199: Chapter 199 Study until you drop, as hard as you can.

The third mark of the Hour of the Tiger (5:00 AM).

Dawn at the Heavenly River Sword Sect arrived earlier and was noisier than anywhere else in the Cultivation World.

Before the first ray of dawn could pierce the clouds, an electronic sound filled with a demonic rhythm, loud enough to shatter the eardrums of a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, exploded on time through the [High-Fidelity Amplification Array] covering the entire Sect.

"The vast horizon is my love! At the foot of the rolling green mountains, flowers are in bloom!"

This wake-up ringtone, titled "The Most Dazzling Cultivation Style," was specially chosen by Li Mo. Its melody was incredibly piercing and brainwashing; even if you were in secluded meditation, you'd find your legs twitching to the beat.

"Argh!!!"

The First Dormitory Area (formerly the Inner Sect's refined quarters) and the Second Dormitory Area (formerly a pigsty-turned-undercover camp) erupted in tragic wails at the same time.

"Stop singing! Stop singing! I'll get up! I'll get up, alright?!"

The Purple Mansion Holy Son, Xiao Tianjiao, bolted upright from his bed. With two massive dark circles under his eyes, he reflexively grabbed the "Five Years of Simulations" by his pillow.

He had been doing problems until 2:00 AM last night and had slept for less than three hours. At this moment, his hair was as messy as a chicken coop, his eyes were unfocused, and he was still muttering to himself: "Conservation of momentum... inelastic collision... don't hit the face..."

"Quick! Being one breath late costs two GPA points!"

Ye Guyun in the next bed was already fully dressed (actually, he slept in his tungsten steel armor) and rushed out the door like a robot.

In less than three minutes.

Three thousand Disciples were already standing on the square of the Heavenly River Sword Sect.

No washing up, no tidying of appearances.

Everyone held a book in their hands, their eyes dull yet fanatical.

"Attention!"

Serving as the "Sports Representative," Iron Pillar Zhao shouted, his whip whistling through the air.

"Morning exercises, begin!"

"Objective: Ten laps around the mountain gate."

"Requirement: Maintain uniform linear motion, and keep the Formation spacing at 0.5 meters (error not to exceed 1 centimeter). During the run, you must recite the 'Complete Collection of Organic Chemistry Equations'!"

"Ready—run!"

Rumble—

The square Formation of three thousand people began to move.

This wasn't just running. It was a precise Fluid Mechanics experiment.

To keep the Formation from breaking, everyone had to constantly calculate the speed and wind resistance of the person in front of them, adjusting their own pace frequency.

"Methane combustion!" Iron Pillar Zhao led the chant.

"CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O ignited!"

Three thousand people roared in unison, the sound waves shaking the sky so much that the birds in the back mountain forest were too scared to defecate.

In the team, Ji Qingyue stared desperately at the small card in her hand while running.

She was a "transfer student" with a poor foundation. To keep up with the progress, she had drawn that "benzene ring structure" on the back of her hand and recited it even in her dreams.

"Is this cultivation?" She gasped for breath, sweat soaking her once priceless flowing immortal dress. "Why is this more exhausting than Undergoing Tribulation? My beauty sleep!"

Beside her, the undercover from the Star Pavilion, "Guan Xingzi," was currently looking ecstatic.

He ran while looking at the stars that hadn't yet dissipated in the sky.

"Gravitational waves! I feel them! When so many of us vibrate at the same frequency, the spatial structure actually produces faint ripples! The teacher didn't lie to me! This is 'Collective Resonance'!"

...

Scripture Pavilion, top-floor office.

Li Mo stood by the window, holding a cup of steaming soy milk, looking down at the group of "leeks" busy as worker ants.

"This is—the Hengshui Model."

Li Mo took a sip of soy milk, a satisfied smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"What is the Hengshui Model?"

Squeak, lying on the windowsill, asked curiously. It also held a small booklet: "How to Scientifically Steal Food Without Being Discovered."

"Simply put, it's using people like machines," Li Mo explained.

"In my hometown, this is a magical Formation that can turn ordinary people into 'problem-solving machines'."

"Here, I've upgraded it."

"Cultivators have abundant energy; they won't die even if they don't sleep for several days and nights."

"Previously, they wasted time on low-efficiency things like meditation, spacing out, and comprehending the Heavenly Dao."

"Now, I'm going to squeeze every minute out of them."

Li Mo pointed to the Course Schedule on the wall.

05:00 - 06:00: Morning Exercise & Passionate Recitation (Wake up the brain).

06:00 - 06:15: Breakfast (Timed eating, practice swallowing speed).

06:15 - 12:00: Morning Core Classes (Bombardment of Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology).

