Chapter 1411: Alien Technology

“All right, I figured as much.” Lu Zheng shrugged, showing he’d already guessed it.

The Soul Splitting Technique exists on this side too; the first boss he fought, the Ye Lan King, could use it.

Only, for Abnormal People with real ambition, the Soul Splitting Technique does more harm than good. Don’t even mention ascension—once their cultivation reaches a certain level, the flaw it leaves in their True Spirit makes it impossible for them to progress any further.

So the ones who practice the Soul Splitting Technique tend to be middling types; the truly powerful, almost none of them cultivate this Technique. 𝖿𝖗ⅇℴ𝑚

Of course, for beings even more powerful, whose True Spirit is solid and abundant, the downsides of Soul Splitting obviously don’t affect them.

So they can instead split off souls whenever they feel like it and descend to walk the Mortal World.

“But even if it’s only a single split soul of a Celestial Demon, to us it’s still very strong. The subtleties in it are beyond our comprehension. So we can destroy their bodies, yet still find it hard to block their True Spirit from returning,” Si Lingxi said.

“If your power’s not enough, of course you can’t block it.” Lu Zheng said. “Don’t just talk about you—even Erlang God from a few thousand years ago didn’t block those Celestial Demons’ True Spirits from returning.”

Si Lingxi nodded and stopped dwelling on it.

Grade-schoolers obviously can’t understand calculus.

This is what they call a dimensionality reduction strike; not being able to understand it is normal. Once she ascends to ‘university’ and keeps studying, she’ll naturally come to understand it step by step.

While Lu Zheng and the others were discussing profound and unfathomable topics like Upper Realm Celestial Demons, Yang Caiyi and the rest obviously couldn’t butt in, so they were cultivating on their own.

The Eighteen Peach Blossom Celestial Maidens sat cross?legged on eighteen futons laid out in three rows of six in the front yard of Taohua Village, circulating their power and letting it flow.

As an auditing student, Xiaocui sat not far to the side of the first row, also circulating her Qi under Yang Caiyi’s guidance.

Yang Caiyi was guiding the women while occasionally walking up to someone, reaching out to pinch their wrist, sending a thread of True Qi in to get a direct feel.

Lu Zheng nodded. “What a serious and responsible good girl. She’s still cultivating herself, and you’re shameless enough to boss her around like this.”

Shen Ying laughed. “How can you grow if you just shut yourself in and cultivate? This is called ‘applying what you’ve learned.'”

Lu Zheng nodded without hesitation. “I believe it!”

But Yang Caiyi really was getting a kick out of it; after she finished guiding their cultivation, she went on to guide them in Casting.

The women used Jade Peach Blossoms to unleash Peach Blossom Evil, while Yang Caiyi’s demonstration example was flinging out Three Treasures Spiritual Light and Phoenix Divine Fire from the Three-Core Divine Fire Lamp.

They’re all intangible things, so there are commonalities.

Yang Caiyi held the lamp in her left hand; the five fingers of her right flowed through changing Seal Techniques, moving so fast they were a blur, yet each Seal Technique was crystal?clear. 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

Silky smooth, dignified and graceful.

As if the Spell she was Casting had been practiced for hundreds or thousands of years.

“I don’t think Caiyi’s talent is any worse than Lu Lang’s!” Shen Ying said. “Sister Lingxi’s only been teaching her this Spell for what, less than half a year?”

Si Lingxi said mildly, “Three months.”

Shen Ying reached up to twirl a lock of hair at her temple, suddenly feeling a twinge of crisis.

Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if she didn’t get surpassed by Liu Qingyan and Du Yueyao first, but got overtaken by Yang Caiyi instead?

Don’t panic, don’t panic, I’m a Peach Blossom Fairy who’s merged with the Dao…

Forget it, better work a bit harder…

Though before working harder…

Lu Zheng: ?_??

…

“If we didn’t already have Li Lingyu, I’d suspect Caiyi was an Immortal who descended to face tribulation.”

