CHAPTER 47: INSOMNIA

Zen tossed and turned. In frustration, he slammed his fist repeatedly upon the pillow before he slammed the side of his head in it. Sighing, he failed to fall asleep in the dim room that was his dorm room.

His mind was still dwelling on the events of the night. First it was the hunt for the wild beast, the bathhouse incident, having to deal with the rage of Xu Hau and Jiahia’s beast contract. It was all too much for his mind and he could not even sleep.

A foot landed on his face. He looked beside him at Shibi who was sleeping so soundly that he was snoring. Zen removed the foot off his face, a look of annoyance and jealousy on his face. he turned away from him as he tried again to sleep with no success.

He heard activity in the bunk bed above him. Zen stretched his head over the bed, trying to be as covert as possible. On the bed, on his knees was Li Ao. His eyes were closed, his breathing steady and his hands held a little apart. Zen had seen this cultivation meditation method before, used by some commoners back home and in the city.

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Grumbling to himself, Zen sank down into his bed. Now he felt guilty. Here he was not able to sleep, so he should have been cultivating instead like Li Ao but there was one problem, he didn’t want to cultivate! He wanted to sleep. It was this want that made him feel guilty because here Li Ao, sacrificing sleep to grow competent while he would usually sleep for 9 hours, yes, the additional hour was for good measure.

He stayed up the rest of the night, thinking badly of himself for not doing all he could to become stronger while he was surrounded by better cultivators. The light of dawn had begun to filter in the room, lighting it up and making Zen feel worse that he had not slept a wink.

“This is going to be a bad day,” Zen said.

Deng Ai got up before it could get to bright. Zen heard his two roommates discuss climbing up a mountain and cultivating at the top before too many students do the same.

“There’s a morning cultivation session?” Zen whispered to himself in disgust. He never knew that because at this time he was usually asleep. He laid on his bed a few hours more, allowing the morning sun to come into its full brilliance.

Zen grumbled as he got up but before he could do anything else a courier with a message came to his door.