Chapter 18

Bai Ye Feng was not one of those ordinary people from the bar. According to Wenren Lian, Bai Ye Feng ranked among the very top of his peers. Could someone like that really be possessed and controlled by Chi You so easily?

On the way back, Jiang Luo kept probing Wenren Lian about Bai Ye Feng. "This person—is he really that formidable?"

"Very formidable," Wenren Lian said. "But what's more formidable than his strength is his popularity."

Wenren Lian paused, as if afraid of touching a sore spot. "He has a lot of followers. People see him as the second Chi You."

Jiang Luo nearly laughed. "The second Chi You?"

"That's right," Zhuo Zhongqiu chimed in. "Bai Ye Feng started imitating Chi You about four or five years ago. His behavior, his way of handling things—grew more and more like Chi You's. That's also when he started becoming famous. When Chi You died, he even came to attend Chi You's funeral."

Jiang Luo looked thoughtful. "I see."

Then Bai Ye Feng's targeting of him could be explained too.

Maybe Bai Ye Feng had heard the lie Jiang Luo made up somewhere. As Chi You's follower, Bai Ye Feng targeting him because of "Chi You liking him" wasn't impossible.

If that were the case, Bai Ye Feng wasn't necessarily Chi You's Puppet.

But just to be safe, Jiang Luo decided to look into Bai Ye Feng's affairs more carefully.

When the group returned to the Hotel, Teacher Wan beamed and took them to a restaurant for a proper celebratory meal. Throughout dinner he kept patting Jiang Luo on the back. "Good lad, good lad! Our School is going to be famous this time!"

He praised everyone from Sailor to Jiang Luo. Sailor and Lu You were embarrassed. "It was all Jiang Luo's doing—he led us through the formation."

Teacher Wan landed two more slaps on Jiang Luo. "Good, good, good! Chi You can rest easy now that you've turned over a new leaf. Teacher has high hopes for you!"

Jiang Luo said darkly, "…Teacher, how do you know about me and Chi You?"

The few onlookers at the dinner table all dropped their heads.

Jiang Luo swept his gaze silently over their heads. Gossip really was the worst-kept secret—who knew how many people already knew about "Chi You liking Jiang Luo."

Jiang Luo was so grateful to them he could have rushed up and hugged each one, shouting "Good people!"

After the celebration, they had five days of rest. But those five days weren't really for resting. They'd gotten clues for the next round, and having the advantage meant keeping it. In those five days, they had to at least find the location of the next round, and gather as much information about it as possible.

The number of schools in the area that had been expanded in 2012 was by no means small—especially since the clue didn't specify whether it was an elementary, middle, or high school or university. Jiang Luo felt it would be hard enough just to find the next round's location among so many schools, but Wenren Lian and the others were content. According to them, getting any useful clue was reason enough to thank the heavens.

Three days later, they had narrowed it down to the ten schools most likely to be the Competition's location.

Information on the ten schools was printed into eight copies. Wenren Lian forced them to read through it all in one day, and by the end even Lu You, with the worst memory, could recall seven or eight out of ten.

Jiang Luo had also gathered more news about Bai Ye Feng.

Before high school, Bai Ye Feng had been utterly unremarkable. But five years ago, he suddenly roused himself, gradually revealing his talent and strength, and took Chi You as his life's model. Gifted and personable, Bai Ye Feng's fame grew and grew—Shanhai University was full of his followers.

Jiang Luo had also asked around about the people around Bai Ye Feng. According to them, Bai Ye Feng's personality hadn't changed at all—exactly the same as before, nothing strange about him.

After reading through the information, Jiang Luo had to admit he seemed to have been made oversensitive by Chi You, overthinking things.

If Bai Ye Feng really wasn't Chi You's Puppet, then the only reasonable explanation was that beneath his warm, approachable surface, Bai Ye Feng was even more petty than a needle's eye. Truly Chi You's follower—Jiang Luo mocked inwardly. The two were practically identical.

In the afternoon, his companions—who had been working hard for four days—called Jiang Luo out. With one day of vacation left, they planned to go out and relax the tension that had been building for days.

Lu You still remembered what Jiang Luo had said. "Let's go see a temple. Jiang Luo has been so unlucky lately—house fire, dislocation, and now Spider-Man."

The Spider-Man the Competition organizers hadn't even found when they inspected Hubu Village just happened to run into Jiang Luo and Qi Ye. That wasn't unlucky—that was extremely unlucky.

Jiang Luo, still drowsy, struggled to perk up. "A temple in Yunnan Province? Which one?"

Ge Zhu said, "Jinwu Temple."

Jinwu Temple was a famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan Province. Jiang Luo instinctively looked at Ge Zhu—Ge Zhu had once been a Buddhist disciple before switching to Daoism. Going to a Buddhist temple now, wouldn't Ge Zhu's feelings be complicated?

