5 New day

Next morning, I was still in this fantasy world. Little Yue was still my maid. I still had around 17 points of soul force. Looks like I can reach Bronze 1 star in a matter of hours and Silver 1 star in a matter of days.

Still, I had to go to the academy to return the books and take another set. There was so much to study, so many ideas to try. Since energy is diffused in the world, then different materials could have different resistance to it, opening the possibility for Ley Lines and advanced meditation chambers.

The simplest idea (coming directly from Naruto) to test would be strengthening of the ego of demonic beast spirits via naming. Low-level beasts themselves are unlikely to have personal names, so giving them one should focus their ego and improve their compatibility with the host. Overall, it could provide benefits comparable to the forced evolution in that 'Somewhat Demonic' Pot, which Nie Li going to buy at auction.

The lesson of the day was martial arts with teacher Chen Sai, so we all gathered at the dojo. He was a tall burly man with a loud voice, piercing gaze and an ugly scar on his face. The teacher wanted to see our current level and somehow Nie Li ended up as my partner. I knew that he would try to mess with me and even sleep deprivation won't slow him down. But who said I have to follow his rules?

"Shen Yue and Nie Li!" - called the teacher.

"This kind young master feels merciful today, so let us see who can touch another first," - I said and jumped on him (without waiting for his reply) which he dodged.

"You seem kind of slow, like an earthworm," - he said beginning his taunt.

"I did my move, it's your turn," - I replied calmly - "come at me, bro." - I challenged him with a gesture.

"But what if neither of us can touch another?" - he asked coming to me in a spiral, like a shark.

"Then we must be evenly matched." - I replied, stepping towards him.

"Looks like I missed, your turn now." - he voice came from behind me. I didn't even see him moving, must be his 'secret protagonist art' or something.

"I give up," - I answered calmly, holding trousers with my hands because he stole my belt while passing along. - "Now, give me back my belt."

"Tch" - was all he said, tossing it at my face.

"That was impressive speed Nie Li and commendable self-awareness Shen Yue." - noted teacher.

The boy spent the rest of the lesson sleeping with open eyes. I didn't bother trying to mess with him since it could be a trap.

I spent the rest of the day (dedicated to self-study) in the library taking notes and quietly cursing various scholars, who turned hack work into an art form. There was even a book made purely of references, whose informational value was literally one string. There were a few guys trying to earn my favor, so I let them help me searching for specific books.

By the end of the school day, I managed to compile around 40 pages worth of information and even tested energy-resistance of a few common substances like air, ceramics, cinder, soil, stone, water and wood in the workshop. I didn't have any kind of scale, it would come later I simply needed to see how they compare to each other. As it turns out variation was rather small (while noticeable). Ordered from high to low it was Cinder, Air, Ceramics, Water, Soil, Stone, Wood, where stone and wood had uneven resistance depending on direction. I even sketched a kind of pyramidal platform for meditation, that would focus a flow of energy towards the top - nothing fancy like inscription array, simply a cake-like system of layers with cinder isolation on the sides.

On my way back home, I bought samples of twenty different kinds of wood and blood of various bronze-rank demonic beasts. I didn't know how to read soul attributes to find the form and element compatibility, but those things could be tested with little effort.

"Yue'er, I'm home!" - I called as usual.

"Wellcome home, Master!" - her smile was as warm as usual, but I saw impatience in her eyes.

"We have a bit of time, before dinner." - I returned a couple of hours earlier than yesterday. She instantly caught my meaning and her smile got even wider. - "We will do it in my room. I would finish today's research and you have a couple of hours."

"Yes, master." - she replied following me.

When we got to my room, I pulled her sign from my notes.

"This is your soul sign, just as I told you before you should keep it in your mind during cultivation. Once you start your soul force would probably compress about ten times don't be afraid, just stop once the process would finish and we would measure your soul force. It's important for proper measurement of your further progress and improvement of your cultivation method." - I instructed her. - "just sit there comfortably and begin cultivating."

As she began cultivating, I pulled out my wood samples and arranged them on my table. I was rich, so there was no point in building my cultivation platform from second-rate materials when I can afford the good stuff. It took her only 20 minutes to compress her soul force. As expected, her level dropped down to 1, barely visible in a soul crystal. After that I ordered her to resume, giving her an hour. I myself spent that time designing conical wooden platform of 20 layers, that should increase the concentration of energy at the top by 20-25%.

By the end, she advanced by entire point, it wasn't much (compared to my 10), but it means she can reach bronze-rank in 100 hours - it's not even two months (that Nie Li was bargaining for in the story) - it's about a week of dedicated cultivation (15 hours/day) with supposedly inferior method.

"Good, with these result you would get bronze rank in a couple of months without much effort and reach silver within a couple of years." - I commented, seeing a clear difference in cultivation speed between red and green soul. - "Now, I want you to heat a bucket of water and bring a clean bedsheet. I have a theory, that cultivation in water or even wet cloth would go slightly faster. And you have enough time to test it, before starting dinner."

"I'll do it right away, master Yue." - she replied cheerfully.

It took about half an hour to confirm my theory. And I spent my time before dinner going through the alchemy books I got from the library and cursing their pigheaded authors. No wonder alchemy in this city was in such a poor state, there was not a single tablet in any of those books, literally. Almost as if those scholars hated efficient methods of organizing and sharing information.