It's electrical charge!
"The root cause of everything is the imbalance of positive and negative charges; this is true for the ground, and equally true for humans!"
Having grasped this layer of understanding, Lin Beichen's thoughts flowed unobstructed, that inexplicable feeling seemed to be within his grasp: "Every person's body has positive and negative charges. If these charges are perfectly balanced, the body remains electrically neutral. But if the balance is tipped, would the body become the endpoint of a discharge pulse? Would those frequently struck by lightning have their body's charges in a subtle, constant imbalance because of lightning strikes? But what caused their first lightning strike? Had their charges been unbalanced even before the first strike? What caused it?"
A new problem emerged!
Lin Beichen's mind raced, and soon his eyes lit up.
"If it's possible that lightning strikes cause the imbalance of charges in their bodies, then could electric shocks be the cause of such imbalances in the first place?"
At this thought, Lin Beichen immediately had a notion—
Why not try it and find out?
To live, one must embrace madness!
He decided to experience the changes brought about by electric shocks on the body!
"Eh?"
Just then, an inspiration struck Lin Beichen: "The human body has both positive and negative charges, which are the necessary conditions for lightning to form. If we can discover a way to make these charges collide, could we generate lightning within our bodies? And if electric shocks can indeed cause imbalances in body charges, does that mean they are catalyzing the collision of these charges?"
This series of wild thoughts was a result of his innate gift.
Realizing this was a critical step towards creating a new Cultivation Method, he felt experiencing electric shocks firsthand was crucial!
"What should I use to experience the electric shocks?"
Lin Beichen stopped searching about lightning and started looking up equipment that could generate electricity.
There were many devices that could generate electricity; the most common were high-voltage power lines...
However, knowing his talent was in his extraordinary insight and not an indestructible body, he chose equipment that would produce a tolerable amount of electricity.
He certainly didn't want his second life to end because of an electrical shock before he even created his Cultivation Method!
He was in the middle of a Baidu search.
"Ring ring... Ring ring..."
Suddenly his phone rang.
Lin Beichen glanced at the screen; it was a classmate calling.
The caller was Li Yang, one of his closest classmates.
"Why is he calling now?"
Muttering, Lin Beichen answered the call.
Before he could speak—
Li Yang's excited voice came through: "Beichen, we're going out to play tomorrow, everyone is going to sing together!"
Although they had just finished the grueling high school exams, he decisively avoided talking about it, focusing on the anticipation of a wonderful long break. The exam scores were something to worry about later.
Since this was a critical moment in his lightning research, Lin Beichen didn't want to delay taking his first step toward creating the Cultivation Method, so he declined: "No, I can't go, I have things to do."
"Things to do? We just finished the exams, what could you possibly have to do?"
Thinking his good bro was feeling down because the exams hadn't gone well, Li Yang began to comfort him: "Come on, buddy, I know you've been cramming hard this last month, but you slacked off for three years, a month of hard studying can't change everything. If you're feeling down, we should go out and have fun."
"Stop, stop, stop."
Lin Beichen interrupted Li Yang's rambling with a helpless smile: "I'm in a great mood. I'm not going because of the exams, I truly have something to do."
"What could you have to do? If you can't give me a good reason, I'll bring everyone to your house tomorrow and drag you out!"
Li Yang was genuinely curious.
Seeing his determination to find out, Lin Beichen simply said: "I'm doing research at home!"
"Research? Researching what?"
"Researching lightning."
Li Yang: ???
On the other end, Li Yang stared at his phone in confusion, wondering if he had heard wrong.
Researching lightning?
What for?
What kind of nonsense is this?
…
Just as he was about to ask more questions, Lin Beichen's voice came through first: "Alright, I really have things to do, so I'm hanging up. Have fun tomorrow, bye."
"Hey?"
Li Yang's attempt to persuade him was cut off by the busy signal. He stared at his phone for a while, then shook his head and muttered: "Darn it, if you don't want to go, just say so. Next time I see him, I'll give him a good talking to!"
Not one to force others, he didn't call back to insist Lin Beichen join them.
Seeing it was late, he freshened up, had a good night's sleep, and woke up full of energy for a trip to Yida Square.
By then, Yida Square was packed.
Yesterday, they had finished what could be considered the most important exam of their lives— the high school finals— and today the students were out in full force, releasing the pressure accumulated over three years of high school.
Despite the crowd, Li Yang quickly spotted his classmates at their meeting point. He jogged over to join them.
"We were just debating whether you'd be the last to arrive or Lin. Looks like it's Lin. We've already decided, the last one here owes everyone bubble tea!"
Cheerfully, Zhang Hao, one of the friends Li Yang had mentioned yesterday, gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.
At 1.8 meters tall and slightly chubby, Li Yang towered over Zhang Hao, who was just over 1.6 meters, lean and agile. Zhang Hao had to stretch his arm to reach Li Yang's shoulder, making the scene comically awkward.
"Looks like I'm treating you all to bubble tea, then."
Li Yang slung an arm around Zhang Hao, grinning: "Lin isn't coming today."
"Huh?"
Breaking free, Zhang Hao asked: "Why isn't Lin coming?"
"Um..."
Li Yang paused, an odd expression on his face: "I called him yesterday, he said he was staying home to research lightning."
Classmates: ????
"What the heck, researching lightning?"
"Yeah, does he think a just-graduated student has any business researching lightning?"
"Why today of all days? Can't he research lightning another time?"
"I bet it's because he's bummed about the exams and needed an excuse not to hang out."
"Could be. He did work hard this last month, if he didn't do well, it would be hard for anyone to deal with right away."
"..."
As they chatted away—
Suddenly!
Someone shouted.
"Hey, look, isn't that Lin?"
Following the voice, they saw Lin Beichen emerging from Yida Square, carrying a shopping bag. Although they couldn't see the contents, the bag looked heavy.
Wasn't that Lin Beichen himself!