I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 147Book 2: : The Oath Within the Ruins

Vol 2 Chapter 147: The Oath Within the Ruins

Zheng Fa observed the growth of the spiritual plants.

Spiritual plants were different from ordinary plants—he had already noticed this back at the nursing home.

For instance, the Evergreen Talisman could accelerate the growth of regular plants, making them mature overnight and drastically shortening the cultivation time.

However, it had no effect on the spiritual pea plants Zheng Fa grew. His theory was that the spiritual energy within them created a kind of "resistance" to talismans.

Simply put, the spiritual energy within the plants interfered with the talisman's effects.

He assumed that some sects might have secret techniques to speed up the maturity of certain spiritual plants.

But for something like this Golden Bell, which caused an entire medicinal garden's spiritual plants and beasts to grow at an accelerated rate—not just Zheng Fa, even Senior Sister Zhang had never heard of such a thing.

"Time…" Senior Sister Zhang murmured in a daze. "That Heavenly Venerate might be even stronger than we imagined…"

Zheng Fa’s gaze shimmered with silver light as he studied the spiritual plants in the garden, seemingly lost in thought. He didn't hear Senior Sister Zhang’s whisper.

"Junior Brother, what are you looking at?"

She asked curiously.

"I'm observing the growth of the spiritual energy in these plants… It's strange."

An idea had just struck him—he thought of the Spirit Wood Thunder.

More precisely, he recalled how he had previously observed the growth of pea sprouts, which led him to develop a type of Spirit Wood Thunder.

Under the effect of the Spirit Wood Thunder, the pea sprouts transformed from non-spiritual plants into ones containing spiritual energy. In simple terms, the thunder had triggered a mutation guided by its properties.

So now, he wanted to see if similar mutations were occurring in this medicinal garden.

To his surprise, they were!

"Strange?" Senior Sister Zhang frowned, not quite understanding.

"Every spiritual plant in this garden experiences a surge in spiritual energy at the same time, once per cycle of the sun and moon. And in each cycle, this surge happens twenty-four times!"

Senior Sister Zhang was momentarily stunned. Then, she activated her Void-Seeking Spirit Eyes and took a closer look at the garden.

After a while, she nodded slowly.

"You're right," she confirmed. "Although the intensity of spiritual energy varies from plant to plant, they all experience the same fluctuations—twenty-four times per cycle?"

"Twenty-four?"

Senior Sister Yuan suddenly spoke up. "Wasn't the deity statue in that temple also surrounded by twenty-four figures? And those twenty-four chairs!"

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged glances and nodded.

The number twenty-four was not a coincidence—Senior Sister Yuan’s connection made perfect sense.

But then, Senior Sister Zhang studied Zheng Fa’s expression and asked, "You're thinking of something else, aren't you?"

Zheng Fa had no intention of hiding his thoughts from them. "Senior Sister, do you remember what Master Han from Qianhe Sect said? That secret techniques in spiritual farming are often linked to solar terms?"

"You mean the twenty-four solar terms?"

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Zheng Fa nodded.

"Then these twenty-four figures could be the deities governing the solar terms?"

"I can’t say for sure," Zheng Fa replied, shaking his head. "But I have a feeling…"

"Hmm?"

"The Spirit Wood Thunder… There might be twenty-four variations of it."

"Twenty-four variations?" Senior Sister Zhang frowned slightly. "That’s… a lot."

Indeed, when Zheng Fa developed the first type of Spirit Wood Thunder, there was a fair bit of luck involved.

If there were twenty-four types, relying on luck alone would take forever.

As he watched the spiritual plants in the garden grow rapidly, an idea struck him.

If he could measure the intensity of the magnetic fields during these energy surges, it wouldn't matter whether there were twenty-four or even two hundred forty variations…

The only thing missing was an electromagnetic lab!

Wait.

Zheng Fa suddenly glanced at Senior Sister Zhang, deep in thought.

Since Senior Sister Zhang could function as a talismanic laboratory…

Then wasn’t Xiao Yuying, with her Primordial Magnetic Dao Body, essentially the perfect electromagnetic lab?

At the very least, she could measure magnetic field intensity with ease.

The only problem was that she was wealthy and powerful—convincing her to cooperate wouldn’t be easy.

As expected, people born into privilege were hard to trick into working for you…

—

When the Golden Bell descended, numerous spiritual plants uprooted themselves from the garden and landed in front of Zheng Fa. These were the plants he had previously selected from the Jade Stele.

As for the rest of the garden’s plants, they remained untouched.

The Golden Bell didn’t seem easy to mess with, so even Senior Sister Yuan didn’t dare to reach for the other plants.

Zheng Fa gripped the silver seal in his hand, and in an instant, he understood something. Turning to his two senior sisters, he said, "Let’s go explore the other areas."

Both of them nodded, clearly intrigued.

He infused his spiritual sense into the silver seal, which then conjured three gentle breezes that carried them toward another "island."

This one was the closest to the medicinal garden.

"The shape of this land…" Even before they landed, Senior Sister Zhang spoke up. "It vaguely aligns with the garden’s layout?"

Zheng Fa examined the edges of the island and recalled the shape of the garden. He nodded.

In front of them stood over ten courtyard-style buildings.

A strange scent lingered in the air. Senior Sister Zhang’s expression changed as if she wanted to say something, but before she could, a radiant glow flashed from the silver seal, sweeping over the three of them and immediately dissipating the smell.

"Senior Sister Zhang?"

