◎ The Learning Pyramid, Have You Mastered It? ◎
The scenery of the vast desolate mountains wasn’t extraordinary. All Lin Shuang could see were towering mountains one after another.
Fortunately, with the recent heavy snowfall, the snow-covered landscape connected the blue sky like a blue sea, bringing her a bit of joy.
When she woke up after an incense stick’s time, she saw Zhou Xuanwu, moving forward on his flying sword amidst flying snowflakes, his gestures intimidating the fourteen bandits.
He pursued, they fled, and they couldn’t escape even with wings.
Effortlessly, Zhou Xuanwu conjured a first-tier binding talisman, tying up the fourteen bandits and binding them to the back of the caravan’s horse carriage.
The action was cool, the rhythm was invigorating, and the satisfaction of beating up the villains was at its peak. Hollywood blockbusters might not be able to achieve such special effects.
Visually appealing, pleasant, satisfying.
Worth the price of this trip.
Seated on her wide sword, Lin Shuang offered her most sincere praise, “Senior Brother, impressive.”
Standing on the sword, Zhou Xuanwu put one hand in front of him and the other behind him, his posture complex. He stood tall and proud.
Lin Shuang took out her diary and recorded diligently.
“Well, the originally anticipated three incense sticks’ worth of entertainment for today is completed ahead of schedule.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “?”
Her muttering couldn’t escape Zhou Xuanwu’s hearing.
“Thank you, Senior Brother Zhou.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “???”
Lin Shuang happily closed her diary, removed her earphones, and seriously admired the snowy landscape of the Great Wild Mountains.
Beside her, Xiao Qi floated on his sword, listening silently. Finally, unable to resist his curiosity, he asked, “Junior Sister Lin, what is this entertainment schedule?”
He had never heard of it before.
Zhou Xuanwu had moved too fast just now, so Xiao Qi didn’t even get a chance to fight a monster.
Normally, he would itch to do so, but now, he was drawn in by Lin Shuang’s mumbling.
It was as if once he understood, he would enter a whole new level.
Lin Shuang turned her head in response, gently nodding towards him.
Communication with fellow travelers during peripheral tourism was also a great way to relax.
It was also a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and enhance their relationships.
“Yes, to maintain optimal energy, besides the physical fitness from daily cultivation, we also need to pay attention to our emotions.” Lin Shuang answered earnestly.
Xiao Qi froze, his face reddening for a moment, “What… emotions… do you mean dual cultivation?”
The hand behind Zhou Xuanwu’s back twitched.
However, he still silently perked up his ears.
“If emotions are low and one feels disheartened, they can’t fully invest in cultivation.”
Lin Shuang had personally experienced this after her rebirth.
“We need to have regular entertainment schedules, including but not limited to listening to music, reading novels, going sightseeing, and hanging out with friends,” she enumerated with pride.
Xiao Qi’s flying sword came to a halt.
Since he started cultivating until now, Senior Brother had only urged him to practice morning and night, never mentioning that leisure activities could enhance cultivation.
What kind of technique was this?
He couldn’t believe it, but when he thought of the scene where she had pounded him into the ground with her delicate fists during the fight for the Spiritual Spring he remembered her drawing two talismans with one hand when he considered her sharp and precise mental perception…
“Senior Sister Lin, is this why you’re so powerful?” Xiao Qi exclaimed.
Zhou Xuanwu stiffly turned his head, looking at Lin Shuang, who, by his estimation, wouldn’t last three rounds under his hands due to her delicate constitution.
But soon his breath caught.
Lin Shuang faintly sensed his gaze and met his eyes.
In an instant, Zhou Xuanwu felt his vision dazzle, as if he was seeing a huge cocoon formed by nearly a hundred clusters of silk threads around Lin Shuang.
In a breath, this cocoon wrapped around her expanded.
What was this?
Zhou Xuanwu closed his eyes and then opened them, but found nothing unusual about Lin Shuang’s side as if he had mistaken something.
However, her eyes were now focused, emitting a halo of fluctuating light.
As if her spiritual awareness was growing.
“Well, thanks to Senior Brother Zhou’s impressive display just now, I’ve been exposed to an extraordinary and intense battle. Now I indeed feel my sea of consciousness is full, my spirit is vigorous, and my spiritual awareness has grown stronger,” Lin Shuang nodded gratefully toward him.
Zhou Xuanwu: “?”
After Lin Shuang finished speaking, she gave Xiao Qi a look that said, “I’m willing to teach a promising student,” “I’m not that powerful; I’m just as strong as planned in the schedule.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “…?”
Do you get stronger by following a schedule?
Xiao Qi also looked confused.
At noon, after the caravan rested, they continued to move through the mountains according to the map’s route.
