Book 2: Chapter 238: Five-Elemental Spirit Particles, Senior Sister of Tianhe
Vol 2 Chapter 238: Five-Elemental Spirit Particles, Senior Sister of Tianhe
“Tianhe Sect, Senior Sister?” Madam Xuanhua, who had been standing by listening to the two talk, finally spoke up. “You mean the leading core disciple of this generation in Tianhe—Xie Qingxue, right?”
Zheng Fa turned his head to look at Madam Xuanhua, only to see a look of admiration on her face—it was clear that this Xie Qingxue was something else.
You should know, Madam Xuanhua usually only shows that expression when talking about spirit stones.
Hearing this name, Senior Sister Zhang also showed a surprised expression, as if she just realized something, and said with a laugh, “I didn’t expect Xie Qingxue to be from the same generation as Yan Wushuang.”
Zheng Fa looked at the two, not sure what sort of cryptic exchange they were having.
But there was one thing he understood—Yan Wushuang just got dissed.
Senior Sister Zhang’s words were pretty clear:
Because this Xie Qingxue was too outstanding, people couldn’t help but forget her age.
Seeing his puzzled look, Madam Xuanhua explained, “Xie Qingxue is the most gifted disciple of the current Tianhe generation. Some even say… she’s the greatest since Tianhe Venerable himself.” Zheng Fa raised a brow. That was no small title.
“How’s her cultivation?”
“Rumor has it she reached Soul Formation a hundred years ago, and she wasn’t even five hundred at the time. She’s said to be the youngest Soul Formation cultivator in ten thousand years...” Madam Xuanhua looked completely fascinated.
Zheng Fa was increasingly convinced—this Xie Qingxue might just be Madam Xuanhua’s idol.
Madam Xuanhua muttered a few more lines, then suddenly seemed to remember something. She paused, turned to look at Senior Sister Zhang, opened her mouth, but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat.
When she turned to look at Zheng Fa again, her expression was even weirder.
“You two…” Madam Xuanhua held it in for a while but still couldn’t find the words. She ended up just waving it off and saying nothing more.
Seemed like she thought it wasn’t worth the effort.
Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged a glance. They both understood what Madam Xuanhua was implying—“You two forming Soul Formation? That’s just cheating.”
“Madam, I’m just at the Golden Core stage.”
Zheng Fa tried to correct her.
“Heh.”
Madam Xuanhua gave him a sideways glance, her face clearly saying—“If I believe that, I’m Senior Sister Yuan.”
The fact that Madam Xuanhua was willing to joke around with Zheng Fa at this moment actually said a lot:
Someone from the Tianhe Sect coming had taken a huge weight off everyone in Jiushan Sect.
That old demon ancestor? Best let one of the big names from the Five Sects of Xuanyi deal with that.
All they needed to do was focus on their research.
……
“Particle collision… who knows what you’re trying to study.” Madam Xuanhua muttered, staring at the setup in front of her.
It was a silvery-white metal container, about as tall as a few people, shaped like a steamed bun. Its “skin” was covered in shielding talisman patterns, microscopic array symbols, and a few Wind Movement talismans. 𝘙ＡꞐО₿Ёŝ
Old Yuan, Xiao Yuying, and Zheng Fa stood at the triangle points around the “bun.”
Unlike electron microscopes, particle collider simulations in Jiushan Realm were going surprisingly well.
The principle behind a particle collider isn’t complicated. It’s just using electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged particles and smash them together at a specific point. The challenge in modern science is building strong enough electromagnetic fields.
To do that, you usually need to dig really long tunnels—takes time and money.
But in the high-energy field, Xuanyi cultivators have a natural edge: thunder techniques, when used right, could make modern physicists cry with envy!
As for why do particle collision experiments? Simple:
Zheng Fa now understood the essence of five-element spells, even figured out how spiritual materials related to them, and how to combine materials to make magical tools.
There was just one question left:
How do you simulate a Spirit-Nurturing Jade?
To simulate it, you have to understand the fundamental nature of spiritual materials.
And to do that, you need to understand how spiritual energy combines with particles.
Zheng Fa was now pinning his hopes on the particle collider.
The main “equipment” in Jiushan Realm’s particle collision experiments was people.
Zheng Fa’s master, Old Yuan, handled ion flow generation and acceleration.
Zheng Fa was in charge of magnetic confinement and particle collision.
As for Xiao Yuying—she was the sensor.
The bun-like device? Its main job was to block spiritual energy interference in the electromagnetic field and create a vacuum so air particles wouldn’t interfere with the particle stream.
Oh, and it housed the microscopic array for observation.
In the first experiment, the colliding particle was Zheng Fa’s own Primordial Qi used to form his Golden Core.
They picked that because Zheng Fa understood it deeply—he at least knew it was mostly made of protons.
What he wanted to figure out now was what form spiritual energy took inside the Primordial Qi.
Zheng Fa glanced at Old Yuan, then nodded at Xiao Yuying.
All three activated talismans or spells, driving the Primordial Qi.
