IRBTCI CH2

Chapter 2: What Are You Babbling About? I Don’t Understand

The young lady, who had been helping with the entrance trials for a long time, had never encountered a candidate asking such a question. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly as she said, “…There will be a meal after the trial, regardless of whether you pass or not.”

“Thank you, Senior.” Bai Lu was genuinely happy. In his current situation, every free meal was a win.

Bai Lu also ascended the steps. After two or three, his vision blurred. When he focused again, he was in a different world.

He was on a wooden boat with four other aspirants, sailing on a lake where the misty waves stretched endlessly. In the distance, there was a grassy islet.

“You must reach the islet in the center of the lake and obtain the trial token to pass,” the voice of the young female cultivator who had greeted them echoed faintly in their ears.

Bai Lu looked and saw a familiar face among the four others: Liang Mangu.

Having exchanged a few words, they were acquaintances of a sort. Bai Lu nodded at him.

“Everyone be careful, this lake is definitely not simple,” another candidate said, taking the lead in grabbing an oar.

Just as he spoke, a giant clam on the islet slowly opened, inhaling and exhaling. The sky and earth changed color, dark clouds pressed down, and waves rose on the windless lake. Several dark shadows flitted beneath the water, causing the small wooden boat to rock.

The water’s surface, which had been clear enough to see the islet, now saw several derelict ships slowly rising. They were covered in cobwebs, and spiders as long as a person’s arm crawled on them, their emotionless eyes staring coldly, sending shivers down everyone’s spine.

Everyone gripped the side of the boat. Liang Mangu took a mirror out from his robes and aimed it ahead, but the mirror showed only a blank white. He sighed in disappointment, “No magical artifacts can be used here.”

He had won this from a disciple of a noble family in a bet, thinking it would be useful.

Now they could only rely on themselves. Five people in one boat…

Liang Mangu’s mind raced, and he shouted, “Everyone, that is a Xuan Clam! The mirage it exhales can become incredibly real when it meets the water’s surface, but it can’t actually harm people. This trial must be testing our composure. It is said that with a firm state of mind, one can see through the illusion and remain undisturbed. Don’t panic, let’s move forward together—”

A dark shadow flashed under the boat again, and a giant tentacle slammed onto the wooden boat, nearly capsizing it.

“You call this an illusion?” A fellow candidate said with an ugly expression, his eyes full of suspicion as he looked at Liang Mangu.

Liang Mangu was at a loss for words.

It was the candidate who had taken the lead earlier who explained for him, “I’ve also read notes about that giant clam. It can indeed create illusions. Besides, five people rowing is faster than one, and there’s no limit to the number who can join the sect. Why would he lie to us?”

“The urgent task at hand is to work together to pass.”

With one person steering and four paddling, they tried their best to avoid the large ships crawling with bizarre creatures. But it was unavoidable. A giant spider from four or five meters away spat a thread of silk that stuck to the wooden boat, and the spider quickly scuttled across.

“Hit it, hit it!”

They were about to mount a joint defense when suddenly seven or eight tentacles broke the surface of the water, their suckers almost right in front of their eyes.

With danger before and behind them, five people were clearly not enough.

Liang Mangu heard a calm voice from behind him, “A classic monster.”

Then it continued leisurely, “Ignore the tentacles.”

In his panic, he didn’t think twice and instinctively did as the voice said. He swung his oar hard at the large spider, sweeping it into the water.

He looked back at the tentacles in front of him, which had already swept right up to him…

And then they passed through his body without any sensation.

“It was an illusion?”

Liang Mangu felt his clothes were soaked, whether from lake water or cold sweat, he didn’t know. He looked at Bai Lu, who had just reminded him, and said in amazement, “In this situation, you can still maintain your composure and see through the illusion?”

“No, I just happened to bring this.” Bai Lu raised his hand to show him an object.

Two circles connected by a metal frame, with transparent lenses in the middle.

Liang Mangu watched as Bai Lu calibrated this “artifact” at a certain angle and had them look through the lenses. Through them, the colors of some of the sea monsters and ships were much fainter than others!

