Chapter 646
To be honest, Zheng Fa felt lucky for Gu Chang—who else could provide him with such a nurturing environment besides himself?
If there was one main reason why Zheng Fa ultimately took Gu Chang under his wing, it was because he had the resources and confidence to ensure that this talent wouldn’t go to waste.
The old man, Bai, grumbled and cursed, but there was no anger on his face; on the contrary, he seemed quite intrigued.
Encountering such a gifted student had indeed sparked a desire in him to teach.
Moreover...
“Teacher, to solve the issue of spiritual roots, it seems we’ll have to rely on Gu Chang.”
Bai, who struggled with poor spiritual root quality and found cultivation to be a laborious task, immediately wore a look of being cornered upon hearing this.
After a moment of hesitation, he finally said, “I’ll teach!”
Seeing the expected smile on Zheng Fa’s face, Bai couldn’t help but retort, “You really are dedicated to your disciple.”
Zheng Fa chuckled.
His investment in Gu Chang was, on one hand, a recognition of rare talent; Gu Chang’s growth would greatly benefit him.
Investing in talent was certainly not a losing game.
Such top-tier talent deserved all the attention it could get.
On the other hand...
“Because I also have a dedicated teacher.”
Bai was taken aback for a moment, then quickly understood. The corners of his mouth twitched, and though he tried to maintain a serious expression, he ultimately couldn’t hold back a grin.
He laughed so hard that his eyes nearly disappeared.
Tang Lingwu, watching from the side, looked on with pity—just a single sentence from Zheng Fa had turned Bai into a giddy child, as if he feared being devoured alive.
...
“The data is almost verified.”
Tang Lingwu bounced in with a tablet in hand, accompanied by Teacher Tian, and found Zheng Fa.
The paper titled “The Relationship Between Spiritual Roots and Neural Structures” was only half-finished, with the biggest flaw being the data.
Both the experimental data and its processing were quite rough.
On one hand, Gu Chang’s sample size was too small—only himself.
On the other hand, he had been handling the data alone, which was neither detailed nor precise.
It could only be described as qualitative analysis, not yet reaching the quantitative stage.
“We tested the residents of the nursing home and compared their neural structures with the spiritual roots, finding a very high correlation,” Tang Lingwu pointed at the charts on the tablet.
“There are some data errors in Gu Chang’s paper, likely because his understanding of neural structures isn’t precise enough.”
“But overall, starting from the neural structure, it can explain the spiritual roots.”
Zheng Fa nodded and looked at Team Leader Yang, who stood nearby.
“For the next step, we’re preparing to conduct human experiments.” Team Leader Yang understood what Zheng Fa wanted to ask and answered directly, “The death row inmates are ready.”
Human experiments were necessary; correlation didn’t always imply causation, but leaving this to Team Leader Yang wouldn’t be a problem.
“From the current data, although there are some details that need improvement, the theoretical direction should be sound,” Teacher Tian continued, “Spiritual roots should be a macroscopic manifestation of the microscopic structure of the nerves.”
Everyone’s expressions showed a hint of joy.
The importance of spiritual roots was undeniable, especially in modern times.
“The current issue is how to modify the spiritual roots.”
This was actually the more challenging part.
Modifying spiritual roots meant altering neural structures.
The Xuanwei Realm had no understanding of nerves, so they couldn’t rely on that.
In modern terms, there was another difficulty.
“There are some corresponding studies in this area, but they are all very cutting-edge, and some are merely theoretical.”
Teacher Tian seemed prepared and spoke confidently.
“I’ve asked some medical and biological experts in the nursing home and gathered some insights on the current situation:”
“Inducing nerve growth generally includes drug therapy, physical therapy, surgical intervention, biotechnological techniques, and emerging gene and cell therapies.”
“Drug therapy is self-explanatory, while physical therapy typically employs electrical stimulation and repetitive functional training.”
Zheng Fa raised an eyebrow. “Electrical stimulation?”
“Yes, electrical stimulation can promote the regeneration of specific synapses.” Teacher Tian smiled, “There’s a lot of research in this area, and it’s quite effective.”
This made things much simpler.
The Lei Fa (Thunder Method) was a premier specialty in the Jiushan Realm.
Electrotherapy had a bright future in the Jiushan Realm.
