On the Douluo Continent, in a small city only a few dozen li from Shrek City.
Chen Ping carried a stack of books in the bamboo basket on his back. Two long banners stuck out on either side, painted with eye-catching advertising slogans.
"For sale: comprehensive Soul Skill guides for generations of top Shrek students, plus training plans used by Shrek's finest. Give your child a head start at the starting line."
"Services: Soul Master career planning, Soul Skill combinations with no damage dilution, and college application résumés. A hundred percent positive reviews since opening. Consultation fees start at one gold coin."
Taking the water flask off his waist, Chen Ping found a shady corner and plopped down without a care for appearances. He gulped down several mouthfuls, then pulled the towel off his neck and wiped himself haphazardly.
"Ah, who would've thought? An upstanding young man of the new era like me, reduced to peddling courses and selling anxiety just to make a living."
Panting heavily, Chen Ping took off his basket, set it beside him, and leaned against a large tree for a good, long breather.
Inside Chen Ping's mind, a timid female voice spoke hesitantly. "But, boss, weren't you in this line of work before you came here, too?"
Chen Ping's expression instantly froze. He replied mentally, Useless system, don't just butt into conversations. If you had even a little more to offer, I wouldn't have to be out here peddling courses.
You're a system, and you can't even allocate stat points. Aren't you ashamed?
"Oh..."
The aggrieved voice rang out in Chen Ping's Sea of Consciousness, but immediately began doing its best to advertise its own merits again.
"Would you like an erotic dance, boss? The same kind Yinfu does. You can pick whatever outfit you like."
"You're the only one who can see me anyway, so it doesn't matter if I wear something really skimpy. Doesn't the thought alone get you excited?"
Chen Ping merely rolled his eyes. But my physical age is only eleven.
Sure, kids on the Douluo Continent tend to be tall and mature early, but people like Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, who can flit through the flower gardens of romance in their early teens, are still a tiny, exceptionally gifted minority.
So, unfortunately, at least for now, I'm still quite capable of resisting temptation.
At those words, the female voice in Chen Ping's mind seemed to deflate instantly.
"Watch out, boss. People are coming. Quite a few of them."
Chen Ping froze briefly, tossed his water flask into the bamboo basket, then hurried to hoist it onto his back and make a run for it.
"Where do you think you're going, brat?"
Before Chen Ping could even get the basket onto his back, a group of laborers, likewise dressed in short work clothes, had surrounded him.
Alarm shot through Chen Ping, but he still cupped his fist in greeting. "My apologies, good fellows. We're all just trying to scrape a living on these streets. I only borrowed your fine patch of shade to catch my breath. I'll be on my way now."
It wasn't that Chen Ping was a coward. When you stood beneath someone else's eaves, you had no choice but to bow your head.
Though he was a Soul Master, he had only recently reached level ten. His physical fitness wasn't much better than an ordinary person's, and picking a fight with this bunch of men who earned their living through brute strength would be anything but wise.
Besides, the laborers who did the city's heavy lifting were, in essence, one of its local powers.
Places in the city that offered shade, a cool breeze, and a comfortable spot to rest really did belong to these local big fish.
If he used their spot without so much as a greeting, he might genuinely be in the wrong if they argued the matter out!
After all, he was neither a local nor an outsider visiting relatives. No matter how he dressed it up, he was just another member of the motley trades at the bottom of society.
They all scraped a living on the streets. As an outsider, he was in the wrong for taking their resting spot.
Of course, the main reason was still that the leader of these laborers had arms nearly as thick as Chen Ping's calves.
The man's bulging biceps looked as hard as iron. Chen Ping was genuinely worried he might clamp Chen Ping's head under his elbow and crush it.
Not only did they outnumber him, but the pressure of the leader's Soul Power was downright frightening. He had to be a Soul Elder of at least level thirty-something.
Being polite right now could only help, not hurt.
"Little Chen, you can read. Come here and see if this fellow's that crooked education peddler."
They completely ignored Chen Ping's courteous behavior. The lead laborer called a youth who looked only seventeen or eighteen out from behind the crowd, pointed at Chen Ping's bamboo basket, and asked him to check.
The young-looking lad soon pointed at the basket and stammered, "Shrek... planning... a hundred percent positive reviews, consultation fees... start at one gold coin... Uncle, this is the crook."
Now Chen Ping panicked too. This was bad. A parent had cornered him.
His mind raced through the services he had provided to recent customers, trying to work out where something had gone wrong.
System, you're sure the damage calculation formula you gave me was right, aren't you?
Looking at the burly men before him, Chen Ping swallowed nervously.
Thanks to the system's nonsense, he had spent all his earnings on medicinal ingredients for refining medicine. He had no money left to compensate these parents.
If he couldn't bluff his way through this, he would be in serious trouble.
"It... it should be?"
Now the system in Chen Ping's Sea of Consciousness was panicking too, its voice losing all confidence.
What the hell do you mean, "should be"?
When I asked what use you were before, you swore up and down that, even though you couldn't directly provide supplies, any information you did have would be absolutely accurate!
Chen Ping was getting frantic now. Being run over and killed once by a heavy truck with four wheels up front and eight in back had been miserable enough.
If these furious laborers beat him to death all over again, he really would die with his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.
"I-I-I never studied advanced mathematics! Weren't you the one who put this damage formula together?"
"I just plugged in a few numbers to check it. In theory, there shouldn't be any problem."
The system sounded utterly aggrieved as it generated a string of formulas before Chen Ping.
Soul Master damage stat = base Soul Skill damage * [1 + Soul Skill attribute reference value * (Soul Master's own strength modifier + additional Martial Soul quality modifier)] * ∏_i=1^n a_i(1 + multiplicative amplification i%) + ∑_i=1^n a_i(1 + flat amplification i) Soul Master final damage = (Soul Master damage stat * combat technique movement skill modifier + fixed damage stat) * damage amplification
Numbers leaped into the formulas one after another, and the calculated results were identical to those from Chen Ping's own hands-on tests.
Wait.
As the laborers closed in around him, Chen Ping suddenly remembered something.
Because his damage formulas looked like indecipherable occult scribbles, ordinary students and parents simply didn't believe him.
That meant he hadn't sold a single one of his Soul Ring acquisition packages for Soul Skill combinations without damage dilution!
While Chen Ping still had some lingering doubts about that service, he had a hundred percent confidence in the other services he had sold.
"You're the brat who talked my son into giving up cultivating control-type Blue Silver Grass and switching to being a support-type Soul Master?"
The next moment, the powerfully built middle-aged man stepped forward and questioned Chen Ping in a deep, rumbling voice.
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