12:00 - 12:30: Lunch Break (Mandatory meditation, organizing incorrect problems).

12:30 - 18:00: Afternoon Lab Classes (Hands-on furnace exploding, dissection, launching).

18:00 - 18:30: Dinner (Exchange insights, strictly no dating).

18:30 - 24:00: Evening Self-Study (Grinding problems, writing papers, fixing bugs).

24:00 - 05:00: Sleep (Or secretly grinding).

"Squeak... (Too brutal.)"

Squeak shuddered. "Even the donkeys in a production team wouldn't dare rest like this."

"Brutal?"

Li Mo shook his head.

"No, they will soon discover that this is a blessing."

...

Just as Li Mo said.

This hellish life initially made everyone want to die.

Especially those undercover agents from the Holy Lands who were used to being pampered; they wanted to plan a "jailbreak" several times.

But on the third day.

A change occurred.

First Lecture Hall, evening self-study time.

The classroom was so quiet that even a pin drop could be heard. Only the rustling of pen tips across paper—the sound of knowledge flowing—remained.

In a corner, Star Plucker, the "Thousand-Faced Divine Thief" who had been knocked unconscious and captured, was staring miserably at a problem: **"Topology: The Geometric Relationship Between Knot Theory and Untying the Immortal Binding Rope."**

He had been forcibly assigned to the "Topology Department" because Li Mo felt his lock-picking skills showed geometric talent.

"What kind of crappy problem is this..."

Star Plucker bit his pen, his mind a tangled mess.

"Trefoil knot... Klein bottle... Mobius strip..."

"If the Immortal Binding Rope is viewed as a projection of a higher-dimensional space..."

He stared intently at the lines on the drawing, his brain working frantically, trying to construct that complex spatial model in his mind.

This high-intensity spatial visualization was a massive drain on the Divine Soul.

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, his face turned pale, and bursts of stinging pain came from his Sea of Consciousness.

"The limit... I can't do it..."

Star Plucker felt like his head was about to explode.

He wanted to give up. He wanted to throw the pen away.

But just as he reached the breaking point.

Buzz—

A crisp buzzing sound suddenly echoed deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

It was as if an invisible membrane had been punctured.

His originally depleted Divine Soul power suddenly burst with astonishing vitality, like a withered tree meeting spring!

It wasn't just recovery, it was... growth!

His Divine Sense instantly expanded. Originally only able to cover a hundred-meter radius, it actually doubled to two hundred meters! Moreover, the clarity was greatly improved, and he could even "see" the trajectories of dust in the air!

Boom!

A strong surge of spiritual energy erupted from Star Plucker.

He actually broke through!

From the Golden Core Early Stage, he jumped directly into the Golden Core Middle Stage!

"I... I broke through?"

Star Plucker stared blankly at his hands.

He hadn't taken a Medicinal Pill, hadn't meditated, and hadn't even run a Cultivation Technique.

He had just... solved a math problem?

"Heavens! Junior Brother Sikong broke through!"

The surrounding classmates (cellmates) looked at him in shock.

"Wasn't he doing that Hell-difficulty topology problem?"

"Could it be... solving problems really increases cultivation?!"

This scene completely ignited the atmosphere in the classroom.

On the podium, Zhang Yuan, who was invigilating, pushed up his glasses and revealed a smile that said he had "seen through everything long ago."

"What's all the fuss?"

Zhang Yuan tapped the blackboard.

"The teacher said it long ago."

"The brain is also a muscle."

"In the past, when you practiced cultivation, you only knew about Qi Refining and Body Refining, but you ignored the most important part—Spirit Refining."

"How do you refine the Divine Soul? By spacing out? Wrong!"

"Just as muscles must be torn to grow, the Divine Soul must undergo 'extreme thinking' to strengthen!"

"When you rack your brains to calculate a calculus problem, your Divine Soul is performing 'high-intensity weightlifting'."

"When you stay up late and lose hair for a chemical equation, your Sea of Consciousness is undergoing 'expansion construction'."

"As long as you don't die from studying, study like your life depends on it."

"Every burn of a brain cell is fuel for the evolution of the Divine Soul!"

Zhang Yuan's words were like a great bell, waking everyone up.

So that's how it is!

So this was the Old Ancestor's painstaking effort!

He wasn't torturing us! He was helping us with Spirit Refining!

One must know that the Divine Soul is the hardest thing to cultivate in the Cultivation World. Medicinal Pills are hard to find, and Cultivation Techniques are scarce.

But now, you can get stronger just by solving problems?

This isn't Hell; this is heaven!

"I understand!"

Xiao Tianjiao slammed the table and stood up, a raging fire burning in his eyes.

"Help me up! I can do another test paper!"

"I want to challenge 'General Relativity'! I want to train my Divine Soul into a black hole!"

