Since it was already late at night, Shen Long decided to let Luo Qingben sleep in his residence. Although he didn't have a spare bed and Qingben had to sleep on the floor, it was still much better than the outer disciple's dormitory. Typically, eight outer disciples would share a bedroom, and its room size was no bigger than Shen Long's residence.
Luo Qingben was better off living with Shen Long. Although his room wasn't that spacious, it could still easily fit two people in. Only challengers or those with special status would be given a plot of land that included most facilities: training ground, stash room, mini-library and multiple bedrooms for their followers. As a challenger or a personal disciple, one was allowed to bring in five followers at most. They would have their own dwellings, and their status within the palace would be fairly high.
This, of course, was irrelevant to Shen Long. Shen Long didn't have any followers nor any friends, as he arrived at the Cultivator World not long ago. It was already a miracle that Shen Long somehow managed to get along with others. Bullying was fairly common in the cultivator world as well. They respected strength, including intelligence, more than anything else. Well, in the palace, status was pretty important too.
Shen Long struggled to sleep as Luo Qingben couldn't stop talking throughout the night. Shen Long regretted allowing Luo Qingben here as he just wouldn't shut his mouth. Restraining his anger, he could only reply "Yes" or "No" to hint that he was uninterested. For a person that now had the intelligence of a 5 years old, it was no surprise that Luo Qingben didn't understand the meaning behind his short replies.
In fact, Shen Long learned this method of "short replies" from speaking to girls back on Earth. Whenever he messaged a girl, they would only reply with one word, at most three words. With the help of Google, he found out the reason behind their short responses. His heart was shattered, like a piece of glass as he cried for days.
He even tried to persuade himself that the internet was wrong. He used to think that the girls were just busy, so using one-word-replies made perfect sense. But after that one accident with Shen Long's senpai, he learned the harsh reality.
The girl told Shen Long that she "g2g sleep soz" (got to go to sleep, sorry) as it was already late. The innocent, gullible Shen Long never thought that she was lying as sleeping early was a fair practice back in his school. However, after a couple of hours, he saw the girl's status as "ONLINE" on social media. She also liked and commented on multiple pictures when she was supposed to be asleep.
Shen Long, at the time, didn't understand why. He sent her a message upon noticing her online status. However, the girl didn't reply at all. After twenty minutes or so, Shen Long decided to check her profile and activity log again. Then, suddenly, the girl's profile was no longer available. Not suspicious at all, Shen Long thought that it was just a server error as he continued to read his light novel.
On the next day, Shen Long saw her in the corridors. With his usual attitude, he waved and said hi. The girl kindly nodded back as she attempted to quickly walk past him. The socially inept Shen Long chase after her and asked her what had happened yesterday. The girl also decided to stop wasting time with him as she explained the ruthless reality to him. Until this day, Shen Long still remembered her words perfectly as he was extremely upset by it.
"Mr Shen, can you not read in between the lines? It's dead obvious that I have no interest in you. When a girl sends single-worded replies and deliberately lies, it's bloody obvious that I don't like you. The server didn't go down. I blocked you, alright? I was trying to be nice, and I hoped that you would move on by yourself. But you're so dense. I'm not even going to friendzone you. I will never like you. Period. Now get out of my face."
This memory rang back to his mind as Luo Qingben continued to spout out nonsense. Luo Qingben, however, was just like Shen Long. He couldn't understand the message behind the short replies as he kept talking.
"How dumb is this guy!? How can one not understand this? Wow, bet you aren't popular with girls. Hmph!" Shen Long thought to himself. He completely ignored the fact that he was no different to Luo Qingben when he was young. Even though Shen Long was now fairly intelligent, in terms of socializing, Shen Long was nothing more than a piece of crap. Yet, he somehow managed to stay extremely confident.
The sun started rising, and Luo Qingben's mouth had never stopped twitching. Even though Shen Long was a cultivator and he theoretically didn't need to sleep, Shen Long still chose to sleep every day. It wasn't just because that he enjoyed sleeping very much, but sleeping still provided him with many benefits. At least, in his opinions.
Shen Long planned on bringing Luo Qingben to his Master during his 1-on-1 training session. Even though Daoist Fireblade clearly stated that he would step out of the corruption, Shen Long believed that he would still care about his disciples. With his limited (sorry, zero) knowledge of medicines, there was nothing Shen Long could to do, besides taking care of him.
In the meantime, Shen Long decided to get him some food from the restaurant. To prevent any rumours from spreading, Shen Long ordered a takeaway as they quickly sneaked back to his residence. Shen Long wanted to leave him in his house, but he couldn't trust Luo Qingben to be alone. Unexpectedly, Luo Qingben was very cooperative when they secretly travelled to the restaurant.
Shen Long was actually pretty smart. He tricked him to shut his mouth as he said that they were going on a "secret mission". This trick often worked with kids back on Earth, and it was the same here. Kids, no matter where they were from, all enjoyed being "spies" or a "criminal". Luo Qingben's eyes were brimming with light as he heard about this ultimate "special mission".
So he stayed quiet throughout the entire trip as he had to "conceal his identity". Shen Long was impressed at "his" tricks as he finally rescued his ears from suffering. Shen Long decided to head to the training ground, along with Luo Qingben. He couldn't wait to test out his new sword art after reading the [Strike of Symmetry] manual.
Shen Long immediately started cultivating upon reaching there. He instructed Luo Qingben to sit on the side, to finish his breakfast. He gave him his portion as well, as he wasn't in the mood for eating. He stared at him seriously as he whispered.
"Don't make a sound. There may be ghosts and some bad guys here. Let me go test it out first. Before I come back, don't move nor talk. Otherwise, some big, evil monsters may come and eat you!! If you happen to really need me, just call my name out loud. Don't do it often though. They may spot you otherwise..." Shen Long said as he tried to scare Luo Qingben.
As he looked at Qingben to confirm whether he understood, Luo Qingben didn't move an inch and stayed completely still. Even his eyes stay fixated as he didn't blink at all. Shen Long rolled his eyes as he said helplessly.
"You can eat your breakfast and blink. Just be quiet." Shen Long said as he walked towards the weapon rack. Suddenly, Shen Long was worried if Luo Qingben wouldn't even breathe if he didn't instruct him to.
"You can also breathe. Just don't die, alright?"