Liang Mangu was dumbfounded. “Why does your magical artifact work?”

“This isn’t a magical artifact.” Strictly speaking, it was a magical tool at best, a pair of polarized glasses Bai Lu had made himself. Bai Lu was slightly nearsighted and usually didn’t need to wear them, but he would put them on for detailed work or when identifying crystals.

Bai Lu was particularly skilled in water magic and had felt something was off with the water’s surface from the start.

The illusions created by the giant clam were projections from its breath, involving reflections on the water. At a certain angle, Bai Lu’s nearsighted polarized glasses could eliminate the reflection. Looking through them, any illusion created by the giant clam had a much lower contrast.

It was a simple principle of physics.

…How to put it, although Bai Lu didn’t go to school in China, his Chinese parents had never stopped signing him up for after-school tutoring.

…

On the gold and jade platform, a dozen examiners and dozens of disciples who were watching the fun were observing the situations in the various trial realms. Many aspirants had already fallen off their boats and lost their qualification. When they saw this scene, they couldn’t help but fall silent.

Did this count as cheating?

But that thing… it really didn’t seem to have any traces of being a magical artifact…

“What do you think?” One person in the center turned his head and asked. His face was that of a man of about forty, his temples prematurely white, and his position indicated his high status.

The cultivator beside him was dressed in white, his eyes covered with a silk ribbon, revealing only a high-bridged nose and lips pursed in a cool line. He was fiddling with a silk scroll in his hand, as if he hadn’t been paying attention to the trials. At the question, he tilted his head slightly. “He hasn’t broken any rules. Continue.”

The others nodded. “Let’s see what happens next.”

…

The small wooden boat safely avoided the real water beasts on the lake and moved forward quickly.

Ahead, a creature with a shell slowly emerged from the water.

Someone exclaimed, “A Bixi!”

Bai Lu glanced at it. It’s a turtle. Why so many names? Are you bullying me because I’m a foreigner?

“It’s real,” Bai Lu said, looking down at his glasses. They had to avoid it.

The five of them slightly adjusted their direction to steer clear of the large turtle.

“There seems to be something written on the Bixi’s back…” someone said doubtfully. He squinted, murmured a few words, and was shocked. “Heavens, this is…!!”

“What is it?” Liang Mangu was on the other side and couldn’t see clearly.

But he didn’t need to. The Bixi actually spoke in a human voice, reciting a cultivation mantra: “Follow my practice, and you shall master the Supreme Glazed Body Art, achieving the Foundation Establishment stage. The body becomes like glazed glass, ending in tranquil rest…”

Not only was this the mantra of an extremely high-level cultivation technique, but it also came with a ready-made explanation for quick mastery. With one look, one listen, some people felt an unbearable itch in their hearts. Though they had intended to wait until entering the sect to cultivate, in the face of this huge temptation, they didn’t know if it was voluntary or involuntary, but they began to circulate their energy…

Indeed, there were countless immortal sects in the world, and the Xuan Mountain Sect had thousands of disciples, divided into registered disciples, inner-sect disciples, and true-lineage disciples. Getting in did not guarantee one could cultivate the best techniques. Not to mention the third trial ahead, which they might not even pass, as each trial was bound to be harder than the last.

If they cultivated this technique now, they would at least have a guarantee.

Sweat beaded on Liang Mangu’s forehead. He immediately saw that although this Bixi was motionless, it was far more dangerous than the previous water beasts.

But the voice drilled straight into his ears, shaking his spirit. He had no choice but to drop his oar, cover his ears, and shout, “I won’t cultivate it! I have a brighter future! I will become the Sect Master of Xuan Mountain Immortal Sect…”

For a moment, the other four had all dropped their oars, either to cultivate or to resist.

Only Bai Lu, after listening for ten seconds, thought, “…What does that even mean?”

Classical Chinese. He couldn’t understand a word of it!

It seemed to contain some unfamiliar power, but it wasn’t as full as his own magic.

