Evil Spirit Consultant

Chapter 296 Using Nine
Use nine.

The unique title of the hexagram Qian (乾) is written as "Jiong Jiu" (迥九) in the Han Dynasty silk manuscript of the Book of Changes.

The hexagram text says: A group of dragons appear in the sky, their heads covered by clouds. This is a metaphor for everyone achieving their goals and soaring to great heights, which is auspicious.

King Wen of Zhou wrote in the "Use Nine" section of the Qian hexagram: "Seeing a group of dragons without a head is auspicious."

The phrase "a group of dragons without a leader" is usually a derogatory term, but it is uniquely auspicious in this context.

The reason is that the so-called "group of dragons without a leader" in this hexagram means that everyone has become talented and everyone can grow, so everyone becomes outstanding, which means that everyone can complete their work without a leader.

In other words, everyone can be a dragon!
In his search for traces of the extraordinary, Yang Liu had naturally read extensively in relevant classic texts and quickly understood the meaning behind the name.

He couldn't help but widen his eyes, looking at Shen Zhe in disbelief: "Is this kind of thing... really possible?"

Shen Zhe did not answer his question immediately, but instead asked in return, "In your concept, what would it take to be considered a dragon among men?"

Yang Liu lowered her head and thought for a moment: "If we're talking about a general standard, it would be that each person's physical fitness, intellectual level, and even moral standards must reach a certain extremely high level... But if you're asking about more specific standards, I'm not so sure."

When Yang Liu gave his answer, both Shen Zhe and Jiang Miaozhi looked at him with some surprise.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with what I said?" Yang Liu asked, puzzled by their gazes.

“No, your answer isn’t wrong. Although the wording is different, the core idea is correct, but…” Shen Zhe hesitated.

Jiang Miaozhi, with fewer reservations, directly voiced Shen Zhe's thoughts: "Your thinking is completely that of an ordinary person; it doesn't reflect the mindset of someone with superhuman abilities at all. You're clearly such a strong person, yet subconsciously you still see yourself as an ordinary person?"

Shen Zhe couldn't help but laugh, but in his heart, his opinion of Yang Liu improved a little.

Although Yang Liu's subconscious might be seen as a lack of ambition by those in power, in his view, Yang Liu, who possesses such great power yet is still willing to treat himself as an ordinary person, is better than those who, just because they have some power, do not consider themselves to be the same kind of humans.

"Huh?" Yang Liu was a little confused for a moment when she heard this, but she quickly realized what was going on.

Yang Liu also knew that his mentality was different from that of ordinary superhumans. After all, in his view, becoming stronger was just a hobby, just like some people like sports and some people like games. What he liked was the process of becoming stronger.

As for formidable strength... that's merely a "byproduct" of the process of becoming stronger.

However, although Yang Liu knew about his situation, he did not intend to improve it, since he felt that there was nothing wrong with his mindset.

After laughing, Shen Zhe stopped being mysterious and directly answered the question he had just asked:

"From the perspective of ordinary people, the idea that everyone can become a dragon is indeed as you said, without any specific standard. But if we add the variable of superhumans, then the idea that everyone can become a dragon has a specific direction—everyone can become a superhuman."

"Is this really possible?" Yang Liu was somewhat skeptical.

He is no longer the novice superhuman he once was, and he has a fairly clear understanding of the superhuman world.

Normally, superhumans make up about three to six ten-thousandths of the total human population, but the exact number can vary depending on local conditions.

For example, in the entire Fukuoka Prefecture, with a population of several million, the number of superhumans is less than 1000.

Moreover, this number includes many with limited aptitude, who can at most master one or two "special skills" and can only be considered as half-superhumans.

The reason why the proportion of extraordinary individuals is so low is not only because they fight each other and suffer injuries, but also because there are too few people with the "aptitude". There are already very few people who can refine spiritual power according to the cultivation method, and many of them have to cultivate diligently for more than ten or even several decades to cultivate their first strand of spiritual power.

