Leap in the Algorithm

Shen Wushang asked Xiao Qing for more about the pill as all he made a mental note of was pill power boost in his mind before.

"A dignified Shrek Academy student doesn't know this much, oh my~ what are they teaching you. Listen closely, I'll only say this once." Xiao Qing was slightly gloating as she finally got a chance to get back at him for teasing her. She had no idea what he was thinking now or else she'd regret her choice.

'Oh, I'll definitely let you pay for that haughty attitude girly, you'll know whose boss then, I'll but some of that strong salt or pepper in your fish that you can still taste after six days. This world's sauces are terrifying hehe' Thought Shen Wushang. He only acted immature around those who were close to him.

He didn't notice it but she was the first real person he acted this way with since his rebirth. Well, her and Skydream. He didn't have any guard up against Skydream as he knew he could trust him. To put in bluntly, even if Skydream had ill intent he couldn't do a thing about it. He hardly knew how to use his spiritual power or sea of consciousness.

"The Mysterious Water Pill is an extremely mystical pill. It's a pill that's specific to a certain water-type sect, It is unknown which exact sect that is. When the Mysterious Water Pill is being refined, you need to use the blood essence of ten or so water-type soul beasts, as well as several tens of water-type plants. Afterwards, you'll also need to mix them in a specific manner before being able to successfully refine it. Water has a cleansing property, so not only can the Mysterious Water Pill greatly heal you, it can also increase your soulforce by a margin. Furthermore, its medicinal properties are extremely gentle, so a soul master of any rank is capable of absorbing its medicinal efficacy extremely well. As for soul masters below the twentieth rank, it can increase their soulforce by a rank at least. However, its most valuable aspect isn't this; it's the fact that it can cleanse your muscles as well as your bone marrow. This was the true worth of this pill."

"The Mysterious Water Pill cleanses the impurities hidden within our bodies. This Mysterious Water Pill is effective for anyone who takes it. To an extremely talented soul master, it might only be akin to adding flowers to a brocade. However, to a soul master with ordinary talent, it's basically sending them coal during a blizzard. It can expel the impurities within their bodies, as well as nourish their meridians. The increase in potential for an ordinary soul master caused by the Mysterious Water Pill is equivalent to an increase in his innate soulforce by an entire rank. In other words, if your innate soulforce when your martial soul was awakened was only at the first rank, it'll turn into the second rank after you've taken a single Mysterious Water Pill. This is nothing short of a qualitative growth in one's talent and physique."

"Aren't you outstanding, I see you've reaped quite a lot of benefits, here let's test your soul force with this." She didn't realize it but she was trying a bit too hard and sounded off fortunately for her Shen Wushang was too engrossed in his advancement that he didn't notice her odd behavior.

Seeing her take out a spirit measuring type soul tool he didn't question it, he'd already picked up that she was from a soul master clan from a few hints so he didn't query, she'd tell him eventually, why would a Title Duoluo decimate a normal clan? Of course this was just his guess.

Shen Wushang had taken the Mysterious Water Pill at the perfect moment. After bitter training, his body had received enough tempering that it broke through its limits. He'd essentially completed a thorough 'warm up' before he consumed the Mysterious Water Pill.

Furthermore, his comprehension towards the Mysterious Heaven Technique had caused the technique to permeate throughout his passageways, allowing it to reside in a sort of warm, nourishing state.

The overuse of Shen Wushang's consciousness had caused him to sink into a comatose state, he was sitting cross legged 'meditating' but midway through hw fell asleep.

Due to this, when he absorbed the Mysterious Water Pill, he hadn't been able to deliberately control the efficacy of the Mysterious Water Pill, allowing it to evenly spread throughout his body. The nourishing effect brought about by the Mysterious Water Pill was completely received by his body.

There was another important point. The Mysterious Water Pill was a water-type medicinal pill, while his second martial soul that had been bestowed to him by the Skydream Iceworm was an ice-type one. Ice was, in and of itself, another state of water, which caused his absorption of the Mysterious Water Pill to be even more fruitful.

In addition, following the Mysterious Water Pill's reconstruction of his body, one of the ten balls of Origin Energy that the Skydream Iceworm had sealed within his body had finally been cracked open by a small amount. A portion of the energy that had spilled out from it had thus fused with his body. Because of this, the increase in his spiritual energy was actually even larger than the increase in his soulforce. This was also the reason why his spiritual awareness had expanded from thirty metres to forty metres, when he tried out his skills just after waking up.

