The evening sun cast its light on a small path that ran up the mountain. The sunlight looked like a fine, golden gauze laid over little stone steps, and made everything seem holy. Walking up the steps was like walking on sunshine and heading into gloriousness. On either side of the path were leafy, flowering plants. The mountain wind carried the aroma of flowers and soil, which combined with damp sea air to fill a person’s heart and mind. There were also many trees, within which echoed the melodious sound of singing birds, as if they had specifically composed music for anyone who walked this path, including the current group of people.

There were five people, including the round-faced cultivator in the lead, his hands clasped behind his back as he introduced the sect to Xu Qing and the others.

“Since all of you have successfully become members of Seven Blood Eyes, allow me to explain a bit about the sect. Actually, from my perspective, Seven Blood Eyes isn’t even a sect. It just calls itself a sect, when in fact, it’s a very profitable business!”

The four new disciples were all shocked to hear this.

Including Xu Qing, the group was made up of Zhou Qingpeng, Li Zimei, and another young woman named Xu Xiaohui. She wore her hair in a ponytail, and had ordinary clothes. Obviously she wasn’t from a rich family, but neither was she a scavenger. She was probably from a small city somewhere. [1]

She’d tried to make some conversation with Xu Qing, but that wasn’t his forte, and besides, he didn’t like people getting too close to him, so he just nodded in response to her. Eventually, she’d shifted to trying to cozy up to Zhou Qingpeng.

Zhou Qingpeng had a warm, affable smile, quite the opposite of the taciturn Xu Qing. Because of that, he and Xu Xiaohui got along well immediately, and conversed in low tones here and there as they walked along.

Li Zimei seemed reserved and cautious, perhaps to the point of feeling inferior, so she brought up the rear, and also kept her distance from everyone else.

Zhou Qingpeng took the initiative to include both Xu Qing and Li Zimei in the conversation, and was very friendly with them. As a result, Li Zimei soon warmed up to everyone else.

The mountain breeze stirred everyone’s...