It did not coalesce in an instant as the inner and core disciples before it had.
At that moment, the entire pale world seemed to stutter and seize up in its effort to solidify the blurred phantom representing a True Disciple.
Only after several breaths did a youthful but stern-looking boy appear, barely a meter twenty or thirty tall, wearing gilded dragon armor and silver-thread brocade boots, with Silver Ji in his hand.
The sluggish world grew tranquil once more.
Bai Yi could even sense it, though this was merely a projection from untold years ago.
After this young True Disciple appeared, the previously empty world seemed to regard him with a measure of attention, the whole world serving as his backdrop.
"So this is a True Disciple of an upper-realm Dao sect?"
Bai Yi stared at the boy before him, clad in gilded battle armor and holding Silver Ji, looking no more than eleven or twelve.
Yet when this seemingly absurd combination appeared before him, he felt nothing incongruous about it.
Even though the boy before him was merely a recorded phantom from untold years ago, Bai Yi sensed a threat from someone at his own cultivation realm that he had never encountered in either Langyu Qingming Heaven or the Origin Realm.
"I am a True Disciple of the Third Sea's Sea Jiao Hall in the Nine Seas Manifest Dao Sect, a student of Deepwater Immortal Master. Any successor who can last a quarter of an hour against me may earn a recommendation to Sea Jiao Hall."
The boy looked straight ahead. Those seemingly arrogant words sounded perfectly natural coming from his mouth, his voice still carrying a trace of childishness.
As though that was simply how things ought to be.
"Nine Seas Manifest Dao Sect... the Third Sea's