art domestically?”

Zheng Fa blinked—he hadn’t expected Team Leader Yang to bring this up.

“What do you mean, Team Leader Yang?”

Team Leader Yang said softly, “Director Zheng, to be honest, this is kind of a selfish wish on my part. I have a child, and frankly, given my family’s circumstances, we don’t ask much of him.”

That was honest.

Zheng Fa now understood her background—she held real power and had a formidable backing.

She continued: “As a mother, I just want him to be healthier.”

“On a larger scale—strong nations need strong people…”

“Of course, this is just my personal thought.”

Her expression was a bit uncertain.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

But Team Leader Yang didn’t press, simply said, “In that case, I was out of line.”

“It’s not that I’m unwilling,” Zheng Fa said, “it’s just that practicing this kind of Dao-infused martial art requires a spiritual energy environment.”

Previously, when Tang Lingwu and the others cultivated Linghe Body, they’d needed him to pass energy to them.

“That’s truly a shame.”

“But while Dao-infused martial arts can’t be widely taught, more basic martial arts… might be open for discussion,” Zheng Fa suddenly said.

In the Xuanyi Realm, below Dao-infused martial arts, there were simpler ones that didn’t rely on spiritual energy—like the Pine Crane Stance.

“Hmm?”

Team Leader Yang’s eyes lit up.

“I can try creating a martial art suited for environments without spiritual energy…”

Hearing that, Team Leader Yang beamed. “Director Zheng… I really don’t know how to thank you…”

“Oh, I know.”

“?”

Zheng Fa smiled slightly.

That smile… so warm, it was practically burning through money.

…

Zheng Fa gathered Tang Mu Dao, Old Bai, and the others, and explained his new idea.

“You want to build a particle accelerator?” Tang Mu Dao blinked. “Why?”

“To observe spiritual materials.”

“Where are you even getting spiritual materials?” Tang Mu Dao was even more baffled.

“I made them…”

When Tang Lingwu heard that, she blinked and slowly stared at her own belly for a long while, looking oddly discouraged.

Then Zheng Fa started explaining Tianhe Venerable’s theory.

“So basically, you think that after forming a Golden Core, it’s not just particles that emerge, but actual spiritual materials?”

Zheng Fa nodded and said, “If it’s just particles, then a Life-bound Treasure wouldn’t be able to sustain itself. A Golden Core should at least be capable of generating certain spiritual materials. If it can produce spiritual materials, we’ll solve the awkward problem of not having any in the nursing home.”

“But more importantly, I want to explore the essence of spiritual materials!”

“Then why the particle accelerator?”

“There are only a few methods to observe microscopic particles.”

“Optical microscopes don’t have enough precision.”

“Electron microscopes… the problem is, spiritual energy seems to interfere with electrons. If spiritual materials contain spiritual energy, then electron microscopes may not work either.”

“Same with mass spectrometers…”

“The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a particle accelerator was the best fit.”

“Of course, ideally all methods would be used together, but since the particle accelerator requires the most resources, I had to bring it up first.”

Clearly, Zheng Fa had thought about this more than once. Dıscover more novels at noveⅼfire.net

Tang Mu Dao slowly nodded and said, “That does sound like a plan…”

“You’re saying that once you form your Golden Core, the nursing home will have spiritual materials… um, but it’s generated from your body—that’s kind of weird…”

Zheng Fa chuckled:

“My idea is, my Golden Core will produce specific spiritual materials, and then we’ll use those materials to construct nuclear reactors that simulate the Golden Core process.”

“Once the reactors are built, they won’t need me to provide materials anymore.”

Old Bai lit up at that: “That already sounds a lot better!”

But off to the side, Tang Mu Dao licked his lips and muttered with a strange expression, “This… sounds more and more like we’re moving away from cultivation into industrial horror…”

Zheng Fa couldn’t help but recall what Xiao Yuying had once said about Jiushan Realm’s lack of resources.

Yes, the lack was real.

But… if Zheng Fa’s plan really worked…

Then cultivators from the Xuanyi Realm might finally witness what industrial Cthulhu cultivation looked like…

Still, Zheng Fa knew this method would likely be expensive—and would probably consume a huge amount of spiritual energy.

But for the Jiushan Realm, it was a matter of having or not having—if a war broke out, this tech could at least ensure self-sufficiency.

Not to mention, some spiritual materials didn’t even exist in the Xuanyi Realm anymore, but the Jiushan Realm might be able to make them!

For the nursing home and Jiushan Realm both, this was revolutionary technology!

