8 Dong Shentong

Bai Ye was skeptical about this.

When it was time for the meditation class in the afternoon, the entire class arrived at the school's meditation room early.

The meditation room was in a specially-built, three-story building. It occupied a vast area and was situated by the lake behind the education building.

This was not Bai Ye's first meditation lesson. Only first-year junior high school students would be taught the basic steps and precautions of meditation. As this was not the first time the third-year junior high school students meditated, the teacher opened his thermos flask and took a sip of goji berry tea as soon as he led the students to the room. Then, he walked to the corner of the room to check on the condition of a few pots of calming grass. After doing that, he returned to the podium, sat down with crossed legs, closed his eyes, and began meditating.

Calming grass was planted in every meditation room of the school. This grass was a plant that could emit a special gas that could aid meditation. Because of the difficulty of growing new calming grass and the relatively high demand for it, the price of the grass remained high.

The students could use the calming grass in the meditation room for free. This was very important for students who did not have a wealthy family background.

Often, students would take advantage of various opportunities to enter the meditation room for a while after school.

They cherished all the present opportunities very much. After they left school and stepped into society in the future, it would be very difficult for them to enjoy such benefits at no cost.

The essence of meditation was to improve one's mental strength by absorbing the psionic element in the air through visualization.

This was described in the Obsidian Planet textbook that Bai Ye studied.

Theoretically speaking, if a person with very strong mental strength entered the meditation state, they would influence the meditation outcome of other people that were physically near them.

Within a standard area, the amount of psionic elements was limited.

Even an area rich in psionic elements would have a constant value of them.

If one were to swallow a large amount of psionic elements within a short time, the surrounding psionic elements would flow into the void to refill it, but this process would take time. As a result, this would impact the meditation outcome of others to a certain extent.

Nevertheless, there were only ordinary students in the school. Thus, there was no need to worry about this kind of problem.

Even if Bai Ye's meditation level were to surpass his peers' level, he wouldn't influence others.

"Bai Ye, do you want to go to Blackrock Place together after the middle school entrance examination?" The meditation class was over, but many students were reluctant to leave.

They lingered until the bell for the next class rang.

The students then ran all the way back to the classroom.

After school, Li Dazhuang, the class's sports committee member, had looked for Bai Ye.

"Let's talk about this after the middle school entrance examination. Is our class the only class that's going?" Bai Ye asked.

"Yes, my uncle is going to lead the team. Blackrock Place is not considered an adventure zone. We can use this chance to practice our combat skills," Li Dazhuang said.

"I'll come if I have the time." Bai Ye was not sure if he would have time then.

After returning home, he went to his bedroom and summoned the Super Dimension Mirror.

The Super Dimension Mirror appeared, dancing on Bai Ye's cheek.

Generally speaking, humanoid beasts had the strongest spirituality, followed by bestial beasts and plantal beasts. Mechanical beasts had the weakest spirituality.

However, the spirituality of the Super Dimension Mirror was stronger than what Bai Ye had thought.

It liked to whine like a child normally.

It was as pure and simple as a sheet of white paper.

Along with its new lease of life, all its past memories seemed to have been erased.

However, this mirror could get jealous very easily. Bai Ye had discovered this during his interaction with the Super Dimension Mirror in the past two days.

It hated it the most when he looked at other mirrors.

It was fine if he glanced at them occasionally, but if he were to take a few more glances…

The vanity mirror hanging in the bathroom previously was a lesson learned.

Bai Ye couldn't handle its stubbornness. He could only use the Super Dimension Mirror to brush his teeth and wash his face.

"By the way, can you accompany me to Uncle Dong's house after school tomorrow?" Fang Luolin asked Bai Ye. She had come out of the bathroom earlier and was now sitting in the living room.

"Why are we going to his house?"

"Before Mom and Dad passed away, they left something with Uncle Dong and told him to hand it to you when you turned 16."

"Okay." Bai Ye's head hurt at the thought of Uncle Dong. According to his memory, he was a burly man with a full beard.

"By the way, Sister, I'm not going out this weekend. I want to take a trip to Wang Qilin's house," Bai Ye told Fang Luolin.

He and his sister were the only ones residing in his house. It was only right that he informed his sister if he was not returning home for the night.

"Come back early." Fang Luolin didn't ask Bai Ye what he was up to. He could visit his friend's house to have fun so long as he paid attention and stayed safe.

"I may be staying overnight." Bai Ye hesitated for a moment before he decided to tell the truth.

"Huh? So you're all grown-up and independent now?" Fang Luolin put down her chopsticks, and a dangerous gleam appeared in her eyes.

Ever since he was a child, Bai Ye had never spent the night away from home.

"I signed up for the Beginner Monster Caregiver Certificate Examination. Wang Qilin's home is the test center. I need to cram for one day during the weekend and then take the exam the next day." Bai Ye had expected her to say this. He took a piece of tissue paper and wiped his mouth unhurriedly.

Fang Luolin no longer tried to stop him after finding out the reason.

"When did you study Monster Caregiving? Taking this exam is useless. It's a pure waste of time," Fang Luolin said.

"I can still earn five extra points for the middle school entrance examination, and two days is a short time," Bai Ye said with a smile.

