Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Registering Names and Entering the Grotto-Heaven
While Lin Bai was chatting with Wang Yu in fits and starts, he keenly noticed that a few nearby gazes were drifting toward their corner from time to time.
To be more precise, they were drifting toward the Young Lady Wang at his side.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Bai immediately understood what that meant. This Young Lady Wang’s status was evidently even higher than he had first imagined, and there were people here who recognized her.
As expected, once you stand beside a central figure, it becomes very easy to turn into the focus of the crowd.
Lin Bai silently complained to himself.
Fortunately, everyone was still only at the stage of “watching.” No fool had yet jumped out to perform the classic routine of “provocation followed by humiliation.”
At least, not for the time being.
The sun rose higher and higher, and more people gradually arrived.
At last, several white-robed cultivators with the bearing of immortals and drifting, unfathomable auras suddenly appeared at a higher point. These were the true people in charge of this session of Yunmeng Martial Academy.
Lin Bai could not even say exactly when he had first noticed them. It was as though they had been standing there from the very beginning, and only now had he truly “seen” them.
At the very least, they’re in the Extraordinary Realm, or perhaps even at the Transcension tier.
That was Lin Bai’s guess regarding their strength.
One of them, a cultivator who seemed rather young compared with the others, looked down after seeing that all the students of Yunmeng Martial Academy had now arrived and had also noticed them.
He immediately spoke.
“Now that all students of Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy have arrived, name registration will begin.”
What was name registration?
It was the formal process of recording the information of students like Lin Bai into the inheritance Grotto-Heaven where Martial Academy’s real instruction took place.
In a world like this, a military-academy-like organization built through the combined strength of an entire people could naturally not teach in the same manner as an ordinary martial hall.
Its teaching took place within a Grotto-Heaven.
And what was a Grotto-Heaven?
It was a stable extradimensional space attached to the greater world.
“All disciples, heed my command. Those whose names are called shall step forward one by one and register.”
As soon as his words fell, the white-robed Daoists swiftly dispersed, each taking up a position and forming a mysterious array.
Immediately afterward, streams of pure True Qi flowed out from beneath their feet, writhing across the ground like spirit serpents as they traced layer upon layer of intricate and dazzling formation patterns.
HUM! HUMMMM—
The surrounding space seemed like the surface of water into which a stone had been cast, rippling with invisible waves.
While the formation was taking shape, most of the people began discussing it excitedly among themselves. After all, this was their first time seeing the legendary Grotto-Heaven.
Lin Bai, too, watched without blinking, his heart filled with curiosity. No matter which world one lived in, the power to manipulate space was always something that inspired awe.
By contrast, Wang Yu beside him appeared much calmer.
Well, she had probably seen this sort of thing often enough already.
At last, the teleportation formation fully took shape, and there appeared a Gate of Golden Light and a Jade Archway.
Countless talismans shifted and transformed across the Gate of Golden Light, wondrous beyond description.
The Jade Archway, by contrast, seemed plain and unadorned, almost as though it had returned to simplicity.
One of the unoccupied Daoists began calling out names.
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Military Track disciple, Wang Qu.”
At these words, a young man who looked to be in his twenties stepped forward calmly. A beam of mysterious radiance shone out from the Jade Archway beside the Gate of Golden Light and passed through him.
It seemed to be confirming something. In the end, only his name appeared upon the archway, while the Gate of Golden Light did not draw him in.
But this young man named Wang Qu seemed to have expected that outcome long ago. He cupped his hands in salute and quietly stepped back.
The Daoist was unsurprised and continued calling the next names.
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Military Track disciple, Wang Xiao.”
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Military Track disciple, Zhou Yu.”
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Literary Track disciple, Li Boming.”
...
Watching from the side, Lin Bai noticed that these “disciples” were all from the older group.
Their names were being recorded, but they were not entering the Grotto-Heaven.
“Their age and talent no longer fit the requirements, so they can only register their names. They cannot enjoy the resources of the Grotto-Heaven.”
Wang Yu explained this to Lin Bai, then added with a sigh, “What a pity for Clan Uncle Wang Qu. His talent is sufficient, but unfortunately, the age limit for high-talent entrants to the Grotto-Heaven is set below thirty.”
Lin Bai looked at Wang Qu, who appeared outwardly no older than a man in his twenties. He registered his name in complete calm, as though he had already accepted everything.
But Lin Bai felt that this entire group must surely still be unwilling in their hearts.
It was just that Heaven did not permit it.
Opportunity, opportunity.
They had the chance, but not the destined affinity.
A faint stir of insight arose in Lin Bai’s heart, but because of his age and lack of experience, it was like looking at flowers through fog or the moon reflected on water—visible, yet impossible to grasp clearly. In the end, he could only bury that feeling deep inside himself and wait for the years to water it.