There was a cool smooth feeling circulating throughout his entire body, it was cool yet his body felt like it was experiencing the warmth of the morning sun within his silky sheets. His vision and eyes had improved. He felt stronger but he didn't know the specifics.

The Mysterious Water Pill could be said to have caused an all-around upgrade to Shen Wushang's body, which was the reason why he'd experienced such a huge change. This would have enormous benefits towards his future cultivation, and even his Purple Demon Eyes had evolved.

The Purple Demon Eyes had four major realms—Surveyance, Totality, Mustard Seed, and Boundlessness. When Shen Wushang used his Spirit Eyes to cultivate the Purple Demon Eyes, he basically achieved twice the effects while putting in half the work. As the Mysterious Water Pill had increased his soulforce, it had also simultaneously spurred on the Skydream Iceworm's Origin Energy. Thus, when he'd previously cultivated the Purple Demon Eyes, the Origin Energy had created a siphoning effect towards the purple qi on the horizon, thereby allowing Shen Wushang's Purple Demon Eyes to directly leap into the Totality realm from the Surveyance realm. In terms of cultivation speed for the Purple Demon Eyes, he could even be said to be the fastest person in all of history. He'd even exceeded the founder of the Tang Sect, Tang San.

The advancement of his Purple Demon Eyes had caused a large increase in his ability to control spiritual-type skills. When he activated soul skills in the future, his soulforce consumption would be substantially lessened.

But upon testing his soulforce, he already knew what to expect but he couldn't help but be nervous, What if it didn't work? Thankfully, It actually successfully jumped a rank, propelling him to rank 17!!! This was astonishing high speed progress, it hadn't even been three months yet and if he took the second one it was almost guaranteed that he'd go up another rank, if he pushed himself hard enough after three months, he might actually be Rank 20 and he could go get his second soul ring even earlier.

"I've got to go see you later kay, oh i need your help with something when I get back o.k."

'My help?' Xiao Qing had no idea what he wanted to do but from his eyes she knew he was serious this particular instant.

'By the way is the mysterious water pill supposed to make one's eyes prettier?' She slightly propped her chin up as she pondered Shen Wushang's eyes after he woke up. In addition to a slight purple deep within his inner pupils, his overall eye qualities seemed to have mysteriously gotten a few points more charming. His eyes were glossier like stars were flickering in and out of his eyes.

'Or is it just my imagination.' Xiao Qing had no way of knowing that Shen Wushang had a body martial soul represented by his eyes. As martial souls developed with their holders it wasn't surprising that it changed slightly with the cleansing of his body and increase of soulforce.

He left in a hurry without properly saying goodbye to Xiao Qing, why? because he had another date, the smug bastard was cheating on her, as his plans involved a certain event this morning and he had to go there as soon as possible. That event would cause him to accelerate the original status quo of huo yuhao.

'I feel it. I've advanced a level. And this is the second time no less. I should be at rank 17. If all goes well. My second ring and essence are right around the corner. Things are looking up.' The mysterious feeling of advancing your soulforce was a deep feeling of ecstacy almost unrivalled by any other sensation in the world. Add to that the feeling of accomplishment one had from getting stronger Shen Wushang was in the best mood ever right now.

'Ah, nothing could make this day any better than that thing I'm about to receive it'll be the cherry on.....don't jinx yourself Shen. Stay calm. Calm. We can't afford for anything to change.'

He rushed over and made it at his top speed. The wind, leaves and beautiful sceneries made him want to stop and idle about a bit to enjoy the weather but duty calls. He saw quite a few students of the outer courtyard in their different year uniforms. There were a few differences from the manga but it was mostly similar. As he observed this, he found himself looking at his own uniform. White with a kahki brown inner shirt, brown tie, with a brown line running down each leg. It was a need scholarly look.

Which was completely destroyed by moist dew, wrinkles and green smears from grass. It was obvious he was outdoors all night.

As he passed through the forest next to the alley, Sea God Lake, with its gleaming waves that were reflected in the sunlight, and its water that was both clear and crystalline, was presented before his eyes.

A gust of wind that contained a gentle mist mixed with fresh air buffeted them. Even though Sea God Lake was a man-made lake, the water that it held was extremely clear. The azure lake was blue to the point that its surface was both pure and deep, yet so blue that it was also tender, calm, and graceful. A slight ripple that looked like the luminous eyes of a young lady was also full of life that undulated on the surface of the lake and looked like a blue brocade.

The lake reflected an inverted image of the blue sky and white clouds, as well as the trees that lined the lakeside.

