Enlightened Empire

Chapter 474: Possibilities

"That sounds incredible. I never thought about it this way. So do we already know how it works, teacher?" Sumaci played her usual role as the inquisitive student, ready to prod her teacher into further explanations while ignoring some of the references she couldn't possibly understand. Yet once more, Corco could act far less self-assured than usual. His enthusiasm quickly faded. As he was reminded of just how much he still didn't know about cultivation, the discomfort returned once more. Again he looked away, out into the sea, as if he could find the answers there.

"Well, that is the big question, isn't it?" he finally said. "For now, I've got some likely theories, though we'll have to test them all before I can tell you anything precise." When he turned once more and saw Sumaci's eager look, Corco felt forced to continue through his tightening chest. "For one, it's possible that cultivation is an ability inherent to humans. Maybe a substance is being created internally, which somehow can be used to alter the human body. There are several cultures around the world which describe such internal powers, calling it qi, or magic, or the like. So I call this one the qi-theory to keep things simple."

At some point, Sumaci had opened her eyes and sat back up again, intrigued by the possibilities presented before her.

"But that would mean that there is no limit to the number of cultivators," she pointed out. "If all of us produce this force within ourselves, surely, all of us would be able to cultivate, right? Doesn't that violate your question about the existence of all-cultivator societies?"

The question Sumaci was referencing was actually quite a simple one, and one which Corco had posed many times since he had gained his new memories: Why were there no societies in which everyone was a cultivator? Instead, any culture which had cultivation only allowed a limited ruling class to cultivate. How was it possible that in all of human history, not one desperate or ambitious society had decided to teach cultivation to everyone? Corco had always felt that the answer to this basic question would also solve many of his questions about the nature of cultivation itself.

"That's right," Corco admitted. "So, I presume that the qi-theory is either wrong, or at least not sufficient to explain the mechanism behind cultivation. I have a hunch that there are certain limiting factors for how many cultivators there can be in any given society, which is why we haven't seen all-cultivator societies so far."

While Corco was speaking, Sumaci handed her drink to a nearby servant and sat up properly. Clearly, she was also getting more engaged in the discussion.

"I don't think that's necessarily true. That argument alone doesn't seem quite enough to falsify the qi-theory," she argued. "For example: What if people naturally produce and emit some form of gas or energy, which makes cultivation possible. Let's call it qi for now. But what if people need a certain concentration of qi to cultivate, and the amount they produce by themselves is not enough for such a concentration? If that were true, cultivation would only become possible in a sufficiently large group, and only a certain percentage of people would have the ability to cultivate. It would answer your concerns over all-cultivator societies without negating the possibility of the qi-theory, right?"

"That's a decent argument, but there's others which make the the qi-theory less reasonable." Corco also got rid of his drink as he added an argument only he could possibly make: "As far as I can tell, humans in this world are identical to humans in the other world, the world in my memories. That has held true even after we've begun to do proper anatomical research. So how come the people here have developed cultivation so thoroughly, yet people in the other world have not even discovered it?"

"Maybe we're just smarter?" Sumaci joked around, though Corco only returned a tired laugh, reminded of all the pointless worries those new memories had caused him.

"Honestly, while I'm not quite ready to dismiss the qi-theory, there are others I find more promising," he continued to elaborate his loose thoughts. "I personally like the idea that the environment has something to do with it. In some way, our environment is different from that of the other world. That difference is what makes cultivation possible in the first place. For example, some kind of cosmic background radiation could be present here, which is a requirement for cultivation."

"But that still wouldn't answer your question of all-cultivator societies, would it?" Sumaci pointed out very correctly. "If there is a kind of 'cultivation radiation' all around us, possibly from the sun or the stars, then why can only a limited number of people cultivate in any one place?"

"Maybe the amount of radiation is limited? Or maybe only some people can receive it somehow, while others cannot?" Corco guessed blindly. His wife's dismissively pursed lips told him that she was just as dissatisfied with the explanation as he was himself. After all, there were too many holes in the theory. If he got his cultivation powers from the sun, how come he could cultivate at night, for example?

Thus, he quickly pecked his wife on the lips as a distraction and moved on to his next theory before she could blast the last one full of holes.

"There's also the possibility that there's some kind of substance present in the soil here. Maybe that substance is a requirement for cultivation. This substance is then naturally ingested by all living things with their food. That could be the limiting factor for the number of people who can cultivate on any piece of land at any given time. The amount of this substance is simply limited, and if too many people cultivate at once, too much of it is used up."

Again, Corco presented a new theory, and again, his clever student managed to find the holes in it almost immediately.

"But in that case, wouldn't we find all-cultivator societies in sparsely-populated regions anyways?" she argued. "I mean, in a desert with few people, there would be a higher amount of this 'substance' per person, right?" Although Corco wanted to rebuke the first argument, Sumaci immediately added on a second: "And how come our constant use of cultivation does not use up this substance over time? How come we're cultivating as much now as we did hundreds of years ago?"

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Presented with two good points at once, Corco could really only offer a tragic smile and shrug combination. Without any guidance from his other world memories, he really wasn't any better than a normal person. Thus, he could only offer some unfocused, imperfect ideas. Still, he would try to meet his student's expectations to the best of his abilities, even when such expectations were unfounded.

