The sage was determined to die.

Ji Tianyuan glanced at Ji Bai, then glanced at him again.

"Friend, you're only sixteen."

Ji Bai patted the other person's chubby hand and said, "Can you stop looking at me with those eyes of a sixty-year-old? It's making me feel really uneasy."

"Ji Bai, you better not be courting death," the chubby boy suddenly said.

Ji Bai was startled, almost thinking that the other party had discovered his true intentions.

He planned to die a glorious death amidst the mountains of books, even if the world wasn't as terrible as he imagined. But if one can go home, why not choose to go home?

"Look at what you're saying."

Ji Bai preemptively warned us: "The Grand Master has taught us that the Mountain of Books is fraught with danger. Even eating a poisonous mushroom could be fatal. Not to mention that I am not close to the other scholars from Qi. If we are besieged by other countries in the Mountain of Books, I believe they will abandon me immediately."

Ji Bai patted the other person on the shoulder and said calmly, "But don't worry, I will do my best to get out of the mountain of books." Ideally, in the form of a corpse.

At this moment, Ji Bai did not realize that his two casual guesses had given the two people in front of him a possibility that someone knew, but few dared to say.

Xie Bi'an pondered, "You were already pre-selected by the Book Mountain, so you have the greatest chance of obtaining the Literary Heart. Once the Book Mountain opens, even if those scholars from Qi dislike you, they will be forced to follow you."

"but--"

Xie Bi'an knew these people well. He shrugged and said, "There are some things that Master Xu can't explain to you clearly. Once we enter the Mountain of Books, there won't be a single good person in other countries, and the Qi Kingdom itself may not be united either."

"If a dozen or so people were to encounter a Wenxin, naturally everyone would want her." Xie Bi'an paused, then said, "Given your reputation, if they don't try to crush you to death, they'll be considered to have a conscience."

"but--"

Ji Tianyuan rolled her eyes and said, "It's possible to force them to follow you under some kind of pressure."

Ji Bai felt that he had been led astray by the two of them. Otherwise, how could someone as upright and kind as him have understood their meaning so quickly?

"You guys aren't trying to create hype for me so you can use it to scam money, are you?"

Ji Bai clicked his tongue and said, "Sure enough, I knew that just swindling money from Wei Zhiyuan wouldn't be enough for you."

Ji Tianyuan's tone carried a hint of mutual appreciation: "Hey, friend, sometimes I really feel like we met a little too late."

Ji Bai crossed his arms and chuckled, "If we had met a few years earlier, you would have been just a kid, right?"

Ji Tianyuan's chubby face was covered in black lines.

"Aren't you only two years older than me?"

Ji Bai touched his nose. That made sense; the body was indeed quite young.

.

In the dead of night, three figures stealthily scaled the wall of the Prince's mansion.

Ji Bai pointed to the gate not far away and lowered his voice, saying, "Didn't you say this is your brother's house? Why did the three of us have to climb over the wall when we have the main entrance?"

Although Ji Tianyuan was stout, he was exceptionally agile. He pulled down his black mask and replied, "Don't you think this makes it more immersive?"

What should we substitute?

Who would impersonate a thief at their own brother's house?

The Prince's mansion was large and empty. Although it was magnificent, it was filled with a dark and deathly silence. A line of patrolling guards passed by not far from them. The guards clearly noticed them, but after glancing at them, they simply ignored them.

A deathly silence.

Ji Bai suddenly remembered that when he was in college, he had worked a summer job at a haunted house in the suburbs. In order to earn more money, he volunteered to work overtime and set up the house alone late at night. He was the only one in the empty, abandoned villa in the middle of the night. What he felt at that time was this quietness.

"Isn't your brother a prince? Why doesn't he live in the palace?" Ji Bai asked.

Although the reason why the chubby boy in front of them was crippled is unknown, the second prince was obviously not crippled. Not only was he not crippled, but he was also said to be a genius, but his personality was unpredictable and he was very mysterious.

Ji Tianyuan said "Oh," and started counting on her fingers, saying, "My second brother doesn't like living in the palace. He's also a rather peculiar person, so be careful when you see him later, and don't offend him."

Ji Bai nodded. After all, he was asking them for a favor, and according to their plan, the Second Prince was a very important part of the process.

Ji Tianyuan started counting on her fingers: "He doesn't like people, he doesn't like sunlight, he doesn't like eating, he doesn't like people mentioning meat in front of him, he doesn't like..."

Ji Bai grinned and interrupted, "Why don't you just tell him what he likes?"

Ji Tianyuan shook her head and said, "I don't know what he likes, but he hates it when people look at his face. Be careful later. If you stare at his face for too long, he won't help us and might even hit us."

The dark palace had only one room lit.

The person seated in the main seat was dressed in luxurious attire, sitting casually with slender fingers twirling a jade compass. He wore a half-mask, revealing half of his face with very fair skin, a high nose, and bright red lips—a kind of androgynous beauty.

As soon as the three of them pushed open the door, they were met with a glare from the other party. The high and mighty Second Prince glared at Ji Tianyuan and said coldly, "Next time you climb over the wall of my mansion, I'll break your legs."

Ji Bai couldn't help but glance at the other person, then looked at Ji Tianyuan, who bore almost no resemblance to the Second Prince, and couldn't help but whisper in the other person's ear, "Are you sure this is your second brother? You two don't look alike at all."

Ji Tianyuan looked at Ji Bai in surprise: "Our Ji family has always loved having handsome men. Even if my second brother isn't as good-looking as me, you don't have to belittle him like that, do you?"

Ji Bai: "..."

Ji Tianyuan's eyes lit up when she saw the compass in the Second Prince's hand. She ran over to him with her short legs and exclaimed excitedly, "Second Brother, you're like a mind reader! How did you know I was coming to borrow this from you?"

The Second Prince, Ji Ying, clearly didn't want to get close to his younger brother. He casually tossed the compass to him, frowning as he said, "If you keep talking so disgustingly, I'll rip your tongue out next time."

Ji Tianyuan picked up the compass. His second brother didn't care about this thing, but he couldn't be indifferent to it. This was a gift from the Grand Scholar to his second brother, a treasure from the Book Mountain.

"Hurry up, Ji Bai."

Ji Tianyuan pulled Ji Bai over and explained, "This compass is a treasure. If you ask it a question and it can't answer it, it can point you in a direction that will help you turn bad luck into good in the mountain of books."

The chubby boy's expression gradually turned serious: "However, this compass was given to my second brother by a Grand Scholar. Its knowledge is equivalent to that of a Grand Scholar, and there are very few questions that can stump it. But I think if you think about it for a night, you should have a chance to give it a try."

Ji Bai took the compass without hesitation and asked directly, "Is sashimi raw or made from dead fish?"

With a snap, the compass clicked open.