I Want to Swear Brotherhood with Him

"Your line of thinking wasn't wrong. What was truly wrong was your habitual way of thinking."

Seeing that Wei Sijian was nearly driven mad, Shen Qian stopped keeping him in suspense and spoke.

"Habitual thinking?" Wei Sijian asked in confusion.

"When you can clearly stand on the shoulders of those who came before you, why insist on building a skyscraper from flat ground?" Shen Qian grabbed the unidentified spiritual herb from the lab vessel and chuckled. "Who said new was necessarily better?"

Wei Sijian looked as though he had been struck by lightning, standing frozen in place.

"New... old... That's right, why had I never thought of trying the old way? What had been troubling me all along was how to draw out the medicinal properties of the main herb. But if I continued using the old line of thought, I wouldn't need to adjust the main herb anymore. I'd only need to balance the proportions of the auxiliary herbs..."

He muttered to himself, but it seemed as though he had suddenly figured something out. His eyes shone.

"Senior Brother Wei, what are you talking about? What new and old?"

The short-haired girl exchanged baffled looks with the other three and asked.

"I know how to improve the formula!"

Wei Sijian came back to his senses and said excitedly, "I had a misconception before. It was... that habitual thinking thing someone mentioned. I kept thinking that since I wanted to develop a better formula, the biggest issue had to be the main herb. So I kept replacing the spiritual herb used as the main ingredient, and I kept failing."

"But what he just said reminded me that after so much experimentation, my auxiliary-herb formula is already nearly perfect. Even if I don't replace the main herb, as long as I find the balance between them—their most ideal ratio—I can still achieve the goal of improving the formula!"

Seeing that they still looked utterly lost, Wei Sijian stamped his foot in frustration. "Why are you all so slow?"

"The main herb in the 'Body Tempering Potion' is Seven Flavors Fruit. That was concluded by our predecessors after countless trials as the most suitable main herb. There are already mature theories on how to make the best use of its medicinal properties. I only need to adjust the auxiliary herbs while keeping the main herb unchanged, and I'll definitely make tremendous progress."

Wei Sijian explained again. Regardless of whether they understood, he excitedly pushed past them and headed for the storeroom to find more Seven Flavors Fruit for his experiment.

"A leaf had blinded me... A single leaf had truly blinded me..."

Watching Wei Sijian hurry away in self-reproach, the short-haired girl and the others looked at one another and silently shook their heads.

"Even though I still don't really get it, Senior Brother Wei's friend seems incredible. One sentence was enough to drive Senior Brother Wei crazy again," one of them said, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah. Senior Brother Wei has been researching this improved formula for almost half a year, right? Especially these past few months, he seemed stuck. Whenever the teacher asked about his progress, he got really irritable."

"Where did Senior Brother Wei's friend come from? How come I've never seen him before?"

While the three were discussing it, the short-haired girl suddenly felt that something was off. She looked around, then froze.

"Senior Brother Wei's friend... where is he?"

They all went still at once, only then snapping out of it. Right, where was he? When had he disappeared?

At that moment, Wei Sijian hurried back with Seven Flavors Fruit in hand. The short-haired girl quickly stopped him. "Is that friend of yours also a medical student?"

"My friend?" Wei Sijian looked utterly confused. "I have a friend?"

"The one who was discussing the formula with you just now!"

"Oh, him. He isn't... Huh, right, who was he?" Wei Sijian looked at them and said impatiently, "Is he a new colleague? What's his name? He's amazing! I have to swear brotherhood with him!"

"..."

The short-haired girl and the others exchanged looks, falling silent once more.

Shen Qian hurried out of the Medical Research Institute, then took several winding turns out of the Martial Arts Bureau. Only after boarding the public tram home did he finally let out a breath and look at the spiritual herb wrapped in a plastic bag in his hand.

Act cool and run, and I even snagged some grass... What a thrill.

The spiritual herb in his hand was still unnamed for the moment, but Shen Qian estimated that if it qualified to be the main herb in a potion, it had to be on the same level as Seven Flavors Fruit.

After thinking about it, Shen Qian took out his wristband, opened the search function, and entered the three characters "Wei Sijian."

Hmm... a whole lot of Wei Sijians popped up, and Shen Qian didn't recognize a single one.

So he added the three characters "Professor Cheng" after it.

"Oh, there it is!"

Shen Qian opened the top news item. It was a campus bulletin from Northern Martial University.

The rough meaning of the article was that Wei Sijian, a genius from the university's alchemy department, had been accepted as a personal disciple by Cheng Shanhe, a giant in China's pharmaceutical world and vice dean of Northern Martial University's School of Pharmacy. Below that was a long list of Wei Sijian's personal honors.

Top scorer in the Yellow River Second Province's Liberal Arts College Entrance Exam...

The only genius Northern Martial University had specially admitted in the past decade despite failing to meet the martial arts score requirement...

Won first place nationwide in a math olympiad at the age of nine...

Damn, that's impressive!

After roughly reading through it, Shen Qian felt inferior because of his own lack of education and could only curse in his heart.

He just hadn't expected the other party to be only a third-year student. Perhaps that excessively high hairline had given Shen Qian the wrong impression.

Telling him the correct research direction for the Stamina Potion did not matter much to Shen Qian. There were still several minor mistakes in Wei Sijian's notebook, and the dosages in those formulas were wrong as well. Wei Sijian probably would not be able to produce the true finished Stamina Potion anytime soon.

If Shen Qian still wanted to profit from the Stamina Potion, he would still have the opportunity and time.

However, after learning that the Stamina Potion was Wei Sijian's original creation, Shen Qian no longer intended to sell the formula. After all, that would not be very ethical.

If he was truly short on money, he could refine a few finished products and sell them instead. It would not attract attention, and the profits would be fairly considerable... Mm, steady growth was the King's Way.

His wristband began vibrating. Shen Qian answered the call. It was from Shen Liang.

"You brat, where did you run off to? Remember to come home for dinner tonight."

"Uh... I made plans to study with my classmates."

"Your mother has been discharged."

"Oh, I'll be right back."

After hanging up, Shen Qian could only regretfully send Huo Ling'er a message, saying that he had to go home and study hard and could no longer accompany her to degenerate at the VR Hall.

Less than a minute later, Huo Ling'er replied with an animated sticker of a puppy lowering its head. Shen Qian hesitated for a moment but did not reply again.

Come to think of it, Huo Ling'er's family seemed quite wealthy too. Every time he went out with her, he could freeload. Why did most pretty girls also come from well-off families?

Ding Yi and Huo Ling'er were both like that.

Another strange principle had been added.

"Ding dong! Your account ending in 404 has received 10,000 Huaxia Coin..."

While Shen Qian was lost in thought, a notification pulled him back to reality and filled him with a sense of gain.

The Martial Arts Bureau's subsidy had arrived... What efficiency!

Shen Qian gave it a big thumbs-up.

"Perfect. I can have an honest talk with my parents when I get home."

At this rate, the fact that Shen Liang and Wang Xiaojuan's son had become an outstanding talent would sooner or later be impossible to hide. Considering how much the two could handle, Shen Qian had to give them a little time to adjust first.

Being certified as one of the Beginner Martial Artists was a good opportunity, after all. A martial artist badge could not be faked.

They... should be able to accept it, right?