After coming to his senses, Wang Lan hurried to the cafeteria for a meal, then went straight to his dormitory. Wang Lan needed to conduct an experiment to see if his hypothesis was correct. He turned on his computer and instructed Xiao Ai to search for simple recipes. Soon, a cookbook app featuring home-style dishes was selected. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩 The app contained a hundred home-style recipes, and Wang Lan quickly scrolled through them all in about ten minutes. He focused his mind on the system, but no prompts appeared. Could my guess be wrong? But he dismissed the thought almost immediately. He had browsed too quickly; the recipes hadn’t left any real impression on him. In contrast, during class, when the Basic Skills were triggered, he had genuinely absorbed the material and met the necessary conditions, causing the skill acquisition prompt to appear only during the experiment itself. Wang Lan once again meticulously studied the recipes from beginning to end, scrutinizing every detail: ingredients, cooking steps, and precautions for each dish. "Wang Lan? What are you... doing?" Ming Guodong returned to the dormitory to find Wang Lan neither reviewing the morning’s lessons, nor practicing his Star Power, nor playing games. He’s actually staring at a computer screen full of recipes? His behavior is really hard to understand. Even if he aspires to be a gourmet, he wouldn’t study recipes in the dorm, would he? Is there even space here to showcase any culinary skills? "I’m conducting an experiment," Wang Lan said without looking up from the recipes. "An experiment? Trying to satisfy your hunger by looking at pictures of food? Huh? Wang Lan, your experiment is creative. If you complete it, maybe you’ll attain enlightenment? Don’t you get hungry just looking at recipes?" "What are you thinking? I’ve already eaten," Wang Lan replied. "By the way, Wang Lan, I was in the cafeteria just now and saw... it looked like a third-year senior was pestering Jiang Xinyu..." Wang Lan’s movements paused slightly. He turned his head coldly to look at Ming Guodong. "And then?" A potent killing intent unintentionally emanated from him, making Ming Guodong feel a bone-chilling cold. For a moment, Ming Guodong felt as if he had been plunged into an ice cellar. "Wang Lan, rein it in! I know you’re not simple, just rein it in..." Wang Lan retracted his aura, and Ming Guodong’s complexion finally improved a little. "Later, of course, Princess Yu Ruoyun scared that guy off with a single glance. People say Duanmu Yi is a prominent figure at Modu Star Martial Academy, powerful and with extensive connections. But the true supreme authority at Modu Star Martial Academy is Princess Yu Ruoyun herself. After her warning, I doubt he’ll dare to come near Jiang Xinyu again. You can rest assured!" "Mm," Wang Lan turned his head back to the recipes. After nearly an hour, he finally finished the cookbook. Closing his eyes, he recalled the cooking methods. In his mind, he held a pot in one hand and a spatula in the other... "Basic Skill discovered, available for learning. Spend one skill point to learn?" After allocating the point, a new skill icon immediately appeared on the basic skills page: "Elementary Culinary Skills!" Oh yeah! It looks like my guess was right. Wang Lan raised his head, his eyes flashing with insight. "Uh... Wang Lan, what exactly is this experiment you’re doing? It seems very mysterious," Ming Guodong asked curiously, sitting barefoot on his bed. "Well... it’s not a big deal, really. During class today, I discovered I’m a once-in-a-lifetime genius. I not only grasp college courses instantly but can also extrapolate and understand related concepts. So, I wondered if I was the legendary type who could learn anything instantly. That’s why I used the cookbook to test it..." "And then? What were the results of the experiment?" "My guess was completely correct." "Get out of here!" Ming Guodong gave him an exasperated Wild Imprisonment Finger gesture. "You don’t believe me?" "I believe you! You’re the legendary top student, always first in every exam. A monster like you shouldn’t exist; you should be sent straight to the crematorium," Ming Guodong said, half-joking. Wang Lan stopped bantering with Ming Guodong and picked up his phone to make a call. "I’m fine, don’t worry about me." Their conversations had reached a point of tacit understanding; Jiang Xinyu and Wang Lan didn’t need to specify the issue to know what the other was thinking. "This is the last time!" "I can handle it, don’t worry! The Star Martial Equipment Company, under the Duanmu Family’s banner, has always competed with my dad’s company. However, they mainly produce heavy machinery and high-end products, so there isn’t a major conflict with our family’s business. I know what Duanmu Yi is thinking; he’s actually after the Jiang Group." "That’s not what I’m worried about." "Then you have even less to worry about! This is Modu Star Martial Academy, and besides, I’m Yu Ruoyun’s roommate. He wouldn’t dare try anything funny. After Yu Ruoyun warned him today, I doubt he’ll dare come within three meters of me again." "Got it. Hanging up." Listening to Wang Lan’s conversation, Ming Guodong suddenly became interested. "Are you planning to confront Duanmu Yi?" "One Duanmu Yi isn’t the main issue," Wang Lan said with a solemn expression. This was Modu City, and the Duanmu Family was one of Jade Country’s top families, their strength and influence unfathomable. But even the Duanmu Family’s immense power wasn’t a reason for Wang Lan to silently swallow his grievances. "Then there’s even less to worry about! Who are you? The Flame Emperor’s son! How formidable can the Duanmu family be? Could they be more formidable than Lord Flame Emperor? Don’t be afraid. If you’re going to confront him, do it fiercely. Duanmu Yi isn’t from the lineage of the Five Emperors, so what’s there to fear?" Wang Lan looked at Ming Guodong with surprise. "Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to stir up trouble?" "Be more confident. Get rid of the ’get the feeling’ part. Anyway, it’s not like I’ll be charging into battle. There’s no harm in watching the show from the sidelines, right?" Wang Lan rolled his eyes at Ming Guodong and turned back to his computer, searching for medical books. Professor Zheng Gong returned to his office and pulled up Wang Lan’s file. He was surprised to find that although Wang Lan was already quite famous, he hadn’t yet become a household name. Especially for an old professor like Zheng Gong, who was always busy, where would he find the time to pay attention to such minor news? But when he actually reviewed Wang Lan’s file, a record so dazzling it practically blinded him appeared before his eyes. He had awakened his Star Martial talent only at sixteen. Before that, he had already surpassed all the city’s top students to become the ’academic god.’ In other cities, academic performance might be ranked first, second, or third. But in Suzhou City, rankings were in tiers: first, second, and third. Within the first tier, only Wang Lan’s name appeared. Single-handedly, he had dominated all the city’s top students, leaving them utterly without recourse. Professor Zheng Gong hadn’t seen such talent and dedication in decades. After awakening as a Star Martial Warrior, despite such a late start, his advancement pace was unprecedentedly fast. It was just as Professor Zheng Gong suspected: this was someone extremely devoted to learning and possessing extraordinary talent. Although his talents were so comprehensive, his keen interest in the path of Spirit Engraving was reason enough to cultivate him carefully. Top-tier talent in Spirit Engraving was still far too scarce. Thinking this, the more Professor Zheng Gong looked at Wang Lan’s file, the fonder he grew, even humming a few bars of an opera tune happily. In Ming Guodong’s eyes, Wang Lan’s behavior became increasingly incomprehensible. If researching recipes merely exposed Wang Lan’s true nature as a typical foodie, that would be understandable. But today, Wang Lan was actually poring over medical books? Fine, you’re a Star Martial Warrior with the Medical Attribute, so there’s nothing wrong with looking at medical literature, damn it! But you’re a Star Martial Warrior! It would be completely reasonable if you were reading books on Medical Star Martial Skills. But you’re reading ordinary human medical textbooks! Are you planning to become a general practitioner and perform appendectomies with a scalpel, or what? If food is a hobby, surely you can’t also be interested in surgery and cutting into human organs, right? "Do you know the process of a deadly poison taking effect in the human body? Do you know where to make an incision to cause severe injury but not death? Do you know how to stab someone seven or eight times, yet avoid vital organs with every strike...?" These questions left Ming Guodong completely stunned. Could this be Wang Lan’s way of thinking? He Jing, I want to room with you! This is terrifying! Wang Lan has gone off the deep end. I’m scared he’ll try to experiment on me in the middle of the night... After five days of research, Wang Lan finally figured out how Basic Skills were triggered. First, Basic Skills could only be triggered by applied disciplines, not theoretical ones. For instance, if you design a complex building, you can only trigger drafting skills, not design skills. However, if you learn how to actually build a house, you can trigger construction skills like bricklaying or carpentry. Similarly, in the medical field, theoretical research couldn’t trigger skills. But practical applications like medical diagnosis and treatment methods, for which books contained existing case studies, could be learned by Wang Lan. The same applied to learning musical instruments, singing, and so on; these could also trigger skills. In other words, any ability that was considered a practical skill, could be passed down, and didn’t require exceptionally rare talent, could be triggered as a skill once Wang Lan gained a deep understanding of it. As a result, over these five days, Wang Lan’s Basic Skills panel gained five or six new skills. And each one could... Alright, they might actually be useless for anything other than showing off. But he didn’t plan to waste skill points upgrading them; after all, one can’t have too many skills. There was plenty of empty space for skill icons on the Basic Skills panel anyway. And although skills like medical first aid and wound dressing seemed somewhat superfluous for Wang Lan, who possessed the Song of Life Star Martial Skill, he then thought of a more advanced application. What if he upgraded these skills to a higher level and then transferred them to others through Spiritual Engraving? Wouldn’t he be able to create an expert-level medical talent in mere moments? The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Wang Lan remembered seeing a news report from the year before last about a scientist with terminal cancer who, on his deathbed, had a Spiritual Engraving Master engrave his entire life’s knowledge into his grandson’s mind so he could continue his unfinished research. Having discovered he could learn medical skills, Wang Lan set his sights on researching Star Martial Toxins. But once he delved into this field, Wang Lan realized he had oversimplified things. The study of Star Martial Toxins was a vast theoretical system, and the only somewhat useful related Star Martial Skill was Universal Decomposition. Without this Star Martial Skill, one would need many specialized instruments to analyze and further break down the composition of Star Martial Toxins. However, this skill allowed for the decomposition of any substance in the world into its most fundamental units, all without relying on external equipment. Impressive, right? It certainly sounds powerful! Furthermore, this skill was S-rank in difficulty. But one particular condition made it suddenly seem like a ’chicken rib’—of little practical value. It required physical contact! Do you think learning this skill means you can just decompose your enemies? Some overwhelmingly powerful ability? But if you can already touch the enemy, why bother decomposing them? Isn’t it more straightforward to just stab them with a knife? Precisely because this skill was so difficult and had so many limitations, it was now mainly used for analyzing material composition. The learning conditions for this Star Martial Skill were extremely stringent, meaning only three people in the world had mastered it. And one of them... was apparently at Modu Star Martial Academy.