121: Chapter 121: The Demon in the Brain

At this time, inside the Principal's office.

"No physical body, only a soul—the first one!"

Principal Fu felt a slight chill from Jiang Zhe's conclusion and draped a long autumn-winter coat over his shoulders.

Old Wang's brow was tightly furrowed as he stared intently at Jiang Zhe on the screen.

The first human soul had no physical body?

He taught history and knew that forests had regulatory mechanisms and rivers and lakes had their own laws, but those weren't consciousness or souls—and certainly not human souls.

But if what Jiang Zhe said was true...

"The first soul had no body." Old Wang mulled over these words repeatedly, unable to make sense of them. "Then what exactly was it?"

"Uncle Wang," Teacher Xiao Wang spoke up, "could it be that it simply isn't a 'thing' at all?"

Hearing this, Principal Fu slowly shook his head. "Don't start thinking about the mystical just yet. Keep watching; Jiang Zhe will give us the answer."

...

Elsewhere, in the History Staff Quarters in Kyoto.

Professor Chen Runzhi took a sip of hot tea to drive away the chill from his body.

Beside him, Old Liu was the first to speak. "If the first soul had no physical body, where would it live?"

At those words, Professor Wang Shouren's eyes suddenly lit up as if he had realized something. "Logically, it makes sense. Think about it—if consciousness really is as Xiaoyu's brother said: splitting, storing, and transferring."

"Then at the very beginning, it's very likely the first soul was just a [point of consciousness]—a pure [knowing] within nature. Then this [knowing] learned more and more, until finally, the [knowing] gradually found a body for itself to inhabit?"

As a professor of ecology, Professor Liu Guangyi naturally knew more. He looked at Old Wang with suspicion. "What you're saying is as good as saying nothing. You might as well say it's like those invisible, intangible [magnetic fields] in the forest that even electronic exploration equipment can't detect—fields that cause hallucinations, fevers, and illnesses whenever a passerby or an animal wanders through."

"In folklore, it's called 'encountering a ghost.' I saw this quite often when I used to take students into primeval forests for ecological surveys."

Having said that, Old Liu shook his head again. "This kind of 'ghost encounter' could be explained as a post-mortem biological magnetic field affecting the area. One of my former students went on an expedition with me and 'saw a ghost,' experiencing hallucinations. After all, abnormal magnetic fields can often affect retinal imaging. But ultimately—the first soul, before souls appeared, there were no mammalian bodies... It's as if it came from nothing. That is the point worth researching and delving into!"

As he finished, the air in the room grew a few degrees colder.

...

Inside Qingfeng Temple.

Celestial Master Zhang's eyes were lowered, immersed in the question.

Beside him, Wang Chongyang looked pensive, occasionally shaking or nodding his head as if he were on the verge of an epiphany.

Zheng Ming stared at the large screen and pondered for a long time before speaking: "The tao te ching says: 'There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth.' This refers to the Tao, to the laws of the universe."

"But what Xiaoyu's brother said suggests that there was first an [Innate Spirit], and only afterward did it take form."

"This is a huge departure from the traditional Sinological understanding of the harmony of Yin and Yang, and the unity of form and spirit!"

"Solitary Yang cannot beget, and lone Yin cannot grow. Where is the foundation for a solitary, rootless spirit's existence? Where does the energy come from? How can information even exist?"

Dr. Zhou Ming quickly searched through the data on his computer. "From the perspective of modern medicine and neuroscience, without a central nervous system—especially the cerebral cortex—consciousness is out of the question. A [soul] without a material basis has no possibility of being observed or verified. This hypothesis of Xiaoyu's brother can only remain at a philosophical level for now, or perhaps at the level of ecological and Quantum Mechanics imagination!"

Suddenly!

Celestial Master Zhang's eyes sparkled; he had realized something. "Perhaps the Innate Spirit is right here on the planet beneath our feet, or even... everywhere!"

At these words, the other three cast curious glances, but Celestial Master Zhang gently shook his head, not wishing to explain further.

On the large screen, inside the living room.

Xiao Yu was also trying to digest this concept, her brows tightly knit.

"Big brother!" she couldn't help but look up and ask. "If the first soul had no physical body, then where did it come from?"

"Current biology has always held that the body comes first, then consciousness or the soul. Your explanation, brother, completely deviates from that essence and leans toward idealism."

Jiang Zhe didn't answer the question immediately. Instead, he took a sip of warm water, set down his teacup, and then spoke slowly:

"Before explaining this, you should understand a few things!"

"In our world, there has always been a mysterious power. It's always around us—you, me, everyone can feel it, yet we don't look into it. It's commonly known as 'counter-intuition,' or it can be called the [Demon in the Brain]!"

"The Demon in the Brain?" Xiao Yu's eyes lit up, captivated by the phrase.

"Yes. Only after you understand how this mysterious power or 'demon' operates within the human body will you suddenly realize that the first soul without a body actually came from here!"

"Mysterious power? Counter-intuition?" Xiao Yu blinked, her eyes full of curiosity. Then, her quick mind whirred, and the answer tumbled out: "I know what intuition is—it's that first feeling without thinking or logical deduction. Like a sixth sense. I feel like I'll win the lottery tomorrow, so I go buy a ticket, and I actually win. It's that feeling that something will happen, and then it really does. That's intuition."

"Then, what is counter-intuition?"

"Counter-intuition..." Jiang Zhe nodded silently. "Counter-intuition is something that contradicts your usual logical understanding, yet definitely happens to you."

"Like many things you've experienced but never took seriously, or feelings that were dismissed by terms like 'scientific explanation' or 'coincidence'."

