"Actually, your line of thinking is not wrong; what is really wrong is your habitual way of thinking."

Seeing that Wei Sijian was almost driven crazy, Shen Qian stopped keeping him in suspense and spoke up.

"Inertia of thought?" Wei Sijian asked, puzzled.

"Why do you insist on building a skyscraper from scratch when you can stand on the shoulders of giants?" Shen Qian picked up the unknown herb from the experimental dish and chuckled. "Who said something new is always better?"

Wei Sijian was struck dumb, standing there frozen in place.

“New…old…yes, why have I never thought of trying the old one? What has always bothered me is how to bring out the effects of the main ingredient, but if I continue to use the old approach, I don’t need to adjust the main ingredient anymore, I just need to balance the proportion of the auxiliary ingredients…”

He muttered to himself, but then seemed to have figured something out, and his eyes lit up.

"Senior Brother Wei, what are you talking about? What's this about new and old?"

The short-haired girl exchanged a blank look with the other three and asked.

"I know how to improve the formula!"

Wei Sijian snapped out of his daze and said excitedly, "I had a misconception before, which is... what someone called habitual thinking. I always thought that if we wanted to research a better prescription, the biggest problem must be the main ingredient. So I kept changing the spiritual herbs that were used as the main ingredient, but I kept failing."

"But what he just said reminded me that after so much exploration, my auxiliary medicine formula is already perfect. Even if I don't change the main medicine, as long as I find the balance between them and their perfect ratio, I can still achieve the goal of improving the prescription!"

Seeing that the others were still completely bewildered, Wei Sijian stamped his foot in exasperation, "Why are you all so dense?"

"The main ingredient of the 'Body Strengthening Compound' is Schisandra chinensis, which is the most suitable main ingredient that our predecessors have summarized through countless explorations. There are already mature theories on how to make the best use of its medicinal properties. In fact, I only need to adjust the auxiliary ingredients while keeping the main ingredient unchanged, and I will definitely be able to make great progress."

Wei Sijian explained it again, and without caring whether the others understood, he excitedly pushed them aside and went to the warehouse to find a few more schisandra plants to do experiments.

"Blinded by a leaf, truly blinded by a leaf..."

Seeing Wei Sijian leave in a hurry with a sigh, the short-haired girl and the others exchanged glances and silently shook their heads.

"Although I still don't quite understand, it seems like Senior Brother Wei's friend is quite impressive. He made Senior Brother Wei go crazy with just one sentence," one of them said, stroking his chin.

"Yes, Senior Brother Wei has been researching this improved formula for almost half a year now, especially in the last few months. He seems to be stuck, and he gets very irritable every time the teacher asks him about his progress."

"What's the background of Senior Brother Wei's friend? I've never seen him before."

While the three were discussing, the short-haired girl suddenly felt that something was not right. She looked around and then paused in surprise.

"Where is Senior Brother Wei's friend...?"

The group of people were stunned at the same time, and then they suddenly realized, "Oh right, where did he go? When did he disappear?"

At this moment, Wei Sijian, who was holding the seven-flavor berries, hurriedly returned. The short-haired girl quickly stopped him, "Is your friend also a medical student?"

"My friend?" Wei Sijian's gaze was filled with confusion. "Do I have any friends?"

"You mean the one we were just discussing the prescription with?"

"Oh, him? He's not... wait, right, who is he?" Wei Sijian looked at the group and said eagerly, "Is he a new colleague? What's his name? He's really impressive, I must become sworn brothers with him!"

"..."

The short-haired girls exchanged glances and fell silent once again.

...

Shen Qian hurriedly left the Medical Research Institute, then wandered around the Martial Arts Bureau before finally getting on the public tram home. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and look at the spiritual herbs wrapped in a plastic bag in his hand.

He showed off and ran away, and then...damn...that was exciting.

The name of the herb in his hand is still unknown, but Shen Qian estimates that it is qualified to be the main ingredient in a compound, and it is at least on par with the Seven Flavors.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Qian took out his bracelet, turned on the search function, and entered the three characters "Wei Sijian".

Hmm... a lot of Wei Sijians popped up, and I didn't recognize any of them before.

So Shen Qian added the words "Professor Cheng" to the end.

"Hey, I've got it!"

Shen Qian clicked on the top news item, which was an internal campus newsletter from Beiwu.

The news article roughly states that Wei Sijian, a genius in the Department of Alchemy at our school, has been accepted as a disciple by Cheng Shanhe, a leading figure in the Chinese medical field and the vice dean of the Beiwu Pharmacy Academy. Below is a list of Wei Sijian's personal honors.

The top liberal arts student in the college entrance examination from the second province along the Yellow River...

The only genius in Beiwu in the past decade who was specially recruited despite not meeting the required martial arts score...

He won first place in the national math Olympiad at the age of nine...

That's awesome!

After reading it, Shen Qian felt inferior because of his lack of cultural knowledge, and could only shout "Holy crap!" in his heart.

He just didn't expect that the other party was only a junior in college. Perhaps his high hairline gave him the wrong impression.

Telling the other party the correct research direction for the "physical enhancement drug" wouldn't matter to Shen Qian. In fact, there were still several minor errors in Wei Sijian's notebook, and the dosages of those formulas were also incorrect. It seemed that it wouldn't be so quick for Wei Sijian to develop a truly finished product for the "physical enhancement drug".

If they still want to profit from "performance-enhancing drugs" before sinking, they still have a chance and time.

However, after learning that the "energy potion" was Wei Sijian's original creation, Shen Qian no longer planned to sell the formula, as it was not very ethical.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!