From a Nobody to a Name Known Throughout the World

"Before, to make money, I posed as a Shrek student and offered people cultivation guidance, Soul Beast hunting advice, and services like that. I earned a little money for my trouble."

"These manuscripts were also materials I compiled from my sect's records specifically to make myself more credible to customers."

Chen Ping continued along the lines of Wang Yan's conjecture.

Hearing this, Wang Yan spoke with a measure of admiration. "Although the Coiling Dragon Sect lived in seclusion, it was actually preparing for its return all along."

"You couldn't produce data like this without hundreds, even thousands, of years of research and investigation."

"And this exquisite training method is the very foundation a sect would need to return to the world and establish itself anew."

At this point, Wang Yan's tone suddenly grew somewhat subdued. "Actually, when I learned that Evil Soul Masters had ambushed the Coiling Dragon Sect and almost everyone had been killed or wounded, I made a special trip to its ruins."

"But by then, you'd already gone who knows where."

"If I'd gone earlier that year, perhaps you wouldn't have had to wander for so long."

Chen Ping could feel the sincerity in Wang Yan's voice.

But back then, he had genuinely feared that the Evil Soul Masters would double back to deal with him, the fish that had slipped through their net, so he had fled long before. He could hardly blame Wang Yan.

Picking up the so-called Shrek Academy Student Training Manual again, Wang Yan read it so avidly that he could scarcely bear to put it down.

Only after a long while did he set it aside and turn to the rather peculiar method for combining Soul Ring and Soul Bone Skills to avoid damage dilution.

This manuscript was very thin, only a few scant pages, yet Wang Yan spent longer reading it than he had spent on the two thick stacks of manuscripts before it combined.

At this moment, Chen Ping had no idea that Wang Yan was already beginning to lose his nerve.

For he had discovered, to his astonishment, that he, a supposed senior theory instructor of the Outer Court, could not understand the contents of this manuscript at all.

Wiping the dense beads of sweat from his forehead with some embarrassment, Wang Yan took several deep breaths and began reading again from the first page.

Strange symbols whose functions he could not understand linked together parameters such as a Soul Master's Soul Rings, Soul Skills, and attributes.

And in the end, they could actually calculate a Soul Master's listed damage and actual damage.

It was simply inconceivable.

And this "method for combining Soul Ring and Soul Bone Skills without damage dilution" had been developed on the foundation of those two extraordinary formulas.

If you already had a Soul Skill that increased your strength by 300%, then you should not keep acquiring strength-boosting Soul Skills.

The final killing power of a Soul Skill unleashed with a 400% strength increase might fall far short of the destructive power achieved by combining a 300% strength increase with a Soul Skill that increased speed by 100%.

After all, once your speed rose to a certain level, the force of impact it generated in combination with your own mass would likewise increase your Soul Skill's killing power.

Similarly, when your flat damage was too low, you should not blindly pursue percentage increases.

Choosing the wrong Soul Skills and thus being unable to achieve your maximum listed damage and actual damage was termed "damage dilution" in this manuscript.

Damage dilution!

What a brilliant discovery, what a precise description!

Even though he could not understand how the manuscript converted its various numerical values, the elegance of the theory and the rigor of its conclusions already had Wang Yan praising it in uncontainable delight.

In Wang Yan's eyes, this "soul skill damage dilution theory" was worth every bit as much as the "human soul core condensation theory" that had burst onto the scene several thousand years ago.

Its ideas were just as bold and unbridled, yet its structure was equally rigorous and meticulous.

Although it looked like a madman's ravings, even a little thought about its internal logic made it clear that, like soul core theory, this was a theory that seemed insane but was actually feasible.

The groundbreaking achievement of "human soul core condensation theory" lay in how it had forcibly elevated a group of Soul Masters who could once cultivate no further than rank eighty-nine into the realm of Titled Douluo.

It had made the number of Titled Douluo in today's Soul Master World far greater than it had been ten thousand years ago.

Even during the era when Spirit Hall existed, the Douluo Continent had never had this many Titled Douluo.

At the same time, it had greatly increased the staying power of today's Titled Douluo, creating an order-of-magnitude gap in endurance between Titled Douluo and experts without that title.

But whatever its merits, that theory could only be used by the small minority of experts capable of reaching the Titled Douluo realm.

This "soul skill damage dilution theory," however, could benefit every Soul Master. Its reach far exceeded that of "human soul core condensation theory."

At this moment, a sense of responsibility could not help welling up in Wang Yan's heart.

Make no mistake: Wang Yan was not planning to rashly make Chen Ping's precious theories public. That would be a fucking idiot's move.

The responsibility rising in his heart was the responsibility to nurture Chen Ping into a powerful Soul Master.

Just like that fellow back then who had risked his life to condense the first Soul Core in his dantian so he could break through to Titled Douluo.

Did you think he had made the theory public as soon as he condensed his Soul Core?

Bullshit.

That bastard had taken advantage of having a Soul Core when other Titled Douluo did not, showing off wherever he went and enjoying himself for decades.

During that time, he had even defeated several Super Douluo thanks to the extraordinary endurance his Soul Core gave him.

Only when he was barely breathing, with one foot in the grave, had he made the soul core condensation theory public, all for the empty glory of a posthumous reputation.

But honestly, aside from the rank eighty-nine Soul Douluo of his own generation who had failed to reach Titled Douluo their entire lives, who would dare not remember the favor he had done them by publishing soul core theory?

And so Wang Yan's thinking followed the same lines.

First, he would use the three great cultivation manuals left behind by the Coiling Dragon Sect to nurture Chen Ping and let him win an illustrious name for himself.

He would leave everyone wondering why Chen Ping was so powerful, without a single weakness.

Then, if Chen Ping was willing, he could reveal the Coiling Dragon Sect's Three Great Secret Techniques to the world.

As long as Chen Ping could gain admission to the Inner Court during his time at the academy, the weight of such immense prestige would be enough to earn him an exceptional invitation to become a prospective elder of the Sea God Pavilion, even if his cultivation was only in the seventies or eighties.

From a lonely orphan with no one to rely on to a Sea God Pavilion elder renowned throughout the world.

From a nobody to a name known throughout the world.

If things truly developed as he envisioned, Wang Yan personally felt that he would have done right by the trust Chen Ping had placed in him by coming alone to seek his protection.

Naturally, Chen Ping had no idea that Wang Yan was already racking his brains to map out the course of his entire future life.

Seeing Wang Yan staring at the damage dilution theory for so long, he simply began circulating his Soul Power and cultivating where he stood, racing against every second to improve his cultivation.

But very soon, Chen Ping discovered a fact he found difficult to accept.

His cultivation speed, originally equivalent to that of someone with roughly four and a half ranks of innate Soul Power, had already fallen to the speed of a Soul Master with only four ranks of innate Soul Power.

The medicinal baths that stimulated his potential could not keep his cultivation speed high forever. The cultivation speed he had forcibly raised was steadily declining!