So he picked up his oar and started rowing forward.

It was more reliable to finish the trial and eat sooner.

As the wooden boat moved further away from the 赑屃 (Bìxì), the voice also faded.

Liang Mangu lowered his hands, still shaken. He looked at Bai Lu, who was focused on rowing, and was speechless for a moment. After a long pause, he managed a new form of address, “Bro…”

“Splash.”

A sound came from behind him. Liang Mangu looked and saw that the candidate who had first organized everyone to row had jumped off the boat!

“I haven’t finished listening, I haven’t finished listening…” He swam desperately towards the Bixi.

Seeing this, another candidate seemed to be encouraged and also jumped off the boat. Liang Mangu couldn’t stop them in time. In the blink of an eye, only three of them were left on the boat.

Liang Mangu felt that life was unpredictable. He sighed and was about to express some emotion, “Alas! This moment is truly…”

“Row! We’re almost there,” Bai Lu urged. “Stop slacking. Why am I the only one rowing?”

“Oh, oh.” Liang Mangu’s full-bellied melancholy was interrupted. He quickly raised his oar and rowed along, not at all displeased at being hurried, only feeling grateful to Brother Bai.

Seeing the grassy islet approaching and the shape of the giant clam becoming visible, Liang Mangu was very excited.

“Wait, the boat’s leaking!” the other candidate exclaimed. They looked and saw it was true. The bottom of the boat had been cracked by a water beast at some point and could no longer hold, with water gushing in.

The candidate lunged forward to block it with his body, but words formed by water appeared on the hull: Three must sink.

The candidate’s face changed. “Is this deliberate?”

The classic dilemma of two peaches killing three warriors.

“Is it forcing us to abandon one person?” The candidate looked at the two of them. He had seen them talking and knew they had a slight acquaintance, which wasn’t much, but was precious at this moment.

“Gentlemen, please think carefully! This kind of test must be about our spirit of unity and mutual aid. Maybe if we all fall in together, we’ll all be selected…”

Bai Lu listened and felt it made some sense.

Liang Mangu chuckled. “Enough nonsense, get out!”

He kicked the man off the boat without waiting for him to finish his performance.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Bai Lu leaned over the side of the boat, watching the candidate sputter in the water, cursing Liang Mangu furiously.

Liang Mangu said smugly, “Didn’t expect that, did you? I have a sharp eye and a photographic memory. This guy wasn’t among the candidates who passed the first trial! He must be an undercover agent like those water beasts, trying to sow discord between us.”

“He said we should stick together. I thought that made some sense.” Bai Lu hadn’t expected so many twists and turns. He reached out to help the drowning candidate, pulling him up.

“It’s an act,” Liang Mangu insisted. “It’s not critical enough yet. When the situation becomes more desperate, who would dare to bet that falling in together doesn’t mean failing together? Besides, how can you be sure the test is about unity? What if it’s about decisiveness?”

Just like with the Bixi earlier, no one could be certain. These dangers were all calculated plays on the human mind.

They were all open conspiracies.

As he spoke, he casually kicked the candidate, who had just started to climb back up, back into the water.

The candidate: “…”

“What nonsense are you talking about? I just touched up my makeup! Is it wrong to want to make a good impression on the masters?” The water had washed away something from the candidate’s face, revealing dark skin underneath.

“Huh?” Liang Mangu looked and saw it was true; he recognized this face now. He scoffed inwardly, a dark-skinned person using foundation, I don’t even cover my dark circles. “Uh, then you can come up.”

The candidate climbed up again, but perhaps because they hadn’t made a choice, or rather, had returned to the choice, the boat started to sink again.

Liang Mangu couldn’t help but stare at him, thinking, if he’s not an agent, then the choice still exists… what should they do?

“How badly do you want to enter the sect?” Bai Lu suddenly had a flash of inspiration. Seeing them both looking at him, he said something astonishing, “Actually, I don’t have to enter. If you promise to give me some money, crystals, quicksilver, and also, do you have any White Waxwood here…”

He was just looking for a place to stay and a way to repair his broom, not necessarily to enroll.

