Bai Yuji

Li Yuan listened quietly, his expression unchanging. He picked up his teacup, took a gentle sip, and replied in a warm tone.

“I can indeed feel your sincerity.”

Venus's expression shifted slightly. But before much hope could rise in her heart, Li Yuan continued.

“However, I have no desire to relocate at the moment.”

The corners of Venus's mouth stiffened slightly.

Although she had long guessed this would be his answer, actually hearing it from Li Yuan's mouth still left her with a deep sense of helplessness.

No matter how generous the terms, if the other party was not interested, they meant absolutely nothing.

To make matters worse, she could not use force. In fact, let alone using force, even if she spoke just a bit too harshly, she would have to carefully placate him to ensure he did not lose his temper.

Venus fell silent for a few seconds before letting out a soft sigh.

“So it is still a no, then.”

Li Yuan had no wish to continue this topic, but his gaze happened to fall on the compass in the hands of the Allen siblings.

Although the needle had stopped spinning wildly, it was still trembling slightly.

Li Yuan stared at it for a moment, a trace of thoughtfulness appearing in his eyes.

He set down the teapot, resting his chin in his hand.

After a moment, he looked over at the Allen siblings and spoke in his usual polite tone.

“You two, would you mind letting me take a look at that compass?”

Noah and Leah were both startled. They had not expected Li Yuan to suddenly make such a request.

This compass was an extremely important heirloom of the Allen family. Normally, let alone outsiders, not even just anyone within the family could touch it at will.

Noah looked toward Venus, but Venus beat him to the punch.

“Of course.”

She looked at the Allen siblings, her tone leaving no room for argument.

“Bring it over.”

Noah hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he rose with his sister and brought the compass to the bar counter.

The moment the compass touched his hand, Li Yuan felt something extremely familiar from within it.

It was spiritual energy!

Although it was very faint, to the point where if he had not happened to find this compass very familiar and held it himself, he likely would not have felt it at all.

Li Yuan lowered his eyes and began to carefully examine the exterior of the compass.

The patterns along the edge seemed ordinary, but they actually corresponded to the cosmic cycles. The markings on the face were not the magic symbols commonly seen on the Ogu Continent, but rather some deliberately simplified formation runes.

If Li Yuan had not seen similar things in Kyushu before, it would probably have been difficult for him to spot the clues at a glance.

This could not possibly be a creation of the Ogu Continent.

It was more like something made in Kyushu.

Li Yuan's hand slowly brushed across the center of the compass, his brow furrowing unconsciously.

This sense of familiarity grew stronger and stronger, but for a moment, he could not recall where he had encountered it.

Noticing the change in his expression, Venus could not help but ask.

“Mr. Li, is there something wrong with this compass?”

Li Yuan did not answer immediately. After a moment of thought, he slowly condensed a trace of spiritual energy at his fingertip and carefully channeled it into the compass.

In the next instant, a sudden change occurred, and the compass abruptly burst with a blinding white light, instantly turning the entire small cottage as bright as day.

Then, the compass suddenly flew out of his hand, hovering in midair. The patterns on its face unfurled layer by layer, as if something sleeping within was being awakened.

Venus's expression changed slightly.

Vina subconsciously gripped the short sword at her waist.

Noah and Leah stood straight up, their eyes filled with shock.

“What is going on?”

Leah's voice trembled slightly, but there was no one who could answer her now.

The white light above the compass slowly condensed, finally transforming into a phantom image after a few seconds.

It was an elegant young man dressed in white.

He had clear features and a refined, gentle aura. He held a folding fan in his hand, and although his figure was illusory, it could not hide his scholarly demeanor.

At the same time, on either side of him, several large, glowing golden characters appeared one by one.

【Calculating all affairs under heaven without a secret left behind, I alone remain awake, Bai Yuji】

The moment he saw these words, Li Yuan's eyelid began to twitch.

He had seen this phrase before.

And his impression of it was quite deep.

In the main building of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion on the Kyushu Continent, there was an ancestral hall dedicated to the past pavilion masters.

Years ago, Li Yuan had been invited as a guest by the people of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, and he had gone inside to take a look on the way.

Many portraits hung in that ancestral hall, and one of them depicted a young man in white.

Written on the upper right corner of the portrait was exactly this sentence—

“Calculating all affairs under heaven without a secret left behind, I alone remain awake, Bai Yuji”

The one who wrote this sentence was none other than the 133rd master of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion. At the time, he had even mentally grumbled about this pavilion master... “No secrets left behind”? Then why didn't you calculate the winning lottery numbers for the next draw for me?

Furthermore, rumor had it that this person had crossed his Ascension Tribulation more than 1,800 years ago and had already ascended to the Immortal Realm.

Looking at the phantom image before him, which indeed bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to the pavilion master in white from that portrait, Li Yuan's feelings became somewhat subtle.

This was somewhat similar to Xuan Wei's situation.

Except Xuan Wei's misfortune was plain and obvious, while this Pavilion Master Bai had even managed to arrange his legacy perfectly.

Everyone in the teahouse was stunned in place by the sudden appearance of the phantom.

Although Venus remained relatively calm, seeing a human figure suddenly emerge from the compass still made her instinctively wary, her body tensing up.

Noah and Leah were even more utterly bewildered.

This compass had been passed down in the Allen family for centuries, and such a thing had never happened before.

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, the young man in white in midair began to move.

He slowly opened his eyes, his expression extremely sharp.

After his gaze swept over everyone in the teahouse, he first looked at Noah and Leah.

Bai Yuji nodded slightly, a trace of gratification appearing in his expression.

“Not bad.”

“You have inherited my talent well.”

Noah and Leah were both taken aback, immediately filled with confusion.

Bai Yuji's gaze did not linger on the siblings for long before he began to size up the others.

It passed over Vina, swept lightly across Venus, and finally landed on Li Yuan.

This look lasted for several seconds.

A visible gravity appeared in Bai Yuji's eyes.

Then, he folded his fan, clasped his hands, and bowed to Li Yuan.

“I am Bai Yuji, Daoist title Heaven-Peering Scholar. Greetings, Fellow Daoist.”

Li Yuan also returned the gesture properly.

“Li Yuan.”

He paused, then added.

“My Daoist title is not worth mentioning. It has no fame to speak of.”

Bai Yuji did not think too much of it, taking it as a personal preference.

“So it is Fellow Daoist Li.”

Watching this etiquette that she had never seen before, Venus's brow twitched slightly.

These terms were obviously extremely unfamiliar to them, yet the two of them seemed... quite familiar with each other?

Had they met before?

Venus constantly made all kinds of conjectures in her mind.

By now, Bai Yuji's phantom had stabilized slightly, as if adapting to the state of the compass being activated.

After a moment, he began to explain.

“As Fellow Daoist surely knows, my current self is merely a sliver of divine soul left behind from when I was alive. Though this is our first meeting, it is also our last.”

Bai Yuji continued with a sigh of emotion and a touch of reminiscence.

“For a thousand years, this sliver of divine soul has slept within the compass, solely to meet with you, Fellow Daoist Li.”

Noah and Leah looked visibly shaken.

Venus also slowly let down her guard, her gaze turning serious.

At this moment, Bai Yuji suddenly spoke with a solemn expression.

“Fellow Daoist Li, you are precisely the glimmer of hope that I exhausted my remaining strength to peer into for the Empire centuries ago.”