In the dark about the underlying facts of the scriptorium, Lin Xiao stepped onto the ground floor. The reading rooms there were all quite except the restless rustles of pen strokes — some disciples were transcribing cultivation methods.
It was a hard-won opportunity to be allowed in the scriptorium, hence everyone here was racing against time.
After his entrance, Lin Xiao trod lightly, in case that his steps might divert the attention of other disciples. He spotted an unoccupied desk and laid down his token. Then he began searching for cultivation methods.
Someone nearby cast a glimpse at the token and looked up at Lin Xiao. Suddenly bursting into a smile, he arose and left.
Despite being the ground floor, it had an abundant premium collection of books. After leafing through a few books, Lin Xiao found all of them fairly advanced. He knitted his eyebrows and thought, "It would lead nowhere if I progressed like this."
All of a sudden, a spark of flash rushed across his eyes. Lin Xiao started his scrutiny on the shelves and picked up one of the books once in a while.
As for the popular books, one could easily identify nuanced singularities in them. Running down this type of books, Lin Xiao simply disregarded them. One could figure out that these were merely hackneyed methods without digging into them.
After scanning fully three rows of shelves, Lin Xiao found a rather thin booklet in the corner, covered by a surprisingly thick layer of dust.
It aroused enthusiasm in Lin Xiao. Hardly had him taken the booklet from the shelf that someone beat him to it.
A well-dressed young lad almost plunged himself at the shelf — whoosh — snatched up was the booklet.
Lin Xiao couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and cast a glance at him.
"Lin Xiao, I haven't seen you in a while. There must be something between us, or else we wouldn't have bumped into one another here, " the young lad greeted Lin Xiao, waving the booklet to Lin Xiao. Capturing a tinge of sulks in Lin Xiao's countenance, he put on a gloating grin.
Lin Xiao gave him a lighthearted glimpse and attempted to turn to leave. Lin Xiao's facial expression — apparently it said something voiceless for him — "Are we acquainted?"
For the young lad's part, Lin Xiao's expression was way more offensive than any verbalized words. It was a blatant insult for him for him that he was neglected!
"Lin Xiao, stay right there. I would discard my name Qin Shou if I were not gonna give you a good dressing down." Qin Shou cried, exasperated.
Qin Shou had been in high spirits these days.
Though he didn't perform well in the last round of entrance examination, he still came out top in the overall performance and was categorized as a domestic disciple.
Qin Shou came all this way to the Taixuan Sect in great trust for his father. With quite a few properties on him, he ganged up with a domestic senior swiftly and got accepted as his disciple successfully.
As a saying goes, money makes the mare go. He could claim that there had been no other new disciple leading a cozier life than him in the Taixuan Sect.
Nevertheless, he had been constantly haunted by the humility brought by a disciple named Lin Xiao during the second round of the entrance examination even if he was always escorted by a large crowd. Had it not been Lin Xiao, he would have been the most outstanding disciple of his term.
Ever since Qin Shou hooked up with the domestic senior, he had been reaching Lin Xiao whenever he was free over the past few days, but Lin Xiao just disappeared without a trace. He had gone through numberless sleepless nights because of his failure to get even with Lin.
After being informed of Lin Xiao's appearance at the scriptorium, Qin Shou reckoned that it would be an opportunity for his revenge. He hurried towards here, having his heart set on insulting Lin Xiao.
Seeing Lin Xiao picking cultivation methods "affectedly" and dwelling on how to sort him out, Qin Shou spotted Lin attempting to get a booklet from the shelf. Without hesitation, Qin dashed up and snatched it up.
Picturing that Lin Xiao would go red with rage, Qin Shou had planned to take advantage of Lin's fury. However, the damned Lin Xiao simply turned a blind eye to him, which was rather unexpectedly awkward.
"You were degraded as an outside disciple — you must have been slighted quite often these days — no wonder you have to keep a low profile now, haha. But I'm not gonna let it be as you wish," Qin Shou thought to himself with a sense of relief, went up following Lin Xiao.
With a stalker behind him, Lin Xiao stayed undistracted and continued to search for cultivation methods. He was in a rush now, unable to get around dealing with Qin Shou the skunk.