Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups-Chapter 142 - 130: Own Goals

Moonlight gently sprinkled over the mountain forest.

A dense fog spread out, surrounding an old building with flickering lights in the night.

On the 7th floor of the building, the corridor was dark and silent, utterly devoid of any voices.

Only one room, with a sign "Truth and Meditation Joint Practice" pasted on the door, revealed some light.

Inside the office, two figures leaned over the desk, quietly discussing matters.

One of them was a middle-aged man dressed in white, with a lean appearance.

It was Instructor Chen, who guided people like Fang Cheng in their meditation practices.

Sitting behind the desk was a fat old man with a wrinkly face.

His brows were tightly furrowed, looking worried, as he muttered to himself:

"At this juncture, we are indeed besieged on all sides. If only the president could recover soon and return in time..."

Then he suddenly raised his head and asked:

"How have the recent batch of students been performing?"

Hearing this, Instructor Chen replied:

"Pretty ordinary, there’s one young person who might be worth cultivating, and two others who merit further observation."

"All these resources spent, and only observation and cultivation potential?"

The old man showed a look of displeasure, his tone intensifying:

"Jiandong, the Sea Festival is approaching fast; we need to speed up preparations. I have an ominous feeling..."

Instructor Chen, addressed as "Jiandong," hesitated before saying:

"Teacher, we indeed have too few hands right now. But looking for suitable candidates among ordinary people is like finding gold in the sand."

"It has to be done nonetheless. We don’t need companions, just fillers will do, as long as we survive this crisis, everything else is negligible."

The old man was firm, then instructed:

"Tomorrow, go to town and think of a solution with young Chen. After all, it’s not just our problem. The entire Yong’an Island might be in danger."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jiandong fell silent.

The "young Chen" mentioned by his teacher was actually his grandfather.

He was also the patriarch of the largest Chen family on Yong’an Island, a man of high prestige and respect in the locality.

If he had a choice, he really wouldn’t want to involve his grandfather.

But...

As his gaze fell on his teacher’s tightly wrinkled face and the faintly visible grey-green stratum corneum.

Chen Jiandong’s pupils slightly contracted, then he nodded:

"Alright."

Seeing this, the old man tapped the desk with his thick knuckles, satisfied.

.........

Below the training camp building, several floors were brightly lit; many people were still awake.

Inside Room 315.

"Wow, meditating really feels great!"

In the dormitory, after a hot shower, Pan Wendi rubbed his hair with a towel while expressing his sensation:

"It seems I really made the right choice coming here. No wonder my cousin always suggests that I practice meditation when I’m free, saying it can unlock wisdom and make you smarter."

He stood in front of the mirror, flexed his arm, and showed off his pronounced biceps.

Then he looked towards Fang Cheng, who was lying on the bed holding a detective novel:

"Xiao Ma, do you have a girlfriend? Want me to introduce my cousin to you? She’s beautiful, has a sweet voice, and a great figure, I guarantee you won’t be able to take your eyes off her."

Fang Cheng appeared to be reading but was actually pondering over things.

Suddenly, he raised his head and asked:

"Did you discover any new secrets in today’s meditation class?"

Pan Wendi was momentarily taken aback:

"Now that you mention it, I do recall several odd points."

Following him as Sherlock Holmes would, he stroked his chin, deeply analyzing:

"That mentor surnamed Chen, I always feel his smile is insincere, devoid of any genuine emotion. He’s suspicious."

"Then there’s the Meditation Hall, which feels entirely different inside compared to the outside. Those lights on the dome, they seem to be embedded with gems, not something an ordinary organization could afford."

Fang Cheng nodded, then asked further:

"When you do your meditation practice, do you experience anything unusual, like seeing or hearing something out of the ordinary?"

Pan Wendi scratched his head:

"I just feel so comfortable that I want to sleep, and when I wake up, apart from having numb legs, my body feels as refreshed as if I’ve had a spinal massage."

Seeing his normal demeanor, Fang Cheng didn’t continue with more questions.

The two chatted casually for a bit and then turned off the lights to rest.

Perhaps because they had spent half of the day out and about and had followed it up with a meditation class,

Pan Wendi quickly fell asleep, sleeping deeply and even starting to snore softly through his breaths.

Fang Cheng lay on his side, listening for a moment.

Seeing that he had fallen asleep, he climbed out of bed, sat cross-legged, and began to control his breathing.

He prepared to practice meditation late into the night, just to confirm the situation once more.

About two hours later.

In the darkness, Fang Cheng opened his bright, shining eyes, looking at the floating message in front of him.

[Meditation Experience +1]

Then he opened the character panel to check the growth of his Spirit Attribute.

[You have successfully completed a session of Deep Meditation, Spirit increased by 0.01]

Two hours of Sitting Meditation turned out to be 10 times more effective than a full 8 hours of sleep.

Considering that Fang Cheng’s Spirit Attribute was at a high level of 40 points.

Besides practicing Concentration, Speed Reading, and other spirit-related skills, normal sleep or other activities hardly had any beneficial effect anymore.

Fang Cheng blinked, feeling quite good mentally.

The only dissatisfaction was that the Skill Experience growth rate was a little slow.

Two hours of practice had only added 1 point of experience.

The primary reason lay with Fang Cheng himself.

Even away from that somewhat peculiar Meditation Hall,

Fang Cheng could still sense that azure blue space during his meditation, and that vast, distant shadow.

With a preventative mindset, each time the meditation went deep, he would automatically be alert and wake himself, to avoid the risk of drowning in consciousness.

This caused his meditation sessions to be intermittent and the speed of experience gain to become very slow.

Although the instructor in the class did not mention the "specific targets" and "guidance methods" that Lin Chuqiao talked about.

Yet, Fang Cheng had already guessed what the so-called "Targets" might imply.

That mysterious and unknown shadow might just be the ultimate life goal that members of the Truth and Meditation Joint Practice hoped to approach and reach through their meditation practice.

Of course, that was their "target," not the "target" Fang Cheng wanted to pursue.

Fang Cheng did not like the feeling of not being able to fully control his own consciousness.

For this reason, he would rather forsake the great power that could potentially awaken.

"Although I’m not a genius, with the assistance of the panel, even if I train slowly, I can still grow."

As for how to establish his own targets?

Fang Cheng had no leads for the moment; he would listen to more of the instructor’s lessons and figure it out slowly.

While pondering, he suddenly heard a strange and familiar sound from the corridor.

Snap—

It sounded like someone wearing water-filled rubber shoes stepping on the floor.

About ten seconds passed.

Snap—

Another sound.

Fang Cheng couldn’t help but frown slightly, his gaze shooting toward the door like a flash of electricity.