I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 282Book 2: : The Immortal Who Stole Fire, A Finger to Fell Stars
Vol 2 Chapter 282: The Immortal Who Stole Fire, A Finger to Fell Stars
Zhao Yi hadn’t even had a chance to click on the first episode when his door was pushed open and a middle-aged woman walked in, still talking: “Always on that phone!”
This was his mom.
She walked over, glanced at Zhao Yi’s phone screen, and looked annoyed: “Seeking Immortals? Seeking my a*—you’ve lost your mind. So you’ve got some strength from training martial arts—go check out the construction site outside. Can your fists beat an excavator?”
Zhao Yi listened to the rumble of the construction outside and looked at his fists.
He had to admit… he probably wasn’t stronger than an excavator.
Thinking that, he sighed inwardly—inner strength was great, but… Ma’am, the times have changed!
Seeing that he wasn’t replying, Zhao’s mom added, “I’m not saying martial arts has no future.”
“Mom?”
“There’s that guy online who hauls sacks up staircases? Tons of fans.”
“……”
“Oh right, the entertainment industry could use a punching bag like you.”
“Why can’t I be a kung fu superstar…”
“Superstar? With that face of yours? I’m your mom and even I can’t lie about that.”
Zhao’s mom’s words were ruthless and realistic. After all, in this day and age, learning martial arts might sound impressive, but its actual usefulness didn’t match up—hot weapons ruled, and martial arts didn’t have the sheer violence needed to shatter the rules of the world.
He knew his mom just wanted him to go back to studying.
But still… something inside kept itching.
Zhao Yi tapped the play button on the screen, and a voice-over began:
“This universe… has changed…”
“The sun.”
“Humanity.”
“And the future.”
“All have become strange, and wonderful.”
“The reason behind it all lies in…”
“There are immortals in this world!”
Zhao Yi’s heart gave a jolt, but Zhao’s mom muttered, “What mumbo jumbo!”
The screen lit up. Two large characters appeared front and center—“Abundance”.
The next moment, a familiar profile appeared on screen—both Zhao Yi and his mom recognized it.
Even Zhao’s mom, who’d just been scoffing, fell silent and watched more seriously.
On screen was Elder Hou, walking along a mountain path.
Off-camera, the host asked, “Elder Hou, can you tell us your current role?”
Elder Hou grinned, his voice still raspy: “Right now, I’m the lead on an agricultural research project.”
“What kind of project, can you reveal anything?”
“Put simply, we use certain special plants as templates, and through biotech, we try to cultivate high-yield crops.”
Hearing that, Zhao Yi frowned in confusion—sounded pretty ordinary.
“What’s that got to do with immortals?” he muttered.
“Put Elder Hou in ancient times and they’d have called him a deity,” Zhao’s mom chimed in.
Now that she said it, Zhao Yi found it kind of made sense. Seeking Immortals—maybe it was about people like Elder Hou.
He couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
“The special plants I mentioned…” Elder Hou’s voice suddenly turned fervent, “are the ones researched by Dean Zheng—those legendary spirit herbs in ancient texts, the kind that bring the dead to life, and the immortal seeds that could feed all under heaven with a single grain.” ℞Â𐌽ő𝔟Ёṧ
Mom!
There really are immortals?
Even Zhao’s mom widened her eyes. Her mouth opened like she wanted to say something, but seeing Elder Hou’s expression, she ended up staying silent.
The camera followed Elder Hou to a large experimental field.
This was a newly developed spiritual field on Rainbow Mountain—much grander than the few acres they had at the nursing home, and with far more crops.
Though Elder Hou had smiled on camera earlier, his current smile felt more sincere and down-to-earth, clearly coming from the heart.
He led the film crew to the edge of a rice paddy.
The rice here was much taller than the surrounding fields. Elder Hou gently gathered a bundle of plump grain like tying up a lover’s ponytail.
“This is Jiushan No. 2 rice, developed under Dean Zheng’s guidance,” he introduced, “Jiushan No. 1 had great taste and was good for health, and its yield was high—but it was picky about the environment and had weak disease resistance.”
“Jiushan No. 2 was built on the foundation of No. 1.”
“Its yield per mu has already surpassed the world record, and its highest yield even broke four thousand jin.”
“It’s highly nutritious, tastes excellent—fragrant and satisfying to eat.”
“Most importantly… this rice adapts to most soils and has strong disease resistance.”
Zhao Yi didn’t fully get it—students these days didn’t usually pay attention to rice yield per mu.
