Chapter 371

"Huh—"

On the villa's sofa,

Xu Jingming finally put down the secret manual after spending the whole afternoon reading it, stretching lazily.

"No wonder it's an SS-grade spirit-nourishing art—I read for half a day and still don't understand a thing!" Xu Jingming couldn't help but sigh.

Compared to body-strengthening combat techniques, spirit-nourishing arts involving psychic energy are far more complex.

And unlike body-strengthening techniques, which require targeting specific muscles or bones,

spirit-nourishing arts are highly idealistic—take this one, the "Shenhe Contemplation Method."

You must imagine your psychic energy as a ceaselessly surging river.

And your psychic energy must also flow along a specific trajectory.

Xu Jingming spent the entire afternoon and still hadn't even accomplished the first step: imagining his psychic energy as a river.

"Of course—not if it were that easy, it wouldn't be an SS-grade spirit-nourishing art."

Even Senior Librarian Su said that even with her guidance, it would take at least two or three months to break through to the first level.

To understand it in just one afternoon? Impossible!"

The "Shenhe Contemplation Method" has nine levels total; breaking through the first level is merely the threshold of entry.

"It's complicated, sure, but if I stay up all night reading, I should at least reach a preliminary understanding."

Preliminary understanding is still a long way from mastering it, let alone breaking through to entry.

But that's for ordinary psychics— for Xu Jingming, as long as he achieves preliminary understanding,

the rest can be handled by the system with direct stat points.

"I still have 16,000 psychic points left on the system panel—should be enough for boosting."

"Even if it's not enough, it doesn't matter—the training camp is right next to the No. 4 Demon Cave; I can just go in and harvest some more."

As Xu Jingming was thinking this, suddenly—"Ding dong!"—the doorbell rang.

Hum—

A holographic projection instantly appeared in midair—this was the camera at the villa's front gate.

On the hologram, a young man with short hair was waving at the camera.

"Xu Jingming, there's a visitor outside—third-year student Fan Ren."

The villa's built-in AI chimed in with a mechanical electronic tone.

This emotionless mechanical voice immediately made Xu Jingming, accustomed to Eva, frown.

Damn.

He hadn't noticed before, but now he saw clearly—the difference between ordinary AI and top-tier AI was enormous.

"No good—I'll ask them when I get back to Magic University if they can give me a top-tier Eva sub-authorization."

As he thought this, Xu Jingming rose from the sofa, puzzled, to open the door.

Senior Brother Fan Ren—he'd already heard of him from Teacher Yang Zhentian.

But since arriving at the training camp, he hadn't contacted this senior brother yet.

How had the man already come looking for him?

"You must be Junior Brother Xu Jingming? Teacher's mentioned you before."

"I just heard you'd entered the camp this afternoon, so I came over right away—didn't interrupt you, did I?"

As soon as Xu Jingming opened the door, Fan Ren greeted him with a cheerful smile, his manner extremely friendly.

Like Senior Brother Jiang Luo, this Senior Brother Fan Ren was also extremely tall.

His height was at least 1.9 meters!

But compared to Jiang Luo, Fan Ren's appearance and aura were more serene.

"Of course not," Xu Jingming smiled back. "Senior Brother Fan, come in."

"No need to sit. It's dinnertime right now—come on, let me play host and treat you to a welcome feast!"

Fan Ren casually slung an arm around Xu Jingming's shoulder.

"Then thank you, Senior Brother—I didn't even eat lunch."

Xu Jingming nodded with a smile.

After reaching the fourth stage, he could go four or five days without food or water without any issue.

So now he typically ate only one meal a day—dinner was enough to replenish the energy he'd need for the next day.

That way, he didn't waste too much time on eating.

"Perfect!" Fan Ren laughed heartily. "Since we're meeting for the first time as brothers, tonight we must drink properly!"

Under Senior Brother Fan Ren's lead, Xu Jingming quickly left the villa and wound through the training camp area.

Finally, they stopped in front of a restaurant named "Shunxing Garden."

Xu Jingming was surprised to discover that the entire street was lined with restaurants and eateries.

"This is the internal commercial street of Lei Ting Martial Arts Gym—here, you can find almost anything you want."

"Come on, let's eat first. After dinner, I'll take you somewhere fun."

Fan Ren smiled and led Xu Jingming into the restaurant.

Xu Jingming considered himself a man who'd seen the world, but stepping inside still gave him a small shock.

The entire restaurant's decor leaned heavily toward ancient styles—even the massive crystal chandelier on the ceiling

blended seamlessly into the environment, showing not the slightest hint of modern intrusion.

The lobby also displayed all manner of exquisite ornaments, clearly of great value.

Besides over a dozen dining tables, a small stage stood at the very center.

On this stage, there were beautiful women in ancient costume performing a magnificent dance.

Beside them, a woman played the guzheng, its strings filling the entire hall with exquisite music.

"What do you think? Not bad, right?"

Senior Brother Fan Ren chuckled. "The first-generation founder of our Lei Ting Wu Guan, Luo Heng, was very fond of the ancient culture of Great Xia.

The entire Lei Ting Wu Guan headquarters has quite a few palaces, towers, and other ancient-style buildings.

These commercial streets simply went with the trend and developed into what you see today.

Don't underestimate it — it really does have its own unique charm."

Fan Ren was still speaking when a woman in a red qipao walked up and asked with a smile:

"May I ask what the two of you need?"

This woman's makeup was exquisite, and the qipao she wore was different from the ordinary style, cut very close to the body.

Wrapped in that qipao, her entire figure looked slender and captivating.

The qipao's slit ran all the way up to her thighs, revealing a pair of fair, long legs.

"Get us a quiet private room, and bring the 688 luxury set."

Fan Ren didn't seem to be a first-timer here — he spoke with easy familiarity.

"Of course. Please, honored guests, follow me."

The young woman's face lit up, and she led the two of them up to the second floor.

"Senior Brother, what set did you order? Why does it feel like that waitress is looking at you differently?"

Second-floor private room —

After the waitress withdrew, Xu Jingming asked with a smile.

"I ordered the luxury set — worth 6.88 million!

Just this one order earns her over a hundred thousand in commission. How could she not be happy?"

Fan Ren said with a grin.

"6.88 million?!" Xu Jingming was startled.

It was true that ability-users made money fast, but very few people spent that much on a single meal.

Some extreme ascetics even just downed an energy bar and called it a day.

He had assumed 688 meant at most sixty-eight thousand-plus — he hadn't expected it to be a hundred times that!

Surprised, Xu Jingming couldn't help feeling a bit puzzled as well.

A 6.88-million meal was simply too extravagant.

Meeting for the first time, and already treating him to such a lavish feast.

Was this Senior Brother Fan Ren being a little too warm?