Classmates

Ling Yi unlocked the wooden door of Room 304 with his key, then drew back the foot he had just stepped forward.

After roughly sweeping his gaze over the room's interior, Ling Yi silently took two steps back. Then, by the moonlight in the sky, he began sizing up the third-floor corridor.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and Ling Yi tilted his head to listen. His outstanding five senses, combined with Mental Strength that surpassed that of ordinary soul masters, allowed everything within a radius of several dozen meters around him to reflect into his mind.

On the first floor, in Room 104, Ethan Anno was talking with a classmate who had also returned to school early. Room 102 was a little farther away, and with several walls blocking it, the sounds he could hear were very faint. Ling Yi only vaguely caught a few complaints from Ethan Lillian.

Aside from that, thinking back to what he had seen downstairs earlier—the windows of Room 103 and Room 104 on the first floor, Room 201 and Room 203 on the second floor, and Room 301 on the third floor were lit. In those rooms, someone had returned early...

And in Room 303, only a few steps away, Ethan Parker had just walked to the wall on the innermost side of the room and reached out to open a window.

Hearing up to this point, Ling Yi turned his gaze back toward his own Room 304, looking at the wall directly facing him.

There was also a window there, except that this window was open.

On the way here, Ling Yi had already heard Ethan Parker say that the previous sixth-year Work-study Student seniors had, as early as three months ago, begun applying for graduation one after another. Some had advanced to intermediate soul master academies, some had entered the Principality Military, some had joined certain noble families, some had gone outside Soul Hunting Forest to join some soul-hunting team... and some had returned to their hometowns...

In any case, not one of them had returned to the academy, let alone this dorm room.

So, a new student enrolled early? Ling Yi thought silently.

The problem was that all twenty beds in this room were empty. Earlier, at the Dormitory Manager's place on the first floor, he hadn't heard anything about a new student already moving in.

But after a second thought, Ling Yi realized that the Dormitory Manager had no need to specifically remind him. Whether she told him or stayed silent, both were perfectly reasonable.

Who said that when you were away from home, everyone you met would be full of goodwill toward you and willing to offer you help and convenience?

For most passersby in life, if they could avoid interfering with one another and refrain from doing "convenient little things" that harmed others without benefiting themselves, that was already the greatest fortune.

He made a mental note of his own stress reaction just now, preparing to review it later when reflecting on himself and see if there was anywhere he needed to improve.

After roughly a dozen breaths, Ling Yi used his five senses together with his Mental Strength to confirm that there was nothing like a prank from older students in the surroundings. Only then did he finally step into Room 304.

Looking around, Ling Yi carefully examined the place he would live in for the next few years.

This was a large room of almost two hundred square meters. A row of beds was placed along each side, ten on the left and ten on the right. They were all one-and-a-half-meter-wide beds, and beside each was a bedside cabinet a little taller than the bed.

Seeing such arrangements, Ling Yi was still quite satisfied. At the very least, it was better than his university dormitory in his previous life. Back then, although there had only been four people to a room, the room had been much smaller, and the space per person had been far inferior to here.

When he came to the innermost spot by the window and was just about to place his bundle and bedding on the bed to the right, Ling Yi's movements paused.

The bedding in his hands continued to lower, while Ling Yi turned his head at the same time to look at the room door he had casually shut just now.

"Click—"

The lock was opened from the outside, and the dormitory's wooden door was pushed open. A thin, small figure appeared before Ling Yi's eyes.

Ling Yi and the other person looked at each other. The other party clearly had not expected someone else to be inside the room and froze in the doorway.

"Brother Yuan, what's wrong? Aren't you going in? Did something get left in my dorm?"

Just then, a soft questioning voice sounded from outside the door.

A few minutes later.

In Room 304, on the left and right beds by the innermost window, a thin mattress had been spread over each.

Ling Yi shook out his own quilt, then neatly folded it and placed it at the foot of the bed before turning to look across from him.

There, a boy and a girl were working together to spread out bedding, looking somewhat flustered.

In the end, they were only two six-year-old children.

Finally, with Ling Yi's help, the roommate named Mo Yuan managed to finish making his bed.

With Ling Yi taking the initiative to befriend them, the little wariness and sense of unfamiliarity the two children had were wiped away before long, and their own information was basically dug out clean.

Mo Yuan, six years old. Martial Soul: "Sharp Sword Barracuda." Innate Soul Power: rank two. First-year Work-study Student. In the same dorm room as Ling Yi.

Yun Lan, six years old. Martial Soul: "Drifting Cloud Jellyfish." Innate Soul Power: rank three. First-year Work-study Student. Mo Yuan's childhood sweetheart. She lived in Room 301.

Earlier, the two of them had been together in Room 301, helping Yun Lan settle all her luggage. As for Room 304, Mo Yuan had only come in to take a look, and while he was at it, opened the innermost window to air the place out.

Mo Yuan and Yun Lan came from a small coastal town, Qing Yuan Town.

The two of them could be considered half fellow townspeople with Ling Yi, because Qing Yuan Town was fifty li southeast of Shan Hai Village. They were all from the area east of Mu Zhi City, and their Work-study Student quotas had also been assigned to this Green Leaf Elementary Soul Master Academy in the city's east.

After the three chatted casually for a few sentences, Ling Yi took out his flatbread with minced meat added to it. Mo Yuan also took out smoked sea fish and rice balls. They ate each other's food, and their relationship grew much closer.

Yun Lan, meanwhile, listened silently the entire time. Only when the topic turned to her did she speak in a soft, delicate voice.

As the night deepened, Yun Lan tugged Mo Yuan's hand and said goodbye to Ling Yi, then Mo Yuan escorted her back to her own dorm room.

After drawing water from the Water Storage Room beside the staircase in the middle of the third floor and doing a simple wash, Ling Yi lay down on his bed. After exchanging a goodnight with Mo Yuan, he closed his eyes and began reviewing the day's experiences.

He went over all the information he had come into contact with along the way, reflected on his words and actions, and deduced the various situations he might encounter when reporting to the Admissions Office tomorrow...

The next day, early morning.

As the sky brightened faintly, Ling Yi woke from Deep Sleep and felt somewhat unused to it.

The academy dormitory was ultimately not as good as his home in Shan Hai Village, an environment he had spent several years building, with Blue Silver Grass everywhere.

After a night of alternating between Soul Power cultivation and Deep Sleep, the efficiency of his Soul Power improvement was not even half of what it had been at home in Shan Hai Village. This made Ling Yi feel somewhat urgent about changing his future academy life.

Thinking of the packet of Blue Silver Grass seeds in the bundle on his bedside cabinet, Ling Yi decided that after he finished registering at the Admissions Office today, he would first go dig up some soil and put the bamboo tube cups he had specially brought in his bundle to use, then hasten the growth of a few stalks of Blue Silver Grass to place by his bed.

Or perhaps he could look around the academy and see if he could dig up some ready-grown Blue Silver Grass to use for now?

Thank you to book friend Xuanwu Han, book friend Seven Stars' Radiance, book friend 20210411195423500, and book friend 20210317235826218 for the monthly tickets, and also thank you to the other book friends for your Recommendation Tickets and continued reading support. Thank you, everyone! (`)