But one glance and he saw Ge Zhu in a flowing Daoist robe, enthusiastically discussing the temple's vegetarian food with Kuang Zheng. "I hear the rice they steam there is incredibly fragrant. I've been to Jinwu Temple before—let me tell you, don't trust the fortune-telling and Divination inside the temple, haggle the vendors down by half, if they ask for ten yuan, three is already the absolute max…"

Jiang Luo: "…"

He expressionlessly withdrew his gaze, turned to Ye Xun, and said, "Let me hold Little Pink for a bit."

Ye Xun handed him the rabbit plush. Jiang Luo rubbed its ears twice. "In the first round you couldn't bring special tools, so you had to leave Little Pink at the Hotel. In the second round you should be able to bring it, right?"

Ye Xun nodded. "I can bring it."

Jiang Luo thought of his backpack full of talismans and smiled darkly. "That's perfect."

Jinwu Temple was built against a mountain, vast in area, boasting a High Mountain and an enormous lake. The temple's architecture was mainly white walls and golden tiles, somewhat resembling the Potala Palace in Tibet. ①

They took the temple's sightseeing bus to the base of Jinwu Temple. The central staircase had a full two hundred steps, and at this altitude, trying to climb it in one go could easily cause altitude sickness. The group climbed and rested, chatted and laughed their way up to the temple.

Zhuo Zhongqiu was acquainted with a senior monk at the temple. She and Ge Zhu went to pay their respects. Jiang Luo and the others wandered around the temple at will. Lu You dragged Jiang Luo into donating a good amount of incense money, with the noble justification: "If the heart isn't sincere, let the money make up for it. Go on, bow."

Jiang Luo hadn't believed in this sort of thing before, but he'd transmigrated—transmigrated into this world of spirits and the supernatural. He at least held a certain respect for these gods and Buddhas.

He knelt on the cushion alongside his companions, bent at the waist in a proper bow. In his heart he thought: My requests aren't many—just let Chi You die.

They spent two hours on the mountain, found a Tibetan eatery at the bottom for dinner, and were back at the Hotel before long.

Later that evening, Jiang Luo was in the shower when someone knocked. After a while, Lu You ran to the bathroom door and said, "Jiang Luo, someone's here to see you."

"Who?"

"Someone from the Feng Clan," Lu You lowered his voice. "He says Mr. Feng wants to see you."

Mr. Feng naturally referred to Feng Li.

Jiang Luo wiped his face, opened his eyes, thought for a moment. "Did he say what he wants to see me about?"

Lu You said, "Nothing. Just that Mr. Feng wants to see you."

Jiang Luo touched the Yin-Yang Ring on his right hand. Why did Feng Li want to see him?

In this first Competition, besides getting first place, there shouldn't be anything else particularly notable about him.

Jiang Luo thought for a moment, then said, "Send him back. Tell him I'm sorry, but it's not convenient for me to see Mr. Feng right now."

Lu You acknowledged and left.

Feng Li was the protagonist gong in The Evil Spirit, the man paired with Chi You. Jiang Luo wouldn't underestimate him.

Feng Li was strong. Jiang Luo couldn't just watch him and Chi You join forces and make Chi You stronger. But until he understood Feng Li's specific temperament, Jiang Luo didn't want to meet him rashly.

More importantly, Jiang Luo had played hard today and was being willful—he wanted to go to bed after his shower, not deal with more random people.

The Feng Clan disciple who had been turned away by Lu You went up to the fifth floor, knocked on Feng Li's door. A calm voice from inside said, "Come in."

The disciple pushed the door open and saw Feng Li playing chess with Zhuo Zhengyu. Feng Li didn't look back at him, but spoke flatly as if he had eyes in the back of his head: "Couldn't find him?"

The Feng Clan disciple said uneasily, "Sir, Jiang Luo said it's not convenient for him to come see you right now."

Feng Li's fingers, holding a chess piece, paused. He turned his head to look at the disciple.

His eyes were very pale, as if worldly dust never crossed them, but the pressure he gave off was thick and almost tangible. The disciple trembled. Feng Li slowly set down the piece and murmured to himself, "Not convenient?"

Zhuo Zhengyu burst out laughing. "Feng Li, you're too old-fashioned. These young people nowadays—who has time to sit around all day waiting for you to summon them? They're busy every day, can't even finish playing! If you wanted to see someone, why didn't you say so in advance?"

"Forget it," Feng Li turned back to the chessboard, his voice unwavering. "If it's not convenient, then it's not convenient. We won't meet."

Zhuo Zhengyu, seeing he was about to lose at chess, took the opportunity to brazenly throw the pieces aside and spread out the map of the next Competition's location. "Then let's do business first. We still haven't decided which area to assign those students to."

Feng Li glanced at the map, searched through the student list beside him, pulled out a Note, and placed it on the most dangerous spot on the map.

Zhuo Zhengyu leaned in for a look. The Note read "Jiang Luo."

He glanced at Feng Li, thinking: you really hold a grudge. Just because the kid refused to come see you, you put him in the most dangerous spot.

But the most dangerous spot also yielded the most rewards. Zhuo Zhengyu thought for a moment, then placed his own daughter's name there too.