Wen Yu was all alone in the dorm room. Qi San and Huo Lan had gone out a while ago to, in their words, 'selflessly hunt for valuable news', which, in Wen Yu's opinion, was just a cover for them to listen in on the other kids' gossip.
Lately, the room felt more like it belonged to just the three of them. Fu Beiyong had directly moved out as he seemed to have made friends with some elites.
As for the attendant kid, well Duyi was his name as he found out days ago, he'd been pretty scarce too.
At that thought, the door slid open and somebody walked in. Speak of the devil.
Wen Yu crossed his arms and legs flippantly on his bed, paying the attendant kid no mind. He thought that, as usual, the kid would climb up to his bed and sleep off like always.
The kid seemed to always be tired the few times he'd run into him lately. Wen Yu inwardly scoffed in mockery, why not? When he refused to see reason and decided to continue assimilating with no progress.
So stubborn, serves him right that he's always drained!
Wen Yu felt dismayed. Just look at him, an adult in his own right, feeling aggrieved because of a five year old kid. The more time he spent here, the lower his bottom line. So shameful.
The kid walked over to the ladder at the edge of the bed and kept on walking till he stood before Wen Yu with clenched fists.
'...' What was this? Was he asking for a fight? Was there any need to look so aggressive? Did no one ever teach him to use his words?
Wen Yu unfolded his arms from behind his head and cast the kid a cold look with an arched brow.
"I accept."
'...' Accept what? He scrutinized the kid from head to toe with a doubtful look. The kid couldn't possibly be talking about assimilating together using the method in the manual right?
Wen Yu sat up, his aloof expression slowly cracking to reveal a pleased smile. The kid suddenly seemed so beautiful in his eyes, what a good child!
He quickly regained his composure and nodded at the kid then both boys proceeded to the practice hall.
He didn't care to know what prompted the kid to change his mind. Who knew if a reminder would affect the kid's willpower to continue?
"My name's Duyi," The kid said so quietly it sounded like the midday breeze.
Wen Yu shrugged. "Already figured that out by now. Are you an illegitimate child of the Han family or something?"
The boy pursed his lips but Wen Yu wasn't bothered. He really didn't care to know the answer anyways, he was just asking to carry on the conversation.
If they were going to be prodding each other's spirit sea, might as well get a little more familiar in order to ease the tension.
They arrived at the practice hall and randomly selected one of the practice rooms. By right, they were not supposed to have access to the rooms but Wen Yu had previously spent an entire day trying to coax Shi Anjing's code out of him.
It was no easy task, as it was one of the unluckier days where Shi Anjing was even more muddleheaded than usual and irritated by any thing that had breath.
The boys settled in and Wen Yu pulled the lever. The same meadow. It might be nothing but Wen Yu was dissatisfied with this meadow for some reason.
Even Duyi looked sick of it. They both had a nonverbal agreement and the lever was pulled again.
A different virtual space this time. Although it was referred to as a virtual space, these environments were actually simulations. The rooms were specially engineered to produce them.
Apparently it was to place the users in an environment where they felt completely at peace in order to aid their advancement.
Wen Yu felt it was quite contradictory here at Lingxiu though. This was an Academy that trained students in preparation for the hardships of the army.
And yet their practice hall simulations were all fluffy and warm. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at their hypocrisy.
But thinking again, It could also be because they were still pre-enrolled so the Academy decided to go easy on them.
The next simulation was a mountainous terrain. Just rocks and more jagged rocks, barely any greenery in sight.
Wen Yu looked to Duyi when he heard his almost inaudible sigh of comfort. The kid must really love hardship, what was there to be comfortable about in this barren place?
What had the kid gone through in his short life to turn him into a closeted masochist?
Wen Yu just let it be and settled down. He wasn't really into any particular sort of environment anyways. Anything that wasn't the flowery meadow was fine.
Both boys sat in the lotus position in front of each other, a blue hex stone hovering in the air in between them.
The environment was so silent, it seemed that time had come to a stop but neither boys noticed.
One of their palms was placed on each side of the hex stone and the other was placed against each other's just like the depiction in the book.
Both boys closed their eyes at the same time and began trying to assimilate.
Nothing happened for the first few minutes.
They decided to grit their teeth and hold on for a while more.
Nothing happened for the next hour.
The manual couldn't be fake... Right? Their hearts were beginning to drop in dread, the manual was... Fake?
Wen Yu bit his lower lip hard. This was his last resort but how could something really good freely drop from the sky?
He really placed so much hope on this manual, but what else could he do? It wasn't like he could magically overcome the limitations of his spirit sea through sheer willpower.
He ignored the doubts in his heart and decided to press on. He also felt Duyi do the same, the kid must be feeling quite devastated.
They sent out strands of spirit energy to each other's bodies, looking for an entrance, a reaction, anything basically.
Nothing worked and their episodes were about to be triggered so the boys decided to give up.
They'd just withdrawn their spirit energies from lapping at each other's skin when a strange magnetic pull drew their spirit energies back together and a blast ensued.