The Self-Cultivation of a Liver Emperor (IV)

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Le Bai's daily life became increasingly structured.

During the day, if there were classes, he would go to audit them; if there were no classes, he would go to the Blacksmith Shop to forge iron.

He would always return to his room before dark, then spend the entire night on Soul Power Cultivation. While cultivating, he would also use Parallel Thinking to ensure his soul power remained in a state of extreme compression, at the very limit of what he could control.

This not only improved his Soul Power Control simultaneously but also increased the efficiency of his soul power cultivation to some extent.

The slowest progress was in improving his cultivation method; after half a month, excluding the minor fractions, the progress bar had only increased by 1%.

The main issue was that every time he made a modification, he had to cycle through it several times in practice to know whether the result was better or worse.

In contrast, the speed at which Le Bai's Soul Power Control level increased was truly fast!

He leveled up on average every three days, and he was already at Lv15.

This also confirmed to Le Bai that Lv10 was not the maximum level.

Every fulfilling (and exhausting) day made Le Bai's sense of time passing gradually dull. It was only when Oscar came to find him that Le Bai would realize several days had already passed.

Another thing he would notice was when his money was almost spent.

There were no classes today, so it was a day to go to the Blacksmith Shop to forge iron.

"Good morning, Old Master Huang!"

After habitually greeting Old Master Huang and receiving the usual "Hmm" in response, Le Bai would first help with Fire Stoking, then finish processing any accumulated orders—if there were any.

Finally, Le Bai would begin his own forging practice, occasionally putting his wild ideas into action.

For example, today, Le Bai was driven by his nearly depleted living expenses to come up with a new idea: when forging Raw Iron, instead of just using soul power to increase the force of the hammer, what would happen if he "smashed" his soul power into the Raw Iron at the very moment of impact?

The answer was—it consumed a massive amount of soul power!

That point was unimportant.

What mattered was that the iron ingots obtained through this operation were not exactly ordinary.

The finished iron ingot was one-third smaller than those forged by ordinary methods, and its surface faintly emitted a dim glow.

After Old Master Huang personally inspected it, he confirmed it was a high-grade item with quality far exceeding ordinary iron ingots. It left Old Master Huang praising him repeatedly, while also marveling at Le Bai's talent.

"Le Bai, the iron ingot you've forged here can no longer be considered an ordinary iron ingot."

Old Master Huang said solemnly, "You are the inventor of this type of iron; give it a name."

Le Bai was a bit unaccustomed to Old Master Huang's solemn demeanor. He thought for a moment and said, "I created this by adding soul power, so let's just call it 'Soul Iron'."

"Soul Iron, eh? A name that fits the reality; it is quite appropriate!"

Old Master Huang nodded and carefully put away this first piece of Soul Iron. "It would be a waste to use this piece of Soul Iron to make farm tools. Tomorrow, I'll make a trip to Suotuo City and help you sell it for a good price!"

"Old Master Huang, if you say it like that, I won't be happy."

Le Bai also said very seriously, "I am still your apprentice, and the iron is from your shop. I only put in a little effort, so how could this iron ingot be mine?"

Old Master Huang was stunned. After he realized what was said, he burst into laughter and kept patting Le Bai's shoulder with his large hand: "Good lad! Good!"

Then he heard Le Bai say, "Old Master Huang, does what you said before still count? You know, if I forge better iron ingots, my wages will be raised to twenty Silver Soul Coins."

"Don't worry!"

Old Master Huang knew exactly what Le Bai was thinking, but he didn't call him out. "You'll get your share! When I go to Suotuo City tomorrow, I'll ask my son about the price of your Soul Iron, and then you can just wait to be the exclusive supplier! Hahahaha!"

Old Master Huang was a man of action; he set off early the next morning and returned that same afternoon.

Le Bai had just finished his classes and, upon returning to his room, saw Old Master Huang waiting outside: "Old Master Huang, were you waiting for me?"

"Of course I was waiting for you!"

Old Master Huang took out a Gold Soul Coin and stuffed it into Le Bai's hand: "Take it!"

"This..."

Le Bai caught a glimpse of that golden light: "Is Soul Iron that valuable?"

"Hehehe!"

Old Master Huang let out the first mischievous laugh Le Bai had heard since he met him: "Didn't you ask last time where my son went? He runs a blacksmith shop in Suotuo City, forging tools and weapons for the Lord Soul Masters at those Soul Master Academies. He said that your Soul Iron has a certain affinity for soul power and is much stronger than ordinary iron! If weapons are forged with Soul Iron, any one of them could fetch a high price of dozens of Gold Soul Coins from those Lord Soul Masters!"

Yet the basic material for the Soul Iron itself was just Raw Iron that cost a few Copper Soul Coins; the profit margin was, to put it mildly, exorbitant.

However, Le Bai was not someone who hadn't seen the world, so he calmly put the Gold Soul Coin Old Master Huang had stuffed into his hand into his pocket: "I understand, Old Master Huang, thank you! In the future, how should I provide this Soul Iron?"

