“Umm, hi again.” Li Lang awkwardly greeted the strongest cultivator among the new disciples.

Ling Xue ignored his greeting and took the seat furthest away from Li Lang.

“...I just wanted to say thank you for saving me the other time in Xiang Yang.”

“Hmph,” she turned her head away disdainfully.

Li Lang scratched his cheeks at the awkward silence, with the two being the only ones in the carriage, but thankfully, the Skyrunner soon took to the sky.

With the girl ignoring him, Li Lang soon lost himself in his own thoughts as he prepared for the first round of experiments he wanted to do.

There were a lot of questions about how cultivation worked, but the most urgent one for Li Lang was how to compensate for his low aptitude. According to common knowledge, aptitude was innate and affected the number of spiritual roots and how much Qi one’s body could handle before overdosing.

The only onset symptom of an overdose was the sharp pain one felt. After that, if one persisted in absorbing Qi, it could lead to fatal results. In order to prevent this, one had to take a break. The generally agreed duration for these breaks was a full day to be on the safe side because it varied somewhat from person to person.

So far, Li Lang used his auto-analyzer to examine his body. He had discovered that his cells were destabilized from all the stress when he absorbed too much Qi, but he didn’t have a solution for it. The only good news was it only took him a bit over eleven hours to recover.

People with higher aptitude could make much more progress in the same amount of time as one with lesser aptitude, which meant they could make much more progress with each cultivation session. And that didn’t account for the heavenly resources one could use to speed that up further.

If Qi overdose is similar to what I have in mind, then there should be a way to overcome it. However, I’ll need to experiment with it first to confirm my idea…carefully, too.

As Li Lang deliberated on the intricacies of cultivation, the Skyrunner made decent progress toward their destination.

The elder’s Skyrunner was of much higher quality than the one Li Lang had previously ridden on. Coupled with the elder’s immense cultivation, they soon arrived above the skies of Xiang Yang.

The elder let his passengers off in a small clearing next to the gates.

“Take care, Little Xue. Contact our branch office in Xiang Yang and I’ll come pick you up when your business is done.”

“Thank you, Elder Gong!” Ling Xue replied respectfully while clasping her fist.

The elder quickly took off once they disembarked without sparing Li Lang a glance before flying back to the sect.

This left the two Spirit Grove disciples alone, awkwardly walking together toward the city of Xiang Yang silently.

Without exchanging a single word, they soon arrived at the gates. Ling Xue strode straight past the long line at the gate, flashing her sect token as she passed by, and no one dared to stop her. Instead, the guards saluted her respectfully.

Seeing how effective it was, Li Lang swiftly emulated her and received similar treatment.

By the time he made it into the city, the figure of Ling Xue had already disappeared into the sea of people.

Now then…Where did Wei Ping live again?

Li Lang casually strode down the busy street of Xiang Yang and noticed some familiar faces among the children who were hawking his sodas. It seemed like the matter with the young masters had been settled.

It didn’t take long before Li Lang found Wei Ping’s residence again in a back alley.

“B-boss? You’re b-back! It’s been a month!”

Hearing the familiar voice of his assistant, Li Lang smiled.

“Yes, it took longer than I expected because of the sect competition, but I’m back. How has the recruiting been going?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I-I only got a f-few more before s-starting to run low o-on funds, so my h-hands were tied.”

“Don’t worry about that. I brought some funds again.” Li Lang hefted up the sack of coins he exchanged before leaving the sect.

He had been tirelessly refining pills for the sect and, coupled with the prize for the competition, he had ample contribution points to exchange for some coins.

“But before that, call up all the people you’ve already hired. It’s time to start up the first round of experiments before we recruit more. Get them to meet me at my usual inn tomorrow morning.”

“Y-yes, boss!”

The next morning, Li Lang woke up extra early as he double-checked the equipment he bought yesterday. He had bought them after his talks with Wei Ping to make the experiments go a little smoother. He laid them all out in the outdoor clearing where the well was and began thoroughly examining them.