He looked far out into the distance across Sea God Lake. Sea God Lake occupied an extremely wide area; perhaps it was even larger than the main Shrek Academy campus that was to the west of Shrek Plaza. There was even a layer of fog atop the water's surface in the distance.

After Shen Wushang's Purple Demon Eyes had evolved, the sight of his Spirit Eyes had substantially increased once again. Even though he hadn't poured soul power into his Spirit Eyes to activate them, Shen Wushang could still see far into the distance. He faintly saw what seemed to be houses amidst the mist that rested upon the surface of the lake in the distance. He couldn't help but think that the inner courtyard was probably at that end of the lake, he wasn't all knowing, there were many variations in the manhwa and novel, and words couldn't really describe everything in a 1000 metre radius adequately and sufficiently could they? What'd you expect when a novel turned real, a simple phrase like ' bustling activities around' didn't include the faces of the people and a little old man bargaining, Why? Because it was irrelevant to the story.

Everyday, the image of this world grew clearer and clearer in Shen Wushang's mind and every day his heart itched to go on a journey around the world but he couldn't just yet. He probably had to wait a bit as he didn't know the releavant time frame other than the morning. He hurriedly recalled and rehearsed what happened in his head. While he only remembered fragments of what happened he could use his common sense to piece together the order of events. It was only after he awakened his spirit eyes in this world at age 6 that he obtained a photographic and eidetic memory.

The inner courtyard.

"Eh?" At the exact moment that Shen Wushang was preoccupied with his thoughts and completed his 7th rehearsal, he suddenly saw what appeared to be a red dot appear in the mist above the lake.

"She's coming"

"Skydream, heads up I'm wasting your power a bit", in his spiritual sea, a fat iceworm was relaxedly sipping a sundae from God knows where, it was actually ignoring him but he had expected this, it wouldn't matter when they faced death. Still that fat worm was pissing him off, it brought him some comfort that Skydream was struggling to decipher and understand his past life's memories. It was obvious at a glance.

The red figure's speed was extremely shocking. In just a short period of time, it had already reached the center of the lake. Every time the tips of his toes briefly touched the surface of the lake, he'd create a ripple that spread out across the lake. However, he was also continuously speeding up with the help of that slight buoyancy from the lake, rapidly flying forwards like a red cloud.

As the figure got closer, Shen Wushang was also able to see it even better. The red colour wasn't only due to the fact that the clothes on its body were red in colour, but even its hair was a blood-red colour. The figure was slender, yet was emitting a sort of biting fierceness from its whole body, just like a frightening soul beast. The figure was wearing a mask that was also similarly red in colour; even its eyes were blood-red.

The air surrounding its body seemed to be distorting slightly. The mist would even somewhat dissipate beneath his feet wherever he passed.

Shen Wushang didn't bother resisting and let his body experience the fiery ripples in the air, a deep sense of danger sunk into his body, his life seemed to flash before his eyes despite him being prepared for this. He didn't resist the feeling and allowed himself to sink in panic and fear. The fear was unlike all the times before, he was slowly building up an endurance. He was fearful yet his brain was also working full throttle. Dragged down only by his body's instincts which screamed danger.

Once he was subjected to the intense stimulation from the external heat, his ice-attribute martial soul was immediately awakened. However, his soulforce that was only at the peak of the seventeenth rank was thoroughly consumed by the external heat in just a single second. Moreover, that red figure had already swatted a large hand in his direction. He hadn't the time to ponder the feeling of his second soul temporarily awakening due to the urgency of the situation.

In the moment that Shen Wushang was about to be engulfed by that flaming hand, the colour of his eyes suddenly changed. His dark blue eyes—which had been twinkling with a faint golden light—suddenly became as white as twinkling frost in an instant.

A gust of extraordinarily cold air suddenly spread outwards from Shen Wushang's body. He actually managed to forcibly disperse all of the heat coming from the figure in front of him. The fiery figure only let out a dull groan before curling up as they collapsed to the ground.

When Shen Wushang was utilizing his Spirit Eyes, the soul ring that rose up from beneath his feet was white. However, at this moment, his normally white soul ring had actually turned an incomparably brilliant golden colour. A glaring golden light sparkled off of it, just like the morning sun was rising up from beneath his feet.

With Shen Wushang's body as the core, the area around him—and a hundred metre diameter of him—instantly turned into a world of ice and snow. Even his opponent's spiritual sea was frozen.

