Chapter 82: Chapter 82: The Ultimate Formula, Paper Doll’s Accelerated Casting!
The words Guan Qianshan spoke that morning, he had initially hesitated to fully believe, but by evening, he couldn’t agree with them more.
All day, Su Ping hadn’t even left his seat on the grass. A few puzzled Forest Wolves lingered nearby, apparently collaborating with Su Ping on some experiment. He hadn’t even eaten, just shared some melon seeds with Old Sha. The rest of the time was spent scribbling, drawing, and smudging in that peculiar notebook.
He didn’t know what magic lay within those pages, but he knew the adage, "Where there’s a will, there’s a way." At this moment, Su Ping perfectly embodied this.
In just one day, he had filled ten pages of the notebook. Those ten pages were filled with speculation and formulaic calculations based on Sunlight Absorption, Photosynthesis, and the effects of Heart of Woods.
Actually, the principle was very simple once explained. Heart of Woods harnessed natural life energy from the Wood Element within plants; this natural life energy, although not belonging to any known substance from Su Ping’s previous life, was still an organic energy body. Photosynthesis helped plants convert sunlight energy at an upper level. Sunlight Absorption, then, at the very highest level, enabled Pet Beasts to obtain more sunlight for more efficient energy absorption.
So what about Heart of Woods?
Heart of Woods, being at the lowest level, could restore this power to itself, rejuvenating its energy and healing injuries.
Thus, Su Ping’s deduction was quite simple. Could these three skills form a perfect closed-loop cycle under such conditions? When energy was depleted, Sunlight Absorption drew in sunlight, Photosynthesis converted it, and Heart of Woods utilized the sunlight. This, in turn, would make the stronger Forest Wolf body’s use of Sunlight Absorption even more potent.
However, applying this formula presented many paradoxes. To put it in layman’s terms, if translated into an online game, it meant the less health one had, the higher the damage one dealt; the higher the damage, the more health restored; and the more health restored, the higher the maximum health limit.
So, less health equals more health? Although the meaning was slightly different, the expression of the effect was roughly the same.
This conclusion seemed like utter nonsense to Su Ping, no matter how he looked at it. And it certainly wasn’t reflected in Old Sha. The energy conversion between Sunlight Absorption, Photosynthesis, and Heart of Woods couldn’t unify, like three pipes of different thicknesses that simply couldn’t be connected.
Forcing a connection would only result in leakage.
But looking at the dense notes in the notebook, and the final, extremely simple formula:
’X=Y=Z=X2=Y2=Z2’
’X+Y+Z=?’
If calculated mathematically, the result would be 0. But obviously, Pet Beast cultivation wasn’t a math problem, nor could it be reduced to simple numerical logic.
However, this formula provided Su Ping with an answer—a very, very simple one: once the pipes were all of the same thickness, the results would naturally become evident.
And what specifically caused the variance in the pipes’ thickness? The answer to this question was even simpler: the skill level.
Currently, among Old Sha’s skill levels, Sunlight Absorption had reached Perfection, Heart of Woods was at Proficient Level, and Photosynthesis, like Heart of Woods, was also at Proficient Level. In other words, perhaps the final answer to Su Ping’s formula would be revealed when Photosynthesis, Heart of Woods, and Sunlight Absorption all reached Perfection Level simultaneously.
That’s right; in just one day, Photosynthesis, like Heart of Woods, had broken through to Proficient Level. After munching on quite a few Smiling Sunflower Seeds and taking a moderate bath in Sunlight Spring water, this improvement was achieved. This showed that, putting other aspects aside, the evolution of the Wanmu Wolf, which the Myriad Spirit Beast Atlas had perfected, was definitely not an issue.
As for when Old Sha would accumulate energy to its peak and complete its evolution, Su Ping had no clue.
Thus, Su Ping didn’t mind at all the resources needed by the Wanmu Wolf and poured them into Old Sha desperately. During the day, he even set up several mirrors around Old Sha to concentrate the sunlight even more, allowing Sunlight Absorption to gather more plentiful solar energy.
However, Su Ping wasn’t in a rush to use the Sun Crystal on Old Sha. The first use of these two advanced resources yielded the best effect; one shouldn’t be hasty. Having just advanced to Proficient Level, Mastery and Perfection were two thresholds. It would undoubtedly be best to use these Lungs of Nature and the Sun Crystal when stuck at these thresholds.
Indeed, Su Ping’s thinking was correct. After several more days of nurturing Old Sha under such conditions—bathed in rotating sunshine, with an ample supply of Smiling Sunflower Seeds and Sunlight Spring water—Photosynthesis showed no improvement.
Therefore, without hesitation this time, Su Ping placed the newly purchased Lungs of Nature at Old Sha’s mouth and nose. The Lungs of Nature was a verdant green leaf that looked ordinary, but its effects were quite remarkable. This time, almost immediately after the Lungs of Nature took effect, Photosynthesis, under Su Ping’s observation, broke through from Proficient Level to Mastery Level.
As the effectiveness of Photosynthesis improved, every single hair on Old Sha’s body moved gently with each breath. From a distance, when still, it almost seemed to transform into a luminous plant organism shimmering under the sunlight.
Utterly extraordinary!
But obviously, this still wasn’t enough! Old Sha’s Sunlight Absorption was at Perfection. Therefore, no matter what, Photosynthesis also had to reach Perfection Level.
Fortunately, according to Su Ping’s inquiries, the feedback from Old Sha suggested there was no rush for energy accumulation. At least, under the current circumstances, Old Sha didn’t seem to feel that special, imminent sensation of evolving.
So, using the Sun Crystal could wait until Old Sha had settled slightly and adapted to Photosynthesis at the Mastery Level; attempting the breakthrough then wouldn’t be too late. Moreover, on regular days, Su Ping could also determine the exact timing for using the Sun Crystal based on Old Sha’s condition. But today, Su Ping really didn’t have the time.
「It had been a week since Old Sha had begun the Third Rank of cultivation, advancing from the Second Rank.」
During this week, apart from continuing to supervise the training of the Forest Wolf pack and keeping records for Old Sha, there was also another, most important matter. The training of Accelerated Casting for the little Paperman had finally started in the first half of the night.
The cultivation of Accelerated Casting wasn’t very resource-consuming, especially when the creature in training was of a low level; it mostly needed Ordinary Level resources and some energy-restoring Magic Potions. But, in the first half of every night, the little Paperman would use the Jinge Technique under Su Ping’s special training. Initially, it cast it only about twenty times in a row, but over the past few days, the little Paperman tonight had continuously cast the Jinge Technique fifty times in the first half of the night!
And today was the last day of cultivating Accelerated Casting for the little Paperman!