The operator Huang Rong had brought along was named Ma Yuan—a tall, thin man in his forties with prominent cheekbones and a slight overbite.
He looked a bit like the infamous "Scholar of Death" from that ticket-refunding incident years ago.
With a few swift keystrokes, he switched a video feed over to the nearest screen.
"Elder Huang, the one making the fastest progress is Comrade Xiao Jiguang. He has taken only one Primordial Origin Pill so far and has already broken through and cleared the fourth node."
"Oh?"
The experts quickly gathered their attention there.
Just like the soldier named Xue Rui whom Pan Yongnian had observed earlier, a block of information was prominently displayed on the left side of the screen:
[Name]: Xiao Jiguang
[Age]: 23 years, 260 days
[Active Unit]: Gensi Company, Brigade, Group Army
[Aptitude]: Three spiritual roots
"Impressive," Pan Yongnian couldn't help praising. "Breaking through all the way to the fourth node on just one Primordial Origin Pill?"
Truly worthy of a one-in-ten-thousand three-spiritual-root aptitude—such cultivation speed was astonishing...
Before Pan Yongnian could finish marveling, Ma Yuan spoke up again: "Wait, Elder Huang, the comrade in second place is a bit... well, quite unexpected. He's actually a five-spiritual-root!"
Five spiritual roots?
Hearing the operator's words, the group of experts hurried to turn their attention to the display next to Xiao Jiguang's.
There, they saw another set of data on the screen:
[Name]: Han Qingyu
[Age]: 25 years, 64 days
[Active Unit]: Laozhuang Company, Combined Arms Brigade, Group Army
[Aptitude]: Five spiritual roots
The room buzzed with chatter at once.
"Huh, he really is a five-spiritual-root?"
"...Weren't we told that higher aptitude means faster cultivation?"
"Old Yang, could there be a problem with the instruments?"
"Not likely. Look, all the other parameters are completely normal. Maybe this comrade is just in great form?"
Huang Rong also walked over to the screen.
At this very moment, the figure in the feed remained seated cross-legged, but the red dot representing spiritual energy accumulation had already shifted from the atlas down toward the coccyx.
Having spoken directly with Lin Yi, Huang Rong remembered clearly that this was the third node Lin Yi had described when explaining the Awakening process.
A single glance was all it took for him to rule out equipment failure.
After all, a bug wouldn't malfunction with such pinpoint accuracy.
Moreover, judging by the flow of spiritual energy, the third node would not hold Han Qingyu back for long; faint red traces were already drifting beneath it.
He turned his head and asked Ma Yuan, "Xiao Ma, how are the other two four-spiritual-root comrades doing?"
"Elder Huang, Zhou Xi is also breaking through the third node," Ma Yuan replied, his fingers moving across the keyboard so fast they blurred as he pulled up set after set of data. "However, the time he took to clear the previous node was three minutes and eleven seconds slower than Han Qingyu."
"As for the other four-spiritual-root comrade, Li Weihao... he's currently still stuck at the second node."
Huang Rong stroked his chin.
This was indeed rather...
The base had only briefed the soldiers on the basic concepts of Awakening and cultivation; anything regarding spiritual roots had been kept strictly confidential for now.
Therefore, the soldiers could not have developed psychological baggage from differences in aptitude—such as "I have great aptitude, so I must finish first" or "My aptitude is terrible, so I might as well slack off."
In other words, in a contest based purely on effort and natural progress, the five-spiritual-root Han Qingyu was actually leading the pack?
Huang Rong pondered for a moment, then said to Xiao Ma, "Xiao Ma, pull up the files on Han Qingyu and the other three for me."
Xiao Ma immediately set to work.
Soon, several identical copies of their printed dossiers were handed to Huang Rong and the expert panel.
"Han Qingyu, native of Wanning, Qionghai Province. Enlisted nine years ago, Sergeant First Class, awarded Individual Third-Class Merit twice, Second-Class Merit once..."
"Xiao Jiguang, enlisted four years ago, native of Xinxiang, Zhongyuan Province. Awarded Individual Third-Class Merit once and Collective Second-Class Merit once since joining the military. Older brother: Xiao Nianjiang..."
"Zhou Xi, native of Anyuan, Gan Province..."
"Li Weihao, native of Chuanshu..."
"Hm?"
Before long, Xu Xiujie, the leading figure in physics, was the first to spot something: "Look here. This Han Qingyu is from right by the sea, while the other three are from inland. Could it have something to do with that?"
Pan Yongnian paused, then quickly glanced at the dossier again.
Sure enough.
Although Han Qingyu served in the army, his family had been fishermen starting from his grandfather's generation, and he had almost never left the coast prior to enlisting.
By contrast, the other three soldiers with superior spiritual roots had all grown up inland.
Li Weihao in particular had not even left Chuanshu after enlisting.
At this thought, Pan Yongnian couldn't help looking at Huang Rong. "Elder Huang, do you think..."
"Yes, Old Xu's theory is very likely," Huang Rong said, nodding firmly. He pointed at the file and explained, "In fact, when we were translating and compiling the Tide Art, a similar thought crossed my mind."
"Think about it. From the very beginning, the Tide Art requires one to visualize sitting quietly on an endless shore, and later on to imagine oneself becoming the sea itself."
"Given the vast territory and geography of the Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty, could ordinary people truly see an actual ocean with ease?"
"If one has never seen the sea in person, how could they visualize the ocean's surface accurately? Could this disparity in imagination directly affect the efficiency of Awakening?"
As he spoke, Huang Rong pointed at a nearby monitor and added, "If I recall correctly, Professor Xu Hua—the only six-spiritual-root individual who succeeded in Awakening—is also a native of Zhoushan, Zhe Province."
He wasn't saying this to save face.
Over the past two days during the translation process, this doubt had genuinely occurred to him.
Cultivation powers capable of soaring through the skies and tunneling through the earth certainly existed in the Tianling Realm.
Yet for the common folk who had never awakened, the convenience of travel in the Tianling Realm was likely far inferior to that of the home world.
Even in their home world, countless inland compatriots had never seen the ocean with their own eyes, let alone over in the Tianling Realm.
It was just like asking ordinary people to imagine the life of an ultra-wealthy tycoon: the vast majority would either picture it far too conservatively or wildly exaggerate it; almost none would match reality.
At least in Huang Rong's view, the only way commoners could learn about the ocean was likely through Image-Recording Pearls.
And just how much of the sea's vast, magnificent grandeur a recorded image could recreate was open to question.
At this thought, Pan Yongnian seemed to grasp Huang Rong's meaning: "Elder Huang, do you mean... we should prioritize comrades born near the sea when selecting practitioners for the Tide Art?"
"That's one aspect," Huang Rong nodded, laying out his train of thought. "I think we can set up a control group. Two or three comparative trials should yield a preliminary conclusion."
"As for the other aspect... I'm wondering whether we can approach this through reverse-thinking."
Pan Yongnian didn't quite follow this time, and humbly asked, "Elder Huang, what do you mean by reverse-thinking...?"
Chapter 51