Chapter 111: Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart
When Lu Heng opened his eyes, he was holding a pen in his hand, and on the table in front of him was a form indicating his accommodation preference. The tip of his pen paused briefly before he unhesitatingly chose to stay in the dormitory.
This entry time point was something the original owner of the body had requested. In his opinion, when he first entered university as a freshman, choosing to live off-campus to stay close to the hypocritical Zhou family was the worst decision he had made.
Zhou Yiheng's major was directing. When he was selecting his major, the Zhou family said that since he couldn't follow the path of an Ancient Martial Artist anyway, he might as well wholeheartedly assist his younger brother in becoming a Heaven-tier Martial Artist.
Living with the Zhou family came with many restrictions. First of all, secretly practicing thought techniques was next to impossible, let alone doing any live streaming.
Just as Lu Heng checked the box for dormitory accommodation, someone pulled the form out of his hand.
"Gege, why did you choose dormitory accommodation? Didn't we agree to live off-campus together?"
Lu Heng turned around and saw the person standing behind him.
Aura is a fascinating thing. Standing behind him was Zhou Yishu, whose facial features were obviously identical to Zhou Yiheng's. Yet, when Zhou Yishu stood there, he was like a dazzling little sun, attracting everyone's attention. Young, handsome, and full of energy, no matter who met him, they couldn't help but feel a genuine fondness for this young man.
When Zhou Yishu had made some progress in thought skills, he became an internet celebrity with his very first live stream due to his agile skills and excellent image. He attracted a large number of loyal viewers, and their admiration greatly boosted his mental power. From then on, Zhou Yishu's rise was meteoric.
As for his twin brother, Zhou Yiheng, he wore black-framed glasses with bangs so long they almost covered his eyes. Perhaps because he had been overshadowed by his younger brother's brilliance since childhood, he subconsciously always avoided the gaze of others. If no one mentioned it, no one would ever guess that he was the older brother of the radiant Zhou Yishu.
"Xiao Shu, it's too wasteful to spend time going back and forth every day. I want to focus on learning more about directing," Lu Heng's tone was soft, but he firmly pulled the form out of Zhou Yishu's hand. "That way, I can help you better in the future, right?"
"What's there to worry about? The family has specially arranged a car to pick us up and drop us off every day. It won't waste that much time."
Unlike Lu Heng, Zhou Yishu had chosen the Art Appreciation major, a course essentially designed for the special class to kill time. It was laid-back and easy. Zhou Yishu's goal was to become a Heaven-tier Martial Artist, so naturally he wouldn't spend too much time on his studies. Going to university was just something he wanted to experience.
Many martial artists live like this—leading an ordinary life during the day and becoming revered exorcist Martial Artists by night. Due to their unique physical constitution, Martial Artists need much less sleep than regular people, usually just one or two hours a day.
"But our class schedules are completely different. Are you going to wait for me to finish class every day before going home together?" Lu Heng asked.
Zhou Yishu opened his mouth as if to argue, but in the end, he closed it reluctantly. After all, idling at school every day foolishly waiting for Lu Heng to finish classes would be a huge waste of time. For Zhou Yishu, attending university was just a way to relax; if it started taking up too much time, it would no longer be worth it.
Seeing that Zhou Yishu no longer objected, Lu Heng handed the form to the senior in charge of collecting them, then joined him to head to the school gate to catch a ride home. If it weren't for the need to maintain his persona, Lu Heng wouldn't have bothered spending so much effort convincing him.
Along the way, girls kept casting admiring glances their way—there was no doubt they were all looking at Zhou Yishu. Lu Heng noticed the faint smile tugging at the corner of Zhou Yishu's lips as they walked side by side. While others might not see it, as a twin brother who knew Zhou Yishu inside and out, Lu Heng could tell that Zhou Yishu was in a very good mood at the moment.
Lu Heng was a bit puzzled. Zhou Yishu had been popular with girls since childhood, so it didn't seem likely that just a few glances from them would brighten his mood this much.
"Xiao Shu," Lu Heng said with a smile, "are you thinking about dating? I remember you used to have little patience for the girls who clung to you before. Now that you've started uni, have thoughts of love sprung up?"
Zhou Yishu, with his pride and arrogance, couldn't tolerate Lu Heng speaking about him like that. In his view, ordinary people and Martial Artists lived in entirely different worlds, and his future partner could only be a fellow Martial Artist. He immediately retorted, "No way. Right now, my mind is completely focused on the Martial Path. I'm not thinking about those things."
After returning to the Zhou family and finishing dinner, Lu Heng went back to his room.
Lu Heng's and Zhou Yishu's rooms were located on the east and west sides of the third floor respectively, identical in size, layout, and structure. In the Ancient Martial Arts world, the Zhou family was widely praised for their virtue. Even though the elder of the twins was trash, they never treated him unfairly. When they were younger, the twins had even attended the same Martial Arts foundation class together. What a pity this eldest child showed zero talent. After three years of study, he still couldn't grasp the basics, eventually being sent back by the instructor.
And by that time, his younger brother Zhou Yishu had already advanced to the intermediate class.
After making such a fool of himself, the Zhou family still didn't give up on this "trash" eldest son. They sought out renowned teachers, hoping one could guide him onto the path of a Martial Artist, but each attempt ended in failure due to his mediocre aptitude.