"No need for too much."

Old Master Huang held up a finger: "One piece a month is enough."

"So little?"

Le Bai was stunned: "Won't it not be enough to use?"

"Heh, that's where you don't understand!"

Old Master Huang said with a sense of showing off: "My son said, only by having a small amount can we make those Lord Soul Masters scramble for it! If there were really too much, those Soul Masters would instead think it wasn't good enough and not worthy of their status!"

Le Bai had a strange expression on his face, but he still nodded to show he understood.

"Alright, keep the money safe, I'm heading back now."

Before leaving, Old Master Huang reminded Le Bai, "Remember to come and practice Iron forging when you don't have classes, otherwise your hands will get rusty!"

Not a chance, I have a Panel.

Le Bai thought this to himself, but still waved at Old Master Huang, "Alright! Take care, Grandpa Huang!"

After watching Old Master Huang walk away, Le Bai happily walked into the house—his living expenses before becoming a Soul Master were finally guaranteed!

"With living expenses secured and my diet ready for a further upgrade, it's about time I start grinding my physical training."

...Two years later...

Early in the morning, just as the sun had risen, Le Bai was testing his attack power in front of his small cabin.

Acting as a punching bag was a wooden stake, not very thick, with a diameter of only thirty to forty centimeters.

"Compress the Soul Power from inside the body to the surface, then back into the body, maintaining the circulation."

Using the effect of Parallel Thinking, Le Bai maintained the flow of Soul Power while adjusting his posture. After a long moment, he threw a punch—Snap!

The wooden stake didn't move an inch.

"Hiss... still a bit painful. Is the Soul Power circulating on the surface too thin?"

Le Bai shook his slightly reddened hand and looked at the hole punched through the stake, satisfied with the power of his strike: "Hmm, the stake didn't move, but it was pierced through by the impact. This power is good enough."

In reality, it was quite remarkable.

Le Bai had once believed that it would take him at least ten years to reach this level.

Being able to achieve his goal so much earlier was thanks to something Le Bai discovered during his practice over the past two years—an effect of the Panel he had previously overlooked.

Calling it "overlooked" wasn't quite right; it would be more accurate to say he "hadn't fully realized it."

Regarding the "only progress, no regression" effect brought about by the Panel's datafication, Le Bai's original understanding was that "one wouldn't regress due to slacking off in training."

This point wasn't wrong, but his understanding of "no regression" was insufficient.

I believe most people have had this experience—in the process of repeatedly practicing a skill or technique, occasionally, due to luck or other factors, you perform better just once.

For example, when practicing calligraphy, you write a hundred characters, and among them, there is one character, or even just a single stroke, where you perform exceptionally well.

With an increase in practice volume and personal progress, these coincidences gradually become more frequent, eventually reaching a point where you can reproduce this coincidence at will through your own volition, which proves you have fully mastered a skill.

But for Le Bai, this coincidence only needed to happen once; that momentary extraordinary performance would be faithfully recorded by the Panel, and then he could reproduce it 100% of the time.

Afterward, Le Bai only needed to continue practicing on this new, higher foundation until he had another extraordinary performance by chance... repeating this cycle several times, he could quickly master even the most difficult things.

However, the past Le Bai clearly hadn't been able to do this.

The reason for this lay in the fact that Le Bai hadn't realized it at all.

The changes brought by Le Bai's Panel were not mandatory, so they couldn't actively influence Le Bai's behavior or thoughts. If Le Bai didn't notice this, the Panel couldn't directly make Le Bai experience the feeling of "stable extraordinary performance."

That day, while Le Bai was practicing hitting the wooden stake, one part of his mind was maintaining the circulation of Soul Power, while the other part was focused on something else. His body, having lost the guidance of his conscious mind, threw a punch that clearly exceeded what Le Bai considered his "own level" under the effect of the Panel.

After that day, Le Bai finally realized the "record & guide" effect of the Panel and began to actively use this effect to quickly improve the levels of the various skills he had mastered, rather than using it passively as he had in the past.

This punch right now was one of the results.

Regrettably, the Panel's record and guide effect was ineffective for Soul Power Cultivation and increasing one's Soul Power Level.

Perhaps it was because there was no such thing as an "extraordinary performance" during Soul Power Cultivation, so it had no effect;

Or perhaps it was because Soul Power required Le Bai's conscious guidance at all times, so it couldn't actively interfere with Le Bai's Panel, and naturally, it couldn't guide the Soul Power.

But regardless of which it was, it didn't matter; Le Bai was already very satisfied with the effects brought by the Panel and didn't ask for more.

"With my current combat ability, even a Battle Soul Master who possesses a First Soul Ring should, perhaps, be able to be taken on head-on?"

Le Bai looked at the hole he had punched into the wooden stake and mused: "A Support System Soul Master who can win a head-on fight against a Battle Soul Master with their bare hands... that has to count as a Monster, right..."