Chapter 81: Spatial Rift
"Between ancient martial arts and internal cultivation, which one is stronger?"
Su Xiaofan asked the question that had been bothering him.
Judging from history, there was no doubt that those who practiced ancient martial arts seemed to be more powerful. So many of their names were well known.
Meanwhile, those who practiced internal cultivation were more often associated with myths and legends, making them seem somewhat ethereal and unreal.
"The two systems are different, so it's impossible to say which one is stronger or weaker."
Tong Dongjie shook his head and said, "When ancient martial arts are cultivated to the extreme, legend has it that one can achieve sainthood through the physical body. Internal cultivation, on the other hand, can supposedly allow a person to become an immortal and attain the Dao. The paths are different, so the results are different as well."
"All right, Dongjie. Stop trying to make your ancient martial arts sound so impressive."
As soon as Tong Dongjie finished speaking, Jing Shizhen laughed.
"Becoming a saint through the physical body is only a legend. Of course, becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao is also a legend. But you should already understand what cultivating true qi can actually do."
"Uncle Jing is right. Your internal alchemy cultivation method is indeed stronger than ancient martial arts."
Tong Dongjie smiled helplessly.
Ancient martial arts and internal alchemy cultivation had been competing for thousands of years. By this day and age, ancient martial arts had indeed declined.
The "alchemy" Tong Dongjie referred to wasn't the process of refining medicinal pills.
Instead, it referred to cultivating the inner elixir within the human body—in other words, the legendary Golden Core.
Ancient people once had a saying: "Swallow a Golden Core into your belly, and your fate is yours to control, not Heaven's."
Although that saying sounded somewhat cringeworthy by modern standards, it demonstrated the belief that once one's Golden Core reached perfection, one could truly defy Heaven and change one's destiny.
"Xiao Su, don't listen to his nonsense. Does practicing internal cultivation necessarily mean cultivating internal alchemy?"
Jing Shizhen interrupted Tong Dongjie.
"Cultivation is about evolving yourself. Becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao is merely a beautiful aspiration, not the ultimate result of cultivation."
"Through cultivation, you evolve your body to the extreme. Only then can you roam freely throughout the world. Don't let Tong Dongjie mislead you."
"A man isn't a woman. Why would you grow a Golden Core in your stomach? Do you think you're giving birth?"
"Uncle Jing, I'm not making things up. That's the theory followed by the Taoist sects."
Tong Dongjie was somewhat dissatisfied.
He was nearly forty years old, after all. Being lectured by Uncle Jing in front of Su Xiaofan was a little embarrassing.
"Does that mean the Taoist sects are always right? Are they the orthodox ones?"
Jing Shizhen scoffed at Tong Dongjie's words.
Strictly speaking, their lineage inherited the philosophy and cultivation methods of Zhuangzi, and Zhuangzi's teachings had never been particularly valued by the Taoist sects.
"If the Taoist sects are so capable, why don't you go ask them for help?"
Jing Shizhen couldn't resist throwing another jab at Tong Dongjie.
"Ahem... Uncle Jing, I was wrong. You're right."
Tong Dongjie's face turned red after being reprimanded by Jing Shizhen.
He was, after all, the chairman of a listed company. It had been a very long time since anyone had spoken to him like this.
Besides, the matter he wanted Jing Shizhen's help with was something those Taoist experts genuinely couldn't handle.
After going around in circles, he had ultimately been forced to come back and ask Jing Shizhen for help.
"Brother Dong, what exactly did you want to ask Master to do?"
Seeing Tong Dongjie getting shut down, Su Xiaofan secretly laughed and quickly changed the subject.
"This matter actually has to start with some changes that have occurred on Earth."
The matter Tong Dongjie wanted Jing Shizhen to help with wasn't simple. It couldn't be explained in just a few words.
After thinking for a moment, Tong Dongjie said, "Brother Su, do you know that there are certain places on Earth that are extremely dangerous and mysterious?"
"I know."
Su Xiaofan nodded and began counting them off on his fingers.
"The Bermuda Triangle should count as one. Planes and ships often get into trouble around there."
"There's also China's Shennongjia. Then there's the area of Poyang Lake where ships frequently sink, and the Heavenly Mountain Valley of Death."
"Hmm... there's also 'Death Island' in the North Atlantic, the Ghost Island in the South Pacific, the Valley of Death on the Kamchatka Peninsula..."
Su Xiaofan liked reading adventure articles and following exploration-related public accounts whenever he had free time.
Most of them introduced places like these. There were probably more than a hundred dangerous locations of various sizes around the world.
Su Xiaofan also had an excellent memory. Once he started listing them, he became unstoppable, leaving Tong Dongjie and Jing Shizhen beside him completely stunned.
"Stop, stop! Where did you hear about all these places?"
Tong Dongjie interrupted him.
"That Valley of Death on the Kamchatka Peninsula—I haven't even heard of it. How do you know about it?"
"Brother Dong, don't you usually browse your phone?"
Su Xiaofan laughed.
"I saw them online. Everything uses big-data cloud computing nowadays. Search for 'adventure,' and articles like these will start popping up."
"Although there's one annoying thing about cloud computing. If you search for some kind of product, those apps will keep recommending it to you all day long. It's pretty annoying."
"Brother, can you stop going off-topic?"
Tong Dongjie interrupted Su Xiaofan again, half amused and half exasperated.
"What does all that have to do with anything?"
"Oh, right. Go ahead, Brother Dong. I know plenty of other places too, but most of them are overseas."