"Maybe we are using up the substance, but we just need very little of it, so the reserves haven't been depleted yet. It's also possible that this substance somehow reforms as quickly as we use it." Corco thought for a second, before he came up with an even better explanation. "Or maybe this substance is just catalytic, and we only need its presence for cultivation, without the need to use it up. As for your desert problem: Such far-off regions are the places we know the least about in the entire world. There could very well be all-cultivator civilizations hidden out there somewhere. Maybe we just haven't met them yet. On the other hand, these substances could be water-borne as well, which would neatly solve the desert question and explain why only ever a portion of people cultivates: After all, the amount of water in a region is always roughly equivalent with the density of human population, so the amount of this substance would scale with the number of people. This way, maybe there is always enough for some people to cultivate, but never enough for everyone."

Presented with so much information at once, even the quick-witted Sumaci had to sit back and think in silence for a second. While she was busy formulating new questions to make things difficult for her husband, Corco stood up and walked up to the ship's railing. As he leaned into the wood and stared out into the endless blue of the Narrow Sea, he could feel his chest tighten ever further. Unlike his excited wife, none of his previous enthusiasm would return, and neither would any of the holiday calm from just minutes before.

More and more, the light which played upon the waves just looked like chaos to him, inexplicable and confusing, far too complex for his limited human brain to understand. In truth, the question of cultivation had bothered him far too much for far too long. As the one major differences between this world and the other, it was also the only point of uncertainty in a world he thought was so certain. It really didn't help that the other world didn't have real life cultivation, yet had an endless supply of stories about it. It only served to confuse him further, lost in a maze of crack-pot theories.

Wasn't it possible that the other world had also — at some point — had cultivators? Maybe that was where stories of ancient heroic ages from all over the world originated, rather than from simple exaggeration? In this case, maybe Maci's theory about the limited cultivation resources would turn out to be true. Maybe they didn't have long left until cultivation would disappear in this world as well, which would throw a real wrench into some of his plans for the reconstruction of medalan society.

Worse yet, there were certain things he hadn't mentioned to Sumaci. One of his strongest theories — and the one he was most obsessed with — was that cultivation originated directly from within the soul. After all, his own experiences — be their true nature reincarnation, transmigration, or memory transfer — all but proved the existence of an immortal soul, or some functionally identical object attached to the human body.

Maybe their research into cultivation would lead him to answer some of the questions he had been asking and dreading. Maybe he would soon find out how he had gained his new memories, or who he really was. Even more than the possible advances cultivation promised for society, it was this thought that both excited and terrified Corco.

"Master, I have another question." At some point, Sumaci had stepped next to Corco, unbeknownst to the teacher, who had been trapped in his own thoughts for an unknown amount of time. As she snuggled up next to him and her warmth entered his body, he could feel his entire body relax. His tense hands stopped gripping each other, and once more loosely hung over the ship's railing.

"Shoot," he casually replied. It was an attempt to hide his prior anxiety, even though he was certain Sumaci knew better.

"Why have you never taught any of this in your classes?" she asked a genuinely good question, as always.

"That's because I don't actually know anything," Corco admitted unlike before, when he had tried to bullshit his way through the lesson with half-truths and theories. "Everything I've told you today is just conjecture, nothing more. It is all based on my very limited understanding of the subject, as well as a pious wish that cultivation will follow the rules of logic and the empirical world as I understand them. Unlike all the other things I've taught before, I have no other world memory of cultivation in my head. Honestly, I don't know anything about the subject, at least not anything other people in this world couldn't teach as well."

As he spoke, Corco could slowly feel his body relax. Maybe admitting that he wouldn't and couldn't know everything had helped him come to grips with his own limitations, or maybe it was his wife's presence which had helped calm him down. Either way, he finally took a deep breath as the tightness in his chest eased at last.

"But isn't it more exciting to not know anything in advance?" Sumaci asked, a carefree grin on her face. "Don't you want to explore the deep seas of science together?"

Surely, the fact that he wasn't alone in his quest was a great relief for Corco. Rather than think of it as another challenge to overcome by himself, he should think of it as a puzzle to be solved. And puzzles were fun, especially in good company.

"That's right," he said, and put his arm around his wife. "Since no path exists yet, all we can do is forge our own, through sheer determination. I mean, we haven't invested this much money and manpower in this research for nothing, right? That's why we're making the trip to check on all of it, to find answers to all those questions. By the end of it all, we'll know infinitely more about all of this than we do now, and we'll have lifted another small piece of the veil that obscures this world."

The more he spoke, the calmer Corco got, the more his determination grew. How could he have forgotten such a simple truth until Maci had reminded him? Whether it was the recent history of Medala including the lightning miracle, his pursuit of the ideal country, or this cultivation research, all of them were things he could not find in his memories. All he had to do was once more forge his own path towards his goal, and like all the previous times, he would not have to do it alone.

As always, he would be supported by those who were precious to him, people he valued as much as they valued him. Together, they would forge ahead into a brighter future, whatever shape it may take.

"I thought we made the trip to relax and get away from all the work," Sumaci joked, her smile brighter than the sun's reflections in the water.

"Of course," Corco replied, and answered her easy smile with a confident one of his own. "Why would we ever consider solving a puzzle as work? Let's just go at our own pace, and enjoy the ride."

As the king of southern Medala stared out into the endless waves once more, he could no longer see the chaos. All he saw were endless possibilities.

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