Idle Cultivation: Blue Silver Grass's Photosynthesis

Nuoding Academy, at the beginning of the new school term.

After the baptism of the Soul Hunting Forest, the students' spirits had all changed somewhat.

Especially Bai Tang San, who had obtained a purple second ring and grown an External Soul Bone.

At that moment, he should have been the brightest presence in the entire academy, the king of overachievers pursued by countless people.

Yet, to everyone's astonishment—

The first thing this "peerless genius" did after returning to school was—

Sleep.

... [Black World]

Late at night, during the third watch.

The dormitory's oil lamp flickered like a bean-sized flame.

Hei Tang San sat cross-legged on his bed, his eyes shut tight and fine sweat beading across his forehead.

He was cultivating.

It was his unshakable habit.

He attended class during the day, forged iron, and kept Xiao Wu company. Only this bit of nighttime belonged to cultivation.

"Phew..."

He exhaled a breath of stale air.

Hei Tang San slowly opened his eyes, which were filled with tired bloodshot veins.

"The Mysterious Heaven Skill has completed thirty-six cycles, and my Soul Power has only increased by the tiniest bit."

"Too slow."

"At this rate, it'll take at least another three years to break through level thirty."

He glanced at the pitch-black night outside the window, then fiercely pinched his thigh to force himself awake.

"I can't sleep."

"Teacher said that stupid birds have to fly first."

"My talent is inferior to others'—or so I think—so I can only make up for it with diligence."

This ascetic style of cultivation moved countless parents and teachers before the Sky Curtain to tears.

"Look! That's what a good child should be like!"

"How diligent! How disciplined!"

Yu Xiaogang looked especially pleased as he boasted to Flender.

"Did you see that? This is my disciple."

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

"Xiao San's perseverance is the foundation of his future ascension to godhood."

However.

Before this thick, soul-stirring bowl of motivational chicken soup could even be finished—

It was ruthlessly overturned by snoring from the right side of the Sky Curtain.

[White World]

It was a bright and sunny afternoon.

A beginner Soul Master theory class was in session.

On the podium, an elderly teacher with graying hair was dryly explaining the Chronicles of Soul Beasts.

The students below were drowsy, but constrained by discipline, they could only force themselves to stay awake.

Only in one corner—

Bai Tang San, who should have been the center of attention for the entire class—

Was sprawled across his desk, sleeping sweetly.

He had even propped up a book to block his face—not only to shield himself from the light, but also to keep the teacher's spit from hitting him.

"This guy..."

Xiao Wu, seated beside him, looked at Bai Tang San sleeping like a dead pig and gritted her teeth in irritation.

"He's clearly stronger than everyone else, yet he's lazier than everyone else!"

"Last night too. I cultivated for half the night, but he went to sleep ages ago."

"If this keeps up, I'll definitely surpass him in Soul Power!"

Xiao Wu secretly swore that she would seize this opportunity to crush that lazy bum in cultivation progress.

However.

Just as she was about to calm her mind and circulate her Soul Power—

She suddenly sensed that something was off.

"Hm?"

Xiao Wu twitched her rabbit ears and looked suspiciously at the windowsill beside Bai Tang San...

There—

A small, inconspicuous Blue Silver Grass extended from Bai Tang San's wrist and quietly reached out the window.

It was not limp and drooping as usual.

Instead, like a greedy predator, it spread every leaf wide toward the sun.

The dark green veins on its leaves pulsed faintly.

One breath in.

One breath out.

It seemed to be following some mysterious rhythm of breathing.

Along with that pulse, the warm sunlight outside and the faint Soul Power drifting through the air—

Were being crazily devoured by that Blue Silver Grass, as though a hundred rivers were returning to the sea!

Then—

After being transformed and refined through the leaves—

They became streams of incomparably pure warmth, continuously flowing through the stem and back into the sleeping Bai Tang San's body!

"This..."

Xiao Wu was stunned.

She could clearly sense the Soul Power Fluctuation around Bai Tang San slowly but steadily rising at a visibly noticeable pace!

It was even a little faster than her bitter, painstaking meditation!

"Cheating!"

"This is cheating!"

Xiao Wu nearly shouted it out loud.

[Sky Curtain]

To explain this phenomenon that defied common sense—

The Sky Curtain thoughtfully displayed Bai Tang San's "inner monologue"—in other words, his research notes.

In the image, Bai Tang San sat at his desk, his pen flying rapidly across the paper.

[Blue Silver Grass Trait Analysis Report—Forty-Second Revision]

[What is the instinct of plants?]

[Photosynthesis.]

[They do not need to actively circulate their energy, nor do they need deliberate guidance.]

[As long as there is light, water, and soil.]

[They will instinctively absorb energy and grow day and night without rest.]

[A Soul Master's meditation is artificially initiated "active cultivation."]

[But for a plant-type Martial Soul, that is an inefficient waste.]

[If I can place a thread of Mental Power within my Martial Soul and activate its "biological instinct."]

[Let it "breathe" and "photosynthesize" in my place.]

[Then...]

Bai Tang San heavily wrote four large words in his notes:

[Fully Automated Idle Cultivation.]

What followed was an extremely complex diagram for controlling Mental Power.

[Difficulty Overcome: Heart Separation Control.]

[Mental Power must be divided into two.]

[The primary consciousness sleeps and recuperates, while the subconscious controls the Martial Soul's rhythm.]

[Drawing on the force variations of the Tang Sect's Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon from my previous life, I improved it into the "Mental Power Guidance Technique."]

[Real World]

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi, who was drinking tea, nearly failed to hold his cup steady again.

He stared fixedly at the words "Heart Separation Control" on the Sky Curtain.

His eyes were filled with disbelief and horror.

"Heart Separation Control?!"

"Isn't that the secret art of our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?"

"How could that kid possibly know it?!"

Sword Douluo Chen Xin's expression also turned grave.

"No, Fengzhi, look carefully."

"His Heart Separation Control is different from ours."

"Our Heart Separation Control is meant to enhance different teammates at the same time."

"But his..."

"Is meant to treat his Martial Soul as an independent 'external organ.'"

"To let the Martial Soul cultivate by itself and sleep by itself."

"This..."

"He has utterly exploited his Martial Soul to the limit!"

Bone Douluo Gu Rong swallowed and offered the simplest assessment.

"This kid is ruthless."

"He even makes his own Martial Soul work an illegal side job, running nonstop twenty-four hours a day."

"He's Zhou Bapi reincarnated!"

Over at Shrek Academy—

Flender and Zhao Wuji stared at the Sky Curtain, their jaws nearly hitting the floor.

"Idle... idle cultivation?"

"You can get stronger while sleeping?"

"Is there any justice left in this world? Is there any law?"

Zhao Wuji rubbed his bald head, his face full of despair.

"When I cultivated back then, I trained through the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, working myself like a dog."

"And yet he..."

"Leveled up in his sleep?"

"If this cultivation method got out, every hardworking Soul Master on the continent would jump off a building!"