Chen Ping felt a headache coming on.
He had not thought things through when he used the medicine!
He had only considered preparing enough medicine to boost his cultivation speed for two months, so he could reach level fifteen soul power before enrolling.
But he had forgotten one thing: the medicine the system produced to stimulate his cultivation speed did not simply stop working the instant its duration ended.
Its effects followed a sine curve. The first few medicinal baths gradually raised his cultivation speed to its peak.
Then, after remaining at that peak for a very short time, it began to decline slowly.
Once it fell below the cultivation speed of Innate Level 2, repayment began, and Chen Ping's cultivation speed would grow slower and slower.
Only after he had fully repaid the cultivation speed he had borrowed would it slowly climb out of the trough, eventually returning to the cultivation speed of Innate Level 2.
This was also the effect curve of most banned drugs on the market that stimulated a person's potential.
However, because those people started taking the drugs much later than Chen Ping and missed the optimal window, their side-effect curves were often twice as large as their beneficial-effect curves.
Simply put, when the banned drugs stimulated them, the curve was y=sin2x, but when they repaid the effects they had borrowed, the curve became y=sinx.
With banned drugs, the faster the benefits arrived, the greater the debt one usually had to repay afterward.
For instance, in the original story, Xiao Hongchen had forcibly dosed himself to compete in his second Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament, dragging his level up by three or four.
But the price was five years without the slightest progress.
And that was not the full price of taking the drugs. After five years without the slightest progress, he would most likely face another five years of extremely slow cultivation, at less than half his peak speed!
Under normal cultivation conditions, those ten years would have been enough for Xiao Hongchen to raise his soul power level by seven or eight, perhaps even eight or nine.
Taking the drugs, however, only let him cash in three or four levels immediately. Then, after those five years without any progress, another five years of grueling work would barely earn him one or two levels.
The main reason Chen Ping's cultivation speed was declining now was that he had phrased his request incorrectly.
He had asked the system to formulate medicine that could increase his cultivation speed for more than two months.
The problem was that, to the system, increasing his cultivation speed to 1.5 times its original rate and increasing it to 1.05 times both counted as a genuine increase.
So Chen Ping could only accept a grim reality: from now until Shrek's next semester began, his cultivation speed would only grow slower.
On the day classes began, his cultivation speed would probably drop back to exactly the rate appropriate for Innate Level 2 soul power.
Then it would continue falling until it approached the rate of someone with virtually zero innate soul power, hit rock bottom, and slowly rebound, finally settling at the cultivation speed appropriate for Innate Level 2 soul power.
Fucking moronic system!
Chen Ping closed his eyes in anguish. Could he say the system had misunderstood him? No, there was really nothing wrong with its interpretation.
But with his cultivation speed constantly declining, could he fucking gain even one more level in those two-odd months?
Enough useless talk. Better start grinding.
When Wang Yan finally emerged from the shock that the theory of damage dilution had brought him, he looked up and realized he seemed to have left Chen Ping hanging.
Wang Yan slapped his forehead. "Look at me, falling into that old habit again. The moment I see a book, I can't tear myself away... Huh? Huh?"
With an apologetic expression, Wang Yan looked up at Chen Ping. Halfway through speaking, his tone suddenly changed, his voice shooting up an octave.
What was he seeing? Was that kid Chen Ping meditating while standing?
"What's wrong, Teacher Wang?"
Chen Ping paused, his expression unchanged. While continuing to circulate his soul power, he poured Wang Yan a cup of water and handed it to him.
"Just keep reading, Teacher Wang. I'm in no hurry."
Chen Ping's actions stunned Wang Yan so thoroughly that he failed to recover for quite some time, let alone take the cup Chen Ping offered.
"Teacher Wang? Second Uncle?"
Only after Chen Ping called to him several times did Wang Yan seem to wake from a dream. He took the cup somewhat awkwardly and sensed Chen Ping's condition once more.
To be honest, had he not already successfully advanced to the Soul King realm, he might not have noticed anything unusual about Chen Ping.
He could clearly sense a strand of soul power slowly circulating inside Chen Ping's body.
What new thing was this now?
Wang Yan's brows twitched, then drew so close they nearly met, lending his expression a somewhat comical look.
As for how he felt at that moment, it was probably something like this:
~~What haven't I, Wang Yan, seen?~~
~~I really don't think I've seen this before.~~
~~What the fuck is this new thing now?~~
~~There sure have been a lot of new things lately.~~
I know nothing about this vast world. ✓
"N-no, nothing. Well, your teacher is a little tired today, so I'll head back and rest. I'll come study that self-evolving Willow Wood Staff martial soul of yours tomorrow."
Wang Yan forced a smile and returned to his room in a daze.
For a moment, he could not tell whether everything he had encountered today had been a dream or had actually happened.
Leaving aside those astonishingly detailed parameter tables for various martial souls, the training manual so advanced that even the Body Sect might not possess anything like it, and the damage calculation formulas and methods for avoiding damage dilution...
What had that kid Chen Ping been doing just now?
He could actually meditate and cultivate while talking and pouring water for him?
That was fucking impossible.
Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Wang Yan scratched his head. A long while later, he scratched it again, unable to make sense of it no matter how hard he thought.
Gathering a small strand of soul power, Wang Yan tried to stand up while meditating.
But before he even rose, the instant he stretched his legs a little, that strand of soul power spun out of control and began crashing wildly through his meridians.
"No, no, no..."
The soul power rampage brought such piercing agony that Wang Yan was almost pinned to the bed by the pain.
Fortunately, he had gathered only a tiny amount of soul power, so it caused no irreversible damage to his meridians.
Yet this only left Wang Yan more bewildered. Ordinary Soul Masters could barely begin to explore applications of mental power once they reached the level-fifty range, allowing them fine control over the circulation of their soul power.
But even he could not move his body while meditating. How could Chen Ping cultivate while effortlessly carrying out such a long series of complicated movements?
Pouring water might seem simple, but it was not.
Broken down, the action consisted of at least three parts: "reach the kettle," "pour water from the kettle into the cup," and "bring the cup over steadily."
Which of those three parts did not require multiple parts of the body to work in concert to complete it precisely?
And under those circumstances, Chen Ping could still maintain his meditative state-that defied all common sense.
Before you continue