Su Xiaofan finally shut up. He was still waiting for Tong Dongjie to explain things.
"You're basically right. All those places are dangerous zones."
Tong Dongjie said, "But do you know how these dangerous zones came into existence?"
"I don't know. The internet doesn't explain it."
Su Xiaofan shook his head.
The places he had mentioned were mostly associated with phenomena that science had difficulty explaining. Naturally, there wouldn't be any real answers online.
"It's because spatial rifts have appeared in the locations where these dangerous zones are found."
Tong Dongjie's expression became solemn.
"Spatial rifts? What's that?"
Su Xiaofan froze.
He hadn't expected Tong Dongjie to give him such an answer.
"How would I know what a spatial rift actually is?"
Tong Dongjie smiled bitterly.
"That's simply the name we've given to this phenomenon."
"These spatial rifts can be large or small. But regardless of their size, any place where a spatial rift forms is extremely dangerous."
"When a spatial rift appears, both the air and the surrounding space undergo changes. Many living organisms that enter these areas will suddenly die."
"That's why many places around the world where spatial rifts have appeared have been classified as dangerous zones, and people are no longer allowed to enter them..."
"Are they really that dangerous?"
After hearing Tong Dongjie's explanation, Su Xiaofan clicked his tongue in amazement.
"Can't anything be done to eliminate the spatial rifts?"
"Very small spatial rifts can sometimes be closed by certain methods, but large ones can't."
Tong Dongjie said, "Ships have been disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle for hundreds of years, and the problem still hasn't been solved. I don't think it will be solved anytime soon either..."
"I understand."
Su Xiaofan glanced at his master.
"Brother Dong, you've encountered a spatial rift and want my master to help you get rid of it, right? But shouldn't you ask the government for help with something like this?"
"For some spatial rifts that aren't particularly dangerous, the government generally doesn't rush to deal with them."
Tong Dongjie repeatedly shook his head.
It wasn't as though he hadn't contacted the relevant authorities before. However, those departments had all said they were powerless to deal with the situation.
Tong Dongjie had also sought help from disciples of other ancient lineages, but none of them had been able to solve the problem.
With no other choice, he had eventually come back to Uncle Jing.
"Brother Dong, tell me exactly what's going on. If there's anything I can help with, I'll definitely help!"
Su Xiaofan had already obtained quite a bit of information from Tong Dongjie.
His master had never told him any of this before.
"Here's how it happened. Five years ago, our group was preparing to develop a tourism project in Jiaocheng..."
There was no one else in the room, so Tong Dongjie had far fewer reservations. He told Su Xiaofan everything from beginning to end.
It turned out that after the Tong family had made their fortune through foreign trade, they invested their business in mainland China, getting involved in real estate and cultural tourism development.
Tong Dongjie was particularly talented when it came to business.
After more than a decade of development under his leadership, his cultural tourism group had become a well-known listed company in China, generating considerable wealth that flowed back into the Tong family.
Five years ago, Tong Dongjie heard that there was a particularly unique place in Jiaocheng.
He immediately went there to inspect it personally.
What surprised Tong Dongjie was that the moment he entered the area, he felt as though he had traveled back several hundred years.
Every building in the area was more than a century old, and they had been preserved in their original form.
It was the first time Tong Dongjie had ever seen such a large collection of ancient buildings preserved so authentically.
After inspecting the area, Tong Dongjie felt that it could be developed into a nostalgic tourist attraction.
He negotiated with the relevant local authorities and eventually purchased the area.
The land itself wasn't particularly expensive. Tong Dongjie had spent only tens of millions of yuan to acquire it.
However, the local authorities had made one requirement.
The Tong Group had to pay for the construction and improvement of the road leading to the area. Only then would they sell the land to him at such a low price.
Since Tong Dongjie wanted to develop a tourist attraction, convenient transportation was one of the most important factors.
He immediately agreed to the authorities' request.
What Tong Dongjie never expected was that this requirement would nearly ruin him.
The area was deep in the mountains and extremely difficult to access.
Tong Dongjie spent four or five years and nearly 700 to 800 million yuan constructing a road into the depths of the mountains.
Finally, he managed to build a road leading there.
But just when Tong Dongjie was preparing to put his plans into action and transform the area into a tourist attraction, something unexpected happened.
Overnight, six designers who had entered the area to inspect the terrain and prepare their plans all suddenly died.
In China, deaths of this nature were a serious matter.
After Tong Dongjie's people reported the incident, the relevant authorities quickly sent personnel to investigate.
The conclusion they reached was that a miniature spatial rift had appeared near the ancient architectural complex.
Its area was limited, and it did not radiate outward into the surrounding region.
Spatial rifts were extremely difficult to eliminate.
Even the relevant authorities would have to pay a huge price to deal with one.
The best solution was simply to leave it alone.
As a result, all the people who had originally lived nearby were relocated, and the tourist attraction Tong Dongjie had planned became an uninhabited zone.
If this had happened at the beginning, when he had just purchased the land, Tong Dongjie would have simply accepted his bad luck.
At most, he would have lost the tens of millions he had spent on the land.
But by then, Tong Dongjie had already built a road deep into the mountains and invested several hundred million yuan.
No matter what, he had to find a way to develop the tourist attraction.
Otherwise, the losses would simply be too enormous.
The last time Su Xiaofan had seen Tong Dongjie, he had been persistently trying to persuade Jing Shizhen to step in and help him resolve this huge problem.
"Brother Dong, what exactly is this place you're talking about?"
Su Xiaofan asked.
"Shuangmen Village!"
(End of Chapter)
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