Zhou Xuanwu soared into the sky on his flying sword, no longer paying attention to Lin Shuang’s banter, fearing he couldn’t resist the urge to challenge her, despite the significant gap in their strength.
Xiao Qi glanced at Zhou Xuanwu with mixed emotions, then finally turned to Lin Shuang, who was immersed in the view of the mountains, and quietly apologized.
“Senior Sister Lin, I misspoke in front of Senior Brother Zhou just now.”
“You’ve always wanted to conceal your strength, and I shouldn’t have said you were very powerful.”
“Not at all.” Lin Shuang raised her hand to stop his speculations.
Concealing strength, such a time-consuming and thankless effort, was not something she would do.
Xiao Qi: “… You’re already at the Foundation Establishment stage.”
They had thought she was weak.
Lin Shuang’s brows furrowed for a moment, and she clutched her abdomen.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Inside my body, there are eighty-seven Dantians, all at the Qi Refinement Third Layer.”
“…!”
Why eighty-seven now? Wasn’t it eighty-five before?
Xiao Qi looked puzzled.
Shaking his head in resignation, he took out a jade slip from his mustard seed bag. “Forget it, let’s not discuss this. I followed your advice and exchanged for the ‘Diamond Sutra’ from the sect seven days ago. I finished learning the first layer yesterday, the Thousand Gold Body Technique.”
As he spoke, his forehead twitched. He remembered the day of the boxing, and his chest still had a slight phantom pain.
Lin Shuang’s eyes widened. Indeed, she seemed quite interested as she glanced at his neck exposed by his golden robe.
Seeing his skin emit a faint golden aura of defensive Qi when his technique operated, she excitedly nodded in approval.
The intensity and endurance of a sparring partner directly influenced the time she needed to ascend to the fat-burning heart rate.
The previous Xiao Qi had been unable to withstand much.
It took her a Grade Three Enhancing Spirit Talisman just to make him break a sweat.
The talisman paper and ink all came at a cost.
This fat-burning exercise was burning her money.
Thinking about it, Lin Shuang was quite satisfied with Xiao Qi’s level of enthusiasm, “Good, you’ve indeed grasped the basics of the Diamond Sutra.”
She nearly reached out to inspect his chest muscles, but she restrained herself.
Because today was not a fat-burning day, it was her rest day.
Moderation brought good fortune.
“I can now withstand the force of my sword strike head-on,” Xiao Qi invited praise.
He was also a naturally gifted individual, and his cultivation speed within the sect had always been exceptional.
But at Lin Shuang’s words, his eyebrows furrowed. “Ah, just one sword?”
Xiao Qi: “…”
Lin Shuang pressed her temple with a puzzled expression, looking at him. “A strike from someone at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement?”
Xiao Qi: “…………”
Why did he suddenly feel like there was something caught in his chest?
“Too weak,” Lin Shuang shook her head.
Xiao Qi: “!”
He clutched his chest and nearly fell off the floating sword.
“So, Senior Sister, could it be that I’m not strong enough because I lack the leisure time you mentioned?” Xiao Qi, also a talented individual, immediately started reflecting with a touch of insight.
But Lin Shuang propped her cheek up with her right hand, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Is your learning method problematic?”
Xiao Qi: “?? Uh?”
After a stick of incense, Xiao Qi received the Diamond Sutra with red, blue, and yellow markings that Lin Shuang had annotated for him, along with a recommended training plan.
“The Feynman Learning Technique?”
“The Learning Pyramid?”
“The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve?”
Xiao Qi recognized every word, but when they were strung together, he couldn’t understand.
But soon he saw the detailed explanation behind them.
【The Learning Pyramid – The Efficiency of Various Learning Methods】
Reading, 10% efficiency;
Listening, 20% efficiency;
…
Teaching others and applying, 90% efficiency.
“How did you learn the Diamond Sutra in these seven days?” Lin Shuang asked curiously.
Naturally, he used the method of reading the techniques meticulously.
Xiao Qi was taken aback and quickly found the relevant section: Reading, 10% efficiency.
“…!”
Shaking her head, Lin Shuang sighed. “Ah.”
She pointed to the study guide for “Diamond Sutra,” “You can find a rock, treat it as a fellow disciple, and explain the first layer of the Diamond Sutra to it. Simultaneously, speaking and listening, as well as demonstrating, can be done, by practicing these three senses in parallel. By polishing every day, going deep into the basics, you can accelerate the speed of mastery and the level of understanding.”
!
Xiao Qi’s body trembled. Although he didn’t entirely believe it would work, he continued to read the subsequent practice advice.
“Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve: The unfamiliarity rate of learned techniques— ”
“After half an incense stick’s time, unfamiliarity at 40%. After two incense sticks’ time, unfamiliarity at 60%!”
Lin Shuang narrowed her eyes, “You just mentioned that you study the Diamond Sutra daily? What’s the interval between your second practice and your first?”
