A Way to Stick by Wang Yan's Side

A martial soul evolving after awakening-this was an utterly astonishing surprise.

The instant he confirmed it, countless ideas sprang into Chen Ping's mind.

Now that his martial soul's quality had improved, would his cultivation speed improve along with it?

After all, the higher the quality of a soul master's martial soul at awakening, the higher their innate soul power usually was, and the faster they cultivated!

His second thought was whether Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao martial soul might actually be capable of evolving by devouring soul bones as well.

Chen Ping had no way to verify that, but he personally thought the chances were fairly good.

No matter how filthy rich the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had been back then, they could hardly have squandered a soul bone on an experiment for Yu Xiaogang.

Had Luo Sanpao taken even a couple of bites out of a soul bone back then, the entire plot of the Douluo Continent might have unfolded differently.

His third thought was that he now had complete confidence he could stick by Wang Yan's side.

From the very beginning, Chen Ping had never expected to stay by Wang Yan's side by claiming to be some relative so distant they could not be reached with eight bamboo poles.

In the original story, Teacher Wang Yan had indeed been gentle in all his dealings with others, but the more someone was like that, the more embarrassed Chen Ping would feel about shamelessly latching onto him.

It was true that a gentleman could be deceived by appealing to his principles, but Chen Ping did have some shame.

From the outset, Chen Ping had prepared a set of findings unique to himself, intending to share them with Wang Yan.

And this was one of the trump cards that gave Chen Ping the confidence to stay by Wang Yan's side with his head held high-the soul master damage-stat formula and the final damage formula.

That was right: those two formulas, as stinking and long-winded as an old woman's foot-binding cloth. He and the system had spent half a month cobbling them together before they were more or less complete.

On Blue Star, these damage formulas were so crude that they would not even deserve a throwaway post on a forum.

But on the Douluo Continent, he could milk them for at least three papers in top journals, the sort with impact factors off the charts-provided the Douluo Continent's academic world had such things as journals and impact factors.

Now, besides those two formulas, Chen Ping had another treasure to attract Wang Yan.

A martial soul that could evolve on its own-as long as Wang Yan was a scholar with a functioning brain, Chen Ping had no fear that he would refuse to keep him comfortably supplied with good food and drink.

Tsk.

Now I can even save on food expenses. There's never been such a wonderful opening!

At that moment, Chen Ping's lips were harder to keep down than an AK's muzzle. Every time the corners of his mouth shot skyward, he forcibly pressed them back down, making him look rather comical.

Bei Bei, however, fully understood Chen Ping's reaction.

Martial soul evolution! The entire Soul Master World could go years and years without encountering a single case!

Giving the Touch Dragon staff in his hand a shake, Chen Ping suddenly realized something.

His martial soul did not seem to have completed its evolution in one go and become an existence on par with a top-tier martial soul like Bei Bei's. It had merely moved up one grade.

After all, this thing was called "Insect Staff - Touch Dragon," not "Insect Glaive: Touch Dragon King."

At that thought, Chen Ping immediately felt a little regretful. He had thought his martial soul had reached its destination in a single leap!

Still, when he thought about how shabby his original Willow Wood Staff martial soul had looked, and how rough it had felt...

For a mere soul bone to drag something at the very bottom of low-grade martial souls all the way up to the intermediate grade seemed pretty impressive already.

He silently requested a check of his martial soul's current condition, and the system remained as money-grubbing as ever.

Chen Ping could not afford the ten-thousand-plus points required for an in-depth analysis, so he spent a few hundred points on a basic version first.

[Insect Staff - Touch Dragon: A martial soul evolved from the Willow Wood Staff after devouring a Touch Dragon King right arm bone. Perhaps its foundation was too poor, so it could only evolve to this extent.]

[The mandibles at both ends of the Touch Dragon staff offer excellent armor penetration and stability. The shaft possesses high hardness and toughness, making it suitable for the following staff techniques: Monkey Staff, Insect Glaive, Thrusting Staff.]

Chen Ping's eyes widened instantly at the sight. He really had traded his bird gun for a cannon this time.

If he remembered correctly, the system's assessment of his Willow Wood Staff had been that it was a martial soul someone could snap at any moment. Even its recommended staff techniques had consisted of nothing but Thrusting Staff.

Monkey Staff? Insect Glaive? He could forget about those!

With the Willow Wood Staff's toughness, even a casual chopping strike would leave him worrying whether his martial soul would split before the blow landed. At most, he could scrape by with Thrusting Staff.

That was also why Chen Ping had been able to perform such a fluid set of Forward-and-Reverse Turning Staff moves before Bei Bei earlier-those were practically the only moves he knew.

Chen Ping's original plan had been to switch straight to becoming a soul engineer once he entered Shrek.

But judging by the current situation... there was no rush. He could play around a little longer.

Besides that, there was one more matter Chen Ping cared about most: his earlier speculation about whether his soul power cultivation speed had increased.

Chen Ping first meditated while standing for a while, then sat down and meditated a little longer. His final conclusion was that he had been entertaining pure wishful thinking.

Whatever his cultivation speed had been before, that was exactly what it was now.

Martial soul evolution and cultivation speed had been two separate matters from the start.

The main reason Chen Ping had entertained such an unrealistic idea in the first place was the original story.

In the original story, after Ning Rongrong's martial soul evolved from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, she too gained the potential to become a god.

Although that blessing had most likely come from riding Oscar's coattails, a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda with rank-nine innate soul power would certainly not have been enough to hitch a ride on that opportunity for godhood, even with Oscar's help.

That was why Chen Ping had considered the possibility that martial soul evolution might enhance a soul master's own aptitude.

In reality, however, Ning Rongrong had not been the only one whose aptitude improved. It had happened to every member of the original Shrek Seven Devils except Xiao Wu.

And later, when Yu Xiaogang's aptitude improved after eating the nine-grade purple ganoderma, allowing him to break through the rank-thirty bottleneck, his Luo Sanpao martial soul had not evolved.

So, if he wanted to keep improving his cultivation aptitude, Chen Ping currently had only one path available-doping.

Just as Chen Ping was considering whether to continue practicing Thrusting Staff or try the system's recommended Monkey Staff and Insect Glaive, while endlessly haggling with the system over the cost of Staff Technique Deduction, a languid sound drifted over.

"Haaah~~~"

Xiaoya, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground absorbing her soul ring, stretched comfortably and let out a soft, sleepy yawn.

The pale wrists and cute navel revealed as she stretched made Bei Bei's eyes go fixed and wide. He nearly could not bring himself to turn his head away.

Opening her eyes and seeing Bei Bei's unblinking stare, Tang Ya hurriedly covered her stomach. She glared at him in exasperation, then searched for Chen Ping with a look of embarrassed indignation.

Only then did she notice that Chen Ping was still lost in thought, holding a pale golden, shell-covered staff. The flush on her face faded a little.

Bei Bei also realized he was in trouble and hurriedly gave two awkward chuckles. "Xiaoya, you really missed out just now. I bet you have no idea what happened!"

Caught red-handed sneaking a look at Tang Ya's navel, Bei Bei hastily changed the subject.