Martial Ascent to Divinity-Chapter 711 - 690: The Three Brains

Some were people he met in the military, like Xu Ming’s friends.

Some were classmates from Yunhua University, like Zhang Xinglie.

There were also some renowned veteran Martial Artists.

Suddenly, he saw people in the group start talking about Zhou Leng.

"I heard that Zhou Leng is about to ascend to become a Saint."

"Although the specific news hasn’t been disclosed, it’s said that Zhou Leng was fierce on the Tree-man World battlefield. But precisely because he was too fierce, to avoid trouble for him, this time it’s being publicized low-key."

"Considering the usual style from above, this time it’s really something big, otherwise they wouldn’t suppress the news."

"We need to work hard; we can’t let Zhou Leng encounter any mishaps during his ascent to a Saint."

"Think about it, when Zhou Leng was Innate, he killed hundreds of thousands of Innates. As a Grandmaster, he killed thousands of Grandmasters. Making a reasonable inference, after his ascent to a Saint, killing three to five hundred Demigods isn’t too much, right?"

"Not too much!"

"Not too much!"

A great number of people below responded in neat formation.

"We don’t have much chance to ascend to a Saint, but Zhou Leng still has a chance, and future generations have a chance."

"Just do it without hesitation!"

"How can it be, only allowing officials to deceive, but not allowing the common people to prevent deceit!"

Li Shenkong looked at this content, and, for some reason, felt a warm flow in his heart, becoming increasingly convinced that he was on the right path.

In Innate Mountain.

Zhang Xinglie put away his phone, preparing to charge into being a Grandmaster.

On the mining field.

Hu Yi, along with the newly met drivers, began earnestly learning how to better handle the mine vehicles.

In Rucheng.

Zhao Lianshuo no longer lamented the stolen Broken Sword, silently cultivating.

Underground.

Lv Yuanhao put away the cake-making photo of his father, quietly preparing.

...

In the Fierce Beast World, on Mammoth Mountain.

As the Eight-toothed Mammoth clan prepared for a grand ritual, Zhou Leng sat quietly in the Demon Spirit hut, flipping through the "East Monarch’s Collection."

Silver Lake Moon attended by his side, with Huang lying at his feet.

He had read the "East Monarch’s Collection" dozens of times, but each reading brought new insights.

Recently, Zhou Leng encountered a bottleneck.

His physical strength was continually improving.

The Martial Arts Will was also continuously enhancing.

But, there was no feeling of ascending to a Saint.

In various records and interviews with Martial Saints, ascending to a Saint is a natural thing.

At a certain stage, one will naturally perceive it and then naturally prepare.

Upon reading the "East Monarch’s Collection" again, Zhou Leng found the reason.

It turns out that ascending to a Saint requires not only the "power" of the body and cultivation technique, the ’spirit’ of the Martial Arts Will, but also the "heart."

Only when power, spirit, and heart are all present can one ascend to a Saint.

If one doesn’t have "heart," forcibly ascending to a Saint is entirely possible, but afterward, it’s tough to make further progress.

Zhou Leng flipped through various materials to aid his learning.

Different people’s "heart" is different and elusive.

For some, it’s a wish; for others, it’s a regret; for some, it’s a significant mental shock; for others, it’s a grand goal; it might be a strong desire or what psychology refers to as self-realization, which is hard to define clearly.

Some world-class geniuses might never have a heart their entire lifetime.

Like some people who seem to know everything, understand a little of everything, even strong in certain fields, yet never achieve genuine great success.

These people have power and spirit but lack heart.

Power and spirit are the experiences in Martial Arts, the cognition of Martial Arts.

The heart is the Martial Artist’s understanding of self and the world.

Having only Martial Arts without self, even if one becomes a Saint, is merely a powerful beast; humanity shouldn’t walk this path.

Only with "heart" is humanity truly human, truly a Martial Saint, and not the Demigod of an Alien Race.

A Martial Artist, throughout the cultivation journey, battling, experiencing countless events, is merely practicing martial arts.

Before ascending to a Martial Saint, one must find their own heart.

Only a Martial Saint with heart can go further and further.

Zhou Leng searched for high civilization videos on Crystal Sky Dust.

The Divine Spirits within also discussed similar concepts, yet they didn’t call it "heart."

They referred to it as wisdom consciousness.

But understanding wisdom consciousness took Zhou Leng quite a while.

Life evolved from primary forms, step by step.

This process consists of many stages.

The most important stages are designated by the brain of intelligent life.

Zhou Leng watched for a long time but didn’t know how to translate it, as it was a concept completely alien to Earth.

Then he searched through the materials and quickly found similar concepts.

Though not entirely accurate or scientific, they shared some points of similarity.

The most important stages are threefold.

The first stage is the instinctual brain stage.

Namely, life evolved a more prosperous ability to act.

The instinctual brain controls the main abilities of human actions, like walking, running, eating, and all basic movements and behaviors, primarily instinct-driven.

Low-level reptiles are in this stage.

The second stage is the emotional brain stage.

Namely, life evolved with more complex emotions, social interaction, and memory abilities.

The emotional brain primarily controls human emotions and related functions.

Mammals, which are more advanced than reptiles, are at this stage.

The third stage is the rational brain stage.

Namely, life evolved with rational abilities above instincts and emotions.

The rational brain primarily controls human language, logic, thought, self-awareness, and complex thinking abilities.

The more developed the rational brain, the stronger the related abilities.

A truly powerful rational brain can significantly change the emotional brain and instinctual brain.

The most famous scientists and related personnel in human history all possessed powerful rational brains.