Those who can awaken their spiritual power on their own, like Miyamoto Yuuga, can be considered geniuses. But those who are born with "talent," like Uga Shouji and Yang Liu, are geniuses among geniuses.

“Relying on just one generation is indeed not enough, but what if each generation makes a little progress?” Shen Zhe did not deny Yang Liu’s question.

Yang Liu immediately understood: "So the effect of our country's national-level magic array is to gradually improve the aptitude of each generation."

"Strictly speaking, it should allow each generation to 'evolve' a little bit."

Shen Zhe explained carefully: "The effect of using the number nine is actually nothing special. It can collect the spiritual essence of all the dead people within the range and then distribute it evenly among the souls of all the fetuses still in the womb."

"In this process, most of the energy is wasted in order to maintain the purity of the spirit, and no results can be seen in the short term. But as time goes on, the newborns' aptitude will become better and better. As long as we continue to evolve, one day our country will be able to reach the point where everyone is like a dragon!"

"Hiss..." Yang Liu couldn't help but gasp.

Although “using nine” sounds like a simple concept, you can imagine how massive this project is when you consider it in a country with 14 billion people.

Moreover, logically speaking, there is actually a possibility of success. Even if this generation cannot enjoy it, as long as we continue to move forward along this path, there will inevitably be a generation in the future who can achieve the state of everyone being like a dragon!

"Wait a minute..." Yang Liu suddenly thought of another question, "But according to Yokota, isn't the external effect of this magic circle supposed to be to suppress magic?"

"You mean this?" Jiang Miaozhi chuckled slyly. "This effect is indeed the most noticeable, but it's just a side effect of 'using nine'."

"side effect?"

Shen Zhe took over the question: "Decomposing the spirituality of all the deceased and distributing it equally among the souls of the fetuses sounds simple, but the most basic requirement for doing this is to have absolute control over all the natural energy within the country."

"But let alone back then, even with today's technology, it would be wishful thinking to accomplish this step. So people at that time could only settle for second best and change 'control' to 'organization'."

"This will further reduce the spiritual energy gained, but at least it crosses the most improbable threshold. The side effects are what you know: because it cannot be precisely controlled, even the spiritual energy released by extraordinary individuals will be treated as natural energy and dissipate."

Jiang Miaozhi also sighed: "The side effects are not only that. It's alright for superhumans who have learned to control the power in their bodies. Although they cannot release spiritual power outward, they can still circulate spiritual power in their bodies to enhance their physical fitness."

"But if those talented people who haven't had a chance to cultivate yet are the ones who suffer, the difficulty of their entry into cultivation will increase significantly, and those who could have awakened their talents will lose the possibility of awakening their talents because of this."

"This also led to a sharp decline in the number of superhumans in China when 'Yongjiu' was first established due to the difficulty of passing on the tradition. At its worst, the proportion of superhumans in China even dropped to one in 100,000. Many small sects had to go out of business and close down because they could not find successors."

Shen Zhe also sighed, "Although this makes cultivation very difficult, as long as one's talent is high enough, one can still demonstrate extraordinary cultivation aptitude. The country has also come up with many methods for this purpose, such as... reducing the number of births, so that the spiritual power allocated to each fetus can be increased."

Yang Liu's eyelids twitched as she thought of the family planning policy of that time:
"Wouldn't this put our country far behind other countries in terms of supernatural powers?"

"No, not at all." Shen Zhe shook his head.

"At first, it might have some impact, but as the magic array operates, the aptitude of the new generation is getting better and better. Even with the restriction of using nine, the number of extraordinary people in our country is still steadily increasing."

"According to last year's statistical report, it should have risen to four ten-thousandths of the total population. Moreover, due to the restriction of using the number nine, those who can achieve results in cultivation at this stage are all exceptionally talented geniuses. In foreign countries, they would be the kind who can awaken their talents on their own."

Jiang Miaozhi chimed in from the side: "Moreover, if it's a monster capable of awakening talent, the strength of that talent is far greater than that of talented people in other countries, although it still can't compare to those who possess supernatural powers..."

(End of this chapter)