In the blink of an eye, five days passed.
After taking the pills Ji Bei had left behind, Lin Bai's injuries had healed over the course of five days.
Xu Rui, however, had not returned since that battle.
Over these five days, many more New Talent Kings had emerged among the Spirit Sword Sect's new disciples.
By now, the elders who had returned from recruiting disciples in the various cities had nearly all come back.
The number of new disciples had already exceeded nine hundred.
Among those nine hundred, nine were acknowledged by all the new disciples as New Talent Kings.
One of them was Lin Bai!
However, these martial artists all knew that the title of New Talent King was only temporary.
The first place in the trial two days later would be the true New Talent King.
Late at night.
Qi Shaolong and Tiedan had both fallen asleep.
Lin Bai quietly left the courtyard and hurried through the new disciples' compound.
Soon, Lin Bai left the new disciples' compound and arrived in the barren mountains.
"White Cloud Peak."
Standing at the foot of the mountain, Lin Bai looked up at the enormous peak before him. Several palace-like buildings stood atop it, their lights shining from within.
"Third Uncle wants me to become Ling Tianzi's disciple, but I've never met him. I'll go see him tonight and take a look at how deep his abilities run."
Lin Bai grinned and quietly ran up White Cloud Peak.
Lin Bai did not follow the stone path upward. Instead, he ran through the woods along a secluded trail and made his way to the summit.
"Master, someone is coming up. Should I drive him back down the mountain?"
Just as Lin Bai was sneaking up the mountain,
a man with delicate, feminine features—more beautiful than a woman—walked into one of the palaces.
Inside the palace, a middle-aged man with long hair draped over his shoulders, thick eyebrows, and large eyes sat beneath the lamplight, absorbed in the book in his hands.
"No need. Let him amuse himself."
The middle-aged man spoke casually.
Several enormous palaces stood atop the mountain.
Lin Bai entered one of them and discovered that it was filled with books.
"This is actually a Hall of Books!" Lin Bai walked curiously to a bookshelf and casually picked up a book.
Record of Exotic Flowers and Strange Herbs.
The book recorded many rare and strange spirit flowers and spirit herbs from the Barren Ancient Continent.
Lin Bai was fascinated after reading for a while, but he did not become obsessed with it.
Afterward, Lin Bai picked up another book.
Barren Ancient Continent Gazetteer.
This book described the map of the Barren Ancient Continent.
Lin Bai began studying it carefully.
"Master, he's reading in the Hall of Books," the delicate-looking man said.
"He seems to be a disciple of the sword path. Give him the Thunderous Sword Intent Scroll to look at." The middle-aged man kept his eyes fixed on the book in his hands and spoke casually.
"Yes!"
The delicate-looking man answered, then turned and walked out of the palace.
Inside the Hall of Books, Lin Bai carefully finished studying the map of the Barren Ancient Continent, his mind trembling. "So the Barren Ancient Continent is divided into five continents, and each continent is further divided into nine thousand domains."
"And my current location belongs to the Myriad Kingdoms Domain in the Eastern Continent!"
"As for the Divine Martial Nation, it's merely a tiny country in the far eastern borderlands of the Myriad Kingdoms Domain."
"This world is too vast, too magnificent!"
"I must leave the Divine Martial Nation and see the world beyond it."
Lin Bai spoke with blazing determination.
As Lin Bai set down the Barren Ancient Continent Gazetteer, he suddenly noticed a scroll titled Thunderous Sword Intent Scroll on the bookshelf.
"What is this?"
Curious, Lin Bai picked up the scroll and casually unfurled it.
The instant the scroll opened, a divine sword wreathed in lightning suddenly shot out from within, streaking straight toward Lin Bai's face.
"Not good!"
The terrifying power within that lightning sword made Lin Bai's hair stand on end and his entire body turn cold.
It was as though, in that fleeting instant, the sword had cleaved his soul apart.
Smack!
Lin Bai was so startled that his hand slipped. The scroll fell to the floor with a sharp crack.
Lin Bai was also frightened into dropping heavily onto the floor, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.
"Is this an illusion? Then why does this sword feel so real?"
Lin Bai slowly picked up the scroll again and looked at it intently.
On the painting was a man with his back turned to him, holding a sharp sword and standing amid countless bolts of thunder.
Suddenly.
Just as Lin Bai focused intently on the man in the painting,
the thunder in the image seemed to come alive. It writhed across the scroll in unison, burst out, and lunged straight at Lin Bai.
Smack!
When he saw the thunder burst out, its destructive power made even Lin Bai's soul tremble.
His grip loosened, and the scroll fell to the ground again.
Lin Bai hurriedly ran out of the Hall of Books.
Without looking back, he ran down White Cloud Peak.
After Lin Bai left,
a middle-aged man brought the delicate-looking man to the front of the Hall of Books.
The delicate-looking man smiled. "Not bad. He actually lasted three breaths."
"Indeed, not bad." The middle-aged man smiled as well.
"But his Martial Soul is too poor—a Yellow Rank One. It's useless."
The middle-aged man shook his head with a laugh.
The delicate-looking man was startled. "Master, I thought you let him onto White Cloud Peak because you intended to take him as a disciple. Since you look down on his Martial Soul, why did you let him come up?"
"Don't you think our White Cloud Peak has gone too long without visitors? It's been rather deserted." The middle-aged man smiled.
"If he comes again in the future, you don't need to interfere. Let him play."
The middle-aged man shook his head and returned to his palace.
Back at the new disciples' compound,
Lin Bai sat on his bed, drenched in sweat, as though he had just awoken from a nightmare.
Even now, Lin Bai could not forget the lightning sword that had burst out when he opened the scroll.
The countless bolts of thunder in the painting, and that imposing figure standing amid them.
"What kind of painting is this?"
Lin Bai panted heavily, speaking in utter astonishment.
For the entire night, Lin Bai's mind was filled with thoughts of that painting.
The night passed in silence. That painting tormented Lin Bai all night.
The next day, Qi Shaolong and Tiedan went out to play together.
At dusk, the two returned with some news.
For example, a tenth New Talent King had appeared in the new disciples' compound.
Someone had declared that they would definitely kill Lin Bai during the trial.
Someone else had said that they would defeat all the New Talent Kings in the trial.
In any case, the new disciples' compound was now a sea of fire. Every new disciple wanted to rise above the rest.
Their gazes were all focused on the trial, which was only two days away.
After dinner,
Lin Bai lay on his bed, his mind constantly returning to that painting.
"No, I have to go take another look!"
Lin Bai climbed out of bed and headed straight for White Cloud Peak.
"Master, he's here again," the delicate-looking man reported.
The middle-aged man was none other than the master of White Cloud Peak—the master Lin Yue wanted Lin Bai to acknowledge—Ling Tianzi!
"Where did he go?" Ling Tianzi asked.
"He went straight to the Hall of Books without even looking back," the delicate-looking man said with a smile.
The delicate-looking man was one of Ling Tianzi's disciples. His name was Li Shanqing.