The sage was determined to die.

"What do you mean?"

Yan Ming swallowed hard and repeated, "What do you mean by 'tricked us into coming in'?"

Even the old woman who was hiding in the shadows couldn't help but prick up her ears.

She never expected that she would actually have a role here.

The old woman squinted her eyes and stood in a corner out of sight of the Qi people, scrutinizing Ji Bai. Seeing that he still had that aloof demeanor, the subtle displeasure in her heart dissipated somewhat.

She had her doubts about Ji Bai.

From the very first moment she saw Ji Bai, she suspected that he was lying.

But she had indeed seen many people lie to her.

There was really no one as confident and assertive as Ji Bai.

Ji Bai, with an air of superiority and self-righteousness, glanced at Yan Ming and said cryptically, "You want to know? But that's a different price."

Ji Bai felt that his plan was not very clever, but fortunately the person he was scheming against was even less clever than his plan.

He had considered that when he met Yan Ming and the others, he should first be gentle with them for a while. However, if he couldn't subdue them immediately, Granny Tan would notice something was wrong.

Seeing that Ji Bai maintained that ambiguous smile and remained silent with a cold face, Yan Ming and the others couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

It was only then that they belatedly realized that Ji Bai, who had left the group, had survived alone in the mountains of books without the help of his teammates.

And it appears completely unharmed.

Yan Ming couldn't help but recall Ji Bai's past self. Although he wasn't exactly a good person back then, he was nowhere near as aggressive as he is now.

There's only one possible explanation for Ji Bai's arrogance.

Yan Ming's eyes lit up, and his fists clenched involuntarily. What was originally an unacceptable result was now somewhat acceptable to him because of Ji Bai's previous words.

"Ji Bai, did you also win Wenxin's heart?"

Yan Ming's words made sense, and he even began to speculate logically: "You have no team to rely on, and you're all alone in this academic world. Without literary talent, how could you have made it this far?"

Ji Bai thought to himself, "I might actually be one of them."

He continued to demonstrate what he thought was his superb acting skills, furrowing his long eyebrows and showing a moderate surprise on his face, which he quickly concealed.

"You found out."

To Yan Ming's surprise, Ji Bai did not deny it. He even nodded and said to Yan Ming, "I have indeed won Wenxin."

Yan Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

The other Qi scholars who had not obtained the Wenxin (a literary talent) began to waver again. After hearing from Ji Bai that they could obtain the Wenxin of others, they were somewhat excited and even couldn't help but look at Yan Ming.

However, those with literary talent and those without are inherently two separate factions.

Apart from Yan Ming, Ji Bai was not familiar with any of the other Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), and it could even be said that he saw everyone as a stranger.

A stranger, a scholar who had recently passed the imperial examination, spoke with a hint of ingratiation: "Brother Ji... you must have had a tough time these past few days immersed in your studies, haven't you?"

Ji Bai gave a barely perceptible "hmm," then suddenly chuckled, "You guys are all covered in dust and dirt, yet you're all still alive? Not only are you all alive, but there are almost no other casualties, which is quite strange."

The crowd hesitated and remained silent, letting Ji Bai be overly clever on his own.

"Yan Ming, as the only one with a literary heart, you must have helped them a lot, right?"

Ji Bai's unexpected thoughtfulness left Yan Ming completely bewildered.

Then, the next second, he heard the villain say calmly.

"You're helping them so much, I think they really care about your Wenxin."