Xiao Yu pursed her lips and knit her brows, trying hard to think.

But Jiang Zhe didn't give her time to ponder; he spoke up immediately.

"Xiao Yu, for example, in a very warm room with no wind, you might suddenly shiver for no reason and get goosebumps all over."

"Old people often say 'someone is talking about you,' while science would call it 'vasoconstriction'."

"But!"

"Why is it that someone just happens to be talking about you at that exact moment? Why is it that the blood vessels constrict at that specific moment?"

Xiao Yu's eyes lit up. "I've had that! It's really happened many times!"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "Also, when you're asleep and your body suddenly jerks, feeling like you're falling from a height. This is called a [Hypnic Jerk]."

"Then biology says it's an abnormal electrical discharge."

"Bio-archaeology would say: 'This is a survival instinct carved into our genes from when our ancestors still slept in trees and might suddenly fall'."

"Then doctors and biological researchers would say: 'This is the brain not realizing it's in a state of dormancy, so it chooses to test if you're dead. If you don't react, you're dead; if you move, it stops making you experience the sensation of falling'."

The corner of his mouth curled slightly as he asked, "Xiao Yu, regardless of what any discipline says—why does everyone in the world experience the same illusion of 'falling'? Is it just a random discharge, or can randomness produce such a highly consistent 'falling sensation'?"

"It does... seem a bit strange."

Xiao Yu frowned; she understood what her brother was getting at.

Her brother clearly knew many cases of counter-intuition and even knew how to explain them with science.

But he refused to accept those 'scientific' explanations. Could there be some great horror behind it?

"It's not just a bit strange; it's very strange!" Jiang Zhe shifted his gaze to the night outside the window. "For instance, at a sudden moment, you become exceptionally aware of the exact position and beating of your internal organs. Like your heart; it feels like an independent entity hanging there. Usually, it only lasts for a few seconds, and once you notice the sensation, it quickly disappears!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Xiao Yu's eyes widened. "I can really feel my heart sometimes."

Hearing this, the bullet comments in the livestream suddenly decreased. The viewers sat up straight, their expressions becoming increasingly serious!

"Why does this happen?"

"Don't ask why. These feelings can all be explained by science, but the counter-intuitions that follow are the terrifying existences that science is gradually unable to explain."

Xiao Yu nodded repeatedly, her expression turning solemn.

"For example, a part of your body clearly hasn't been bumped or touched, yet it suddenly gives you a sharp pain or a dull ache."

"And not long after, that spot really gets injured, or a small problem is discovered there."

"Many people outside call it an 'omen' or a 'coincidence'."

"Then there's the sense of direction." Jiang Zhe looked at Xiao Yu, his expression meticulous. "In a place you're most familiar with—like downstairs at our home, on a route you walk every day—you suddenly, for a few seconds, eerily lose all sense of direction. North, south, east, and west become completely scrambled, leaving you unable to recognize the scenery before you."

"And the result? After a moment, it returns to normal, just like a GPS being briefly reset."

"Holy crap!"

Xiao Yu's eyes went wide, her mouth agape. Her brother was spot on!

During last winter break, at the entrance of the alley she had walked since childhood, she had spent three or four seconds suddenly not knowing which way was home.

That feeling was very clear and very brief!

"Brother, you have that feeling too?" Xiao Yu nodded in pleasant surprise.

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly. "It's not just you. Me, everyone in the world is like this!"

At this moment, the livestream viewers' comments surged in like a tide.

"Holy sh*t, he's right about everything!"

"The shivering one—I have that every day!"

"The falling sensation—I have that every day too!"

"I really can suddenly feel where my kidneys are. I can even feel the speed and efficiency of cells moving in my body, though only occasionally!"

"Predictive pain is so accurate. Before I ran the 400 meters last time, my calf hurt for no reason. Then the next day, I fell on that exact spot, and it hurt even more!"

"Getting lost—I was dazed for ten seconds in front of the supermarket in my own neighborhood, unable to find the way home!"

"The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. Since our brother is saying this, does it mean there's something wrong?"

"How does science explain it? It seems like it can't!"

"..."

Xiao Yu looked at Jiang Zhe, her eyes shining, and couldn't help but ask further, "Brother, are there more?"

"Of course there are, many more."

According to what he knew, there were no fewer than a hundred cases of counter-intuition!

The early ones might be explained by science, but as they grew more extensive, science simply couldn't explain them. This was also what led Jiang Zhe to believe that a mysterious power exists in this world, deciding people's life and death!

Jiang Zhe sat up straight, his expression becoming serious:

"Xiao Yu!"

"When you're faced with two important choices and are torn between them, a clear thought will suddenly flash in your mind. One voice says: [Choose A], and then another voice says: [Don't do what it says; don't choose A]. Afterward, you'll often find that your own choice helped you avoid a lot of trouble. We usually call this intuition."

"For example, someone's intuition says: [I feel like something's wrong here, I can't go to this party]. Then that person escapes a disaster, later finding out that the party they were going to had a fire and many people died!"

"Similarly, at a crossroads of choice, a voice might say: [Choose A]. If the person agrees to it, they might end up in a car accident and die on the spot—this is the consequence of following the choice given by the voice in your head, rather than your own choice!"

Hearing this, Xiao Yu's eyes shook, and goosebumps immediately rose on her skin.

Choose A: a normal person won't agree—and avoids a disaster.

Choose A: an 'abnormal' person agrees—and dies in a car accident.

It was as if...

Something was guiding me—no, something was guiding many people toward death?