Chapter 244 - 241: Ding Yi’s Doubt

Chapter 244: Chapter 241: Ding Yi’s Doubt

The reputation of the Celestial Traveler’s Hall was now starting to spread. It wasn’t thanks to the adults, but to the children who came to study at the hall.

Although the parents couldn’t grasp the truly miraculous aspects of the hall, they could see that their children’s bad habits had improved significantly. The kids not only became more hardworking, but even the introverted ones grew cheerful and lively.

Most importantly, the children’s confidence had soared during this time. They were performing remarkably well both at school and at home, with their grades in academics and physical education steadily climbing.

This was the best possible advertisement. Parents wanting to enroll their own children at the Celestial Traveler’s Hall soon formed long lines, asking those who had successfully registered before how to get in.

They learned that after the first batch of one hundred students was full, the Celestial Traveler’s Hall would immediately begin recruiting a second batch, and so on.

However, at this stage, the enrollment standards for the new term at the Celestial Traveler’s Hall had suddenly become much stricter. The third batch currently had just over forty people, and the instructors seemed to have no intention of aggressively recruiting more.

The Chief Instructor’s explanation was simple: this was a place for learning martial arts and skills, and with only a few instructors, they were stretched too thin.

In total, there were now two hundred forty-two students of all ages. They all understood, to varying degrees, that the Celestial Traveler’s Hall was no ordinary martial arts school—it couldn’t be compared to the other martial arts training classes on the market.

Does a real Martial Arts world exist? Are there other sects with powerful Martial Arts?

Nobody knew the answers. The bolder ones would ask the Chief Instructor, but he would only stroke his beard and smile without a word. Still, everyone understood that getting into the Celestial Traveler’s Hall was a great opportunity, one that only a fool would give up.

’If we’re lucky enough to enter the Inner Sect, the instructors will probably tell us then.’

But Ding Yi was far from calm right now.

The news on TV and online was filled with reports about various government operations launched over the past two days, including crackdowns on organized crime, environmental protection initiatives, and even traffic control.

Other citizens, and even the other students at the Celestial Traveler’s Hall, were just clueless spectators.

But he and Guo Wei had seen the Soul-Host Spirit Mother Body with their own eyes.

He himself had even tracked the Soul-Host Spirit Mother Body for a while, and had later seen an instructor take action, as well as that mysterious, breathtakingly beautiful red-haired woman.

Most of the students in his batch had heard about the incident on the subway, catching the "Lustful Ghost." The instructors had only asked them not to spread rumors outside the hall. It was fine to discuss it amongst themselves, but anyone who dared to leak it to the public would risk being expelled.

The instructors’ words carried immense weight with everyone at the Celestial Traveler’s Hall now. Coupled with the risk of expulsion, the students had stopped talking about the incident these past few days.

Initially, Ding Yi had also thought the matter was over. It was a widely accepted fact among the students that the hall was extraordinary, and it was hard to even imagine the extent of the instructors’ abilities. The fact that they could catch a ghost wasn’t actually that shocking.

But the subtle warnings over the last two days for people not to go out at night, combined with all the news reports after sunrise today, made Ding Yi suddenly realize it had all started after his encounter with that "Lustful Ghost."

Later that same day, the Kyoto City media had begun to put out various hints advising against going out at night.

Then, on the night before last, although he didn’t know what had happened, he knew it was definitely not as simple as what was being reported by the mainstream media.

It felt like it was just a few days ago, or even just last night.

Something huge must have happened.

The best proof was that Mo Shaoge and Mo Qingxue, the two instructors, had been absent from last night’s evening class.

People always have personal matters to attend to, of course, but this was the first time in over a month that both instructors had been absent.

This morning, the two instructors were absent from morning practice again.

Today was Saturday, and students who weren’t at work or school loved to come to the hall. So even after morning practice ended, the hall remained lively.

The Chief Instructor, Elder Mo, sat steadily in his grandmaster chair, sipping the miraculous Vermilion Fruit Tea from time to time. He watched the group of spirited young people below as they practiced or sparred with each other, occasionally offering a few words of guidance.

As the widely acknowledged "star student" of the first batch, Ding Yi would sometimes walk around to correct the mistakes of the junior students. When he trained on his own, he usually stayed near the instructor’s platform.

The two instructors still hadn’t returned, which made him feel uneasy. He had a strange feeling, a fear that they might never come back.

However, the Chief Instructor was like a Stabilizing Needle, remaining perfectly calm and leisurely sipping his tea. This gave Ding Yi a sense of security, as if the sky wouldn’t fall.

"You little rascals. Finally back."

Ding Yi, with his sharp hearing, overheard the Chief Instructor’s soft, amused muttering.

’Have the instructors returned?’

He deliberately kept an eye on the screen partition, but it wasn’t until more than a minute later that the two instructors appeared there.

Ding Yi quietly suppressed his shock and stole a glance at the Chief Instructor.

This gave him a glimpse into just how powerful the sagely old man was. The two instructors must have just entered the campus a minute ago, yet the Chief Instructor had already sensed them.

’He’s truly a Master Level figure!’

