Scientific cultivation
Considering the Spirit Realm natives' shortcomings in intelligence, Lin Xu boldly guessed that the monastery master's attainment was also likely stuck at the master level.
The Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter is currently only a basic section, and it can only be cultivated to Night Wandering at most. To continue cultivating, I'll have to obtain the advanced sections of both the Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art and the Mystic Art God-Descending Technique, then cultivate them to the grandmaster level before I can deduce the subsequent cultivation methods...
As he pondered, he opened his personal panel:
Name: Lin Xu Race: Human Identity: Xuanwei Monastery inner disciple Class: Daoist (level 3) Strength: 13 Agility: 13 (+1) Constitution: 13 (+1) Spirit: 18 (+1) Intelligence: 15 Charisma: 14 Health: 132/132 Mana: 48/48 Skills: Basic Meditation Method · white (grandmaster), Basic Fitness Technique · white (advanced), Talisman Drawing · cyan (intermediate), Light Mantra · cyan (grandmaster), Spirit Eye Technique · cyan (grandmaster), Paper-Cutting Soldier Creation Art · blue (grandmaster), Wisdom Art · gold (beginner), Lamp Kindling God-Descending Chapter (basic section) · dark gold (grandmaster) Talents: Focus (gold), Thought Overclocking (gold) Dharma protectors: Underworld Soldier Corporal *1, Evil Eye *1, Chen A'niu, Liu Jiayao, Wronged Soul (elite) *1 Equipment: Ice Heart Jade Pendant, Dao Rhyme Bright Light Lamp, Soul-Nourishing Talisman, Azure Soul Bottle Items: Crimson Soul Pill *1, Spirit Stone *17, Dharma Coin *537
Lin Xu looked at the magnificent panel with satisfaction. All of this was the result of his accumulation over a mere four or five days—it could be called a miracle.
His gaze swept over it and landed on the Crimson Soul Pill. "I might as well keep the momentum going and refine the pill."
He took out the Crimson Soul Pill, and its medicinal fragrance instantly filled the room. He opened his mouth and swallowed it.
As the pill entered his stomach, a burning sensation instantly spread throughout his body. Lin Xu sat cross-legged and circulated the Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art and Mystic Art God-Descending Technique to refine its medicinal power.
In his sea of consciousness, the candlelight transformed into a bright lamp. Under its radiance, distracting thoughts were like frost and snow beneath the sun, rapidly melting away at the boundary where light and darkness intertwined.
The hundred-percent cultivation speed boost sent Lin Xu's progress racing a thousand miles in a day. In just one shichen, he completely refined the Crimson Soul Pill's medicinal power.
His spiritual sense spread outward like a tide, instantly covering the entire room. Wherever his divine sense reached, the grain of the wooden walls and the gaps between the earthen bricks appeared in the finest detail.
"As expected, cultivation really does need the help of pills," Lin Xu said with feeling. He glanced at his mana, whose maximum had risen to 60, and turned his attention to his left and right Dharma protectors.
Chen A'niu and Liu Jiayao were a scholar and a warrior, respectively. Though their aptitudes could not be called outstanding, they made up for it with their unwavering loyalty, and each had his own strengths.
If he wanted to gain a foothold in the Spirit Realm and build up his forces, his personal cultivation alone would ultimately be limited. He had to train a reliable core, and these two were the first members of his inner circle in his mind.
"What a pity. Their aptitude still isn't enough..." Lin Xu looked regretfully at Chen A'niu's 12 intelligence points. That number was already quite high for a human NPC, but it fell far short of what was needed to learn a high-grade inheritance.
Of the two spellcasting class inheritances he currently possessed, even the Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art, which had the lower requirement, needed 15 intelligence points to get started. Chen A'niu could only look on and shrink back.
"How can I raise intelligence?" His brow furrowed slightly, and his gaze fell on the Wisdom Art in his skill list.
