I Want to Swear Brotherhood with Him

"Your thought process isn't wrong. What's truly wrong is your habitual way of thinking."

Seeing that Wei Sijian was on the verge of a mental breakdown, Shen Qian finally stopped keeping him in suspense and spoke up.

"Habits?" Wei Sijian asked in confusion.

"Why insist on building a skyscraper from scratch when you can stand on the shoulders of those who came before you?" Shen Qian picked up an unidentified medicinal herb from the experiment table and chuckled. "Who said 'new' is always 'better'?"

Wei Sijian froze as if struck by lightning.

"New… old… That's right! Why have I never thought about trying the old methods? The biggest problem that's been troubling me is how to draw out the properties of the main ingredient. But if I stick to my original way of thinking, I don't need to adjust the main ingredient at all. I just need to balance the ratios of the auxiliary ingredients…"

He murmured to himself, but his eyes gleamed as if he'd had a sudden breakthrough.

"Senior Wei, what are you guys talking about? New? Old?"

The short-haired girl exchanged bewildered glances with the other three before asking.

"I know how to improve the formula!"

Wei Sijian snapped back to reality, his voice filled with excitement. "I had a blind spot in my thinking—this 'habitual way of thinking' that he mentioned. I kept assuming that since I was researching a better formula, the biggest issue had to be the main ingredient. So I kept switching out the medicinal herb serving as the core component, but I kept failing."

"But what he just said made me realize something. After all this time, my auxiliary formula is already near perfection. Even if I don't change the main ingredient, as long as I find the right balance—the perfect ratio among them—I can still achieve the goal of improving the formula!"

Seeing the others still looking utterly lost, Wei Sijian stomped his foot in frustration. "Why are you guys so slow?"

"The main ingredient of the 'Body-Strengthening Elixir' is Schisandra. It was determined by countless predecessors to be the most suitable choice. There are already well-established theories on how to best utilize its properties. All I need to do is adjust the auxiliary ingredients while keeping the main ingredient unchanged, and I'll definitely make huge progress!"

Wei Sijian explained again, then shoved past the group excitedly, heading straight for the storage room to grab more Schisandra for further experiments.

"A classic case of missing the forest for the trees…"

Watching Wei Sijian rush off in a frenzy, the short-haired girl and the others exchanged glances and silently shook their heads.

"I still don't fully understand, but… his friend seems pretty incredible. Just one sentence and Senior Wei is back to acting crazy again." One of them rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Senior Wei has been working on this formula improvement for nearly six months now, and he's been completely stuck these past few months. Every time the professor asked about his progress, he got really irritable."

"Who is that friend of Senior Wei, anyway? I've never seen him before."

While the three of them were discussing, the short-haired girl suddenly sensed something was off. She glanced around and then froze.

"Wait… Senior Wei's friend… where is he?"

The group collectively paused before snapping to attention. Right! Where did he go? When did he leave?

At that moment, Wei Sijian rushed back, holding a handful of Schisandra. The short-haired girl quickly stopped him. "Hey, is your friend also a medical student?"

"My friend?" Wei Sijian looked momentarily lost. "Do I have a friend?"

"The guy you were just discussing the formula with!"

"Oh, him? He's not—wait… huh? Who is he?" Wei Sijian looked at them, his expression urgent. "Is he a new colleague? What's his name? He's amazing! I have to swear brotherhood with him!"

"…"

The short-haired girl and the others exchanged another long, silent look.

---

Shen Qian hurried out of the Medical Research Institute, zigzagged his way through the Martial Arts Bureau, and only let out a breath of relief when he finally boarded the public transit home. He glanced at the medicinal herb wrapped in a plastic bag in his hands.

Pulling off a dramatic exit right after showing off… Damn, that was exhilarating.

He still didn't know the name of this herb, but judging by its qualities, it might qualify as a main ingredient for a compound elixir—probably on par with Schisandra.

Thinking about it, Shen Qian pulled out his smart wristband and opened the search function, typing in "Wei Sijian."

Hmm… A whole bunch of results popped up, but none of the names looked familiar.

So he added "Professor Cheng" at the end of the search.

"Oh? Found something!"

Shen Qian clicked on the top result—a university newsletter from North Martial Academy.

The article stated that Wei Sijian, a prodigy from the academy's alchemy department, had been accepted as a personal disciple by Cheng Shanhe, a leading authority in Chinese medicine and the vice dean of North Martial Academy's Pharmacy Division. The article also listed a bunch of Wei Sijian's achievements.

Top scorer in the Yellow River Province's liberal arts college entrance exam…

The only student in the last decade admitted to North Martial Academy despite failing the martial arts exam, purely due to his talent…

Won first place in a national mathematics competition at the age of nine…

Damn.

After skimming through the article, Shen Qian suddenly felt a little self-conscious about his own lack of academic achievements. All he could do was let out an impressed whoa in his heart.

Still, he hadn't expected Wei Sijian to be just a junior in college. Maybe it was his prematurely receding hairline that had given Shen Qian the wrong impression.

Sharing the correct research direction for the "Physical Enhancement Elixir" didn't matter much to Shen Qian. In fact, Wei Sijian's notebook still had several mistakes, and the ingredient ratios were off. It would probably take him quite some time to develop a perfected formula.

If Shen Qian ever wanted to profit off the "Physical Enhancement Elixir," he still had opportunities.

But now that he knew it was Wei Sijian's original work, he had no intention of selling the formula—it just wouldn't feel right.

If he ever needed money, he could just refine a few finished elixirs and sell them. It wouldn't draw too much attention, and the earnings would be decent. Yeah… steady progress was key.

His wristband suddenly vibrated. Shen Qian picked up the call—it was Shen Liang.

"Brat, where the hell are you? Come home for dinner tonight."

"Uh… I made plans to study with my classmates."

"Your mom's been discharged from the hospital."

"Oh. Be right there."

Hanging up, Shen Qian regretfully sent a message to Huo Ling'er, telling her he had to go home and study, so he wouldn't be able to join her at the VR arcade.

Less than a minute later, she replied with an animated sticker of a puppy hanging its head in disappointment. Shen Qian hesitated for a second but didn't respond.

Now that he thought about it, Huo Ling'er's family seemed pretty well-off too. Every time they went out, she always paid for everything. Why was it that attractive girls often came from wealthy backgrounds?

Both Ding Yi and Huo Ling'er were like that.

Another strange law of the universe.

"Ding! Your account ending in 404 has received a deposit of 10,000 Huaxia credits."

Just as Shen Qian was lost in thought, the notification snapped him back to reality—filling him with a deep sense of satisfaction.

The Martial Arts Bureau's financial aid had arrived… That was fast!

Shen Qian gave an approving nod.

"Perfect timing. I'll have a little heart-to-heart with my parents when I get home."

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Shen Liang and Wang Xiaojun realized that their son had become a prodigy. Given their temperament, Shen Qian figured he'd better give them a little time to process it.

Passing the Initial Martial Artist certification would be a good starting point. After all, a martial artist's badge couldn't be faked.

They… should be able to handle it, right?