The sage was determined to die.

You cannot believe a single word or phrase spoken by the person in front of you.

At the same time, you must not anger the other party.

Everyone took a deep breath. At this moment, they knew very well how dangerous the other party was, but they felt utterly powerless against such danger.

Damn it, why did they have to be the ones captured by the Chu people and sent to the Puppet Forest? Why are they so unlucky...?

You have gained 5 points of fear.

Huh?

Ji Bai touched his face. Although his handsome face was indeed slightly red, it shouldn't be that scary.

Ji Bai looked at the group of people in front of him. Their clothes were all different, indicating that they came from different countries. It was highly unlikely that a group of strangers would travel together in the mountain of books. It was obvious that they had been forced to come.

"Do you know who I am?" Ji Baifa asked.

Ji Bai had been walking and vomiting flower juice the whole way, and his voice was now hoarse and rough, as if it had been sanded. He forced out what he thought was a gentle smile, but to the people opposite him, it looked like a ghostly presence.

Everyone swallowed hard.

Is this monster questioning why we don't even know who it is?

The group exchanged glances. Gongsun Yang, who was in the lead, took a deep breath, stopped cranking the joystick with remarkable composure, lowered his head, and said humbly, "I know. You must be the examiner, right?"

To gain literary talent from the vast sea of ​​books, one must undergo trials and tribulations; a slight misstep could lead to certain death.

Gongsun Yang's country was very close to the State of Chu. Before he entered the Shushan (Book Mountain), his father had inquired about many things for him. One of the pieces of information was quite secretive: it was about where the scholars of Chu had obtained the most literary inspiration.

That was told to his father by a Chu scholar who had defected.

Puppet Forest.

According to the defector, many Chu scholars obtained their literary hearts in the Puppet Forest. Legend has it that as long as you feed these trees, you can obtain a literary heart of no less than the fourth grade. As for the specific method of obtaining a literary heart, the scholar said he did not know.

This news made Gongsun Yang hesitate for long. As soon as he entered the Book Mountain, he decided to try his luck in the Puppet Forest.

As a result, he was captured by the people of Chu.

Gongsun Yang was sweating profusely. He had regretted stepping into the forest as soon as he entered, because the Chu scholar had said that there weren't this many trees in this place.

It was obvious that this was a trap designed to lure him here from the very beginning.

Just as Ji Bai was about to say something, a staggering figure emerged from the dark locust grove, leaning on a cane. It was less like a person and more like a rotten, moldy old wooden stake. She walked without making a sound, which seemed particularly eerie in the silent grove.

The old man's face was covered in wrinkles like ravines, and although he was clearly an elderly man, his skin and face were as black as gray. His red clothes were completely out of place, and his smile was sinister and terrifying, but it stopped abruptly when he saw Ji Bai.

For a moment, she even looked up to confirm that this was indeed her territory.

The steps that were originally intended to reach the outsiders changed direction, and he walked step by step to Ji Bai's side.

She waved her hand, and the people in front of her stood there motionless as if they had been put on pause.

Her voice was very hoarse, somewhat similar to Ji Bai's voice now.

"Are you a newcomer?" The old lady looked at Ji Bai suspiciously.

The moment she first saw the other person, her intuition told her that this person, like the other outsiders, was not from here.

But the taste of similar things doesn't lie.

For some reason, Ji Bai instinctively felt a sense of danger when facing the old woman in front of him.

And the other party is probably not human.

"I am a guard," Ji Bai said with a blank expression, recalling the system's notification.

"Don't you have your own space? Why are you here?" The old woman seemed very impatient. "If you come here, I won't have enough Wenxin left. Get out, get out."

So, even the guardians of the mountain of books need literary talent?

Why do they also need literary talent?

Judging from the system's prompts, the guards of the Book Mountain are at odds with the outsiders. The so-called outsiders are these scholars who have passed the imperial examinations. Apart from Ji Bai, the scholars from various countries, and even people from the five great families, are willing to enter the Book Mountain in order to win over the literary heart.

Following the clue, Ji Bai deliberately acted less than clever, pausing before saying, "Wenxin, I need it too."

The old lady seemed very angry, and subconsciously grinned and showed her teeth. Although she looked very old, her bright yellow teeth were as sharp as shark teeth.

Remembering the most important rule in the work code—never to lay a hand on a colleague—the old woman could only reluctantly retract her fangs, saying with disgust, "You're still young, you don't need to use Wenxin to prolong your life right now, do you? Why do you have to compete with an old woman like me?"

Ji Bai nodded: "We're all guards, don't you know that the first rule of guards is not to respect the elderly or care for the young?"

Where did this rule come from?

She glared fiercely at Gongsun Yang and his group, then at Ji Bai, and said suspiciously, "Fine, you're just as greedy as these people. Maybe you can protect this hard-won, mature literary heart."

The next second, she waved her sleeve again, and Gongsun Yang and the others instantly woke up as if from a dream, regaining their movements and expressions.

The old man, his back hunched, instantly transformed from a cold-hearted man into a kind-faced one, smiling as he looked at the group and said in a hoarse voice, "After waiting for so many years, I've finally found you all. I wonder which of you will be the one to win the heart of Wenxin, whom I have guarded for so many years."

The old lady, leaning on her cane, stretched out towards the woods, gesturing for them to follow.

The group's expressions instantly turned excited. Wen Xin, did they really deserve to receive Wen Xin?

In the blink of an eye, the group arrived deep in the woods, where there was a secluded open area. There, a brightly colored sapling was slowly growing taller.

Yes, it is growing taller.

The old lady glanced at Ji Bai, looked at the group of them, and said, "This is a Wenxin that I have been cultivating for three years. It is only one step away from fully growing. Only one of you can obtain it."

As she spoke, she tossed a twig to each of them. The twig was as sharp as a knife and hollow in the middle, like a large straw.

The group of people accepted the gift at a loss, and asked in unison, "Examiner, how can we obtain this literary heart?"

The old woman grinned and said, "This literary heart is primarily focused on killing; it can only be nourished with human blood."

She glanced at them and casually brought something up.

"Oh, by the way, consider this tree branch a gift for you. It's a product of the Book Mountain, so you can consider it a treasure if you take it with you."

Ji Bai, who was watching from the sidelines, suddenly remembered what Xu Jijiu had said.

The things in the mountain of books can be used to kill people from other countries.

But there is only one Wenxin in front of him.