Chapter 2620: Group Experiment

Three years later.

Dark clouds hung heavy, Ju City flashed with lightning and thunder.

Wan Qi Feng was reporting to the Nine Abyss Great Emperor when a strong wind blew past, and with a bang the window of the imperial study flung open.

The little monkey Ling Guang had been eating glutinous rice balls nearby; seeing this, he leapt over to shut the window. He Lingchuan then said to it: "Have someone open the wind-control barrier."

We need quiet during meetings. Ling Guang nodded, stuffed the last rice ball into his mouth, and bounced away.

The palace is laid with all kinds of barriers, which can not only control wind, water, and temperature, but also switch the four seasons at will. Only the Nine Abyss Great Emperor is frugal, and does not open them unless needed.

He also likes the natural wind, frost, rain, snow, and cold.

Afterwards he picked up his brush and continued memorials, while saying to Wan Qi Feng: "Continue."

"Yes. This round of military mana trials has been going on for a year and a half, with thirty commanders and 150,000 troops participating in total. We have divided them into thirty groups, each led by a commander overseeing five thousand men. Every six months, commanders rotate among the groups, that is, they change troops to lead. We found that during the initial troop change, mana fluctuations were greatest."

"At that time mana was lowest, right?"

"Yes. Especially when I swapped the troops of A Liang and Pu Hua, mana instantly shifted from light red back to pale yellow."

"It dropped two levels directly." He Lingchuan also found it a bit funny. Wan Qi Liang is a great general of the Bai Long tribe, and Pu Hua is a fellow disciple of Qiu Hu; in the Dragon God Army, they have always been two factions, secretly in competition. Wan Qi Feng using the experiment as an excuse to make them swap troops is truly despicable. "Now then?"

"Usually, after half a month of troop change, mana begins to rise. But for A Liang's and Pu Hua's two groups, it took a full three months."

"They need time to adjust." He Lingchuan was not surprised, "The relationship between mana and human hearts is becoming ever closer. What is the situation now?"

"Pu Hua's group's mana level is slightly inferior to A Liang's group."

"Reason?" He Lingchuan's pen never stopped, "Their drill methods and troop leadership should be about equal."

That is why Wan Qi Feng took them as the control group.

"We believe after research that this may be related to an incident in A Liang's group." Wan Qi Feng continued reporting, "At the time, a great demon suddenly appeared in the suburbs of Chi Dong City; A Liang led troops there, and that battle was not easy. A Liang personally saved two soldiers, but ended up suffering heavy injuries himself, recuperating for two months, and barely recovered."

"I have also heard of that matter." He Lingchuan nodded, "You mean that after that, A Liang's group's mana rose?"

"Yes, it rose quickly. We thought this should be A Liang winning the soldiers' hearts." Wan Qi Feng continued, "We also conducted many sub-experiments, and indeed, getting the army into training and combat quickly can boost mana."

"This point, other countries should also know." The current state is not like twenty years ago; all now value mana research and application, and have specialized institutions conducting such research.

"We also designed an experiment per your request: right after troop change, have Doctor Li maintain distance and dignity before the army, with pomp in coming and going, and more refined meals, while Yang Meng eats and sleeps with the army and trains together."

"Result?"

"After half a year, the mana of their two groups was neck and neck, with no clear superiority." Wan Qi Feng habitually scratched the back of his head, "This really surprised us; we used to emphasize unity of upper and lower, advancing and retreating together in military affairs."

The secret of mana is truly not easy to fathom.

"'Unity of upper and lower' is the essence; these four characters are certainly correct." He Lingchuan thought for a moment, then smiled, "Perhaps it merely shows that form is not that important."

"You said before, mana is not merely faith power; otherwise, if the Heavenly Palace organized an army, their mana should be the strongest." Under heaven, no organization has more incense faith than the Heavenly Palace has seized.

"The 'faith' spoken of colloquially is easily usurped, giving rise to blind obedience and extremism. Mana is one of the righteous qi of heaven and earth, upright and vast, not to be deceived. Trying to use faith power to deceive and seize mana ought not to work."

"How is this achieved?" Even though Wan Qi Feng has been dealing with mana day in and day out these years and can use it, he still cannot grasp the source of this power.

"The more conditions for arousing mana, the less it can be fathomed, and the harder it is to usurp." He Lingchuan answered while continuing to write, "For example, we have now found that a small country's mana is not necessarily weak. Xuan Yi Guo's territory is only one-third of Yuan Yuan Guo's, but its mana is at least seven or eight times that of Yuan Yuan Guo."

Xuan Yi Guo only overthrew the old dynasty and established itself seven years ago, then actively pledged allegiance to Cang Yan. Its ruler Gu Min is over thirty; in his youth he studied in Between Between Between Beijia, and is fervently devoted to the Nine Abyss Great Emperor, with many institutions and decrees learned from Cang Yan.

In the early days of its founding, Xuan Yi received Cang Yan's protection; Gu Min, due to his strong wrist in pushing reforms, once provoked rebellion among nobles and generals, and even sought help from Cang Yan. Later, it proved itself: Gu Min has these years been diligent in governance, Xuan Yi Guo's national strength has grown rapidly, and its mana is also the strongest among all vassal states of Cang Yan, becoming a model for neighboring small countries to emulate.

Xuan Yi Guo's mana has also become a precious model for He Lingchuan's research.

In fact, the former Pan Long City was likewise: its territory compared to Between Between Between Beijia is like a pellet, yet the mana it erupted with was even greater.

Thus, mana's strength is not entirely positively correlated with national strength.

"These years, it's not only cultivators; more and more immortals have joined the army to share national strength." Wan Qi Feng also said, "Once they enjoy mana, they become stronger than other immortals."

The lifelong goal of most immortals is longevity and becoming stronger.

Likewise, most immortals' cultivation advances slowly; at the top of a hundred-foot pole, wanting to make even an inch of progress, it is best to open another path.

Mana is the new track.

In this brand-new era, mentally agile immortals are trying to integrate into the national system, but likewise, many sects still exist independently.

"However, whether immortal or demon, even if similarly assigned, the mana they obtain is usually not as much as that of martial generals."

For example, Zhu Xiuer, though holding a concurrent post in the Bing Yuan Si, possesses strong magic power, and is well known in Cang Yan, yet the mana standard she obtains can far fall short of Wan Qi Feng's.

"That is natural." He Lingchuan said offhand, "They do not command troops, nor do they interact with the common people."

The peculiarity of mana lies in that it requires the recipient to "enter the world"; the closer the interaction with family and country, the greater mana's effect. Even if the Earth Cave Spider Queen is immensely strong, she is destined to have little interaction with ordinary people and the army, so her mana ceiling is not high.

Even so, when Zhu Xiuer goes to fight opponents originally of comparable strength to herself, she often wins, and feels great about it.