Slaying the Sleep Demon

Zhou Mingde spent two days in a state of nervous excitement.

For those two days, he kept a close eye on domestic and international news, watching for any reports of stolen or missing gold.

Three hundred kilograms of gold was enough to make the front page in any country.

But there was nothing.

What did that mean? It meant that either this batch of gold had been stolen by someone with immense power and influence, or, just as Zhou Qi had said, its origins were completely clean.

If it was the former, then if trouble came, he would most likely be dragged into it. If it was the latter, he could simply wait for his promotion.

Zhou Mingde chose to believe the latter. Even if it really was the former, he would pretend he knew nothing.

After all, a stable gold supply channel was extremely important even to a jewelry company as large as Zhou Fuyuan's, let alone a mere regional manager like him.

This was a path straight to the heavens.

The bold starved while the timid feasted. What was there to fear?

Even if something really happens, I'm just an ordinary person who was kept in the dark!

"Who was it that brought you to my side..."

His phone rang. Zhou Mingde glanced at the caller ID and immediately answered.

"Brother Qi, good afternoon! Do you have some business to send my way?" Even through the phone, Zhou Mingde still assumed a fawning posture.

Only if it came from the heart could his sincerity reach the person on the other end of the line.

"Not that fast!" Zhou Qi said helplessly. "That's gold, not steel!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhou Mingde nodded repeatedly. "So what is it this time, Brother Qi?"

"Oh, I want to rent a warehouse. Do you have any connections?"

"Yes, yes!" Even if he did not, he had to say he did. "How large do you need it to be? Any special requirements?"

"Two or three thousand square meters will do. The location does not matter, but it has to be within Nanan City." Zhou Qi added, "Also, it needs to be suitable for storing chemicals."

"I'll contact someone right away and give you an answer within a day!" Zhou Mingde replied at once.

"Okay!" Zhou Qi nodded. "I'll wait for your good news!"

He swiped his phone shut. There were still a few days until the 12th, and Brother Bo had not arrived yet, so naturally he could not transfer money to the company.

Although Jiang Mingran had shown herself to be loyal and rational, what if something went wrong?

After informing Zhou Yibing, Zhou Qi found a private place, returned to Nanhai City first, disinfected himself thoroughly, and then went to Shimotsuki Village.

He had spent all of yesterday traveling, and this morning had been taken up by a meeting. That meant he had only trained for three days in total and was still short by a day and a half.

How could he accomplish anything great with such laziness?

Why, even Koshiro was starting to look at him with a hint of dissatisfaction!

So Zhou Qi spent the entire afternoon doing Suburi.

Whenever he got tired, he ate One Piece fish meat. The meat here was remarkably good at restoring stamina. After a hearty meal, the fatigue from training would quickly vanish.

Koshiro also taught him a massage technique. He could use his left hand to massage his right hand and shoulder, then use his right hand to massage his left hand and shoulder. It felt awkward, but the results were quite good.

Unfortunately, Zhou Qi had yet to grasp Koshiro's method of uniting the whole body into a single rope of force. He could still only rely on the strength in his arms.

After dinner, he meditated as usual. Then Zhou Qi suddenly thought of something and used a Space Gate to return to the modern world.

Then he closed his eyes and meditated.

Before, he would always meditate until he formed a Space Gate, then erase the Space Gate from his Consciousness Space and enter a state free of thoughts and distractions. But after changing worlds, he discovered that the same method had become extraordinarily difficult.

Just forming a Space Gate through meditation took an incredibly long time. As for erasing it, that was practically impossible.

It was as if the thing had been nailed into his mind. He simply could not drive it out!

Or perhaps after he drove that one out, something else entered instead. His mind was a chaotic mess, and he could not calm down at all!

"What's going on?" Zhou Qi suddenly opened his eyes, then returned to the meditation room in Shimotsuki Village and tried again.

This time, he entered a meditative state very quickly.

And once he entered it, he did not wake up again. When he opened his eyes, it was already the next morning!

