The Entry-plundering Demon Hunter

Chapter 228: Chapter 227: The Path of the Strong Is Always Filled with Thorns

Shen Mengyi brought Lin Yi to the inner hall.

The inner hall was different from the outer hall.

The outer hall was mostly for students to do their own training.

And the space was enormous.

The entire outer hall could accommodate over a thousand students at once.

It was like an indoor stadium.

There was no risk of it getting too crowded, leading to collisions or conflicts.

And this was just the Cultivation Field for the Zone 1 dormitory area.

Every zone had a similar Cultivation Field facility.

The fields just had slight variations depending on the dormitory zone.

The inner hall, on the other hand, was a training area made up of individual rooms.

Shen Mengyi led Lin Yi to an enclosed field.

Through a huge floor-to-ceiling window, Lin Yi could clearly see Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao.

They were all sitting cross-legged with their eyes shut, as if meditating.

But they weren’t forming any Dharma Seals with their hands.

Otherwise, Lin Yi would have truly thought they were cultivating.

Besides them, a man in a tank top was sitting across from them.

He was clearly not a student; he looked more like a coach.

”What are they...”

Lin Yi said, a little puzzled.

Shen Mengyi smiled. ”That man’s surname is Ma. He’s a mind and spirit coach at the Cultivation Field!”

”Wei Shang recommended him to us. He’s amazing at Mind and Spirit Techniques, and he’s teaching us how to open our heart orifices.”

”He also said that the mind and spirit are the foundation of a Martial Artist!”

”An unstable mind and spirit means too many distracting thoughts. Only by strengthening the mind and spirit can you open your heart orifices!”

”And the heart orifices are the gates to cultivation, used for storing Qi and Blood!”

”If your heart orifices aren’t open, it doesn’t matter how talented you are. When Qi and Blood enter your body, there’s nowhere to store it, so it slowly dissipates!”

”This is the main reason why our cultivation has slowed down, or even stagnated!”

”So, we’ve been here all morning, training our minds and spirits!”

”I’ve already opened two heart orifices! I think Wei Nan and Zhou Qi have opened three, or even four!”

After Shen Mengyi finished speaking,

Lin Yi glanced back inside, a little surprised.

He had only learned about the concept of heart orifices after he established his [Heart Spirit Domain].

Lin Yi had already opened sixteen heart orifices.

But he hadn’t opened them intentionally; they just inexplicably opened one after another.

He had previously considered that the increase in his cultivation speed might be related to these heart orifices.

He had wanted to tell Zhou Qi and Wei Nan about them.

But Lin Yi didn’t know how to bring it up.

The problem was, even his own heart orifices had opened for no apparent reason.

This made it impossible for him to explain what heart orifices were or how to open them.

He had heard before that the university had specialized courses for training the mind and spirit.

He just hadn’t expected them to be held in the Cultivation Field.

Lin Yi smiled and nodded. ”We really have Wei Shang to thank for this!”

”Mhm, Senior Brother Lin, I think Wei Shang and Feng Lei... they’re really nice!”

”They aren’t hostile toward us like the other local students. I can tell they genuinely want to be friends with us...” Shen Mengyi said softly.

Lin Yi glanced at her. ”Are you saying we should accept Feng Lei and Wei Shang?”

Shen Mengyi nodded.

But she didn’t dare look up at Lin Yi.

She seemed a little sheepish, like a little girl who had done something wrong.

Lin Yi couldn’t help but laugh. ”The two of them are my and Wei Nan’s roommates!”

”We have to live with them for three years, and we can’t switch roommates during that time. We’ll probably become friends eventually!”

”By the way, how are you doing? You’re all alone in the girls’ dorm. Have your roommates been bullying you?” Lin Yi asked quickly.

It was one thing for him, Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao.

They shared dorms two to a room, and for now, Wei Shang and Feng Lei were showing goodwill.

Zhou Qi and Sun Tao’s roommates weren’t so friendly.

However, it was just verbal sparring; no actual bullying had occurred.

But Shen Mengyi was all alone in a girls’ dorm.

Although she was in the same dormitory zone as Qin Zhaoxue,

they weren’t in the same room, and Qin Zhaoxue was about to graduate.

She was currently focusing all her energy on the Demon Hunting Bureau.

She often went on missions with Chu Zhengxiong and his team and rarely returned to campus.

So, Lin Yi was rather worried about Shen Mengyi’s situation.

She smiled and shook her head. ”I’m okay. I rarely interact with my three roommates!”

”Thankfully, the room has a private bathroom, so I don’t have to share one with them, which reduces the chances of running into them!”

”Senior Brother Lin, since coming here, I’ve come to realize something!”

”Oh? What’s that?” Lin Yi asked, curious.

A complex look flickered in Shen Mengyi’s eyes as she whispered, ”Growth...”

”Before coming to the New District, I didn’t understand what growth meant. I always thought that as long as I had my brother’s protection, as long as he was by my side, that was enough. I didn’t need to grow!”

”But after arriving here, I truly realized that so-called growth isn’t just about inner maturity and strength!”

”In fact, your Cultivation Realm and your mentality are also part of growing up!”

”Whether in the Old District or the New District!”

”Only the truly strong earn respect!”

”It’s like with my dorm. If my realm reached 3-Star, or even 4-Star like you,”

”even if I told them I was a martial arts candidate from the Old District, they still wouldn’t dare look down on me!”

”Maybe we wouldn’t become friends, but it would definitely make them wary of me, don’t you think?”

After Shen Mengyi finished,

Lin Yi looked at her intently.

It wasn’t hard to guess from her words that things weren’t going so smoothly for Shen Mengyi in her dorm.

But that wasn’t surprising.

The local students’ discrimination against martial arts candidates from the Old District was like a universally accepted truth among them.

