The next day, the beautiful and peaceful bell sound rang through Self Defense Freshman Dormitory once again. Lin Xi, who was sitting on his bed, felt his eyes twitch. “This cultivation method really is interesting… only, in the replenishing of soul force, it really isn’t fast…” After several breaths, he muttered this sentence, and only then did Lin Xi slowly open his eyes, getting out of bed to wash up.
Between his brows, was still a bit of excitement.
This world of cultivation, for him, really was quite interesting.
When night fell yesterday, he entered meditation cultivation through the method the single-eyed black-robed lecturer whose name he still didn’t know taught him. Then, he unknowingly sat on his bed for an entire night, waking only when morning arrived.
However, apart from his legs feeling unnaturally numb and his belly also feeling ridiculously empty, his entire being felt extremely refreshed, as if he had slept really well for more than ten hours. Meanwhile, in his dantian, there was now already a gentle stream, just that Lin Xi could sense that this stream didn’t seem to be as abundant as yesterday’s.
After washing up and changing clothes, Lin Xi calmed himself down, examining that stream within his dantian again. However, no matter how he tried to control it, that fine stream slowly wandered about his dantian completely on its own, only bringing his body a bit of warmth.
It was probably because of that black bow that the stream left his body. Lin Xi didn’t waste any more time either, quickly grabbing the letter he had already finished writing before cultivating last night, throwing it into his robes, and then left after Tang Ge next door reminded him to hurry up.
Almost all of the new students poured into the first floor west side dining hall like starving ghouls, even Lin Xi and Tang Ke only starting to chat after they sat down at a table full of food.
“Last night, I knocked on your door, but you didn’t say anything, so I reckon you were cultivating and decided not to bother you. That Lecturer Tong who had you and Bian Linghan stay behind, he didn’t make things too difficult, did he?” Tang Ke grabbed a meat bun that was the size of his own head, and only after taking a huge bite out of it, slightly easing the torturous hunger pains, did he ask this in a vague manner.
Before Tang Ke’s words finished, even before Lin Xi had time to ask how he knew that lecturer’s surname was Tong, the bright Hua Jiyue, Bian Linghan, the rest of the five girls, as well as Li Kaiyun also walked over, directly sitting with Lin Xi and Tang Ke.
After grabbing a meat bun just like Tang Ke, taking a big bite without any trace of a wise and virtuous lady’s appearance, Hua Jiyue directly replied to the question she just heard Tang Ke ask in Lin Xi’s place. “Him and Linghan’s feelings were strong, emotions deep, which ended up pissing off Lecturer Tong. They didn’t have any course points deducted, but they have to do a month of bitter work.”
“Cough… cough…” Lin Xi immediately almost choked on the date cake he grabbed when he heard this.
“Hua Jiyue, you can’t speak nonsense.” Bian Linghan’s face became slightly red, speaking with feigned anger, “Lecturer Tong only punished us to help with some work for two hours every day as punishment.”
“How did you guys know his surname was Tong?” When Lin Xi finally caught his breath, he finally managed to ask this.
Hua Jiyue made short work of that bun, and then, without any misgivings, said, “When we returned last night, we ran into a group of Statecraft Department seniors, it was them who told me that Lecturer Tong was incredibly strict. Even though you will obtain two course points from him as long as you reach the low rank Soul Knight level, there are always new students who have points deducted by him each year.”
“Right, Lin Xi,” Hua Jiyue suddenly recalled something, looking at Lin Xi and asking, “Those seniors told us that the day after tomorrow, there are some academy clubs who will visit the freshman dormitories and recruit members in the evening, that we shouldn’t miss this opportunity.”
When he thought back to the various university organizations that were recruiting new members in his previous world, Lin Xi wasn’t all that surprised. He rolled up a pancake, then took a few bites out of it while asking, “What kind of clubs are there?”
“There’s the Poetry Art Club, Sword Club, Physical Club, Stealth Club, all different types. There seem to be several dozen clubs, those Statecraft Department seniors only told us a few of them.”
“Stealth, Trap Arrangement, aren’t these two required courses for our Self Defense Department in our second year? So what is this Stealth Club’s purpose? And what is the Physical Club for?” Lin Xi asked with curiosity. When they were coming back last night, him and Bian Linghan also ran into some Spiritual Sacrifice new students, one of them a ‘golden spoon’ youngster named Liu Yingting he recognized, the two chatting along the way. From what Liu Yingting said, Spiritual Sacrifice Department’s new students were inside a black building on a mountaintop not too far from where they resided. That black building was just as strange as their Self Defense Freshman Dormitory, full of secret rooms and bizarre runes, many of them completely empty, yet had creaking and groaning walking sounds. Meanwhile, as he chatted with Liu Yingting, Lin Xi learned that their Spiritual Sacrifice Department new students also ran into some senior Self Defense Department students, those older students mentioning that their Self Defense Department’s second year required coursework included Stealth and Trap Arrangement. Stealth referred to moving while remaining concealed, changing appearances, while Trap Arrangement was the setting up and disarming of traps. These two skills were rather useful on battlefields with complex terrains like mountains and forests.
“Most of the clubs are for students who have great interest in certain course topics. Stealth Club is joined by those with special interest in concealment, allowing them to learn things they normally wouldn’t from classes, become even better in this field. As for Physical Club, it is a club that focuses on unarmed combat.”
“Joining these clubs won’t provide you with additional points, but it will allow you to network with many senior brothers and sisters, obtain useful guidance.”
“Tang Ke, is the amount of food cultivators eat this crazy for all of them?”
“Yes, in the border army, cultivators normally all eat ten jin, this ten jin referring to ten jin of meat each meal.”
“Then won’t even the mice in the mountains be completely wiped out by you all?”
