"Exactly. Reverse thinking."
Facing Pan Yongnian's doubt, Huang Rong leaned on his walking stick and patiently explained, "Take a simple example: for comrades who can't meet the conditions of the Tide Art, couldn't there be another form of visualization better suited to them?
"Comrade Li Weihao comes from Sichuan. He might never have seen the ocean, but he certainly knows what the Sichuan-Chongqing Basin looks like, doesn't he? He's definitely seen giant pandas or eaten hot pot, right?
"Or take comrades born in Zhangjiajie—would karst terrain be unfamiliar to them? And for soldiers from the capital, they're surely well-acquainted with fermented bean milk!
"If we build on this premise and optimize cultivation techniques around different visualization subjects, matching them to each person's background... the proportion of successful Awakenings might see an astonishing leap!"
By the end, Huang Rong's eyes were glowing.
Pan Yongnian exchanged a glance with Feng Congzhi and several others. After a brief pause for thought, a noticeable wave of excitement washed over their expressions.
Huang Rong's words... seemed to make sense.
Visualization consisted of "observing" and "imagining," and observing came before imagining, after all.
"Um, Elder Huang, I have a question." While some agreed, doubts were natural. An expert soon spoke up: "Your hypothesis carries a fair amount of weight, but if that really is the case, why did the Tide Art spread so widely across the Tianling Realm in the first place?"
Huang Rong seemed prepared for this. He raised his eyelids, looked at the man, and prompted him, "Xiao Zhong, think about the civilizational structure of the Tianling Realm, and you should find your answer."
The civilizational structure of the Tianling Realm?
The expert called Xiao Zhong froze for a second, but before long, a thoughtful look settled over his face.
Right...
The civilizational structures of the two worlds—or rather, their governing philosophies—were fundamentally different.
Unlike Huaxia, the Tianling Realm was a textbook elite transcendent civilization. Its major factions, stripped of pretense, were simply lineages passed down from genius to genius.
They competed over who could break through to Spirit Severing and Divided-Thought first, or Nascent Soul and Golden Core at the very least.
As for the success rate of the most basic step, Awakening...
What a joke. Which of those lofty figures at the top would bother with such a trivial matter?
Anyone who dawdled and struggled just to cross the threshold of Awakening couldn't have a very high ceiling anyway.
For major sects to factor such concerns into their training would only waste their resources.
As for ordinary sects like the Guihua Sect, it went without saying. They were already thanking the heavens if they could recruit any disciples at all; how could they have the luxury of catering to their recruits' life experiences? Even if they thought of it, solving the problem was nearly impossible. Take Lin Yi: the nearest "sea" to the Guihua Sect was the Fengtian River. How could Lin Yi lead a crowd of un-Awakened disciples all the way there just to broaden their horizons?
Absurd.
For Lin Yi to travel there alone was already at the level of hellish difficulty. If he dragged along one or more disciples, you could drop "the level of" and "difficulty" entirely—it would simply be hell.
Perhaps over the long ages, insightful minds in the Tianling Realm had recognized the issue.
Yet their voices were destined to be crushed under the prevailing tide of survival of the fittest that governed their cultivation civilization.
And so, over time, while the Tide Art became the most widely circulated Awakening technique in the Tianling Realm, no one ever probed any deeper.
This was an inevitable outcome for a transcendent civilization. To borrow an old meme, it was a classic case of "blaming the system."
From the Tianling Realm's perspective, what Huang Rong and Pan Yongnian were doing was truly incomprehensible: *Why would anyone care about ants who can't even manage Awakening? What kind of universal harmony nonsense is this?*
Yet the rabbit was stubborn enough to go its own way.
***
"I think Comrade Huang Rong's idea works."
After a moment, Sun Lao, who had remained silent, voiced his stance: "Comrade Huang Rong, a controlled trial is fairly straightforward and can be launched first.
"Shortly, I'll have the comrades in the garrison department forward the relevant files to your team. Select thirty soldiers from coastal regions and thirty from inland origins. As soon as the personnel are assembled, start the comparative experiment.
"As for further visualization optimization... write down your specific concepts in a proposal first. See what personnel or logistics you need, and I'll step in to coordinate on your behalf."
Huang Rong nodded at once. "Understood."
A controlled trial and visualization optimization were indeed on two entirely different levels of difficulty. The former could begin in under two hours, but the latter involved many moving parts.
In the early stages of visualization research, they might even require professional hypnotherapists and psychologists to assist. The scope would inevitably be broad.
Having a complete set of documented plans was also beneficial for Huang Rong.
After settling Huang Rong's assignment, Sun Lao and the other experts turned their attention back to the screens.
Most of them focused on Xiao Jiguang, the candidate with three spiritual roots.
After all, although five-spiritual-root Han Qingyu had performed remarkably, the gap in aptitude remained undeniable. Pulling ahead of two four-spiritual-root soldiers was practically his limit.
In terms of overall progress, Xiao Jiguang still led the pack.
Another ten minutes slipped by.
Xiao Jiguang took his second Primordial Origin Pill since entering the chamber, and with the aid of the medicinal power, he smoothly shattered the barrier at his fourth node.
Now, only the final three nodes stood before him.
Even Pan Yongnian's attention was fully drawn to Xiao Jiguang.
Before long, however—
*Clap!*
Pan Yongnian felt a hand slap his shoulder. Turning around, he blurted out in surprise, "Chief of Staff Chen? You're out too?"
"Yeah, just stepped out a few minutes ago." The man was Chen Zhengze, the very first person to enter a cultivation chamber. Compared to an hour ago, he looked visibly exhausted. "Ranked tenth from the bottom. I figured you were all deep in conversation, so you didn't notice me."
Chen Zhengze spoke candidly, without any embarrassment.
His primary mission this time had been to provide morale and set an example.
To put it bluntly, the moment the chamber door closed, his mission had been accomplished. Even if he had walked out dead last, there was no shame in it.
Pan Yongnian understood this well, so without wasting words on polite comfort, he immediately inquired about the process: "How was it? What does Awakening feel like?"
The other experts pricked up their ears as well.
"Honestly, the intensity isn't low."
Chen Zhengze pinched the towel draped around his neck with two fingers and candidly showed everyone the sweat-soaked fabric.
"At the very beginning, it was actually fine. The interaction between the Primordial Origin Pill and the spiritual energy felt quite comfortable.
"But once I sensed the first node, everything changed... Tsk, just imagine you've broken a bone, and the jagged edge is bulging beneath your skin, while your own hand presses down again and again to smooth it flat..."
At Chen Zhengze's description, several experts with active imaginations grimaced, letting out a sharp hiss.
"*Yikes...*"
Huang Rong cared more about the operational details and asked seriously, "Chief of Staff Chen, is the node a physical structure the body can touch? Or is it..."
"It's not physical. It relies entirely on sensory awareness enhanced by the pill and the spiritual energy," Chen Zhengze explained, pointing at his temple. "Neither your eyes nor your hands can locate it. Of that, I'm a hundred percent certain."
Chapter 52