A Thousand Miles a Day Cultivating Heart Arts (Part 1)

As soon as he finished an entire in-class practice session, a small, somewhat cartoonish star suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the practice question section of the Auxiliary Cultivation Manual. The little star zipped from the tip of his pen towards the progress bar in the upper left corner, hit it with a pop, exploded, and a "+1" floated upwards.

The progress bar had indeed grown a bit, and its color had turned slightly red, as if heated.

Next to the progress bar, a message board popped up, displaying the words "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!" The board swayed left and right like a cat's paw before retracting.

Shi Tiexin was startled, his eyes wide open, staring blankly at the slightly increased progress bar.

He had no idea who designed this interface, this system, this special effect, or where it came from, but he felt that this kind of effect was absolutely amazing.

The sense of feedback was truly clear!

Look at that star, that explosion, that lighting effect, and then look at that flashy message board. Although the writing on it was truly terrible—exactly like his own—it genuinely provided a powerful positive incentive.

Just looking at this system interface alone made him feel an urge to study passionately by lamplight, not to mention the numerous buffs. It made him reluctant to waste even a moment.

Hmm?

Why is the progress bar's color slowly turning blue again, like it's cooling down? Could it be that this progress bar has a combo setting? That won't do. I absolutely cannot let it cool down. Strike while the iron is hot, let's go, go, go!

Shi Tiexin seized every second, flipping open the second in-class practice, and picked up his pen to continue doing problems. On the right side of his vision, the progress bar for the Auxiliary Cultivation Manual was displayed. A small scroll-shaped icon appeared there, with a glowing outline, but its interior was empty.

As Shi Tiexin continued doing problems, the empty icon gradually filled up from the bottom. The filling material rippled slightly like luminous water waves, looking quite impressive.

During the entire break, Shi Tiexin didn't move, sitting at his seat and writing furiously. During this time, no matter how much other students chatted or made noise, he completely ignored them, calculating each problem one by one. Ding-ling, the class bell rang, and Shi Tiexin's pen tip wrote the last digit, completing the in-class practice for the second chapter.

But the expected little star did not appear.

Hmm? What's going on?

Shi Tiexin was stunned. He quickly checked the answers and found that in his haste, he had made mistakes on three problems. Shi Tiexin felt a bit embarrassed. He had actually made mistakes on elementary-level math problems. He quickly corrected them. Only after he had corrected all his mistakes did a star fly out and hit the progress bar with a pop.

The progress bar, which was about to cool down, turned redder again, and a message board popped up flamboyantly—"Don't rush through flowers to admire them; it's hard to admire flowers when rushing!" It swayed and then retracted.

Shi Tiexin suddenly understood. So, if one didn't do the problems carefully and only rushed, it wouldn't actually serve as training. One had to do the problems carefully and correctly to improve their level.

This principle was the same even without the system; it wouldn't change.

So, extending this thought, if he hadn't looked at the answers and had overcome difficulties perfectly or corrected his own mistakes through his own efforts, would he have received more stars?

No sooner said than done. Shi Tiexin immediately flipped open the next in-class practice and continued his Heart Arts cultivation.

This time, Shi Tiexin didn't rush haphazardly, writing wildly like a dragon flying and a snake dancing. Instead, he calmed his mind and faced the problems with calm focus. As he focused, he re-entered that peculiar mental state of being half-understanding and half-enlightened. Two voices seemed to appear in his mind simultaneously: one was a god-tier player showing off their skills, and the other was a casual player shouting "six, six, six!"

This peculiar mental state had a miraculous effect, directly and greatly increasing the efficiency of his cultivation of the first level of Mathematics. His pen tip glided across the paper. One after another, in-class practices, fun houses, brain teasers, and question-and-answer sessions were quickly solved through Shi Tiexin's focused calculations and thoughts.

The fonts seemed to know that Shi Tiexin couldn't be disturbed now. Various badges and progress bars became blurred and transparent. In Shi Tiexin's eyes, there were only endless streams of problems. But these dry and boring problems, in a daze, transformed into steps. With each problem he finished, he felt as if he were stepping on stairs, climbing step by step from the depths of the abyss towards the heavens.

The climb was difficult and painful, but a focused person wouldn't notice the passage of time.

When Shi Tiexin came back to his senses, it was already time for the dismissal bell.

"Brother Shi, Brother Shi!" Zhou Nan cautiously approached, speaking to Shi Tiexin in a tone like "Your servant greets Your Highness": "Brother Shi, it's already after school. If we don't go back to the classroom soon, they'll turn off the lights."

Shi Tiexin looked up blankly, only then realizing that almost everyone had left the classroom. He looked down at his hands. This class felt like divine assistance; he had actually completed four out of six math textbooks' in-class practice sessions.

Shi Tiexin was very surprised. Was his efficiency really that high? It seemed he had truly focused. Of course, that peculiar mental state helped even more. Without that strange feeling of "being carried by a master to rank up," he wouldn't have been able to complete four in-class practice books in such a short time.

So, how was the effect?

With a thought, the hidden interface reappeared. When it first displayed, the interface was still in the state it was before disappearing, with the progress bar less than halfway full. But before Shi Tiexin could wonder, the interface seemed to display all its "idle experience" at once, with a large string of stars gushing out from the bottom of the interface.

There were so many stars that Shi Tiexin was stunned!

Pop, pop, pop, pop, a string of stars, like a meteor shower, hit the progress bar with a crackling sound. The "Insight" badge next to it erupted with astonishing brilliance. For every nine stars that appeared, a light spot would also pop out from within the "Insight" badge, also hitting the progress bar.

It seemed this was the visual representation of the [Increase cultivation speed by 10% upon excellent progress] buff.

The progress bar suddenly glowed intensely red, like a steel rod that had been thoroughly heated, so red that it even had flame effects. The progress bar crackled forward, extending, and at the same time, the nearby prompt board kept popping up and shaking.

From the initial "Keep up the good work!", "Well done!", "Continue to work hard!", it changed to "Invincible!", "Awesome!", "Holy crap, this works too!" By the end, the prompt board even grew larger, and the font became bold, enlarged, and enhanced with special effects—although it was still written very ugly.

"Leaping Progress!"

"My goodness!"

"Rampage!"

"God, I want to get on board too!"