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“You didn’t say, ‘begin.’” Wei Wufu said seriously.

“Uhm… my bad…” Lin Shen tried to say something but, seeing Wei Wufu’s face, he felt powerless to argue and could only say, “Okay, let’s start over.”

Thump!

No sooner had Lin Shen finished speaking than Wei Wufu’s iron rod swung onto his body, causing Lin Shen to grimace in pain, his face silently contorting as he clenched his hands into fists, hopping in place and turning circles.

“I didn’t say ‘begin’ yet, why did you start?” Lin Shen asked Wei Wufu once he felt better.

“Adaptation,” Wei Wufu replied.

“Bro, I’m begging you, we don’t need adaptation. Someone as principled as you should stick to your principles, and not be led astray by those without principles or discipline. Can we agree to start only after we say ‘begin,’ okay?” Lin Shen pleaded with teary eyes.

“Okay.” Wei Wufu nodded earnestly, holding the iron rod.

“Also, Wei, when you hit me next time, could you go a little lighter? It’s not that you’re not doing well, it’s just that your brother here hasn’t been resting well lately, so my stamina’s fallen a little bit,” Lin Shen said, gesturing with his hands.

“Understood,” Wei Wufu said with an ‘I got it’ expression.

“Then let’s begin,” Lin Shen said, readying himself before shouting.

Wei Wufu wound up his iron rod and smashed it onto Lin Shen’s chest muscles, making Lin Shen grit his teeth and let out a subdued grunt.

This wasn’t the grunt of injury, but the sound of breath forcefully expelled as the muscles burst with power in resistance to the external force.

Wei Wufu’s control over the strength of his blows could only be described as perfect, and his grasp of physical anatomy was incredibly subtle as well.

With this strike, the muscles bore the brunt of the force, ensuring no harm to the internal organs or bones.

“Again.” Lin Shen felt the force was manageable; aside from muscular pain, there wasn’t much of an impact elsewhere.

Blow after blow, although Wei Wufu didn’t understand what Lin Shen was trying to achieve, he continued as instructed.

From within the backpack on the bed, Fatty’s little head stuck out, his eyes curiously watching Lin Shen being hit, seemingly puzzled about what he was doing.

“Switch spots, don’t just hit one area.” Lin Shen seemed to sense some effect; the force of the blows caused “Evolution Theory” to react, with strength flowing towards the damaged muscles, which began to warm up as if undergoing some sort of baptism.

Wei Wufu complied with Lin Shen’s request, striking him all over his body with the iron rod.

“There’s certainly a reaction now.” Lin Shen could clearly feel the warm current inside him cleansing the struck parts of his body, causing slight changes.

But these changes were too minor, and no significant effect was visible for the time being.

“That’s enough, Wei, let’s stop here for today.” Lin Shen decided to call a halt: first, because it was too painful and he couldn’t take it any longer; and second, because he felt the results weren’t that good and he needed to find another method.

Through this session of beating, Lin Shen had confirmed that the defective “Evolution Theory” was indeed a masochistic Base Mutation technique, as it allowed his body to mutate and strengthen when it was subjected to harsh external factors.

However, this mutation and strengthening had its limits. For example, if the stimulus was too strong and Lin Shen’s body couldn’t withstand the force, “Evolution Theory” was useless.

If the stimulus was too weak, it also failed to activate “Evolution Theory.”

It required the right amount of external force for “Evolution Theory” to be effective—it was a process of long-continued endurance.

Of course, this is just Lin Shen’s current research. Whether this is all that Evolution Theory has to offer or just the tip of the iceberg, he can’t quite say at the moment.

After realizing the unexpected usefulness of Evolution Theory, Lin Shen started to consider whether he should continue cultivating based on Evolution Theory.

Now, practicing Evolution Theory has two drawbacks. First, the flawed version of Evolution Theory only includes the Base Mutation part and lacks the later content.

In the future, when advancing to higher levels, it’s unclear whether the latter part of the official Evolution Theory is compatible with the flawed version.

If it’s compatible, that’s good. If not, Lin Shen would have to figure it out himself.

The other problem is that cultivating this skill is incredibly arduous. Lin Shen had never really suffered hardships from childhood to adulthood, and he was struggling to adapt.

Why do so many children perform poorly in school? Is it because they lack talent? Of course not; most are simply sly, lazy, gluttonous, or slippery, afraid of hardship and suffering—and Lin Shen was one of them.

“No matter what, I definitely can’t keep using the beating method. I need to find a better way,” Lin Shen felt that beating, besides being too painful, also had the drawback of not being comprehensive—it couldn’t strengthen every minute part of the body.

Sonic attacks were quite effective and not too uncomfortable. However, the Crystal Flute wasn’t in Lin Shen’s possession. Once he got it back, he could use it to enhance his bodily strength.

“Is there really no better way?” Lin Shen couldn’t think of a better method at the moment.

The next morning, when Lin Shen got up for breakfast, he noticed Ye Tianzhen and Ye Yuzhen were not home, and Madam Ye didn’t seem to be back either.

With the masters all away, only Lin Shen and Wei Wufu, the two guests, were having breakfast under the housekeeper’s hospitality.

Luckily, both had thick skins and didn’t find anything amiss, enjoying their breakfast tremendously.

After finishing breakfast, Lin Shen planned to stroll through the market again to see if he could find more Fire Seeds.

Before leaving, Lin Shen made a point of informing the old housekeeper to avoid any misunderstanding that he was leaving for good and to ensure the housekeeper would let him in when he returned.

Once he arrived at the market with Wei Wufu, he found the place unusually deserted; there were not only fewer shoppers, but even the number of vendors had significantly dwindled.

“Boss, is the market not open today?” Lin Shen asked a vendor who was packing up.

“What market closure? This market operates all year round,” the vendor replied while packing up.

“Then where did everyone go?” Lin Shen pressed.

“You don’t know? Recently, near the Blue Tree Sea outside the base, quite a number of Mushroom Beasts have been spotted laying eggs. Some people even got Alloy Base Mutation Eggs. Now everyone is rushing there to hunt Mushroom Beasts and look for Base Mutation Eggs,” the vendor finished packing, shouldered his bag, and left, looking in a hurry—he probably wanted to take advantage of the situation.

Lin Shen and Wei Wufu exchanged a look, both seeing the doubt in each other’s eyes.

Since they left the base, they had encountered Mushroom Beasts that were too strong and too numerous, which is why they had run back.

Wouldn’t it be like seeking death for regular Mutators to go out there?

But it seemed that not many Mutators were running into danger; otherwise, it would have spread already. How could so many be bold enough to hunt for Mushroom Beasts and Base Mutation Eggs?

“Could it be that high-level Base Variant Creatures like the Black-Capped Mushroom Beast and the Blue-Cap Mushroom Beast haven’t shown up again?” Lin Shen wondered.

“Should we go take another look? Maybe we were just extremely unlucky to encounter the Black-Capped Mushroom Beast before. With so many people leaving the base now, we shouldn’t be so unlucky to run into the Black-Capped Mushroom Beast again, right?” Lin Shen was somewhat tempted.

If they could escape before the beast tide formed, nothing could be better.