The red figure seemed to be shivering violently, as the terrifying intimidating aura it let off was continuously condensed by the cold. Shen Wushang slowly raised his right arm. It wasn't known when his right hand's index finger had turned ice-blue, nor when his eyes had begun to shine with a white light. A gloomy voice immediately rang out.

"Damnit, you dare to use me like this, curse you Wushang, and you, get those little firesparks out of my sight. Go and die!"

'Shen Wushang' pointed forwards with his index finger, causing an icy-blue ray of light to suddenly flash in the sky, headed straight for the red figure.

The temperature surrounding the red figure plummeted as a result of the extremely chilling feeling Shen Wushang was emitting. Perhaps because it felt danger approaching it, the red figure struggled violently. Closely following that, the loud and clear cry of a phoenix abruptly rang out.

An enormous phoenix floated up from beneath the figure, along with six soul rings—two yellow, two purple and two black. Soul Emperor rank!

Among the six soul rings, the second, third, and sixth soul rings all shone at the same time. The flame behind the figure turned dark red almost instantly. A thread of fire that was as thin as a finger was spouted from the phoenix's mouth, colliding with the ice-blue light that had been shot out of Shen Wushang's index finger.

"Chi chi——" A series of strange sounds rang out. The thread of fire collapsed almost instantly. The enormous phoenix abruptly pounced forwards, using its huge body to shield the red figure from the front.

The fiery red figure rolled back along with the violent cry of the fire phoenix and, with an icy-blue layer covering them from head to toe, they immediately dropped straight into Sea God Lake in the distance.

'Shen Wushang' was just about to pursue and attack them, but halted his steps for a moment. The sound that had previously rung out rang once more. "How annoying, someone else came. Huh, this small bastards physical fitness has improved very quickly! It seems that I can give him a bit more power already. Its almost to an unbelievable degree, his soulforce has also improved greatly, tch watch how I'll deal with him how dare he use me. Alright, I'm fleeing."

The golden soul ring rapidly dulled back to a white soul ring and disappeared. All of the coldness in Shen Wushang's surroundings also disappeared seemingly instantly. The water in the lake rapidly reverted back to its original state. Shen Wushang's white eyes that had been emitting a strong chill reverted back to normal. Finally, his body went limp, causing him to fall to the ground in exhaustion.

In the distance, more than ten silhouettes were headed straight for them from the depths of Sea God Lake at an astonishing speed. It only took a couple seconds for them to arrive at the shore.

"This is bad. A Student from the outer courtyard was injured." A white-clothed old man was the one leading the group. He suddenly strode over in mid-air and, as if he'd just teleported through space, arrived at Shen Wushang's side. He extended both his hands, and his body immediately floated upwards.

"Fortunately, it seems that he only fainted. He hasn't sustained any injuries. Teacher Li, please provide him with some medical treatment."

"Yes." Another white-clothed middle-aged person hastily stepped forwards, taking charge of Shen Wushang. This Teacher Li as the Soul Sage-ranked master who'd utilized his martial soul—The Tree of Life—on him before, and had conducted a full-scale recovery on the entire class.

His soul rings quickly rose up, and hoops of green light revolved around Shen Wushang infiltrating his body. A miraculous scene appeared: The wilted plants in their surroundings had actually started to rapidly recover at an astonishing speed. One could also faintly see that the large-scale vegetation that surrounded the Sea God Lake was emitting faint green rays of light. These faint green rays of light were surging towards Shen Wushang slowly soaking into him.

"Xiao Tao is over here."

The crashing sound of water rang out, and a white-clothed person fished out the figure clad in red who'd previously fallen into Sea God Lake.

The person clad in red was already drenched from head to toe, revealing a lithe and graceful figure. Looking at the figure's appearance, the person actually seemed to be a woman.

The white-clothed old man went around to her side. He pressed her right hand to his shoulder and could see that rich white soulforce was surging into the woman's body at an astonishing speed.

"Strange!" The white-clothed old man furrowed his brow, as if there was something that he couldn't understand.

"Teacher Li, what's the situation that student from the outer courtyard?" He turned his head and asked the teacher who was currently treating Shen Wushang

The person known as Teacher Li said, "It's nothing serious. They'll be waking up very soon."

The white-clothed old man heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Thank goodness we didn't make a serious mistake. It seems that Xiao Tao still managed to retain some of her consciousness. Teacher Li, send this student back and repeatedly warn him to forget what he saw. If he divulges this matter to others, he'll be expelled. Give him a high grade as compensation. We're heading back."

