Inside the laboratory.

Liu Xiangqian was excitedly reporting the results of the experiment to Lin Li, so much that he forgot even Lin Li's title:

"Xiaolin, this time we recorded a total of 585 neuron activities in Comrade Cao Yi's medial temporal lobe.

Among them, 76 neurons were located in the amygdala, 203 neurons in the parahippocampal cortex, 239 neurons in the entorhinal cortex, and 67 neurons in the hippocampus.

Additionally, by analyzing the response of neurons during the stimulation phase, we found that 16% of the neurons responded to non-symbolic numbers, and 3% to symbolic numbers.

Among these, the preference for non-symbolic and symbolic numbers was highest in the parahippocampal cortex.

Therefore, we have a fairly high certainty to determine that the birthplace of the divine thought is near the center of the brain, between the two cerebral hemispheres, wedged in the groove where the two oval thalami are located, which is....."

"It's the pineal gland, right?"

Seeing Lin Li answer first, Liu Xiangqian nodded with a complex expression.

Lin Li exhaled a long breath, closed his eyes, and leaned back against his chair.

He really didn't expect the birthplace of the divine thought to be the pineal gland!

The pineal gland...

If the brain domain experts back home knew this news, it would probably cause a huge stir in the entire academic community...

From a biological perspective, the pineal gland is an organ, a gland in the human brain.

Its position is along the centerline behind the eyebrows, slightly towards the back in the middle of the brain.

The pineal gland in adults is only 5-8mm in length, weighing 120-200mg—those unfamiliar can think of it as the size of a pea, that's how small it is.

But its functions are disproportionately many:

The pineal gland is not only an endocrine converter, but also regulates the pituitary gland, senses light, adjusts the biological clock, regulates bone metabolism, and even produces melatonin.

Yes, that's the very melatonin found in the famous melatonin gummies.

Currently, if there's a sleep issue, be it insomnia or jet lag, it is often linked to melatonin. (The author is also using it, the brand won't be mentioned, but it's indeed quite effective)

Here's a fun fact, the nationally renowned Brain X Gold back in the day had melatonin as its main ingredient.

For example, the human intelligence "biological clock" discovered so far operates on a 33-day cycle, the emotional "biological clock" on a 28-day cycle, and the physical "biological clock" on a 23-day cycle.

The regulation of these three major biological clocks is also executed by the pineal gland.

Of course, for lsp individuals, the pineal gland might not be a good thing because it influences the secretion of FSH and luteinizing hormone, suppressing your desire for passion at the right moment.

Do you think that's all it does?

Wrong.

This is just its role in human biology.

Besides, the pineal gland occupies a significant portion in all extraordinary legends throughout history, across cultures, even to the level of a totemic concept.

For example, everyone is familiar with xianxia novels, right?

Terms like sea of consciousness, celestial eye, mud ball palace, yellow court, purple mansion—you might have heard of one or more of these, right?

They refer to the pineal gland.

Which is the legendary immortal ascension path.

Additionally, it's also the red dot in the center of the forehead of the Tathagata Buddha in Journey to the West, the square mark on the forehead of the cylindrical mask in Sanxingdui's prominent spherical designs, and the shining sphere on the T072 stone carving in the ruins of Old Havana.

It's also the 'third eye' at the center of the totem in Cleopatra featuring Elizabeth Taylor with her fair and large... ahem.

Especially after Descartes proposed the idea of "the seat of the soul", researchers of the pineal gland suddenly realized:

The ancient, the recent, the middle, the foreign—these four characters are all fully encompassed by the pineal gland.

In thousands of years, even during times of no communication or disconnect among civilizations, the pineal gland held an extremely important, even totemic status in each civilization. Do you think this is a coincidence?

Whether discussing materialism or idealism, objectively, the probability of coincidence is not high.

At the same time, in 2008, the Helvin team at the University of Arizona in the U.S. discovered that the pineal gland of an average person would be exceptionally developed before the age of seven and begin to shrink and degenerate after the age of seven.

The significance of this phenomenon currently lacks definitive authoritative conclusions, meaning no one knows why the pineal gland shrinks or the substantive differences before and after it shrinks.

However, in the realm of mystery studies, this phenomenon is believed by many as a theoretical support for why children can see many anomalous situations, and surprisingly, it makes quite a lot of sense.

The saying goes, the more you understand, the more you revere.

Just as many astronomers looking up at the stars are not completely materialistic, Lin Li, as a top biologist, also approaches many unknown tales about the human body with a dialectical mindset.

These people won't blindly believe in something, but neither will they easily dismiss it. This is the attitude a true scientific researcher should have:

Facing an unknown object or phenomenon, I won't acknowledge its existence, but I won't easily deny it either, but I firmly believe that if it truly exists, it must be explainable with scientific evidence.

If it can't be explained, it simply means that the current scientific theories are not mature enough.

This truly isn't about being evasive. To be honest, when it comes to hypothesizing, science can hold its own against metaphysics—not mentioning anything else, the concept of the fourth dimension alone can overwhelm the settings of most novels.

