Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Le Bai's daily life became increasingly regular.
During the day, he attended classes whenever there were any; when there were none, he went to the Blacksmith Shop to forge iron.
Before nightfall, he always returned to his room, then cultivated Soul Power through the night. While cultivating, he also used Parallel Thinking to ensure his Soul Power remained compressed to the absolute limit of his control.
This allowed him to improve his Soul Power Control while also slightly increasing the efficiency of his Soul Power Cultivation.
The slowest progress was in improving his cultivation method. Over half a month, excluding the decimal, the progress bar had only increased by 1%.
The main reason was that every modification had to be put through several actual cycles before he could tell whether the result was better or worse.
In comparison, Le Bai's Soul Power Control Level was rising remarkably quickly!
On average, it rose by one level every three days, and it had already reached Lv15.
This also confirmed for Le Bai that Lv10 was not the maximum level.
Each fulfilling day made Le Bai gradually lose his sense of time passing. Whenever Oscar came looking for him, Le Bai realized that several days had gone by again.
He also noticed whenever he was nearly out of money.
There were no classes again today, so it was another day for forging at the Blacksmith Shop.
"Good morning, Grandpa Huang!"
After habitually greeting Old Master Huang and receiving his equally habitual grunt in reply, Le Bai first helped tend the fire, then dealt with any accumulated orders—if there were any.
Finally, Le Bai began his own forging practice, occasionally putting his strange ideas into practice.
For example, today, his nearly exhausted living expenses had forced a new idea out of him: when hammering Raw Iron, what would happen if he did not merely use Soul Power to increase the force of his hammer, but went a step further and "hammered" Soul Power into the Raw Iron at the instant of impact?
The answer was—it consumed an enormous amount of Soul Power!
That was not important.
What mattered was that the iron ingot forged this way was far from ordinary.
The finished ingot was one-third smaller than an ingot forged by ordinary methods, and its surface faintly emitted a dim glow.
After Old Master Huang personally examined it, he confirmed that it was a high-grade product whose quality far surpassed ordinary iron ingots. While repeatedly praising Le Bai, he also sighed at his talent.
"Le Bai, this iron ingot you forged can no longer be considered an ordinary iron ingot."
Old Master Huang said solemnly, "You invented this kind of iron. Give it a name."
Le Bai was somewhat unused to seeing Old Master Huang so serious. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I forged it by adding Soul Power, so let's call it 'Soul Iron.'"
"Soul Iron? It lives up to its name. That will do nicely!"
Old Master Huang nodded and carefully put away the first piece of Soul Iron. "It would be a waste to use this Soul Iron for farming tools. I'll make a trip to Suotuo City one of these days and help you sell it for a good price!"
"Grandpa Huang, if you say that, I'll be unhappy."
Le Bai also spoke seriously. "I'm still your apprentice, and the iron came from your shop. I only put in a little effort, so how did this ingot become mine?"
Old Master Huang froze for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter after understanding. His large hand repeatedly patted Le Bai on the shoulder. "Good child! Good!"
Then he heard Le Bai say, "Grandpa Huang, does what you said before still count? That if I forged better iron ingots, my wages would be raised to twenty Silver Soul Coins."
"Don't worry!"
How could Old Master Huang fail to guess what Le Bai was thinking? Still, he did not expose him. "You won't lose out! When I go to Suotuo City tomorrow and ask my son about the price of your Soul Iron, you can wait to become a dedicated supplier! Hahahaha!"
Old Master Huang was a man of action. He set out early the next morning and returned that same afternoon.
Le Bai had just finished class when he returned to his room and saw Old Master Huang waiting outside. "Grandpa 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. "Hold onto it!"
"This..."
Le Bai caught a glimpse of that golden gleam. "Soul Iron is worth that much?"
"Hehehe!"
For the first time since Le Bai had known him, Old Master Huang let out an improper laugh. "Didn't you ask before where my son went? He runs a Blacksmith Shop in Suotuo City, forging tools and weapons for the Lord Soul Masters from those Soul Master Academies. He said your Soul Iron has some kind of affinity for Soul Power, making it far better than ordinary iron! If weapons are forged from Soul Iron, even a random one can make those Lord Soul Masters pay dozens of Gold Soul Coins!"
The base material for Soul Iron was merely Raw Iron worth a few Copper Soul Coins. Calling the profit exorbitant would almost be an understatement.
However, Le Bai was not someone who had never seen the world. He calmly put the Gold Soul Coin Old Master Huang had stuffed into his hand into his pocket. "I understand, Grandpa Huang. Thank you! How should I supply this Soul Iron in the future?"