“Surgery, biocompatible materials, and stem cell therapy are also widely used and have shown some effects, but the problem is... they are insufficient for such large-scale neural reconstruction.”
Teacher Tian’s expression turned a bit helpless as he said this: “I’ve asked those scholars, and they said the nervous system itself is extremely intricate; our understanding is still lacking, let alone casually modifying it.”
“And the nerves involved in spiritual roots are too numerous and complex; such large-scale modifications are extremely challenging... even they have no clue.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa wasn’t particularly disappointed.
He had already done some research on this matter.
He anticipated the difficulties in resolving the issue of spiritual roots and even had some plans:
“Teacher Tian, what about combining it with spiritual medicine?”
“Spiritual medicine?”
Teacher Tian paused for a moment, and his expression brightened.
He understood Zheng Fa’s meaning.
Ultimately, modern biology had hit a bottleneck in this area, and it was too difficult to achieve a breakthrough in the short term.
But they could still rely on Daoist methods.
“The life force provided by spiritual medicine, combined with Lei Fa’s precise control over electrical currents, might bring hope.”
Teacher Tian nodded, but then his face fell, tinged with a hint of shame:
“Speaking of spiritual medicine, our research progress has been slow.” As the one responsible for this area, Teacher Tian’s expression was quite dim, “We’ve fallen far behind other projects.”
This wasn’t Teacher Tian being overly modest.
The research on spiritual medicine had indeed lagged significantly.
On one hand, it was because Zheng Fa hadn’t prioritized this area:
Having spiritual medicine was great, but not having it hadn’t significantly impacted the nursing home’s development.
On the other hand, drug development itself was a high-investment, long-term endeavor.
The five types of spiritual medicine cultivated in the nursing home hadn’t been thoroughly researched yet.
They could be consumed, but both Zheng Fa and Teacher Tian didn’t want to stop at just that.
Simply put, they needed to at least understand the principles behind these spiritual medicines; otherwise, these techniques couldn’t be applied in the Jiushan Realm.
But now, faced with the challenge of spiritual roots, the importance of spiritual medicine had risen to a new level.
“Why don’t we visit a few more research institutes?”
Tang Lingwu suggested.
“That’s a possibility…”
The previous two national-level research projects had yielded good results, so Zheng Fa naturally felt hopeful.
But unexpectedly, Teacher Tian shook his head with a wry smile:
“This matter won’t yield immediate results.”
“Hmm?”
“The best experts in this field are basically all at the nursing home…” Teacher Tian looked at Zheng Fa, helplessly saying, “This is different from mechanical engineering and software development; we really don’t have much accumulation domestically.”
This wasn’t Teacher Tian being pessimistic.
The previous methods had been very helpful for completing projects, but they would certainly fall short for developing new technologies.
To put it simply, one was old technology, and the other was a new field; the research paths and methods were vastly different.
Zheng Fa keenly noticed a word: “Domestically?”
“Yeah, the cutting-edge research and top scholars in this area are all abroad,” Teacher Tian said softly, “Of course, the main reason is that we didn’t keep up in the early years. Although we’ve made progress in recent years, we still can’t match their technological accumulation.”
“If we were to rely solely on ourselves, it’s possible, but the time frame... is hard to say.”
At this point, Teacher Tian fell silent.
Clearly, she understood that this issue not only related to the current project but also to the nursing home’s next steps.
...
In the backyard, Bai, Tang Mu, Teacher Tian, and Tang Lingwu gathered together, with Team Leader Yang among them, discussing this significant matter.
“Bringing in foreign scholars?” Bai asked in surprise, “Old Tang, you’ve spent a long time abroad; what do you think?”
“Not trustworthy,” Tang Mu replied without hesitation, “Regardless of anything else, just the ideas and concepts are vastly different.”
“Of course, we’re not afraid.”
And indeed, they weren’t afraid.
For Zheng Fa, staying in the country was more about habit and certain people.
On the other hand, it was also due to the ease of communication.
But to be honest, he could only be considered half a modern person; he didn’t care too much about these things.
Moreover, with his current strength, he was even more indifferent to such matters.
He hadn’t considered it before, mainly because there were plenty of talents available domestically. Bringing in people from abroad would pose communication barriers—just to mention one thing, how would they learn those techniques and understand the meridians? That was a challenge.
He didn’t want the hassle.
But what Teacher Tian said also made sense.
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