The Growth and "Study" of Mental Power

For now, this was as far as he could go in quantifying Mental Power. None of this data had undergone any verification; strictly speaking, it had no credibility whatsoever and could only serve as preliminary reference material.

Although Blade Tusk had made it to the doctoral stage in his previous life, he had not actually been a scientist. His grades had been average, and he had only barely scraped together a graduation thesis. Moreover, he had studied law after his undergraduate degree and had no research experience in the natural sciences. As such, he was not particularly sensitive to research itself. He could only come up with ideas as they occurred to him, lacking coherence and rigor.

But there was no helping it. For the sake of "magic," he could only bite the bullet and dive in.

"I can only handle the initial research myself. Once I figure something out—once I at least have a clear direction—I can discuss it with the other witch doctors. They aren't actually any dumber than me. In terms of brainpower, they might even far surpass me. What they lack is merely knowledge and imagination."

"Anyway, let's first consider the possible directions..."

"First, since Mental Power affects memory, would training one's memory speed up its growth? That sounds somewhat plausible, but the only method I know for improving memory seems to be 'eating more walnuts.'"

Deeply understanding the meaning of regretting one's lack of learning when the need arose, Blade Tusk lamented that he had not memorized Baidu back then. After a bout of thought that could be called racking his brains, he barely managed to come up with a practical method that seemed somewhat scientific.

"Just as muscles can be progressively trained with five kilograms, ten kilograms, ten repetitions, twenty repetitions, the brain should be trainable in the same way, right?"

"Simply memorizing books probably won't work. That's too mechanical. I should design diagrams that progress from simple to complex and are interconnected, using them to assist the training."

"Didn't novels from my previous life have things like Meditation Methods and Visualization Methods? The former is too broad to make much sense of, but a Visualization Method seems to involve imagining a specific image in one's mind, like a White Tiger or Guanyin. I don't necessarily need to visualize those things, but perhaps the Visualization Method can be connected with complex diagrams... um, I'll call it the Diagram Meditation Method."

After roughly determining his direction, Blade Tusk began considering more specific details, such as the method of combining them and the content of the meditation.

First was the content of the visualization.

What one visualized had to be related to what one needed. For example, if one practiced the Ape Demon Fist, the content of the visualization should contain the image of an ape.

Second was the principle of progressing from simple to difficult.

The first stage should be from nothing to something. Taking the Ape Demon Fist as an example, at the very beginning, one had to be able to visualize an ape. Even if it was just a simple sketch, it would not be easy, much less making it lifelike.

The second stage could perhaps be from stillness to motion. Still using the Ape Demon Fist as an example, since one practiced boxing, shouldn't the visualized ape image also start throwing punches?

The third stage might be from form to spirit? Still with the Ape Demon Fist: since the boxing technique emphasized the word "demon," rather than something like "ape god" or "ape saint," shouldn't the visualization be endowed with the corresponding spiritual attributes as well?

To be honest, by this point Blade Tusk could no longer tell whether this Visualization Method had come from web novels in his previous life or whether such a training method genuinely existed in reality. The theory he had imagined seemed far too convincing.

He stopped his habitual wild thoughts and returned to the problems before him.

Blade Tusk felt that the three stages above were already sufficient in concept. Going through them step by step would certainly pose no problem if the goal was merely to train memory. Yet this overly convincing theory further stirred his "ambition." He felt that, using this "scientific" theory of visualization, he could create a method specifically aimed at the growth of Mental Power.

By a "targeted method," he meant cultivation rather than training.

To put it more specifically, if "training" meant using the complexity of visualization diagrams to train the brain and Mental Power—logically similar to exercising muscles, a "realist" training method—then "cultivation" would be more like practicing the Ape Demon Fist through Ape Demon Visualization, a more "fantastical" method of cultivation.

As for whether it would work, he honestly did not care much. If it worked, it worked; if it did not, it did not. Even if the cultivation itself failed, the training portion of the process would not be discounted, and it would still accomplish the intended goal. Besides, he had already transmigrated. Was he not allowed a little more imagination?

"How exactly should I do this? Using complexity alone would be too wasteful."

"According to the theories of my previous life, complex life evolved step by step from single-celled organisms, and the human body is likewise made up of numerous cells. After countless years of coevolution, cells may have developed clearly divided functions, but that does not negate their independence from one another. Um... that should be right, shouldn't it?"

Blade Tusk reached this conclusion with little confidence. He had never specifically studied biology in his previous life. The only period in which he had systematically learned biology had been his final two years of high school, and since he had been in the humanities track, the material had not been particularly advanced.

Furthermore, far too much time had passed since he graduated high school. He only remembered the general idea of the knowledge.

"Mm, be confident. It must be right. In any case, cells possess a certain degree of independence. Individual cells have life attributes, however weak they may be. Only when they gather together can there be the life of a 'person.' By the same logic, thought, spirit, and so on should also be products of grains of sand accumulating into a tower."

"A targeted method might be able to start from here. Cell Theory was a theory from my previous life, but every sign from this Troll body in this life showed that it possessed a similar structure. The cellular structure of Troll Cells must differ enormously from human cells. I do not even know whether the fundamental elements at the microscopic level are the same. But as long as they roughly correspond at the cellular level, that will be enough."

With a general direction in mind, Blade Tusk began formulating the Meditation Method anew.

The first step was to imagine a roughly corresponding Troll body.

The second step was to refine the organ structure of that imagined body.

The third step was to reconstruct that body from cells.

The fourth step was to integrate the body, organ structure, and cellular structure.

The fifth step was to endow the body, from its frame down to its cells, with Mental Power attributes.

The sixth step was to graft his own consciousness onto the body within the meditation.

That was roughly the idea. Starting from the third step, it would be a massive undertaking. As for how exactly to carry it out, he could only slowly explore it through practice.