Basic Foundation, Modifying the Underlying Logic

As Chen Ming's cultivation improved and his body grew stronger, his computational power had been steadily, if slowly, increasing. If the computational power he possessed when he had first awakened his Martial Soul was considered 1, then it was now roughly 3.2.

However, Chen Ming had discovered a problem long ago: there was a limit to the computational power he could use. Only around 70% was available to him; the remaining 30% was part of the foundation and could not be touched.

Breathing, heartbeat, the movement of internal organs, muscle contractions, nutrient supply, hormone secretion—these were all bodily instincts. Even when humans were unaware of them, the body's systems continued operating steadily. They were all fixed, managed processes.

A portion of that 30% computational power, perhaps even a considerable portion, was certainly being wasted. But Chen Ming had never dared set his sights on it before.

After all, the human body was a delicate structure. It was both an exquisite construct and a bizarre system held together by countless bugs.

You might remove one component and find that it seemingly had no effect on the body, yet some program would still die on you for no logical reason whatsoever.

When programmers fixed bugs in a program, if the program could not run, the programmer could always run instead.

But if a bug appeared in the body, Chen Ming would have nowhere to run.

Thus, Chen Ming had long had plenty of ideas about this portion of computational power and the body's basic responses, but he had never dared lay a hand on this pile of spaghetti code.

Now, Chen Ming decided to give it a little stimulation.

He did not try to directly imprint a cultivation method into his body and achieve unrestricted passive cultivation twenty-four hours a day. Instead, he lightly stimulated the part responsible for growth hormones, while enhancing his digestion and appetite.

At this point, the medical and pharmaceutical arts Chen Ming had learned from Dugu Bo came in handy.

Using warm-natured herbs from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well as ingredients, Chen Ming made pills one after another. He also used the method of simmering medicinal plaster, combining certain herbs with Spirit Beast bones he had obtained from Dugu Bo to make a dark-brown paste, while preparing large quantities of stimulating medicinal powder.

Unlike the traditional Douluo World methods of medicine-making, which relied on experience, inspiration, and even luck, Chen Ming's prescriptions had been simulated repeatedly in his mind and tested through several small experiments. Their effects were highly reliable and stable.

Over the next few days, Dugu Bo witnessed what it truly meant to take medicine like candy.

Chen Ming first took pills to empty his stomach and intestines. For several days, he drank only water mixed with salt and sugar, ate Bigu Pills made from Polygonatum, Atractylodes, Red Date, and Honey, and used slow meditation and martial forms that guided the circulation of blood and qi to expel impurities from his body as thoroughly as possible.

This was the traditional Taoist method of Bigu, intended to regulate one's condition and purge impurities from the body.

He then entered the second stage. He mainly used mild pills, supplemented by dietary adjustments balanced in protein, nutrition, and vitamins to regulate his physical condition. He gradually modified his diet step by step, then slowly increased the intensity of his training.

Push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, frog jumps, burpees, running, yoga...

Chen Ming had long prepared special medicinal paste and powder for muscle soreness. He first soaked in a medicinal bath using hot spring water mixed with the powder, then slowly applied the paste over his body.

Combined with internal training, guiding techniques, deep meditation, and sleep, Chen Ming was able to quickly eliminate the fatigue in his body.

Of course, he had not stopped his daily tasks of drawing Dugu Bo's blood and measuring his condition. After all, Chen Ming was not Tang San and did not possess such formidable poison arts. Nor was he going to fool Dugu Bo and simply gloss over the matter.

Since he was treating him, he naturally had to cure him completely. Only by controlling the problem at its root could it be considered finished.

From Dugu Bo's perspective, Chen Ming's condition changed at a visible rate during this period.

First, a week of fasting—Bigu—made him lose nearly ten jin of weight. Then, through dietary and activity adjustments, he regained the weight he had lost.

Chen Ming's hair and nails grew visibly every day. After he began training, the skin on his body shed in sheets like dry snake scales, revealing fresh, tender skin beneath.

After a month, Chen Ming had grown nearly ten centimeters taller. Despite cutting his hair several times, it still hung down to his shoulders. His skin was as smooth and tender as a newborn baby's, while his eyes shone with spirit.

His vitality was so abundant that even an ordinary person could see at a glance that Chen Ming was different.

Put in the terms of martial arts novels, Chen Ming had consumed heavenly treasures, replenished his innate qi, and combined internal guiding techniques with external martial arts to purge most of the impurities from his body. His cultivation had advanced tremendously.

Chen Ming did not hide the changes in himself. Instead, he showed Dugu Bo the principles behind them, the effects of the medicines he had prepared, and the prescriptions themselves. He explained the general idea clearly and even wanted to ask whether Dugu Bo had any thoughts or ways to improve it.

Yet Dugu Bo only half-understood Chen Ming's theories. He could grasp bits and pieces, but he could not understand how everything came together to create such changes.

What did he mean, do this first, then this, then this, and it would produce that result?

Were you even a Spirit Master? This was not how a Spirit Master worked!

Spirit Masters were not supposed to be like this. Spirit Masters should fight and kill, desperately compete for resources, then, after reaching the limits of their current realm, attempt to hunt Spirit Beasts and ultimately obtain Spirit Rings through fierce battles.

Even when obtaining Spirit Bones, they should have to survive near-death experiences and receive immense good fortune, relying on the enhancement brought by the Spirit Bones to transform themselves while carefully concealing their existence!

Spirit Masters were not supposed to undergo such massive changes just by taking medicine and exercising!

More specifically, although Chen Ming could explain everything clearly, Dugu Bo lacked the necessary knowledge and had little talent in this area. Combined with the rigid and rudimentary conventional environment and Spirit Master system of the Douluo World itself, even Chen Ming's nearly hand-in-hand instruction could not teach Dugu Bo how to do it.

Of course, this was also somewhat related to Dugu Bo's advanced age and declining learning ability. Dugu Bo in his youth should have been able to learn it, but the current Dugu Bo learned far more slowly.

He now roughly understood that controlling the daily condition of young Spirit Masters according to Chen Ming's rhythm could improve their state. As for the principles behind it, he only understood a little—he knew that it worked, but not why.

Only after adjusting his condition to its peak and emptying the impurities from his body as thoroughly as possible did Chen Ming begin formally refining the Earth Dragon Golden Melon.

Yes, it was not simple absorption, but a further refinement akin to refining a magical artifact.