Chapter 298: Corridor Ambush
Lin Ye stood in the inner circle of the circular corridor, leaning on the handrail as he looked downward.
On the circular corridor of the next floor, there were also students resting against the handrail, likely having exhausted their mental energy and unable to continue reading and studying.
Lin Ye looked down, only able to see layer upon layer of circular corridors, completely unable to see the very bottom of the Tower.
'Sigh, why is there no method to recover mental energy here?'
Lin Ye felt somewhat puzzled. He had just circled around the circular corridor, exploring the entire floor, yet still hadn't found any method to quickly restore his mental energy.
'Perhaps rapid mental energy recovery is hidden information... but why?'
Lin Ye didn't believe that a place like the Tower would lack means to quickly restore mental energy.
'Forget it, wasting time here is worse than going back to rest. Maybe sleeping a few minutes in the dorm will fully restore it.'
Sleep was the basic method for recovering mental energy, but Lin Ye didn't think sleeping in the dorm could quickly restore mental energy. This was the Tower where even biscuits cost one point—it probably wouldn't provide free mental energy recovery for students.
Lin Ye walked toward his dorm. In the corridor of the residential area, a burly figure wrapped in bandages blocked the center of the hallway. Not only that, but the bald old man appeared behind Lin Ye, cutting off his retreat.
"Kid, your mental energy should be completely drained by now, right?"
The beastman revealed a cruel smile. Although it couldn't kill Lin Ye, it could crush Lin Ye's limbs.
"Hehe, young man, we've been waiting here for you for quite some time."
The old man sneered as he approached Lin Ye. If Lin Ye had sufficient mental energy, he definitely wouldn't have actively approached him, but now was different.
"My head hurts right now, so I'm giving you a chance to get lost. I advise you not to waste this opportunity."
Lin Ye closed his eyes and rubbed his head. The constant slight headache made him somewhat irritable—he really didn't want to fight right now.
"That's not up to you now!"
The beastman suddenly lunged at Lin Ye, throwing a punch aimed at his head. It wanted to knock Lin Ye unconscious, then slowly tear his body apart piece by piece.
The old man also quickly closed in on Lin Ye, with strands of sinewy flesh emerging from his body surface, thrusting toward various parts of Lin Ye's body from behind.
Lin Ye slightly adjusted his stance. His mental energy was indeed insufficient now, but not to the point of being unusable. However, he didn't plan to waste too much precious mental energy here.
The beastman's strength surpassed Lin Ye's, and the old man's sinewy flesh was more agile than Lin Ye, but neither exceeded a certain limit. As long as they remained within that limit, technique could compensate.
Lin Ye stabilized his lower body, raising his hands diagonally to face the attacks from both sides, with two unstable spiritual energy shields appearing in his hands.
Just as the attacks from front and back were about to contact the spiritual energy shields, Lin Ye suddenly rotated around his center of gravity, spinning both forward and backward.
His right hand, carrying the rotating spiritual energy shield, made contact with the beastman, deflecting its attack while borrowing its force to spin toward the rear.
His left hand similarly deflected the old man's attack, borrowing force to spin forward.
Both hands, now misaligned front and back, respectively stabbed toward the chests of the enemies—right hand for the beastman, left hand for the old man. Combining borrowed force with Lin Ye's own strength, they instantly pierced through both at incredible speed!
Rotating Spiritual Energy Shield!
Borrowed Force Heavy Blow!
Heart Snatching!
Lin Ye completed one full rotation. When he stabilized his stance, he held two still-beating hearts in his hands!
The beastman and old man collapsed to the ground. Until they fell, they never understood what had happened.
"I told you not to waste the opportunity, yet you had to come block my path."
Lin Ye wanted to casually crush the hearts in his hands, but a barrier blocked his fingers.
[Destruction of student hearts prohibited]
"Consider yourselves lucky. In any other place, you wouldn't have survived until now."
Casually discarding the hearts, Lin Ye shook the blood from his hands and quickly walked toward his dorm.
This time, no one blocked his path.
These two had come too quickly. Lin Ye didn't believe they were the only ones sent to deal with him. He had been constantly vigilant for enemies jumping out from the dorm rooms lining the corridor, but the others seemed unwilling to emerge now.
This was good—it would conserve mental energy.
Lin Ye returned to his dorm, locked the door securely, then lay on the bed and closed his eyes to rest. The recent fight had given him some new ideas.
To conserve mental energy earlier, he hadn't constructed complete spiritual energy shields, but rather two unstable ones. This not only saved mental energy but also used the energy from the shields' collapse to accelerate his rotation.
'Also regarding mental energy—since it can't be quickly restored, shouldn't I try to minimize mental energy consumption while reading?'
The method of consuming mental energy while reading was very subtle. Combined with Lin Ye's intense concentration, he hadn't noticed that his mental energy consumption rate was abnormal.
After resting in bed for four hours, Lin Ye's mental energy finally fully recovered.
'Feels like recovering mental energy here is slower than outside too.'
His stomach once again produced hunger pangs. Lin Ye consumed his remaining food and water.
'Time to go study. If there are no ways to obtain points, I'll starve to death here before long.'
Lin Ye still had seven Tower Points left. He planned to first buy two portions of food and water, keeping three points in reserve.
After leaving his dorm, Lin Ye quickly entered the classroom with the purchased food and water.
Finding a seat and sitting down, Spiritual Energy Fundamentals reappeared on the desktop.
Lin Ye continued studying Spiritual Energy Fundamentals, but this time he constantly monitored his mental energy consumption.
He quickly discovered that learning the knowledge from the book consumed his mental energy—the faster he learned, the more mental energy he consumed.
'So the mental energy consumption isn't necessarily proportional—it could also be because my learning speed is too fast.'
Lin Ye glanced at the books in other students' hands. Most of them had only completed about one-quarter of a book, while Lin Ye was almost finished with an entire volume.
'But that still doesn't make sense. My mental energy is much higher than those students—even quadruple shouldn't drain completely. Something here is still absorbing students' mental energy according to some ratio.'
Lin Ye tried to reduce this consumption, but after much effort, he didn't succeed and only affected his learning speed.
'No good. Continuing like this will only waste mental energy for nothing. Better to focus on reading and find ways to obtain points.'
Lin Ye abandoned this attempt and began concentrating on studying seriously.
Twenty minutes later, Lin Ye finished the entire Spiritual Energy Fundamentals book.
[Students who have completed the course may take the assessment. After passing the assessment, they may begin studying the next course]
Lin Ye put down "Spiritual Energy Fundamentals," stood up, and left the classroom. Under the watchful eyes and whispered comments of the other students, he walked toward the assessment room.
"He's already finished studying?"
"Impossible, right? I've only studied less than half."
"He must have already learned the knowledge in the book before."
"Ah? That's so unfair!"
...