Chapter Fourteen: Monday Lectures

Seeing how dejected Yin Seventeen looked, Owen patiently consoled him, “Don’t be so discouraged. If mastering the sixth sense were so easy, there wouldn’t be people who spend eight years in the training camp and still gain nothing.”

“But I can’t even sense the stones you throw at me, not in the slightest. I’m just so useless!” Yin Seventeen said heavily, his spirits sinking further.

“You’re simply too tense,” Owen replied, shaking his head. “Humans are used to perceiving the world with their five senses—they only believe what they can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. Over time, this confines their understanding to the narrow world of the five senses.”

“And they call it reason, regarding it as the sole reality.”

“In other words, once someone has grown accustomed to using the five senses to perceive the world, their rational mind will instinctively reject any attempt to use a sixth sense.”

“Because the sixth sense does not belong to the five senses.”

“For humans, the sixth sense—which transcends the five senses—is itself an unknown, an illusory unreality.”

“I asked you to completely relax your body to minimize the rational mind’s control over you.”

“In this way, the sixth sense, suppressed by reason, can be released and more easily awakened.”

Yin Seventeen was suddenly enlightened by Owen’s words.

Because he had been too eager to grasp the sixth sense, his mind was overly concentrated, allowing rational thought to hold his body in its grip, making the sixth sense even harder to awaken.

In future training, he would have to set aside rationality and let himself enter a state where the self and the world became one and the same; only then could he release the suppressed awareness at the root of his being.

Now that he’d found the crux of the problem, Yin Seventeen finally saw a clear path forward in his cultivation.

Time passed quickly; five days went by in a flash.

“You don’t have to train this morning,” Owen said, bringing breakfast as usual and sitting by the stone table, addressing Yin Seventeen, who was still on his bed.

At these words, Yin Seventeen, who had still been drowsy, immediately woke up.

“Why?” he asked in surprise. “Did I do something wrong to make you angry, sir?”

“It’s Monday. Have you forgotten what day it is?” Owen gave him a sidelong glance.

“Monday?” Yin Seventeen thought for a moment, then laughed at himself. “It’s the day the Saints give their lectures. I can’t believe I forgot something so important.”

For the past few days, he had been so focused on stimulating his sixth sense that he had pushed everything else from his mind.

Owen took a bite of bread and said seriously, “The Saints will explain some things about the sixth sense and burning one’s cosmos.”

“Though with your current level, you won’t be able to use what you hear, just remembering it is valuable experience. I’m sure it will be useful to you one day.”

In these five days, Owen couldn’t even recall whether he had thrown tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of stones, but Yin Seventeen had only managed to dodge ten.

That meant, in all this time, the boy had only managed to awaken the awareness at the root of his being ten times—he was still a long way from mastering it at will.

So, for now, what the Saints taught would be of little practical use to him.

“Where is the lecture held, sir?” Yin Seventeen asked as he washed up.

“Head out of the camp toward the Sacred Mountain, and just follow the crowd—you’ll find it,” Owen replied unhurriedly.

“All right,” Yin Seventeen nodded, grabbing a piece of bread from the stone table as he headed for the door, only to notice Owen sitting there, unmoving, with no intention of coming along.

“You’re not going, sir?” Yin Seventeen stopped at the doorway, puzzled.

“I came here when I was ten. It’s been eight years. I’ve heard all there is to hear from the Saints’ lectures—only the final practical experience remains. I have no need to listen anymore,” Owen answered calmly.

In those eight years, he had heard every Saint’s lecture at least five times.

Most importantly, though each Saint’s content differed slightly, on the whole it was the same. There was no need for him to listen again.

Only the newcomers in the training camp, brimming with admiration for the Saints, would be so eager to attend.

A few years from now, these newcomers would become veterans like him, and lose all interest in the Saints’ lectures.

“I see,” Yin Seventeen replied, understanding, and went out by himself.

He left the camp, heading toward the Sacred Mountain. Before long, he came upon a vast open space, already crowded with people.

“That must be the place for today’s lecture,” he thought, and walked over.

Coming closer and asking around, he confirmed it was indeed the lecture site.

Not wanting to disturb anyone, he found an empty seat and sat quietly.

Perhaps all the “veterans” like Owen had stayed away; only a few thousand people had come, and they all seemed young—newcomers like himself.

They waited for nearly half an hour. At eight o’clock sharp, the Saints’ lecture began.

This time, the speaker was “Lizard Saint Misty,” a man with an air of vanity about him.

He started by explaining the sixth sense. Some of what he said overlapped with Owen’s teachings, but there were many new things as well, such as various methods for training the sixth sense.

Then he spoke of the cosmos.

But since most of the trainees hadn’t yet awakened their cosmos, Misty didn’t dwell on how to use it, instead focusing on how to ignite it in the first place.

Although he couldn’t yet understand or use much of what was said, Yin Seventeen made a point of committing everything to memory.

He believed that one day, he, too, would truly master the sixth sense.

“That’s all for today,” Misty said, a little weary after three hours.

Though the crowd was large, he used the power of his cosmos to make his voice carry to every corner, so everyone could hear him clearly.

“Thank you, sir! Thank you, Lady Athena, for your mercy!” the crowd chorused, rising to express their gratitude.

“May the Goddess bless each of you to ignite your cosmos!” With these parting words, Misty vanished from sight.

Excited chatter broke out as everyone shared their joy at witnessing a Saint’s lecture.

Yin Seventeen didn’t join in their discussions, but made his way straight back to the camp.

He was excited, too, but after all, his mental age was already over twenty—he couldn’t lose himself like the children around him.

When he returned to his stone house, he found Owen already waiting inside with lunch.

“How do you feel?” Owen asked, smiling.

He remembered how, after his first Saints’ lecture, he’d been excited for a whole day.

“Not bad. There were quite a few useful things,” Yin Seventeen replied with a smile.

Owen was a bit surprised by his composure, then pointed to the lunch on the table.

“Hurry and eat while it’s hot. You’ve still got to train this afternoon!”

“All right.”

…