In the end, it was Zhou Yiheng who couldn't bear watching his elders go out of their way to beg others for his sake. He voluntarily proposed to give up the Martial Path and focus entirely on assisting his younger brother from that point onward.
The Zhou family's strategy was truly brilliant, conning the original owner into being obedient. If Zhou Yishu hadn't framed and drove the original owner out of the Zhou family out of guilt, the original owner might have continued working tirelessly for the Zhou family, even feeling grateful to them the whole time.
However, the original owner was indeed the child of destiny, possessing exceptional insight. His "product recall" from the foundation class wasn't due to complete lack of talent, but because of a specific limitation—he couldn't construct a thought power cycle in his mind. The thought power cycle is the key to entering the Martial Arts Path.
After being kicked out of the Zhou family, the original owner didn't give up. Relying on the basic knowledge he had gained in those years of study, he continued to train relentlessly. He even risked his life every night to hunt and fight the weakest mutated creatures, and eventually, in a life-or-death moment, he successfully constructed the thought power cycle and broke through the threshold of Martial Cultivation.
It turned out that his heart, which originally belonged to Zhou Yishu, couldn't cultivate the Martial Path for a reason. How could it be that twin brothers like Zhou Yiheng and Zhou Yishu would have such vastly different aptitudes?
The real reason lay in their birth. On the day the twins were born, Mother Zhou fainted after giving birth to Zhou Yiheng due to exhaustion. Zhou Yishu had to remain in the womb for a while longer, and during this time, his originally perfect Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart was mostly blocked by impure qi. This was what caused his seemingly mediocre aptitude.
Had the Zhou family not acted so hastily, believing in a prophecy and carelessly deciding Zhou Yiheng's fate, they could have discovered the truth. All they needed to do was seek out a Heaven-tier Martial Artist to use thought power to investigate, and they would have identified the critical issue. Unfortunately, with the Zhou family's declining status, they no longer had the clout to invite a Martial Artist of such rank.
Later, at that critical life-or-death moment, thanks to the original owner's survival instinct surging like a tsunami, he broke through a blocked heart aperture and took his first step into Martial Cultivation. Unfortunately, by that time, his reputation had been ruined, and without further external sources of thought power to break through the remaining heart blockages, his progress stagnated.
So now, the first thing Lu Heng needed to do was figure out how to clear one of those blocked heart apertures and firmly walk on the Martial Path.
But where could he find the necessary thought power? Was he supposed to follow in the original owner's footsteps and seek death? Lu Heng thought about it and decided that this method was too unreliable. It required a perfect alignment of circumstances, and even the slightest mistake could result in a disaster. Since this was his first mission after joining the Special Commissions Team, he'd better handle things with caution.
Suddenly, Lu Heng recalled Zhou Yishu's behavior at school earlier, particularly his reaction to the admiring and adoring glances. The original owner had carefully kept the textbooks from his time in the Martial Arts foundation class on his bookshelf, and after rummaging through them, Lu Heng confirmed his guess.
Emotions like pure appreciation, admiration and so on can generate thought power for Martial Artists, though the effect is minimal compared to the powerful emotions evoked during a live stream of hunting mutated creatures, where the viewers' intense emotions provide much stronger energy. For Martial Artists with advanced cultivation, the energy from such mild admiration might just bring a fleeting sense of pleasure.
But this was it! Though paltry, ants are still meat!
While ordinary people's hearts cannot store thought power, the heart inside Lu Heng was different. It was an innate Martial Artist's heart. The only reason it couldn't establish a thought power cycle was due to the blocked heart apertures, but storing thought power was no problem. Many little drops make an ocean, and there will inevitably be a day when he gathers enough thought power to break through the blockage.
However, the original Zhou Yiheng had a low-key personality that avoided drawing attention. To not be OOC or attract the Zhou family's attention, Lu Heng naturally couldn't shine brightly in the school to attract everyone's attention and collect thought power.
This wasn't a problem for Lu Heng—the perfect path was already laid out before him.
What was the hottest fad in this world? Live streaming. The entertainment industry in this world is completely built on live-streaming platforms. The live streams of Martial Artists' hunting are like Hollywood blockbusters in Lu Heng's world. In addition to this, there are also all kinds of ordinary people's live streams, which constitute the daily entertainment of the masses in this world.
After officially moving out of the Zhou family and into his dorm, Lu Heng quietly rented an apartment on the side, ready to start his own streaming career.
However, to rise to fame quickly, he needed a unique and eye-catching strategy. Time was not on his side, and Lu Heng couldn't afford to waste any of it on trial and error for his first step.
I have to stake it all for the sake of the mission, Lu Heng convinced himself.
The OhMyMy live streaming platform was the largest site for ordinary people's live streams. One particular live stream room suddenly skyrocketed in popularity overnight.
#CheeringTheCrossdressingKing#
#I actually lost to a boy in beauty contest, I'm so ashamed of my own gender#
#Streamer, I'm bent for you. I'm willing to pay any price as long as you dress in women's clothing for our dates#
Similar trending topics dominated the headlines of the OhMyMy live streaming platform.
Translator:
Hiya! Just a quick note: I'll be translating 古武者 as "Ancient Martial Artist" instead of "Ancient Warrior" from now on. With the Seven-Aperture heart, thought power cycling, and breakthroughs, this setting feels a lot like cultivation but with some tweaks, so a more literal translation seems best.
I'm really happy to see your comments! Keep them coming!
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