Chapter Eighteen: Arduous Cultivation

Without Irwin's protection, Yin Seventeen's days in the training camp became unbearably arduous.

Wherever people gather, there will be a “world of intrigue.” The Sacred Sanctuary of Greece, though belonging to the goddess Athena and claiming to stand for earth’s justice and peace—an ideal holy place where all are meant to be paragons of virtue—in reality, even gods cannot be flawless, let alone mortals. Human hearts are inscrutable; when many gather together, disputes are inevitable. Even the Twelve Zodiac Temples closest to the goddess’s throne are far from tranquil, much less the humble training camp at the foot of the holy mountain.

In the camp, apprentice warriors from various nations and regions banded together, not just to help their compatriots but also to protect themselves. The saying goes, “Those close to the water gain the moon first”; since the Sanctuary was situated in Greece, it naturally favored the locals. Nearly a third of the apprentice warriors in the camp were native Greeks. Furthermore, Athens—the city of the Sanctuary—had, since mythic times, belonged directly to Athena, leading Greece to proclaim itself the land of the gods, with Athenians calling themselves the chosen people of glory. With so many honors, the Greeks looked down upon apprentices from all over the world, even harboring hostility toward outsiders.

Non-Greek apprentices threatened to seize the limited cloths and share in the goddess’s glory. Thus, native Greek apprentices were extremely exclusionary, rejecting all non-Greeks. If not for the goddess’s decree that all the world’s people were eligible to join the Sanctuary, they would have expelled every foreign apprentice long ago. Even so, outsiders still faced all manner of difficulties and obstacles set by the Greeks, who hoped to drive them out.

This environment forced apprentices from each country and region to huddle together for warmth. The result was factional divisions, with small groups mutually hostile, escalating the disputes even further. If not for the overwhelming force of the Saints above, the camp would have long ago been littered with corpses.

Yet, such conflicts among apprentices, from another perspective, catalyzed the birth of future Saints. The authorities were quite pleased with this outcome, only limiting the intensity of the struggles and not deliberately stopping them.

Unfortunately, all of Yin Seventeen’s compatriots from the East had gone to Mount Lu, none came to the Sanctuary, and he found himself utterly alone and vulnerable—a soft target for bullying. Previously, with Irwin, a “master,” keeping watch, nothing happened; now, with Irwin dead, all sorts of monsters and demons began to emerge.

Especially during every scramble for food, Yin Seventeen noticed a group deliberately targeting him, hindering his efforts to obtain anything. No matter how many times he changed dining locations, he always encountered them; it was no coincidence. Fortunately, he was young and new to the camp, and perhaps they saw no threat in him, so their actions were limited to obstructing him, never escalating further.

Even so, it was enough to make Yin Seventeen thoroughly sick of it.

On this day, during yet another food scramble, he was knocked down again.

“Kid, this Sanctuary isn’t meant for you. Go back to your East, hurry up!” The man laughed loudly as he strode away.

Yin Seventeen remained silent, climbing up from the ground and once more rushing toward the food cart. Without sufficient strength, any amount of thinking meant nothing. The provocations of the weak only incite greater cruelty from their tormentors. Now, he had to endure, waiting until he grew stronger before he could resist.

Alas, compared to those “veterans” who had trained in the camp for years, he was clearly at a disadvantage, and with further obstruction, he was left at the very end. By the time he reached the food cart, only scraps and leftovers remained.

Under the mocking gaze of the crowd, Yin Seventeen quietly took his portion and turned away, seemingly dejected. Though he carried off the leftovers not to eat but to use as bait for fishing, taking too little might arouse suspicion. If those malicious fellows took notice, they could disrupt his fishing plans. Better to let them think he always subsisted on scraps, satisfying their petty minds, and keep them from bothering him.

For Yin Seventeen, fishing was not merely a matter of filling his belly—it was a crucial form of training. With no compatriots to rely on and unable to integrate into other circles, he abandoned the idea of team training. His sixth sense had already been mastered; all that remained was to strengthen it through practice.

Unnoticed by others, he brought his bait to the shore. After a period of investigation, he had learned the distribution of fish and the depths of the water along the Sanctuary’s coastline, and had found an ideal spot.

It was a shallow area, just deep enough to cover his neck and submerge his whole body. He scattered bait, and the nearby fish soon followed the scent in the water. Yin Seventeen entered the water.

Barehanded fishing was the core of this training method. Water refracts light, causing visual distortion, so relying solely on sight to catch fish was unreliable. But with root sense, he could ignore the water’s resistance and clearly perceive the movements of swimming fish, allowing him to better coordinate his six senses.

Moreover, water provided strong resistance—a natural load—severely impeding his speed, so catching agile fish by hand honed his physique. Thus, he could train and feed himself simultaneously.

Though barehanded fishing was difficult, it did not strictly require the sixth sense. By moving gently and lowering the fish’s guard, even ordinary people could catch them. But Yin Seventeen’s purpose was training, so he did not fish like ordinary folk; instead, he stirred up the water, frightening the fish into chaotic flight before making his move.

Thanks to his mastery of the sixth sense, he could freely suppress his “predator’s” aura, preventing the fish from fleeing the area and making them see him as merely a competitor for food.

After almost two hours of effort, Yin Seventeen returned to shore with two large fish, each weighing over a pound. It wasn’t that he caught only these two, but that he spared the smaller ones. After all, fishing was not the ultimate goal; training while filling his belly was his aim, so he took only two.

He built a fire and began roasting the fish. As he cooked, he noticed a “familiar” figure standing on a nearby hill, staring straight at him.

“That guy—he’s like a shadow, isn’t he? No matter where I go, he’s always there,” Yin Seventeen thought, inwardly annoyed.