94: Chapter 94: Are the body and consciousness actually separate?

Xiao Yu's words made countless viewers' eyes light up. When Jiang Zhe had previously discussed the Chronicles of Earth, they had already imagined this possibility.

The first soul...

Xiao Yu really understands her fans!

A barrage of gifts was sent out as if they cost nothing, instantly filling the entire screen.

"Reward, a rocket! Xiao Yu really is my mouthpiece."

"Curious, where did the first soul come from?"

"I'm itching with curiosity. Hurry up and serve the answer; I can't wait any longer."

"Don't end the stream! I feel like I could listen for another two and a half hours!"

"..."

Jiang Zhe raised his hand to check his wristwatch; it was nearing midnight.

"This question is actually very complex!"

"To explain the first soul, or the prototype of the first batch of true human souls..."

"You probably need to know a more fundamental question first—where did the bodies of the first batch of modern human ancestors that carried these consciousnesses actually come from?"

"Only by knowing where the body comes from will you know where the soul comes from."

Listening to her brother's words, Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes flickered. "The body and the soul—are they actually separate?"

"Good heavens, that's impossible, right?"

"Didn't humans evolve? From ancient apes, then turning into various human species—Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo sapiens, and so on."

"Aren't humans evolved?"

Seeing Xiao Yu's sudden excitement, Jiang Zhe stopped the topic. "Your brother has never said that humans evolved. It's getting late, let's go home."

[This tutoring session has ended. Rating: S-rank!]

[Xiao Yu has had one epiphany, profoundly grasping the relationship between humanity and Earth. Her ideological level has increased, and rewards have been increased!]

[Reward Money: 350,000 Yuan!]

[Extra Reward Passive Ability: Immunity to All Diseases]

Watching her brother suddenly emit a green light, Xiao Yu's eyes lit up. Last time her brother emitted smoke, this time it was light. She became even more curious. "Humans didn't evolve? Could it be that my brother really knows the truth? And why is he glowing?"

...

The livestream had already gone dark, but the experts and professors were left itching with curiosity by the topic Jiang Zhe had brought up at the end.

However, seeing that the livestream had completely ended, they regretfully exited the room, left with no choice but to wait for tomorrow night.

But most of the viewers were still immersed in the lingering impact.

"Damn, this is a bit terrifying. Listening to what Xiaoyu's brother said, the body and soul—are they really separate?"

"First time I've heard this perspective. The body and soul are actually separate!"

"The body and soul are actually separated, damn it! And our Xiaoyu's brother doesn't even agree that humans evolved!"

"Don't go, Brother! I'm holding down Darwin's coffin lid; keep talking about what comes next!"

...

Inside Qingfeng Temple, the livestream had just ended.

Jiang Zhe's words, "I have never said that humans evolved," echoed in the living room.

Zheng Ming frowned tightly and stood up abruptly. "He is simply misleading people. The body and soul are separate? Not even our traditional Chinese studies would dare to say such a thing. He must be mixing truth with falsehood to mislead others!"

"I admit he is strong in the scientific field, but his metaphysics and traditional Chinese studies are simply unsatisfactory!"

Xu Mu, who was to the side, pondered, "Although this statement is shocking, it reminds me of some records in ancient fragments regarding the theory of form and spirit—perhaps there really is a distinction in their origins."

At this moment, Celestial Master Zhang, who had been sitting quietly, slowly opened his eyes, a glint in them.

"Zheng Ming, be practical." His voice was very calm, seemingly acknowledging Jiang Zhe's statement. "What Xiaoyu's brother said is not without reason—do you know how our Taoist classics view the composition of a human?"

Zheng Ming was stunned, feeling a bit curious. "Please enlighten me, Senior Brother Zhang."

"It can be summarized in eight characters: Heaven bestows the soul, Earth endows the form." Celestial Master Zhang's gaze swept over the two of them. "The soul is clear yang, coming from Heaven; the form is turbid yin, forged by Earth."

"Only when the two combine does a human exist."

"He is not talking nonsense or misleading people; on the contrary, it fits our Taoist classics very well!"

"It is just that our Taoist classics do not provide the underlying reasons."

Xu Mu looked enlightened. "So what Xiaoyu's brother said actually aligns with ancient Taoist principles?"

"Not necessarily just aligning..." Celestial Master Zhang looked at the silent night outside the window. "Perhaps he is simply using different language to point toward the same truth found in Taoism. As for whether this truth and principle are truly compatible..."

Having said this, he paused for a moment and withdrew his gaze.

"Let's see how he handles it tomorrow night!"

...

Inside the operations department of the Dougou Platform.

Wang Shulin stared at the final backend data and let out a long breath.