Pity he didn't know that he'd bleed out the compensation.

The last three words were directed towards the others. He carried the woman clad in red, and as his silhouette flickered, he turned into a ray of white light as he headed towards the depths of Sea God Lake.

In the moment that Shen Wushang fainted and fell to the ground, he was no longer able to see anything on the outside with his consciousness.

"You managed to disturb Elder Brother's analysi-ahem sleep so quickly! How annoying!" The Skydream Iceworm's voice resounded in Shen Wushang's spiritual sea. Trying to hide the fact that he was having troubling analyzing Shen Wushang's memories.

Shen Wushang didn't care and rebutted him despite his help," Yea yea worm , you're great. worms are mighty now be quiet."

The Skydream Iceworm replied, "Why you~If not for me, you would've already become a dried up, baked person! That person's fire attribute is truly very strong; she actually possesses the blood of a Phoenix Godbeast! If not, this Brother's finger would've annihilated her. But, no matter. She should've lost consciousness already. That flame of hers seems to be slightly demonic. However, this Brother didn't eat all that ten thousand year Ice Pith for nothing. Her powers are still far from comparable to mine. Little bastard, I'll admit your cultivation has been very successful. Your physical fitness has increased significantly. The first seal of the ten seals that I left in your body has already been cracked open."

"I noticed."

"..." After a period of silence their spiritual forms wrestled with other like angry children neither backing down.

Occasionally some grunts would be heard,

"You die!"

"No , you die"

"Face my Skydream flying kicks!"

"Pish, Take my Shen worm destroying headlock!"

"Taste my arrogant human brat decimating headbutt...."

"Eagle eats worm claw!!!'

"Kingly human destroyer punch!"

"Wicked God Wushang Gatling!"

"Skydream human killer barrage!"

A few minutes later...

"haaaaha, not bad worm. You withstood my awesome power."

Laying sprawled out were two exhausted figures.

"Likewise brat, you managed to resist my skydream heavenly martial prowess."

Suddenly they both looked at each other, faces twitching.

"What'd you say worm!"

"Damn human brat! Take thi-"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you with my fist in you face!"

They abruptly started a watered down continual of the earlier bout. Only this time they were weakly attacking each other like 100 year old mortal men.

A few second later, they started breathing even heavier than before.

"Hm? Looks like its time." Sensing something Shen Wushang decided to leave.

*************

After waking up, he smiled evilly at the white clothed man who upon seeing his eyes looked very unsettled, before he could even say anything Shen Wushang started first.

"My compensation?"

The man was caught off guard by his directness, but he had an aloof personality. He didn't say anything.

The man threw a green object towards him and he smirked happily.

"Thanks."

Evidently, this man didn't like to speak and was about to warn Shen Wushang and leave when Shen Wushang suddenly spoke.

"Surely you don't think that this is enough to keep my mouth shut? The great Shrek academy had an inner courtyard student go berserk and almost kill an outer courtyard new student. How scandalous!", Seeing the teasing gaze within his eyes like a con man, the man did something he'd regret and asked," What do you want then?"

"10 000 gold coins and Unlimited FREE food from the most expensive window in the cafeteria."

"...What?"

"You heard me , a genius like me is definitely worth more than that but I'll do you guys a favor and only ask for that."

A weird expression descended on the man's face," This is impossible, its too much"

"Well I think it's quite possible. That student seemed important didn't she, I'd take my offer if I was you before it went up to a million gold coins and exemption from tests."

Shen Wushang waved as he actually left first, "I'm sure you or your superiors will see the light, I'm sure you'll find out where to find me. I'll be waiting, expectantly. Oh just something to think about, if you don't my mouth might accidently loosen ....maybe I might unclearly recall the events in a bad way. Bye now!" When bargaining, you mustn't waver a bit or your opponent would seize the chance. Even if they put on a show of refusal as long as it wasn't a sky high price then they'd give in.

The man had an incredulous look on his face as he realized they were just blackmailed. When he reported the situation back to the elder from before, the elder laughed uproariously, " Quite the interesting kid hahaha!, how many have the gall to blackmail Shrek academy much less a child, hahaha!"

"Sir I should refuse his offer yes."

The elder stopped laughing," No give him what he wants, it's truly us at fault this time, though that little fellow has quite the large appetite. It's worth it to keep little Tao's reputation up."

"Yes, sir."

*************

Meanwhile, a certain someone was gazing at the pill he got earlier from the man and looking at himself in the mirror with a solemn air, he glanced at his reflection deeply.