Naturally, it was the early and late cultivation sessions every day.
Six hours apart.
After all, he still had to practice swordsmanship and cultivate his inner techniques…
But when Xiao Qi looked down, “unfamiliarity at 60% after two incense sticks’ time”… Does this mean that with a six-hour gap, he was forgetting everything and starting over each time?
!
Lin Shuang looked at him, shook her head in sympathy, and sighed, “Ah.”
Xiao Qi: “…”
The shock he felt inside was as profound as when he first entered the Mountain and Sea Sect and received his first cultivation technique.
So, had he been practicing wrongly all this time?
Did Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters know about this?
Did the elders of the Clearwater Sect know? Did the masters in the Transmission Hall know?!
“It’s alright. After all, you haven’t gone through the nine-year compulsory education or the inhuman trials of the college entrance examination.”
“…?”
Xiao Qi’s heart was in turmoil.
Was Clearwater Sect’s disciples’ training really this intense?
The next two days of escorting the convoy were calm and uneventful.
Zhou Xuanwu always radiated his spiritual awareness from high in the sky. Although he occasionally daydreamed, influenced by Lin Shuang’s trash talk, and enjoyed the snowy mountain scenery, he quickly scolded himself for his lack of determination and returned to his focused state.
Perhaps because his high-altitude sword control allowed him to see the surroundings for dozens of miles, or perhaps because the convoy’s carriage dragged the fourteen captured bandits with them, no other mountain bandits dared to approach along the way.
However, Zhou Xuanwu’s state of mind became increasingly tense with each passing day.
“Junior Brother Xiao, your Diamond Sutra… has strengthened again?”
On the morning of the third day, Zhou Xuanwu landed with his sword, seeing Xiao Qi’s vibrant spirit, along with the enhanced golden aura on his hands and face.
“Heh, it’s strengthened a bit more.” Xiao Qi scratched his head.
After saying that, he switched his cultivation technique and sent a sword strike toward a stone ten miles away.
Instantly, the stone shattered and turned into mist.
Zhou Xuanwu widened his eyes. “Your Dragon-Transforming Sword has also improved!”
“Hehe, I’ve improved a bit,” Xiao Qi scratched his head.
How did he manage that?
Zhou Xuanwu was shaken.
Three times a day, Zhou Xuanwu would land with his sword, and almost every time, he could witness Xiao Qi’s visible breakthroughs in cultivation, techniques, and swordsmanship.
This cultivation speed was truly astonishing.
“It’s nothing special, just proficiently mastering the cultivation methods of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve and the Learning Pyramid.”
“???”
Zhou Xuanwu was completely puzzled but soon turned his skeptical gaze toward Lin Shuang.
Recently, every time Xiao Qi looked at her, his face was filled with amazement and admiration.
And in Xiao Qi’s gaze as he beheld the first light of the day—
Lin Shuang stood up.
Finally, she rose from the two broad swords she had been kneeling on.
Her green robe fluttered, with red cords swaying between the sleeves.
As she looked at Xiao Qi, a hint of smile and anticipation played in her black pupils on her snowy cheeks.
“You’ve stepped into the second layer of the Diamond Sutra.”
Xiao Qi’s golden robe fluttered in the wind as he gazed at her, responding, “Meeting you today, I’ve designated it as my fat-burning day.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “?”
In an instant, Xiao Qi gestured, and a brilliant golden light enveloped him. His handsome face became solemn. “On this day, I will definitely endure for the duration of a stick of incense!”
Lin Shuang’s lips curved into a smile as she lightly tapped her clean chin.
Extending her hand, she gracefully retrieved one of the broad swords from beneath her.
“Come.”
Zhou Xuanwu: “???”
On the northern outskirts of the vast wild mountains, atop a cloud-shrouded peak near a town.
A fierce-looking man with a severed arm wielded a large iron hammer as he sped forward.
One hundred miles behind him was a disheveled man in a mask, chasing after him.
“Hmm, two at the ninth level of Qi Refinement and one at the third level?”
“Haha, they came to me without me having to work. After I suck their blood and qi, my essence will recover. At that time, I won’t be afraid of pursuit!”
The ferocious man with the iron hammer bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood in an instant, accelerating towards Zhou Xuanwu and the direction of the convoy.
Author’s Note:
“Sect Master’s Zhao’s Notes 9”: Every time you learn a new technique, you must review it regularly, or you will quickly become unfamiliar. The time and frequency of review should be based on Sister’s Forgetting Curve. Too little review yields poor results, while excessive review is wasteful.
Xiao Qi: I’ve been an idiot. Senior Brother didn’t tell me earlier! Mountain and Sea Sect is no good!
Zhou Xuanwu: I’ve been an idiot too. Why are you speaking so softly? Don’t you want me to hear?