The candidate was stunned, thinking he was joking.

But since Bai Lu had said it, he immediately went along with it. “I can give you my entire fortune.”

Bai Lu asked, “Do you have it now?”

The candidate hesitated, then pulled out some lilac-colored, sparkling stones from his person. “These are Cloud Essence Gems. Take them for now.”

Bai Lu reached out and took them. He had also minored in alchemy, and although this was not a material he was familiar with, it seemed to contain power.

Liang Mangu’s eyes widened, and he said urgently, “What are you talking about? You don’t want to cultivate anymore? Once you’re in the sect, what good materials will you lack? The Xuan Mountain Immortal Sect sits on earthly fire and has countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures. How could they be short of anything for you!”

He was grateful to Bai Lu for what had happened earlier. Although his words were a bit exaggerated—the sect wouldn’t just give a new disciple whatever they wanted—it wasn’t complete nonsense either.

Bai Lu was shocked after hearing this. Was the Xuan Mountain Immortal Sect a charity? Not only did it provide compulsory education but also gave out free stuff. So this was a prestigious school after all. Perhaps besides repairing his broom, he could find other good materials.

Bai Lu immediately looked at the candidate and said coldly, “Then you should get out. Quickly.”

Liang Mangu eagerly lifted his foot and kicked the man off for the third time.

The candidate: “…”

He blew a mouthful of bubbles in the water, cursing silently.

Bobbing up and down, he opened his mouth and said, “Then give me back my stones!”

Bai Lu thought: I don’t want to… they’re quite pretty.

“Hey, wait,” Bai Lu thought for a moment, leaned over the side of the boat, and grabbed the candidate’s sleeve. He had another flash of inspiration. “How about…”

The candidate screamed, “Don’t pull me up again! Are you deliberately messing with me? Pull me up, kick me down, pull me up, kick me down, just put me out of my misery! Give me back my Cloud Essence Gems!”

Giving the things back was definitely not going to happen.

“Don’t be so emotional,” Bai Lu blinked. “I just see you can’t swim. So why don’t you just hang on here, and we’ll tow you over. Consider it a reward for giving me the Cloud Essence Gems. But if I lose my grip, well, that’s just your bad luck. Pack it up and try again next year.”

What kind of forced transaction was this? What next year? The candidate was still shouting, “What do you mean ‘giving you’? Meeting you is my bad luck!!”

Liang Mangu was silent for a moment. He still felt indebted to Bai Lu and said, “Then let’s take a gamble…”

“It’ll be slower, but we can try.” And so, with Bai Lu towing one and the other rowing, they reached the shore of the grassy islet.

“Where’s the trial token? Is it in the big clam?” Liang Mangu looked around eagerly.

But before they could find any token, the scene before them parted like a water curtain. They were sent out of the trial realm and were back on the jade steps, this time just one step away from the gold and jade platform.

In front of them was the same cold young lady. She said softly, “Congratulations, you have passed the second trial.”

“We haven’t gotten the trial token yet,” Bai Lu said. Why the rush to pull them out?

“You have already gotten it,” the girl said, looking at his hand.

Bai Lu looked down. He had been holding the candidate’s sleeve. Now, the candidate looked at him resentfully and said, “That’s right, it’s me!”

Bai Lu: “…”

“Aha! I told you he was an undercover agent!” Liang Mangu realized and exclaimed loudly.

The candidate, or rather, the trial token, looked at him, a vein popping on his forehead.

Liang Mangu remembered the decisive kicks he had delivered and immediately fell silent, just chuckling awkwardly. “Hehe.”

Bai Lu, eager to eat soon, said, “So we only have the third trial left.”

“No, you have already passed.” The girl waved her hand, and the candidate transformed into a jade tablet that landed in Bai Lu’s hand. On the tablet was clearly carved the character for “Three.”

Bai Lu had a realization. Before they entered, the girl had only said to pass the trial, not to pass the second trial.

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