“Lin Xi, we’re eating, can you not joke around like that? Do you really want us to choke to death… you think just anyone can become a cultivator? As for those who can’t enter the three major academies, even inside some more well-known academies, those who could cross the first step and become a cultivator are few and far between.”
“...”
In between their idle chatter, Lin Xi finished a piece of date cake, five meat pancakes, three huge buns, and a large pile of shredded roasted meat, fruits, and other things.
Perhaps because none of the food materials were contaminated, carefully chosen before being arranged on these long tables, even an ordinary piece of date cake was exceptionally soft and fragrant, the taste and appearance completely comparable to the organic food of his ‘previous world’.
“These things don’t reach ten jin, but there is at least two to three jin… I never imagined I would become a fathead before anything else.”
Lin Xi rubbed his own round and finally content belly in satisfaction, thinking about what to bring to class later. Judging from Lecturer Tong’s intentions, today’s Soul Force Cultivation lesson, if nothing unexpected happened, should also be carried out in that valley. Moreover, afterwards, he and Bian Linghan still had to undergo an hour of windstalker training. If he still had to crawl back up the mountains with an empty stomach, then it really would be too great of a torment.
However, during these two days, Lin Xi discovered that each meal in Green Luan Academy, despite being rich and sumptuous, took everyone’s appetites into consideration, moreover, it was planned out in quite the detailed manner. Right now, Lin Xi’s table already didn’t have much food left. Moreover, apart from Hua Jiyue, the other four girls who ate a bit slower hadn’t finished eating yet.
“Lin Xi!”
Right at this time, someone shouted out this name. Lin Xi turned around, seeing that it was Qiu Lu who was calling out to him from a table nearby.
It seemed like Qiu Lu only got here not too long ago, a meat pancake still rolled up in his hands, a bowl of horse milk in hand as he bit into the pancake. However, his face was brimming with enthusiasm, as if he was good friends with Lin Xi. While Lin Xi was still a bit surprised, Qiu Lu instead grinned and said, “Green Luan Academy’s greatest good-for-nothing wastrel of the Clear Truth Pill, heaven’s choice candidate, good morning!”
Li Kaiyun, Hua Jiyue, and the others’ faces immediately fell. They were just wondering why Qiu Lu would greet Lin Xi so enthusiastically, completely out of character. Turns out this was completely undisguised provocation and humiliation.
However, what none of them expected was that Lin Xi didn’t get upset, instead laughing and replying, “Morning.”
Qiu Lu’s face immediately became momentarily blank, and then he snapped back, saying, “Lin Xi, who would have thought that you were also this oblivious! A dead pig really doesn’t fear scalding water after all!”
“Qiu Lu, watch what you say.” Hua Jiyue gave Qiu Lu a look, saying with an overcast voice, “Lin Xi was a heaven’s choice candidate designated unanimously by Vice Principal Xia and six department professors. By slandering Lin Xi, it is the same as mocking Vice Principal Xia and the others’ eyesight.”
“But I didn’t say anything wrong?” Qiu Lu smiled complacently. “It’s not like I didn’t acknowledge that he was heaven’s choice, I merely said that he was a good-for-nothing wastrel of a heaven’s choice, wasting a spiritual pill.”
“I already received confirmation yesterday that from today on, we can enter the new student training valley. If you have any bit of courage, do you dare have a go with me inside the new student training valley?” After a laugh, Qiu Lu didn’t pay Hua Jiyue and the others any attention, instead looking at Lin Xi with a hopeful look.
Tang Ke stood up, speaking before Lin Xi could say anything, “Qiu Lu, if you are talking purely in terms of aptitude, claiming that the results of the Clear Truth Pill was greater for you than others, using this as a reason to humiliate others, then you can challenge me first.”
“Lin Xi, could it be that you don’t have the guts, that you need others to step out in your place?” Qiu Lu deliberately roared with laughter, making sure everyone else could hear this.
“Look outside the window, there is a senior brother flying!” Lin Xi smiled, suddenly looking into the distance outside the window behind Qiu Lu, saying this in shock.
“Where?” Everyone turned their heads to look outside the window, but even after staring for a long time, they still didn’t see the flying senior Lin Xi spoke about. The distant mountains were still distant mountains, the clear and azure skies only having some birds flying from time to time.
“Lin Xi, you!”
Suddenly, Qiu Lu cried out in exasperation.
Pu!
Hua Jiyue and the others all couldn’t help but break out into laughter.
The table in front of Qiu Lu was completely empty. When him and everyone else turned around to look at the flying senior brother, Lin Xi already packed up all of the food into two bags, packing his sleeves until they were about to burst.
Because he came late, apart from the sizable amount of food left by his two or three friends, all of the other tables were basically cleaned out. Meanwhile, what drove him the most crazy was that he only ate a single meat pancake, he didn’t eat his fill at all.
“Lin Xi, give it all back!”
While looking at Lin Xi’s innocent face, how he was smiling while standing up, Qiu Lu was so angry he began to hop in place. However, when he saw that Lin Xi was still smiling, not avoiding the hand he reached towards his collar, Qiu Lu suddenly stopped. He suddenly realized that apart from the training valley, taking action against other new students would incur the academy’s punishment; this was not a consequence he could afford to bear.
“Lin Xi, you shameless thing, when the time comes, I will definitely beat you until even your mother doesn’t recognize you in the training valley!” This golden spoon youngster was so angry his entire body was shaking. He could only shout this at Lin Xi’s rear figure.
Under Qiu Lu’s flustered screams, when he thought about the chicken wings he had just collected into those pouches, Lin Xi’s mischievous side surfaced once more. With a smile, he hummed lightly, “Roasted chicken wings… oh how I love them…”
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