"Not too much."
Old Master Huang held up one finger. "One piece a month is enough."
"So little?"
Le Bai was stunned. "Won't that be too little?"
"Heh, this is where you don't understand!"
Old Master Huang spoke with a hint of smugness. "My son said that scarcity is what makes those Lord Soul Masters scramble to buy it! If there is too much, those Soul Masters will instead think it is not good enough to match their status!"
Le Bai wore a strange expression, but he still nodded to show that he understood.
"Alright, keep the money safe. I'll be going back first."
Before leaving, Old Master Huang reminded Le Bai, "Remember to come forge whenever you don't have class, or your hands will get rusty!"
They won't. I have the 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 entered his room—his living expenses before becoming a Soul Master were finally secured!
"With sufficient living expenses, I can further improve my meals. Then it is about time to begin training my physical abilities."
...Two years later...
Early in the morning, just as the sun rose, Le Bai was testing his attack power in front of his small house.
A wooden post served as his punching bag. It was not particularly thick, only thirty or forty centimeters in diameter.
"Compressed Soul Power circulates from inside my body to the surface, then back into my body. Maintain the cycle."
Using Parallel Thinking, Le Bai maintained the flow of Soul Power while adjusting his posture. After quite a while, he finally threw a punch—Smack!
The wooden post did not move at all.
"Hiss... It still hurts a little. Is there too little Soul Power circulating across the surface of my body?"
Le Bai shook his slightly reddened hand. Looking at the hole that pierced straight through the post, he was quite satisfied with the power of his punch. "Mm, the post didn't move. It was pierced through purely by impact. This power is good enough."
In truth, it was incredibly impressive.
Le Bai had once believed that it would take him at least a decade to reach this level.
His ability to achieve this goal so far ahead of schedule was thanks to an effect of the Panel that he had discovered during the past two years of training—an effect he had previously overlooked.
Calling it an oversight was not quite right. It would be more accurate to say that he had "not fully understood" it.
Le Bai had originally understood the Panel's data-based effect of never advancing and never regressing as meaning that "he would not decline due to slacking off in training."
That was not wrong, but his understanding of "not declining" had not been thorough enough.
Most people had likely experienced this before—while repeatedly practicing to master a certain skill or technique, they would occasionally perform better just once due to luck or some other factor.
For example, while practicing calligraphy, one might write a hundred characters, and among them, one character—or even just one stroke—might turn out exceptionally well.
As the amount of practice increased and one continued improving, such accidents would gradually become more frequent. Eventually, when one could freely reproduce such accidents through sheer will, it proved that the skill had been completely mastered.
But for Le Bai, such an accident only needed to occur once. The Panel would faithfully record that instant of exceptional performance, and then he could reproduce it with 100% accuracy.
Afterward, Le Bai only needed to continue practicing from this new, higher foundation and occasionally achieve another exceptional performance... After repeating this cycle several times, no matter how difficult something was, he could quickly master it completely.
However, the Le Bai of the past had clearly failed to do this.
The reason was that Le Bai had never realized this in the first place.
The changes brought by Le Bai's Panel were not compulsory, so it could not actively influence his actions or thoughts. If Le Bai did not notice this, the Panel had no way to directly let him experience the feeling of "consistently exceptional performance."
That day, while Le Bai was practicing on a wooden post, part of his attention maintained the flow of Soul Power while the rest shifted to other matters. His body, no longer guided by conscious awareness, threw a punch that clearly exceeded what Le Bai considered to be his "own level" under the effect of the Panel.
After that day, Le Bai finally realized the Panel's "recording and guidance" effect. He began actively using it to rapidly raise the levels of the skills he had mastered, rather than passively benefiting from it as he had in the past.
This punch was one of the results.
Unfortunately, the Panel's recording and guidance effect did not work on Soul Power Cultivation or the increase of Soul Power Level.
Perhaps there was no such thing as exceptional performance during Soul Power Cultivation, so it had no effect;
Or perhaps Soul Power constantly required Le Bai's conscious guidance, meaning the Panel could not actively intervene and naturally could not guide Soul Power.
But neither possibility mattered. Le Bai was already extremely satisfied with the effects brought by the Panel and did not ask for more.
"With my current combat ability, even against a Battle Soul Master with a First Soul Ring, I should be able to fight head-on, right?"
Le Bai looked at the hole he had punched through the wooden post and pondered, A Support System Soul Master who can defeat a Battle Soul Master head-on with his bare hands should count as a Monster, no matter what...
Before you continue