This was true for both men and women.

That’s why Shen Mengyi had come to so many realizations.

After a long moment, Lin Yi nodded. ”You’re right. Only the truly strong earn respect!”

”It’s just like when we were preparing for and taking the Martial Arts exam!”

”Before that, we were all the same, doing whatever it took to get into the New District and attend a Martial Arts University!”

”We would give it our all, even exhausting a family’s savings of many years, just for a fighting chance!”

”When the Martial Arts exam finally arrived, when we took the test, and even at the moment the results were released—that’s when talent and respect were actually divided!”

”Students with good exam scores walked past the crowds under envious gazes!”

”Whether it was students, teachers, or even our own parents, their attitudes would change!”

”At that moment, it was like being the moon surrounded by stars; you received unprecedented respect!”

”That is one manifestation of strength. If you want to gain a foothold in the New District, or even earn the fear or respect of those local students,”

”you have to first make yourself stronger, surpass them, and leave them in the dust!”

”Become a powerhouse so far beyond the local students that they can only look up to you in awe!”

”Only then can you change the current situation!”

Lin Yi spoke these words from the heart.

It made him think of Old Lin.

’Old Lin’s change wasn’t a change in his character. It wasn’t because he truly realized his mistake. He was just paying the price for the choice he made back then.’

’Before the Martial Arts exam results came out, he had bet everything he had on Lin Yu. He hoped that one day, he could rely on Lin Yu’s Martial Arts talent to bring him to live in the New District.’

’It wasn’t until he discovered that my talent surpassed Lin Yu’s, and that I had an even better chance of getting into a Martial Arts University, that the hope he had built in his heart completely collapsed.’

’On top of that, Lin Yu had joined Blood Drop around that time and was getting in deeper and deeper. Lin Dazhi could see that the person he had chosen could no longer take them out of the Old District. That’s what gradually made him start leaning toward me.’

’Even at our last meeting, when he took out that bank card, he was making a final, desperate attempt, hoping to move me and break the barrier between us. Hoping I would bring him to live in the New District...’

’However, I had seen through his true nature long ago. A person like Lin Dazhi could never truly change. As the ancestors used to say, it’s easier to change rivers and mountains than to change a person’s nature.’

’Once he got what he wanted, he would revert to being the same old Lin Dazhi. If he came to the New District, he would show his true colors, spending money recklessly. He wouldn’t even bring Liu Hongmei to the New District with him. He would choose to abandon her instead...’

’So, when I gave him that scholarship money, I was just trying to spend a million to sever our father-son bond. It could also be considered repayment for raising me.’

Shen Mengyi nodded. ”Right, only by becoming strong can we earn respect!”

”Only then can we change how those local students see us!”

”It’s just that this path is very difficult. But I’ve already made up my mind! Even if the road to becoming strong is covered in thorns, even if I get covered in wounds, I will keep walking it!”

”Because I’m also carrying my brother’s hopes!”

As she finished speaking, Lin Yi raised a hand and placed it on her shoulder.

He leaned close to Shen Mengyi’s ear and whispered, ”Then let’s all work hard together. We’ll see who can go further, huh?”

When Lin Yi’s breath brushed against Shen Mengyi’s face,

she felt her cheeks grow scorching hot.

She quickly shied away, not daring to meet Lin Yi’s gaze.

Lin Yi noticed her subtle movement.

He realized it had been a bit inappropriate and quickly pulled his hand back, changing the subject. ”Um, where are Wei Shang and Feng Lei? How come I don’t see them?”

Hearing this, Shen Mengyi also pushed aside her fleeting thoughts.

She quickly shook her head and said, ”I don’t know. They were just here training with us. Maybe they went to the break room?”

Lin Yi nodded.

He didn’t really care where Wei Shang and Feng Lei had gone.

He had just used them to break the slightly ambiguous atmosphere from a moment ago.

Then he continued, ”Why don’t we go in and train too? Open a few more heart orifices?”

”Okay!”

Shen Mengyi nodded and gently pushed the door open.

One after the other, they walked inside.

...

「In the locker room.」

Wei Shang was on his phone, a serious expression on his face.

The person on the other end of the line was Old He, the current head of the Town Martial Department.

”Be careful lately, especially with people from the Martial Arts Alliance. I suspect Old Yao won’t let this go, and he definitely won’t scrap that plan of his!”

”Hah... Elder He, aren’t we being a little too cautious?”

”So what if Old Yao is resentful? What can he do? Does he really dare to come and snatch someone in broad daylight?”

”If he really sent people to take him, wouldn’t that be openly opposing our Town Martial Department? Isn’t he afraid the Martial Arts Alliance will change leadership?”

Wei Shang said with a contemptuous look.

His words showed a complete disregard for Old Yao’s status in the Martial Arts Alliance.

Old He sighed lightly. ”Whether he dares to do it or not, it’s never wrong to be careful!”

”My fear is that Old Yao has lost his mind. If he really does something extreme, there’ll be no way to clean up the mess!”

”By the way, how have things been between you and Lin Yi lately? Have you earned his trust yet?”

At these words, a confident look flashed in Wei Shang’s eyes.

”When I handle things, do you still have to worry? Elder He, I’m not just bragging, but a little brat like Lin Yi? I can win him over in minutes!”

”His friends already trust me completely. He’s next. It’s only a matter of time!”

Old He nodded at Wei Shang’s boast.

”It’s good that you’re earning their trust. It will make it easier for you to protect him up close!”

”We’ve heard some rumors recently. It’s not just the Martial Arts Alliance that has their eyes on him!”

”Be careful with everything. Don’t blame me for not warning you, but if anything happens to Lin Yi, I won’t be lenient with you!”

Wei Shang: ”...”