Under the boost of Old Yuan’s thunder technique, the Primordial Qi split into two streaks of white mist, like two long slender dragons, which were guided by Zheng Fa and Xiao Yuying to collide right inside the metal “bun!”
In an instant, a blinding purple flash lit up before everyone’s eyes.
None of them blinked. Instead, they activated their Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes to observe the reaction.
After a moment, Senior Sister Zhang slowly spoke, seeming puzzled:
“That is…”
Zheng Fa followed up: “Fire-Elemental Sub-Talisman.”
He paused, then added: “Only the Fire-Elemental Sub-Talisman.”
Both of them had silver glows in their eyes, using Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes—it was impossible for them to be wrong, yet their faces were filled with confusion, as if doubting their own vision.
They had long suspected that spiritual materials contained spiritual energy—or more precisely, talisman diagrams. But to see only the Fire-Elemental Sub-Talisman… that was odd. They’d never seen one appear alone.
Five-Elemental Sub-Talismans were common, but never solo.
“No other sub-talisman diagrams.” After confirming several times, Senior Sister Zhang finally said, “Only the Fire-Elemental Sub-Talisman.”
Zheng Fa went quiet for a moment. His Golden Core flew up from his dantian to the top of his skull, and a lump of red metal burst from it, landing in front of the group.
“This is?”
“Try this one.”
Zheng Fa said to Senior Sister Zhang and the others.
It was the “oxygen metal” they’d discovered in the modern world. The earlier collision experiment had given Zheng Fa a hunch:
Spiritual energy may combine with particles in the form of Five-Elemental Sub-Talismans.
He wanted to test that idea again.
Sure enough, after colliding the “oxygen metal,” what showed up through the Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes was the Metal-Elemental Sub-Talisman.
Everyone looked at each other, not quite sure what that meant.
But Zheng Fa looked like he’d figured something out.
He suddenly walked to the desk and drew a diagram.
“This is… the Five Elements Ring?”
Senior Sister Zhang recognized it right away.
It was the Yuan Talisman Foundation that Zheng Fa had condensed before—a ring made of Five-Elemental Sub-Talismans.
“Senior Sister Zhang, how many kinds of spiritual materials do you think there are?”
Zheng Fa suddenly asked.
Madam Xuanhua heard this and seemed to think it was a dumb question. “Endless.”
Zheng Fa slapped his forehead, like he realized he asked it wrong.
He rephrased: “Senior Sister Zhang, how many types of particles exist in the Xuanyi Realm that can form spiritual materials?”
“……”
This time, everyone understood, but also kinda didn’t.
“You know?”
Madam Xuanhua stared wide-eyed.
“I think… I know.”
Zheng Fa looked at the Five Elements diagram on the paper, then suddenly drew a table—full of small boxes, each with a number in the corner.
If anyone here had gone to middle school…
They would instantly recognize it—it was a periodic table.
“This table contains over a hundred types of particles without spiritual energy. If I’m right… each of these particles can combine with spiritual energy in five ways. These elemental units that make up spiritual materials—I’ll call them Spirit Particles for now.”
When he saw the Fire-Elemental Sub-Talisman in Primordial Qi, he started to form this hypothesis.
The fundamental particles that make up spiritual materials, Zheng Fa divided into two categories. One was the same elemental particles as in the modern world—like hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, and so on...
The other was spiritual energy that existed in the form of Five-Elemental Sub-Talismans.
In other words, Spirit Particles—or the elemental units of spiritual materials—followed the Five Elements Periodic Law!
“Is that so?”
Madam Xuanhua and the others looked at each other, as if finding it hard to understand, but couldn’t come up with any objections.
The biggest question was...
“What’s the point of this?” Old Yuan asked.
Before Zheng Fa could speak, Madam Xuanhua suddenly cut in:
“This is the essence of spiritual materials—no, the essence of artifact crafting!” Her eyes seemed to sparkle.
As an Artifact Crafting Master, she instantly grasped the significance of the Five Elements Periodic Law.
“Our previous understanding of spiritual materials… was never this clear. From having no idea how many types of materials there are, to now having just a few hundred basic Spirit Particles.”
“We can now follow the patterns and go search for materials we’ve never seen before!”
“We could even start producing our own materials…”
“From today on, spiritual materials will no longer be something we can only search for in the Xuanyi Realm—they’re something we can make ourselves!”
Zheng Fa gave a small nod. Madam Xuanhua wasn’t wrong at all:
Only by understanding the nature of Spirit Particles could the simulation and creation of spiritual materials become possible.
In his view, the most direct benefit of the Five Elements Periodic Law lay in its periodicity.
Just like the periodic table of elements, where elements in the same group share similar properties—
It stood to reason that in the Five Elements Periodic Law, each row of elements should have similar characteristics.
This paved the way for Zheng Fa to simulate a Spirit-Nurturing Jade using the spiritual particles in his dantian.
“So what you’re saying is, as long as we figure out what Spirit Particle exists in the Spirit-Nurturing Jade, we can use particles of the same group to simulate and make our own life-bound treasure?”
