Cheese—no, knowledge—is power.
Wen Shengkui's ability was indeed a little convoluted to explain.
But there was a very similar example: Shen He.
As everyone knew, Shen He's "United Will" had a hidden effect: the greater the popularity he gathered and the more hearts he won over, the more his various attributes—mental strength, physical fitness, and so on—would be enhanced.
Old Master Wen's ability could be understood the same way, except what he needed was not people's loyalty, but knowledge.
The more he learned and understood, the stronger he became in other areas. Not to mention that the old master was already a scholar and man of letters; he did not need to devote much extra time and energy to improving himself—this was simply part of his daily life.
So Long Tianding's earlier assumption that "the old man's getting on in years and can't keep up anymore" simply did not exist. If Wen Shengkui decades ago had been a Nasus with five hundred stacks—no, a Desert Reaper—then he probably had over fifty thousand stacks now...
No wonder he was S-rank, Xu Shi thought to himself. In his eyes, this was the genuine Supreme Sage wielding the Analects of Force.
Especially since once this thing stacked up, it was hard for it to drop. The loyalty one earned could be lost, but knowledge once acquired was not so easily discarded.
Of course, that was not to say the old master had no weaknesses at all. As an S-rank Ascendant, his complications were no fewer than Xia Ke'an's. For example, his paralyzed legs could not be healed no matter how much he stacked... Don't ask why he did not use technology. What could anyone do if he himself refused?
On top of that, Wen Shengkui was already in his twilight years, and some