Of course, that was thinking a bit far ahead.

First, he had to figure out what spiritual materials were made of, structurally, before talking about manufacturing them.

That was why he needed Team Leader Yang’s help to build the particle accelerator—this was incredibly important to him. He had to try every possible method.

…

Team Leader Yang worked fast.

Or rather, the higher-ups were quite supportive.

The proposal to build a particle accelerator behind Hongshan got approved very quickly.

Half a month later, engineers were already surveying the area behind the mountain.

Zheng Fa, however, didn’t stay in the nursing home.

He brought Tang Lingwu and the Bai couple down the mountain and into a state-run supermarket in the capital.

The nursing home’s new rice had just hit the market.

Because of limited yield, it was only being test-sold in first-tier cities like the capital.

Zheng Fa came along today to observe the sales with Tang Lingwu.

He didn’t care much personally.

But Tang Lingwu had worked hard on this—she knew she was young and inexperienced, and could only make up for it by watching more, thinking more, asking more.

So she’d put a lot of time and effort into it.

Of course she was nervous.

In the grain and oil section of the supermarket, a display stand held a red-bordered yellow sign reading: “Domestic New Grain, Jiushan No. 1.”

Beneath the sign were about twenty bags of rice.

Zheng Fa hadn’t picked the name—now that Tang Lingwu ran the grain company, which was called Jiushan Company, the rice was simply named accordingly.

They watched for a while and saw that few people were buying Jiushan No. 1.

Most just glanced at it, checked the price, and moved on to other brands.

Tang Lingwu couldn’t help the look of disappointment on her face.

“Zheng Fa, am I just a terrible CEO?”

She asked him gloomily.

“This is actually pretty normal,” Zheng Fa comforted her. “Our price isn’t low, it’s a new product, and it doesn’t have much name recognition. Of course there aren’t many customers yet.”

Jiushan Company hadn’t done much marketing—or rather, too much would make people suspicious, and too little wouldn’t do much either.

After some discussion with Team Leader Yang and Tang Lingwu, they had simply decided to go straight to market.

“Didn’t we already expect this? Of course it wouldn’t sell well at first… once our reputation spreads, it’ll sell better naturally.”

Zheng Fa didn’t really care about the sales figures.

But to Tang Lingwu, this felt like her own cause—she cared way more than he did.

“What’s wrong with you today…” Zheng Fa asked.

Tang Lingwu bit her lip and stayed silent.

Zheng Fa frowned. “Did someone say something to you? Is that why you’re so stressed?”

He’d never been to Jiushan Company—Tang Lingwu handled everything—so he didn’t know what the employees thought.

Very few people at Jiushan Company even knew about her connection to the nursing home.

Seeing her like this, he naturally wondered whether someone at the company resented her leadership.

“Well… yeah, some did… but it’s not a big deal…” Tang Lingwu saw that Zheng Fa’s expression didn’t look good and seemed a little comforted, suddenly smiling. “Auntie Yang picked most of the staff, and honestly, they’re pretty decent. I know some grumble, but they’re all polite to my face.”

Zheng Fa slowly relaxed his frown.

Tang Lingwu added, “Whatever they say, whatever they think about me—I don’t care.”

“Then why…”

Tang Lingwu stared at the floor, head down, voice soft: “I just… don’t want to disappoint everyone at the nursing home…”

Beside her, Old Bai elbowed Teacher Tian and whispered, “You think we’re part of that ‘everyone’?”

“……”

“Dad! Mom! Open up!”

Cheng Yun knocked on the reinforced door, calling into the apartment.

The door opened, and a gray-haired man peeked out. Seeing it was him, the man frowned slightly, looking a little unhappy: “Why are you back?”

“Dad, where’s Mom?”

“She’s getting ready to cook.”

“Tell her to wait—I bought new rice for you guys!”

As he said it, Cheng Yun pointed down at his feet.

Five bags of Jiushan No. 1 rice lay spilled at his feet.

“Buying rice? What rice? It’s not like we’re short on that at home!”

Cheng Yun’s mother also came out. She first gave her son a long look, then looked at the rice on the floor, confused.

His father shook his head. “Waste of money! You should be saving to get married!”

“Dad, Mom, you don’t understand—this rice is good!”

Having worked at the nursing home lately, Cheng Yun certainly knew what made Jiushan No. 1 special.

“Good? What’s good about it?”

“Sigh, I can’t explain it to you!” Of course Cheng Yun didn’t dare say anything.