"I want to too!"

Ji Qingyue also ignored her image, grabbing a handful of "Immortal Water" and splashing it on her face to refresh herself.

"Chemical bonds! I want to memorize chemical bonds! My Divine Soul will be as hard as a diamond!"

Even the Big Yellow Dog sleeping at the door was infected by this fanatical atmosphere. It rolled over and began to recite multiplication tables in its sleep.

...

From this day on.

The style of the Heavenly River Sword Sect completely changed from "forced internal competition" to "proactive obsession."

No one complained about being tired anymore.

Tired? Being tired meant the Divine Soul was growing!

No one complained about the difficulty anymore.

Difficult? Difficulty meant this equipment (problem) was powerful enough and the training effect was good!

There were even situations where two Disciples almost got into a fight over the right to solve a "final boss problem."

"Let go of that problem! Let me do it! I feel my Bottleneck loosening!"

"Get lost! The logical trap of this problem is mine! No one steals my experience pack!"

In the dead of night, 1:00 AM.

The Heavenly River Sword Sect was still brightly lit.

But this time, it wasn't because of lamp oil, but because of...

Bio-fluorescence.

To solve the night lighting problem and save money, Sun Yu from the Biology Department (the one who built the steam turtle) had cultivated a kind of **[High-Brightness Firefly Moss]**.

This moss was coated all over the walls and ceilings of the classrooms, emitting a faint green light.

Under this eerie green light.

Thousands of heads were buried in books, pens flying like dragons and snakes.

Everyone's eyes were bloodshot from staying up late, but their spirits were extremely excited.

Li Mo patrolled outside the classroom like a ghost.

He looked at this group of top students under the "green light" and listened to the sound of writing, which was like silkworms eating mulberry leaves, feeling incredibly gratified.

"What good leeks."

Li Mo lamented.

"In the past, they would kill an entire family to snatch a Medicinal Pill."

"Now, give them a problem, and they'll risk their lives for you."

"Squeak. (Boss, I found that the undercover from the Loose Cultivator Alliance seems a bit off.)"

Squeak pointed to a corner.

That undercover was staring blankly at a drawing, drool flowing everywhere.

It was the **"Spiritual Energy Perpetual Motion Machine (Pseudo) Blueprint."**

He had gone mad, muttering: "As long as I reduce friction... as long as I break the laws of thermodynamics... I can create infinite spiritual energy..."

"That's Qi Deviation."

Li Mo glanced over.

"An academic lunatic. Normal."

"Drag him out and give him some electrotherapy."

"Let him come back and continue calculating once he's sober."

"Yes."

Two Zhao Wujis wearing insulation suits walked over, skillfully hoisted the lunatic, and dragged him toward the infirmary.

"Let me go! I'm not crazy! I'm about to succeed! I have a perpetual motion machine! I am a god!"

The man's screams faded into the distance, and the people in the classroom didn't even lift their heads.

...

The changes in the Heavenly River Sword Sect were astonishing.

In just one month.

The average Divine Soul strength of the Sect's Disciples had increased by a full thirty percent.

Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators could withstand the Divine Sense pressure of the Golden Core Stage, and Golden Core Stage Cultivators could see through the illusions of the Nascent Soul Stage.

This phenomenon of "universal Divine Soul mutation" finally caught deeper attention.

Upper Realm, Plane Observation Station.

The main body of that "Big Eye" whose projection Li Mo had once turned off was currently staring at the data on the screen, a confused stream of data flashing in its single eye.

"Abnormal fluctuations in Plane No. 9527 are intensifying."

"The brainwave activity of the organisms in this plane has exceeded the threshold of a normal cultivation plane."

"What are they doing?"

"A collective Epiphany?"

The observer zoomed in on the screen.

He saw the walls full of formulas, the dog wearing glasses, and the zombies... no, Cultivators, solving problems under the green light.

"This..."

"Could this be the legendary... [Memetic Ascension]?"

"Are they trying to forcibly raise the plane's Rank by analyzing the underlying logic of the Universe?"

"Unforgivable."

"This is cheating."

"Initiate Level 2 Cleanup Program."

"Deploy... [Logic Lock]."

"Since they like thinking, give them a... riddle that can never be solved."

...

Inside the Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo, who was grading homework, suddenly snapped his pen.

He looked up toward the Void Realm above.

There, an invisible, cold rule-force filled with malice was quietly descending.

"Finally can't sit still anymore?"

Li Mo's lips curled slightly.

"This time, it's not a crab, nor a projection."

"But... a riddle?"

He glanced at the Disciples who were still fanatically grinding problems in the classroom.

"Just right."

"The problem bank is almost finished."

"Thanks to the old friend for sending... the final boss problem."}

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