"What's the use of those five points?" Fang Luolin was speechless. "Forget it, I don't care as long as you're happy. Stay safe and come home early."

The next day, Bai Ye went to school and attended lessons as usual. When the afternoon lesson ended, Bai Ye exited the school.

Fang Luolin had been waiting at the school gate for a long time.

She was wearing a black, slim-fit, long-sleeved shirt today and a purple jacket. She had her hair in a ponytail behind her head. She was also wearing a pair of gray, loose-fitting sweatpants and sneakers with black-and-red stripes.

Both her hands were tucked in the pockets of her pants, and she looked very cold and aloof. Due to her icy and indifferent aura, there were no familiar faces within a two-kilometer radius from where she stood.

Fang Luolin beckoned to Bai Ye.

Bai Ye walked over to her.

"Let's take a taxi."

Fang Luolin called a taxi.

Judging from the direction they were heading in…

Bai Ye remembered. His sister had said she would be taking him to Uncle Dong's house today.

To be honest, he did not feel like visiting Uncle Dong's place unless it was absolutely necessary.

Uncle Dong's name was Dong Shentong, and he was the boss of Dong's Private Kitchen and a bigshot in the 36th Base City.

Dong's Private Kitchen was a restaurant in name, but in fact, it was the most upper-class club in the 36th Base City.

It was said that in addition to being a senior Beast Tamer, Dong Shentong was also a top chef.

The food of Dong's Private Kitchen was supposed to be made of top-notch ingredients, and people from other base cities visited this place due to its fame.

Dong Shentong had his own hunting group, and many of his ingredients were hunted by this hunting group.

After arriving at the affluent district, they looked for the security guard, who verified their identities very quickly.

Dong Shentong had already informed the security guard in advance. After verifying their identities, the security guard led them into the affluent district.

Many tall trees had been planted along the sides of the pathway, but they had been planted sparsely.

By the time they arrived at Dong Shentong's house, he had been waiting for them at the main door for a long time.

"You don't come and visit me even when you have spare time normally. Do you consider Uncle Dong a stranger?" Dong Shentong stood in front of the door, pretending to be unhappy.

"Xiao Ye, you've grown so tall in the blink of an eye. Both of you are big children now." Uncle Dong invited the pair into the courtyard.

"Duoyun, Duoyu, hurry on out. Brother and Sister are here!" Dong Shentong shouted toward the second floor of the villa.

Soon, two boys descended the stairs.

The expressions on their faces were somewhat cold and aloof. They didn't look very easy to get along with.

The two of them merely cast a glance at Bai Ye and his sister. They then sat on the sofa expressionlessly.

"Hurry up, speak to Sister and Brother. What is up with that sullen expression?" Dong Shentong, who was a little cross, raised his hand.

Aunt Dong hurried over to Uncle Dong to dissuade him.

"Children are ignorant. What are you doing?"

After the two stubborn children called them "Brother" and "Sister" unwillingly, Dong Shentong's expression eased slightly.

"Sit down first. I remember that it was Xiao Ye's birthday yesterday. I've been safekeeping that thing for you guys all these years. I'll give it to you now." After pouring a cup of tea for each of them, Dong Shentong got up and went to the basement.

He entered the storeroom and took a dark purple box out of a hidden compartment in a safe.

Bai Ye glanced at the box as Uncle Dong carried it to the living room.

Dong Shentong placed the box on the table next to Bai Ye.

"This is what your dad handed to me for safekeeping," Dong Shentong said.

The pale gold markings on the surface of the dark purple box were shining, making the box look very mysterious.

The box was about the size of a basketball. It was a little heavy to hold and weighed at least 30 or 40 catties. Its contents were unknown.

"Thank you, Uncle Dong." Fang Luolin thanked him graciously.

"You're welcome." Dong Shentong waved his hand generously. "It's nothing. You hardly visit me. Since you're here today, you have to try Uncle Dong's culinary skills this evening. Yesterday, when I heard that you guys would be coming, I hurried to prepare the best ingredients."

Dong Shentong was very affectionate, and the two siblings found it hard to decline. They could only agree to have dinner.

The dinner was very sumptuous. The food smelled, looked, and tasted good. Dong Shentong had prepared the dishes personally tonight. As the owner of Dong's Private Kitchen, he possessed the Special-Grade Monster Chef Certificate. However, he rarely cooked nowadays, even at home.

Uncle Dong would only cook personally when distinguished guests visited.

The ingredients used tonight were all high-level monster source materials. At the very least, they were the essence of monsters at the gold level and above.

In addition, he had used a special cooking method to achieve the perfect fusion of the various ingredients, and consuming them was beneficial to both one's physique and mental strength.

There were five dishes on the table. One of them was completely gold in color and shaped like a lotus flower. This was a delicacy made by mincing the most tender part of the flesh of a platinum-level monster and then mixing it with the roe of a gold-level fish-type monster.

It was soft yet chewy.

Bai Ye's body felt warm after eating it, as if all the cells in his body were cheering.

This was because the dish was rich in ingredients that were beneficial to the body. Out of instinct, his body was conveying its thirst for more of it.