After the Sovereign of the Heavens' Divine Sense avatar departed, the solemn Saintly Might within Casual Hall dissipated with it. Yet the wave of thought stirred by Lin Xuan's (Xuanyuanzi's) words lingered for a long time. The way Holy Mother of Fire Spirit looked at Lin Xuan had completely changed; she regarded him with the awe and admiration one might feel toward a "divine being."
"Xuanyuanzi... no, Guest Minister Xuanyuanzi!" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit was so excited he could barely get the words out. "What you just said was simply... earth-shattering! I'd never imagined that teaching could be done this way! No wonder Master thinks so highly of you!"
Lin Xuan came back to himself from the afterglow of his conversation with a Sage and smiled modestly. "You flatter me, Fellow Daoist Huo Ling. They're just fanciful ideas. Whether they can be put into practice remains to be seen."
"They're absolutely not fanciful ideas!" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit declared firmly. "You heard Master's decree. He wants me to escort you to Jin'ao Island immediately! There's no time to lose. Shall we set off?" He could hardly wait to witness with his own eyes how Lin Xuan's vision might become reality within the Interception Sect.
Lin Xuan had no objections. After making a few quick preparations, the two left Casual Hall and soared away on their Evasion Lights. They departed Kunlun Mountain and headed straight for the waters of the East Sea.
Along the way, Holy Mother of Fire Spirit could barely contain his excitement. He kept asking Lin Xuan for specific details about the novel concepts he had just described. Lin Xuan was happy to discuss them with him: it helped refine his own ideas, and through Holy Mother of Fire Spirit, he could learn more about the Interception Sect's current state.
"Guest Minister, you have no idea," Holy Mother of Fire Spirit sighed. "Our Interception Sect is known for 'Myriad Immortals Paying Homage.' Master teaches without discrimination, and there are indeed many disciples under him, from all kinds of races, with vastly different innate aptitudes and gifts. Some have deep roots and grasp things at once, like Senior Disciple Brother Duobao and Senior Sister Jinling. Others are like me, with ordinary talent and nothing to rely on but sheer persistence. And there are many Demon Tribe disciples whose transformations are incomplete and whose intelligence has only just awakened, making cultivation immensely difficult for them."
A trace of helplessness crossed his face. "Master is compassionate and often lectures on the Dao, but the Great Dao is profound and mysterious. How much one can understand depends entirely on one's own fate. Many disciples join the sect but never find their way in, or cultivate without proper guidance and get half the results for twice the effort. Some even go astray. Fellow disciples sometimes help one another, but there's no proper structure to it. For all these years, 'Teaching without discrimination' has been easy to say, but how hard it is to put into practice! It feels more like a grand aspiration than a concrete, workable method."
Lin Xuan listened quietly, gaining a clearer picture of the Interception Sect's circumstances. The Sovereign of the Heavens had advanced ideals and a broad mind, but when it came to practical methods of management and teaching, the sect clearly remained at a rather primitive stage, relying on personal charisma and each disciple's own insight. This inevitably led to a tremendous waste of resources and a loss of talent.
"So," Lin Xuan continued, "what we need is to turn the grand aspiration of 'teaching without discrimination' into an efficiently operating 'system.'"
"System?" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit repeated the unfamiliar word curiously.
"Exactly." Lin Xuan gazed at the clouds rolling in the distance, his thoughts growing lively again. "A 'system' is a set of interconnected rules and methods capable of operating on its own. Given the Interception Sect's current situation, we could try building... well, let's call it the 'Interception Sect Cultivation Big Data Management and Deduction System.'"
"Big... data?" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit was utterly bewildered. The term struck him as profoundly mysterious.
Lin Xuan smiled and explained in more familiar terms. "Simply put, it means carefully recording, classifying, analyzing, and applying information about every Interception Sect disciple."
He began to sketch out his vision. "First comes 'Information Gathering.' We need to create a detailed 'Cultivation Archive' for every disciple. It shouldn't just include their origins, race, and lineage. It should also record their physical attributes, Spirit Soul characteristics, current cultivation realm, techniques, areas of expertise, and even their personality, aptitude for understanding, and the problems they've encountered during past cultivation. The more detailed, the better."