Before him was a pail of water, a thick metal needle, and a bottle of Recovery Pills that he had personally refined using the materials he redeemed with contribution points. He even had a stove going off to the side.

Li Lang wasn’t able to spend as much time on his inspection as Wei Ping showed up with the test subjects earlier than planned. There were a total of eight people following him, each with a determined look in their eyes.

“Good morning, everyone. As you should already know, today we’ll be carrying out some experiments that you have agreed to in exchange for a handsome sum of money. Before I begin, I wanted to see if any of you had any questions or were having second thoughts?”

Instantly, an elderly lady spoke out.

“Young boy, are you the one who will be in charge of this? Shouldn’t there be someone else?”

“...Don’t worry. I have received careful instructions from someone about what to do. They are even monitoring us as we speak and will intervene if needed.”

Li Lang couldn’t help but lie to the first questions to put his test subjects at ease. He completely understood how strange it was that they placed their lives at the hands of two children, especially one that had an abnormally large head.

By alluding to a powerful cultivator nearby, and that the children were only the attendants, it swiftly reassured everyone present.

“Any other questions?”

A moment passed in silence before a middle-aged man, one of the youngest of this cohort, stepped forward.

“You said there were considerable risks involved in the experiments before, but now that we’re about to start them, can you tell us exactly what those risks are?”

Li Lang took a second to regard the man. He had a well-groomed mustache and had a sturdy build. If one didn’t know any better, they would think he was a healthy individual.

“No…I can’t.”

“What? How can—”

“Let me finish,” Li Lang held up a hand to the man. “I can’t tell you the exact risks involved because I don’t know. We will be testing ways to increase the amount of Qi one can absorb beyond the limit imposed by their natural aptitude.”

“That’s…possible? All the cultivators say aptitude is heaven’s gift and decided at birth…”

“I’m not saying to suddenly increase your talent, but using other means to increase your Qi tolerance.”

The group took a moment to digest the news, but many still wore confused expressions. That only lasted until one of the older men spoke out.

“Everyone. I’m here with the determination to lose my life. I have decided that the money offered is worth these old bones that don’t have much time left anyway. If you’re here, then I think you should be in a similar situation.” He took a moment to stroke his beard and glanced over at Li Lang. “If you are still hesitant, then as our employer mentioned, now is your time to back out.”

The old man’s words had instantly cut through the fog in many of their minds. From the glint in their eyes, many of them visibly renewed their determination, while only one old lady thought otherwise.

“Apologies everyone. It seems I don’t want to go through with this after all. I can’t lie to myself anymore. I’d much rather spend my last days peacefully with my grandchildren.”

“No problem. All the best to you.” Li Lang quickly signaled Wei Ping to escort her away.

No one said anything to the old lady as she walked by. No insults, and no encouragement, as they all understood the reasoning behind the decision.

With only seven participants left, Li Lang grinned at his test subjects as he prepared to get started.

“To start things off, I want you to each form a line in front of me. I will be taking blood samples from each of you.”

Li Lang’s plan for the experiments was to first get an estimate of the maximum Qi capacity each participant had.

He had been cultivating while analyzing his own blood samples to monitor the level of cellular destabilization, but not even his advanced lab equipment could measure something as fantastical as Qi.

His unit of measurement would be the time it took for his subjects to reach the point where they began to experience the sharp pain. To keep it consistent, he asked them to use the same imagery when absorbing Qi.

“Great, now I need you all to divide yourselves into groups according to your cultivation and inform me of how many spiritual roots you have.”

The seven elderly test subjects quickly split off into four groups, ranging from no cultivation at all to stages one to three of Energy Gathering.

Hmm…A third stage Energy Gatherer. It’ll take hours to analyze his blood since he has the same cultivation as me…

Li Lang started with the two non-cultivators first.

“You two. You should know how to cultivate, right? I want you to listen to me exactly, and draw in the surrounding Qi by sucking it through your mouth…”

What the test subjects hadn’t known at the time was how absorbed the little child researcher before them could get. However, they would soon learn, as they would be asked to stay deep into the night.