“No way. When we first met her, she was about to risk her life fighting that rat Daoist.” Lu Zheng said. “If we hadn’t stepped in, she might have died at Feishan Temple.”

Shen Ying thought it over and felt Lu Zheng had a point—Yang Caiyi probably was just this world’s native genius.

So she came back to herself, moved her hands again, and went back to proper business.

“Lu Lang, this concubine is going to buckle down and cultivate starting tomorrow. Today…” Shen Ying quietly leaned close to Lu Zheng’s ear, her breath soft and fragrant, “today, this concubine wants to eat until I’m really, really full.”

Since Shen Ying had taken the initiative to make a request, what else could Lu Zheng say?

“Never mind eating till you’re full—you can eat till you puke if you want!” Lu Zheng thrust his hips, flipped over, and went on top.

…

While Shen Ying was in seclusion striving to cultivate, Lin Wan was waging battles of wits with some colleagues with ulterior motives, and Liu Qingyan was seeing patients at Longhua Hospital, the library, and Renxin Hall, Lu Zheng and Si Lingxi, bored out of their minds, accepted an invitation to attend the Hua Country Traditional Music National Tour’s Hai City stop.

Gu Tingting had actually already joined the national tour’s resident ensemble.

She might be young, but she had several pieces composed by Si Lingxi in her hands, and her Zither Skill was deep, able to play out a Mental Realm. Add to that a mother who’s a Professor at the conservatory…

Her reputation had long since caught up with the older generation of traditional music artists.

She doesn’t have the international certification of those few piano players with international awards, but she’s already appeared several times on national?level galas. Strictly speaking in terms of influence within the music circle, she’s not inferior to them.

Not to mention she’s also a young, pretty little beauty—which is another bonus.

“Sister Lingxi is too amazing. She casually trains a disciple and it’s a national young artist.”

In the third row, Lu Zheng and Si Lingxi sat together, with Zhao Xiaodao next to Lu Zheng, applauding for the just?onstage Gu Tingting while quietly buttering up Si Lingxi.

Lu Zheng shot Zhao Xiaodao a sidelong look. “What are you doing in Hai City?”

“My new drama is about Hua Country’s ancient music.” Zhao Xiaodao said. “The production has already made a deal with Tingting to have her join as music consultant and my hand double.

It just so happens I’m free these days, so I’m following her for a few stops to bond a bit, and also learn some basic music theory and technique from her. After all, the drama’s definitely going to have full and medium shots of me playing zither and pipa.”

“If it’s all just hand close?ups, that’d look way too fake,” Zhao Xiaodao said.

Si Lingxi nodded, approving of Zhao Xiaodao’s attitude toward learning.

Lu Zheng asked, “Run into any more trouble lately?”

“No.” Zhao Xiaodao shook her head repeatedly, smiling wryly. “I’m at least a big star—how could I be running into trouble every day?”

“But when you do run into it, it’s big trouble.” Lu Zheng followed up.

Zhao Xiaodao, “…”

“It’s fine, I’ve got the Phoenix Talisman Sister Lingxi gave me!”

At that, Zhao Xiaodao’s eyes lit up. She leaned in again toward Lu Zheng and Si Lingxi.

“Brother Lu, Sister Lingxi, those nine islands down south—that was your handiwork, right?”

Lu Zheng waved a hand. “How could it be? That was the uncanny work of nature.”

Zhao Xiaodao rolled her eyes at Lu Zheng in disdain and said in a low voice, “In the small circle there’s a rumor that the higher?ups got their hands on alien technology.”

Lu Zheng couldn’t help laughing. “Alien technology?”

Zhao Xiaodao nodded. “People with an interest know a bit of inside info. First the Red Chess River project, and this Nine Islands of the South Sea was also completely under wraps in the early stages—then suddenly it just appeared. It’s simply incomprehensible.”

Zhao Xiaodao couldn’t help laughing, clearly with that little smugness of ‘only I know the truth.’

“Aside from alien technology, they can’t think of any other possibility.”