Zheng Fa nodded: “Same-group elements—maybe we even need the same number of Five-Elemental Sub-Talismans and particle count...”
Whether it was actually possible to simulate it, Zheng Fa didn’t know.
But it was easy to test—the only thing missing was understanding the Five Elements Periodic Law itself. Only by figuring that out could they develop a method to create spiritual materials.
Madam Xuanhua gently nodded, then suddenly sighed:
“Click, Xie Qingxue is from your generation too…” She gave Zheng Fa a strange look, “What rotten luck.”
...
Yan Wushuang felt he was the one with rotten luck.
“Senior Sister! Don’t be in such a rush!”
Yan Wushuang was completely wrapped in a red ribbon, flying through the air like a kite caught in a gale.
He looked at the figure ahead and shouted helplessly.
Ahead, the owner of the red ribbon was dressed in black, not even turning her head, clearly not planning to talk to him.
Yan Wushuang was speechless with frustration.
He glanced at what was under Senior Sister’s seat—a tiger that was at least seven or eight shoulders wide. The tiger was completely snow-white, not a single stray hair out of place. The woman sat atop it as if she were sitting on a broad, soft white cloud—she looked extremely comfortable.
Yan Wushuang felt both aggrieved and jealous.
He wanted to ride it too!
But the white tiger had noble lineage;
it was said to have the blood of the actual White Tiger of the Four Symbols—a pure one, at that.
More importantly—it was a Nascent Soul beast!
There was no way it would let Yan Wushuang ride it!
Thinking of that, Yan Wushuang’s tone became bitter. The white tiger seemed to sense his resentment, glancing back at him with a teasing look in its eyes.
“...Senior Sister, could you let me go?”
Yan Wushuang wriggled like a caterpillar and added.
His Senior Sister, Xie Qingxue, finally opened her mouth—but her tone was full of disdain:
“If I don’t tie you up, you’ll try to run again, won’t you?”
“...Where would I even run to?”
“To Jiushan Realm.”
Yan Wushuang awkwardly replied, “...I was just going to Jiushan Realm to investigate the Great Freedom Demonic Sect’s intel.”
“Investigate intel? More like pass it on, huh?”
Xie Qingxue sneered coldly.
“Eating from our bowl and breaking our rice pot, sending internal sect info to outsiders—if you weren’t the Sect Master’s son, you’d have been punished by the sect already!”
“...But I didn’t leak any secret info, did I?”
Yan Wushuang muttered.
“That’s because your dad’s guarding against you!”
“I’m his son… what’s he gotta guard me for.”
Xie Qingxue glanced at him without saying anything, but Yan Wushuang shut his mouth immediately.
To be fair, he should be guarded against.
Otherwise, he really might blurt everything out.
“Good thing you didn’t cause a huge incident… but I still need to have a word with the Jiushan Sect Master about this. You may be dumb… but you’re still the son of the Tianhe Sect Master.”
“I went on my own!”
“Which is why you’re dumb!”
“Elder Han even said it—Zheng Fa’s talent is unmatched, stronger than our ancestor ever was! Building ties with him is a huge opportunity!” Yan Wushuang argued, “I’m just placing my bet early!”
“Elder Han... he’s an obsessive.”
Xie Qingxue’s voice suddenly softened. As if recalling something, she became a bit irritated, and Yan Wushuang didn’t even catch what she said.
He was still defending Zheng Fa: “Senior Sister, Zheng Fa didn’t push me into this.”
“My dad doesn’t think much of me—you know me, right? I’m not that dumb.”
He had a point. The age difference between him and Xie Qingxue wasn’t large;
they were from the same generation of disciples—at the start of his cultivation, he had a bad relationship with his father, and it was Xie Qingxue who guided him into the sect.
She might honestly understand Yan Wushuang better than the Tianhe Sect Master himself.
“If I didn’t understand you, would I have brought you out of the sect?”
“...Senior Sister?”
“If you stayed, would our master have spared you?”
Yan Wushuang’s expression shifted—he finally understood why Xie Qingxue had made him act as a guide...
“Senior Sister!” His tone turned a little emotional, “You believe me—I’m really not betraying the sect! That Zheng Fa, one day he’ll definitely—”
“Don’t mention Zheng Fa to me again…” Xie Qingxue gave him a cold look, her gaze full of disgust. “If you want to redeem yourself when dealing with the Great Freedom Demonic Sect this time, you’d better make up for your mistakes. Only then will the sect not punish you when we go back.”
“...Yes.”
“I believe you, but I don’t trust Zheng Fa.” Xie Qingxue’s voice turned colder. “Say his name again, and I’ll personally go to Jiushan to demand accountability.”
“...”
Yan Wushuang stopped struggling. He buried his head into the red ribbon and used it to cover his mouth—not daring to say another word.
At this point, Xie Qingxue really did want to head to Jiushan...
Even his own master, Yan Wushuang’s father, never defended him like this.
If she were Yan Wushuang’s dad, she’d have already beat him half to death.