Zhou Bai suddenly turned his head, but his body didn’t move; instead, he cocked his ear to listen to the footsteps coming from outside.
In the pitch-dark and silent dormitory building, even the slightest noise could travel far, sounding incredibly clear.
At this moment, the footsteps from outside were just as clear. As they got closer and closer, Zhou Bai tensed his body, the power of his Primordial Spirit spreading out layer upon layer from his sea of consciousness, enveloping his body.
Just as the footsteps neared the door to the room, they suddenly stopped.
Zhou Bai held his breath, thoughts flashing through his mind like lightning.
’Did they discover me?’
’Who could it be, coming here so late?’
’What to do? Should I continue waiting?’
As Zhou Bai was internally conflicted, a figure suddenly dashed past the doorway.
Almost at the instant the figure emerged, Christina let out a scream, and pink Sword Qi slashed out like a bolt of lightning.
Whoosh!
Ah!
Seeing the Sword Qi coming, the figure cried out in alarm and barely dodged by ducking, narrowly avoiding the Sword Qi. As Christina moved to control the Sword Qi for another strike, Zhou Bai quickly called out to stop her in his mind.
Looking at the Sword Qi halted at the spot between his eyebrows, the suddenly emerging bald head gasped for breath and shook his head, saying, "You nearly scared me to death, Zhou Bai..."
As he spoke, he suddenly paused, looked at Zhou Bai lying on the floor, and said, "Why are you lying on the ground..."
Zhou Bai gave an awkward smile, "You suddenly rushed out, it scared the hell out of me. And you have the nerve to ask me?" In fact, faced with the sudden appearance of the figure, Christina’s first reaction was to unleash Sword Qi, while Zhou Bai’s first reaction was to throw himself to the ground.
Now seeing that the person who appeared was Jian Xing, he patted his butt and stood up, curiously asking, "You’re alright? Why did you come here?"
Christina warned, "Be careful, Zhou Bai. This guy showing up in such a deserted, abandoned building in the dead of night is way too suspicious."
Zhou Bai: "Don’t worry, do you think I need reminding? My legs are so weak, I could be on the ground in 0.1 seconds."
Jian Xing looked at Zhou Bai, scratching his bald head, thinking to himself, ’Zhou Bai... why is he still here so late? And why was he lying on the ground just now? Too suspicious.’
Jian Xing said cheerfully, "I’m just wandering around here."
Zhou Bai responded with a similar cheer, "Speaking of which, after your body was taken over last time, have your injuries healed?"
Jian Xing nodded, "Ying Zi didn’t attack my Primordial Spirit; it was just weakened a bit. After resting for a little over a week, I was fine. As for the flesh wounds, the school’s experts treated me, and they healed very quickly as well. Speaking of which, Zhou Bai, why did you decide to come here so late?"
Zhou Bai thought for a moment, deciding there was nothing to hide, and simply recounted how he and Qian Wangsun had come to look for the mysterious pages, but he omitted the information about the Tao Te Ching.
Upon hearing this, Jian Xing nodded and said, "Now that you mention it, in buildings 1, 2, and this building 3, I too have found a lot of strange pages."
With that, Jian Xing pulled out a stack of pages from his pocket, which were all Tao Te Ching pages, just like the ones Zhou Bai had previously found.
The two of them counted and realized that they had collected a total of twenty pages together.
Zhou Bai was surprised, "How come you’re looking for the same thing?"
Jian Xing pondered for a moment, then got straight to the point, "Actually, it’s teacher Xing Jun who sent me here. He said that Qian Wangsun had found some peculiar pages here, which seemed to be the cultivation insights of some predecessor. He instructed me to come after class and collect everything for him. He will..."
He paused, touching his bald head somewhat embarrassedly, "treat me to a meat meal."
Zhou Bai nodded in understanding. He and Qian Wangsun had been searching for so long, and their initial reason was to earn some points for a meaty meal.
The big fish and meat dishes at Dao School could be as expensive as half a month’s living expenses.
"But... Xing Jun..." Zhou Bai’s mind flashed with images of Xing Jun appearing. "Why is it always him. The last time with Ying Zi, he was the first to strike and kill the opponent, and now it’s him sending Jian Xing here at night. Could this guy really be the mastermind?"
Regardless, Jian Xing’s appearance had saved Zhou Bai a lot of work. The two of them took the twenty pages of the Tao Te Ching and headed downstairs, arriving in front of building 7—the abandoned building rumored to have once housed a hermit.
"Has Qian Wangsun showed up yet?" Zhou Bai said with some impatience. "After all, we’ve just finished searching by ourselves, and now we might have to wait a long time for him."
Jian Xing smiled, "That might not be the case. As far as I know, Zhou Bai, you chose the Sword diagram initially, right?"
"Yeah, so what?"
Jian Xing: "The names and patterns of the nine diagrams symbolize nine different cultivation skills.
You chose the Sword diagram, specializing in the art of flying swords assassination. My specialty is the Dao diagram, focusing on martial cultivation, entering Dao through martial arts. But Qian Wangsun is different, he cultivates the Bow diagram, which is best at perception and searching, so he should find things faster than us."
As Jian Xing predicted, after about ten minutes, Qian Wangsun arrived at building 7, looking surprised to see Jian Xing and Zhou Bai: "Jian Xing? What are you doing here?"
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Zhou Bai explained, and Qian Wangsun quickly covered the pocket of his jacket: "Let’s set this straight beforehand, the pages we each found are ours to keep, no splitting them."
Zhou Bai nodded, "I know, how much have you found exactly?"
Qian Wangsun took out his pages, totaling twenty, including the one they had originally found.
Together with Zhou Bai and Jian Xing’s pages, the three of them had collected 40 pages.
And after a closer look at the contents, Zhou Bai found that it was exactly the first 40 chapters, the first half of the Tao Te Ching. Of course, Zhou Bai did not take out the page with the content of chapters 1 to 40 of the Tao Te Ching to show to Qian Wangsun and the others. He felt that now was probably not the time to reveal that information.
Looking at the bounty in front of him, Qian Wangsun said excitedly, "Excellent, I knew there had to be more here. It’s nearly four o’clock now; let’s hurry to building 7..."
Whether it was Jian Xing or Qian Wangsun, they seemed to have become curious about the pages they found, and the two headed towards building 7, with Zhou Bai following behind.
Building 7 looked different from the previous buildings; its outer walls appeared to be spotlessly clean. Pushing open the door, the entire corridor was free of any dust or trash.
Qian Wangsun crouched down to examine the floor, with a glimmer in his eyes: "This floor, it feels like someone has cleaned it?"
"Cleaned it?" Jian Xing curiously asked, "This place has been abandoned for so many years, who would clean it?"