But his mom slapped her thigh and muttered, “I’ve heard of Jiushan No. 1! Everyone says it’s great—but you can’t get your hands on it!”
Zhao Yi nodded. With Elder Hou backing it, and his mom’s reaction, maybe this Jiushan No. 2 hybrid rice really was something.
As Elder Hou continued introducing other crops, Zhao’s mom suddenly said, “Seeing all this, I feel reassured.”
“Mom?”
“I don’t know what all this martial arts talk of yours means, and I don’t know what kind of society we’re heading toward—but I do know this: if people can eat, there won’t be chaos.”
Zhao Yi froze. Only then did he realize—his mom didn’t want him to drop out, not just because of school, but because of deeper, unspoken fears.
He looked at Elder Hou, then at the fields full of flowers and leaves. The restlessness in his heart… really did begin to calm.
He listened more closely and noticed something—Elder Hou kept mentioning one name:
Dean Zheng.
Every time he said it, his tone was respectful—there was even a hint of reverence.
“Mom, do you think this Dean Zheng… is an immortal?”
“How would I know?” Zhao’s mom replied. “I don’t know any immortals. But it’s good the country is prepared…”
Zhao Yi nodded.
From the documentary, the world’s changes didn’t seem to be bringing anything bad—in fact, they’d added new, high-yield crops to the country.
In another sense, even if there were immortals, they were probably already cooperating with the government.
The fact that this documentary was now public showed that the country was confident in its control.
Zhao’s mom was still sighing: “Whatever kind of immortal he is—if he can make stuff like that, I’ll burn incense for him every day from now on.”
Then her tone dropped slightly.
“If we’d had these things back then… your grandfather wouldn’t have died so early.”
Zhao Yi felt a lump in his throat. He hadn’t felt much during this episode—after all, he was born into a family that never really went hungry.
But his mom had been born in the countryside and worked her way into the city.
Even she had never starved—but food had always been just enough, never abundant.
But his grandfather, the one she mentioned, had suffered. Always saving food for his wife and kids, eating too little, weakening his body, and passing away in his early fifties.
At that time, his mom had just started a family, and they had no money—there was no chance to repay him.
“Your martial arts stuff—does it have something to do with this too?”
Zhao Yi nodded.
It was pretty clear. The group chat had discussed it—everyone who awakened inner strength had done so after that day when the sun looked different.
Thinking about it, his heart raced.
Could this mean… he had the talent for cultivation?
Zhao Yi’s thoughts swirled, and he clicked on the next episode.
Suddenly, he noticed something—
The view count was skyrocketing!
When he started the first episode, it had just launched and had only a little over ten thousand views.
Now, as he was about to watch episode two, the number had surged into the millions, even tens of millions. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
The second episode’s title was—
“Eternal Light.”
The protagonist of this episode wasn’t just one person.
It was Professor Wang and a group of nuclear physics experts.
Zhao Yi naturally didn’t know them, but when he saw the titles on screen, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.
These people might not be as well-known as Elder Hou, but the field they studied—he’d heard of it in physics class—was something he could more or less understand.
Soon enough, he realized that this episode’s real protagonist wasn’t Professor Wang and the others either, but...
He stared at the glowing simplified Golden Core floating in mid-air on the screen, his mouth slowly falling open.
Professor Wang’s passionate voice blasted through the phone speaker, hammering Zhao Yi’s muddled brain.
“Controlled nuclear fusion!” Professor Wang’s tone rose uncontrollably. “Let me put it this way—when this Golden Core appeared…”
“The light of human civilization will shine eternal.”
Zhao Yi pursed his lips, unable to say anything for a moment.
“In mythology, there’s a god named Prometheus,” another professor sighed. “He stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, sparking the birth of civilization.”
“Dean Zheng… stole this Golden Core from the path of cultivation…”
“And gave it to us—the future of civilization.”
Zhao Yi tossed his phone onto the bed and paced quickly around the room, swinging his fists—he couldn’t contain his excitement any other way.
His mom, though, didn’t really get it. She could understand the value of those crops,
but this… she just didn’t get what was happening. Watching Zhao Yi go crazy, she became even more confused.
“What does it mean?”
“Mom, just think of it this way—this inner strength stuff, being a martial artist, in front of this thing…”
“Is worth jack sht!”
“Not even jack sht!”