"This must have been the alchemy area of the Heavenly Palace," she said with a frown. "That scent was likely from aged medicinal ingredients or pills—some of which might be toxic. If not for the silver seal, we would’ve needed to leave immediately."

They stepped into one of the courtyards. It had only one main entrance, and inside the main hall, there was an alchemy furnace—completely empty.

To the left, the side chamber housed several rows of medicine racks, which likely once held spiritual herbs. Now, all that remained were dry, blackened remnants, reduced to thin strands.

The scent from earlier had most likely come from these decayed materials.

To the right, another room contained dozens of jade bottles and gourds—storage for refined pills.

As expected, they were all empty. Even the occasional residue had long deteriorated with time and was no longer usable.

They continued searching the other courtyards.

Most were similar—some had overturned alchemy furnaces, others had shattered jade bottles and gourds. It seemed like a battle had taken place here.

"It’s not unusual for alchemy chambers to be near medicinal gardens," Senior Sister Zhang remarked as they left one of the courtyards.

"So, this Heavenly Palace was originally a single entity?" Zheng Fa caught on to her meaning. "It must have gone through a major battle."

"Yes. Judging by the state of these alchemy rooms, the people here likely knew that danger was coming and had already begun preparations to evacuate…"

After searching the courtyards once more and finding nothing else of value, they set off for the next "island."

The Other Islands Brought Only More Disappointment

The rest of the islands were even more disheartening.

They seemed to be the former abodes of powerful cultivators, but they had long been abandoned. There were no treasures, no secret manuals—nothing of value remained.

"As expected, they must have evacuated in advance… That’s why nothing was left behind," Senior Sister Zhang commented.

"But what about that Golden Bell?"

Senior Sister Yuan asked in confusion.

Zheng Fa understood her point. That Golden Bell was clearly a valuable artifact. If the previous occupants truly fled, wouldn’t it have made sense to take it with them?

"This… I’m not entirely sure," Senior Sister Zhang pondered. "But I have a feeling it’s not that they didn’t want to take it—it’s that they couldn’t."

Zheng Fa nodded. That explanation seemed very reasonable.

—

They explored several more "islands," but every single one was empty, leaving even Senior Sister Yuan looking bored.

The final island was the largest of them all.

It was a grand yet ruined palace complex, with what seemed like nearly a thousand palaces. However, not a single one remained intact.

Everywhere they looked, there were collapsed palace walls, shattered jade pillars, and broken fragments of tiles and stone.

"This was probably the residence of the Heavenly Palace’s master," Senior Sister Zhang remarked. "And likely the site of the great battle."

The three of them ventured deeper into the palace.

Most of the halls were completely empty, with nothing left behind.

A few had some magical artifacts scattered about, but after so much time without an owner’s care, their power had faded, leaving them dull and lifeless.

After having encountered nothing of value in the previous islands, they weren’t too surprised by this and continued moving forward without much expectation.

Finally, they arrived at the innermost palace.

It had once been the largest structure in the complex, but it had suffered the worst damage—only the foundation remained.

As they walked through the ruins, Senior Sister Yuan suddenly pointed to a corner of a courtyard wall.

"What’s that?"

Zheng Fa looked over.

The wall was still over a person’s height, and something on its surface was faintly glowing.

They approached, and only then did they see it—two rows of blue-green writing, inscribed onto the wall with an unknown material that had not faded despite the passage of countless years.

Instead, it still emitted a dim light.

Zheng Fa studied the text but quickly realized something—he didn’t recognize this script.

Or rather, he could only vaguely make out parts of it.

"Senior Sister Zhang?"

"This seems to be a script from an era even older than the last epoch. I’ve seen it mentioned in ancient texts," Senior Sister Zhang said with a frown. "Let me try reading it…"

She slowly recited:

"All beings are ignorant, unworthy of reliance. The divine path is but a borrowed robe;the Heavenly Venerate is no longer himself."

"Now, the Nine Nether…"

Senior Sister Zhang paused slightly and exchanged a glance with Zheng Fa.

Nine Nether…

"Now, the Nine Nether seeks to open the Great Dao for the Xuanyi Realm. The gods stand in the way—so I shall kill them myself."

The two lines of text left both Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang in deep thought.

Even the usually carefree Senior Sister Yuan stammered, "T-this ‘Nine Nether’… Does it mean that Nine Nether Demon Ancestor?"

"Most likely…"

It wasn’t that no one else could bear the name "Nine Nether."

But the Heavenly Venerate of this realm was supposed to be incredibly powerful. How many in the Xuanyi Realm’s history could have slain him?

The most likely candidate was none other than the Nine Nether Demon Ancestor of today.

"Then… the Nine Nether Demon Ancestor… was trying to open the Great Dao for all beings? Does that mean we’ve been doing all this for nothing?"

Senior Sister Yuan’s voice was laced with uncertainty.

Zheng Fa was also momentarily speechless. He had long suspected that the Demon Ancestor was not simply the embodiment of the Old Methods as he had once imagined.

Now, he had proof.

In fact…

Wasn’t this Demon Ancestor’s original intention strikingly similar to his own? Similar to the Tianhe Venerable’s?

But now…

Zheng Fa gazed up at the sky, his mind churning with a question:

Did the Demon Ancestors become the very monsters they once sought to defeat?

Or had the ones who fought for change died long ago—leaving behind only the demons they had been fighting against?

Or perhaps…

Had the Demon Ancestors truly forged a new path?