Under the standards of high-level civilizations, when organisms evolve a rational brain, they inevitably enter an elementary civilization. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A mere ordinary rational brain paired with an excellent physique provides the opportunity to ascend to demigod, or become a Martial Saint.

To advance to intermediate civilization, a true deity is needed.

And a true deity is either forcibly elevated by external forces.

Or must push the rational brain to the extreme in some aspect.

The gap between civilizations is not the gap between ordinary people.

But rather the gap between the most powerful individuals.

Just like in the technological era, those who truly lead humanity into a new epoch are the few scientists.

Without those scientists, humanity would forever be stuck at the technical level, finding it difficult to break limits and achieve leapfrog development.

Just like in the more ancient times, the smartest humans, if unable to use tools freely, remain merely smarter monkeys.

Even in high-level civilizations, the evolution of ordinary human brains is extremely slow, with few able to form a complete third brain.

Without a complete third brain, without a powerful rational self, the difference between intelligent life and non-intelligent life is minimal.

Zhou Leng also saw that high-level civilizations use disaster resistance ability to gauge civilization levels.

Elementary civilizations can only resolve ordinary disasters.

Intermediate civilizations can counter space-level disasters, like massive meteors, sun extinguishment, etc.

High-level civilizations have powers that can affect a huge galaxy, even protect against black hole consumption or cosmic ray burst.

Even more powerful divine spirits can block the cosmic ray burst that destroys countless civilizations with just a thought.

Even more powerful divine spirits will grow a fourth brain above the instinctual brain, emotional brain, and rational brain.

Zhou Leng went through numerous materials but found no detailed content about the fourth brain, only vague descriptions.

Helplessly, he could only return to studying how to ascend to sainthood.

Integrating the works of Martial Saints, Demon Spirit Master materials, and cosmic information, Zhou Leng slowly outlined the pathway to sainthood.

Zhao Dongjun’s theory of power, spirit, and heart is remarkably similar to the three brain domain evolutions summarized by high-level civilizations.

Furthermore, the data from high-level civilizations also point out that during the ascension to "Martial Saint," stronger development of the third brain, or possessing partial "wisdom consciousness," increases the likelihood of subsequent ascension to divinity.

Thus, there exists the concept of a "Perfect Martial Saint," as Saint Zhao describes it, embodying power, spirit, and heart.

At this point, Zhou Leng understood why both Celestial Calamity Envoy and Shen Yunxian praised Zhao Dongjun.

With a mortal body, pioneering the Path to Divinity.

It’s just that due to various innate conditions and acquired injuries, Zhao Dongjun stopped at the peak of Martial Saint, unable to take the true step of ascension to divinity.

Zhou Leng pondered deeply; many contents challenged his cognition.

But upon closer reflection, they made quite a bit of sense.

After all, the rational aspect gap between ordinary people and human top scientists is immense.

The good news is, wisdom consciousness is diverse, not solely defined by mastering logical thinking. For instance, some possess special abilities and cultivate a powerful mind, which counts as a type of wisdom consciousness.

Just like people once thought intelligence solely meant academic excellence, whereas in reality, intelligence has many categories, including logical ability and various peculiar perception abilities like spatial awareness, mental awareness, etc.

Certain supernatural abilities are essentially where the rational brain is excessively strong in some aspect.

Data from high-level civilizations offers some explanations.

Namely, "Multi-Brain Synergy Theory."

Once the instinctual brain evolves to a certain extent, it becomes difficult to progress further.

Just like an ancient yet ordinary sword with limited destructive power.

The rational brain can evolve more powerful functions, better coordinating with the instinctual brain to control the body and thereby make life stronger.

Just like attaching divine spirit power to this ancient sword, directly elevating it from mortal object to divine artifact.

Before becoming a Martial Saint, Martial Arts primarily temper the instinctual brain.

After becoming a Martial Saint, multi-brain synergy and tempering are required to truly strengthen the body and Martial Arts.

"What is my heart, truly?"

"Could it be hidden within the Martial Saint Battle Path I must traverse?"

Zhou Leng quietly contemplated, searching for his heart.

The Eight-Toothed Mammoth tribe’s ceremony officially commenced.

Zhou Leng, along with many Grandmaster Eight-Toothed Mammoths, fused consciousness and formally received the Fierce Beast inheritance.

After completing the inheritance, the Eight-Toothed Mammoths with potential to ascend to demigod secluded themselves for cultivation.

Zhou Leng needs to return to embark on the Martial Saint Battle Path.

Not waiting for the trigger, the Ice Snow Divine Sect’s caravan arrived.

The leader of Ice Snow Divine Sect swiftly approached when seeing Zhou Leng.

"Wang Boxiong sent a message to our Ice Snow Divine Sect, saying a major event happened at the place you’re heading to, and if we see you, we must urge you to go quickly."

"Did he mention which place?"

"No, he only mentioned that he had arranged it with you beforehand."

"That must be Elephant Country; he doesn’t want to reveal the target."

"You’d better transport through the Demon Spirit World to Elephant Country. Elephant Country’s Celestial River Demon City is also connected to our Demon Spirit World."

Zhou Leng recalled the relevant data Wang Boxiong had previously sent.

He must cooperate with the agent codenamed "Wangu," Lu Weiqu, to accomplish the weeding operation.

This operation could even affect Dragon Country’s fate.

Lu Weiqu is extremely critical; if anything happens to him, Dragon Country’s arrangements in Elephant Country over the years will not only be entirely defeated but might even backfire on Dragon Country.