Wang

"Is our organization trying to destroy the world?" Banner asked curiously after watching Bai Jing hang up the phone.

"Of course not. Does it look like it is?" Bai Jing asked in astonishment. "Don't you already know what the Order Society does?"

"That's true..." Banner nodded. Speaking of it, the Order Society's ideals were more like an attempt to build heaven on earth.

Yet from Bai Jing's tone, it sounded like he was some great demon king bent on destroying the world.

"The ideals are good, but maybe because I'm asian, the people above aren't happy about it!" Bai Jing said. "How could we white people possibly be saved by a yellow-skinned person? Impossible! That's probably what those people are thinking!"

"Actually, I didn't believe it before either." Banner shook his head. "You used to give me the impression that you kept your heads down studying, didn't talk much, and didn't interact with people. The boys were quiet and introverted, while the girls were more outgoing. But how should I put it? They seemed more interested in me as a person than in what I was teaching..."

Bai Jing nodded. "Maybe it's a stage a country has to go through during its rise. People gradually go from lacking confidence to becoming confident."

"Your country has tremendous potential!" Banner said seriously. "Among the students I taught, Asians studied the hardest, and among Asians, you people from the Celestial Empire worked the hardest. I think that with young people like that, your country's future definitely won't be bad!"

"That's true!" Bai Jing nodded. Unfortunately, in those days, he hadn't been part of the rising generation. He had merely been a leek, able only to work obediently and sleep at home during special times, contributing that tiny little bit to the country.

Who wouldn't want to become a great scientist or a great businessman?

Yet the world never went as one wished.

People had never been equal. Talent had already been decided at birth.

"I still have things to do, so I'll be going..." Bai Jing waved his hand. "I'll find someone to fix this glass later!"

"No problem!" Banner nodded, then looked at the two corpses being carried away and sighed with complicated feelings.

The New York Sanctum was located in the center of Greenwich Village, while Greenwich Village lay just south of Hell's Kitchen. The distance between them was very short.

Bai Jing had assumed this place would be like the rest of New York, with blocks laid out in a grid. Only after arriving did he discover that it was not.

This neighborhood felt like a village nestled within the city, yet its environment was elegant. Every building had its own distinctive character, and instead of skyscrapers like elsewhere, it was mainly made up of mid-rise apartment buildings.

As mentioned before, Broadway was right beside Hell's Kitchen, so quite a few people who came to try their luck on Broadway rented places in Hell's Kitchen.

But most of those people could basically be described as Broadway drifters—the sort with no fame, no money, and no prospects.

Meanwhile, major artists, playwrights, and actors who had made names for themselves on Broadway mostly lived in Greenwich Village.

Some of the more famous ones included Emma Stone, Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr., and Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts. The last of them had appeared in the 2001 film Erin Brockovich, which told the story of a female lawyer suing a major corporation for the rights of ordinary people. The film won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Bai Jing had liked that movie fairly well in his previous life, though he had no idea whether she still existed in this life.

He walked through the streets of Greenwich Village, watching the crowds passing by, the bands performing on the street, the tourists coming and going, and couples holding hands.

Well, most of those couples were men holding hands with men and women holding hands with women, because Greenwich Village was the birthplace of the gay rights movement. Gay people from all over the world came here on pilgrimage.

There had also been the *** movement and the women's liberation movement.

However, the people who started movements had long since left this village. It wasn't because the government had persecuted them, but because as New York developed, the rents and housing prices in this village had risen accordingly. Only playwrights as successful as Mark Twain could afford to live here.

Following the map to the center of the village, to 177A Bleecker Street, Bai Jing saw a building.

It looked like an old castle, three stories tall. There were actually seven stone steps at the entrance, perhaps signifying that there were seven meanings hidden in the unseen. The main entrance was a round archway from some unknown era, with wooden doors and eight arched windows on the front—two on the first floor, four on the second, and two on the third. They were the old-fashioned paneled kind as well. In the past, such windows would have been covered with paper, but the panes he saw now had glass installed in them.

It seemed mages knew how to keep up with the times too.

Bai Jing remembered that this Sanctum Sanctorum had a magical barrier, making it invisible to ordinary people. Yet he had seen it without the slightest obstruction. He stood by the street and studied it for a while, discovering that most people really could not see the building.

Even those who could see it would not deliberately knock on the door. After all, the place clearly looked like a private residence. Why would they knock?

As for such an unusual architectural style, it might have seemed strange elsewhere, but in Greenwich Village, where many ancient buildings had been preserved, it felt perfectly normal.

Well, it truly was an old building. Greenwich Village had begun to be established in 1644, the same year Emperor Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian, hanged himself on Coal Hill.