Although he also really wanted to hear what followed, he had to start summarizing the data.

"Peak concurrent viewers: 5.41 million."

When he read out this number himself, the young colleagues beside him all cast envious glances.

He picked up the phone and dialed. "Xiao Yu, your followers have surpassed one million."

Xiao Yu, still on the bench, checked as she answered the phone. Looking at the string of numbers in the backend, she felt a little dizzy.

Not long ago, she was just a small streamer trying to earn extra money while in school, unable to even make ten yuan, but in the blink of an eye, she had grown into the top streamer on Dougu!

Everything was thanks to her brother!

The call had not yet ended.

Another phone of Wang Shulin's rang. It was answered by a subordinate, who relayed, "Supervisor Wang, some big-name advertisers are looking for Xiao Yu to endorse them. It doesn't conflict with Jiang Zhe's style. There are lifestyle, digital, and traditional Chinese studies categories—all of them. This is the price!"

Wang Shulin was now an operations supervisor, and Supervisor Liu had been promoted to branch manager.

His promotion relied entirely on Xiao Yu, this popular streamer, or rather... it was Jiang Zhe's credit!

Wang Shulin looked at the three fingers his subordinate held up—three million.

He asked Xiao Yu over the phone, "Xiao Yu, three new endorsements. Do you want to take them?"

Xiao Yu on the other end of the phone barely hesitated before refusing directly. "Thanks, Brother Wang, but I won't take them."

This time, Xiao Yu's tone was very calm, even somewhat clear-headed.

"My brother isn't talking about these things for me to use to sell products. To keep capitalizing on him... I feel like something is wrong."

"Besides, my brother often gently whispers to me, 'Crush them...' Sorry, Brother Wang, I got the lines wrong. As long as I have enough money, that's fine. I have to respect my brother's opinion."

Upon hearing this, Wang Shulin was stunned for a moment; Xiao Yu really seemed to have grown up.

Was she just doing a bit for the show for Brother Wang?

He shook his head, ignoring these messy thoughts, and relayed the decision to the advertisers. "Sorry, our streamer has no commercial plans in this regard recently."

...

With the end of Jiang Zhe's unannounced stream, the trending search regarding Xiaoyu's brother reappeared on the internet, becoming a hot topic of discussion.

[Earth is alive; was humanity really designed by it?]

"Five mass extinctions, each time clearing the field to prepare raw materials for an upgrade, and finally filtering out humans? Simply ridiculous. If what he said is true, I'll instantly do an inverted spiral Thomas somersault to heaven and eat sh*t."

"You just want to eat it, right?"

"Xiaoyu's brother is simply ridiculous, treating billions of years of complex natural selection as if it were a deliberate game. This is simply anti-intellectual romanticism; all coincidences can be explained by mathematics and time."

"All coincidences? Was the night your parents fell in love also a coincidence? Can you use mathematics and time to calculate that you were the best and greatest among hundreds of millions of siblings; or just the one that swam the fastest?"

"The guy above is an idiot, but the guy above him is wrong too; give a monkey infinite lifespan, put it in a sealed room, and it could definitely use a typewriter to write a masterpiece."

"That monkey wouldn't even last two and a half years before going crazy; a masterpiece?"

"To the guy above: do you know how long the universe's lifespan is? I'm a science student at Dabei University. I'm a materialist during the day and an idealist at night. Right now, I'm an idealist—I'm telling you, I've calculated it mathematically, even if you give that monkey infinite lifespan, it still can't type it out; because the universe has already existed for 13.8 billion years, and it only has 11 billion years of lifespan left before this universe ends; the cold data gives a result of '198,741' billion years—that's how long your crappy monkey would need to write a fluent million-word masterpiece, get it? And you call yourself a materialist."

"To the guy above, handshake, we're family!"

"Who's family with you!"

"!!!"

The second hot topic was the singularity.

After all, this topic involves reality; it is a problem on the level of reality that is within reach.

[In 2045, what kind of super singularity will actually appear?]

"2045 will definitely be the consciousness internet, shared thinking, physical rules being rewritten by computers; we'll discover that the universe is a box, and in 2045, it will be opened!"

"To the guy above, you've thought of it, but that involves wild fantasies, not a singularity, and it won't have a place in the future!"

"If that super singularity appears, and it's truly a comparison between the information age and the Stone Age, will all our current knowledge and social rules crumble overnight?"

"Stop guessing. Xiaoyu's brother's meaning is very clear; it's related to artificial intelligence. At the very least, that technological device is 50% composed of artificial intelligence, and the other 50%—who knows what that is!"

"I think that super singularity is... that all the knowledge we've learned is wrong, and physics no longer exists."

"..."