Holy Mother of Fire Spirit imagined the scene and clicked his tongue. "That... that would be an enormous undertaking! And how could we ensure the information was accurate?"
"It would be enormous, but worthwhile," Lin Xuan affirmed. "As for accuracy, we can use a combination of methods. At first, disciples could report their own information, supplemented by evaluations from their elders or more advanced fellow disciples. We could even develop basic detection arrays or magical treasures to measure things like a disciple's spiritual energy attributes and Spirit Soul strength. The key is to turn all that scattered information from vague 'impressions' into clear 'data.'"
He continued, "Once we've gathered a vast amount of data, the second step is 'Classification and Analysis.' We can sort disciples into different categories according to various criteria. For example, by constitution: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, or variant types. By Spirit Soul characteristics: perceptive, resilient, highly creative, and so on. By cultivation problems: bottlenecks, unstable foundations, conflicting magical power, and the like."
"Then comes the most crucial step: 'Model Building and Intelligent Deduction.'" Lin Xuan's voice held a note of excitement. "Using data from a large number of successful cultivation cases, we can identify patterns. For example, at what stage is someone with a certain constitution likely to encounter a bottleneck when practicing a technique of a particular attribute? What methods are effective for breaking through it? At what point in mastering a certain divine ability should it be paired with a body-tempering art to bring out its full power?"
"When we have enough data and the patterns are clear enough, we might even be able to 'predict' and 'recommend'!" Lin Xuan introduced an idea that left Holy Mother of Fire Spirit staring in amazement. "Using the profile of a newly admitted disciple, the system could automatically match them with the most suitable introductory technique, recommend the most helpful senior disciples to guide them, and even predict the difficulties they might face in future cultivation, offering warnings and alternative solutions in advance! For disciples who have hit a bottleneck, the system could also review their specific circumstances and sift through a vast case library to find the breakthrough methods most likely to work, for them to consider!"
"Th-this would be like giving every disciple an all-knowing 'Virtual Master Teacher' who could teach according to aptitude?" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit's voice trembled. The vision had completely astonished him.
"You could put it that way." Lin Xuan nodded. "But this 'master teacher's' wisdom would come from gathering and refining the cultivation experience of all the Interception Sect's disciples. That's one of the ultimate expressions of 'Shared Knowledge' and 'Mutual Learning and Teaching.' Every disciple's success or failure would become part of the system's database and, in turn, help others who needed it. That would bring a qualitative leap in the Interception Sect's overall cultivation efficiency, truly achieve 'teaching without discrimination,' and let every disciple find the path best suited to them and realize their full potential!"
He concluded, "That's the rudimentary form of my vision for 'Big Data Cultivation.' It isn't meant to replace Master's lectures on the Dao or the personal instruction of the elders. It's a powerful supporting tool that would raise the reach, precision, and efficiency of teaching to unprecedented heights! It would turn that 'sliver of hope' into sunlight shining upon all things!"
Holy Mother of Fire Spirit remained silent for a long while, immersed in the grand vision Lin Xuan had painted. He seemed to see a future Interception Sect that was no longer merely a loose alliance relying on a Sage's prestige and its disciples' spontaneous efforts to help one another, but a sacred cultivation ground operating efficiently with the support of a powerful "central intelligence system"! "Myriad Immortals Paying Homage" would no longer be empty words; it would mean that myriad immortals had truly reached their potential!
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" Holy Mother of Fire Spirit slapped his thigh, his face flushed with excitement. "Guest Minister Xuanyuanzi, I'll speed up right away! We must get you and this... this vision of 'Big Data Cultivation' back to Jin'ao Island as soon as possible! I can't imagine how amazed Senior Disciple Brother and the others will be when they hear it!"
Their Evasion Lights suddenly accelerated, streaking across the sky toward the shores of the East Sea.
Lin Xuan's vision of "Big Data Cultivation" was like a stone tossed into a still lake. The ripples it stirred were destined to profoundly reshape the future of the Interception Sect and perhaps the entire Primordial World.
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