Bai Jing went to the door and knocked. Soon, an asian man with a short crew cut, about 1.7 meters tall, somewhat chubby, and rather simple-looking opened the door. He looked at Bai Jing and asked, "Hello. This is a private residence, and visitors are not allowed. What can I do for you?"

Ordinary tourists at most asked for water or wanted to come in and look around. They could be dismissed easily enough.

They did not deliberately conceal the existence of magic, but neither did they actively promote it. Whether someone could join depended entirely on fate.

"I want to learn magic!" Bai Jing said seriously.

"Hm?" The man's expression turned serious. "How did you learn that magic exists here?"

"I observed it myself!" Bai Jing said. "I passed by here just now and noticed that there was clearly a very strangely designed building here, yet those tourists who love taking pictures completely ignored it. I asked several people, and they actually said there was no such building at all!"

"I think this may be the effect of magic!" Bai Jing said. "It should be some kind of magic that affects people's minds or subconsciousness, making them overlook the building's existence!"

The man nodded. "I see. Come in with me!"

Bai Jing was a little stunned. He believed him just like that?

But on second thought, it made sense. Mages lived in seclusion year-round. How could they have experienced the scheming and deception of the human world? Of course, it was also possible that this man had some other means of sensing that Bai Jing was handsome and kind-hearted.

Bai Jing felt the latter was far more likely.

He followed behind and entered through the wooden door.

Inside was a spacious hall. A long table stood in the center, with two long benches on either side. It looked like a dining table.

A complex handmade device sat on the table. It was impossible to tell what it did, though it was probably for keeping time.

The surroundings were filled with bookshelves, packed with books. They were not the kind found in modern libraries, but thread-bound or hand-bound books from before modern printing techniques had appeared.

Behind the dining table stood a Y-shaped wooden staircase, with both branches leading upstairs.

"This is the Sanctum Sanctorum. It really is a place where one can learn magic!" The asian man turned around. "You may call me Wang..."

Wang was a surname, not the Wang from Saber King.

"Oh, oh..." So he was an acquaintance.

"Then I'm Bai," Bai Jing said. "My name is Bai Kunlun."

"So we're fellow countrymen!" Wang's attitude became a little friendlier. "There is indeed a barrier set up at the entrance. It causes people whose mental strength is not very powerful to overlook this place outright. If someone's mind is strong enough, they can ignore the barrier and see the Sanctum Sanctorum. Such people are qualified to study magic. But people like that are naturally intelligent and learn everything quickly. Their talent isn't only displayed in magic—they are generally successful people in real life, so they usually won't come here to learn magic either!"

Bai Jing nodded.

"After all, magic cannot extend one's lifespan, nor can one use it to roam the world unhindered, and it takes up a great deal of time..." Wang watched Bai Jing's expression as he spoke.

In truth, their recruitment standards were similar to recruiting monks. They did not require complete detachment from worldly desires, but it was not far from that.

After all, magic was a dangerous power. Space travel alone, in the hands of an ambitious person, could trigger a world war. How could they recruit people casually?

Yet Bai Jing's expression remained calm, because he had considered all those conditions already.

He could be considered an ambitious person himself, but he did not place much importance on the power of magic.

It did not matter if he could not learn magic. As long as he knew how to comprehend space and time, he could naturally develop all kinds of applications with his own power later.

His expectations had been low from the beginning, so naturally he would not be disappointed.

Seeing Bai Jing's indifferent expression, Wang felt that Bai Jing had passed the first test.

Mm, he could barely be brought to see the Sorcerer Supreme.

"Whether you can learn magic isn't for me to decide. I'll take you to meet the Sorcerer Supreme!" Wang said, raising a hand and drawing through the air!

Accompanied by a piercing cutting sound, a portal suddenly opened before Bai Jing!

Bai Jing looked at the portal. His expression had originally been calm, but when he saw that Wang seemed to be looking at him, he quickly opened his mouth and put on a dumbfounded expression.

Wang nodded in satisfaction. Though I'm a monk, I too have a heart that wants to show off!

As the saying went, if violence was not for showing off, then it had no meaning at all.

This chapter was 2,800 words. It took an hour and forty minutes to write.

I'm obviously not slow-handed.

Mainly because I was watching a match just now, ate a lot of cucumbers and grapes, and kept running to the bathroom.

And I had to look up information too.

I wrote while looking at Google Maps, so there should not be any geographical problems. But I still haven't figured out how to post pictures. I'll look into it again, though I feel like having an image at the end of a chapter really affects the reading experience.

And those bullet comments are too distracting.

Lastly, thank you all for your recommendations and tips. I'll list the tips separately later.

Those of you recommending it, go to sleep early. I saw some people still voting at four or five in the morning...

There won't be any more later. I originally planned to post three chapters today, but there isn't enough time.