Zheng Fa might not care much anymore,

but Team Leader Yang had warned them repeatedly!

“……”

“Dad, I’ve got things to do, I’m heading out!”

“Eh? You’re not staying for dinner?”

Of course Cheng Yun didn’t want to stay—the food at the nursing home was way better!

And besides, if he sat down at the dinner table… there was no escaping a parental lecture about getting married.

Ever since he hit thirty without even a girlfriend, in his dad’s mouth even the mosquitoes at home had partners!

If it hadn’t been to buy this Jiushan No. 1 rice for his parents, he wouldn’t have come back at all.

“Not staying!”

As they heard him stomp downstairs, Cheng’s father grew angrier: “He’s thirty already, still so rash—what woman would want someone like that?”

“It’s that face of yours that makes your son want to run!” Cheng’s mother scolded him, then added, “Food’s almost ready—come eat!”

Cheng’s father didn’t move, just stared at the rice their son had brought home.

After a while, he suddenly said, “Why don’t… we try this one today?”

“Weren’t you just saying it was a waste of money?” Cheng’s mother chuckled, though she didn’t seem surprised, and said, “Hasn’t even cooked yet, and I already know—mouth says one thing, heart says another. Our son still thinks of us, and deep down you’re thrilled, old man.”

Cheng’s father said nothing, just listened to his wife talk while she cooked: “We’ve only got the one son, and you keep putting on that sour face… when you’re old, who’s going to take care of you?”

“…Didn’t the government just lift the two-child policy?” After a long silence, Cheng’s father suddenly chuckled.

“Pah!” Cheng’s mother paused in the kitchen and muttered, “You? You’re over fifty!”

Cheng’s father rose in protest, then—meeting his wife’s all-too-familiar, knowing stare—took a deep breath… and sat back down.

“……”

A few days later, Cheng’s father woke up early and felt something off.

He looked down, staring blankly at his blanket…

What’s going on?

He didn’t actually want a second child!

…

“Jiushan No. 1 is selling like crazy!”

At the nursing home, Zheng Fa was in the middle of discussing Golden Core theory with Cheng Yun and the others when Tang Lingwu suddenly burst out of the room, happily shouting at him.

“Selling like crazy?”

Zheng Fa was a bit puzzled.

Given Jiushan No. 1’s taste and nutrition, it getting more popular over time wasn’t surprising.

But it hadn’t even been a week.

Word-of-mouth spread that fast?

“What do you mean selling like crazy?”

“All the big supermarkets are calling in to restock, but our supply is limited… it’s already in short supply.”

Zheng Fa felt more and more confused.

“Do we know why?”

Tang Lingwu’s face flushed red.

Looked like she knew.

The others, like Old Bai, turned their heads too, curiosity all over their faces.

“There’s a post online… it says… says…”

Tang Lingwu stammered.

“Says what?”

Zheng Fa was even more confused.

“Says Jiushan No. 1… boosts virility.” Her voice suddenly dropped so low that if Zheng Fa didn’t have good hearing, he wouldn’t have caught those last two words.

Zheng Fa’s jaw dropped. He scratched his head, uncharacteristically dazed.

“This stuff… really?”

He looked over at Teacher Tian.

Teacher Tian thought for a moment and said, “Whether it boosts virility or not, hard to say, but Jiushan No. 1 is far more nutritious than other rice types. If it really has some health benefits… that’s not impossible.”

“…No wonder it blew up. For the sake of virility, people wouldn’t just eat new rice—they’d chew bark!”

“……”

“Actually, we’ve all gotten a lot healthier. It’s just that we’re not only eating Jiushan No. 1—we’ve also got the vegetables from the fields, the spiritual energy in the air… we’re just used to it now.”

Teacher Tian added.

Zheng Fa slowly nodded.

He truly hadn’t expected Jiushan No. 1 to blow up this way…

“Well, if we’re out of stock, then so be it…” Zheng Fa thought aloud. “We might even have Jiushan No. 2 by next year.”

Tang Lingwu nodded, a smile tugging at her lips.

Clearly, Jiushan No. 1’s success had swept away her earlier doubts.

“Jiushan No. 2?” Old Hou’s voice came from behind them, sounding confused: “You mean the protoplast fusion experiment for spiritual plants succeeded?”

“You even named it already?”

Zheng Fa whipped his head around to stare at Old Hou: “It succeeded?”

Protoplast fusion of spiritual plants—in essence, it was a technique to breed new spiritual plants from existing ones!

This was the one thing Zheng Fa valued most in the entire field of agriculture!