This skill was the foundation upon which he had built his success. Over the past few days, he had also tried to deduce the Wisdom Art's path of growth after entering the Thought Overclocking state, hoping to develop it to a higher level.
Yet every attempt had come to nothing. Cultivation methods and exercises in the conventional sense did nothing to improve the Wisdom Art.
"Perhaps only a method that can genuinely increase wisdom can continue to raise the Wisdom Art's level."
Lin Xu gazed at the Wisdom Art's skill description, recalling some scientific research from his previous life.
Electrochemical stimulation of neural synapses, enhancement of brain-region activity, cognitive load training... These concepts flowed through his consciousness.
According to brain scientists' research, wisdom was not some elusive, intangible talent, but a quantifiable physiological and cognitive mechanism. Its essence lay in the connection strength and information-processing efficiency of neural networks.
Lin Xu fell into thought. If he could use mana to simulate electrochemical signals and stimulate neural nodes in the body, such as the Lingtai acupoint, it might have a remarkable effect.
He immediately sat cross-legged and regulated his breathing, guiding a wisp of pure mana into his brain. He advanced it slowly along the neural pathways, letting the mana soak into the Lingtai acupoint like a fine rain.
The Lingtai acupoint suddenly grew hot, as if sparks had been lit in his mind. With the Lingtai acupoint at its center, the neural network abruptly lit up like a blazing galaxy. Without needing to examine it with his spiritual sense, he could clearly perceive even the slightest muscle twitch, and his thoughts grew clear as a mirror amid the heat.
The boundary between consciousness and flesh dissolved at that moment. With a slight movement of his mind, he condensed the mana into a point of starlight within the Lingtai acupoint.
The mana traveled along the brain's nerves, linking one hidden neural node after another like meridians. Wherever the starlight reached, ripples spread through the gray matter, neural synapses formed new pathways, and his cognitive processing speed increased severalfold.
The neural network was an important information-processing system in the human body, and its plasticity and importance far exceeded what ordinary people could imagine.
Lin Xu did not rush to see results. Instead, he let his mana slowly nourish every newly formed neural pathway like spring water. Once the new pathways had stabilized, he quietly emerged from his cultivation state.
Opening his eyes, Lin Xu felt an unprecedented clarity of thought. The Wisdom Art's growth had actually increased by a noticeable amount.
Looking at his attribute panel again, he saw that his intelligence had quietly risen from 15 to 16. The increase confirmed that stimulating neural nodes with mana was feasible.
More importantly, this growth in intelligence was reproducible and sustainable. From now on, as long as he continued nourishing his neural network and stimulating its nodes with mana, he could steadily strengthen his brain's computational and deductive abilities, up to the physiological limits of the human body.
Lin Xu looked at Chen A'niu. Developing a cultivation method that stimulated the brain's neural network to raise intelligence did not mean he had solved the problem of Chen A'niu cultivating this method.
Even the simplest Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Technique required 15 intelligence points to cultivate, let alone the Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter.
"Or perhaps I could simplify it?" Lin Xu looked at Chen A'niu, who was meditating, and considered a workaround: something like compressing information, then entering the simplified, compressed cultivation method information into the target's brain.
The Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter, the transcendent-grade cultivation method he had created by merging two classics, had extraordinary accomplishments in all three elements of essence, Qi, and spirit.
The Bright Light Lamp in his hand flickered. He activated Thought Overclocking and circulated the Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter, attempting to reconstruct the cultivation method's information.
Soon, Lin Xu found the key. "What we call mana is itself a combination of information and energy. The reason mana cultivated through different methods differs is that the information contained within the mana is different..."
This was also the difference between the magic power of Western mages and the mana of the Eastern immortal path.
Once he understood the nature of mana, compressing the cultivation method's information became simple. He compressed the information in the Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter that lay beyond the scope of ordinary understanding, to be decompressed layer by layer later as its practitioner's understanding of the method deepened.