After a tour around the academy, it was noon. Half-grown boys like Lu Chen and Wang Sheng already had their stomachs growling with hunger.
So they flocked into the dining hall in groups.
The dining hall had two floors. The first floor served rice and dishes cooked in large batches. A few copper soul coins would buy a decent meal. The food might not be particularly good, but it was enough to fill their stomachs.
As for the second floor, it was no different from a restaurant outside. Diners could order individual meals, with all sorts of stir-fried dishes and stewed meats available. It was where the academy's teachers and noble students ate.
Lu Chen, Wang Sheng, and the others were all work-study students with little money to spare. Naturally, they could not eat on the second floor, so they ate the batch-cooked rice and dishes on the first floor.
A small incident occurred during the meal.
A group of noble students who had finished eating upstairs came down, spotted Wang Sheng, and began taunting him as usual.
Wang Sheng clenched his fists, filled with fury!
Lu Chen understood that backing down was useless against this kind of school bullying. They had to hit back hard and make the bullies feel fear, or there would be no end to it.
So, at Lu Chen's direction, Wang Sheng arranged a fight with the noble students in the grove on the hill behind the academy after classes the following afternoon.
Whoever lost this time would have to give the winners a wide berth whenever they met at the academy afterward.
Those noble students thought highly of themselves. With Wang Sheng taking the initiative to challenge them, why would they refuse? They agreed without another word.
After the fight was arranged, Wang Sheng and the other work-study students all looked at Lu Chen with burning gazes, clearly placing all their hopes on him.
In truth, Lu Chen did not want to stir up trouble either, but he knew even better that if he failed to show a tough stance, he would only encounter more trouble in the future, not less.
After lunch, all the work-study students returned to Room Seven.
Lu Chen did not see Tang San in Room Seven, but he did see Xiao Wu, who had returned from Spirit Hall.
Xiao Wu had collected her gold soul coin allowance from Spirit Hall and bought a brand-new set of pink bedding. At that moment, she was lying on her stomach on her bed, eating snacks as she spoke with a lovely smile:
"Boss Lu Chen, you're all back!"
"Look, everyone! This is the brand-new bedding I bought with the gold soul coin I collected from Spirit Hall. I bought lots of snacks too!"
Xiao Wu proudly showed off to everyone.
As Lu Chen looked at Xiao Wu, an idea suddenly stirred in his mind. Xiao Wu's Hundred-Year Spirit Ring seemed quite good at intimidating people. Bringing her along to tomorrow's arranged fight would surely have an even better effect.
So Lu Chen encouraged Xiao Wu, saying:
"Xiao Wu, just now in the dining hall, we arranged a fight with a bunch of noble students who were provoking us. It's in the grove on the hill behind the academy after classes tomorrow."
"You're one of us work-study students too. Want to join us tomorrow?"
At the mention of an arranged fight, Xiao Wu's eyes immediately lit up. She straightened up on her bed, patted her unremarkably flat chest, and declared with tremendous bravado:
"Of course I'm joining! I'm Sister Xiao Wu of Room Seven. How could something like this happen without me?"
Hearing this, Lu Chen chuckled and offered Xiao Wu a compliment:
"That's Xiao Wu for you! Then tomorrow, we'll fight together to make a name for us work-study students and show those noble students what we're made of."
Xiao Wu could not handle praise. Under Lu Chen's flattery, she planted both hands on her hips and raised her little head high, her rosy face brimming with smug delight.
No one could resist repeated praise. Even though Xiao Wu was a hundred-thousand-year-old Soft Bone Rabbit, she could not entirely rise above such worldly tendencies either.
After winning Xiao Wu over, Lu Chen felt even more confident about tomorrow's arranged fight.
Defeating those noble students would certainly make them afraid, but it would also breed resentment in their hearts, leading them to cause endless trouble in the end.
So, rather than merely defeating them, it was even more important to cow them.
Xiao Wu's Hundred-Year Spirit Ring was a precious spirit ring that even Xiao Chenyu, the city lord's son, did not possess.
Though this seemed more like a bug in the original novel: the son of a city lord, no less, had a mere decade spirit ring for his first spirit ring instead of a Hundred-Year Spirit Ring.
Tomorrow, as long as Xiao Wu revealed that Hundred-Year Spirit Ring, she would be one hundred percent certain to cow those noble students, and they would not dare cause trouble again afterward.
Over the time that followed, the work-study students in Room Seven showed an exceptionally diligent side. Instead of roughhousing or playing, they began meditating to cultivate their soul power.
Seeing this, Lu Chen immediately asked Wang Sheng to teach him the meditation method for cultivating soul power. After all, whoever had attained greater knowledge could be a teacher, and he felt no embarrassment about it.
Wang Sheng held nothing back either. He explained the meditation method in great detail, along with some of his own cultivation experience.
After all, teachers taught this rudimentary meditation method in the very first class after new students enrolled.
Wang Sheng was merely teaching Lu Chen the meditation method one day early.
After receiving his instruction, Lu Chen sat on his own bed and followed Wang Sheng's explanation. He calmed his mind, connected with his martial souls, and used them to sense the energy between heaven and earth, drawing that energy into his body.
The circulation of soul power involved several major meridians, which Wang Sheng had also explained in detail. Lu Chen soon mastered it.
For Lu Chen, his gold finger allowed him to draw the energy between heaven and earth into his body with every breath.
Previously, however, his martial souls had not awakened, and his soul power could not circulate, so he could only absorb energy passively.
Now, Lu Chen had successfully awakened his martial souls and learned a rudimentary meditation method, allowing him to begin actively guiding the circulation of his soul power.
With every breath, he drew an unending stream of the energy between heaven and earth into his body, then actively guided that energy through several major meridians into his dantian.
Lu Chen's dantian held two martial souls: his first martial soul, Blue Silver Grass, and his second martial soul, the Black Iron Sickle.
After the two martial souls absorbed this energy, they purified and refined it into his soul power, which settled in his dantian.
At that moment, Lu Chen discovered to his delight that his rate of soul power accumulation had risen to around 1.5 times its previous rate.
This left Lu Chen feeling greatly invigorated:
Even if I don't deliberately meditate, my soul power keeps increasing. But if I can cultivate at 1.5 times the speed, it looks like I can't afford to slack off in my cultivation from now on.
With this thought, Lu Chen devoted his full attention to meditation. Feeling his soul power accumulate faster gave him even more motivation to cultivate.
He meditated for an entire afternoon!
Only when Lu Chen's stomach began growling with hunger was he pulled out of his meditative state.
Lu Chen opened his eyes, rousing himself, and sat up on his bed. He stretched his arms and legs, feeling very satisfied with the results of an afternoon's cultivation.
Then he called over a few companions who had also woken up, and they headed to the dining hall together for dinner.
By the time they returned to Room Seven, the sky had gone completely dark. Lu Chen and his companions in Room Seven washed up, then went to bed to rest.