Wang Yu glanced at Lin Bai curiously, because she felt as though a fleeting trace of the aura of years had just passed over him. If she had not been sitting close to him, and if her Dao Path had not belonged to the [Qi Practitioner] lineage, she never would have noticed it.
Even so, Wang Yu did not dare be certain that she had sensed correctly.
Surely no one could watch other people register their names and suddenly attain enlightenment?
Impossible.
How could anyone’s talent be that high? Even if Lin Bai possessed a Supreme-Grade Spiritual Talent, with his current life experience, it was impossible for him to have that sort of insight into the years.
So Wang Yu treated it as though she had merely sensed wrongly.
Very soon, those twenty-odd overage students had all completed their name registrations. They exchanged glances with one another, most of them wearing bitter smiles, then silently boarded the same carriages in small groups and left together.
For them, this journey truly had only been a formality.
A ritual confirming that they had missed the great road ahead of them.
What came next were the true disciples of Martial Academy, such as Lin Bai and the others.
As before, it began with the Military Track.
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Military Track disciple, Liu Jiu.”
A young man of around twenty stepped out from the Military Track group and walked toward the registration archway with some visible nervousness.
This time, after his name appeared upon the archway, the Gate of Golden Light finally changed. A force of suction emerged and drew Liu Jiu into it, causing him to vanish without a trace.
The registration continued. After the Military Track came the Literary Track, and only after that came the Auxiliary Dao.
“Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy, Auxiliary Dao disciple, Lin Bai.”
By the time it was Lin Bai’s turn, more than half a shichen had already passed. Wang Yu at his side had entered more than ten minutes earlier.
Lin Bai stepped forward steadily. Once the registration archway emitted its mysterious light and recorded his information, he felt a force of attraction coming from the thin Gate of Golden Light.
Lin Bai could tell that the suction was not strong at first, but he made no attempt to resist it and allowed himself to be drawn straight in.
Back in the mountain forest, after Lin Bai disappeared, the ritual continued.
But because Lin Bai had already been relatively near the end, all the students of this Yunmeng Commandery Martial Academy session had entered roughly a quarter of an hour later.
The white-robed Daoists withdrew their auras, their faces somewhat pale. Maintaining such a high-consumption spatial teleportation formation was no easy task even for them.
Still, the task was finally complete. The Daoists let out long breaths of relief and began chatting among themselves.
One young Daoist complained to the senior brother at his side.
“I’m exhausted. Senior Brother, why didn’t you tell me before that maintaining this formation would be this tiring?”
“Heh. Junior Brother Qingning, did you really think Human Order Merit was so easy to obtain?”
“Haha. If Junior Brother Qingning finds it tiring, then the next time there’s a ritual like this to preside over, Junior Brother should refrain from taking on the karma. Senior Brother can bear it in your place.”
“Bah, bah! Old fellow, at your age you still want to take advantage of Junior Brother Qingning?”
“Exactly, exactly. Senior Brother Changwu is right. I still want to save up some Human Order Merit so I can break through into the Transcension Realm.”
Leaving aside the banter among the Daoists, on the other side, after Lin Bai was drawn through the gate, it felt as though he had entered a passage.
Here, time had no sequence, space showed no form, and everything was white.
He was being pulled along by a force of attraction. Lin Bai knew that this was a spatial tunnel, created by establishing coordinates between two points and then leaping across them.
Something like a wormhole, perhaps.
Lin Bai adjusted his posture and sat cross-legged in meditation.
This was going to take a while.
In reality, there was no such thing as teleporting from this side and appearing immediately on the other.
Unless one erased the person on this side and then used causality to create an identical person on the other side, only then might something like that be possible.
Of course, that method had long since been lost.
And it had already been proven that using such a method would incur the hatred of Human destiny.
Human destiny had no punishment methods like the Nine Heavens Thunderbolts, but as long as you were human, you should prepare to be made miserable for the rest of your life.
In severe cases, it could even bring calamity upon one’s actual relatives and friends, and perhaps even disaster upon one’s descendants.
After settling himself, Lin Bai tied down his bundle properly and also confirmed that Mo Ling was fine.
Mo Ling’s life aura was mingled together with Lin Bai’s own aura, so she too was being transmitted as a part of him.
Before coming here, Lin Bai had already asked Master Jinhua about this and received a definite answer. That was why he had dared bring Mo Ling with him.
“Heh, little one, let’s hope the two of us don’t get carriage-sick. It’ll probably be a long while before we arrive.”
All around them stretched an endless, monotonous whiteness so uniform it became unsettling. Once the initial novelty wore off, Lin Bai quickly grew bored.
There truly was nothing to look at.
No matter how he looked, the scenery was exactly the same everywhere.
Fortunately, he still had Mo Ling.
At the very least, he could pet his crow to pass the time.