Excited beyond reason, Zhao Yi even cursed in front of his mom. Then he quickly covered his mouth and muttered, “Mom, controlled nuclear fusion is…”
She listened for a while, then slapped her thigh, suddenly beaming:
“So that means electricity’s gonna be free, right?”
“……”
“And what about gas prices?”
“……”
“Mom, those are small things,” Zhao Yi said helplessly. “Let me put it this way—if we’ve got this,”
“Unlimited energy. First off, pollution will drop drastically.”
“With this, our country won’t have to bow to anyone on this front!”
“If the world has this… it’s an upgrade to our civilization level!”
“Even interstellar migration, space exploration—they’re possible!”
His mom nodded slowly. “A huge scientific breakthrough—we won’t have to worry about anything.”
“Exactly!”
“But isn’t this documentary about immortals or something?”
Oh right!
Zhao Yi froze—now that she mentioned it, that was weird.
The documentary had been so science-heavy that he’d completely forgotten what it was actually about.
But the title of the third episode made his heart skip a beat—Encountering the Immortal.
The episode opened with the gates of the nursing home, its main building full of ancient charm, like it hid countless secrets.
The narrator’s voice continued:
“The cultivation of Jiushan No. 2, the realization of controlled nuclear fusion—all of it traces back to one person, one immortal.”
“Today, we are fortunate enough to meet him.”
Zhao Yi couldn’t help but swallow.
The camera moved inside, through the main building into the back courtyard.
Zheng Fa appeared on screen.
Seeing Zheng Fa’s youthful face, modern clothing, and gentle eyes, Zhao Yi couldn’t help but wonder:
Who’s this guy?
The immortal’s attendant?
Didn’t quite seem like it…
Until the host called out, “Dean Zheng!”
He nearly jumped out of his seat.
“He’s the immortal?”
He stared at his mom in disbelief.
His mom shook her head. “Doesn’t look like it.”
Exactly!
He looked like a totally average college student.
Aside from being a bit tall, a bit pale, eyes a bit brighter—nothing stood out.
Not that an immortal had to be an old man,
but at least have a little immortal aura, right?
Yet... Zheng Fa smiled at the camera, as if greeting the viewers.
The host continued: “Dean Zheng, thank you for joining our program…”
So it was him!
But…
If the documentary hadn’t already featured Elder Hou and a bunch of nuclear physics experts,
he’d be yelling at the screen right now.
Even holding back, he was filled with suspicion—wait a minute…
He suddenly remembered something and shouted, “Hey, that guy in the sun—is it him?”
His mom thought about it. “Looks kind of like him.”
Zhao Yi’s heart surged with waves. On screen, the man suddenly raised a hand and stopped the host from speaking.
Zheng Fa looked up at the sky and chuckled, “Still not giving up, huh?”
With such major changes to the sun, of course the impact wouldn’t be limited to China.
Countries around the world were probably full of questions.
Zheng Fa knew that lately, the entire Rainbow Mountain seemed to be under surveillance—some of it from strange folks below the mountain.
That was normal. As Zheng Fa grew more confident, any observant person could piece together the truth about Rainbow Mountain.
Some of the surveillance came from... the sky.
These days, to run experiments, Zheng Fa wasn’t constantly using the Lingshan Method. The spiritual energy produced by the Fusang Tree in the air—possibly due to its nature—didn’t interfere much with modern equipment.
Which meant… Rainbow Mountain’s anti-surveillance capability had some gaps now.
Like right now.
Before, he’d just used a couple spells to lightly disrupt satellite signals—nothing too harsh.
But this time, the other side had gone too far…
Zhao Yi saw the man on screen raise a finger toward the sky, and a rushing sound blasted through the speakers.
The camera jerked upward, and they watched a streak of fire shoot across the sky—a silvery-white object flying in from outer space, landing gently and obediently in the nursing home courtyard, like it was returning home.
Zhao Yi blinked, not quite sure what had just happened.
But the documentary very deliberately… cut to a news bulletin.
“At 3:45 this afternoon, a newly launched reconnaissance satellite from Mount Peak Nation experienced a sudden failure and fell into a nature reserve within our country.”
“No casualties have been reported.”
“The cause of the incident is still unclear.”
“Our side urges all nations to preserve the space environment and reduce orbital debris…”
Unclear…
Unclear, my a*!
You might as well have spelled it out!
He paused the video, scrolled down, and found the top comment: —“Master, your disciple bows before you!”
Honestly, he wanted to get on his knees and bow to the screen too.
This thing? Way better than an excavator!