In this study of divine thoughts, even before the experiment began, there were team members of Lin Li who proposed the possibility of the pineal gland being the origin of divine thought.

The proponent wasn't Wang Qiang, but another young research staff member.

After all, unlike Lin Li and his peers, the new generation of researchers has quite a vivid imagination.

They can share superstitions online seeking success in exams, while quickly setting aside their phones to enthusiastically conduct experiments.

So, linking the mysterious information and spiritual consciousness of the pineal gland in non-disciplinary concepts isn't too far-fetched.

In summary.

With the confirmation that the pineal gland gives birth to spiritual consciousness, we have clarified where spiritual consciousness originates, while also validating some local legends that lack scientific basis yet have been passed down for thousands of years, which is quite a fruitful achievement.

As Lin Li was pondering, Liu Xiangqian hesitated for a few seconds and said:

"Xiaolin, I suddenly have an idea, why don't you listen to me?"

Lin Li quickly came to his senses and gestured for him to proceed:

"Please feel free to speak."

Liu Xiangqian pondered for a moment, uncertainly saying:

"Xiaolin, as our research progresses... don't you feel that some things are too coincidental?"

Lin Li glanced at him:

"Elder Liu, the coincidences you refer to are...."

Liu Xiangqian blurted out:

"Of course, the local and Damo Realm."

He then paused and continued:

"Many concepts that originated locally have been verified in the Damo Realm. Take the grand concepts of cultivation—we'll leave those aside—but then there's the Inner Sea, the Spirit Awakening, and now the discovery of spiritual consciousness.....

Plus, the location of the Light Gate is also local....

Do you think those local Buddhists, Daoists, and even mummies and vampires could somewhat relate to the Damo Realm or spiritual energy?"

Facing Liu Xiangqian's question, Lin Li remained silent for a while, then said:

"Elder Liu, this question has actually been researched locally for quite some time, but due to a certain level of confidentiality, it hasn't been openly discussed within the camp.

A few days ago, didn't you get promoted by half a level for solving the mass-production problem of the Spirit Awakening Pill, receiving commendation from the core level? This means you can access this level of information.

In fact, the core level has been paying attention to this point for a long time—specifically, since seeing the image of the three elders flying with sword control across the sky.

Some younger scholars have proposed the theory that local spiritual energy was abundant in ancient times and is now scarce, even deriving a theory of spiritual energy revival.

But actually, through research on local Daoist cultivation texts, we found considerable differences compared to the Damo Realm.

For example, we discovered an ancient text in a Taoist temple on Qingcheng Mountain, recorded in small seal script about the pre-Qin Qi Cultivators' training methods—a very complete process.

According to our C14 testing, this ancient text dates back over two thousand years.

However, after Patriarch Wei and President Wei Qiangsheng jointly appraised a copy of this ancient text, they discovered it was merely a technique for regulating internal breathing and could not lead to cultivation.

The techniques found on Dragon Tiger Mountain and Kongtong Mountain were similar.

Of course, considering the possibility of losing core inheritances, local research won't stop collecting related texts.

Also, in this LV17 experiment, we plan to select a few Buddhists and Daoist cultivators as the control group, with more slots allocated to Daoists."

Liu Xiangqian then nodded in realization, saying:

"I see, I knew the locals wouldn't overlook this point—it turns out it was a top secret."

Then Lin Li fell silent again, before looking at Liu Xiangqian:

"Elder Liu, how has your health been lately?"

Liu Xiangqian was initially startled, then patted his chest and exclaimed:

"No problem, I'm sturdy. Just assign any task to me.

"But I heard that you didn't take the pill assigned to you to relieve heart pain—rather, you took it to the lab for decomposition..."

Seeing Liu Xiangqian with a nonchalant expression, Lin Li sighed somewhat wearily and advised:

"Elder Liu, health is the foundation, no matter how much you save the pills, this isn't the way to save them. These are the core level quotas for you..."

Then Lin Li rambled a lot, but essentially it was a request for Liu Xiangqian to definitely take the pills, until Liu Xiangqian repeatedly promised "next time for sure" before they stopped.

Later, he picked up a water cup to hydrate his dry throat, and continued to speak to Liu Xiangqian:

"Elder Liu, let's put aside the matter of taking the pills for now, I will keep up with Xiaoma on this matter.

In addition, please promptly compile a report, team members' thoughts can also be recorded, do not dismiss any idea because it seems too outrageous.

After that's done, be prepared mentally, the related analysis of spiritual consciousness might just fall on you."

Three hours after the discussion, Yan Shaohua substituted for Lin Ziming as a courier tool, delivering urgent information back locally.

Five hours later, Yan Shaohua returned with a new directive:

The "Flame Seed" project group, which originally cracked the Spirit Awakening Pill, has successfully completed its task, archived separately, and the team will now focus on a new project researching spiritual consciousness.

Project codename:

Soaring Up!

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