Zhou Qi was a little dumbfounded. He felt his legs, which had been crossed all night, and they did not seem particularly numb.

What's the principle behind this? Zhou Qi was baffled. Why is it so easy to enter meditation here, but impossible on Earth?

Is it because of cars or noise? No, that can't be it. I live in the middle of a residential complex, my bedroom is well soundproofed, and I even have thick curtains drawn. No light gets in at all.

Zhou Qi first looked into the matter himself, then went to ask Koshiro.

"Teacher, may I ask roughly how long it takes you to enter a meditative state after closing your eyes?"

"Well, I have never specifically counted, but I suppose it takes at least five or six minutes!" Koshiro replied.

"Five or six minutes?" That seems about the same as me, but I'm a beginner!

"Then how long can one meditation session last for you?" Zhou Qi asked again.

"At the shortest, the time it takes for one incense stick to burn. At the longest, one or two hours!"

"Is it possible to use meditation in place of sleep?" Zhou Qi asked again. "To meditate for an entire night?"

Koshiro shook his head. "How could that be possible? Sleep is an essential means for the human body to recover energy and nourish the spirit. No matter how deep your meditative practice is, sleep cannot be done without!"

Zhou Qi remembered that Zoro liked sleeping while sitting on the deck.

But!

Zhou Qi asked, "Teacher, have you ever heard of the Sleep Demon?"

"The Sleep Demon?" Koshiro shook his head. "Is that the title of some great pirate?"

Zhou Qi shook his head. "The Sleep Demon refers to the act of sleeping itself. A person's life does not even last a hundred years, yet we sleep eight hours every day. That is already one-third of a day, which means we spend one-third of our lives asleep. Isn't that an incredibly extravagant waste?"

"So ancient cultivators in my country called sleep the Sleep Demon, and the process of replacing sleep with meditation was called Slaying the Sleep Demon!"

"Slaying the Sleep Demon?" Koshiro considered it seriously, then nodded. "What you say makes sense. If meditation could replace sleep, there would indeed be much more time for training. But that is only a theoretical possibility. In reality, no one can use meditation in place of sleep. At least, I have never seen or heard of such a person!"

"Why not give it a try?" Zhou Qi said. "What if it works?"

"This..." Koshiro thought for a moment. He was quite interested, because in this world, meditation represented the growth of one's spirit. As the spirit grew, one's consciousness gained greater control over the body, which could then give rise to all kinds of incredible abilities.

Meditation was a practice one could cultivate for an entire lifetime. If there really was a way to replace sleep with meditation, it would truly be good news for swordsmen.

"I'll give it a try!" Koshiro nodded.

"Mm-hm!" Zhou Qi nodded as well. He was very curious whether he was special, or whether people in this world simply had not discovered this method.

If he was special, then aside from the Space Gate, perhaps he possessed some other talents as well.

If Koshiro could do it too, that would not be a bad thing either. After all, Koshiro was one of his own. If Koshiro became stronger, Zhou Qi would benefit as well.

In the morning, he continued doing Suburi.

He was a lazy man, lustful and lecherous, fond of cutting corners and taking advantage. He possessed every flaw an ordinary person could have.

So swinging a sword again and again was truly difficult to keep up with, especially when he saw the little brats beside him play around for a while before heading off in groups of three or five. It made him want to rest even more.

But then he thought about how he used to work more than ten hours at a time in an electronics factory, how he could sit for five or six hours straight while writing novels, and how editing a video as an uploader could take one or two whole days.

The worst part was that after working so hard to produce something, people would sum it up with just two words.

"Dog shit."

Or four words: "Worse than dog shit..."

Compared to that kind of hardship, what was a little sword swinging?

The famous modern philosopher Zhou Jiji once said: When you do not feel like working hard, ask yourself this.

Are your parents department chiefs?

No. They are not even section chiefs. They are just ordinary farmers.

Does your family own ten houses?

No. There is only one, and it is a self-built house in the countryside.

Then what the hell are you still talking about? As long as training does not kill you, train like your life depends on it!