Elder Mo felt it was necessary to learn about modern things, since good gadgets were just decorations if you couldn’t use them. For instance, just now, his new phone—the one that had forced his old "senior-friendly" phone into retirement—vibrated. That’s how he knew his grandson and granddaughter were back, but he didn’t bother checking the message since he wasn’t very good at using it.

As for how he knew it was his grandson and granddaughter, the app called "WeChat" on his phone only had two contacts. Since it wasn’t the ringtone for a text or a call, a simple vibration had to be the two kids reminding him to get ready to leave, because something important was happening at noon.

When Mo Shaoge and Mo Qingxue entered, they saw the hall was quite lively. The students, big and small, were full of energy. It seemed to soothe away much of the cruelty and exhaustion of the previous night.

"Everyone, quiet down."

An instructor’s voice rang out, and the hall fell silent.

"Lunch is on the hall today, so you don’t have to sort it out yourselves. Let’s go. There are vehicles waiting outside right now."

The students inside instantly grew excited and happily followed the instructor downstairs.

Outside the campus, four large buses were waiting. Mo Shaoge had apparently considered the possibility of all two hundred-plus students being present. As it was, the current group couldn’t even fill two of them.

There were well over a hundred people at the hall, and feeding that many wasn’t something a small restaurant could handle at a moment’s notice.

The buses headed directly for the suburbs. After more than half an hour, they arrived at a large restaurant with a somewhat odd name: Piaoxiang Building.

Most of the students had never heard of this restaurant, but seeing the parking lot full of cars, many of which were high-end models, they knew it had to be a nice place.

Zhao Chen had been waiting outside the restaurant for a long time. His brother-in-law had tasked him with overseeing this meal, pulling him away from his plans to visit his kids on his day off. He had been repeatedly warned not to mess it up.

He had no choice; he had to do what his brother-in-law ordered. Anyway, the three kids would be eating here too.

The buses pulled up right in front of the entrance. Zhao Chen hurried forward with several hostesses to greet them.

Mo Shaoge and Mo Qingxue got off first, then waited by the side for Elder Mo to disembark.

"Greetings to the three instructors. Welcome to Piaoxiang Building. The banquet hall on the third floor is ready."

"Dad!" "Uncle!" "Uncle Zhao!"

Zhao Long, Sun Ya’an, and Du Heng saw Zhao Chen as soon as they got off the bus and ran over, calling out to him affectionately.

Zhao Chen smiled at them but didn’t say much.

"Everyone, please come inside!"

As he spoke, the rest of the students had also gotten off the buses.

People these days were worldly, so while the restaurant was upscale, it wasn’t enough to make them gasp. They were more interested in gossiping about the discovery of their three "rich kid" classmates.

The arrival of such a large group of people of all ages, all dressed in training uniforms, inevitably piqued the curiosity of some of the other patrons in the building, who wondered which training institution they belonged to.

In the banquet hall, as the students took their seats, dishes began to arrive one after another. The lavishness of the spread was beyond their imagination.

Next to Ding Yi, Guo Wei stuffed several large pieces of lobster meat into his mouth and mumbled quietly as he chewed.

"Brother Ding, this one meal probably costs more than the tuition we paid..."

"I never even paid tuition..."

Nearby students, their mouths greasy from the feast, heard this and smiled knowingly.

The Chief Instructor and the other instructors showed their faces at the beginning of the meal but later went to a different private room. It seemed they had other business to attend to during this meal, but everyone was having such a great time eating that they didn’t feel disappointed.

Their appetites had grown recently, and they often felt like they could never eat enough. Today was a real treat. Whenever a platter was emptied, it was taken away, and a new dish would appear just a few minutes later.

As they were eating, Ding Yi and Guo Wei felt a tap on their shoulders.

Ding Yi’s heart skipped a beat. ’Who got behind me without me noticing?’

He turned his head and saw it was Mo Qingxue.

"Ding Yi, Guo Wei, come with me. Sun Ya’an, Zhao Long, and Du Heng, you come too."

"Okay, instructor!" "Yes, instructor!"...

The group exchanged glances, immediately left their seats, and followed Mo Qingxue straight up to the fifth floor, arriving at a large private room.

As soon as they entered, the first thing they saw was Mo Shaoge sitting close to a beautiful woman.

’Could that be the instructor’s girlfriend?’

Just as they had that thought, the woman picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks, blew on it, and fed it to Mo Shaoge.

CRACK~ Sun Ya’an felt her heart break, while the other four all wore gossipy expressions that said, ’So the instructor has a girlfriend!’

"Ahem! You lot, why aren’t you greeting our guests!"

Elder Mo’s stern reprimand rang out, startling the five of them.

’Guests? Where? Isn’t it just the three instructors and instructor Mo Shaoge’s girlfriend in the room?’

With this thought, they looked around the room in confusion, and suddenly realized why they felt like there were many people eating. Why did they have that feeling?

They regulated their breathing and looked again. As if in an instant, the room was filled with many more people.

A group of people, some wearing black cloaks and robes, others in simple, gray, old-fashioned clothing, were also seated around the large round table. There were more than a dozen of them, and the closest one was only a few steps away.

’When did so many people get here? Why didn’t we notice them when we came in?’